CHAPTER III
SVARAŽIC
THE Rhetarii,16 a division of the Lutices (between the Elbe and the Oder), worshipped a god named Svaražic ("Son of Svarog"), and the chronicler Thietmar testifies17 that their castle of Radigast (Radgost) contained a wooden temple in which were numerous statues of divinities made by the hands of men. These idols, wearing armour and helmets, struck terror into those who beheld them; and each of them had his name carved on his image. The most important of them was Svaražic (Zuarasici), whom St. Bruno, the apostle of the Prussians, writing to Emperor Henry II,18 terms "Zuarasiz diabolus."
Further evidence of a deity worshipped in Radgost is given by Adam of Bremen19 and his follower, Helmold.20 This idol stood in a spacious sanctuary among other gods, was made of gold, and had its base adorned with brocade. It wore a helmet resembling a bird with outstretched wings, and on its breast was the head of a black bison, the national emblem of the Rhetarii; the divinity's right hand rested on this symbol, while the left grasped a double-edged axe.
When Adam of Bremen terms this Lutician deity "Radigast" or "Redigast," he seems to be in error and to have confused the name of the town (Radigast) with the divinity worshipped there, especially as the older evidence shows this god to have been Svaražic himself.21
The temple of Radigast was much visited by all the Slavic nations in their desire to avail themselves of the prophetic
