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The Mythology of All Races/Volume 3/Slavic/Part 4/Chapter 1

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The Mythology of All Races, Volume 3, Slavic, Part 4
by Jan Hanuš Máchal
Chapter 1
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2882903The Mythology of All Races, Volume 3, Slavic, Part 4 — Chapter 1Jan Hanuš Máchal
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CHAPTER I

WORSHIP OF THE GODS

SACRIFICES of animals, grain, and food were offered to the gods and genii; and in time of war captives were slaughtered in their honour,[1] These sacrifices were performed by fathers of families, by chieftains of clans, and by princes; but the existence of a special and highly developed priesthood is proved only among the Elbe Slavs, where the head priest received the same honour as the king himself.[2]

The Elbe Slavs worshipped their idols[3] in temples adorned with great taste and splendour;[4] and In addition to this, trees and groves were consecrated to the gods, both among the Elbe Slavs and among the Russians.[5] Such a svatobor, for example, was on the island of Rügen;[6] while between Stargard and Lübeck stretched a great oak grove, guarded by a wooden fence provided with two gates. This grove was full of idols in whose honour sacrifices and feasts were held; and whoever concealed himself there when threatened by death was considered inviolable, being under the protection of the gods.[7] In Bohemia it was not until 1092, in the reign of Bfetislav II, that the sacred groves, held in high honour by the people, were hewn down and burned.[8] The pagan Russians, so far as historical evidence goes, did not build special temples for their gods, but erected their idols in the open on slopes and hills.[9] Besides trees and groves, sanctity also attached to mountains,[10] as well as to rivers and fountains.[11]

Among the annual festivals, that of Svantovit in Arkona, which reminds us of the autumnal dziadys,[12] is described at considerable length,[13] whereas the other feasts, which in the ​main consisted of games, dancing, and carousing, are dismissed with brief remarks. In April the Slavs on the banks of the Havola (Havel) used to celebrate a national festival in honour of Gerovit;[14] in Wollin the populace assembled for a pagan festival in early summer;[15] and in 1092 Břetislav suppressed certain feasts observed about Whitsuntide, when oblations were offered to springs.[16]

Popular tradition, however, still preserves many customs and ceremonies whose origin may be traced back to the pre-Christian period; and these we shall briefly consider in our concluding chapters.

  1. ↑ Helmold, i. 23, 52, 83, ii. 12; Adam of Bremen, iii. 50; Saxo Grammaticus, pp. 565 ff.; Procopius, De bello Gothico, iii. 14; Cosmas, i. 4, iii. i; Nestor, xxxviii, xxxix, xliii (tr. Leger, pp. 64, 67–68, 98).
  2. ↑ Helmold, i. 6, 52, 69, ii. 12.
  3. ↑ Thietmar, vi. 17; Helmold, i. 83, ii. 12; Adam of Bremen, ii. 18; Herbord, ii. 31; Ebbo, ii. 13, iii. i; al-Mas'ūdī, Les Prairies d'or, iv. 58–60; Saxo Grammaticus, p. 577; Knytlingasaga, cxxii; Zitiye blaženago Volodimera, ed. Makarii, Istoriya russkoi cerkvi, i., 3rd ed., 259, Petrograd, 1889; Povŷest vodvorenii Christianstva v Rostově, ed. G. Kushelef-Bezborodko, Pamyatniki starinnoi russkoi literatury, i. 221–22, Petrograd, 1860; Leger, Mythologie, pp. 34, 98–104.
  4. ↑ Thietmar, vi. 17–18; Helmold, i. 52, 83, ii. 12; Adam of Bremen, ii. 18; Herbord, ii. 32, iii. 6; Saxo Grammaticus, pp. 564 ff.; al-Mas'ūdī, Les Prairies d'or, iv. 58–60.
  5. ↑ Helmold, i. 83; Herbord, ii. 31; Constantinus Porphyrogenitus, De administrando imperio, ix; Cosmas, i. 4, iii. i; Homiliar, pp. 4, 79.
  6. ↑ Thietmar, vi. 26.
  7. ↑ Helmold, i. 83.
  8. ↑ Cosmas, iii. i.
  9. ↑ Nestor, xxvi, xxxviii, xxxlx, xliii (tr. Leger, pp. 41, 64, 66, 96–97); cf. also the Russian saying, žili v lěsě, molilis pnyam ("they lived in the forest and prayed to stumps"). The Lithuanians are frequently charged with worshipping stocks of trees as well as idols (see the material collected by Buga, i. 3–9).
  10. ↑ Cosmas, i. 4; Homiliar, p. 4.
  11. ↑ Thietmar, i. 3; Procopius, De bello Gothico, iii. 14; Homiliar, pp. 4, 57, 79.
  12. ↑ See supra, pp. 235–36, 281–82.
  13. ↑ Saxo Grammaticus, pp. 565 ff.
  14. ↑ Ebbo, iii. 3. The Baltic peoples likewise celebrated a feast in honour of "Pergrubrius " (probably *dė͂vas pergubrios, "god of return or renewal"; cf. T. von Grienberger, in ASP xviii. 72–75 [1896]) about St. George's Day (April 23) (Menecius, in SRL ii. 389–90). Herbord, iii. 6, and Ebbo, iii. 8, regard Gerovit as a war-god.
  15. ↑ Ebbo, iii. i.
  16. ↑ Cosmas, iii. i.
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