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All Slavic Deities

The gods of the pre-Christian Slavs, reconstructed from chronicles written by Christian observers, from later folklore, and from place and personal names. The record is thinner and more contested than for most pantheons here: a number of widely repeated Slavic deities rest on evidence modern scholarship treats as weak or invented, and the entries say where that is so.

Facts
Overview
What Defines This Grouping
The gods of the pre-Christian Slavs, collected from evidence that is thin and almost entirely external: Byzantine and Latin notices, Christian polemic, the treaty oaths and idol-lists of the Rus chronicles, and much later folklore. There is no Slavic religious text. This is among the most contested reconstructions in the atlas, and several once-standard figures are now doubted or rejected. 2
Peoples and Traditions Covered
The East Slavs of Rus, whose gods are named in the treaties and idol-lists of the Primary Chronicle 2
Peoples and Traditions Covered
The South Slavs, for whom the pre-Christian evidence is thinnest of all 2
Peoples and Traditions Covered
The West Slavs, above all the Polabian and Pomeranian peoples whose temple cults are described by German and Danish chroniclers 2
Attestation
Era of Attestation
The earliest notice is a sixth-century Byzantine report of a Slavic maker of lightning. Named gods appear in the tenth-century Rus treaties and in the idols set up at Kiev in 980, and in the Latin chronicles of the Baltic Slavs to about 1200. 2
Veneration Today
The pre-Christian cult was suppressed with Christianisation and no continuous worship survives. 2
Veneration Today
Venerated in the modern Slavic reconstructionist movements known collectively as Rodnovery. 3
Directory
Category
Deities 1
Status
Standing as a Comparative Category
A large part of the received Slavic pantheon derives from late, hostile or Romantic-era sources, and some of it from outright nineteenth-century forgery. Recent scholarship has cut the securely attested list down sharply. 2
Learn More
The Gods of the Slavs

This group gathers the deities of the pre-Christian Slavic peoples of eastern and central Europe. The sources are notoriously thin, scattered chronicles, Christian polemics and later folklore, so the Slavic pantheon is among the most contested reconstructions in the atlas, and some once-standard figures are now doubted by scholars.

The browser will find the thunder-god Perun, the cattle-and-underworld god Veles, the sun-related Dazhbog, and the multi-headed Baltic-Slavic idols recorded by medieval writers. The entries are careful to distinguish securely attested gods from figures that rest on late or unreliable evidence, and note the modern Rodnovery revival.

All Slavic Deities
Filter Results14 entries

Chernobog

Slavic Deities

Chernoglav

Slavic Deities

Dazhbog

Slavic Deities

Jarilo

Slavic Deities

Lada

Slavic Deities

Mokosh

Slavic Deities

Morana

Slavic Deities

Perun

Slavic Deities

Rod

Slavic Deities

Stribog

Slavic Deities

Svarog

Slavic Deities

Triglav

Slavic Deities

Veles

Slavic Deities

Zorya

Slavic Deities
Sources
1. Divinity Atlas Directory Taxonomy, First Edition Category Tree
2. Slavic Gods and Heroes
Judith Kalik and Alexander Uchitel, Routledge, 2019Introduction
3. Modern Paganism in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives
Michael F. Strmiska (ed.), ABC-CLIO, 2005chapter on Slavic Paganism
Divinity Atlas Directory Prose, First Edition Category Descriptions
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