Pages: 43-57 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.55086/sp2244357

The Iranian influence on Slavic paganism is reconstructed using borrowings into Proto-Slavic (V. Blažek). The Slavs adopted the cults of Khors-Dazhbog, Svarog, Stribog, the idea of opposing bright “bagas” to evil “divas”, and also, possibly, the practice of Sarmatian Männerbund. The identification of the primordially Slavic Div with the divas led to his shifting, together with the ‘proto-Perun’, to a lower level. Perhaps this Iranization was the result of the Sarmatian attack on the Zarubintsy culture in the middle 1st century AD. The question of the Baltic influence of the 5th century was raised, what resulted in the formation of the military cult of Perun. The Slavs of the 6th century were adherents of a lycanthropic cult closely associated with the rites of passage between this world and the other world. These rites were associated with initiations and military campaigns, perceived as a journey to another world beyond the Danube (Gothic influence on this image!). After passing the first stage of this path, the walker found himself half-dead and experienced a strong thirst, to quench which he had to partake of someone else’s blood and women’s milk. Returning back from this state was possible through a substitutionary sacrifice to the Thunderer, the desirability and success of which could be learned from divination performed during sacrifices to the female spirits of the Danube and other rivers, which is directly attested by Procopius of Caesarea.

Keywords: Early Slavs, Procopius of Caesarea, lycanthropy, paganism, Perun, Alans, Sarmatians

Information about author:

Petr Shuvalov (Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation). Candidate of Historical Sciences. Saint Petersburg State University. Universitetskaya Emb., 7-9, Saint Petersburg, 199034, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]
ORCID: 0000-0002-6361-4531