In the
pre-Christian religion of
Eastern
Eastern may refer to:
Transportation
*China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai
*Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways
*Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 1926 to 1991
*Eastern Air Li ...
and
Southern
Southern may refer to:
Businesses
* China Southern Airlines, airline based in Guangzhou, China
* Southern Airways, defunct US airline
* Southern Air, air cargo transportation company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, US
* Southern Airways Express, M ...
Slavs, Rod (
Slovenian
Slovene or Slovenian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Slovenia, a country in Central Europe
* Slovene language, a South Slavic language mainly spoken in Slovenia
* Slovenes
The Slovenes, also known as Slovenians ( sl, Sloven ...
,
Croatian: Rod,
Belarusian
Belarusian may refer to:
* Something of, or related to Belarus
* Belarusians, people from Belarus, or of Belarusian descent
* A citizen of Belarus, see Demographics of Belarus
* Belarusian language
* Belarusian culture
* Belarusian cuisine
* Byelor ...
,
Bulgarian
Bulgarian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Bulgaria
* Bulgarians, a South Slavic ethnic group
* Bulgarian language, a Slavic language
* Bulgarian alphabet
* A citizen of Bulgaria, see Demographics of Bulgaria
* Bul ...
,
Macedonian
Macedonian most often refers to someone or something from or related to Macedonia.
Macedonian(s) may specifically refer to:
People Modern
* Macedonians (ethnic group), a nation and a South Slavic ethnic group primarily associated with North M ...
,
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
,
Serbian Cyrillic
, bg, кирилица , mk, кирилица , russian: кириллица , sr, ћирилица, uk, кирилиця
, fam1 = Egyptian hieroglyphs
, fam2 = Proto-Sinaitic
, fam3 = Phoenician
, fam4 = G ...
: Род,
Ukrainian
Ukrainian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Ukraine
* Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe
* Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine
* So ...
Cyrillic: Рід) is the god of the family, ancestors and fate, perhaps as the supreme god. Among Southern Slavs, he is also known as Sud ("(the) Judge"). He is usually mentioned together with
Rozhanitsy deities (among Southern Slavs, the Sudzenitsy). One's
first haircut
The first haircut for a human has special significance in certain cultures and religions. It can be considered a rite of passage or a milestone.
Indian babies
Hindu babies
In Hindu tradition, the hair from birth is associated with undesi ...
(''postriziny'') was dedicated to him, in a celebration in which he and the rozhanitsy were given a meal and the cut hair. His cult lost its importance through time, and in the ninth or tenth century he was replaced by
Perun
In Slavic mythology, Perun (Cyrillic: Перýн) is the highest god of the pantheon and the god of sky, thunder, lightning, storms, rain, law, war, fertility and oak trees. His other attributes were fire, mountains, wind, iris, eagle, firmam ...
,
Svarog
Svarog is a Slavic god of fire and blacksmithing, who was once interpreted as a sky god on the basis of an etymology rejected by modern scholarship. He is mentioned in only one source, the ''Primary Chronicle'', which is problematic in interpre ...
and/or
Svetevid, which explains his absence in the pantheon of
Vladimir the Great
Vladimir I Sviatoslavich or Volodymyr I Sviatoslavych ( orv, Володимѣръ Свѧтославичь, ''Volodiměrъ Svętoslavičь'';, ''Uladzimir'', russian: Владимир, ''Vladimir'', uk, Володимир, ''Volodymyr''. Se ...
.
Etymology
Rod's name is confirmed in
Old Church Slavonic
Old Church Slavonic or Old Slavonic () was the first Slavic languages, Slavic literary language.
Historians credit the 9th-century Byzantine Empire, Byzantine missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius with Standard language, standardizing the lan ...
and
Old East Slavic
Old East Slavic (traditionally also Old Russian; be, старажытнаруская мова; russian: древнерусский язык; uk, давньоруська мова) was a language used during the 9th–15th centuries by East ...
sources about pre-Christian Slavic religion. The name is derived from the
Proto-Slavic
Proto-Slavic (abbreviated PSl., PS.; also called Common Slavic or Common Slavonic) is the Attested language, unattested, linguistic reconstruction, reconstructed proto-language of all Slavic languages. It represents Slavic speech approximately ...
word
*''rodъ'', meaning "family", "birth", "origin", "clan", but also "yield", "harvest", and this word is in turn derived from the
Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo-E ...
root
*''wréh₂ds'' "root".
Aleksander Brückner
Aleksander Brückner (; 29 January 1856 – 24 May 1939) was a Polish scholar of Slavic languages and literatures (Slavistics), philologist, lexicographer and historian of literature. He is among the most notable Slavicists of the late 19th ...
also notes the similarity of the name to the
Avestan
Avestan (), or historically Zend, is an umbrella term for two Old Iranian languages: Old Avestan (spoken in the 2nd millennium BCE) and Younger Avestan (spoken in the 1st millennium BCE). They are known only from their conjoined use as the scrip ...
word ''rada-'', meaning "guardian", "keeper".
Sources
The first source mentioning Rod is the ''Word of St. Gregory Theologian about how pagans bowed to idols'', from the 11th century:
''Word of Chrystolubiec'' describes the prayers dedicated to Rod and the rozhanitsy:
In a handwritten commentary on the Gospel from the 15th century, Rod defies the Christian god as the creator of humans:
The cult of Rod was still popular in 16th-century Rus, as evidenced by the
penance
Penance is any act or a set of actions done out of Repentance (theology), repentance for Christian views on sin, sins committed, as well as an alternate name for the Catholic Church, Catholic, Lutheran, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox s ...
given during confession by
Orthodox
Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to:
Religion
* Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pa ...
priest
A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particu ...
s as described in the
penitentiaries of
Saint Sabbas of Storozhi:
Cult
According to
ethnologist
Ethnology (from the grc-gre, ἔθνος, meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology) ...
Halyna Lozko
Halyna Lozko ( uk, Галина Сергіївна Лозко) (Yelanets ( uk, Єланець); 3 February 1952 in Mykolaiv Oblast) is Ukrainian ethnologist, theologian and neopagan leader. In 1993 she founded the group Pravoslavia in Kyiv, whi ...
, Rod's Holiday was celebrated on December 23, or according to Czech
historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...
and
archaeologist
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
Naďa Profantová, on December 26. Rod and the rozhanitsy were offered bloodless sacrifices in the form of bread, honey, cheese and groat (
kutia
Kutia or kutya is a ceremonial grain dish with sweet gravy traditionally served by Eastern Orthodox Christians and Byzantine Catholic Christians predominantly in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia during the Christmas - Feast of Jordan holiday season ...
). Before consuming the kutia, the father of the family, who took up the role of the
volkhv
A volkhv or volhv (Cyrillic script, Cyrillic: Волхв; Polish: Wołchw, translatable as wiseman, wizard, sorcerer, magus, i.e. shaman, gothi or magi, mage) is a priest in Slavic paganism, ancient Slavic religions and contemporary Slavic Native ...
or
zhretsa, tossed the first spoon up to the holy corner. This custom exists in Ukraine to this day. Then the feast began at a table in the shape of a
trapezium. After the feast, they made requests to Rod and the rozhanitsy: "let all good things be born".
In Rus, after Christianization, feasts dedicated to Rod were still practiced, as mentioned in the ''Word of Chrystolubiec''.' In the first years of the existence of
Saint Sophia's Cathedral in Kiev, pagans came to celebrate
Koliada
Koliada or koleda (Cyrillic: коляда, коледа, колада, коледе) is the traditional Slavic name for the period from Christmas to Epiphany or, more generally, to Slavic Christmas-related rituals, some dating to pre-Christian ...
there, which was later severely punished. The remains of the Rod cult were to survive until the 19th century.
Interpretations
Scholars opinions
Boris Rybakov
According to the concept presented by Boris Rybakov, Rod was originally the chief Slavic deity during the times of patriarchal agricultural societies in the first millennium CE, later pushed to a lower position, which would explain his absence in the pantheon of deities worshiped by Vladimir the Great. Rybakov relied on the ''Word of St. Gregory Theologian...'', where the Slavs first sacrificed to wraiths, then to Rod and rozhanitsy, and finally to Perun, which would reflect the alleged evolution of Slavic beliefs from animism through cult of natural forces to
henotheism
Henotheism is the worship of a single, supreme god that does not deny the existence or possible existence of other deities. Friedrich Schelling (1775–1854) coined the word, and Friedrich Welcker (1784–1868) used it to depict primiti ...
. The sculpture known as
Zbruch Idol
The Zbruch Idol, Sviatovid (''Worldseer'', pl, Światowid ze Zbrucza, uk, Збручанський ідол) is a 9th-century sculpture, more precisely an example of a bałwan, and one of the few monuments of pre-Christian Slavic mythology, Slav ...
was supposed to depict Rod as the main Slavic deity according to Rybakov's concept.
Rybakov also believes that all the circles and spiral symbols represent the different hypostases of Rod. Such symbols are to be "six-petal rose inscribed in a circle" (rosette) (
![RozetaSymbol](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e9/RozetaSymbol.svg)
) and the sign of the Thunderer (
![Thundermarks](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f4/Thundermarks.svg)
).
Leo Klejn and Mikola Zubov
These scholars criticized Rybakov's findings. In one of his works, Rybakov maintained that Perun could not be borrowed by the
Vainakhs
The Nakh peoples, also known as ''Vainakh peoples'' (Chechen/Ingush: , apparently derived from Chechen , Ingush "our people"; also Chechen-Ingush), are a group of Caucasian peoples identified by their use of the Nakh languages and other cult ...
, since the supreme god of the Slavs was Rod, and Perun was introduced only by Vladimir as the
druzhina
In the medieval history of Kievan Rus' and Early Poland, a druzhina, drużyna, or družyna ( Slovak and cz, družina; pl, drużyna; ; , ''druzhýna'' literally a "fellowship") was a retinue in service of a Slavic chieftain, also called ''knyaz ...
patron. However, this is contradicted by the traces of Perun throughout Slavic territory. These researchers argue that it is necessary to identify traces of the original sources of texts and restore them to the historical context under which specific Old Russian texts were created. They believe that Old Russian authors, when describing Rod and rozhanitsy, used ready semantic blocks borrowed from other sources, mainly the Bible and writings of Greek theologians that were misinterpreted: in
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
the horoscope was called "genealogy", which can literally be translated as "rodoslovo". Therefore, these researchers believe that the cult of Rod and parents did not exist in the pre-Christian religion of the Slavs. Zubov also believes that there was no extensive genealogy of the gods in the East Slav religion and Perun was the only god.
Aleksander Gieysztor
Gieysztor considers Rod the god of social organization. After
Benvenist he compares him to the
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...
Quirinus
In Roman mythology and religion, Quirinus ( , ) is an early god of the Roman state. In Augustan Rome, ''Quirinus'' was also an epithet of Janus, as ''Janus Quirinus''.
Name
Attestations
The name of god Quirinus is recorded across Roman sourc ...
, whose name comes from *''covir'' or ''
curia
Curia (Latin plural curiae) in ancient Rome referred to one of the original groupings of the citizenry, eventually numbering 30, and later every Roman citizen was presumed to belong to one. While they originally likely had wider powers, they came ...
'', which can be translated as "god of the community of husbands", to the
Umbri
The Umbri were an Italic people of ancient Italy. A region called Umbria still exists and is now occupied by Italian speakers. It is somewhat smaller than the ancient Umbria.
Most ancient Umbrian cities were settled in the 9th-4th centuries BC on ...
an Vofionus, whose name contains a root similar to the Indo-European word *''leudho'', Anglo-Saxon ''leode'' ("people"), Slavic *''ludie'' and Polish ''ludzie'', and to the
Celtic
Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to:
Language and ethnicity
*pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia
**Celts (modern)
*Celtic languages
**Proto-Celtic language
* Celtic music
*Celtic nations
Sports Fo ...
Toutatis
Toutatis or Teutates is a Celtic god who was worshipped primarily in ancient Gaul and Britain. His name means "god of the tribe", and he has been widely interpreted as a tribal protector.Paul-Marie Duval (1993). ''Les dieux de la Gaule.'' Éditio ...
, whose name derives from the Celtic core *''teuta'' meaning "family", but rejects connecting Rod with
Indian
Indian or Indians may refer to:
Peoples South Asia
* Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor
** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country
* South Asia ...
Rudra
Rudra (; sa, रुद्र) is a Rigvedic deity associated with Shiva, the wind or storms, Vayu, medicine, and the hunt. One translation of the name is 'the roarer'. In the Rigveda, Rudra is praised as the 'mightiest of the mighty'. Rud ...
.
Because of the function of fertility and wealth, he identifies with him the
Belarusian
Belarusian may refer to:
* Something of, or related to Belarus
* Belarusians, people from Belarus, or of Belarusian descent
* A citizen of Belarus, see Demographics of Belarus
* Belarusian language
* Belarusian culture
* Belarusian cuisine
* Byelor ...
Spor, whose name means "abundance", "multiplicity".
Andrzej Szyjewski
According to Andrzej Szyjewski, Rod "personifies the ideas of family kinship as a symbol of spiritual continuity (rodoslovo)." Rod was also to direct the souls of the dead to
Vyraj
Iriy, Vyrai ( be, Вырай, pl, Wyraj), Vyriy (russian: Вырий, Ирий, Ирей, ukr, Вирій, Ірій, Ирій), or Irij ( Croatian, Czech, Slovak: ''Ráj, Raj, Irij'', srp, Ириј, ukr, Ирій, Ірій) is a mythical plac ...
, and then send them back to our world in the form of clods of earth cast down or entrusted to
nightjars
Nightjars are medium-sized nocturnal or crepuscular birds in the family Caprimulgidae and order Caprimulgiformes, characterised by long wings, short legs, and very short bills. They are sometimes called goatsuckers, due to the ancient folk ta ...
and
storks
Storks are large, long-legged, long-necked wading birds with long, stout bills. They belong to the family called Ciconiidae, and make up the order Ciconiiformes . Ciconiiformes previously included a number of other families, such as herons and ...
.
Fyodor Kapitsa
According to the
folklorist
Folklore studies, less often known as folkloristics, and occasionally tradition studies or folk life studies in the United Kingdom, is the branch of anthropology devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currenc ...
Fyodor Kapitsa, the cult of Rod and parents was almost completely forgotten over time. Rod transformed into a ghost – a patron of the family, a "home grandfather", and later a guardian of newborns and honoring ancestors. Traces of Rod's cult were mainly seen in everyday life. Remains of the Rod cult are to be Russian Orthodox holidays such as Day of the Dead (
Holy Thursday
Maundy Thursday or Holy Thursday (also known as Great and Holy Thursday, Holy and Great Thursday, Covenant Thursday, Sheer Thursday, and Thursday of Mysteries, among other names) is the day during Holy Week that commemorates the Washing of the ...
) and
Radonica (Tuesday of the first week after
Easter
Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...
) during which the dead are worshiped.
In the times of Kievan Rus in the 11th and 12th centuries, the cult of Rod was to be particularly important for princes because he was considered the patron of the unity of the clan, and the right to the throne and land of ancestors depended on it. Since fertility has always been associated with femininity, Rod's cult was traditionally feminine. Thus, female priestesses were associated with the cult of Rod, who were to sacrifice him or organize special feasts several times a year. Bread, porridge, cheese and honey were prepared for the feast, then such a meal was put in the shrines. It was believed that the gods appear there invisible to the human eye. Rod was sometimes called to protect people from illness, but rozhanitsy played a major role in this ritual.
Oleg Kutarev
Kutarev notes the similarity between the cult of Rod and the cult of the South Slavic
Stopan
Stopan ( sr-Cyrl, Стопан) is a village in the Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kotor Varoš Municipality, Šiprage local community. At the census in 1991, Stopan had a population of 346. According to preliminary results of the census 2013 there were ...
and the East Slavic
Domovoy
In the Slavic religious tradition, Domovoy (Russian: Домово́й, literally "he oneof the household"; also spelled ''Domovoi'', ''Domovoj'', and known as pl, Domowik or Serbian and ua, Домовик, translit=domovyk) is the household ...
– all were given a meal, they were to manage the fate and were associated with the worship of ancestors.
Viljo Mansikka
This Russian and Finnish
philologist
Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...
notes that sometimes in the Slavic languages the Greek term "τύχη" (týchi, "luck") is translated as ''rod'', and "είμαρμένη" (eímarméni, "destiny") is translated as a ''rozhanitsa''.
Jan Máchal
This Czech
slavist
Slavic (American English) or Slavonic (British English) studies, also known as Slavistics is the academic field of area studies concerned with Slavic peoples, Slavic areas, languages, literature, history, and culture. Originally, a Slavist or Sla ...
claimed that Rod was a god who represented male ancestors and rozhanitsy represented female ancestors.
['']The Mythology of All Races
''The Mythology of All Races'' is a 13-volume book series edited by Louis Herbert Gray between 1916–1932 with George Foot Moore as a consulting editor. Volumes
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
See also
*''Columbia University Indo-Iranian S ...
'' (1918), Vol. III, Section "Slavic", Part I: The Genii
Chapter IV: Genii of Fate, pp. 249–252
/ref>
Halyna Lozko
According to Halynaa Losko, for Ukrainians Rod was god over the gods. He is the giver of life and was supposed to stay in heaven, ride on clouds and assign man his fate. Rod was the personification of the descendants of one ancestor, that is, he was associated with the entire family: dead ancestors, living people and unborn generations. Over time, Rod became a Domovoy whose figurines were owned by many families. Rod's and rozhanitsy images were also to appear on the rushnyk
A rushnyk or rushnik (russian: рушник, ручник, uk, рушник, be, ручнік, ručnik, rue, ручник) is a decorative and ritual cloth. Made of linen or cotton it usually represents woven or embroidered designs, symbols ...
s as motives of the tree of life. The 20th-century ethnographic finds show the door of huts with the image of a family tree: men were depicted on leaves and women on flowers of this tree. When someone was dying – a cross was drawn next to his name, when someone was being born – a new twig, leaf or flower was drawn.
Rodnovers opinions
Russian volkhs Veleslav (Ilya Cherkasov) and Dobroslav (Alexey Dobrovolsky
Alexey Aleksandrovich Dobrovolsky (also known as Dobroslav; October 13, 1938 – May 19, 2013) was a Soviet-Russian ideologue of Russian Rodnoverie (a form of Slavic neopaganism), national anarchist, neo-Nazi, and volkhv of the Nature Conservatio ...
) describe Rod as a life force, the god "all-pervading" and "omnipresent." In cosmology, considered the source of cosmic emanation, which is expressed in the hierarchy of the gods.
References
Bibliography
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{{Slavic mythology
Creator gods
Slavic gods
Slavic fortune deities