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About Yarovit-Yarilo

Today I present you my translation of fragments of two polish academic publications that are great favorites of mine. Fragments chosen are centered around Yarovit and Yarilo. My own comments will be indicated by a „trans. note” disclaimer. The fragments below are merely a part of larger text. I apologize for any context lost to the lack of broader perspective on the whole of the publication.

Mitologia Słowian by Aleksander Gieysztor

Chapter V: Principal deities and myths

Subchapter: „Perun’s many ways - Sventovit, Ruyevit & company, Yarovit-Yarilo”

Yarovit-Yarilo

A deity called Yarovit (trans. note: Herovith, Gerovit, pl: Jarowit) was worshipped in two locations settled by polabian Slavs - in pomeranian Wolgast and in Havelberg, a gord inhabited by the Brizans tribe (pl: Brzeżanie). During the mission of bambergian bishop Otton in Wolgost in 1128 one of his priests hid from an angry crowd in a pagan temple, and there found a giant shield covered in golden plates, that was considered untouchable and would only be carried out during war time, as a blessing of good luck. The preacher snatched the sacred shield and ran back out of the temple terrifying the pursuing crowd - in the sput of the moment they thought they see Yarovit himself. One of the writers compares him to Mars, another calls him the god of war - there is no doubt Yarovit was a martial god. It’s hard to tell if there was any statue in his temple, as the escaping priest only noticed the shield. A shield is a ritual object in many martial cults, for example in roman Regia (trans. note: royal house on the ancient Forum Romanum) a most sacred shield was watched over by guards. So called „Stone of Yarovit” in St. Peter’s church of Wolgast (trans. note: Wolgast is now located in the northeast corner of Germany) is a tombstone dating to the earliest christian times. One of the polabian villagers saw Yarovit appear to him „in the robes of his idol” to warn him about the coming missionaries - so there seems to have existed some idol/statue of him (trans. note: episode from Vita s. Ottonis III by Ebonis).

There are no doubts as to the origin of this deity’s name. It came from the root jar-, jaro- meaning strength or severity, but also conveying the idea of stregth coming from youth, as in slavic word „jar” meaning spring. Similar military competences and analogical anatomy of the names strongly connect Yarovit and Sventovit (pl: Świętowit) with one another and with Perun - the supreme warrior god. We could try to follow Ivanov and Toporov (trans. note: famous russian folklorists) in their attempts to strengthen this thesis by means of analysing folklore and comparative religious studies. The baseline for all scholars here is belarusian text from 1846 describing Yarilo as a young man in white robes, barefoot, with human head under his right arm and stalks of rye in his left hand, in a herbal wreath, on a white horse. A ritual, which took place on 27th of April, to welcome spring before the first plowing, was performed by a procession of young girls, one of them dressed as Jarilo, sitting on a white horse, the others singing to her

„Yarilo wandered all over the world / Rye grew high in the fields, he gave women children / And where he set his foot/ There a stack of rye / Where he’s in the grain/ There the stalks grow tall”

Along Yarovit and Yarilo there is also a third name entangled in the cult practices, „Yarun” (pl: Jarun), a ruthenian idol named in Laurentian Codex, as well as a collection of common slavic words, ruthenian „jarovoj” - „of spring” „vernal”; polish word „jare” used to describe grains planted in the spring (trans. note: as opposed to „ozime” grains growing over the winter), ruthenian and czech word for spring „jar”.

As much as we can question the date and quality of this belarusian text it’s undeniable that there is an archaic note ringing in those beliefs - white robes and white horse, flowers and rye stalks, the head held by a victorious rider, the barefoot man, touching the earth with his feet in a cultically significant way, making grain sprout wherever he steps, opening the fields in the spring, with his name, the surveying of the fields. He has been accepted, his traits amalgamated with those of St. George (Sveti Jurij) who is celebrated in some places on 23rd of April (trans. note: julian, not gregorian), accompanied by burning of female effigy called Marena/Marzanna, personifying winter or death, a harbinger of spring. Sometimes young Yarilo is juxtaposed with the old Yarilo, who gives up his place - perhaps loses it in a fight with his young rival.

We can see a bit of a duality shaping up in the image of Yarovit-Yarilo-Yaruna. On one hand he is a warrior, on another an overseer of agricultural activity, which, despite Ivanovs and Toporov’s opinions, doesn’t take any odd naturalistic interpretations on the part of the people as it naturally belongs to the dominion of supreme deities - even Jupiter comes down to bless the roman farmer during his spring festival Vinalii, that falls on… 23rd April.

We also need to examine the toponimastic evidence: the city of Jarilovo and no less than four settlements called Jarilovic in the area od Novogrod the Great. In 18th century diocese of Voronezh festivities were held around an idol called Yarilo from Wednesday to Friday or Saturday in the week after Green Week, as late as 1673 a man would lead the festival, adorned with flowers and bells, with his face painted red and white.

Religia Słowian by Andrzej Szyjewski

Chapter V: The Lost Gods

Subchapter: „Deities of fertility and vegetation”, fragments

We can see the solar hero association even more prominently in Yarovit, worshipped in Wolgast and Havelberg. His very name „Yarovit”, „The Young Victor” is connected to spring, youthful strenght and sexual passion (as in slavic words „jar” - spring, „jurny” - virile, manly, or the phrase „stary ale jary” meaning something along the lines of „old but tough”). This particular god watched over the fertility of fields and forests, humans and beasts - or so we can guess from the threats of Yarovit’s priest made against all those who will choose the „german god” (trans. note: abrahamic god) over their local deity. In Wolgast a sacred golden shield of Jarowit was held described as „great of size and exquisitely made”, a clear solar symbol, that nobody but the god or his priest could touch. As the greatest sanctity in the temple to the polabians it was also a symbol of victory - let’s not forget that Otto of Bamberg describes Yarovit as a war god similar to Mars. As the greatest, untouchable sacred object, and at the same time the harbinger of victory it corresponds fully in its symbolism to the white horse of Sventovit. In the „Vita s. Ottonis” we find a clear reference to Yarovit as the god of military, his name is translated into latin as „Mars” („deo suo Gerovito, qui lingua Latina Mars dictur). Just like with Sventovit we see a trio of interconnected associations: fertility - solar hero - war.

The celebrations of Yarilo mentioned by the missionaries of Otto were likely the planting festival of 15th April. It could involve the god’s „descent” among the people, enacted with the help of the sacred shield. That the god spoke through the lips of żerca (slavic priest) we know from other versions of „Vita s. Ottonis” (trans. note: hagiographic writings about Saint Otto). Scholars try to reconstruct the pre-christian celebrations through XVIII century ethnographic materials concerning Yarilo (admittedly not Yarovit), with ruthenian and belarusian origins. Texts recovered from diocese of Voronezh mention local bishop putting an end to the festivities surrounding Yarilo held on 23rd April in julian calendar (15th of April corresponds in gregorian). In christian context Yarilo is replaced by Saint Jurij (description of the same ritual as one described above follows, girl dressed up as Yarilo, the same song). People would dance circle dances (korovod) on top of the freshly planted fields and end the day with a feast with orgiastic elements. The purpose of the rituals was to close the winter and open the spring; Yarilo opens the gates of earth, letting the spring out.

Yarilo’s attributes clearly point to his role as god of vegetation and fertility. The girl assuming his likeness during the festival, also known as Wiosnołka or Wiesnowka (trans. notes: pronounciation „vyos-NOHW-kah” or „vyes-NOHV-kah”) could be an echo of „divine bride”, an offering to the god, an incentive to arrive with the spring. Many songs refer to Yarilo causing the earth to sprout and bloom as he walks but also summoning dancing girls to him. Circle dances, white robes, white horse and the cut off head are all elements of solar symbolism. The head belongs to Old Yarilo, dethorned and overpowered by his young son. All over the world similar symbols exist - from celtic Curoi to mayan Hunahpu. Young Yarilo matures and dies as the harvest unfolds, then at the end of summer a funeral is held - this time main roles were played by young married women not maidens. They made an effigy of Yarilo (putting some extra effort into shaping his reproductive organs) that they called Kostrub („COST-roob”) and then they put him into his grave, in the ground since in the earth the sun loses it’s powers and dies, letting the new sun take over. The people would sing and cry out about Yarilo dying and ask him to get back on his horse in his golden saddle. Attempts to reconstruct the rituals seem to show that young Jarilo on white horse was juxtaposed with old Yarilo on black goat. Southern slavs practice similar rituals of burning old Badniak (a piece of wood with forked roots) on Christmas Eve to make place for young Božič (son of god). Western Slavs don’t have a deity corresponding to Yarilo - they close the winter in rituals involving Marena/Marzanna, followed by a procession carrying around „maik” or „nowe lato” symbolized by the peak of an evergreen coniferous tree or a rooster as a solar bird.

The Slavs were an agricultural society so agrarian deities were their primary source of relations with divine, cosmic forces. There is a certain myth/archetype that is characteristic for early farmers, the myth of creative murder, in which the first birth, growth and harvest are prompted by the first death - death of a deity, hero, ancestor, who dies sacrificing himself for the people, and from his body the first plants spring, allowing the people to survive. That myth, encated in many cultures in many ways leads to the cincept of a solar god that dies and is reborn cyclically, whose individual fate is reflected by the cycle of growing grain. The stalks loose their heads under the sickles for people to be able to feed. Yarilo (and maybe even Yarovit) makes identical sacrifice.

Art: Jaruna by Ada Konieczna

so playing andromeda and drawing kaleans got me thinkin’ on another minor complaint i have about ME and it’s this:

dang they can’t figure out how to make digitigrade legs work on a humanoid character and they end up adding extra joints to the legs to try to make it make sense

like i watched the animation cycle of that angara working out at the resistance camp and when he started doing crunches and his legs made an M shape i was just like smdh

i mean i think they handle it better with the angara since they have those weird little hand-feet (angara are so cute i cannot stand it) but the worst offender is probably the salarians

anyway i love the concept of humanoids with digitigrade legs so here’s some notes about it. it’s not beautifully formatted or anything but maybe it’s helpful!

basically the main thing to get out of your mind is that you’re not going for “backwards knees.” i am sure backwards knees could work and would be an interesting design, but it’s gonna change how this character moves and sits, it’s gonna affect the character’s center-of-gravity, it’s gonna be a much bigger overhaul of the anatomy than creating a digitigrade leg requires.

when you’re thinking of a digitigrade leg as having backwards knees, it’s probably because the joint you’re thinking of as the knee is actually the ankle

both plantigrade and digitigrade legs will have four major points of articulation: the hip the knee the ankle the toes and a digitigrade leg isn’t a plantigrade leg backwards, but on its tiptoes:

that’s basically all you gotta do! then you exaggerate the effects by changing the proportions of the leg, starting with making the knee-ankle length shorter, and the ankle-toe length longer.

the benefit of drawing digitigrade characters like this is that they can sit in chairs without looking ridiculous!

and finally, if your character doesn’t have paws or hooves or talons, they probably want to wear shoes! hell, even if they do they still might wear shoes. the ground is nasty! think this through and let it be another cool design opportunity. a good place to start if you’re stuck is looking at wedge heels, then drawing them without the heel!

aaaand here’s some aliens

now get outta here and draw some weird-ass legs aight

Just random and for like cartoons not real life

as requested- my zine about fat and plus size body types from instagram!💖 happy drawing everyone!

It only takes a couple of lines to go from one eye style to the other so I'm always stuck between them cause I love both so much

.. / … . . / -.– — ..-

BioShock Resource Masterpost

Due to multiple requests I’ve decided to collect all the free BioShock material I’ve shared under one post for ease of access. Because of size restrictions, some will have to be downloaded to be read, but I hope you enjoy anyways!

BioShock Artbooks

Breaking the Mold: The Art of Bioshock

Deco Devolution: Art of Bioshock 2

Art of Bioshock Infinite

If you like the physical books better, you can buy them here: The Art Of Bioshock Infinite & Deco Devolution: The Art of BioShock 2. The art book for the original Bioshock is very rare and expensive.

BioShock Novelizations & Original Pitch Document

BioShock: Rapture (eBook) (audiobook)

BioShock Infinite: Mind In Revolt (Spanish edition)

BioShock: First Person Action Horror  

If you’d like a store-bought copy better, you can them here: BioShock Infinite: Mind In Revolt & BioShock: Rapture eBook or audiobook.

Extended Resources

Artbook Masterlist: All non-BioShock artbooks I’ve collected

If you’re worried about the downloads being infected/bugged or whatever don’t be- I bought them legally and am putting them up on a private google docs for easy access.

Hi there!! First off thanks so much for spending all that time!! 

To be honest I’m still trying to get comfortable with anatomy….however I do have a lot of fun making bendy torsos (thanks to Junkrat’s horrible posture) and I think I’ve stylized them enough to make a tutorial on them. 

I almost always start my drawings with a C-curve/S-curve to mark the spine, this way I can exaggerate the torso as much as I like. Notice though that in the GIF the C-Curve isn’t actually where the spine is, it’s more of a way to feel the flow of the drawing.

So anyway yeah!!! I hope this helped in some way?? Sorry if it’s not extensive, I’m still learning a lot!! And thanks for the ask, I appreciate the love <3

Could you do one on how to draw facial features? Lihow do draw nose? How do draw eyes? How do draw lips/mouths? Esp at different angles

this is a more holistic look at drawing faces in perspective

each individual feature could really be its own tutorial

hope this helped!

It was about time I shared my art tutorials from Patreon.