Mythological Notions of the Deceased among the Slavic Peoples

Abstract

Many taboos and a high resistance to change are the hallmark of posthumous rituals and customs among all Slavic peoples, which has helped maintain their archaic nature. According to Slavic beliefs, in the otherworld, the souls of the deceased who were kind-hearted during their lifetime join the group of their ancestors who guard the living, providing them with prosperity and fertility. In return, living descendants had an obligation to periodically organize commemorations for the deceased, invoke memories of them, and make (food) offerings meant for the salvation of their souls. On the other hand, Slavs believed that the deceased who died prematurely or violently, or those who were dishonourable throughout their lives, became “the revenant deceased” or “the impure deceased” and could bring harm, sickness, and death to the living. For these reasons, people tended to prepare all of the dead—particularly the ones whose souls could potentially become members of the “impure” group—adequately for the funeral and to see their souls off from this world following traditional rites. This research is based on the presupposition that, among folk beliefs, customs, and rituals regarding the deceased (and their souls), there is a substratum whose archaic nature reaches back to the period when Slavic peoples lived together. These are folk beliefs and customs which appear in all three groups of Slavic peoples but are not related to any of the predominant religions, primarily Christianity, nor did they emerge under the influences of those religions. The sources used in the research include a published ethnographic corpus of data and scientific papers on posthumous rites among the Slavs. Also taken into account were archaeological, historical, and linguistic sources.

1. Introduction

Even today, there is scientific uncertainty regarding speaking about the life of ancient Slavs and their worldview, considering that, before accepting Christianity, Slavic tribes did not have their alphabet and left no written records of their spiritual culture. Available written sources date more recently, and their authors are either biased representatives of Christianity, who usually take a negative stance regarding the topic they write about, or Arabian travel writers, who were trying to amaze their readers with distant and “exotic” Slavic worlds. Hence, the possible reconstruction of mythological representations requires knowledge that different fields of study—archaeology, linguistics, ethnography, and folkloristics—can provide about the Slavs. Through the comparative research of folk culture phenomena—customs, rites, rituals, and beliefs—different elements could be found which are common to all Slavic tribes, although they do not connect to—nor can they be considered a result of religious influence, markedly of Christianity—what is dominant among Slavs.

In this research paper, we pose a hypothesis that common elements in folk perceptions of the deceased can originate from the same source and be a part of the oldest Slavic belief system and myths. Posthumous rites and customs are profoundly archaic, considering that the sphere they belong to (death) implies adherence to many taboos. The most significant rites are those that prohibit changing traditionally set practices and processes of preparation of the deceased human in order to prevent them, as believed, from returning (in the form of a vampire) or their soul from roaming around.

2. Written Sources

One of the earliest mentions of posthumous Slavic rites is found in Strategicon, a manual of war written by Pseudo-Maurice (dating back to the end of the 6th century), where he states that many women in the Slavic tribes are so loyal to their husbands that they voluntarily follow them even into death1 (Mansikka 2016, p. 314). Arabian travel writers, the best-known of whom are Ahmad Ibn Fadlan and Mas’udi, also describe the same practice. Although these are somewhat unreliable sources, considering that it is not always clear which tribes they refer to as Slavs2 and that their writing is often filled with exaggerations, aiming at keeping the readers’ attention, they are relevant for their extensive descriptions of funeral rites. Ibn Fadlan (around the year 920) witnessed the funeral of one of the well-known Russian traders who was placed on a boat, wearing expensive clothing, with a weapon placed beside him. Then, after one girl from the funeral còrtege had agreed to voluntarily follow her master into death, they induced her into a state of trance and sacrificed her—which was followed by the sacrifice of a dog, two horses, two bulls, a hen, and a rooster (Gal’kovskiy 1916, p. 77). Mas’udi (first half of 10th century) writes that Slavs are subdivided into many tribes and that they all share great respect for the dead. The author also suggests that “Slavs and Russians” burn their dead, placing animals, weapons, and jewellery beside them. He specifies that, if a man dies, a woman is also burnt with him on a pyre, although not vice versa. If the deceased was not married, Mas’udi notes, he “gets married” posthumously (Gal’kovskiy 1916, p. 78). Around the year 930, Ibn Rustah repeats the facts written by his predecessors about the Slavs, since he never personally met these peoples, but also adds some new details from written sources or stories he had heard. He states that a woman who deeply loved the deceased would be sacrificed (hanged) above his body, then they would be burnt together, and the urn with their ashes would then be placed on some natural elevation. He also adds that one of the forms of expressing grief for the deceased was cutting one’s face and arms with knives (Gal’kovskiy 1916, p. 78; Mansikka 2016, p. 329).

In Chronicle of Nestor3 (12th century), there is a description of the East Slavic tribes of Viatichs’, Radimichs’ and Severians’ practice that invoked the so-called trizna rite of burning the deceased on a pyre, followed by the collecting of the bones in a smaller container, which they would then place upon a column4 beside the road (Gal’kovskiy 1916, p. 74; Mansikka 2016, p. 124; Loma 2004, p. 18). This source also reveals that princess Olga asked the Drevlians, who had killed Igor, to let her lament and wail by his grave and to organize the trizna. In a message she had sent them, the princess emphasized that she also expected them to prepare large amounts of honey for this occasion (PVL 2007, p. 28). Furthermore, it is stated that, in 969, Olga’s son and grandchildren also lamented for her after her death, but, since Olga had become a Christian, she had ordered for the trizna not to be organized after her death (Gal’kovskiy 1916, p. 75; Mansikka 2016, p. 129). Many authors consider the trizna to imply ritual war games and competitions, organized as a way of commemorating the deceased during the funeral procedures. The tournaments were also widespread among ancient Greeks in Thrace, and other peoples had also preserved relics of games where the prize was often the deceased’s property (clothes, horses, or similar; Mansikka 2016, pp. 126–27). V. N. Toporov offered a different interpretation of the lexeme trizna, connecting it to the number three5 and believing that it could refer to the ritual slaughter of a three-year-old animal or three different animals, three different sacrifices (man, a domesticated, and a wild animal), or sacrificing one-third of one’s estate, three days’ long sacrificing, or competing in three types of fights, and similar (Toporov 1979, pp. 3–20; 2004, pp. 273–91).

Some of the after-burial ceremonial rites are described in Slavic translations of the Byzantine Nomocanon (a collection of ecclesiastical law), dated after church congregations, as well as in Christian writers’ educational sermons (14th to 16th century), as a part of condemnations of pagan-like behaviours. For instance, the Solovecka variant of the Nomocanon, dating from 1493, criticized the practice of loudly wailing for the deceased and hair-picking as a symbol of grievance (Mansikka 2016, p. 260). St. John Chrysostom condemns in his homilies the practice of leaving food for the deceased or strewing ashes to see, according to the belief, the footprints of the deceased who visited their homes in the form of birds (Mansikka 2016, p. 201). The writings of Maximus the Greek (from the 16th century) condemn the practice of excavating the bodies of persons who committed suicide and leaving them somewhere unburied, which was practiced in cases of great spring frosts (Mansikka 2016, pp. 240–41). The belief that the soul of the suicide is the one who brought frosts at the wrong time is the basis of this custom.

3. Incineration and Inhumation among Slavs

Incineration was seen as the most efficient means of purifying and releasing the soul from the body, thereby the fastest way to “heaven”, as the translator interpreted to Ibn Fadlan during the rite he was witnessing, along with commenting that Arabs are “stupid” because they “throw” their most beloved ones and the ones they respect into the ground “so they get eaten by bugs and worms” (Loma 2004, p. 55). In Europe, the burning of the dead and burying them under the hearth was practiced even in the Palaeolithic, while, in the Neolithic, we can see burial both beside the hearth and under the floor inside the house6. This way of burying could explain attaching the cult of ancestors to the hearth, which was very noticeable among the Slavic peoples. Following the belief that ancestors are precisely those sent to the otherworld through burning, Lukinova suggests that the etymology of the word “vampire”7 (Serbian: vampir) is from the Proto-Indo-European word (o)n-puros, which reflects in ancient Greek adjective a-pyros, meaning “without fire”. This adjective also signifies the rite carried out without fire. Etymologically, “vampire” could then denote the one who was, contrary to the practices, left unburned, and therefore disturbs the family (Loma 2004, p. 54). Also, Trubachev interpreted a Proto-Slavic word *sьmьrtь as “one’s own, good death”, but also as “to be buried in accordance with the customs of one’s clan”, i.e., “to be cremated” (Trubachev 1963, p. 83). In the western Russian transcript of the Russian translation of The Chronicle of John Malalas, dating back to 1261, there is a description of three ways of burying the dead, whereby cremation is the one considered appropriate and preferable. There is a story about one of the sons of the late Sovije, who buried his father in the ground, but the deceased afterwards complains that worms and reptiles are eating him. His son then excavates and leaves him on a tree (a practice of exposing the body on the ground, unburied), but he then complains that bees and mosquitoes are eating him. Only after he is burnt does Sovije communicate that he “slept like a baby in the cradle” (Toporov 1985b, p. 101). Although this story is associated with the Balts, the possibility of the Russian author of the Chronicle’s appendix reaching out to his Slavic tradition is not ruled out (Loma 2004, p. 56).

Archaeology has not yet answered which burial rite is older among the Slavs, although it is usually considered to be incineration. We know that cremation (at first without kurgans, and then, beginning from the 6th century, with them) was widely performed in central Europe and partly Eastern Europe, and the peoples who practiced it were ancestors of the Celts, Germanic peoples, Slavs, and Balts. In the southeast of the Slavic area (where the Antes lived), the rites of burning and burying the dead without kurgans were equally performed. Burials in these regions were most probably practiced under the influence of Iranian tribes (Sedov 1990, pp. 177–78).

We could say that the burning of the dead among the Slavic tribes was predominant in the times from which we have proof, while burials became more frequent since the 10th century, along with the spread of Christianity. In the 8th century, Bonifacius wrote that Venedi (Western Slavs, neighbouring Germanic peoples) used to burn their dead and that their women would voluntarily sacrifice themselves on the same pyre. The last ones among the Slavic tribes who burnt their dead were the Radimichs, Krivichs, and Viatichs (Mansikka 2016, p. 80). Czechs and Poles used to burn their dead until the 11th century, and the Serbs until the 10th century (Zechević 1982, p. 22). They cremated the deceased on natural elevations. They usually collected the remains and buried them inside shallow graves or, more rarely, scattered them around the earth’s surface. Also, they would put the ashes into urns or bundles and then bury them. Sharp objects, such as knives, were also found within these bundles8, which we could interpret as a form of protection against the deceased’s return. Sometimes, they would put the urn onto the kurgan (tumulus), and sometimes upon a wooden pole (Mansikka 2016, p. 81). Archaeology testifies to the fact that animals were burnt alongside the deceased, and the remains found in the kurgans from the 10th century in the Russian region confirm the existence of their joint burials (Mansikka 2016, pp. 82, 87, 413). Archaeologists found remains of food, dishes, and coal in the layers of the kurgans, so the hypothesis is that the deceased’s relatives used to visit the kurgan from time to time, feasting for the salvation of his soul. The remains of ceramic dishes support the hypothesis about an archaic custom of breaking pottery during the burning of the dead or the visit to the kurgans (Mansikka 2016, p. 82). They found clothes, leather footwear, different objects (a knife, jugs, a wooden bucket, a sickle, an axe, a spindle, more rarely, women ornaments, and, rarely, money and amulets) inside the kurgans. Sedov agrees with Niderle’s opinion that it was not typical for the Slavs to bury their dead together with any objects (rather that they were burnt together with them) and that this practice became a part of their culture under foreign influence in regions where they had contact with the Balts, Finno-Ugrians, and other tribes located beside the borders of the Slavic world (Sedov 1985, p. 78; 1990, p. 172).

Niderle thought that the Slavic peoples adopted the rite of inhumation under foreign influence (Roman, Oriental, Germanic, and Scythian–Sarmatian), which became predominant beginning with the 12th century (Mansikka 2016, p. 80). Probably also of a foreign origin is burial inside tombs resembling wooden houses inside the ground (chamber graves), which almost simultaneously appeared in the 9th and 10th centuries near today’s Kyiv, Pskov, Chernihiv, Ladoga, then in Denmark, Sweden, north Germany, and Poland. Within these graves—next to the deceased, whose position was at the top of the social hierarchy—furniture, chests with clothes, dishes with food, and the bones of women and horses were also found (for more details, see: Mikhaylov 2016).

4. The Deceased as the “Body” and the “Soul”

In the Slavic folk culture, the soul of the deceased falls into one of two categories—depending on his life, fairness, and the way he died, one group consists of the “good” or the “pure” deceased who died naturally, by “their own” death (in old age), and for whom people believed are joining the group of ancestors in the otherworld. The well-being of the household and its members depended on the attitudes of the living towards them. They believed that the ancestors protect their descendants and bestow wealth and fertility on them if the living ones foster memories of them, hold commemorations, and adhere to the forbiddance of working during certain days. They could appear using the form of animals and forewarn the living descendants about an upcoming misfortune or death within the family. Among all the Slavs, there are beliefs about the spirit patron of the home, which lives in the form of a snake under the doorstep, under the hearth, or in one of the house walls. The Slavs believed that the household snake (the snake-guardian of the home) is the soul of the first householder in the new home and that it appears most often before the current living householder dies (Radenković 2012, pp. 167, 175). The souls of the good deceased could also appear in the form of other animals, very often as birds, which is, in all likelihood, an ancient notion widely spread among the Slavic people (Moszyński 1967, p. 549). Leaving food for the soul birds and strewing ashes over the floor so their traces could be visible is a practice which, as noted before, medieval Christian writers condemned, although they could not repress it (Biegeleisen 1930, p. 57). Contemporary use of grains in the funeral rite and in rituals tied to the ancestor cult among Slavic peoples is based on the belief that human souls are birds. Eastern Slavs would leave a small white towel on the window so that one of its ends hung on the outside and then put bread on it so that a soul bird would come for six weeks after the funeral. In Russia (Vitebsk governorate), it was forbidden to put your legs on the bar under the table during the funeral feast because people believed that souls in the form of birds sit on it.

On the other hand, if someone died prematurely, violently, took his own life, or if he died unmarried, people believed that he would become the “impure” deceased9, which means he would not have a place in the otherworld; instead, his soul would wander between the two worlds and disturb the living by bringing them misfortune, sickness, and death. The belief that the dead could bring illness is first mentioned in the chronicle in 1092, when, in the city of Polock (in contemporary Byelorussia), in all likelihood, emerged an epidemic, and the people believed that the “navi” (the dead) were rushing through the night riding their horses. No one could see them, they could only hear them and see the traces of hooves, and anyone who would meet them on the street would die (PVL 2007, p. 91). To successfully send the young, unmarried dead to the otherworld, Byelorussians, Ukrainians, Serbs, and Bulgarians would organize his funeral in the form of a wedding (they would dress the deceased in wedding garments, a dead girl would be in a wedding dress, and they made the ring out of wax). If a young man died, one of the girls from the funeral còrtege had a symbolic role of his bride10 and often would carry a broken candle (Mijatović 1907, pp. 90–91; Gura 2011, p. 757). Considering that, in Ibn Fadlan’s writings, there is no mention of the deceased’s widow, there is a possibility that the sacrificed girl from the còrtege was the one who was given the role of his bride in the otherworld. Classifying the souls of unbaptized people and children into the category of the “impure” deceased is, in all likelihood, a later phenomenon that arose under the influence of Christianity.

The deceased could also stay in this world11 if he had unfinished business, unresolved arguments with someone, owed someone a debt, or had such a strong bond toward someone living that he would not part from them. Among all Slavic peoples, there are widespread tales about the dead husband who returns to his wife, helps her around the house, and even has new children with her (Vinogradova 2000, pp. 316–27). However, the influence that the deceased has on people is always fatal, so the widow loses her vitality and, according to the stories told, could even die unless protective rites are performed and the deceased is driven away or destroyed.

There are widely spread beliefs among the Slavs that, at the moment of death, the deceased’s soul12 exits the body in the form of vapour or some animal (a fly, butterfly, bird, or mouse) and stays close to the body for a while13. This was the reason for spilling all the water that could be found in the house, while they would either cover the dishes or turn them upside down14, because they believed that the deceased’s soul could enter them (Vinogradova 1999, p. 152; Risteski 1999, p. 82; Vakarelski 1990, p. 65). In the moment of someone’s dying, but also right after the death, would come people who would open windows and doors (to help the soul exit the body), and it was crucial to light a candle. Folk culture usually understands death, likewise, the afterlife, as a transition from the “white world” into the world of darkness and obscurity, so they interpret the lighting of the candle as a wish to light the way for the deceased’s soul to the otherworld. People also believed that the candle helps the dead see in the otherworld, so it should be lit during certain holidays and memorial days (Tolstoy 1995, p. 189). South Slavs believed that, if a person died without a candle, he could become a vampire. If that were to happen for some reason (death in a war, outside of the house, or in an accident), they believed that they could “send” the candle by the deceased person who dies afterwards—they would usually place it in the coffin next to the “new” dead with a message from the family that said it was a candle for “their” deceased. They would leave a glass of water above the deceased’s head or on the window sill, which they explained with the belief that the soul drinks this water or will bathe after it exits the body (Fischer 1921, p. 199; Biegeleisen 1930, p. 57; Gromann 2015, p. 256). They would also place a loaf of bread on the window sill and tear it so that hot steam comes out of it, since people believed that souls feed on this steam (Strakhov 1985, p. 78; Khorobrykh et al. 2020, p. 299). Smaller domestic animals, such as cats or hens, were kept closed away while the deceased was inside the house, since they believed he would turn into a vampire if an animal jumped over the body15. The basis of this belief is the idea that the deceased’s soul could enter an animal, whereby his body would be left “empty”, and an impure spirit could occupy it, which is one of the forms of the deceased turning into a vampire according to folk beliefs.

The practice common among every tribe of Slavic people was to tell the animals within the household, especially bees, about the householder’s death. They used to take all the seeds out of the house, since people believed they would not germinate otherwise. All work would stop; sweeping with a broom and throwing out the garbage was particularly forbidden, since the belief was that the dirt would fall into the eyes of the deceased. Spinning, embroidering, and weaving were also prohibited (Milićević 1867, p. 122; Schneeweis 1929, p. 267; Gromann 2015, p. 248). Many work prohibitions related to the dead were also applicable to working on Fridays. For some Slavic peoples, Friday—and not Saturday—was the day dedicated to the dead and the day for visiting the graves. Considering that, in a Slavic week, Saturday and Sunday are days of foreign origin (Saturday was adopted from Judaism, while Sunday is a Christian day for resting), we could assume that they dedicated Friday to the dead, and it is also possible that it was the last day of the Slavic week (Djurić 2020, pp. 168, 268).

A belief common for all the Slavs is that they must send the deceased to the otherworld clean, so they used to wash the body; usually, a man would bathe a male body and a woman a female one. One person, usually a woman, would manage the posthumous preparations and receive gifts afterwards. Her task was also to organize other commemorations that were to follow. Interestingly, in the north of Russia, the name for this woman is homonymous with the midwife, which indicates that they perceived death as a new birth (Khorobrykh et al. 2020, p. 17). The folk believed that the deceased can hear what goes on around him until they take him out of the house or bury him. East Slavs, therefore, used to address him by his name while washing his body. For South Slavs—on the contrary, but based on the same belief—it was forbidden to call the name of the deceased—a practice aimed to prevent his returning. They usually took off his clothes by pulling them toward the legs or tearing the shirt, and never by pulling it over the head, believing that, otherwise, he would turn into a vampire. It was a custom among Serbs in some regions, when the deceased was a man older than 20, to burn all parts of the body with hair, which was again interpreted as a protection against becoming a vampire (Schneeweis 1929, p. 266). After washing the deceased, which they usually did inside, although sometimes outside, the house16, they would dress him up in new clothes. They spilled this water on the ground where no one passed because they believed that, if someone were to step over it, they would become severely ill. In Bulgaria, after the washing, they would smear wine17 and butter over the body, which was also considered a protection against turning into a vampire (Vakarelski 1990, p. 59). Usually, they would burn the clothes or leave them in a lonely place, in a thicket, or, more rarely, they would give them to the poor after a year had passed.

All Slavs placed metal coins onto the eyes of the deceased—for him to “pay tolls” or “buy some land” in the otherworld (Duchić 1931, p. 248; Vakarelski 1990, p. 58). They feared the dead whose eyes stayed open because, according to the belief, in that case, more deaths in the household were to follow (Yasinskaya 2016, p. 55). It was imperative to tie up the jaws of the deceased with a scarf for the soul not to return into the body or the impure spirit not to occupy it. They used to put a stone into his mouth for the same purposes. Before the burial, they would untie the scarf and place it inside the coffin next to the body. In Bulgaria, they explained the procedure through a belief that this was necessary so the deceased could speak in the otherworld (Vakarelski 1990, p. 59).

Tying up arms and legs also had a protective character. Stabbing the body with a needle (in the belly button or under the nails) or cutting with a knife (usually behind the knee) were also protective practices against the deceased turning into a vampire. Folk believed that the impure spirit could not enter the body if impaired in this way—stabbed or cut (Schneeweis 1929, p. 267). They would set on fire the straw on which someone died after taking the body out of the house, and Western Slavs used to believe that the deceased could not rest in peace before they burned all of it (Gromann 2015, p. 254).

If the death occurred at night, it was forbidden to wail loudly—so as not to evoke impure spirits. The rule was to wake everyone in the house so the deceased would not take along those who were asleep, as believed, or that his soul would not possess someone else’s body (Schneeweis 1929, p. 267; Mansikka 2016, p. 131). Mourning for the deceased took place during daylight, which was actually a way for the family to inform other people of his death. Wailing, hair plucking, and face scratching in the Balkans (in Serbia, Montenegro, and Albania) were the signs of mourning practiced until the 19th century. Interestingly, in these areas, groups of men also participated together with women in the mourning rituals (Duchić 1931, pp. 251–53).

Among all Slavic peoples, the custom was to not leave the deceased alone at night, so the wake and “watching over” them was a mandatory practice (Mikitenko 2004, p. 66). Ukrainians and (to a lesser extent) Serbs used to “amuse” the soul of the deceased (by singing and telling jokes) during the night. They would perform funny acts18 with his body, which we could understand as an echo of ancient games and competitions which preceded cremation. The description by Cosmas of Prague of one custom during the funeral, which Prince Bretislaus found when he came to the Czech throne in 1092, could also echo these ritual acts. Although we should take this information with caution, since Cosmas was a priest, it tells us about a custom during the funeral procession—to make stops at crossroads in forests or the fields and sing and dance to calm the deceased’s soul, and also feast and make “dishonourable” jokes with him (Geyshtor 2014, p. 232).

People performed many rites that had a magical character with the deceased’s body. They believed that the deceased, especially ones devoted to their households, could take away the yield, so they used to sift some wheat or flour through their fingers (so they would take away only “their” part19 and leave the rest in the household; Vukanović 1986, p. 307). Also, people treated warts by taking the deceased by the hand and moving his finger over them three times. Some Slavic peoples moved over sick teeth with the little finger of their right hand. A base for these practices is the idea that the dead have no more pain anywhere, so the living strived for the same result through sympathetic magic. Likewise, they symbolically sent sickness to the grave, together with the deceased. They used various parts of his dead body in magical rituals (particularly some parts of the arms, legs, fingers, and skull), and there was a belief that the one having them in his possession would always go unpunished in court. Folk ascribed extraordinary power to objects that had some contact with the deceased during the preparation of his body, then to his personal items, and particularly to the ones he used immediately before his death. They used his spoon to treat a sore throat, a scarf for tying the dead’s jaws to smudge the sick man or tie someone’s throat to treat a fever, or people would carry it with them as a protection against any illness, and even used it in love magic rituals. They used to practice divination for the family based on the deceased’s body. They believed the dead could “take someone with them” if their eyes stayed open20. If the body was “soft”, they also presumed that someone else might die (Gromann 2015, p. 248; Biegeleisen 1930, p. 91).

They would often take the deceased out of the house through a window or a hole in the wall, which was done to prevent them from coming back. The first mention of this practice is in the Chronicle of Nestor, which describes that the late Prince Vladimir was (although he became a Christian) taken out through a hole in the wall (Łowmiański 1996, pp. 106–7; Mansikka 2016, p. 134). A custom spread among all Slavic peoples was to take the deceased out of the house feet-first (so that he does not look “back” inside the house and return to it), and they would thereby tap the doorstep with the coffin three times (Gromann 2015, p. 250). As soon as they would take him out, they would break a dish, symbolizing the final parting with the deceased and establishing the new order. They would turn the desk where he was laying upside down and place bread, strew wheat, and hammer a nail on that spot (so he would not return). Among all Slavs, there was a practice to put the deceased onto a sled and pull it to the graveyard, regardless of the season, and the sled was also turned upside down afterwards (Łowmiański 1996, pp. 106–7; Tolstoy 1990, p. 121).

Slobodan Zechević thought that a custom—carried out among some Slavic peoples until recently—of lighting a fire or a candle at the bottom of the grave or strewing ash over it and the coffin before putting the coffin into the ground could be an indication of incineration rituals. They would also set oakum on fire around the deceased, the coffin, or the grave, and somewhere surround the place with lit candles immediately after the funeral (Zechević 1982, p. 23). This author interpreted the lighting of the fires on Slavic graves—which has been mentioned since the 15th or 16th century—in the same manner (Zechević 1982, p. 22). It was prohibited to turn around towards the graveyard while leaving21.

5. The Deceased in the Otherworld

On the sole basis of folk beliefs, we cannot accurately determine where the Ancient Slavs thought the otherworld was, whether in the ground where the remains of the body were (both in the case of burning and burial) or in the heavens22. What is certain is that the deceased travels to that world; he quite often also has to pay tolls or buy off some part of the land where he will reside—which is indicated by the money buried with the body. According to the beliefs, the deceased also travelled across large waters, and the money was then used to pay for the boat ride (Geyshtor 2014, p. 232). One of the most common folk perceptions is that of the otherworld as forever dark and cold, a notion influenced by other earth attributes but also by the invisibility of both that world and the dead, which further influenced the described ritual acts with candles (Sedakova 2004, p. 66). Another widespread belief is that the deceased are constantly thirsty, which might indicate that the otherworld is actually hot and lacks water. This perception is the basis of the practice of pouring water and wine over graves.

The Indo-European conception of the world of the dead as a pasture where souls graze in the form of animals prompted Ivanov and Toporov to formulate the hypothesis that the god of the ancient Slavs, Veles/Volos, who was considered the god of (horned) livestock, is simultaneously the god of the dead (Ivanov and Toporov 1974, p. 67; Toporov 1985a, pp. 93–94; Mencej 1995, p. 207). Toporov also draws attention in his research to naming the pastures in Russian dialects as “volya”, a term also used for graveyards in poetic texts (Toporov 1985a, pp. 93–94). However, these interpretations remain at the level of a hypothesis.

Łowmiański believed that, among Slavic tribes, one cannot speak of a belief in the immortality of the soul (at least not in the sense in which Christians interpret it), but they acknowledged its continuation after the death of the physical body through a close connection with the body in the grave (Łowmiański 1996, p. 102). In the case of both burial and cremation, the place where the remains of the deceased are stored (grave, urn) becomes a point of contact with them. The actions performed on graves during commemorative days are a form of contact with the deceased, who, it is believed, can then see and hear the living, and partake in what they have brought and dedicated.

People believed that the deceased’s soul continues to exist in the otherworld similarly to this one, so it needs clothes, food, water, light, warmth, personal hygiene objects, money, and especially objects, instruments, or the tools which he used and worked with, and held dear during his lifetime (Risteski 1999, p. 82). Among many Slavic peoples, there was a belief that the last deceased to be buried guards the entrance of the graveyard until a new deceased comes and takes his place. Western Slavs also believed he was obliged to bring water to all the dead (Gromann 2015, p. 260).

On the other hand, among all Slavs, it was prohibited to bury the “impure” deceased alongside the “ordinary” and “pure” ones. They used to bury those who belonged to this “impure” group outside of the graveyard in the past; Eastern Slavs buried them all together in large pits or swamps, or often left them unburied. According to the beliefs, their souls were wandering through this world, but they were also inseparably bound to the places where their bodies rested or where they lost their lives, with one difference being that they wanted to harm the living. They most commonly appeared in the forms of black or chthonic animals or ghosts.

6. Conclusions

Slavic notions of the deceased encompass the beliefs about the body and the soul of the dead, which we could say unites two opposing principles. On the one hand, there was a tendency to see the dead, i.e., his soul, off from this world as soon as possible. Underlying was the fear of the dead and his return, so they conducted ritual and custom practices to protect the living (preparations of the body, destroying objects and clothes that had contact with the deceased, and burial and protective practices in his home afterwards). People believed that the soul dwells near the body—while it exists, so the ritual practices were directed towards the soul too, in all probability—the living should show mourning and grief, but the deceased should be seen off with feasting and honours afterwards (a former trizna and, later, games and jokes played out in the presence of the deceased’s body).

On the other hand, they believed that contact with the deceased does not end after the burial and that he can affect his family members’ lives, so they tended to transfer him—using posthumous practices—to the group of ancestors as soon as possible. The grave was, both in the cases of burning and burial, considered the deceased’s new home, but also a place his soul would occasionally visit, so they arranged it accordingly and provided him with what he would need in the afterlife.

The way the deceased died and the way they buried him had, in the Slavic world, the same significance as the way he was born—it affected his later existence. The people believed that the dead’s existence continues in the otherworld in the same way as he lived in this one, but that he could also take on another form (of an animal) to be able to make contact with the living.

Supposedly, the Slavs had an idea about the determined duration of one’s lifetime, so those who would die prematurely (violently or by taking their own life) were considered wandering souls, i.e., souls who cannot enter the otherworld. Maybe the fact of not sending them off from this world by tradition contributed to this interpretation. Nevertheless, we cannot say the Slavs viewed the souls in the otherworld as “sinful” or “righteous”. The “righteous” ones became the ancestors, while the “sinful” ones wandered between the two worlds, often taking on the form of mythological/demonic creatures or becoming one of them. Also, people presupposed that one would fulfil particular tasks during one’s lifetime; among others, that he would be honourable and get married, so that his existence in the otherworld could be peaceful, and that a peaceful deceased also meant peace for the living.