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Veles

Veles is a major Slavic god of earth, waters and the underworld, associated with dragons, cattle, magic, musicians, wealth and trickery. He is also the opponent of thunder-god Perun, and the battle between two of them constitutes one of the most important myths of Slavic mythology.

No direct accounts survive, but reconstructions speculate that he may directly continue aspects of the Proto-Indo-European pantheon and that he may have been imagined as (at least partially) serpentine, with horns (of a bull, ram or some other domesticated herbivore), and a long beard.

Veles is a son of cow Zemun and Rod. He is represented as a horny, strong young man (being a son of a cow and the god of cattle), but also as a gray old man with white beard and shepherd's stick (here, he is the protector of shepherds and wisdom, but also a manly, false symbol of fertility).

His wife was Devana, goddess of hunting and mother goddess, the ruler of woods and creatures of the woods.

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Slavic mythology

Category: Religion

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