Porewit

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Porewit (also spelled Borevit, Borewit or Prove) was the god of the woods in the Slavic mythology. He is akin to the Greek Pan and the Roman Faunus and Silvanus.

He was represented as a bearded man or in the form of a he-goat, usually provided with deer horns and big genitalia, symbols of fertility and nature. He took care of the voyagers who went lost in the woods and punished the ones who destroyed trees or maltreated animals. Borevit was capable of modify his height to adapt it to the surrounding landscape: he was short next to a mushroom, high and imposing next to a tree.

The etimology of the name Borevit has been related to the Slavic terms barč (beehive) and bartnik (bee-master), a figure who, in some people, had functions similar to those of a shaman. According to Czesław Białczyński, Borevit's sister and wife was Leša, also known as Borana.

With the spread of Christianity, Boravit was identified with Satan or represented as the demon Boruta.

[edit] Wendish mythology

Porewit was one of the Slavic deities in Wendish mythology worshipped by the Rani in the town of Charenza on Rugia. In a wooden temple a wooden statue of five-headed Porewit was held and worshipped by a class of priests. Other deities worshipped in Charenza included Porenut and Rugiewit and Karewit, the protector of Charenza.