[Other] Slavic god of cattle and horned livestock (skotnyi bog). Veles also became associated with commerce, wealth, and prosperity; merchants often sealed their agreements by swearing upon his name, and legal documents sometimes concluded with oaths to him. This second attribute has led Roman Jakobson to speculate that, as an older, Indo-European deity, Veles absorbed some of the functions of the Vedic god Varuna, who was seen in part as a protector of world order and a guarantor of promises. B. A. Rybakov argues that Veles emerged during the neolithic era as a "master of the forest" – presiding over the souls of wild animals killed for food – then underwent a transformation to a "god of flocks" as Slavic societies made the transition from hunting and gathering to a more settled, agricultural existence. Some Baltic groups worshipped Veles as well, but connected him more with the underworld and the dead; the Lithuanian root vele means "shade of the deceased" or "shadow of death." After th...
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