Veles (Volos)

            Veles is one of the greatest gods of the ancient world. His main deed was that he set the world created by Rod and Svarog in motion.

            In chronicles Veles was characterized as “the god of cattle” that enables us to understand the major aspect of the cult of this god, the patron of cattle breeding, fertility and riches. In this connection the comparison with development of the meaning of the Latin word «pecus» is possible: originally it meant "cattle", and then "money".

            The name of Veles goes back to the ancient root “vål” that means "dead”. Veles is the lord of the world of the dead. But as the ideas of some magic power which owner subordinates people were connected with the world of the dead, so the same root means power. The master of the other world — a deity-primogenitor —in the ancient mythology has appearance of an animal, and the image of Veles goes back to the image of the Bear as a powerful deity.deity.deity.

            The cult of Veles — the great god of underground kingdom, the presenter of fertility and riches, the lord of wisdom, witchcraft, poetry, the lord of the dead — was widely spread in Russia.