SVENTOVIT was the four-headed "god of gods" (deum deus) of the pre-Christian northwestern Slavs. His name, *Sventovit, is variously written—as Sventovit, Svantevit, Suatovitus, and, in the Knythlingasaga (c. 1265), Svantaviz—but his cult is precisely described in the Gesta Danorum (14.564) of Saxo Grammaticus (late twelfth century).

The center for the worship of Sventovit was in Arkona, on the Baltic island of Rügen. In the center of town was the citadel-temple, a wooden structure of consummate workmanship, built with logs and topped by a red roof. Inside the surrounding fence was a barbican, whose four posts stood free of the outer walls of the temple and adjoined some of the beams of the roof. The inner chamber, partitioned by heavy tapestries, held an enormous statue of Sventovit. Its four heads and necks were joined together: facing north, south, east, and west, they apparently corresponded to the four columns...