Svetovid

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The Zbruch idol, on display in the National Museum in Kraków, Poland

Modern Svetovid statue in Głogów, Poland

Modern Svetovid statue in Otrebusy, Poland

Sventevith, Svetovid, Suvid, Svantevit, Svantovit, Svantovít, Swantovít, Sventovit, Zvantevith, Świętowit, Sutvid, Vid. and, incorrectly, Światowit, is the Polabian deity of war, fertility and abundance.

Sometimes referred to as Beli (or Byali) Vid, Beli = white, bright, shining (as in the folklore poem Vojevao Beli Vide / Tri god'ne s kleti Turci / A cet'ri s crni Ugri... - Beli Vid waged war / Three years with the damn Turks / And four with the black Hungarians).

Associated with war and divination. Described as a four-headed god with two heads looking front and two back. A statue portraying the god shows him with four heads, each one looking in a separate direction, a symbolical representation of the four diections of the compass, and also perhaps the four seasons of the year. Boris Rybakov argued for identification of the faces with the gods Perun, Svarog, Lada and Mokosh (c.f. Zbruch idol). Joined together, they see all four sides of the world. This gave rise to a false etymology of the name of the god as "worldseer" (svet = "world", vid = "sight"; Svetovid = "worldseer"). However, the forms Sventevith and Zvantewith show that the name derives from the word svętъ, meaning "saint, holy". The second stem is sometimes reconstructed as vit = "lord, ruler, winner". The name recorded in chronicles of contemporary Christian monks is Svantevit, which, if we assume it was properly transcribed, could be an adjective meaning aprox. "Dawning One" (svantev,svitanje = "dawning, raising of the Sun in the morning" + it, adjective suffix)).

He always carries his sword (sometimes bow) in one hand, and in the other a drinking horn. Svetovid had a white horse which was kept in his temple and taken care of by priests. It was believed Svantevit rode this horse in battle. The horse was used for divination. Victory in battle, merchant travels and a successful harvest all depended on Svantevit.

The main temple of Świętowit was located in Arkona on Rugia Island in the Baltic Sea (today Rügen, in Germany). According to various chronicles, the temple contained a giant wooden statue of Świętowit depicting him with four heads (or one head with four faces) and a horn of abundance. Each year the horn was filled with fresh mead.

The temple was also the seat of an oracle in which the chief priest predicted the future of his tribe by observing the behaviour of a white horse identified with Świętowit and casting dice. The temple also contained the treasury of the tribe and was defended by a group of 300 mounted warriors which formed the core of the tribal armed forces.

Some interpretations claim that Svetovit was another name for Radegast or Belobog, while another states that Svetovit was a fake god, a Wendish construction based on the name St. Vitus. However common practice of Christian Church was to replace existing pagan deities and places of worship with analogous persons and rituals of christian content, so it seems more likely that Saint-Vitus was made to replace the original Svanto-Vit. According to a questionable interpretation, Swietowit was a Rugian counterpart of the all-Slavic Perun common in Slavic mythology.

In Croatia, on the island of Brač, the highest peak is called Vid's Mountain; in the Dinaric Alps there is a peak called Suvid, and a Church of St.Vid. Among the Serbs, the cult of Svetovid is partially preserved through the Feast of St.Vitus - Vidovdan, one of the most important annual events in Serbian Orthodox Christian tradition.