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From their earliest knowable pre-history up

3to the time of their conversion to Christianity 4beginning in the eighth century, two social 5characteristics of the Slavic peoples remained 6fairly constant, despite the frequently 7disrupting historical forces of invasion and 8migration. The Slavs, a collection of ndo-

9!uropean tribes originally based in east and 10central !urope, were by nature and organi"ation 11sedentary #consequently, peaceful$ and agrarian. 12Slavic religion, of which we possess little 13direct record, in all its forms and under all its 14influences % from the &alts and 'ermans, (elts, 15Sarmatians, Scythians, Thracians, )hrygians, 16'reeks and several Central *sian Turkic tribes, 17to name several of the more obvious % always 18displays a focus upon the spiritual continuity of 19the family or clan, especially in its 20relationship to natural elements, which may be 21personified. 22 There does not appear to have been an

23elaborate or stable hierarchical pantheon among 24the Slavs, and dedicated military gods of the 25sort that abound in other !uropean religions are

26few and secondary. +eanwhile the sky and deep 27fecund earth together maintain an important 28mythological place as the progenitors of 29divini"ed natural elements. This persistent 30centrality of the celestial and chthonic 31divinities, incarnated in a lower mythology of 32animistic spirits and demons, is reflected for 33e,ample in a dualistic cosmogony reconstructed 34from South Slavic folklore. -hile all Slavs 35eventually embraced Christianity, they did so 36provisionally. never did the substratum of belief 37in an animated nature and cyclical #agrarian$ 38time disappear entirely, and the oral and ritual 39folklore among all ma/or branches of the Slavs % 40the !astern, the -estern, and the Southern % has 41conserved strong refle,es of pre-Christian Slavic 42belief. 43 To speak at all of Slavic religion, one must

44bear in mind three significant difficulties that 45arise when attempting to place boundaries around 46this topic. #0$ although the ancestors of Slavs 47are archeologically evident at least from the 48!arly ron *ge #123-233 &C!$, when they lived

49under Scythian influence in the )ontic area

50directly north of the &lack Sea, we see no 51autonomous settlement of a Slavic ethnic group 52until around 233 C!4 #5$ in the historical 53period, Slavs were dispersed geographically from 54the &altic Sea in northwestern !urope to !uropean 556ussia and present-day 7kraine in the east and 56&ulgaria and +acedonia in the south, at one point 57even reaching down into the 'reek mainland4 and 58#8$ literacy did not come broadly to the Slavs 59until the Christiani"ing mission of (iril and 60+ethodius in the ninth century. Consequently, a 61wide variety of cultic divinities ranges over a 62large e,panse of both space and time, and 63virtually all of the written descriptions of the 64Slavs, their beliefs or their rituals were 65authored by non-Slavic witnesses, who often had a 66political agenda #such as the Christian 67missionaries who were devoted to the task of 68supplanting 9paganism: in all its forms$. 69 There has been, in -estern scholarship at

70least, a tendency to privilege this literate but 71foreign testimony, relying heavily upon the 72fairly late and in fact somewhat reliable written 73evidence of Slavic idol worship and ritual

74provided by northern chroniclers from the 75eleventh to thirteenth centuries. Thus the widely 76cited accounts of two 'erman clergymen, Thietmar 77of +erseburg and *dam of &remen, whose ;atin 78chronicles of the struggle against the 'erman 79crusades by the maritime Slavs occupying the land 80between the <istula and the !lbe, along with that 81of the =ane Sa,o 'rammaticus describing the rites 82at the temple of *rkona among the pagan Slavs 83living on the island of 6>gen, serve as a ma/or 84basis for our knowledge of the Slavic deities 85Sv?tovit, Svarog and his son Svaro@iA, as well as 86a local protective god, 6ugievit. )rince-&ishop 87Btto of &amberg mentions a statue of a three88headed summus deus Triglav, as well as a war god, 89Carovit #whose name suggests he was originally 90connected with the sun, the Slavic root jar91designating brightness and clarity$. Two other 92chronicles, one by Delmold describing a pagan 93revival among the Slavic -ends in 008E, and an 94early 6ussian history by the (ievan monk Festor 95and perhaps several other authors, provide 96evidence about the importance of the Slavic 97thunder god, )erun, who some claim may be linked

98indirectly to 'ermanic Thor. The latter 99chronicle, usually referred to as the Primary 100Russian Chronicle, and the First Novgorod 101Chronicle, describe from a Christian perspective 102the politics of the conversion of the 6ussians to 103Christianity under )rince <ladimir around GH3 and 104the annihilation of paganism in (iev and 105Fovgorod. From these sources is obtained a list 106of the !ast Slavic divinities known to the 107chroniclers between the tenth and eleventh 108centuries. )erun, the god of thunderstorms and, 109abstractly, the violent fecundation of the earth4 110(hors, the personified sun, whose name is 111borrowed from the *vestan Khurshid and who is 112frequently identified with =a@#d$bog, literally 113the 9giver of wealth #i.e. solar energy, 114fertility$:, comparable to <edic &haga4 Stribog, 115a representation of the solar fire divinity 116Svarog, often identified with Dephaestus4 117SimurglI, really a demon, a winged lion taken 118directly from an ranian heroic gryphon named

119Simorg #Simurgh$4 and +okoJ, connected with the 120earthKs moisture and the only goddess worshipped 121by the Slavs. Though they are treated as

122something of a pantheon, this grouping is not 123constant either throughout Slavic history or in 124the different Slavic areas. n actuality, only

125three deities seem to have been common to all 126Slavs, namely Svarog, Svaro@iA, and =a@bog. 127)erun, furthermore, is widely attested among all 128three Slavic branches, although it is only in the 129!ast Slavic chronicles that he is placed before 130the other gods. 131 )antheon or not, the epithets, character and

132even names of the main Slavic gods vary across 133the different Slavic tribes. *ttempts to locate 134the specific gods encountered in the works of 135various authors within a Dellenic-style system of 136well-differentiated divine functions and powers 137for all Slavs have proven fruitless, not only 138because our sources are too scanty or unreliable, 139but also because in all likelihood, such an 140elaborate system never truly e,isted. 6ecalling 141that the greater population of the early Slavs 142was not warlike but gradually evolved from being 143pastoral semi-nomads to sedentary familial 144farmers, of utmost importance in their day-to-day 145e,istence was neither an imperial hierarchy of

146divinities mimicking and thus recreating an 147elaborate social power structure, nor a system of 148war gods to assist them in military enterprises, 149but rather the persistent beneficence of nature, 150upon which they depended for their physical 151survival, and the continuity of the e,tended 152family #zadruga$, which could ensure the survival 153of their cultural identity. 154 Thus, while even the earliest archeological

155evidence reveals that the Slavs tended to perform 156sacrifices and to represent their various 157divinities as idols, ranging from large statues 158#as at the temple of *rkona$ to tiny figurines, 159the upper mythological system of celestial and 160chthonic deities remained fairly simple, while 161nature herself was represented in all her 162comple,ity in the form of a lower mythological 163system of more local #hence, more accessible$ 164spirits and demons. 165 ndeed, in early SlavdomKs encounter with

166the e,panding and syncreti"ing force of 167Christianity, the greater Slavic divinities were 168absorbed into the Christian mythological system 169rather quickly and easily #the image of )erun

170merging with the iconography of St. !li/ah, as a 171case in point$, while the personified forces of 172the natural world encountered at the human level 173tended to resist ChristianityKs inclusionism. 174!arly folk mythology among the South and !ast 175Slavs resembles 'nostic apocryphal narrative 176insofar as the figure of Christ was often 177perceived more as an accessible hypostasis of a 178solar divinity than as a celestial omnipotent 179prince. 180 The encounter of Slavic paganism with

181Christianity is in some ways more revealing of 182the deeper nature of Slavic beliefs than the 183distanced descriptions by foreign observers that 184have been colored by preconceptions or private 185agendas. -hile much Christian written polemic 186against Slavic paganism has been discounted as 187biased or useless diatribe, on the contrary, the 188focus of the polemicistsK wrath is precisely that 189set of beliefs and rituals that the indigenous 190population was reluctant to give up or allow to 191be absorbed into a new mythological system, 192either because they were immediately useful and 193deeply ingrained, or else because ChristianityKs

194solution to the problem addressed by those 195beliefs and rituals was itself not completely 196worked out. 197 -e see, for e,ample, an elaborate belief

198in natural magic persisting throughout the Slavic 199lands well into the modern period. Sorcerous 200practices, frequently associated in 6ussia with a 201priestly class of shamanic healers known as 202volkhvy #the name sometimes associated with a 203chthonic Slavic deity, <olos or <eles$, were of 204course the target of great accusation by 205ecclesiastical writers. * fourteenth-century 206recension of an eleventh-century polemical 207treatise, in turn a crude translation of a set of 208sermons by St. 'regory, mercilessly condemns not 209only all forms of sorcery, but also ritual 210sacrifice #to both Slavic and Dellenic gods$ as 211being 9taught by the devil.: Bf special note is 212the fact that it appears to be the =ionysiac, 213celebratory aspect of sacrifice that is most 214offensive to the scribe, not the actual slaughter 215of livestock. 216 Sacrifice played an important role in early

217Slavic life, even persisting to this day in the

218South Slavic region in the form of a common meal 219known as kurban. *ccusations, found in the travel 220writing of an *rabic diplomat bn Fasudi #c. G23$

221and subsequently, that the Slavs engaged in human 222sacrifice are groundless. there is no solid 223primary evidence of this whatsoever, although 224certainly human sacrificial altars have been 225discovered in lands later occupied by Slavs. 226*nimal and crop sacrifice is evident not only 227from written sources, but also from archeological 228findings and folkloric survivals. *nimals tended 229to be slaughtered during significant calendrical 230periods, including Christiani"ed periods such as 231!aster, and these sacrificial gatherings were 232frequently held in honor of a family ancestor 233rather than great deities. 234 n the South and !ast Slavic regions, where

235Slavic paganism came into direct conflict with 236the Christiani"ing force from &y"antium, the 237general reluctance to abandon calendar rituals 238and sacrificial feasting despite the unmitigated 239hostility of the clergy underscores the SlavsK 240devotion to an agrarian worldview in which 241guardian ancestors and the animating spirits of

242the natural environment played a real and 243significant part. There was, in other words, in 244Slavic religion something of a spiritual 245continuum between man and the natural world, on 246the one hand, and life and death on the other. *s 247with other !uropean agrarian societies, Christian 248eschatology did not fit entirely comfortably on 249top of the Slavic view, and this discomfort over 250the course of a millennium has resulted in the 251establishment of bounded ritual periods in which 2529demons: % that is to say, the minor Slavic pagan 253gods and spirits, folklori"ed % are allowed to 254roam the earth. 255 7nlike the locale spirits found in 6ussian

256folklore, such as the forest sprite, leshii, or 257the household spirit #and ancestor$, domovoi, 258these demons % rusalki, vampires, werewolves 259#vukodlaci$, to name but a few % are associated 260with death, or the Bther -orld. -hile the 261folkloric characteristics of these beings are now 262an admi,ture of beliefs of Slavic and neighboring 263groups, they collectively uncover a belief system 264in which the Bther -orld is interpenetrable with 265This -orld through the mediation of ritual

266#magic$ or special individuals such as volkhvy. 267To this day, in virtually all Slavic areas 268including the Few -orld diaspora, funerary 269processes are characteri"ed by elaborate rituals 270and layered taboos, many of which are e,piatory 271in nature, and concerned with preventing the 272unmediated re-entry of the soul of the dead into 273the world of the living. This suggests that 274central to Slavic religion was a sense of the 275natural cycles of life and death, and of utmost 276importance to the maintenance of this proper 277order was the carrying out of appropriate 278sacrifices and ensuring that deceased members of 279the family reached their place in the other world 280where they could be supplicated to provide health 281and bounty for the living.

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