Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 3 (Celtic and Slavic).djvu/452

 CHAPTER III SVAROŽIČ AND SVAROG

OVAROŽIČ was worshipped by the Russians as the god of fire;  $22$ and his name, being a patronymic, means "Son of Svarog." $23$ This latter deity, however, is actually mentioned only in an old Russian chronicle  $24$ which identifies him with the Greek Hephaistos   $25$ and speaks of him as the founder of legal marriage. According to this text, Svarog made it a law for every man to have only one wife, and for every woman to have only one husband; and he ordained that whosoever trespassed against this command should be cast into a fiery furnace—a tradition which seems to imply the importance of the fire (fireside, hearth) for settled family life.

That Svaražic, worshipped by the Elbe Slavs,  $26$ had the same signification as the Russian Svarozic may be considered very probable, though the identity is not yet fully established. $27$