Also called Hors, Chors, Khors-Dazhbog.
Their story
Khors stood among Vladimir's idols in Kiev in 980 and is paired with Dazhbog in several medieval sermons. The Tale of Igor's Campaign says the sorcerer-prince Vseslav ran as a wolf by night and crossed the path of great Khors before the cocks crowed, which suggests the sun on its hidden night road. Many scholars think his name is borrowed from Iranian, where the word for the sun is khorshid.
Best times to give to them
- Koliada (midwinter)
- Kupala Night
- sunrise
What they like being given
- round bread or pancakes
- a candle lit at dawn
- honey
- sunflower seeds
How to honour them
- Greet the sunrise and light a candle for the returning sun in midwinter.
- Bake round flatbread or bliny as a sun offering and share it.
- Keep a simple circle or wheel symbol on your altar.
How they can help you
- hope in dark seasons
- vitality
- marking the solar year
Symbols
- a disc or circle
- a wheel
- the sun on the horizon
His solar character is inferred from his name and the Igor Tale; no myth of him survives.
Sources
- Primary Chronicle (Povest vremennykh let), entry for 980
- The Tale of Igor's Campaign (Slovo o polku Igoreve)
- Aleksander Gieysztor, Mitologia Słowian
More Slavic gods
- Perun The thunder god of oak and axe
- Veles Lord of cattle, wealth and the underworld
- Dazhbog The giving god, the sun
- Svarog The heavenly smith, father of fire and sun
- Jarilo The youthful god of spring and growth
- Rod The god of kin, birth and fate
- Stribog Grandfather of the winds
- Simargl The enigmatic winged guardian