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

by Jan Hanuš Máchal

CHAPTER IV

CHORS

AMONG the idols which Vladimir erected in Kiev mention is made of the statue of Chors (Chers, Churs, Chros).^[1] Nothing certain is known about the functions of this deity; but since old Slavic texts^[2] seem to identify him with the Greek Apollo,^[3] he is supposed to have been a god of the sun, this hypothesis being supported by a passage in the Slovo o pluku Igorevě^[4] which tells how Prince Vsevolod outstripped great Chors (i. e, the sun) like a wolf.

There is no explanation for the word Chors in Slavic, and the name is apparently of foreign origin. The most plausible supposition is that it comes from the Greek χρυσός ("gold"), so that originally it may have been simply the name of a golden or gilt idol^[5] erected in Kiev and probably representing Dažbog. If this be so, Chors and Dažbog were, in all likelihood, merely different names applied to one and the same deity.

1. Nestor, xxxviii (tr. Leger, p. 64).
2. Leger, Mythologie, p. 117.
3. See Mythology of All Races, Boston, 1916, i. 175–82.
4. Tr. Boltz, pp. 34–35.
5. In similar fashion an idol (in this instance carved of stone) worshipped at the mouth of the Obi was called Zolota Baba ("Golden Gammer ") by the Russians (Guagnini, ff. 85 b–86 a).