Svetovit
Sign in to saveAlso known as Sventovit, Svantevit, Svetovid
Svetovit, also known as Sventovit and Svantovit amongst other variants, is the god of abundance and war, and the chief god of the Slavic tribe of the Rani, and later of all the Polabian Slavs. His organized cult was located on the island of Rügen, at Cape Arkona, where his main temple was also located. According to the descriptions of medieval chroniclers, the statue representing this god had four heads and held a horn and a sword. Dedicated to the deity were a white horse, a saddle, a bit, a flag, and eagles. Once a year, after the harvest, a large festival was held in his honor. With the hel
Key facts
- Deity.type
- Slavic
- Deity.name
- Svetovit
- Deity.image
- Svetovit.png
- Deity.caption
- Svetovit in Britannia Antiqua Illustrata
- Deity.cult_centre
- Cape Arkona, Rügen
- Deity.artifacts
- horn of plenty, saddle, bit, flag
- Deity.weapon
- sword
- Deity.animals
- white stallion, eagles
- Deity.venerated_in
- Polabian religion
- Deity.god_of
- God of abundance, war
- Deity.texts
- Chronica Slavorum, Gesta Danorum, Knýtlinga saga
via Wikipedia infobox
~30 min read
Encyclopedic overview
17 sectionsContents
- Etymology
- Other propositions
- Sources
- Svetovit and Saint Vitus
- In Serbia
- Cult
- Comparative mythology and interpretations
- ''Wolin Svetovit''
- Zbruch idol
- In archeology
- In [[Altenkirchen, Rügen|Altenkirchen]]
- In [[Bergen auf Rügen|Bergen]]
- In [[Rodnovery]]
- In art
- References
- Bibliography
- External links
Svetovit, also known as Sventovit and Svantovit amongst other variants, is the god of abundance and war, and the chief god of the Slavic tribe of the Rani, and later of all the Polabian Slavs. His organized cult was located on the island of Rügen, at Cape Arkona, where his main temple was also located. According to the descriptions of medieval chroniclers, the statue representing this god had four heads and held a horn and a sword. Dedicated to the deity were a white horse, a saddle, a bit, a flag, and eagles. Once a year, after the harvest, a large festival was held in his honor. With the help of a horn and a horse belonging to the god, the priests carried out divinations, and at night the god himself rode a horse to fight his enemies. His name can be translated as "Strong Lord" or "Holy Lord". In the past it was often mistakenly believed that the cult of Svetovit originated from St. Vitus. Among scholars of Slavic mythology, Svetovit is often regarded as a Polabian hypostasis of Pan-Slavic god Perun. His cult was destroyed in 1168.
== Etymology == In Latin records, this theonym is notated as , , , , , , and others, and in Old Icelandic as and .
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Svetovit” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.