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Dazbog Serbian: Dabog / Polish: Term Paper

Dazbog is considered an evil being. This Serbian fairy-tale was penned during Christianity's early days, and there was a decidedly concentrated movement to present the old pagan deities as evil and devilish. In one Russian myth, his attributes were the sword and the cudgel, found with the 'clear-sky' war-god and 'storm-god,' respectively. His identity with the latter is also found in Polish mythology as the son of Svarog, the Slavic 'heavenly sky father', and either the dawn-goddess Zorya Dennitsa or the summer- and love-goddess Lada.

The Russians seem to have him as the son of the thunder-god Perun and the mermaid ('sea nymph') Ros. Other attributes include a fiery shield and a diamond chariot - both of which identify him with as a sun-god. Dazbog is served by four beautiful maidens: Zorya Utrennyaya, the Aurora of the Dawn, opens the palace gates in the morning. Zorya Vechernyaya, the Aurora of the Evening, closes them in the evening. Vechernyaya Zvezda, the Evening Star, and Zvezda Dennitsa, the Morning Star, tend Dazbog's horses.

Dazbos shares many similarities with the Welsh god Llew Llaw Gyffes; they are both sun and summer fertility gods. Russian death-god Kashchej wanted to destroy Dazbog, with the help of Dazbog's wife, Marena, who drugged him and then let her lover Kashchej throw him into the abyss, and then later, nailed him to a mountain in the Caucasus. Llew's welsh wife, Blodeuwedd did something very similar, as she and her boyfriend Gronwy (a death-god) tricked Llew and hurt him. Both Llew and Dazbog survive and exact...

From his gold and purple throne he has no fear of neither shadows, nor cold or discomfort. Indeed, he was called the god of summer and of happiness. Each morning he rides out as a young man in his golden, diamond-studded chariot, pulled westward by a team of twelve white, golden-mane fire-breathing horses. He rode through his twelve kingdoms (zodiac signs?) before ending his day as an old man in the sunset.
Dazbog presides over the twelve signs of the zodiac. The virginal goddesses of the rising and setting Venus, by his uncle and counselor the moon (sometimes known as his goddess-wife), his seven judges (the planets?), and his seven fiery-tailed messengers (comets) all surround and serve him.

Bibiliography

Coulter, Charles Russell; Turner, Patricia. Encyclopedia of Ancient Deities. McFarland. 2000

Dolak, George. The Religious Beliefs and Practices of the Ancient Slavs. Springfield, IL: Concordia Theological Society, 1949.

Gray, Louis Herbert; Moore, George Foot Moore (Slavic), editor; MacCulloch, John Arnott (Celtic), consulting editor. The Mythology of All Races Boston. Marshall Jones Company June 1918. Pg. 296.

Jakobson, Roman. Selected Writings "Linquistic Evidence in Comparative Mythology," Mouton Publishers. Berlin, New York, Amsterdamn. 1985, pg. 12-32.

Schoeps, Hans Joachim. The Religions of Mankind. Doubleday. 1966. Pg. 113-114.

Sources used in this document:
Gray, Louis Herbert; Moore, George Foot Moore (Slavic), editor; MacCulloch, John Arnott (Celtic), consulting editor. The Mythology of All Races Boston. Marshall Jones Company June 1918. Pg. 296.

Jakobson, Roman. Selected Writings "Linquistic Evidence in Comparative Mythology," Mouton Publishers. Berlin, New York, Amsterdamn. 1985, pg. 12-32.

Schoeps, Hans Joachim. The Religions of Mankind. Doubleday. 1966. Pg. 113-114.
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