Perun
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- ''This page is about a Slavic god. For historical money, see Perun (money).
Sources
Of all historic records describing Slavic gods, those mentioning Perun are the most numerous. As early as 6th century,he was mentioned in De Bellum Gothicum, a historical source written by Byzantine historian Procopius. A short note describing beliefs of a certain South Slavic tribe states they acknowledge that one god, creator of lightning, is the only lord of all: to him do they sacrifice an ox and all sacrifical animals. While the name of the god is not mentioned here explicitly, the fact that word Perun in a number of Slavic languages today simply means "thunder" or "lightning bolt" is proof enough this was a reference of him.The first source that definitely mentions a god named Perun is Rus' Primary Chronicle, a history of early Kievan Rus. Together with a god named Volos he is sworn upon in peace agreements between Slavic overlords and Byzantine emperors. Here he is mentioned as a god of war and nobility, who punishes oathbreakers by death in battle. In 980, when prince Vladimir the Great came to throne of Kiev, he erected statues of six or seven pagan gods in front of his palace, and Perun was chief among these, represented with a silver head and a golden moustache. Vladimir's uncle Dobrinja also had a shrine of Perun established in his city of Novgorod. After Christianization of Kievan Rus, this place would become a monastery, which, quite remarkably, would still bear the name of Perun.
Perun is not mentioned directly in any of the records of Western Slavic paganism, but a reference to him is perhaps made in a short note in Helmod's Chronica Slavorum, written in latter half of the 12th century, which states (quite similary to Procopius some six centuries earlier) that Slavic tribes, even though they worship many various gods, all agree there is a supreme god in heaven which rules over all other on earth. This could be a reference to Perun, but since his name or any of his attributes (thunder or lightning) are not mentioned, we cannot be certain.
That he was known among all branches of Slavs is evidenced by a vast number of toponyms which still bear this name. Examples include: Perun, Perunac, Perunovac, Perunić, Perunsko in Croatia, Perunja ves, Perunji vrh, Pernovska gorca, Pernjak, Perovec, Perudina in Slovenia, several Peruns in Bosnia, Perun and Perunike in Macedonia, Pirin (in Bulgarian: Пирин) - a mountain range in Bulgaria, Percunust, Prohn, Pronstorf in East Germany, which originates from West Slavic Sorbian and Palbian form Peron. These names today mostly represent mountain tops, but in medieval times, large oaks, sacred groves and even entire villages or citadels were named Perun. Also, as mentioned already, in Ukrainian perun and in Polish piorun means "thunderbolt". Among South Slavs, a mountain plant Iris germanica is known in folklore as perunika ("perun's plant") and sometimes also as bogisha, ("god's plant"), and was believed to grow from ground struck by lightning.
Etymology
Perun is strongly correlated with the near-identical Perkunas/Perkons from Baltic mythology, suggesting an originally common Balto-Slavic deity, which ultimately derives from Proto-Indo European thunder god whose original name has been reconstructed as Perkwunos. The root *perkwu originally probably meant oak, but in Slavic language this was changed to per- meaning "to strike, to slay". The words for right and justice, pravo and pravda, probably originate from the same root, as well as russian words for right, justice and truth: ПРАВЫЙ, СПРАВЕДЛИВОСТЬ ,ПРАВДА. Similar regularity can be found in other slavic languages.
Myth
In Slavic mythology, the world was represented by a sacred tree, usually an oak, whose branches and trunk represented the living world of heavens and mortals, whilst its roots represented the underworld, realm of dead. Perun was a ruler of the living world, sky and earth, often symbolised by an eagle sitting on the top of the tallest branch of the tree, from where he oversaw all of the world. Deep down in the roots of the tree was the place of his enemy, symbolised by a serpent or a dragon: this was Veles, watery god of the underworld, who continually provoked Perun by stealing his cattle, children or wife. Perun pursued Veles over earth by attacking him with his lightning bolts from the sky. Veles fled from him by transforming himself into various animals, or hiding behind trees, houses or people; wherever a lightning bolt struck, it was believed, this was because Veles hid from Perun under or behind that particular place. In the end, Perun managed to kill Veles, or to chase him back down into his watery underworld (which was basically the same thing in myth). The supreme god thus reestablished order of the world disrupted by his chaotic, underwordly enemy. He could sit back into his place on top of the World tree and proudly inform his opponent down in the roots:Ңy, таm твое место, таm сабе бyдз! ("Well, there is your place, stay there!"). This line, taken from Belarus folk tale describing a contest of God and Devil, is a relic from old mythical telling of great antiquity. To Slavs, the mythological symbolism of a supreme heavenly god who battles with his underwordly enemy through storms and thunder was extremely important, and from Perun and Veles, this idea of cosmic battle was passed onto God and Devil following Christianization.Weapons
In the classification scheme of Georges Dumézil, Perun was the god of the second function (physical and military power), god of war, and as such, he was armed with several fantastic weapons. Perun's lightning bolts were believed to be stones and stone arrows. According to folk beliefs, fulgurites and belemnites and sometimes even remains of prehistoric stone tools found in the ground are remains of these weapons. Various Slavic countries also call these deposits "Perun's stones", "thunderbolt stones", "thunderbolt wedges" and "Perun's arrow"; other unrelated names for these include "devil's finger", "God's finger", and "Mother of God finger", and in Lithuania, "Berkun's finger". These thunderbolt stones were sometimes said to be transferred back to the sky by the wind after being under earth for a period of seven years. The weapons of Perun protected against bad luck, evil magic, disease, and - naturally enough - lightning itself.Perun also had another type of weapon in his arsenal, as destructive as his firestone arrows, but even more unusual: mythical golden apples. While this may not seem as much of a weapon, in many Slavic folk accounts, golden apple appears as an artifact of ultimate destruction. An example from a Bosnian folk song with strong mythical elements:
... Te izvadi tri jabuke zlatne
I baci ih nebu u visine...
...Tri munje od neba pukose
Jedna gadja dva djevera mlada,
Druga gadja pashu na dorinu,
Treca gadja svata sest stotina,
Ne utece oka za svjedoka,
Ni da kaze, kako pogibose.
"...Then he took out three apples of gold
And threw them high into the sky...
...Three lightning bolts burst from the sky,
One strikes at two young brothers-in-law,
Other strikes at pasha on a horse,
Third strikes six hundreds wedding guests,
Not an eye for a witness fled
Not even to say, how they ended dead."
It is conjectured that mythical golden apples of Perun were symbols of a rare but notorious form of atmospheric discharge, ball lightning. The same is probably true for thunder marks of East Slavic folklore, shown above.
Characteristics
Similarly to Perkunas of Baltic mythology, Perun was also considered to have multiple aspects. In one Baltic song, it is said there are in fact nine Perkunas. Remains of ancient Perun shrine discovered beneath medival Peryn skete in Novgorod consisted of a wide circular platform centred around a statue, encircled by a trench with eight apses, which contained sacrificial altars and possibly additional statues. The overall plan of the shrine shows clear symbolism of number nine. This is sometimes interpreted that Perun, in fact, had nine sons (or eight sons, with himself, the father, being the ninth Perun). It should also be noted that in some Slavic folk songs, unnamed nine brothers are mentioned.From comparison to Baltic mythology, and also from additional sources in Slavic folklore, it can alo be shown that Perun was married to the Sun. He, however, shared his wife with his enemy Veles, as each night the Sun was seen as diving behind the horizon and into the underworld, realm of the dead over which Veles ruled. This was probably the main reason of enemity of two gods.
Like many other Indo-European thunder-gods, Perun's vegetative hypostasis was the oak, especially a particularly distinctive or prominent one. In Southern Slavic traditions, marked oaks stood on country borders; communities at these positions were visited during village holidays in the late spring and during the summer. Shrines of Perun were located either on top of mountains or hills, or in sacred groves underneath ancient oaks. These were a general place of worship and holding of sacrifices (with a bull, an ox, a ram, and eggs). It seems humans were also sacrificed to Perun. According to Primary Chronicle, prisoners of war were sacrificed to him, probably one each year, during the nine days of his holy festival, which were held in mid-summer.
Post-Christian Perun
With the arrival of Christianity, various churches had a difficult time trying to overcome the worship of old supreme deities of the Slavs. In the East, the Eastern Orthodox Church gradualy managed to pass much of Perun's characteristics to a new Christian saint, Elias the Thunderer, based upon the Old Testament prophet Elijah, whom the Scriptures state was carried of in heaven in a flaming chariot; this seemed a good enough aproximation of the old thunder god with his fiery bolts. In the west, Catholic Church offered St. Michael the Archangel, who, as a commander of heavenly armies and vanquisher of the Devil, was also a fitting replacement for Perun. It is also possible that on a local level Perun was replaced with St. Vitus, if this was not, due to similarities in names, a replacement of another important Slavic god, Svantevit; however, it is also possible that already in pagan times, the worship of Perun was challenged by growing cult of Svantevit. On a level of folklore and popular Christianity, some of Perun's characteristic were passed onto Christian God.See also
- Ďas, Šľak - other Slavic pagan deitys
References
- Belaj, V. "Hod kroz godinu, mitska pozadina hrvatskih narodnih obicaja i vjerovanja", Golden Marketing, Zagreb 1998.
- Smiciklas, T. "Poviest Hrvatska, I dio", Matica Hrvatska, Zagreb 1882.
- Graves, Robert: New Larousse Encyclopedia Of Mythology (Hardcover), Crescent (December 16, 1987)
- Ryan, W. F.:The Bathhouse at Midnight: An Historical Survey of Magic and Divination in Russia (Magic in History Series) (Paperback), Pennsylvania State University Press (September 1999)
- Znayenko, Myroslava T.: The gods of the ancient Slavs: Tatishchev and the beginings of Slavic mythology (Paperback), Slavica (1980)
- Yoffe, Mark; Krafczik, Joseph: Perun: The God of Thunder (Studies in the Humanities (New York, N.Y.), V. 43.) (Hardcover), Peter Lang Publishing (April 2003)
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