Horses of the Slavic gods

Every Slav God was to some extent a warrior God and as such, most of them had horses. Horses often attributed with supernatural powers. These mythical horses had a strong connection with the Moon and the moon cult. They often had two very different “faces” one regular, like a completely normal horse and a second, divine, powerful and miraculous which they mostly used at night.

Svetovid’s white horse

At nightfall,the mighty Svetovid saddles his winged horse and pursues the enemies of the Slavs. Many things suggest that he had two horses, white one for day time and a black one for night time but those are probably two “faces” of the same magical animal. That’s backed up by ancient writings about priest guardians of his white horse in his temple of destiny. That white horse just looks like a regular horse but nobody except for the priests is allowed to touch him and it’s a sin to pluck a single hair from his mane or tail. Only the high priest can use that horse and only to predict the future in Svetovid’s name. Even though this horse is carefully guarded, there are records of him being exhausted, sweaty and muddy in the morning and it’s believed that Svetovid rode him that night.

This white horse was also used in predicting the outcome of upcoming wars. Priest would put three rows of spears on the ground outside of the temple and then bring the saddled white horse. If he crosses the spears right leg first, the outcome will be good but if he crosses left leg first, that was bad luck and the war had to be postponed. The horse was saddled and the high priest himself took him empty saddled across the spears which means that it was believed that Svetovid himself is riding him at that moment and that he is communicating with them through horse’s movement.

Magical horses in folk songs

Similar unusual horses are often found in folk tales and songs of the Slavs. Even though their owners are humans now they are usually great heroes or of strange origin. In the Serbian folk song Zenidba Kralja Vukasina (King Vukasin’s Wedding) we find out that his rival Momchil has a winged horse Jabuchilo. Jabuchilo’s wings can be only seen at the break of dawn or when his master orders him to show them. That horse is very similar to horses of the Slav gods, which he probably was in earlier version of the song.