Veles / Volos

Slavic tradition. See the whole pantheon.

Domains
cattle, wealth, the underworld (inferred)
Ivan Bilibin, Baba Yaga, an illustration for a Russian fairy tale (1900s).
Ivan Bilibin, Baba Yaga, an illustration for a Russian fairy tale (1900s).

Key myth

In the Primary Chronicle, oaths are sworn by Perun and by Volos, 'god of cattle'. Veles is later linked with the underworld by the reconstructionist model.

Where sources differ or caution applies. Whether Veles and Volos are the same god and his link to the underworld are scholarly arguments.

Primary sources

  • Primary Chronicle (907, 971)

All sources for the Slavic pantheon

Place in the family graph

Choose a deity to see where it comes from. Dashed lines are links the sources describe that are not parent and child.

SvarogDazhbogPerunVeles / VolosMokoshStribogKhorsSimarglSvantevitChernobogMarzanna / Morana

More traditions

Elsewhere in the world

Deities in other traditions who share a theme with Veles / Volos: earth, harvest and fertility, death and the underworld, trickery, boundaries and travel. This is overlap in one area only.

Norse

Odin

wisdom, poetry, war

Norse

Sif

golden hair, grain (by later reading)

Norse

Baldr

light, beauty, mercy

Norse

Loki

trickery, shape-changing

Norse

Hel

the dead who die of sickness or age

Norse

Freyr

peace, fertility, sunshine

Norse

Freyja

love, desire, magic (seiðr)

Norse

Rán

drowning, the sea's net

Compare across cultures