The Mythology of All Races/Volume 3/Slavic/Part 2/Chapter 3

by Jan Hanuš Máchal

CHAPTER III

SVARAŽIC

THE Rhetarii,^[1] a division of the Lutices (between the Elbe and the Oder), worshipped a god named Svaražic ("Son of Svarog"), and the chronicler Thietmar testifies^[2] 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,^[3] terms "Zuarasiz diabolus."

Further evidence of a deity worshipped in Radgost is given by Adam of Bremen^[4] and his follower, Helmold.^[5] 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.^[6]

The temple of Radigast was much visited by all the Slavic nations in their desire to avail themselves of the prophetic

PLATE XXXIII

Radigast

This god may have been in reality only a form of Svaražic and the special patron of the city of Radigast. After a picture by N. Aleš.

Aleš 1905

power of the gods and to join in the annual festivities. Human beings were likewise sacrificed there, for in honour of a victory won in 1066 the head of John, Bishop of the Diocese of Mecklenburg, who had been captured in battle, was offered up to this divinity.^[7]

1. The name appears in various forms, Rhetari, Redarii, Riaduri, Riediries, etc., as does that of their capital, Riedegost, etc.
2. vi. 23.
3. Epistola Brunonis ad Henricum regem, ed. A. Bielowski, in Monumenta Poloniae historica, i. 226, Lwów, 1864.
4. ii. 18.
5. i. 2, 21, 52.
6. For the opposite view, that there actually was a deity Radigast, see Leger, Mythologie, pp. 144–51.
7. Adam of Bremen, iii. 50; Helmold, i. 23.