Divinity Atlas

Sacred Correspondences
Open Questions

Is there any surviving image or description of Chernobog?

Citation Formats

General Reference

APA Style

BibTeX

Open Question

Chernobog is attested exactly once, by the twelfth-century German cleric Helmold of Bosau, who names the Black God only to say that Baltic Slavic tribes cursed him at their feasts for bringing misfortune. Helmold describes no idol, image, temple or cult object, and no earlier or independent later source, inscription or archaeological find corroborates or adds to his brief mention.

What would resolve this An independent contemporary or near-contemporary textual witness describing a Chernobog cult image, or an archaeological find, such as the kind of carved Slavic cult idol recovered elsewhere on the Baltic coast, that can be identified with this god specifically rather than with the pantheon in general.
OpenSlavic archaeology, medieval Baltic and Wendish history, history of religionMarija Gimbutas, The Slavs (Gimbutas)
Cross-Tradition Connections

Question On

Chernobog, Deities
Source The Slavs (Gimbutas)Marija Gimbutas
Sources
The Slavs (Gimbutas)
Marija Gimbutas, Thames and Hudson, Ancient Peoples and Places vol. 74, 1971
Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.

View At A Past Year

The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.