Jesza
Jesza (read as Yesha;
The Latin names should be written in modern Polish as Jesza or Jasza. In the 15th century, the Polish voiceless retroflex fricative (sh sound) was written as ss (modern Polish sz).[1]
Sources
The first known source mentioning the name Jesza is the Pentacostal Sermons written by Lucas of Wielki Koźmin around 1405-1412, without giving any specific description:
One should pay attention to those who say ungodly things today in dances or elsewhere in performances, consider unclean things in their hearts, shout out and mention the names of idols, and consider whether conversion to God the Father is possible. Certainly not. For it is forbidden to hear freely these holidays, which unfortunately celebrate according to what was left of the rites of the accursed pagans of our ancestors, unless for punishment, as once the shout of the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah rose. For at this festival indecent exposure and other abominations, which the Apostle says should not even be named because of God the Father. However, due to the fact that preachers have arrived, such things cease, and in many places they have already ceased [...] There is no other name under heaven in which we can be saved. For a man is not saved in the name of Lado, Jassa, Qiya, Nyia, but in the name of Jesus Christ ... Not Lada, not Jassa, not Nija, which are the names of idols worshiped here in Poland, as some chronicles of Poles testify...[2]
— Lucas of Wielki Koźmin, Pentacostal Sermons, around 1405-1412
Similar warnings, also without any description, are also found in: Statua provincialia breviter (1420-1422),[3] Sermones per circulum anni Cunradi (1423),[3] Postilla Husitae anonymi,[3] and in glosses of Life of Adalbert of Prague.[4]
The
Jupiter they called Yesza [or Jessa] in their tongue; they believed that he, as the most important god, was responsible for all favourable meteorological phenomena, and for everything which happened to them, both negative and fortunate. To him they also dedicated the highest honours compared with the other deities, and they performed sacrifices to him more frequently.[6]
— Jan Długosz, Annals or Chronicles of the Famous Kingdom of Poland, 1455
After Długosz the information about Jesza was repeated by historians Maciej Miechowita, Marcin Kromer, Alexander Guagnini, Maciej Stryjkowski, Marcin and Joachim Bielskis, and the priest Jakub Wujek.[7]
Historicity
Originally, the historicity of Jesza was not questioned; he appears in the works of
Contemporary scholars often criticize Brückner's views on the information given by Długosz, regarding them as hypercritical. However, many scholars, such as Aleksander Gieysztor,[13] or Vyacheslav Ivanov and Vladimir Toporov,[14] who consider at least part of Długosz's mythological account valuable also reject the historicity of Jesza, and believe the deity was created through a misunderstanding of the refrains of folk songs or words, as suggested by Brückner,[13][14] or ignore him in their publications as does Andrzej Szyjewski,.[15] According to Brückner, Długosz considered Jesza to be equivalent to Jupiter because of the phonetic similarity (Polish: Jowisz "Jupiter", from Latin Jovis).[16]
Other modern scholars, such as the historian Włodzimierz Szafrański,[17] the cultural anthropologist Leszek Kolankiewicz [18] and the historian and medievalist Krzysztof Bracha [19] appear more willing to accept the authenticity of the theonym.
Origin
The word ješa occurs in
Another explanation is proposed by Michał Łuczyński, who points to
Interpretations
Despite strong criticism of the source material mentioning Jesza, some scholars have accepted or are accepting its historicity and have made interpretations of this theonym.
According to
According to Leszek Kolankiewicz, Jesza was the Polish equivalent of Dazhbog (or Svarog assuming that Dazhbog is the local equivalent of Svarog) stating that the names of both gods actually mean the same.[28] He points to another wish-particle, bodaj, and quotes a 15th-century wish Bogdaj mu zaległ usta wrzód literally meaning "Lord/God, let him have an ulcer in his mouth" with a clear structure daj Boże "please God", and this brings to mind associations with Dazhbog, whose name is translated in two ways: either as daj-bog "God who gives", or as dag-bog, where the first part comes from the Proto-Indo-European stem *dag meaning "to burn", i.e. "God who burns".[29] Thus Jesza, like Dazhbog, would have been the god of sun and fire, the giving, punishing and burning god. He concludes at the same time that since Lada is always mentioned first in the sources, she (or he) may have been the most important god.[28]
Jesza in culture
Manuscript by Bronislaw Trentowski: With the word Halu Jessa created the world and all that existed in it. Therefore Triglav, having heard it, tore off his three heads, and from the blood that flowed from them arose hosts of three successive deities.[8]
References
- ^ a b c Kolankiewicz 1999, p. 436.
- ^ Kolankiewicz 1999, p. 416–417.
- ^ a b c Kolankiewicz 1999, p. 418.
- ^ Kolankiewicz 1999, p. 415.
- ^ Łuczyński 2020, p. 221.
- ^ Alvarez-Pedroza 2021, p. 476–478.
- ^ Kolankiewicz 1999, p. 425.
- ^ a b Szyjewski 2003, p. 100.
- ^ Brückner 1985, p. 40, 224.
- ^ Potkański 1924, p. 90.
- ^ Łowmiański 1979, p. 212-218.
- ^ Urbańczyk 1947, p. 9.
- ^ a b Gieysztor 2006, p. 196.
- ^ a b Ivanov & Toporov 1980.
- ^ Szyjewski 2003.
- ^ Brückner 1985, p. 224.
- ^ Szafrański 1979, p. 355–386.
- ^ Kolankiewicz 1999, p. 436–439.
- ^ Bracha 2014, p. 400.
- ^ a b Łuczyński 2020, p. 222.
- ^ Vasmer 1986, p. 30.
- ^ Trubachyov 1979, p. 32.
- ^ a b Szafrański 1979.
- ^ Kempiński 1993, p. 131.
- ^ "Old Iranian Online". lrc.la.utexas.edu. Retrieved 2020-05-07.
- ^ a b Alwin 2007, p. 382.
- ^ Szafrański 1987, p. 343.
- ^ a b Kolankiewicz 1999, p. 439.
- ^ Kolankiewicz 1999, p. 436-438.
Bibliography
- Kolankiewicz, Leszek (1999). Dziady. Teatr święta zmarłych. Gdańsk: Słowo/Obraz Terytoria. ISBN 8387316393.
- Bracha, Krzysztof (2014). "Tria Ydola Polonorum". In Bracha, Krzysztof; Hadamik, Czesław (eds.). Sacrum pogańskie - Sacrum chrześcijańskie. Warszawa: DiG. p. 400. ISBN 978-83-7181-873-8.
- Potkański, Karol (1924). Pisma pośmiertne.
- ISBN 8301062452.
- ISBN 978-83-235-0234-0.
- Szyjewski, Andrzej (2003). Religia Słowian. Kraków: Wydawnictwo WAM. ISBN 83-7318-205-5.
- Łuczyński, Michał (2020). Bogowie dawnych Słowian. Studium onomastyczne. Kielce: Kieleckie Towarzystwo Naukowe. ISBN 978-83-60777-83-1.
- Szafrański, Włodzimierz (1987). Prahistoria religii na ziemiach polskich. Wrocław: Ossolineum. ISBN 83-04-02624-4.
- Szafrański, Włodzimierz (1979). Pradzieje religii w Polsce. Warszawa: Iskry. pp. 355–386. ISBN 83-207-0035-3.
- Kempiński, Andrzej (1993). Słownik mitologii ludów indoeuropejskich. Poznań: Kantor Wydawniczy SAWW. ISBN 83-85066-91-8.
- ISBN 83-01-00033-3.
- Urbańczyk, Stanisław (1947). Religia pogańskich Słowian. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Studium Słowiańskiego Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego.
- Ivanov, Vyacheslav; Toporov, Vladimir (1980). "СЛАВЯНСКАЯ МИФОЛОГИЯ". In Tokarev, Sergei (ed.). Мифы народов мира: Энциклопедия. Vol. 2. Moscow: Большая российская энциклопедия. pp. 450–456.
- ISBN 978-90-04-16092-7.
- Vasmer, Max (1986). "еша". Этимологический словарь русского языка (in Russian). Vol. 2 (2 ed.). Moscow: Progress.
- Trubachyov, Oleg (1979). "*eša". Этимологический словарь русского языка (in Russian). Vol. 6. Moscow: Nauka.
- Alvarez-Pedroza, Juan Antonio (2021). Sources of Slavic Pre-Christian Religion. Leiden: Koninklijke Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-44138-5.