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

by Jan Hanuš Máchal

CHAPTER I

PERUN

THE chief god of the pagan Russians was Perun, whose wooden idol, set by Prince Vladimir on a hill before his palace at Kiev in 980, had a silver head and a golden beard. Vladimir's uncle, Dobrynya, erected a similar image in Novgorod on the river Volkhov, and the inhabitants of the city sacrificed to it.^[1]

Perun was held in high honour by the Russians. In his name they swore not to violate their compacts with other nations, and when Prince Igor was about to make a treaty with the Byzantines in 945, he summoned the envoys in the morning and betook himself with them to a hill where Perun's statue stood. Laying aside their armour and their shields, Igor and those of his people who were pagans took a solemn oath before the god while the Christian Russians did likewise in the church of St. Iliya (Elias),^[2] the formula directed against those who should violate the treaty being, "Let them never receive aid either from God or from Perun; let them never have protection from their shields; let them be destroyed by their own swords, arrows, and other weapons; and let them be slaves throughout all time to come."^[3]

In many old Russian manuscripts of the twelfth, fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries mention Is made of Perun in connexion with other Slavic deities, such as Chors, Volos, Vila, Rod, and Rožanica,^[4] but nothing certain is known about his worship.

When Prince Vladimir received baptism in 988, he went to Kiev and ordered all idols to be broken, cut to pieces, or thrown into the fire. The statue of Perun, however, was tied to a horse's tail and was dragged down to a brook where twelve men were ordered to beat it with rods, not because the wood was believed to feel any pain, but because the demon which had deceived men must be disgraced. As the idol was taken to the Dnieper, the pagans wept, for they had not yet been baptized; but when it was finally thrown into the river, Vladimir gave the command: "If it stops, thrust it from the banks until it has passed the rapids; then let it alone." This order was carried out, and no sooner had the idol passed through the rapids than it was cast upon the sands which after that time were called "Perun's Sands" (Perunya Rěn). Where the image once stood Vladimir built a church in honour of St. Basil;^[5] but it was not until the end of the eleventh century that Perun's worship finally disappeared from the land.

Similarly the pagan idols of Novgorod were destroyed by Archbishop Akim Korsunyanin in 989, and the command went forth that Perun should be cast into the Volkhov. Binding the image with ropes, they dragged it through the mire to the river, beating it with rods and causing the demon to cry out with pain. In the morning a man dwelling on the banks of the Pidba (a small stream flowing into the Volkhov) saw the idol floating toward the shore, but he thrust it away with a pole, saying, "Now, Perunišče ['Little Perun,' a contemptuous diminutive], you have had enough to eat and to drink; be off with you!"^[6]

The word "Perun" is derived from the root per- ("to strike") with the ending -un, denoting the agent of an action; and the name is very appropriate for one who was considered the maker of thunder and lightning, so that Perun was, in the first place, the god of thunder, "the Thunderer," like the Zeus of the Greeks.^[7] The old Bulgarian version of the Alexander-romance actually renders the Greek Ζεύς by Perun; and in the apocryphal Dialogue of the Three Saints Vasiliy, when asked, "By whom was thunder created?" replies, "There are two angels of thunder: the Greek Perun and the Jew Chors," thus clearly pointing to the former as the originator of thunder.^[8]

Though history proves only that the worship of Perun existed among the Russians, there are, nevertheless, data to show that it was known among other Slavs as well, the most important evidence being the fact that the word perun is a very common term for thunder (pjeron, piorun, parom, etc.). In addition to this numerous local names in Slavic countries remind us of Perun. In Slovenia there is a Perunja Ves and a Perunji Ort; in Istria and Bosnia many hills and mountains go by the name of Perun; in Croatia there is a Peruna Dubrava, and in Dalmatia a mountain called Perun; while a Perin Planina occurs in Bulgaria. Local names, such as Peruny and Piorunow in Poland, Perunov Dub in Little Russia, or Perun and Peron among the Elbe Slavs, are further proof that not only the name, but also the worship, of Perun was known in these regions. It is even believed that some appellations of the pagan deities of the Elbe Slavs, such as Porenutius, Prone, Proven, etc.,^[9] may be closely connected with Perun, being, in fact, merely corruptions of the original name, due to foreign chronicles; and in this connexion special attention should be called to Helmold's mention^[10] of a great oak grove on the way from Stargard to Lübeck as sacred to the god Proven.

In the Christian period the worship of Perun was transferred to St. Iliya (Elias);^[11] and, as we have already seen,^[12] Nestor tells how the Christian Russians took oath in the church of St. Iliya, while the pagans swore by Perun. On July 20 St. Iliya's Day is kept with great reverence in Russia to the present time; in some places they still cling to the ancient custom of preparing a feast and slaughtering bulls, calves, lambs, and other animals after consecrating them in church; and it is considered a great sin not to partake of such banquets.

The Serbians call St. Iliya Gromovnik or Gromovit ("the Thunderer") and pray to him as the dispenser of good harvests. Among the Southern Slavs Tlijevo, Tlinden ("St. Iliya's Day") is most reverently celebrated; no man does any work in the fields at that time, and no woman thinks of weaving or spinning. He who dared to labour then would make St. Iliya angry and could not expect him to help in garnering the crops; on the contrary, the Saint would slay him with his thunderbolt. In the Rhodope Mountains the festival is kept on a lofty summit, and a bull or a cow is killed and prepared for the solemn banquet. All this is doubtless nothing less than a survival of the feasts that, long before, were celebrated in honour of Perun.^[13]

1. Nestor, xxxviii (tr. Leger, p. 64).
2. ib. xxvii (tr. Leger, p. 41).
3. ib. (tr. Leger, p. 37).
4. See the passages collected by Krek, Einleitung, p. 384, note i.
5. Nestor, xliii (tr. Leger, pp. 96–97, 98).
6. Ed. Petrograd, 1879, pp. 1–2.
7. Cf. Mythology of All Races, Boston, 1916, i. 153, 159–60.
8. Afanasiyev, i. 250.
9. Cf. Saxo Grammaticus, p. 578; Helmold, i. 83.
10. i. 83. For the oak as sacred to Perun see Leger, Mythologie, pp. 73–75; cf. also the Lithuanian association of Perkúnas and the oak, infra, p. 321. Guagnini, f. 83 a, states that a perpetual fire of oak burned before Perun's idol in Novgorod, death being the penalty of any priests who might carelessly allow the flame to be extinguished.
11. In the Oriental Churches many of the great figures of the Old Testament rank as saints, quite unlike the rule in the West.
12. See supra, p. 293.
13. For the blending of Perun and St. Iliya see Leger, Mythologie, pp. 66–73. The Biblical basis for the identification is sought in such passages as I Kings xvii. i, xviii. 24 ff., xix. 11–12, II Kings i. 10–12, ii. II, Luke ix. 54, James v. 17-18.