Devana
Devana | |
---|---|
Goddess of the hunt, wild animals, forests | |
Other names | Zevana, Dziewanna |
Weapon | Bow and arrows |
Animals | Sighthounds |
Equivalents | |
Greek equivalent | Artemis |
Roman equivalent | Diana |
Norse equivalent | Skaði |
Devana (
Etymology
There are several interpretations of Devana's name. The most obvious etymology are words such as dziewa, dziewka, "girl, young woman, maiden", and dziewica, "virgin", a word derived from the dziewa.[3][4] This etymology can be supported by fact, that Diana (and Artemis – her greek equivalent) is usually depicted in myths as a virgin and has never had any offspring or a consort.
Another word, from which the name of the goddess may come from, may be the old Polish dziwy, "wild".[5][6]
It was also proposed to combine Devana's name with the
The suffix -ana, -anna, which occurs in the names of many goddesses, may be derived from the PIE. word *ansu meaning "lord, ruler, god".[9][8]
Sources
The first source to mention Devana is the Czech
The main source about Devana is Jan Długosz's Annales:
And since the Lechitic state happened to be founded in an area containing vast forests and groves that the ancient people believed to be inhabited by Diana and that Diana claimed power over them, Cerera, on the other hand, was considered the mother and goddess of the harvests the country needed, [therefore] these two goddesses: Diana in their language called Dziewanna and Cerera called Marzanna enjoyed a special cult and devotion.[13]
— Jan Długosz, Annals or Chronicles of the Famous Kingdom of Poland, 1455.
In another place he writes that when Mieszko ordered the drowning of the idols of pagan gods, "this destruction and drowning of the idols is still present and renewed in some Polish villages, where they carry the images of Devana and Morena on a long stick and throw them into the swamps and sink on Laetare Sunday".[14] However, the information of Długosz that the custom of drowning Death is a legacy of the destruction of Slavic idols by Christians is false, because this custom is already condemned in the Provincial statutes in short, which were written before Długosz's Annales (1420s). In the Polish Chronicle a similar custom is described by Marcin Bielski:
It was still in my memory that on White Sunday they drowned an idol, one, having dressed a sheaf of hemp or straw in human clothing, which was shown around the whole village, at the nearest lake or puddle, after removing his clothes, they threw it into the water, singing mournfully: Death twists at the fence, let us seek trouble; then they would run home from that place as soon as possible, whoever fell then had this prophecy that he would die that year. They called this idol Marzana, I would say it's the god Mars, Ziewanna as Diana.[15]
— Marcin Bielski, Chronicle of Poland, 1597.
In Poland, the goddess is also mentioned by
Aside from Długosz, this goddess is mentioned by Oskar Kolberg in his work on Lusatia: „Dživica, goddess of forests and hunting, peculiarly in southern Sorbs. This beautiful woman with a bow and arrow has greyhounds. They also talk about someone who stayed in the forest at noon: Hladaj so, zo dživica k tebi ńepřindže. They think that she is hunting also by moonlight. Džiwi [means here] wild, and dživina [means] wildmeat.”[6]
Devana can also be confirmed by
The only potential, non-Western Slavic source is Sermon by Saint Gregory, which lists the figure of Diva alongside other gods such as Mokosh and Perun. Diva passed from Old Russian to Czech and was considered by Josef Jungmann to be another name of the goddess Lada.[18]
Folklore
Devana, apart from the sources mentioned above, does not appear directly in folklore, but some legends may point to her. Devana may be indicated by the legend of Łysa Góra, which was presented as "Polish Olympus" in Polish culture. According to local legends, before the monastery was built there, on Łysa Góra in pre-Christian times stood a gord (Wielkopolska Chronicle) or a castle (Długosz). According to Długosz, the castle was to be built by giants, and in the folk version by the "Proud Lady", which was her seat. The Proud Lady, who was to defeat Alexander the Great, fell into pride and declared herself Diana. God did not bear it and destroyed the castle with lightning. Marek Derwich and Marek Cetwiński interpret The "Proud Lady" as Devana.[20][21]
Later on, Devana is mentioned by the Scottish
Polish text
|
Frazer continues: "Sometimes they also bring from the forest a nicely assumed doll, which they call Summer, May or Fiancée. In Poland they call her the Devana, the goddess of spring".[22] A similar practice is described by Marcin Kromer in De origine et rebus gestis Polonorum libri XXX.[23] In Podlasie region, the Princess, a beautiful girl dressed in colorful robes, flowers and red beads was shown around, which may be related to the Silesian custom.[24]
In Slavic folklore there are devony (Polish: dziewonie) – female mountain spirits or demons living in the caves, engaged in spinning, related to the forest fleece,[25] who may be a demonized Devana.[8] It can be similar with dziwożony.[8]
Herb
in Polish, dziewanna (less often dziwizna[1]) is also the name for verbascum, used for skin care and treatment of respiratory problems. Szyjewski notes, however, that the dziewanna was sometimes called the braid of the Virgin Mary,[22] and Kolankiewicz that in medieval iconography the Blessed Virgin Mary was sometimes depicted with the verbascum in her hand, and marzanna (name for six plants), was also a synonym for the dziewanna in the 16th century.[26]
Interpretations
The first studies on the "pantheon of Długosz" denied the existence of all or most of the gods he mentioned. The main critics were Aleksander Brückner and Stanisław Urbańczyk. After rejecting the hypercritical approach to "pantheon of Długosz" many researchers, such as Aleksander Gieysztor, Andrzej Szyjewski, Vyacheslav Ivanov and Vladimir Toporov,[4] have been inclined to acknowledge the authenticity of at least some "Polish gods", including Devana.
In Greek mythology,
Double goddess
Due to the multiple appearances of the pair Devana and
In Christianity
During the Christianization, Devana could have been replaced by Our Lady of Thunder Candle (Polish: Matka Boża Gromniczna).[30] Polish legend says that she walks on February nights and protects fields from freezing. The iconography depicts her with the wolf (or wolves) she protected from death from the peasants, and whom she made her servant, with a basket or a nest of larks at her feet, whose squeal was to herald the imminent coming of spring. In her hands, she always holds a "thunder candle" (Polish: gromnica, from grom "thunder"), which was used for fortune-telling, protect the house from wolves, lightning or evil, and used to burn the hair of children to protect them from ear disease. Thunder candle often occurs in sayings about the coming of spring.[31][30] In the past, thunder candle wicks were made of verbascum[30] and sometimes was named knotnica (from knot "wick"), royal candle[1] or braid of the Virgin Mary.[22] Connecting the feast of Our Lady of Thunder Candle (Candlemas) with wild animals appears in other Slavic countries.
Legacy
- 471143 Dziewanna – asteroid named after goddess[32]
- Halina Poświatowska – W słońcu południa
- Małgorzata Hillar – Ballada o dziewannie
- Bronisława Ostrowska – Dziewanna
Notes
References
- ^ a b c Cieśla 1991, p. 145.
- ^ a b Anikin 2019, p. 357.
- ^ Gieysztor 2006, p. 196-197.
- ^ a b "Иванов В.В., Топоров В.Н. СЛАВЯНСКАЯ МИФОЛОГИЯ". www.philologoz.ru. Retrieved 2020-11-27.
- ^ a b c Kolankiewicz 1999, p. 461-462.
- ^ a b Kolberg 1985, p. 126.
- ^ Szyjewski 2003, p. 171.
- ^ a b c d Niedzielski 2011, p. 165.
- ^ Kolankiewicz 1999, p. 462.
- ^ "Dziewanna – słowiańska bogini lasów | Portal historyczny Histmag.org - historia dla każdego!". histmag.org. Retrieved 2020-12-01.
- ^ Brodský 2012.
- ^ Brückner 1985, p. 117.
- ^ Gieysztor 2006, p. 195.
- ^ Szyjewski 2003, p. 132.
- ^ Gieysztor 2006, p. 197.
- ^ Gloger 1903, p. 507.
- ^ Kolankiewicz 1999, p. 425.
- ^ a b Kolankiewicz 1999, p. 461.
- ^ "Magdeburger Chronik - Sagen und Mythen der Stadt". www.magdeburger-chronist.de. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
- ^ Derwich & 2004.
- ^ Derwich & Cetwiński 1987, p. 135.
- ^ a b c Szyjewski 2003, p. 135.
- ^ Kolankiewicz 1999, p. 325.
- ^ a b Szyjewski 2003, p. 135-136.
- ^ Szyjewski 2003, p. 164.
- ^ Kolankiewicz 1999, p. 460.
- ^ Szyjewski 2003, p. 170-175.
- ^ Niedzielski 2011, p. 166-169.
- ^ Kolankiewicz 1999, p. 463.
- ^ a b c Kurek 2020, p. 4-10.
- ^ "Matka Boża Gromniczna" (in Polish). www.franciszkanie.pl. Archived from the original on 2020-12-11. Retrieved 2020-11-29.
- ^ "IAU Minor Planet Center". www.minorplanetcenter.net. Retrieved 2020-12-02.
Bibliography
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- Szyjewski, Andrzej (2003). Religia Słowian. Kraków: Wydawnictwo WAM. ISBN 83-7318-205-5.
- Gloger, Zygmunt (1903). Encyklopedja staropolska ilustrowana. Vol. IV. P. Laskauer, W. Babicki.
- Kolankiewicz, Leszek (1999). Dziady. Teatr święta zmarłych. Gdańsk: Słowo/Obraz Terytoria. ISBN 8387316393.
- Niedzielski, Grzegorz (2011). Królowie z gwiazd. Mitologia plemion prapolskich. Sandomierz: Armoryka. ISBN 978-83-7950-077-2.
- . Kraków: Drukarnia Łazarzowa.
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- Derwich, Marek; Cetwiński, Marek (1987). Herby, legendy, dawne mity. Wrocław: Krajowa Agencja Wydawnicza. ISBN 8303018094.
- Kurek, Jagoda (2020). "Dziewanna – ognisty aspekt archetypu dzikiej kobiety". Gniazdo - Rodzima Wiara I Kultura. 1/(20). FNCE.
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- Anikin, Aleksandr (2019). "дивена". Русский этимологический словарь. Vol. 13. Moskwa: Nestor-Istorija. ISBN 978-5-88744-087-3.
- Brodský, Pavel (2012). "Rukopis mater verborum jako problém paleografický, kodikologický i uměleckohistorický". Historia Slavorum Occidentis. 2 (1): 1–2. ISSN 2084-1213.