5 sections of this entry are open to everyone: the summary, the people, the symbols, the lineage and the sources. The other 9 (Name and epithets, In the ancient sources, The myths, Worship and archaeology, How the god was depicted, What scholars debate, After antiquity, Did you know?, Codex relic) are part of the full Codex: PRO opens the whole study of all 500 deities, and without a subscription you can read one full entry a day, just like in the app.
The Slavic deities were worshipped by the peoples of Eastern Europe, from Russia to the Balkans, before their Christianization. They venerated them in wooden idols and open-air sanctuaries, tied to the forces of nature and the seasons. With few written records, their beliefs survive mainly in folklore and popular traditions.
On Kupala night, the summer solstice, young people leapt over bonfires and floated flower crowns on the rivers. Maslenitsa saw off winter with pancakes in honor of the sun, and in Kiev prince Vladimir raised — and later toppled — a great idol of Perun.
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At a glance
Veles (Велесъ or Volosъ) is the mysterious, wise, powerful and chthonic Slavic god of the deep waters, the damp marshes and the underworld of the ancestral souls (Nav / Navia), of domestic livestock, agropastoral fertility, material wealth, secret magic, the oath of merchants and traders, and of ritual music and poetry in ancient Slavic mythology. Solemnly called “The God of Cattle” (skotij bogъ) in the Russian Primary Chronicle, Veles represented the chthonic counterpart indispensable to the celestial god Perun: while Perun's idol stood proudly on the hilltop of Kiev's aristocratic and military quarter beside the princely palace, Veles's statue was strategically placed in the lower part of the city, in the riverside and commercial district of Podil, where merchant ships docked and common people (farmers, merchants and artisans) circulated. A master of metamorphosis who could take the form of a serpent with gleaming scales, a robust black bull or a great shaggy forest bear (the “Master of the Forest”, medved), Veles rules the green, damp fields of the afterlife located at the roots of the World Tree, where the souls of the dead tend radiant herds in peace. After the baptism of Rus in 988 AD, his cult and attributes were syncretized with Saint Blaise (Vlasy, patron of livestock and animal health) and Saint Nicholas (Mikula Selyaninovich, patron of peaceful agriculture and protector of the humble), embodying the fertility of the land, ancestral wisdom and the prosperity that comes from work with herds and nature.
14 min read · Reviewed on September 28, 2026 · How we research
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Sacred symbols
The serpent, the cattle, the willow and the underground waters
Genealogy according to Crônica Primária Russa (Conto dos Anos Passados); Tratados de Paz Russo-Bizantinos de 907 e 971; Canção da Campanha de Igor; Vida de São Vladimir; Vida de Santo Abraão de Rostov
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Sources and further reading
Primary sources
Nestor the Chronicler, The Russian Primary Chronicle: Laurentian Text. translation: Samuel Hazzard Cross and Olgerd P. Sherbowitz-Wetzor, Medieval Academy of America, 1953.
Anonymous, The Tale of Igor's Campaign. translation: Vladimir Nabokov, Ardis Publishers, 1960.
Studies
Boris Rybakov, Paganism of Ancient Rus. Nauka, 1987.
Max Vasmer, Russisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. Carl Winter, 1953.
Name and epithets
The Slavic theonym Velesъ (and its eastern phonetic variant Volosъ) derives from Proto-Indo-European roots associated both with animal hair and wool (*wel- / *wels-, “wool”, “hairy skin”, “hairy”, cognate of Latin vellu…
In the ancient sources
Russian Primary Chronicle (Povest Vremennykh Let)., c. 1113 AD.. Documents Veles as “the god of cattle” invoked by the common people and merchants in the oaths of peace with Byzantium.
The myths
Sovereignty over Nav and the Green Fields of the Afterlife.. Unlike Western views that associate the underworld with a gloomy hell of fire and damnation, archaic Slavic mythology conceived the underground realm of Nav,…
Worship and archaeology
The cult of Veles was the most deeply rooted in everyday life, in the pastoral economy and in the oral traditions of the working classes, of small farmers and of merchants throughout the medieval Slavic world.
How the god was depicted
The iconographic and visual representation of Veles in Slavic folk art, in the rustic wood carvings of northern Russia and in bronze reliefs (preserved in anthropomorphic amulets, shepherds' staff handles and idols foun…
What scholars debate
The Spatial and Sociological Duality in Kiev: Perun on the Hill and Veles in the Lowland.. Social historians and medieval archaeologists such as Boris Rybakov and Henryk Łowmiański analyse the extraordinary topographic…
After antiquity
Today, in international folk literature and in Slavic cultural revival movements, Veles is celebrated as the supreme embodiment of chthonic wisdom, of deep ecological harmony with the animal world and of the musical art…
Did you know?
The name of the city of Veles, in North Macedonia, and that of Mount Velež, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, are often linked by scholars to the Slavic theonym Veles, although the etymological connection is debated.
Codex relic
Serpentine Horn of Plenty. A magic horn tied to the herds, wealth, and waters of the underground world.
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