This month, our god spotlight will be on Svarog, a Slavic god.
Who is Svarog? That's a good question, especially because no one really knows.
Norse mythology has its Eddas, Sanskrit myths are told in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, and Greek mythology is known from Homer's epics. Unfortunately, the only written records of Slavic mythology come from the Christians who went to eradicate Slavic mythology, so no one's sure how accurate our picture of their ancient religion is.
Svarog in the Creation Myth
The creation myth is just as jumbled and patchy as the rest of Slavic mythology, so there are multiple versions. One says Veles, the trickster god, convinced sky god Perun to create the world, then tried to push him into the waters of the newly-formed Earth. Another says that it was actually Czernobog and Belobog who played these roles. A third interpretation states the Good God and the Evil God both manifested as birds to create the universe. Not sure how that last one works, but okay.
We'll be focusing on another version of the myth--the version that contains Svarog, naturally.
In the beginning, there was only darkness, Rod (the personification of fate), and an egg. The egg hatched, and BOOM, Svarog was born. (Move aside, Helen of Troy. You're not the only one born from an egg.)
Svarog then created the whole world from the remains of his egg: first the ground and waters, then the plants, then humans, animals, and, according to some sources, the rest of the gods.
And that, humans, is how the Slavs might have believed the world was created.
Svarog Is Hephaestus, But Slavic
John Malalas, a scholar from the early Middle Ages, wrote about the Greek gods and their rule in Egypt. When his writings were translated into Russian, the translator replaced "Hephaestus" with "Svarog," indicating that the two are the same or very similar. However, Malalas is not considered the best of scholars, so it's unclear how accurate his stories were.
Many sources say Svarog is the god of fire and blacksmiths, even without the comparison to Hephaestus. This ties into the creation story, since Svarog used his egg to quite literally "build" the world.
As you can see, modern artists clearly like this interpretation of Svarog:
Yet another version of Slavic mythology names Svarog as a passive sky god. Unlike Zeus or Thor, he does not control the weather or have lightning powers/weapons. Instead, he's more like Ouranos or Caelus--a manifestation of the sky. It's possible that Svarog was simply the name given to the sky.
Another theory is that Svarog was an aspect of Perun, god of thunder, lightning, and storms.
Svarog Takes a Nap
This is in direct conflict with the creation myth, but some stories present Svarog as a deity that fell asleep and created the whole world in his dreams. However, he vowed that he would someday wake up, and the end of his nap would signify the end of our world.
Did Svarog Even Exist?
As cool as all those myths are, it's possible that Svarog did not actually exist and was invented during the Middle Ages to try to make sense of Slavic mythology.
If you have evidence either way, or know of a source that presents controversial Svarog information, please let me know in the comments.
Thanks for reading!
Sources
Hirst, K. Kris. "Svarog, God of the Sky in Slavic Mythology." ThoughtCo, Aug. 28, 2020, thoughtco.com/svarog-slavic-god-4777154.
Gliński, Mikołaj. “What Is Known About Slavic Mythology.” Culture.pl, https://culture.pl/en/article/what-is-known-about-slavic-mythology.
Petrovic, Ana. “Following the Traces of a Slavic Mythology: Part II.” Waijiaoyi, 30 Jan. 2019, waijiaoyiblog.wordpress.com/2019/01/30/following-the-traces-of-a-slavic-mythology-part-ii/.
“Svarog.” Myths and Folklore Wiki, mythus.fandom.com/wiki/Svarog.
“Svarog.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 4 Apr. 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svarog.
Wigington, Patti. "Introduction to Slavic Mythology." ThoughtCo, Feb. 14, 2021, thoughtco.com/slavic-mythology-4768524.
