Veles

Veles (vĕl`ĕs), town (1994 pop. 56,751), in Macedonia, on the Vardar River. It is a road and rail junction and the market center for a fruit- and vegetable-producing region. An ancient town, Veles has Roman and medieval ruins. Under Communist Yugoslav rule it was known as Titov Veles.

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Veles 

or Volos, the ancient Slavic pagan deity considered the patron of cattle (skotii bog). The cult of Veles was known in tenth-century Kiev and Novgorod and later on in the Rostov lands. Veles is mentioned in another sense—as the evil spirit—in Czech literature of the 15 and 16th centuries. After the adoption of Christianity, the official cult of Veles was abolished, but in peasant life the role of the protector of cattle was transferred to St. Vlasii, because his feast day coincided with the period of winter calving (early February) and because of the similarity of the names.