Also called Svantevit, Swiatowit, Zuantevith, Sventovit.
Their story
Saxo Grammaticus describes the great temple at Arkona on Rügen, where an enormous four-headed statue held a horn of wine. Each year the priest checked whether the wine had gone down to foretell the harvest, and a sacred white horse was led over rows of spears to read omens for war. At the feast the priest hid behind a vast honey cake and asked if the people could see him, praying that next year they would not. Danish forces under King Valdemar I and Bishop Absalon destroyed the temple in 1168.
Best times to give to them
- after the harvest
- Koliada
- the harvest festival (Dozhinki)
What they like being given
- a large honey cake or loaf
- mead or apple juice poured into a horn
- first fruits of the harvest
How to honour them
- Bake a large round honey cake after harvest and share it.
- Fill a cup or horn at harvest and look at it again a day later, reflecting on the year ahead.
- Give thanks facing each of the four directions in turn.
How they can help you
- abundance
- foresight
- protecting the community
Symbols
- four faces
- a drinking horn
- a white horse
- a great honey cake
- a sword
Sources
- Saxo Grammaticus, Gesta Danorum, Book XIV
- Helmold, Chronica Slavorum
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
- Khors The bright disc of the sun