Jarilo

Jarilo, also known as Yarylo, Iarilo, or Gerovit, is the Slavic god of vegetation, fertility and springtime.
== Overview ==
Jarilo was the lost, missing and tenth son of Perun, the Slavic high-god of thunder, who was born on the last night of February (the festival of Velja Noć or Great Night, the Slavic pagan celebration of the New Year), during which he was kidnapped by Veles, the god of the Underworld and sworn enemy of Perun.
Veles took Jarilo to the world of the dead and raised him there. The Slavic Underworld Nav, different to some others, was a lush, wet and green field, where Jarilo guarded the cattle of Veles.
During springtime he would return to the world of the living, where he med his sister, Morana, whom he fell in love with and married her. Their wedding would inspire the summer solstice-festival known as the Kupala Night, and would also bring temporary peace between Perun and Veles.
Despite finding love in the world of the living, Jarilo would be unfaithful to his wife, which leads to either her or Perun killing him. Morana would use the body of Jarilo to built herself a house, and became a hideous goddess of death, frost and the eventual winter.
Jarilo's story explains the Slavic view on the seasons and agriculture: him emerging out of the Underworld represents spring and the planting of crops, his happy marriage to Morana represents summer, his death at the hands of her represents autumn as well as the harvest and the use of his corpse as a house represents winter.
Category:Deities
Category:Slavic deities
Category:Fertility deities
Category:Agricultural deities
Category:Life-death-rebirth deities
Category:Nature deities