Perun was the principal Slavic god in the pre-Christian period. He is the supreme god and the ruler of the mortal world and the heavens. Among the Slavic gods, he has dominion over thunder, lightning, and storms, making him a god of fertility and agriculture. Perun is a powerful protective deity and the god of rulership, order, and war. He is called when making oaths and preparing sacred spaces.
Ancient Slavic Deity
The 6th-century Eastern Roman historian Procopius tells us that the Slavs worshipped one god above all others, a creator of lightning who was the lord of all and received sacrifices of oxen and other animals. While he does not specifically name the god, it must be Perun.
Perun was the supreme god worshipped by the Kievan Rus in the 9th and 10th centuries. According to 12th-century chronicles, in 980, Prince Vladimir the Great of Kiev erected five statues of pagan gods in front of his palace. Perun was chief among them, depicted with silver hair and a golden mustache. The statues were torn down less than a decade later when Vladimir converted to Christianity and forced much of the population to be baptized. Vladamir’s uncle Dobrynya, who ruled at Novgorod, also erected a shrine to Perun. It was later converted into a monastery but was still named for the pagan god.
According to the Saxon historian Helmold, writing in the 12th century, the Slavic tribes believed in various gods, but they all believed that one supreme god stood above them all. While Helmold does not give the name of the god, again, this must be Perun.
Supreme God of the Slavic Universe
Similar to Norse mythologies, the universe of pre-Christian Slavic cultures is embodied by a sacred world tree, specifically an oak. Oak trees and groves were sacred to Perun. According to Slavic mythology, the mortal realm sits around the trunk of the tree, while the heavens are among its highest branches.
Perun, as the supreme heavenly god in the Slavic pantheon, and Perun ruled these two realms and is often depicted as an eagle sitting at the very top of the sacred tree. Interestingly, an eagle with a hawk between its eyes is described as sitting at the top of the Norse world tree Yggdrasil.
The roots of the tree hold the underworld, and it is occupied by various serpents that represent chaos and the natural threats posed to the rest of the universe in Slavic mythology. It is the dragon serpent Nidhogg that sits among the roots of the Norse tree, and he is described as the mortal enemy of the eagle at the top of the tree.
Perun and the Creation Myth
Slavic tribes believe that Perun was born to the goddess Lada and the sky god Svarog after Lada ate a Pike fish containing the embodiment of Ron, the creator god. But not long after Perun was born, he and his sisters were kidnapped by one of the serpents of the underworld.
After 300 years, Lada managed to find the dungeon location of her son in the underworld and awaken him from a deathly sleep using liquid obtained from a Gamayun bird. Perun, naturally, swears vengeance.
To return to the underworld to confront his jailor, Perun must pass a variety of challenges. But he is already so strong and authoritative that he passes them easily. He must pass a giant forest that has grown into an impenetrable maze, but he threatens to turn the forest into splinters, and it opens a path for him. He encounters a river more violent than the most violent sea, but it too decides to part for Perun. He comes to some giant hills, which again part at his command.
His final challenge is a giant bird that sits on top of a tree with 12 branches, but which breathe the fire of a dragon strong enough to destroy an entire forest. Perun kills the bird with his bow and arrow and passes to the home of the serpent that he seeks, a castle made from the bones of its victims.
There Perun found his three sisters, who had been changed into hideous pale beasts. As he reunites with him, the serpent comes in and engulfs Perun with flame. To the serpent’s surprise, this does not kill Perun, and the two do battle. The battle lasts several days, and Perun must use all the weapons in his arsenal to gain the upper hand.
Close to defeat, the serpent expresses his surprise, saying that only Perun of Svarog can defeat him, and he is imprisoned in the underworld. Perun responds that he is the death of which the serpent speaks and throws the body of the serpent into the ground and he is swallowed up by the earth. The ancient Slavs believe that this is the origin of the Caucasus Mountains.
Perun instructs his sisters to bathe in the river of the Riphaean Mountain and they are restored to their divine glory and the group returns to the heavens. Perun assumed his rightful place as king of the gods after the ordeal.
Perun the Atmospheric Deity
But the serpent that kidnapped Perun is not the most important serpent that Perun will face. Once he frees his sisters and becomes the chief deity, the underworld serpent Veles becomes his enemy and continually provokes Perun.
Veles is constantly trying to ascend from the Underworld to the mortal world. When he does, he sucks water from that world and leaves it barren.
As the supreme deity, Perun is constantly battling Veles and forcing him to return to the Underworld. When he defeats Veles, it is hailed by lightning and thunder marks, and moisture is restored to the mortal realm. This makes Perun an important agricultural and fertility deity in Slavic paganism.
Perun is a god of thunder, and lightning is one of his principal weapons. His stones and arrows are thought to produce lighting, and Perun also has golden apples that function a little like lightning bombs and can strike down hundreds of enemies at a time. This is reminiscent of the lightning bolts of the Greek Zeus.
Fulgurites, clumps of soil, sand, and earth that have been fused by a lightning strike, are considered the remains of the weapons of the thunder god.
God of War
When depicted in human form, Perun appears as an imposing pagan warrior, a presentation that suits a god of war. He was represented on at least one occasion with a silver head and a golden mustache. He is also said to have silver hair and a red beard.
He sometimes appears in a flaming chariot, drawn either by horses or goats. It is noteworthy that Thor, the Norse god of thunder, also drives a chariot drawn by goats.
As the divine ruler, Perun represents kingship and war, and his favor can influence success in battle. This is something he shares in common with the Norse god Odin, rather than Thor.
As a warrior, Perun carries many weapons in addition to his lighting. He is probably best known for his axe, which is called Mjolnir, suggesting an affinity between the axe of Perun and the hammer of Thor. Like Thor’s Hammer pendants among the Vikings, Perun’s Axe amulets were commonly worn by the Slavic people as a symbol of protection.
God of Oaths
Perun is also invoked to seal oaths. According to records, in 907, Prince Oleg of the Kievan Rus made a treaty with the Byzantine ruler. To seal the treaty, his men went to the shrines of Perun where they swore on their weapons and Perun. The same process was followed by Prince Igor in 945. The formula seems to have involved asking Perun to strike them down with their own weapons if they break their oath.
The shrines of Perun were usually on the tops of mountains or hills, or in oak groves, as oaks were sacred to Perun, and the world tree was believed to be an oak tree. The remains of one Perun shrine near Novgorod have been excavated and it appears to be a circular platform built around a statue, presumable of Perun. It was encircled by eight apses, which may have contained altars or statues. This confirms an association between Perun and the number nine, which was considered sacred in both Slavic and Norse mythology.
Perun is also invoked to sanctify sacred places and prepare them for ritual use. This was traditionally done with blood sacrifices of an ox, other animals, and even on some occasions, humans.
Symbols of the Slavic God Perun
In addition to the axe, oak, and fulgurites, Perun had a hexagonal symbol that was often inscribed into the beams of buildings to sanctify or protect a space. There are two versions, a more complicated version and a simpler alternative.
The more complex version is called the Gromovnik, a Slavic word meaning “thunderer”, and looks like it might have been derived from the wheel of the chariot of the Perun god. The simpler symbol is called the Perunika and looks more like a geometric symbol.
Interestingly, astrological books in circulation in Russia and Serbia in the 15th and 16th centuries were also called Gromovnik. These contain records of the state of the weather, the position of the moon, and the appearance of thunder in each of the lunar months. Based on this, the books made predictions about natural disasters, crop yields, and even animal and human behavior.
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