Khors: What We Actually Know About the Slavic God

Khors, also written Hors, is one of the few East Slavic gods named in a medieval source. We know he was important enough to stand among the idols set up by Prince Volodimer of Kyiv in 980. Almost everything else about him, including whether he was a god of the sun or the moon, is still debated.

Volodimer's pantheon

The Primary Chronicle, compiled in Kyiv in the early twelfth century, records that in 980 Prince Volodimer set up idols on a hill outside his palace: Perun, with a silver head and a golden moustache, followed by Khors, Dazhbog, Stribog, Simargl and Mokosh. A few years later, after his conversion to Christianity, Volodimer had the idols thrown down. The passage is the main evidence that Khors was worshipped at all.

"Great Khors" in the Tale of Igor

The twelfth-century Tale of Igor's Campaign adds a single tantalising line. Prince Vseslav, running as a wolf by night, "crossed the path of great Khors" before the cocks crowed. Many scholars read this as racing the sun, reaching his destination before sunrise; others argue that the night-time setting points to the moon.

Sun or moon?

Because Khors appears beside Dazhbog, usually understood as a sun god, some researchers suggest Khors was a lunar deity, or a name borrowed from Iranian words for the sun. Studies published in Studia Mythologica Slavica and elsewhere continue to weigh these possibilities. The honest answer is that the evidence allows more than one reading.

Khors in jewellery

A Khors design references the gods of early Kyivan Rus' and the long-running puzzle of their meaning. You can see the AURYN Khors charm, or read about Belobog and Sventovit.