Category Archives: East Slavs

Yāqūt on the Rus Religion

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Yāqūt Shihāb al-Dīn ibn-‘Abdullāh al-Rūmī al-Hamawī (1179–1229) was a Greek (al-Rumi) born in Constantinople captured by the Muslims, made a slave but then freed.

His most famous work is the “Dictionary of Countries” (Kitāb Mu’jam al-Buldān), compiled between 1224 and 1228. It is in that work that he briefly mentions the Rus religion – notably distinguishing the Rus from Suavs. It is that passage that made it into Meyer’s compendium and it is for that reason that we include it here:

“The Rus are one of the peoples who border the Suavs and the Turks. They have their own language and a religion (din) and a law based on religion which is different from everyone else’s… These days, as is well known, they belong to the Christian religion.”

Note that Yāqūt’s work contains other entries on Suavs themselves but not on their religion.

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October 8, 2021

Theodorus Balsamon on the January Activities

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Theodore Balsamon (Greek: Θεόδωρος Βαλσαμῶν) was a canonist of the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Eastern Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch. He was active in the second half of the 12th century.


Balsamon Commentary on Canon 62

Franz Miklosich brought the following excerpt from Balsamon to the world’s attention writing in the Sitzungsberichte der Philosophisch-Historischen Classe der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschafte (volume 46, part III, 1864, page 387).

The excerpt comes from Balsamon’s commentary on the 62nd canon of the Council in Trullo (held in τρούλος meaning “dome” of Constantinople’s Imperial Palace) in the year s 691-692:

Subsequently, the same was republished by Karl Meyer in the appendix to his Fontes:

The English text follows (mostly) the Eugenio R. Luján Martínez translation from the volume on Suavic religion edited by Juan Antonio ÁlvarezPedrosa:

“And so it was that there existed among the Romans the custom of holding annually a pagan festival in memory of these and performing unworthy acts, which still occurs now among certain peasants on the first days of the month of January, not as with the Romans who commemorated the Calends and the rest but because this isi the time when the moon renews itself and its foundation is established from the beginning of that same month and they believe that they will have good fortune all year if they hold a festival when this begins Such a festival us an abomination asa re those called Rusalia, which take place after Easter due to the impious customs in the outer lands; they, they celebrate Bota and Brumalia the  Greek festivities that are held in the name of the false god Pan.” [this last bit from the Miklosich piece.”

For the rest of the Migne edition see here.


Canon 62

The 12th century Rusalia were, likely, a Slavic phenomemon. However, it’s also worth citing the 7th century 62nd canon itself which had not been focused on the Slavs (from A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Church” (series 2), edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, volume XIV, ed. H.R. Percival, 1890; as quoted by Timothy E. Gregory’s “A History of Byzantium”):

“The so-called Calends, and what are called Bota and Brumalia, and the full assembly which takes place on the first of March, we wish to be abolished from the life of the faithful. And the also the public dances of women, which may do much harm and mischief. Moreover we drive away from the life of Christians the dances given in the names of those falsely called gods by the Greeks whether of men or women, and which are performed after an ancient and un-Christian fashion; decreeing that no man from this time forth shall be dressed as a woman, nor any woman in the garb suitable to men. Nor shall he assume comic, satyric, or tragic masks; nor may men invoke the name of the execrable Bacchus when they squeeze wine in the presses; nor when pouring out wine into jars [to cause a laugh], practicing in ignorance and vanity the things which proceed from the deceit of insanity. Therefore, those who in the future attempt any of these things which are [here] written, having obtained a knowledge if them, if they be clerics we order them to be deposed, and if laymen to be cut off [from the Church].”

As another note, the name of Brumalia supposedly comes from brvma “winter solstice” or perhaps “winter cold.” This is assumed to be a shortening of reconstructed *brevima and yet it is interestingly close (and indeed closer to the Suavic brama meaning “gate”. Bota obviously looks quite like the Boda idol celebrated on the Bald Mountain. Finally, the “cross-dressing” aspect of these parties seems similar to some of the Iarilo festivals in Russia.

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March 22, 2021

The Axeheads of Central/Eastern Europe – Dragon or Stag – Yasher or Leleń?

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An interesting series of finds presents itself in various places from central Europe and Russia. Here we have a series of dragon or stag looking creature (yasher?) on, mostly, axeheads (plus stirrups and as a sword) found in the following locations:

  • Gubin/Guben, Poland/Germany
  • Żagań, Poland
  • Schaunburg, Austria
  • Vienna, Austria
  • Moscow, Russia (stirrup)
  • Olen’-Kolodez’, Voronezh Oblast, Russia
  • Florence, Italy (sword)

These were described by the Russian archeologist Vladimir Kulakov in “The Cultic Weapon of the Balts and Slavs of the 10th-12th Centuries” (Культовое оружие балтов и славян X-XII вв.) in Slavia Antiqua, 1991/1992 (volume XXII, page 115). And he repeated some of this in 2001 in “The Silver Axes of the Chieftains” (Серебряные секиры вождей). The next year after that, in 2002, we had a more detailed description by Felix Biermann in his Mittelalterliche Kriegsausrüstung mit der Darstellung eines gehornten Tieres (in Die Zeitschrift für Waffen- und Kleidungsgeschichte or Kostümkunde?). The same was then further elaborated by Normen Posselt and Paweł Szczepanik in their “Zoomorphic Applications and Representations on the Slavic Temple Rings in the Northern West Slavic Area” (Zoomorphe Applikationen und Darstellungen auf slawischen Schläfenringen im nördlichen westslawischen Raum) in Beiträge zur Ur- und FrühgeschichteMitteleuropas 82, 2017, pages 193-220.

Here are some of the pictures from the above articles in some more detail. A further set of publications is listed in Biermann’s article.


Gubin/Guben, Poland/Germany

This was found on the land of a certain wine dealer, Mr. Pötko of Osterberg street in Guben in 1884. It was lost in 1945. First reported by Jentsch in the Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, Volume 15.


Żagań, Poland

Found in 1850. Kept at Sagan/Żagań till 1945. Not clear what happened with it afterwards.


Schaunburg, Austria

Found in 1876. Today kept in Linz, Austria.


Vienna, Austria

We know this has been in the Art History Museum in Vienna (Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien)since 1820 but provenance is unknown.


Moscow, Russia

This stirrup has been in Moscow at the State Historical Museum (formerly the Imperial Russian Historical Museum) since 1926 but the origin of its find is unknown.


Olen’-Kolodez’, Voronezh Oblast, Russia

This is the most recent discovery, found in 1996 by Yefimov in a Golden Horde kurgan from the 13th-14th century. However, it was dated by the discoverer to the 12th-13th century.

Interestingly olen, refers to a stag or deer.


Florence, Italy

Currently this sword is at the National Museum of Bargello (Museo Nazionale del Bargello) in Florence. It was an 1894-1895 gift from the Italian diplomat Francesco Costantino Giuseppe Ressman and is part of the Ressman collection. The location of the original find is unknown. According to Biermann, the museum suggests that it may have belonged to Jaxa (or Jaksa) of Miechów of the Gryf family (1120–1176). There has alway been some people who also believe that this is the same person as Jaxa of Köpenick.


What is the origin of all these axes, the sword and the stirrup? And more importantly, what is the concept behind the motif? No one knows for sure. Biermann argued that the axeheads may have come from Novgorod – at the intersection of Scandinavian, Baltic, Finnic and Asian trade routes. However, an interesting stylistic relative of the above (in my view) is the following depiction of the Karkonosze mountain “spirit”, the so-called Rübezahl, from the year 1561:

You can see the Riesenberg – Giant Mountain – just above.

Riesengebirge is the German name for the mountain range Karkonosze (Polish) / Krkonoše (Czech). Of course, they are curiously close to the Jesioniki (or Jeseníky or Gesenke and Vandal Mountains?) and both are part of the Sudetes Mountains.

On the stag/deer side, there are also potential parallels to the Polish jeleń or leleń that is a stag/deer that, apparently, may have had some divine attributes. You might look for Kazimierz Perkowski’s article on that topic (as well as pics). The Posselt-Szczepanik article mentioned above has further references to Suavic and Polish animal motifs, including stags/deer.

Turning to a dragon alternative/connection, there is also the curious fact that jaszczur means lizard in all Suavic languages, from a reconstructed (apparently) *aščerъ. Whether this was the actual name of a lizard or can be derived from the genitive case of the Name to which the lizard belongs or whose prey it is (or who also is a dragon?), is another matter. The giant Thjazzi also comes to mind, naturally.

And then there is this find of, clearly, a dragon which you can see in Schuchhardt’s Vorgeschichte von Deutschland. It was found in Strzelce Krajeńskie area (German Friedeberg). Totally different style but the same concept of a turning head. Of course, that can just be a result of trying to fit the motif in the limited space available.

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July 3, 2020

Solawas

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Keeping with the themes from the prior article, note that the “Scientific Magazine of the Ossoliński Public Library” (Czasopism Naukowy Księgozbioru Publicznego imienia Ossolińskich) has the following statement in an article by the priest Franciszek Siarczyński from the magazine’s inaugural issue in 1828 “An Essay As to Whether Suavs or Suovs the Proper Name [of the Suavs] Is and Which Such Name Should Be In Use.” (roughly translated) (Rozprawa, czyli Sławianie lub Słowianie zwać się i mówić właściwie maią):

“There is the following idea of how the name of Suavs arose: A foreign traveler asked a Suav who he was? The man answered ‘człowiek’ [a “man”]. The foreigner thought he heard Suoviek or Suovak, and this answer provided the name for the whole nation. Others derive the name from the town Skuova on the Dnieper [Šklov/Shkloŭ/Шклоў in today’s Belarus]; others from the river Łaba, that is Elbe, also called Selawa.”

Now, Elbe may or not have been called Selawa but the Thuringian Saale certainly has been and continues to be called Solawa/Solava/Soława by the Sorbs. Of course, this region is also where the ancient writers thought the river Suevus flowed which also gave its name to the Suevi (or vice versa). Sałowa, Salówka and similar names also appear in other areas. An interesting question is whether some or all these names have something to do with zalewa, that is, [the river] that floods. (For Suevi as Uebi (from Łaba), see here, of course, łeb also means “head”).

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July 1, 2020

The Gods of the Kievan Synopsis or Gustynian Chronicle

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The  Kievan Synopsis aka Gustynian Chronicle was a work of Innocent Giesel published in 1674.

“Innozenz” Giesel was himself an interesting character. His work had a decidedly anti-Polish-Lithuanian and pro-Orthodox take with even a touch of Muscovite bias. The fact that Giesel was actually a German born in Königsberg, Prussia and decamped to Kiev (and converted to Orthodox Christianity) suggests that he may well have been a paid Prussian agent of influence seeking to destabilize the Commonwealth’s eastern flank at a time when Prussia was in the process of reasserting itself. In any event, he did have the following to say in that work as regards Kievan Gods. Note that some of this is from the Primary Chronicle/PVL but some of it is clearly “new” such as the interpretation of Lado (not Lada) as a Suavic Pluto:

“Here we will tell something of the Russian/Ruthenian Gods. Not because they are worth remembering but to demonstrate what blindness the devil brought upon the people and that he brought them to such foolishness that not only did they not recognize the true God but were so far removed from Him, that they worshipped as God bad and lifeless objects and elements.”

“First of all, Perkunos, that is Perun was recognized by them as the oldest God; it was Him that they made into an image similar to that of a man; he held a precious stone in the hand that shone like a fire and to him, as a god, they made sacrifices to so that an undying fire, made from oaken wood, burned unremittingly; when it chanced that as a result of the negligence of a priestly servant, this fire went out, the priest was killed without any investigation and without mercy.”

“The second God Volos, the God of Cattle, was very highly revered by them.”

The third was Pozvizd [whom] the Poles called Pochvist; he was understood as the God of the “aers”, that is of air; others took him to be the God of the good and bad weather; yet others called him Whirlwind, and they prayed to this Pozvizd or Whirlwind as a god, prostrating themselves before him.”

“The fourth [was] Lado, that is Pluto, the subterranean God; they believed he was the God of marriage, of happiness, of comfort and of all welfare, much as the Greeks thought of Bacchus. To Him were made offerings by those who were planning to marry so that, with his aid, the wedlock should prove good and loving. This devil Lado is till now worshipped during baptisms and weddings in some regions, in that one sings certain songs and mentions his [Name] ‘Lado, Lado’ in these songs of theirs [while] clapping hands or clapping on the table”.

“The fifth was Kupalo, I believe, the God of abundance, like Ceres among the Greeks; and to Him the foolish brought their thanks for wealth at harvest time. The memory of this devil Kupalo is celebrated even now in certain regions by the foolish from the 23rd of June, the Eve of Saint John the Baptist till the end of harvest and longer in the following ways: in the evening simple people of both sexes together and they weave for themselves wreaths [made] out of edible herbs or roots and, having gilded themselves with these herbs, they light a fire. In other places, they place a green branch standing and holding each other’s hands they circle around this fire singing their songs in which Kupalo is mentioned; thereafter, they jump over the mentioned fire offering themselves to the above devil.”

“The sixth was Koljada; to honor Him there was a very horrible feast was celebrated on the 24th of December. And, even as the blessing of Christ’s birth has enlightened us and [even as] the idols have perished, the devil has preserved his [Koljada’s] memory among the foolish in this fashion: on Christmas Eve the simple people gather together and sing certain songs in which the birth of Christ is, it is true, mentioned but the devil Koljada is honored more [in such songs].”

“And these idols were ineffective for the foolish folk, for they could not rely on them and dared not to place all their hopes in them and it was not possible for anyone to confide in any of these. But they had even more idols and these are Chors, Dazbog, Stribog, Semargl, Mokos, and some brought offerings to the springs, the lakes and the flowers. Among these there was a certain God to whom they made offerings by drowning people; his memory is celebrated still in some regions: on Easter Sunday, when young people gather themselves, they toss a person into the water playing around and it sometimes happens that these Gods, that is devils, make it so that the person tossed into the water is hits itself on a beam or a stone and dies or drowns. But in other parts they do not throw people in water but rather only spray them with water, though [in doing so] they likewise are making offerings to the same devils.”

From Mansikka:

Note that the Pluto reference may have something to do with the name Ploutos – which was the name of the child of, guess who? Iasion and Demeter (as per Theogonyas by Hesiod):

“fine Plutus, who goes upon the whole earth and the broad back of the sea, and whoever meets him and comes into his hands, that man he makes rich, and he bestows much wealth upon him.” 

Thus, Lado may have been the Son of Jasień/Jasion and Marzanna, the God of agricultural wealth which comes from the Earth (Marzanna, Demeter). At the same time, He may have been a chthonic God at least during some parts of the year. When Jasień/Jasion came back every summer to mate with Marzanna, Lado would be returned to life. In fact, the presence of agricultural fertility rites among the Suavs may also be the solution to the riddle of the Suavic population explosion (if there was one, that is). Lada may have been a separate Goddess of Love and Order – Harmonia – coincidentally, Iasion’s sister at whose wedding Iasion and Demeter ploughed thrice ploughed the field, as the saying goes.

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June 2, 2020

Sarnicki’s Thoughts

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Stanisław Sarnicki published his annals of the Poles and Lithuanians in 1587 under the elaborate, though typical for those times, name:

Stanislai Sarnicii Annales sive de origine et rebus gestis Polonorum et Lituanorum libri 8.

Sarnicki, mentioned a number of Polish and other Deities in a number of passages (all below). This passage was translated by Adam Naruszewicz* in volume 2 of his History of the Polish Nation:

“… this God of thunder was called Piorun from the old Poles as almost all our chroniclers testify. This Piorun was worshipped by the Ruthenians in the old days, and they even burned fires for him, as is attested by Herberstein and Guagnini who wrote of Moscovite matters. For they had an idol and a temple at Great Novgorod that the citizens of that city saw as greater than others. Of this Guagnini reports that this statue was worshipped by the Novgorodians with the greatest idolatry. He had the body of a man, a fiery stone in his hand and similar to a thunder: for Perun among the Poles and in Ruthenia means thunder. In his honor a fire was burned from oaken timbers by day and night without pause; and when it came to pass that by the negligence of those sworn to protect it, it failed, they forfeited their lives…”


* An interesting aspect of that is that Naruszewicz mentions Leibnitz noting that Prove is listed in the Szczecin manuscript of Helmold’s Chronicle as “Prone” and, hence, may simply be a reference to Piorun (as shown here from MGH):


This is nothing new and is mostly a regurgitation of information that Guagnini and others must have gotten from Nestor’s Primary Chronicle (PVL).  Nevertheless, it’s worth including it here and, as you will note, there are also references to other Deities as you can see here:

The poem at the back of that section is also interesting. It seems to come from or at least be very similar to that slightly different version by Stryjkowski which was published earlier:

“Christ, you have the blind-born Mieszko
Brought to light, brought Poland to Holy Baptism,
It is you GromLadonMarzanna,
PogwizdZiewanna gave way to”

(Kryste tys Mieszka sleporodzonego
Oswiecil, Polskes przywiodl do krztu swego,
Tobie ustapil Grom, Ladon, Marzanna,
Pogwizd, Ziewanna)

Since Sarnicki relied on Guagnini who may have plagiarized Stryjkowski, this is not surprising. For more on that see here.

As discussed below, there is no evidence that anyone in Poland (as opposed to in Kiev/Novgorod or, possibly, among the Obotrites in Polabia) actually worshipped Piorun as the original name of a Deity. It seems rather that piorun was a “lightning fork” (and may have later become a nickname) of the primeval Jasion/Jasień (ash) Deity.

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June 1, 2020

Jaryło

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Although information about Jaryło, under that name, comes from rather late sources – 18th and 19th centuries – the feasts of the East Suav Jarilo (Polish Jaryło though that specific name is not attested in Poland – rather we have Jasza or Jesza or Jasień) are easily recognizable in earlier recorded festivities. Perhaps the best Western source on the topic is Felix Haase and his Volksglaube und Brauchtum der Ostslawen. I’ve already previewed here – when discussing Svarozic – a passage from a Jaryło story told by Old Believers that Haase put in that book. Now let’s include more of Haase’s musings on the subject and the rest of the story. Also included are the cites of Haase’s to the Russian authors who actually collected the stories of these customs and beliefs.


Haase’s Jarilo Interpretation


“…Originally, there stood Jarilo in Kupalos place. While he is first mentioned first in the year 1763 in the instruction (poucene) of Saint Tichon Zadonskyi. He had suppressed the old celebration which he labeled idolatrous and devilish and declared it illegal. There had once been an old statue that people had called Jarilo and he [Tichon] had heard from old people that one had called this celebration igrisce (Polish igrzyska) [and] it began on Wednesday or Friday after the Green Holidays and ended on a Sunday. The name is probably derived from jar meaning spring or jaryi meaning bright, strong, tempestuous, young. And also the grains were called jarovyi or jare [compare this with the Polish jarzyny meaning “greens” as in “vegetables”]. In the Cernigov department one speaks of a Jariloviga. In Kostroma there is a Jarilovo pole (Jarilo’s field); in the department Orenburg, a Jarilo annual market [Jahrmarkt or jarmark with a double meaning]. In certain regions of Russia, there were two holidays involving Jarilo, at the end of April and on the last day of the year. Young people played the role of Jarilo. There is the Ivasko Jarilo, the Moscow marksman, known from a 1605 document and Ivasko Jarilo who lived in Astrakhan (mentioned in 1672).”

“In Voronez one celebrated the games of Jarilo till 1673 [lasting] from the last day before the Great Fast/Lent, before Peter’s Fast till the Monday of the Fast [?]. A man was adorned with flowers, ribbons and little bells, and on his head there was a flower decorated hat. His face was painted red and white and in his hand he held bells. Using the name Jarilo he went majestically through the city, followed by youth who laughed at him but also kept him fed with sweets. The feast ended with fistfights, drunkenness and frequently with killings.”

“In Kostroma, where the celebrations were held till 1771, an old man would toss a doll – featuring male genitals – into a grave. Drunk wailing women would accompany him and then the doll was buried. In governorate Tver the celebrations took place on the first day of the Apostles’ Feast on the River Lazur until the year 1805. The youth danced a blanza – a round dance in pairs of eight). In the governorate Penza and Simbirsk, they buried the gorjuna during the Green Holidays; and in Murom on the first Saturday after the Green Holidays. A straw doll was carried out of the village with singing and finally thrown into a river. The custom degenerated into a game: in such children’s games an old woman called Kostroma was declared dead and then suddenly she jumped up and frightened the children. In the governorates Ryazan and Tambov this celebration is called: the burying of the prince.  This is portrayed by a young boy who is wrapped in a towel and his sickness is wept over. When the prince has ‘died’ he is laid down in a cornfield and people sing their lamentations. In central Russia the holiday was celebrated with the first or last sheaf collected. In Vladimir on the Kljazma, in Suzdal, Penza, Simbirsk it was celebrated on the Green Holidays or on the eve of the Green Holidays as the funeral of Kostroma or Kostrobowka; in Murom it was celebrated on the first Sunday after the Green Holidays; at Nizniy Novogorod and Vjatka on Saint Peter’s Day [June 29 which in the Gregorian calendar of today is July 12]; in the governorates Novgorod and Kazan, prayers we held during the Green Holidays on collecting rye or summer cereals and there were dances to honor Jarilo. The fields and the livestock were sprinkled with holy water. In Nizniy Novogorod and Tver there it was common to hold a bridal show on this day and young people were permitted to kiss and hug.”

“From the fact that the holidays were celebrations on different days and in different ways, one can deduct that the meaning of the holiday had changed. In the governorates Penza and Simbirsk a girl was chosen to play the part of Kostroma. The other girls bowed before her, placed her on a plank, tossed her singing into a river and washed her. Then all jumped into the water and bathed. Then one went back to the village and concluded the day with games and dances. In the region of Murom the Kostroma was portrayed using a straw puppet; people danced around her, threw her in water and lamented her death.”

“The Jarilo week held a special potency for love spells. The following spell was especially used: ‘I,   God’s servant, stand up and go into the clean sea. There come towards me fire, polynja? [these days this means something like a watery polana, that is a clearing, amongst ice (as opposed to trees)] and a stormy wind. I bow down before them deeply and say: hail [Haase uses Heisa] fire and polynja.'”

“Since this spell was used precisely during the Jarilo week, we can infer from this that Jarilo was a God of Love. Yet this that this was a love spell can only be shown by connecting this data with other information. From the Old Believers we learn that: ‘the Jar goes by during the nights that are called chmelevyja.’ In certain areas Jarilo is called Ur Chmel’ and the chmelevicy nights are treated by village youth as the merriest. The Jar goes through the nights wearing a white silk fabric with gold and silver patterns, on His head a wreath with red poppies, in His hand ripe ears of corn of all different kinds of grains; where the God Jar steps on the chmel‘, there grains grow high unseeded. He touches with the golden ear a young man in his sleep and ignites his blood; Jar chmel’ touches the sleeping girl with the red flowers and sleep escapes her, resting becomes difficult and she dreams of her beloved.”

“Thus, here we have the proof that Jarilo stood for Eros. Other customs also remind us of this. As already mentioned, there was the custom of putting a puppet in a grave, a man with his member which was often portrayed as a giant phallus. The accompanying women sang during this procession ‘obscene’ songs. Allegedly, during these celebrations ‘male seed’ was released into a bucket [of water?] which was then drunk. And when we have already heard the complaints of the Christian preachers about the shameless practices that were connected with the festivities, these may refer precisely to the Jarilo celebrations. Jarilo is here without a doubt portrayed as a God of love and fertility.  But that is still not the original [function of his]. Jarilo is not originally simply the God who gives people love and fertility, he is the Sun God who celebrates his wedding with Mother Earth, embraces her with love and through this embrace creates fertility for the Earth, even produces man therefrom. We have proof of this here from an old tradition of the Old Believers by whom the old customs have been preserved more purely since they did not concern themselves with the prohibitions that came from church and government places, and since they retained the old customs and ideas consciously in opposition [to the established religious and state order].

A legend of the Old Believers tells of how Jarilo loved the wet Mother Earth:

“Mother Earth lay in cold and darkness. And the always young, always happy Jar of the light spoke so: ‘let us look at the wet Mother Earth, [to see] whether she is pretty, whether appeals to us.’ And the flaming look of the light Jar in one moment cut through the unending layers of darkness which lay over the sleeping Earth. And there where Jarilo’s glance filled the darkness, there the red Sun began to shine. And the hot waves of Jarilo’s light poured out by means of the Sun. The wet Mother Earth awoke from sleep and in her youthful beauty she stretched herself out like a bride on the marriage bed. Eagerly she drank the golden rays of the invigorating light and from this light there spilled out hot life and the bliss of craving into her limbs. And the Sun rays conveyed the sweet words of the God of Love, of the ever young God Jarilo: ‘Oh you wet Mother Earth! Love me, the God of light, as my beloved I shall decorate you with blue seas, with yellow sand, with green grass, with red and blue flowers. By my you shall give birth to an unending number of dear children.'”

“And Mother Earth liked the speech of the God Jarilo, she loved the happy God and thanks to his hot kisses she became pretty and decorated herself with grasses and flowers, with dark woods and blue seas, with light blue rivers and silver lakes. She drank the hot kisses and from her bosom there flew birds, from the caves there there ran out forest and field animals, and in the streams and seas there swam fish, in the air there whirred about the little flies and mosquitoes… and lived, all loved, all sang praise hymns to the father Jarilo and to the wet Mother Earth.”

“And once again there sounded from the light Sun the love words of Jarilo’s: ‘oh, hey you wet Mother Earth! I have adorned you with beauty, you have given birth to many dear children. love me some more and you will give birth to your love children. Mother Earth liked these words. Eagerly did she drink the life-giving rays and she gave birth to Man… and as he rose from the Earth’s bosom, the God Jarilo hit him on the head with his golden leash, his lightning. And from this blow, there arose reason inside of Man… And the God Jarilo greeted his dear Earthborn son with heavenly thunder, with rays of lightning; and these thunder rumbles shook all living things on the Earth… little birds fled into the heavens and wild animals hid in the holes, only Man raised his head towards the sky and answered the speech of the thunder God with eternal words. And as they heard this word and saw their king and ruler, so bowed before him all the trees, all flowers, all grasses, all animals, all birds, all of living creation and they became his servants.”

“And Mother Earth exulted in luck and happiness. She felt that Jarilo’s lover was no mere fortune and that there was no limit to it. But after short time, the Sun began to lower itself, the long days became shorter, the cold winds were blowing, the singers, the little birds fell silent, the wild animals howled and there shuttered from the cold the kong and the ruler of the entire living and inanimate Creation… And the countenance of Mother Earth changed and from grief and worry she washed her face with bitter tears… and so cried Mother Earth: ‘o wind, o wind, why do you blow so ice cold on me? You, eye of Jarilo, you light Sun, why do you not warm me and shine on me as before? Does the God Jarilo not love me anymore? Shall I lose my beauty? Shall my babes go into the ground? Shall I again lie in darkness and cold? Why have I then gotten to know the light? Why have I experienced life and love? Why have I gotten to know the bright rays, the hot kisses of the God Jarilo?’ Jarilo was silent. ‘I do not cry for me,’ complained Mother Earth shuddering from the cold, ‘my heart mourns my dear children.’ Then spoke Jarilo: ‘Cry not, mourn not, wet Mother Earth, I left you not for long. Had I not left you then you would have burned down under my kisses. To protect you and our children, I lessen the warmth and light for a while. The leaves will fall from the trees. The flowers and grasses will wilt. You will dress yourself in a snow garment. You will sleep till my return… And when the time comes, I will send you a messenger, the happy spring and right after spring, I will come myself.'”

“But Mother Erath cried further. ‘Don’t you feel sorry for me Jarilo? Do not the cries of your children reach you? Have mercy at least on your love child, who answered your thunder speech with eternal words. It is naked and weak, it will shortly perish if you take away heat and light from us.’ And the God Jarilo struck a stone with lightning, his flaming blitz hit the trees. And he said to Mother Earth: ‘Now I have brought fire to the stones and the trees. I myself am in this fire. With his mind will Man figure out how to take light and fire from wood and stones. This fire is my gift for my love son. For the entire living Creation will this gift be a fright and terror. Only for him alone will be of service.’ And so the God Jarilo left the Earth. Terrible winds blew, dark clouds covered Jarilo’s eye, the red Sun [and] white snow felt and enveloped Mother Earth like a pall. All froze, all fell asleep, only Man slept [but] did not slumber. He had the great gift of Father Jarilo and with it light and warmth.”

“Here Jarilo is clearly referred to as a Sun God, who brings love and fertility by means of his domain over fire, which causes nature to grow and bloom and gives magical powers to plants which [in turn] benefit people. For this reason is the fern to be explained as the mysterious fire plant, which only flowers on the day of Kupalo; out of this we have explanations for the fire worship associated with Kupalo-Jarilo, for the jumping through fire, for the wheel as symbol of the Sun wheel. The water in the sea and the lake and the streams owes its existence only to Jarilo; it is a element given to the moist Mother Earth that increases fertility. The constantly repeated expression ‘moist Mother Earth’ indicates a natural connection of the Earth with water so as to preserve fertility. We find the above description the idea of the dying of the Sun and of Nature. And so are explained the customs of burying of the originally majestic, possessing the full strength of youth, Jarilo, of that fertility God and love God, [customs] that morphed into obscene pleasures and mocking games, when people had forgotten the original meaning of the festivities. Now it becomes clear why the man who stood in for Jarilo in Voronez was all made up in white and red. Red is the color of the glowing Sun and of the fire. When girls playing the role of Jarilo were bathed or buried by the river, it may still have been the memory of Mother Earth as Jarilo’s beloved.”

Lathander may be the gaming world’s version of Yarilo – at least in concept

Interestingly, Man is the son of Yarilo but can be analogized here also to the fruit of the land, the bounty, the harvest, that is to say, the birth/rebirth has a human but also agricultural aspect. This is further described below when the same cognates/concepts appear in connection with agriculture and growth – ultimately, “wealth” we ought to remember is what is associated with Plutus, the wealth of the soil and the son of Iasion and Demeter. As discussed below, it seems that Iasion/Jasień/Jasion/Jason (?) and Yarilo are the same Deities.


Some Cites for Jarilo


Note that the earliest mention of Iarilo appears to be from 1765 when the Russian Orthodox Church forbade the Iarilo holiday in Voronezh. In Kostroma (see above discussion by Haase) a straw effigy with an enormous phallus was being burned as late as 1771. Since actual mentions of Jarilo are somewhat difficult to find in primary sources here are some cites to secondary sources given by Haase:

  • Golubinsky, Yevgeny Yevsigneyevich (or Evgenij E. Golubinskij, Голубинский Е.) История Русской Церкви or Golubinskij, E. Istorija russkoi cerkvi I 1. 2 1902 II 1 1900; I 2; 2. 855
  • Sobolevsky, A. (or Sobolevskij): Velikorusskija narodnyja pesni 7 Bde 1985-1902; 267, 269
  • Zabylin, M. Russkij narod, ego obycai, obrjady, predanija, sueverija i poezija 1880; 83
  • Zabelin, I Istorija russkoi zizni s drevneiscich vremen 1879
  • Trudy 24, 1 (1883) Nr.10, 292
  • Zapiski: Zapiski russkogo geograf. obsc Etnografija I (1871) ff.; II 85, 87/88

Other cites relating to Jarilo:

  • MelnikovThe Complete Collection of Works (or Collected Works) Polnoe sobranie sochinenii (Полное собраніе сочиненій) by Pavel Ivanovich Melnikov (alias Andrey Pechersky, Russian: Па́вел Ива́нович Ме́льников (Андре́й Пече́рский); hence Melnikov-Pechersky) volume 4, pages 202-203.
  • Anickov, Evgenij Vasilevic, Vesennaja obrjadovaja pesnja na Zapade i u slavjan.
  • Shpilevskiy, Pavel Mikhailovich (Павал Шпілеўскі or Павел Михайлович Шпилевский or Paweł Szpilewski (1827-1861) was a Belarussian ethnographer who wrote a study of Belarussian folklore – Belarussian Folk Traditions (Белорусские народные предания). The first two volumes were written under a pseudonym – Pavel Drevlyanskiy (П. Древлянский). The first volume saw print in 1846 as part of the Supplements to the Journal of the Ministry of Education (Прибавления к Журналу Министерства народного просвещения). 
  • PogodinMythologische Spuren in russischen Dorfnamen.
  • Kulisic, Petrovic & Pantelic, Srpski Mitoloski Recnik; 156-157.
  • Ivanov, V. V. & Toporov, V. N. Issledovanija v oblasti slavjanskih drevnostej, 1974; 215.

Other Related East Suavic Sources


Although Jarilo/Iarilo only appears in the above cited sources, similar names pop up in various other places.

  • In the Laurentian Codex, we have a mention in the Chronicle of Novgorod, under the year 1216 of a commander by the name of Yarun/Jarun/Iarun (compare with Peron/Perun; compare this pairing too with Jason/Paron or Iasion/Pareantus): “And Yarun had shut himself up in the town with a hundred men and beat them off. And Mstislav [Mstislavich the Daring] went and took Zubchev and they were on the Vozuga; and thither came Volodimir Rurikovitch with men of Smolensk. They were coming along the Volga, making war, and said to him: “Knyaz, go to Torzhok.” Mstislav and Volodimir said: “But Mstislav and Volodimir said: “Let us go to Pereyaslavl; we have a third friend.” And there was no news where Yaroslav was, whether at Torzhok or in Tver. And Yaroslav’s guards attacked Yarun behind Tver, and God helped Yarun and they killed many, others they captured, and others escaped to Tver.” [from the Mitchell/Forbes translation]. Jarun is also a neighborhood of Zagreb in Croatia as well as the ancient Greek name of the Iranian island of Hormuz (yes, from the Straight of Hormuz).

Note that though the above name as used in the Chronicle may not have overtly religious connotations, such connotations can be inferred from other sources described here. Indeed, Oskar Kolberg, in his ethnographic description of Chełm area (in eastern Poland, east of Lublin – it seems in Ukrainian villages) says that  “the oldest devil is called Jarynec and he lives on a tall mountain and from their he issues orders to his subordinates, the lesser devils who dwell in the hills and bogs.”Jarynec” is a diminutive form of Jarun/Yarun.

  • In the Chudov codex (16th century) we have the Saint Gregory’s Sermon, where it is said that the ancient pagans worshipped a Yadrey: “…and other pray to the God of the Household, to the Goddess Vela, to Yadrey…” [the below is from Mansikka’s Die Religion der Ostslawen]  

Incidentally, the “d” is not problematic here. Note that there are many similar words in Suavic languages that have approximately the same meaning and are cognates with the yar and yas forms:

  • jędrny (firm, youthful)
  • jądro (kernel)
  • Jędrzej (form of Andrew)

Incidentally, the nasal “ę is clearly cognate with the “en” form and hence jędrny is also cognate with jendry which is clearly cognate with Indra.

Likewise the consonants that follow the y sound are aplenty, again though, with similar meanings. Compare, for example, the above “a” and “e” with the “u” sound in: jurzyć się (to be lustful) or  jurność (virility). Check out Aleksandr Nikolaevich Afanasyev’s Поэтические воззрения славян на природу [typically, though awkwardly translated as “The Poetic Outlook on Nature by the Slavs”].


Musings on “Jar” the Green


What else can we say here? Well, apparently, Jarilovo appears four times as a village and there is also a Jarilovic near Great Novgorod. In the Laurentian Codex we hear of a Jarun (compare this form with Perun). 

We note that Shpilevsky portrays Jarilo as a man on a white horse or as a woman wearing a white cloak. Apparently, if he was a man, he would appear naked. His head was covered by a wreath of spring flowers and in his hands were cereal ears/spikes. Jarilo was shown as young, with light eyes and curly, blonde hair. Wherever he walked by the harvest would be good. Whoever he glances at, that person falls in love (though not necessarily with Jarilo!). In many folk songs, people would ask him for a hot summer and a great harvest. Haase weaves this into his theory as shown above.

The Belarussian description is interesting in that the Jarilo songs would be sang by groups of walking women, one of whom was sitting astride a horse that was tied to a pole. Obviously, the a horse tied to a pole cannot get far so how could these women be walking anywhere? A solution would present itself if the horse were walking around the pole, perhaps simulating the revolving Sun. The women apparently sang the following song:

Jarilo wandered / The world whole / Birthed rye in the field /
Sired people’s children / And wherever he took a step / There came rye aplenty /
And wherever he’s on the seeds / There a rye ear blossoms

We have this summary from Jerzy Strzelczyk‘s dictionary-like list entitled “Myths, Legends and Beliefs of Ancient Suavs” (Mity, podania i wierzenia dawnych Słowian):

And Max Vasmer says the following regarding the Suavic word jar:

Obviously the word is the same as the English year or German Jahr and refers to vegetation. As shown in the Vasmer dictionary above, jar also means a “canyon” but not just any canyon; instead, referring to a vegetation covered canyon that had been carved out by a stream.

A jar

In Polish the various yar/jar cognates also include jary – meaning “rushing” or “swift” as in “a rushing river” and jarki – meaning “fast moving”; (compare this with the English verb “to jerk”). Apparently, jarowanie may refer to preparing seeds or prepping a horse for a race.

Along the same line of reasoning, it is important to note also that there was a Thracian Divinity, that these days is commonly referred to as the Thracian Horseman. He was known simply as “hero”. Now, the Thracian language expert Dimiter Detschew speculated (in Die thrakischen Sprachreste, Vienna, 1957) that the Thracian for hero was *ierus or *iarus... (of course you have to be careful some of the stuff in CIL that he cites to support that proposition may actually say IFRU not IERU). This nicely ties into words such as horse or Horsa (Hengist and Horsa) or, for that matter, hero and Chors. For more on the Horseman see here and here.

If you want to get an even bigger kick out of this, note too that the related Dacian Riders were apparently derived from the Thracian Rider. Now, these Dacian horsemen are sometimes shown with a Goddess holding a fish. There is a stone sculpture of such a figure at Ślęża Mountain (see here).

There also a ridiculous number of agricultural connections. For example, you have the Polish (and other Suavic) jarzyny for “vegetables.” A young wheat is in some places called jarkisz and the hordium grain, jarzec.

Finally, an interesting piece of trivia is that in Hebrew the word for “green” is ya-rokh (יָרֹוק) which   (interestingly too, “white” is pronounced, lah-vahn). That rok means “year” in Polish/Czech (Ukrainian, rik and in Russian… god) seems a rather interesting coincidence (?). Of course, we could go further. Take the name Jerusalem – Yerushalayim. Though this is far from clear (and is claimed to be a later development), the ending -ayim indicates the dual form in Hebrew. Since the city has two hills some have suggested that the name may refers to those two hills (rather than a local god Shalem). If so the city name could mean something like “Green Hills”… (For that matter, the Greek ἱερός (hieros) means “holy”).


More Than a Sun Deity or Pure Lunacy?


As already mentioned hereya-ra-ti (jarać) refers to “burning.”  We are a step away from the “Burning Bush”… BTW This is the same concept as the Russian yarkiy (яркий) meaning “flamboyant” or “bright.”

That Jarilo had solar connections Haase proved in sufficient detail above. The lunar connections of the deity are interesting as well, however. Let’s turn to that.

An interesting connection may be drawn from Egypt and the Levant. The Egyptian Moon was referred to as Yah which name later also came to signify a Moon Deity. Of course, we all know that Ra was the Egyptian Deity of the Sun. So, put together, what we already alluded to before, we mention again because the Y-r form of Jarilo or Yarilo practically invites drawing this connection.

Focusing on Moon Gods, with similar names to Jarilo we have the Moon Deity Yarikh in Canaan (mentioned in the Ebla texts before 2000 BC and another – Yarhibol – at Palmyra.

And then there are these Hittite texts (Johan de Roos translation/edition).

Of course, Osiris too was as much or perhaps more a Moon Deity as a Sun Divinity. The person who noted this earliest in modern times was James Frazer when he wrote the following:

“There are far more plausible grounds for identifying Osiris with the moon than with the sun:

1. He was said to have lived or reigned twenty-eight years; Plutarch, Isis et Osiris, cc. 13, 42. This might be taken as a mythical expression for a lunar month.

2. His body was rent into fourteen pieces (ib. cc. 18, 42). This might be interpreted of the moon on the wane, losing a piece of itself on each of the fourteen days which make up the second half of a lunation. It is expressly mentioned that Typhon found the body of Osiris at the full moon (ib. 8); thus the dismemberment of the god would begin with the waning of the moon.

3. In a hymn supposed to be addressed by Isis to Osiris, it is said that Thoth

“Placeth thy soul in the bark Ma-at,
In that name which is thine, of God Moon.”

And again,

“Thou who comest to us as a child each month,
We do not cease to contemplate thee,
Thine emanation heightens the brilliancy
Of the stars of Orion in the firmament,” etc.

Records of the Past, i. 121 sq.; Brugsch, Religion und Mythologie der alten Aegypter, p. 629 sq. Here then Osiris is identified with the moon in set terms. If in the same hymn he is said to “illuminate us like Ra” (the sun), this, as we have already seen, is no reason for identifying him with the sun, but quite the contrary.

4. At the new moon of the month Phanemoth, being the beginning of spring, the Egyptians celebrated what they called “the entry of Osiris into the moon.” Plutarch, Is. et Os. 43.

5. The bull Apis, which was regarded as an image of the soul of Osiris (Is. et Os. cc. 20, 29), was born of a cow which was believed to have been impregnated by the moon (ib. 43).

6. Once a year, at the full moon, pigs were sacrificed simultaneously to the moon and Osiris. Herodotus, ii. 47; Plutarch, Is. et Os. 8. The relation of the pig to Osiris will be examined later on.

Without attempting to explain in detail why a god of vegetation, as I take Osiris to have been, should have been brought into such close connection with the moon, I may refer to the intimate relation which is vulgarly believed to subsist between the growth of vegetation and the phases of the moon .See e.g. Pliny, Nat. Hist. ii. 221, xvi. 190, xvii. 108, 215, xviii. 200, 228, 308, 314; Plutarch, Quaest. Conviv. iii. 10, 3; Aulus Gellius, xx. 8, 7; Macrobius, Saturn. vii. 16, 29 sq. Many examples are furnished by the ancient writers on agriculture, e.g. Cato, 37, 4; Varro, i. 37; Geoponica, i. 6.” 

Importantly, as seen above, Frazer saw Osiris not as the Sun and not just closer to being a lunar Deity but as the God of Vegetation. He goes on:

“In the course of our inquiry, it has, I trust, been made clear that there is another natural phenomenon to which the conception of death and resurrection is as applicable as to sunset and sunrise, and which, as a matter of fact has been conceived and represented in folk custom. This phenomenon is the annual growth and decay of vegetation. A strong reason for interpreting the death of Osiris as the decay of vegetation rather than as the sunset is to be found in the general (though not unanimous) voice of antiquity, which classed together the worship and myths of Osiris, Adonis, Attis, Dionysus, and Demeter, as religions of essentially the same type…” 

Now the connection of Jaryło to vegetation is obvious from the above and is further discussed below. In the meantime it remains to show the connection to the Moon.

Here we can be helped by one of the best webpages on Polish pre-Christian beliefs (unfortunately, thus far, only in Polish), appropriately named Polish Gods: Bogowie Polscy.* According to an essay on this page by Kazimierz Perkowski:

“The most direct and popular (other than biblical) in the pool of connotations that appears around the name Jaś are those connotations, we stress that come from rituals, connected with brightness and with a person that is widely respected and, we can say, luminescent. For Jaś as well as Jasień are the names given to the bright moon, the maker of storms and rain, a flying persona of a brave warrior, a wanderer, unmarried, a suitor, a groom as well as of a Polish folk name of a devil and a partner of the Goddess Marzanna, which we will write about more extensively in subsequent parts of this piece. Finally, we note that the name Jaś is not any diminutive [of John] but rather a folk name in and of itself. If that were not enough, in one of the traditional Christmas carols from the region of Greater Poland, the name Jaś appears in place of… Jesus and the other way around…”

*note: the site bogowiepolscy.net has been subsumed into something called Weneda which seems an inferior project; many of the essays and posts have been removed. 

It may also be relevant to note here that, aside from Dionysos or Osiris, another deity that may have something to do with the Thracian/Phrygian Sabazios (Ancient Greek: Σαβάζιος) whose name may be pronounced Savázios (Sovi?) or Sabadios (Boda?) who is also referred to as the Thracian Rider and who was also associated with Father Liber and with Dionysos. Not to mention that the Sabazios hand possesses obvious phallic connotations. Sabazios may also have given the name to sobótki, the fires lit by the Suavs in their celebrations of the arrival of summer. Of course Sabazios also has lunar connections (compare the sabattu or sabpattu which has been dated to 2,000 BC and means full day, that is full moon day; note too the similarities between pattu “day” with pater or father).


Jaś – the Master of the Moon’s Power


“In Coats of Arms, legends and old myths” [Herby, Legendy i dawne mity], one of the most important publication dealing with the topic of Polish mythology, its authors, the professors Marek Cetwiński and Marek Derwich observe that the primary Gods of the Western Suavs were most likely Gods with lunar connections. The most telling example here remains the Rugian Svantevit, which according to the sources, was a God on a white horse who constantly travelled at night (like the Moon) fighting the enemies of the Rugians. Attention can be drawn too to the most important attribute of Svantevit, the horn of plenty filled with mead, an object with an obvious lunar symbolism. And among many Polish family legends a main motif features the battle of a hero – aided by the light of the moon – with an enemy possessing chthonic attributes. At the same time, as noted by professor Aleksander Gieysztor, the persons of Svantevit, Jarovit, and Jarilo appear as thunder Gods, the hypostases of the God Piorun. So are all of these research positions presented here inconsistent and the thunder and lunar characteristics mutually exclusive? Absolutely not. The Moon as much as thunder deities were connected after all with rain and the sky water [Wodan] – and these ensured (or took away) fertility and prosperity. We could also point out the East Slavic report about a lunar (as per a common hypothesis) deity Chors, called in some notes “the thunder angel” as well as, most importantly for this essay, Polish folk beliefs. These last ones treat the lunar and thunder ideas interchangeably. Our Jaś appears connected with the Moon:

“Ponad lasejkiem czarna chmurejka,
ponad to chmurejko jasny miesiączejko.
Nie jest to miesiączek, Jasio wojowniczek,
wywojował sobie sto złotych jabłuszek.”

[A carol from the Lublin region, Słownik stereotypów i symboli ludowych, vol. I, part 3, 2012, p. 111]

“Jasna nieba, jasna słońca, jasień miesiąc
i jasne gwiazdy, i święta Trójca, i Matka Boża,
stań do pomocy, jak we dnie, tak i w nocy.”

[a charm asking help from a rose, Słownik stereotypów i symboli ludowych, vol. I, part 1, 1996, p. 171]

„A u miesiąca dwa rogi,
a u Jasieńka dwa braci”

[Słownik stereotypów i symboli ludowych, vol. I, part 1, 1996, p. 162]

“Jedzie Jasieńko do dziewki,
Jako miesiączek do Zorzy […]
Herny (pyszny) Jasieńku kozacze,
Gdzie się mi bierzesz przeciw nocy?”

[Wisła, vol. VII, part 4, 1893, p. 691]

“We see here a solid connection between the folk-preserved persona of Jaś and the Moon. I would warn, however, against assuming the first is the literal personification of a heavenly body. For the Moon [księżyc], frequently called miesiąc or miesiączek [today meaning a “month”], in old Polish folk beliefs was filled with a number of male and female characters. He is a kind of a transporter or a steed allowing travel to and from the netherworld. The Polsh name for the Earth’s natural satellite – księżyc – is curious. This name, as noted by professor Mikołaj Rudnicki, could have originally been connected with a Lechitic [West Suavic] lunar Deity, only later coming to mean the actual Moon. We should add that the Polish association of the Moon [with a male prince] are rather unique in the European context. Hans Biedermann in his “Symbols Lexicon” notes that the Moon is typically associated with female characteristics, just as “the names of the Moon in European languages are female, the exceptions being the German der Mond and the Polish Księżyc.” It is possible that the rural Jaś, described in tens of Polish songs as “serving the lord”, could have been that księżyc – the son of książę [the former is either a diminutive of the latter or the “son” of the latter – much as SvarozicSvarog]. Another element connecting the image of Jaś with the Moon is the attribute of the golden crown… “

“Jedzie Jasiek z Torunia,
Złota na nim koruna;
Konie z góry stąpają,
Srebrem, złotem brząkają.”

[Wisła, vol. III, part 4, 1889, p. 750]

“Miesiącowi złota korona,
A mnie szczęście i fortona;
Miesiącowi cześć i chwała,
A mnie zdrowie!”

[Wisła, vol. XIV , part 4, 1900, p. 468]

“We will now move on to the mentioned interchangeability of the thunder and lunar portfolio. In Polish myths the Moon battles, similar to a thunder deity, with chthonic beings, and even uses for this purpose the typical weapon of a thunder god – the stone. In a number of variations of this tale, there is an attack that takes place during a full moon and it is against a villain, perhaps a thief in the fields, but most often a water spirit or drowned person (a memory of a chthonic deity) or against smaller female water divinities…”

“…In the syncretic folk traditionalism, the bright and warm season, originally connected with a  thunder deity who opens and closes vegetation, begins in the spring on Saint George’s day [April 23] and ends in the fall on Saint Martin’s day [November 11] (in the Catholic tradition) or Saint George’s day (in Orthodoxy). On Saint Martin’s day, the original manifestation day of the thunder deity – we find preserved to this day an important element of lunar symbolism: the famous Saint Martin croissants. Baked to this day in Greater Poland, they represent, it is believed a memory of a vicarious offering in place of the earlier ox sacrifice. The context is completed by a whole series of Polish riddles wherein the roar of an ox – an animal associated with the Moon (for example the folk bald ox) as well as the animal of the thunder divinity – is identified as a far off sound of thunder…”

“…If Jaś the suitor was perceived as the cause of a storm, was he also, in light of the above, connected to the Moon? Such beliefs have been preserved particularly in Eastern Poland, where in songs and tales, the Moon remains associated with the young groom, a single man. He marries or seduces the bride – the Sun, or rather the “solar sister” – the Zorza/Jutrzenka, the morning Venus (in old Polish tales Lela/Dziedzilela). This motif is visible in a number of wedding songs:

“Jedzie Jasieńko do dziewki,
Jako miesiączek do Zorzy”

[Wisła, vol. VII, part 4, 1893, p. 691]

„A gdzie słoneczko wschodzi,
Młody Jasieńko chodzi…”

[Lud, year 9, 1903, p. 226]

…In the above part of this essay, we took a look at a number of supernatural attributes in the folk image of Jaś. He turns out to be the ritualistic causer of the storm and bringer of rain, as well as the eternal wanderer and sky warrior. Simultaneously,  Jaś like the Moon “runs against the night” and illuminates its darkness. Finally, Jaś is a suitor seducing Jutrzenka-Zorza…”

[the authors cite another interesting tale:]

“Jasio chodzi po drobnej leszczynie,
Orzechy szczypie, w kieszonkę sypie
Nadobnej Marysi, swojej dziewczynie.”

[Polish folk song]”

This obviously suggests a connection between Jaś and Marzanna, potentially the frozen Earth. Also note the nuts are again a motif connected with Jarilo/Iarilo in Rybakov’s listing of songs mentioned below. Some of the above is not necessarily entirely convincing but the essay does contain a number of interesting suggstisons/clues.

The author, of course, notes the similarity of Polish Jaś with the East Suavic Jarilo/Iarilo (particularly, in the attribute of the horn – cornucopia) so let’s bring this back to Iarilo.


Back To Jaryło/Jarilo/Iarilo


The first step is to recognize that Jarilo, as indicated by the above, is either the same Deity or a closely related Deity to the pagan Gods found among other Suavic tribes and Balts.

Take for example, this Ukrainian book, written much like Strzelczyk’s listings, includes entries for:

  •  Jarilo,
  • Jarowit, that is Gerovit and
  • Jasion/Jasień

Further, Jasza/Jaszer is the form promoted among others by Boris Rybakov who provides these creations:

So there sits, sits Yasha under a nut bush (there is that bush again):

Сиди-сиди, Яша, под ореховым кустом,
Грызи–грызи, Яша, орешки каленые, миломю дареные.
Чок–чок, пяточок, вставай Яша, дурачок,
Где твоя невеста, в чем он
а одета?
Как ее зовут? И откуда привезут?

In another version we have Yasha sitting on a golden chair: (this version from Perkowski is a little different than Rybakov’s above):

Сидит наш Яша
На золотом стуле,
Ладу, ладу, ладоньки,
На золотом стуле.
Щелкат наш Яшенька
Калены орешки…
Калены-калены,
Девушкам дарены…
Бабам посулены…

Roughly speaking the geographic attestation, therefore, is as follows:

  • Western Lechitic tribes (Veleti) – Gerovit (pronounce Yerovit or, if you will, Yarovit)
  • Eastern Lechitic tribes (Poles) – Jasień or Jasion (ash) or Jasza/Jesza (pronounce Yasien or Iasion orYasha/Yesha)
  • Belorussians – Jarilo (pronounce Yarilo)
  • Ilmen Suavs/North-Eastern Russians – Jasza or Jaszer (pronounce Yasha or Yasher)

Of course, one group of northern Suavs is not clearly reflected in the above list: the Ukrainians. And here we have another hint regarding the nature of this Divinity. Among the Kievan Polans, that is Ukrainians, the most obvious candidate for the portfolio of the Sun God and Moon God and, therefore, maybe also Vegetation God, is, it seems, Dadzbog Chors (though, it is also possible that Chors is the son of Jasień – certainly the Osiris-Horus similarities is of interest).


The God of Vegetation and Fertility, Life, Light and Motion


So Haase is not wrong that Jarilo was a Sun God. In fact, Haase was right that Jarilo is, in fact, more than that – in that he is also a God of Love (or at least lust!) and, therefore, vegetation. But beyond that Jarilo is a Lunar Deity. This is the hypothesis of the “one rider” – perhaps akin to the Latvian Ūsiņš. Most generally, perhaps, Yarilo is a God of Life, Virility and, ultimately, Motion.

It is, of course, possible to view this slightly differently. For example, looking to Lithuanian mythology, we can ask whether there were in fact two Deities: the Sky Twins or Ašvieniai. Perhaps their names were Yas and Yar? If you want to spin this out further, a connection can be drawn to the Vandalic Assi and Ambri though this is obviously a major leap.

And another thought, were these “twins” always both men or, to bring this back to “Mother Earth/Father Jarilo/Iarilo” or “Sun/Moon”, was one of the twins perhaps a woman?

Interestingly, also Mars (though seemingly not Ares) had an agricultural beginning before becoming a god of war. If so, the suggestion that Gerovit may have been the same as Mars may actually have been more accurate than the writer of the Life of Otto of Bamberg may have suspected.

To view some other posts on Jaryło you can take a look here as well as here and here.

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April 26, 2020

Further Tamga and the Like Spear/Lance Finds

Published Post author

We’ve discussed spears with runes & signs here and more specifically here:

as well as here. Here are some other “tamga” spears. Tamgas are associated most typically with the Sarmatians. Yet, as we will see these spears are not found where the Jazyges resided and Ukraine, the are ruled by Sarmatians and later the Goths also does not generally yield tamga spear finds. Perhaps they could be associated with the Veneti Sarmatae. Some of these are from a 2012 article by Yatsenko & Dobrzanska. Others from Gustaf Kossina’s ever giving Die deutsche Vorgeschichte: Ein hervorragende nationale Wissenschaft or other Mannus-related publications such as Martin Jahn’s Die Bewaffnung der Germanen in der alteren Eisenzeit etwa von 700 v. Chr. bis 200 n. Chr. I also give citations in the text to various Polish articles announcing these finds (or analyzing them in depth). For more on this stuff is currently Bartosz Kontny if you can read Polish, of course.


Jankowo, Poland

This in the area of Mogilno is also the site of the discovery of the Jankowo “head” (for that discovery as well as its “viking” interpretation, you can see, for example, Der Kopf von Adolfinenhof Kreis Mogilno, eine Wikingische Holzplastik?)


Żurawiczki (Kamienica), Poland 

There are actually two finds here. The first is this:

And the second this:

The other side of this spear apparently was too worn out to provide anything of interest though we know it contains dots and a few concentric circles.

This was described in Włodzimierz Antoniewicz’s Żelazne oszczepy inkrustowane z Kamienicy, w pow. jarosławskim, „Przeglad Archeologiczny”, t. 1, s. 99–111 (1919) as well as other articles including in Andrzej Kokowski’s Problemy badania dziejów kultury przeworskiej in Kultura Przeworska, Lublin vol 1.


Zadowice, Poland

We can also see a similar “tree” symbol on an encrusted sword from Lachmirowice and Egge as discussed in Tadeusz Horbacz’s and Marek Olędzki’s Inkrustowane Miecze Rzymskie z Barbaricum i Obszarow Przylimesowych Imperium Romanum: Wybrane Zagadnienia in Acta Universatis LodziensisFolia Archaeologica, vol 17 (1992).


Grunówko, Poland

Another location where spears have been found is Grunówko. There are two specimen from Grunówko (near Wschowa by Leszno) though the silver encrustings apparently had melted in the ritual flames. The original publication here was Kurhan w Grunówku pod Lesznem by Romuald Erzepki from the Zapiski Archeologiczne Poznańskie, volume IV (1888). Here is the first:

And here is the other:


Września, Poland


Podlodów, Poland

The cover of Andrzej Kokowski’s Lubelszczyzna w młodszym okresie przedrzymskim i w okresie rzymskim features the following spear:

In order to identify it you can read Jan Gurba’s and Zygmunt Ślusarski’s 1966 article Bogato wyposażony grób z III wieku z Podlodowa w pow. tomaszowsko-lubelskim, „Przeglad Archeologiczny”, t. 17. This was discovered in the village of Podlodów by a local farmer – Jan Kukis in 1959.

You will soon discover that the spear actually looks like this:

Or rather like this:


Stryczowice by Ostrowiec, Poland

For more of this and others check out Andrzej Nadolski’s Kilka uwag o inkrustowanych grotach oszczepów z późnego okresu rzymskiego, Slavia Antiqua, t. 2 (1950) or Z problematyki badań nad wczesnośredniowiecznym uzbrojeniem polskim from “Z Otchłani Wieków: pismo poświęcone pradziejom Polski, Tom 21, Numer 5 (1952). More recently, see Jacek Andrzejowski’s Groty włóczni ze znakami symbolicznymi ze Stryczowic in „ZOW”, t. 61, nr 1–2.


Gać, Poland

For more on this you can check out an article by Anna Lasota, Cmentarzysko z okresu rzymskiego w Gaci w swietle nowych badan or Marcin Biborski’s Zdobiona broń z cmentarzyska ciałopalnego z okresu wpływów rzymskich z Gaci k. Przeworska in Materiały Archeologiczne, t. XXIII (1986).


Bodzanowo, Poland

The Bodzanowo of this spear lies about midway between Inowrocław and Włocławek.


Kopaniewo, Poland

This is from Jahn’s book where he says it comes from Koppenow, now Kopaniewo in Lębork County, Pomerania, Poland. Apparently, another example of this is from Neugut (near Sławno?).


Silesia, Poland 

On this one you cannot see any taigas but you can see the “moon” symbols.

The specific location of this find is uncertain. More on the topic in Rudolf Jamka’s Ozdoby oręża i narzędzi z podokresu późno-lateńskiego i okresu rzymskiego, odkrytych na Śląsku, “Polska Akademia Umiejętności – Prace Prehistoryczne”, nr 3. Quite a similar example comes from Hoppenrade, east Germany – see below for that.

Rogów Opolski, Poland

Here you have the same spear shown in two different ways.

Once again see the Rudolf Jamka article for more on these which also refers to articles by Raschke (from whom comes the version of the picture on the left) and Kurtz (same for the right side version). The tamga signs seem quite few and barely visible.


Sobótka, Łęczyca, central Poland

These pictures come from G Rycel’s’ article Cmentarzysko kultury przeworskiej w Sobótce (st. 1), woj. konińskie, Prace i Materiały Muzeum Archeologicznego i Etnograficznego w Łodzi. Seria Archeologiczna, nr 24 (1981). This Sobótka is between Warsaw and Poznan.

Here the “lunar” as well as “solar” (in the top picture) symbols are clearly visible.


Nadkole, Mazovia, Poland

Here is an interesting example of lunar and triangular (?) symbols from Mazovia.

For more information you can check out Jacek Andrzejowski’s “Nadkole 2. A Cemetery of the Przeworsk Culture in Eastern Poland.”


There are a few similar spears from outside of Poland. Such as this.

Medow, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, east Germany
(Medowe or Miodowe)


Zihl, Switzerland

This Swiss example comes from Jahn’s book.


Недобоївці/Nedoboyivtsi/Nedoboivtsi, western Ukraine


Valle, Norway


Mos, Stenkyrka, Gotland, Sweden

This is an example from Sweden from an article “Runes and Romans in the North” by Lisbeth Imer (also her drawing).

With this exception, the Scandinavian versions of these spears or lances do not appear to be adorned by any of tamgas that are present on all the other spears shown here. Nevertheless, since some of them are quite cool and famous we show some below.


Hoppenrade, eastern Germany

This too comes from Jahn’s book.


Vimose, Funen, Denmark

This technically is not a spear but a sword scabbard but the left marking on this appears to be a tamga-like designation.


Ok so let’s map these tamga finds.

The makes clear that these tamga signs were not “Scandinavian” or “Nordic” in any common sense of the word. They are not found in central or west Germany or in France. On spears they appear primarily in Poland with a few examples also in the immediate surroundings. But the curious thing is that, outside of spear or lanceheads, they are found even earlier in the past – primarily in the Bosporan Kingdom but also in other places, including, again, in Poland. That is a topic for another time. In the meantime let’s look at some other spear finds that do not have tamga markings but do feature embroidery and runic symbols.


Of course there were many spears featuring various “patterns” that did not contain any tamga signs or runes or other characters such as these. In Poland you have examples such as these.

Prusiek, Poland
near Sanok

This comes from articles by Renata Madyda-Legutko, Judyta Rodzińska-Nowak and Joanna Zagórska-Telega. There apparently is also another Prusiek spear.


Or take a look at this.

Gródki, Poland
near Dzialdowo, Nidzica
(Grodtken near Soldau, Neidenburg)

For other decorated but not with tamga signs spears, check out the spear from Niemirow or Stara Rudowka.


And then there are quite a number of runic spears, mostly in Scandinavia or England such as these. They contain runes or other markings but not tamgas.

Wurmlingen, western Germany

The Wurmlingen speer certainly contains runes and other etchings but they do not appear to be similar to any known tamga signs. It is also much more recent, being dated apparently to the seventh century.


Vimose, Funen, Denmark

Back to Vimose again.


Øvre Stabu, Norway 

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March 1, 2020

Iarila

Published Post author

Here are some interesting Celtic (!?) divine names.

If the highlighted text is Celtic then we cannot be sure what is Suavic anymore, of course. Are we to believe that the Jarilo festivities were really just celebrations made up by some practical joker steeped in Celtic mysteries? That hardly seems likely with the more likely answer being either that Suavs occupied parts of Europe and were mistaken as Celts or that the Jarilo cult was an ancient IE cult that both some Suavs and some Celts maintained independently.

Here are is the earlier article on the Iassas of the Suevo-veneti.

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February 26, 2020

On Svarog’s or Svarozic’s Trail

Published Post author

We have not done articles about Svarog as you do not see this deity in the Polish Pantheon. If by swar we mean “raging” then perhaps he can be connected with Wodan and, hence, Jasion. In this case, he would be the God of the Sky. This would be somewhat consistent with the Svarga or Svarga Loka of Hindu mythology.

But there are signs that point to another role for Svarog – that of a chthonic deity. Both of these suggest a smith deity. Such a smith could be a smith among the stars or, alternatively, could be a smith deep down in the Earth. In other words, the stars can represent a forge via their “heavenly fire” but so can a volcano. In fact, Vulcan may also be relevant here as he is the Roman equivalent of the Greek Hephaestus.

To better address this question, we ought to look at the available sources, first noting that while Svarog does not appear appear among the Western Suavs, Svarozic does among the Polabians in:


PVL
Hypatian Codex/Chlebnikov Codex

The most well-known source mentioning Svarog are two manuscripts of the PVL – the Primary Chronicle. But the mention is present in only two (out of about eight) manuscripts of the PVL – the Hypatian Codex (beginning of the 15th century) which is one of the two main PVL manuscripts (along with the Laurentian Codex) and the lesser-known Chlebnikov Codex (15th or 16th century). In these two codices, under the year 1114 the scribe wrote an interpolation not present in other manuscripts. The following is the text of that interpolation as given by Mansikka (in German) (while that author is overly critical, much like Brueckner, his source compilation is quite thorough and about the only such compilation in Western literature):

“At the beginning Mestrom of the family of Ham began to rule, then Jeremiah and after him Feosta, who was also called Svarog (in the original Sovarog, Zvarog) by the Egyptians. At the time of this Feosta’s rule in Egypt, there fell tongs from heaven and he began to forge weapons for before that time people fought with rods and stones. This same Feosta proclaimed a law that women could marry only one man* and should fast and order that those who commit adultery should be executed. For this reason he was called God Svarog. For before that women lived licentiously with those men whom they liked and were like cattle in their fornication When a child was born that the woman liked, she would say [to her then man] “This is your child”; and he held a party and recognized it [the child as his own]. But Feosta abolished this law and commanded that one man could only marry one woman and one woman could only marry one man; and whoever should break this law, he had to be thrown into the fiery oven. For this reason he became called Svarog and was honored by the Egyptians. And thereafter there reigned his Son, who was called the “Sun”; he was also called Dadzbog… The ruler Sun, who was the son of Svarog and was also called Dadzbog, was a strong man; when he came to hear from someone that a rich and powerful Egyptian woman with whom one intended to cavort, he searched for her so as to capture her, for he did not want to abolish his father Svarog’s law. And he took with him several of his men, calculating the time when the night adultery was to begin, surprised her and he did not find her with her husband but rather lying with another whom she loved. And he grabbed her and toortured her and had her driven about [showcased for shame] as a rebuke, And he had the adulterer be beaten. And a clean life began to be led in all of the Egyptian land he began to be praised.”

Here is Mansikka’s Russian text:


Chronicle of John Malalas
Slavic Edition

The source of this, it turns out, is the Chronicle of John Malalas or, more specifically, since the original of that chronicle does not contain any references to Svarog or Dadzbog, the Slavic manuscript of that chronicle from the 15th-16th century. This was published over time in various publications (mostly; and with some later supplements by others) by Vasilii Mikhailovich Istrin under the overall title Khronika Ioanna Malaly v slavyanskom pervade. The relevant manuscript (Ark) is the 15th century Arkhjivskiy khronograf from TSGADA (Central State Archive of Early Acts), collection of GAMID (Saint Petersburg Main Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) 279/658. There is also an earlier – 13th century – Vilnius version (Vil) of the same (Vilenskiy khronograf) which is BAN Litovskoy SSR 109 – the BAN is the Library of the Academy of Sciences of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic; not sure what the current designation is.

This is the same manuscript that also contains the Lithuanian Baltic story of Sovius or Sovii that we discussed here (note too the similarity between Sovarog and Sovius). In fact, according to Mansikka, the same person added the Slavic and Lithuanian glosses about Baltic practices to the edition. In fact, another Mansikka claim is that both the Slavic and the Lithuanian glosses were known to the writers of the Hypatian and Chlebnikov Codices as evidenced not only by the Slavic mentions of Svarog and Dadzbog but also by the mention – this is not part of PVL but rather part of the Galician–Volhynian Chronicle (GVC) that is found in the same codices – under the year 1252 that Mindaugas’ baptism was a deception and that he would continue to make offerings to his pagan Gods:

“…first of all to Nunadiev, Teliavel and Diverikuz, the god of hares and to Meidein.”
(some translate these as Nunadievis, Teliavelis, Diviriks and Medeina)

Later there is also a discussion of the burning of the dead. Also the entry for the year 1258 records the names of the Gods Andajus and Divirikuz/Diviriks. Of these GVC mentions, Teliavel/Teliavelis and Andaeva/Andajus also appear in the Ark manuscript of the Slavic version of the Malalas Chronicle. Further, the main point of the same story of Sovii/Sovius is to discuss the establishment of the rite of cremation. For all these reasons, Mansikka believed that the writers of the Hypatian and Chlebnikov Codices simply inserted the Lithuanian and Slavic mythological references from the Ark manuscript into their codices – the Slavic into the PVL and the Baltic into the GVC. He also noted that the Lithuanian interpolation made its way into the Malalas Chronicle in the year 1262 and so believed, not unreasonably, that that also was the time of the Slavic interpolation. Because of the reference that says “in our Lithuania” in the Vil manuscript’s Lithuanian glosses both Istrin and Mansikka believed that the Slavic glosses of Malalas Chronicle were also made in Lithuania. Again, both of these time/place deductions are based on the reasonable assumption that the same person added both the Lithuanian and the Slavic interpolations. Istrin further believed that they may have been made originally in another manuscript (though around 1262 and in Lithuania still) and only then were introduced into the Slavic Malalas of the Ark manuscript (and the Vil manuscript?). Either from such original works or from these Malalas Chronicle’s manuscripts they made their way into the PVL and the GVC. So, at least, says Mansikka. However, others who prior to his examination looked at the glosses thought the origin may have been earlier. If you believe that the same person added the Lithuanian and Slavic glosses then an earlier date seems unlikely given, a fact pointed out some time back by Łowmiański, the fact that Lithuanian was not particularly relevant to the Kievan Rus prior to the Mongol invasions (though, perhaps, Novgorod might have been interested in the Baltics more). In any event this does not matter that much to the nature of the text.

So what does the Slavic transaction of Malalas say? The following comes from Mansikka who got it from Istrin’s publication of Book II of Malalas. Note that the English translation of the Malalas Chronicle which was made by Elizabeth Jeffreys, Michael Jeffreys and Roger Scott actually has this text appear in Book I and Book II (see the actual text below). In any event, here is the Mansikka text translation. The insertions are in italics. If a word was changed, the word is in italics while the original Malalas version is also given in brackets. To the extent there are differences between the Mansikka text and the Malalas translation given below, those stem from the text Mansikka used versus those used by the Malalas translators. So, with that in mind, let’s take a look at the text:

“After Feosta’s death, who they also call Svarog, there ruled over the Egyptians his son the Sun [Helios], who they call DadzbogThe Sun [Helios] being the ruler, son of Svarog’s [Hephaistos’], who is also Dadzbogwas a strong man… He did not want to break his father Svarog‘s [Hephaistos’] law… As Homer the poet said of him, that Dadzbog [Helios] accused Aphrodite of adultery with Ares… [He used the name Aphodite for the desire for fornication condemned by the emperor] Sun [Helios]… After the death of Dadzbog [Helios], son of Svarog [Hephaistos], Sosis ruled over the Egyptians…”

And the Russian text as given by Mansikka (which he got from Istrin):


Sermon of a Certain Christlover and Zealot for the Correct Faith
Слово некоего христолюбца и ревнителя по правой вере

Another potential Svarog source is a sermon the so-called “Christlover” found in manuscripts from the 14th-15th century. It seems to have originally been found by Aničkov. The Sermon conns a number of mentions of East Slavic paganism (to which we can later come back) but the mention that is relevant in this context is the following:

“…and they prayed to the fire, calling it Svarozits [or Svarozich]…”

However, in this case, the name is not Svarog but, as among the Polabian Suavs, “Svarozich.”

Here is the text (again from Mansikka):


Saint Gregory’s Sermon Composed on the Mountain About How the First Pagans Bowed to Idols and Gave Them Offerings, Which They Continue To Do
Слово св. Григория, изобретено в толцех, о томь, како первое погани суще языци кланялися идолом и требы им клали, то и ныне творят

Another mention which probably comes from the above Sermon of the Christlover is a mention in Saint Gregory’s Sermon. Specifically the Chudov codex (16th century) contains the following:

“…and  to the fire, Svarozic, they prayed…”

Here is the text (again from Mansikka):


Sermon of Our Father Saint John Chrysostom (the “Golden-Mouthed”), the Archbishop of the City of Constantinople About How the First Pagans Believed in Idols and Gave Them Offerings and Named Their Names, Which They Continue To Do in Christianity and They Do Not Know What Christianity Is
Слово св. отца нашего Иоанна Златоуста, архиепископа Костянтина града, о томь, како первое погании вѣровали въ идолы и требы имъ клали и имена имъ нарекали, яже и нынѣ мнози тако творять и въ крестьяньстве суще, а не вѣдають, что есть крестьяньство

This slovo is known from the 14th or 15th century Novgorodian manuscript:

“…and others believed in Svarozic…”

Here is the text (once again from Mansikka):


The Original Chronicle of John Malalas

Finally, here is the English translation of the original of the relevant portions of the Chronicle of John Malalas which was made by Elizabeth Jeffreys, Michael Jeffreys and Roger Scott.

Book 1
Chapter 15

“So when Hermes came to Egypt, Mestrem of the family of Ham then reigned over the Egyptians. On his death, the Egyptians made Hermes emperor and he reigned over the Egyptians for 39 years arrogantly. After him Hephaistos reigned over the Egyptians for 1680 days, that is for four years and 38 days. For the Egyptians then did not know ho two measure years but they called the cycle of the year “years”. They called Hephaistos a god, for he was also a fighting man with mystic knowledge. He fell with his horse when he had gone into battle and was left with a limp from his wound. Hephaistos issued a law that Egyptian women were to be monogamous and to live chastely, while those who were caught in adultery were to be punished. The Egyptians were grateful to him since thus was the first law on chastity which they received. Hephaistos through a mystic prayer received tongs from the air for the manufacture of implements from iron. Thus he became dominant in wars. They deified him, since he had legislated for chastity and he had procured food for men by the manufacture of implements and in war had given them power and safety; for before his day men had fought with clubs and stones.”

Book 2
Chapter 1

“After the death of Hephaistos, his son Helios reigned over the Egyptians for 4477 days, that is for 12 years and 97 days; for neither the Egyptians in those times nor any other people knew how to calculate the number.  Some calculated the cycles of the moon as years, others calculated the cycles of the days as years; for counting by the twelve months was devised after this from the time when it was customary for men to be taxpayers to emperors.”

Chapter 2

“Helios, the son of Hephaistos was very generous. He was informed by someone that an Egyptian woman, one of those who enjoyed wealth and rank amongst them, had fallen in love with someone and was committing adultery with him. When Helios heard this, he wanted to catch her, because of his father Hephaistos’ law, so that it should not be broken. He took soldiers from his army, having discovered that her adultery took place at night. He burst in on her when her husband was not there and found her sleeping with another man, her lover. Immediately he took her away and paraded her throughout the land of Egypt after torturing her. Chastity became widespread in the land of Egypt. He put that adulterer to death, and was thanked. The poet Homer tells this story poetically; Helios, he says condemned Aphrodite for having intercourse at night with Ares. He used the name Aphodite for the desire for fornication condemned by the emperor Helios. The truth, as it has been written above, was written by the most learned chronicler Palaiphatos.”

Chapter 3

“After the death of the emperor Helios, son of Hephaistos, Sosis* reigned over the Egyptians; after his reign, Osiris reigned; after Osiris, Horus; and after Horus, Thoulis, who captured all the land as far as the Ocean with a large force…”

[*note: later referred to as Sostris.]

For the mention of Suavs in the Chronicle of John Malalas see here.


Etymologies

What of the name Svarozic or Svarog? Svarozic can mean many things in Suavic. The -zic suffix can be an indication of:

  • A son or a descendant of Svarog (or Sovarog)
  • A “thing” coming from Svarog (or Sovarog)
  • A young Svarog (or Sovarog)
  • A little Svarog (or Sovarog)
  • A diminutive of Svarog (or Sovarog)
  • A thing that swarorzy (or svarycsa from svariti se; in which case swarzy would be a shorter version of the same)

With the exception of the last suggestion, all of the above are derived from Svarog.

What about Svarog? Here we have several possibilities: as well:

  • svar (old Indian) or svarga-s (Sanskrit) (“shine, sky, Sun)
  • *spar (Sogdian) (“to glitter, shine, bloom”)
  • hvar (Avestani) (“sky light, Sun”)
  • Sovarog > Sovi (Baltic)
  • swar (Polish) (“heat” or “quarrel”)
  • Zwerg, schwarz (Nordic)
  • stworek (Suavic) (“little creature”)

The Romanian words Sfarogu or svarogu (meaning “dry” or “glowing”) are probably derived from Suavic.

There is also sfora which means “host”. The following Polish and nearby towns and rivers come to mind though whether their etymology has anything to do with Svarozic is debatable:

  • Swaraszczyzna/Swarawszczyzna
  • Swarawa/Sworawa
  • Swareml/Swaromje
  • Swarliny
  • Swarocino
  • Swarowszczyzna
  • Swarożyn/Swaroschin/Swarisewo/Swarozino/Swarzissewo/Swarzystów
  • Swarreitkehmen
  • Swarren
  • Swarszowice/Swarzischowycze
  • Swarte
  • Swarteze
  • Swartówka
  • Swarycewicze/Swarycewiczy
  • Swaryczew
  • Swaryczów
  • Swaryn
  • Swaryn stream
  • Swarzeń
  • Swarzewo/Swarzow
  • Swarzewska Kępa (Swôrzewskô Kãpa)
  • Swarzędz
  • Swarzędzkie
  • Swarzów
  • Schwerin (Polabian)

Some of these may relate to the German schwartz, others clearly have something to do with the Polish “heat” or perhaps with “quarrels.” The best candidate for a Svarogian etymology would have been Swarożyn since the Polish “g” becomes a “ż”. But, the above show that that town had many other names previously: Swaroschin/Swarisewo/Swarozino/Swarzissewo/Swarzystów – most of which are unlikely to have had any “g”‘s in their earlier forms.

An interesting question is why Svarog nor Svarozic appear in the so-called PVL pantheon. My strong suspicion is that the same Deity is there. Specifically, the above distinction between Dadzbog and Svarog seems weak. Rather, it seems that Svarog, the Sky Deity may have been the single deity Dadzbog Chors – the PVL explicitly names this as a single Deity. Now, why was Dadzbog Chors listed after Perun? I think because Perun (previously meaning just “fork” which then became associated with lightning) was “elevated” by the Varangians who, in their own country, similarly saw the ascent of Thor. This Scandinavian invention mirrors Taranis of the Celts. But on the continent the Suevi, for example, clearly did not know Thor. Rather they worshipped Wodan.

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February 1, 2020