Most likely the unity of the ritual components should be explained by homology — by common origin. The custom of erecting a fire-wheel oil a pole and then rolling it down may be connected to the magical granting of the sun descending from the highest point on the ecliptic, that is, to the St. John the Baptist's day, rather than to the spring sun still rising to the high point. Yet in fact, in Russia this ritual is seen in the Shrovetide, in the spring. However, the St. John the Baptist's feast preserved in the Ukraine and Belorussia, had disappeared in Russia proper where it was ousted by the Christian fast. Before the fast, Russia has the Shrovetide festival «Maslenitsa» that is absent in Ukraine and Belorussia. So, the ritual with its concomitant features had moved from St John the Baptist's day to the early spring where it makes the Russian Shrovetide, «Maslenitsa».
In addition to the above ritual, the Kupalo festival is characterized by elements of the Perun worship and intense sexuality. The term «Kupalo» is not a proper personal name but a kind of sobriquet, designating the main action. It is derived not from the word «kupati» («to bathe») but is cognate to the words «кира» ('pile'), «sovokuplenie» («coitus»).
Still more erotic features are present in «Yarilki», «send-off of Yarilo», another term based on the action, this time from «yariti» («to become excited», 4o get hot', 4o be filled with lust'). This festival also appears to have been moved from the same spot on the calendar and consists of customs from the same original complex. Ithyphallic Yarilo is another manifestation of Perun (it is connected with his sexual, marriage-making functions).
Thus, under the more modern forms described by the travelers, later ethnographers, and the students of folklore, one may discern the earlier content of the Kupalo's festival, Perun's send-off, which marked his downfall and death. This festival coincides by its original place on the calendar with the summer solstice. It is very likely that the old chronicler's description of Perun's overthrow (beating of idol by twelve men, deploring him by others, floating his statue down the river) was, in fact, misunderstood by the chronicler. It was actually a description of the regular ritual of Perun's send- off on the day of the summer solstice.
The next assumption must be that if there was a send-off, then there must be also the receiving of Perun, the annual Perun's reemergence, his resurrection or his birth. Indeed, on the opposite point of the calendar scale, at the time of the winter solstice, there is more than a week of completely pagan celebrations — Svyatki (modern New Year's feast). Among the Southern Slavs this holiday is marked by veneration of an oak log called Badnyak, to which the attributes of an anthropomorphic deity, an old man, are ascribed.
{Simultaneously, during the ceremony, a young Bozhise appears (a patronimic from «Bog», «god», so according to his name he is a son of god).
At that time (the winter solstice), the Russian peasants performed mummery. Among these performances, the «plays with umrun» are especially remarkable. «Umrun» is a dead man (from the Russian «umirať» — «to die»). The dead imitated by a mummer was supposedly brought back to life by sheer sexual actions. Among these were masturbation and fellation which wenches of the village were forced to perform. This method of reviving and rejuvenations, or method of resurrection, was connected with the belief in beneficial properties of male semen. The idea of reviving the dead was akin with ancient Indoeuropean idea of sansara (second life on the earth, movement of souls).
So, typologically, Perun appears to belong to the well known class of the dying and resurrecting gods. In accordance with the cycle of his festivals, the year in among the Eastern Slavs was divided into two halves (like among the Greeks, where the year was divided into apodemy and epidemy by the celebrations of Apollo's appearance and send-off). Yet, primarily due to the feasts of Apollo's meeting and send-off. Yet due to differences in climate and ecology, the points of the division were different among the different groups among the Slavs. The worship of Perun, like that of Apollo was conducted by women and girls.
Probably it is intriguing to surmise that the presence of a dying and resurrecting deity and its supremacy in the ancient Slavic pantheon might have influenced the decisive «choice of faiths». Prince Vladimir gave preference to Christianity, with its resurrection of Jesus Christ, and facilitated a comparably fast reception of it, which had led to a relatively fast conversion to the new religion by the pagan Slavs. The perception of the main mystery of Christianity was structurally prepared for them by the faith in Perun, the dying and resurrecting deity.
AUFERWECKUNG PERUNS
Zur Rekonstruktion der Ostslawischen heidnischen Religion von L. S. Klejn
Zusammenfassung
Falls wir beiseite alle MutmaBimgen, AnalogieschluBe, indirekte Uber- legungen, Rekonstruktionen lassen und zum Ausgangsmaterial, zu Quellen sich wenden, dann erweist sich, dafi die ruinierende Zeit und das siegreiche Christentum tiichtig an den slawischen heidnischen Religion gearbeitet haben: die Information iiber Perun, die von uns erhalten ist, bleibt sehr kárglich und fragmentarisch. Was ist iiber ostslavischen Gótter erhalten geblieben? Nur etliche Schimpťwórter, ein Paar kurzer Erzáhlungen iiber Aufrichtung und Absturzung der Idole von Perun und anderer Gótter in Kiew und Nowgorod, und noch Eide mit Namen der Gótter in Vertrage mit Byzantiner. GeiBelungen der Abtrunnigen in Predigten der friihen christlichen Glaubenslehrer bringen nur wenige Kenntnisse. Es gibt áhnliche Gótternamen in verwandten Sprachen und wenige Angaben iiber Funktionen dieser Figuren bei verwandten Volker. Die Angaben gehóren nicht so der Mythologie, als den verbundenen mit ihr Kulten. Es gibt keine Mythen von Perun.
Nur mit Renaissance und Erforschung der klassischen Mythologie beginnt in Europa ein Interesse zur vorchristlicen Heimatskultur, die mit klassischen Mustern gegeniibergestellt werden konnte. An Mythologie der verwandten Volker gewendet, wiedergaben polnische Verfasser der XV. und XVI. Jahrhunderte J. Dlugosch und M. Stryjkowski Zeugnisse russischer Chroniken und was sie selbst im Osten hóren konnten. In XVII. Jh. dazu Zeugnisse deutscher, englischer und anderer Reisenden nach RuBland hinzugeffigt wurden.
In RuBland begann die Erfosrchung des eigenen Heidentums nur in die Zeit Peters des GroBen (XVIII Jh.), und anfangs wurden die verzerrte Vorstellungen von westlichen Gelehrten entlehnt. Zu Beginn der XIX. Jh. stiitzten sich die Gelehrten immer noch auf spekulative Úberlegungen und herstellten lange Listen von Gótter aus rátselhaften Wórter in Sprichwórter und Lieder (A. S. Kaissarow, G. Glinka u. a.). Sie wollten die Religion der Vorfahren als eine am meisten angenehme Religion vorstellen, die alle anderen iiberlegen und dem Christentum nah war (P. Stroew, M. Kastorsky, N. Kostomarow, S. M. Solowiew). Slawophilen aber unterstutzten diese Tradition nicht vóllig: sie schlugen die Idee der ureigenen Náhe der Slawen zum orthodoxen Monotheismus vor und verneinten insgesamt bei Slawen einen erweiterten Politheismus. Ihrer Meinung nach, waren heidnische Gótter der Chronik nach Rus von Varáger gebracht.
