This duality was articulated through the White God (“Belobog”) and Black God (“Chernobog”) that represented the masculine and feminine deities (earthy and heavenly).

However, the Slavs expressed strong resistance to Christianization and it took centuries before the pagan elements were overthrown, some of them never completely.Īccording to the accounts in “Chronica Slavorum”, the deities of Slavic religion were arranged as hierarchical powers led by a supreme god in the universe who was the god of the gods and goddesses.Īccording to the ancient Slavic folk belief, the world was organized through oppositional and, at the same time, complementary duality expressed by the supreme God. The West Slavs, on the other hand, were influenced by the Roman Catholic Church from the 12th century and experienced simultaneous Christianization and Germanisation. The East Slavs adopted Christianity in the 10th century by Vladimir the Great of Kievan Rus. It is also worth mentioning that most of the findings and surviving testimonies of Slavic mythology were written after the period of Christianization when the Slavic religion was rapidly declining.Īccording to historians, Slavic religion or Slavic paganism describes the myths, rituals, and religious beliefs that the Slavs had and practiced before Christianization spread between the 8th and 13th centuries.Īt the time, the South Slavs, who settled on the Balkan Peninsula, bordered with the Byzantine Empire to the south and were influenced by Eastern Orthodox Christianity whose beginnings were marked with the implementation of the writing systems – the Glagolitic script and the Cyrillic script in the 9th century by the brothers’ Saint Cyril and Methodius. The historical remains of oral and written history about Slavic mythology and the so-called Slavic paganism or Slavic religion rely on a very scarce number of artifacts and archaeological facts. The Slavic myths and religion are mainly associated with the gods’ names that have significant references to Eastern Europe’s ancient folklore treasures, such as Veles, Triglav, Perun, and Svantevit. Today’s popular culture is familiar with creatures like vampires and strigoi that derive from ancient Slavic demonology, however, the concept of Slavic mythology and all its features remains a mystery to many.

Pagan goddess names