Veles (god)

Veles, also known as Volos, is a chthonic god of the underworld in Slavic mythology, described in contemporary sources as a cattle god (skotij bogъ), but according to various hypotheses, he had a much broader sphere of influence. His function as protector of cattle may be connected to both wealth and rule of the underworld, which was imagined as a pasture where human souls grazed. Through comparative methods, he can be interpreted as a deity of magic, knowledge, divination, and poetry. As the guardian of the boundary between the world of the living and the dead, he was also a god of the wilderness, hunting and animals. He was also a guarantor of oaths, punishing their violation by "turning them yellow", most likely a metaphor for a form of jaundice. His mythological nature and powers are similar, though not entirely identical, to those of Varuna, Velnias, Odin (marginally), Hermes, Afsati and Hades. Reconstructionists speculate that he may directly continue aspects of the Proto-Indo-European pantheon with the original deity Welnos. Veles is sometimes incorrectly identified with a dragon or a serpent. This hypothesis, based on the reconstruction by Ivanov and Toporov and published in 1974, was already criticized eight years later by A. Giezstor, and it is no longer part of the modern scholarly consensus on Slavic mythology. "There is no adduced evidence, either by Ivanov, Toporov, or Katičić, of the existence of formula Perun smites the god Veles, as the indisputable proof (instead of mere conjecture), which is to be expected by an objective explorer." Toporov later revisited this issue and recognized the association of Veles with Varuṇa instead of the demon Vṛtra, contrary to his earlier position. "The very name Varuṇa has been compared by scholars with the Hittite sea deity Aruna, with the ancient Greek sky god Ouranos,...