Editing Svarog (section)

== Sources ==
The only source that mentions Svarog is the Slavic translation of the ''Chronicle'' (''Chronography'') of [[John Malalas]], which was placed in the ''[[Primary Chronicle]]'' under year 1114. In this translation, in [[Gloss (annotation)|glosses]], the Greek god of fire and smithing [[Hephaestus]] is translated as Svarog, and his son, the sun god [[Helios]], is translated as [[Dažbog|Dazhbog]] (glosses are in italics{{Sfn|Alvarez-Pedroza|2021|p=294-296}}):

{{Blockquote|author=|title=|text=And after the flood and the division of the languages, the first to reign was [[Mizraim|Mestrom]], of the line of [[Ham (son of Noah)|Cam]], after him [[Hermes]], after him [[Hephaestus]]'', whom the [[Egyptians]] call Svarog''. During the reign of this Hephaestus in Egypt, at the time of his reign, tongs fell from the sky and he began to forge weapons, as before that they beat each other with sticks and stones. This Hephaestus established the law that women should marry a single man and behave in a chaste way, and he ordered that those who committed adultery should be punished. ''For this reason he was also called the god Svarog, as before this women fornicated with whomsoever they wished and fornicated with cattle. If they gave birth to a child they gave it to whomsoever they wished: “Here is your child”. And the person held a feast and accepted it. But Hephaestus eliminated this law and decreed that a man should have one wife, and that a woman should marry a single man, and that if anyone were to violate (that law), they should be thrown into a fiery furnace; this is why he was called Svarog'', and the Egyptians blessed him. And after him reigned his son, called Sun'', who was known as [[Dazhbog]]'', for seven thousand four hundred and seventy days, which make twenty and a half years. Because neither the Egyptians (nor) others knew how to count; some counted by the moon and others counted the years by days; the figure of 12 months was known later, from the time that men began to pay tax to the emperors. The emperor Sun, son of ''Svarog, who is Dazhbog'', was a strong man. Having heard from someone that a certain Egyptian woman, who was rich and respected, that someone wished to fornicate with her, he sought her to apprehend her so she did not break the law of her father ''Svarog''. Taking with him some of his men, having discovered the moment at which the adultery would take place by night, he surprised her and did not find her husband with her but found her lying with another, with who she wanted. He seized her and tortured her and ordered her to be taken around the country for opprobrium and he beheaded her lover. And life was pure in all Egypt, and they began to praise him.{{Sfn|Alvarez-Pedroza|2021|p=294-296}}}}

This source is problematic for several reasons. The first problem is place and time the glosses about Svarog and Dazhbog were included in the Slavonic translation of the ''Chronography''.{{Sfn|Szyjewski|2003|p=105}} Some scholars believe that these glosses come from the 10th-century Bulgarian translator of the ''Chronography'' (the first Slavic translation in general), and some scholars assume that the glosses were added by a Ruthenian copyist. [[Aleksander Brückner]] supported this thesis by adding that the [[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]] texts avoided mentioning Slavic or [[Turkic mythology|Turkic paganism]] in Bulgaria. [[Vatroslav Jagić]] suggested that the glosses were written in [[Novgorod Land|Novgorod]] because the ''Chronography'' translation also contains references to [[Lithuanian paganism]], which the Bulgarian translator could not do. The downside of this theory is that the glosses must have been written before 1118 (this is probably when they first found their way into the compilation of the ''Primary Chronicle''), and in the 11th century Ruthenian writers were not interested in Lithuanian paganism because of underdeveloped contacts with Lithuania. For this reason, [[Viljo Mansikka]] has proposed that the Baltic interpolation and glosses came into translation in 1262 in Lithuania or Western Rus. However, this explanation raises some objections: Svarog is not mentioned in any other Russian sources (unlike Dazhbog), and he is also omitted by [[Patriarch Nikon of Moscow|Nikon]] in his list of deities worshiped by [[Vladimir the Great]]. According to [[Henryk Łowmiański]], who identified Svarozhits with Dazhbog, an argument for the Bulgarian origin of the glosses is the fact that in these glosses Dazhbog is called "the son of Svarog" – in Bulgarian the patronymic suffix ''-ic'', ''-ič'' has been forgotten, so that Dazhbog could not be called simply Svarozhits. If the Bulgarian origin of the glosses is recognized, Svarog must also be considered a [[South Slavs|South Slavic]] god, not an [[East Slavs|East Slavic]] one.{{Sfn|Łowmiański|1979|p=93-97}}

The second problem is that it is not clear which information in the glosses pertains to [[Slavic paganism|Slavic mythology]] and which to [[Greek mythology]].{{Sfn|Szyjewski|2003|p=105}} According to the glosses Svarog is: (1) the Slavic equivalent of [[Hephaestus]], the Greek god of fire and smithing, (2) the father of Dazhbog, and (3) the creator of [[monogamy]]. According to Andrzej Szyjewski, the myth of the adulterous wife fits Hephaestus (pagan Slavs were [[Polygamy|polygamous]]{{Sfn|Alvarez-Pedroza|2021|p=319}}), whereas the myth of the blacksmith god being the father of the Sun does not appear anywhere in Greek mythology.{{Sfn|Szyjewski|2003|p=105}} Łowmiański believed that Hephaestus was not translated as Svarog because of his association with fire and smithing, but precisely because of his being the father of the Sun.{{Sfn|Łowmiański|1979|p=98}} Brückner and [[Dimitri Obolensky]] interpreted this account as a distorted myth about a blacksmith god who forged a sun disk. Such an affinity may be indicated by the Baltic parallel where [[Teliavelis]] forges the sun and casts it on the sky.{{Sfn|Szyjewski|2003|p=105}}