The reconstruction of the pre-christian slavic religion and iranian lexical borrowing: a methodological review

Abstract

In the following paper the author makes a review of the main theories that have been put forward regarding the reconstruction of the pre-Christian Slavic religion, giving special attention to those postulating close links between the Iranian and the Slavic people in prehistoric times. Said theories are based on two main arguments. The first states that there are a series of etymologies that may have been loans from eastern Iranian into common Slavic. The second focuses on the dualistic character of pre-Christian Slavic religion and its connection to Iranian dualism. After re-examining the data that serves as the basis for these postulates, the author argues that there is no solid theoretical evidence to propose a clear Iranian influence in Slavic paganism.