VELES
or Volos is a major Slavic god of earth, waters, forests and the underworld. His attributes are wet, wooly, bearded, dark and he is associated with cattle, the harvest, wealth, music, magic, trickery, poetry. As a guardian of the divide between the worlds of the living and the dead, also he was the god of the wild, hunting, animals and converting on them, also surety agreements, punishing non-compliance. According to reconstruction by some researchers he is the opponent of the Supreme thunder-god Perun, and the battle between two of them constitutes one of the most important myths of Slavic mythology. As such he probably has been imagined as a dragon, which in the belief of the pagan Slavs is a chimeric being, a serpent with a bear's head and drooping hairy ears. His closest analogy is the Baltic god of the underworld Velnias, then farther Swedish Varuna or norse Ódin. His tree is the willow, like god Perun's tree is the oak. No direct accounts survive, but reconstructions speculate that he may directly continue aspects of the Proto-Indo-European pantheon.
Veles with his bear (he's often appears with a bears or wolfs)
![](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/ff/fe/8a/fffe8a8b6f46fe453af13fd242e38c3d.jpg)
Modern idol of god Veles in Velíz (CZ)
![](/files/collabspace/3/23/523/12523/images/ba108bb40.jpg)
In this picture he's wearing a wolf
![](/files/collabspace/3/23/523/12523/images/b8a42d90.jpg)
Veles is also known as the god of cattle. It seems, that his subject was and field crops, as indicated by the habits of the harvest time. In view of its economic function, so important to the life of society has always worshiped Veles probably all Slavs. Vales's feast is celebrated on february 6.
Forum for discussion is
here.