Perun

Perun - the highest god of Slavonic pantheon, model example of the Lord of Thunder, in classification of Dumézil[?] the god of 2nd function (physical and military power), members of Slavonic squads swore on his name (Russ.); attributes: mountain, oak, firmament (in Indo-European languages was joined with notion of “sky of stone”), horse, cart, weapons of stone - then metal – (hammer, axe, arrow), fire.

OldSlav. per-unъ „Slav. god Perun, thunderbolt" < *per-oun-os ( Gr. keraunós "t.s."), "telling" name (making core of mythological group of ideas formed round conception of Lord of Thunder), describing distinctive act for this god: „to fling a rock"(per-perun-a?); OldSlav. *pr-a-ti < *per-a-ti "to strike, to beat"; OldSlav. *pr-e-ti < *per-ti "to push, to press strongly"; Lith. per-ti „to hit, to beat, to strike, to whip"; Trac. per(u) "rock"; Hett. peruna(š) "t. s., goddess of Perunaš".

Myth - reproduced on the ground of folkloristic given: the fight of Perun against demoniac opponent (main - Żmij? Veles[?]?, aerial dragons and crowd of smaller ghosts: biesy, sing. bies, czarty [ czart[?] ], latawce[ latawiec[?] ], porońce[?] [poroniec] etc) stealing waters, cattle, divine partner of god (see: Perperuna), hiding before anger of Thunderlord under/in a man, horse, cow, tree, stone, at last in to water (a fish with red eyes). Perun is helped by płanetnicy[?] (sing. płanetnik), chmurni-cy(-k), obłoczni-cy(-k) (Pl.), stuh(-y), zduh(-y), stuhac(-e), zduhac(-e), vjetrogonj-e(-a), jedogonj-e(-a) (Serb.) and, after to carriage names from demoniac enemy to the helper, zmaj(-e), zmej(-e) (Bulg.) and żmij(-e) (Pl.) (spirits, living peoples and even animals with spirit or with body being raised to sky during storm) fighting with smok(-i) ("a dragon") (Pl.) zmej(-e) (Russ.), aždah-a(-y) (SouthSlav. from Pers. Aži Dahaka[?]), (ch)al-a(-y) (SouthSlav.).

Perun was represented with silver hairs and golden moustaches (Russ.), his weapon: stones, stone - arrows, their remainders according to folk beliefs are fulgurites[?] and belemnites[?], and sometimes archaic tools, all they are called (in Poland): kamień piorunowy, kamień gromowy ("stone thunderbolt"), klin piorunowy ("wedge thunderbolt"), strzał a piorunowa ("arrow of thunderbolt"), piorunowiec, iskra pérunova ("spark of thunder"), palec diabla, palec czarta ("devil's finger") but also: God's finger, and even Mother of God finger (compare to: Lith.: "Berkun's finger" - sic!) - after that also a hammer and an axe. Thunderbolt stones are sometimes transfered back to skies (by wind or pł anetnik). Weapons of Perun protected before bad luck, bad powers, disease and thunder itself.

Perun's vegetable hypostasis was oak (about of what one mentioned higher), especially distinctive (the oldest, greatest, growing on a hill)- a space under - general place of worship and folding of sacrifices (with a bull, an ox, a ram, eggs); marked oaks stood on country borders - communities, these "stations" were visited during holidays of village late spring and summer (SouthSlav.) (compare to: Iupiter Quernus, see also: Perkunas). Perun is also connected with other plants: perunika, perin (Serb., Russ.).

Examples of toponyms: Perun, Perunac, Perunovac, Perunika, Perunić ka Glava, Peruni Vrh, Perunja Ves, Peruna Dubrava, Perunuša, Perušice, Perudina, Perutovac (SouthSlav.), Prohn, Pronstorf (East Germany < Sorb.=Polab.; from Peron?).

It is difficult to explain primary relations with almost identical: Perkunas (see also: Perkons).