Rod, Slavic God of Rain and Fertility

In some records of pre-Christian Slavic mythology, Rod is an ancient rain and fertility god, who along with his associates and female counterparts the Rozhanitsy, protects the home and childbirth. In other records, however, Rod is not a god at all, but rather a newborn child and the spirit of a clan's ancestors, who survives to protect the family. 

Rod in Slavic Mythology 

In general, little is known about pre-Christian Slavic religion, and what exists is murky, reported by Christian detractors who preferred that the pagan ways disappear. The Old Slavic word "rod" means "clan" and if he was a god at all, Rod provided rain and established the importance of the family. In the Baltic region, he is blended with Sviatotiv (Svarog) and said to have created people by sprinkling dust or gravel over the surface of the earth. Svarog was a supreme god, who was later to be replaced in Slavic mythology with Perun. 

Most sources, though, associate Rod with the Rozhanitsy, the goddesses of fate and childbirth. The word "rod" is related to "roditeli," the word for "ancestors," itself drawn from the word for "family" or "clan." In medieval Slavic commentaries on the theologian Gregory of Nazianzenus (329–390 CE)'s 39th Oration, Rod is not a god at all, but a newborn child. Gregory was talking about the birth of the Christ child, and his 14th- and 15th-century Slavic commentators compared the Rozhanitsy to the child's attendants.

Rod's role as a supreme god was first mentioned in a late 15th/early 16th-century commentary on the Gospels. Historians Judith Kalik and Alexand Uchitel, however, argue that Rod was never a god, but rather an invention of the medieval Slavic Christians, who felt uncomfortable with the female-based and persistent cult of the Rozhanitsy. 

Rod and the Rozhanitsy 

Many references associate Rod with the cult of the Rozhanitsy, goddesses who protected the clan ("rod") from the vagaries of life. The women were in a sense the spirits of ancient ancestors, who were sometimes seen as a single goddess, but more often as multiple goddesses, similar to the Norse Norns, Greek Moirae, or Roman Parcae—the Fates. The goddesses are sometimes thought to be mother and daughter and sometimes mentioned as the consort of Rod. 

The cult of the Rozhanitsy involved a ceremony held at the birth of a child, as well as larger ceremonies in the spring and fall every year. When a child was born, three women, usually elderly and representing the Rozhanitsy, drank from a horn and predicted the fate of the child. The Babii Prazdnik (Old Woman's Holiday or Radunitsa) was celebrated near the vernal equinox. A feast was prepared and eaten in honor of the dead; the women of the village decorated eggs and placed them on the graves of the deceased ancestors, symbolizing rebirth. Another feast was celebrated on September 9 and at the time of the winter solstice.

These practices extended well into the medieval and later periods, and the new Christians in Slavic society were very concerned about the persistence of this dangerous pagan cult. Despite the warnings of the church, people continued to worship the Rozhanitsy, often held in their sacred place, the bathhouse or spring, a site representing purification and regeneration.

Was Rod a God? 

If Rod was ever a god, he was likely an ancient one, associated with rain and fertility, and/or a clan-based spirit that protected the home, equivalent to the Roman household gods which preserve the eternal kinship bond. If so, he may also have been a version of the domovoi, kitchen spirits that reside in people's homes. 

Sources 

• Dixon-Kennedy, Mike. "Encyclopedia of Russian and Slavic Myth and Legend." Santa Barbara CA: ABC-CLIO, 1998. 
• Hubbs, Joanna. "Mother Russia: The Feminine Myth in Russian Culture." Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993.
• Ivantis, Linda J. "Russian Folk Belief." London: Routledge, 2015.
• Lurker, Manfred. "A Dictionary of Gods, Goddesses, Devils and Demons." London: Routledge, 1987. 
• Matossian, Mary Kilbourne. "In the Beginning, God Was a Woman." Journal of Social History 6.3 (1973): 325–43. 
• Troshkova, Anna O., et al. "Folklorism of the Contemporary Youth’s Creative Work." Space and Culture, India 6 (2018).