Welnos

Welnos is an Indo European deity linked to cattle, and there are similar gods in many mythologies such as Slavic, Lithuanian, Latvian, Norse, and Old English.

Welnos
Equivalents
Norse equivalent	Ullr
Slavic equivalent	Veles

Overview

Welnos was reconstructed from the Slavic god Veles, Lithuanian god Velnias, and Latvian god Velns, who all protected flocks. The name of this god is also similar to Old Norse Ullr and Old English Wuldor.

Academic views

Scholar Jaan Puhvel thought Welnos is also connected to the Elysian fields in Greek myth and ritual. Some scholars, such as Max Muller, believed that Welnos, was related to Sanskrit Varuna and Greek Ouranos. However, this theory has been rejected because of language reasons, and the origin of the word is no longer accepted..

Welnos may have been a kind sky father who represented the night while Dyēus represented the day and danger. He might have had a competition with Perkwunos like Perun and Veles.

Welnos Media

• 

  Trundholm sun chariot, Nordic Bronze Age, c. 1600 BC

• 

  Portrait of Friedrich Max Müller, a prominent early scholar on the reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European religion and a proponent of the Meteorological School.

• 

  Charon prepares to receive the shade of a youth into his skiff. The ferryman leans on his pole and is surrounded by the reeds of the river Acheron (one of the five rivers of the Greek underworld).

• 

  Zoroastrian deities Mithra (left) and Ahura Mazda (right) with king Ardashir II.

• 

  Zeus with a laurel crown. Gold stater from Lampsacus, Mysia (ca. 360–340 BC), obverse.

• 

  Eos in her chariot flying over the sea, red-figure krater from South Italy, 430–420 BC, Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Munich.

• 

  Possible depiction of the Hittite Sun goddess holding a child in her arms from between 1400 and 1200 BC.

Related pages

• Paganism
• Slavic peoples
• Eastern Europe
• History of Europe