The "cattle god" (skotii bog) of the treaty oaths, sworn by beside Perun in 907 and 945, and left off Vladimir's 980 hilltop pantheon in a way scholars have long puzzled over.
The Russian Primary Chronicle has the Rus' swear by Volos, "the cattle god" (skotii bog), together with Perun and their weapons, in the treaties of 907 and 945. Unlike Perun, Khors, Dazhbog, Stribog, Simargl, and Mokosh, Veles is conspicuously absent from the six idols Vladimir sets up on the Kiev hill in 980. Later medieval and early-modern hagiographic tradition associated with Vladimir's baptism places a Veles idol separately, on the lower ground of the Podil district by the river — a detail that postdates the Primary Chronicle itself and should be treated with more caution than the 907 and 945 treaty text.
A modern reconstruction, clearly labelled
The absence of Veles from the hill, and his separate association with lower/wet ground, underlies Vyacheslav Ivanov and Vladimir Toporov's influential 1974 reconstruction of a cosmic conflict between a sky-based Perun and an earth- or water-based Veles, echoing comparable Indo-European storm-god-versus-serpent combats (Indra/Vritra, Thor/Jörmungandr). No medieval Slavic text narrates this combat; it is inferred from later folk tales, place names, and comparative mythology, and is presented on this site strictly as a scholarly reconstruction. Later folklore also associates Veles with poetry, magic, and (via the 12th-century Tale of Igor's Campaign, which calls the poet Boyan "Veles's grandson") skilled speech, though the Tale's own authenticity as an unaltered 12th-century text has been debated by some scholars.
Source Notes
These records lack edition and translator details. Their wording has not been verified as a direct quotation.
Let those who break this oath [...] be cursed by God in whom they believe, and by Perun and Volos, the cattle god.
And the Rus' who are not baptized lay down their shields and their naked swords [...] swearing for themselves and for all Rus' by Perun their god, and Volos, the god of cattle.
Worship & Cult
How Veles was venerated in ancient times
Worship Practices
Sworn by merchants and traders alongside Perun in the state treaties of 907 and 945, distinct from any temple cult recorded for him. Later East Slavic folk practice partly transferred his patronage of cattle and wealth to Saint Blaise (Vlasiy), whose feast day (11 February, Old Style) was kept as a blessing of livestock — a post-Christian folk continuation, not a pagan-era rite.
