 | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
Mat Zemlya (Matka Ziemia or Matushka Zeml'ja) [1] [lower-alpha 1] is the Moist (or Water) Earth Mother [4] and is probably the oldest deity in Slavic mythology [5] besides Marzanna. She is also called Mati Syra Zemlya meaning Mother Damp Earth or Mother Moist Earth. Her identity later blended into that of Mokosh. [6]
In the early Middle Ages, Mati Syra Zemlya was one of the most important deities in the Slavic world. Slavs made oaths by touching the Earth, and sins were confessed into a hole in the Earth before death. She was worshipped in her natural form and was not given a human personage or likeness. Since the adoption of Christianity in all Slavic lands, she has been identified with Mary, the mother of Jesus.
An example of her importance is seen in this traditional invocation to Matka Ziema, made with a jar of hemp oil:
Old Slavic beliefs seem to attest some awareness of an ambivalent nature of the Earth: it was considered men's cradle and nurturer during one's lifetime, and, when the time of death came, it would open up to receive their bones, as if it were a "return to the womb". [7] [lower-alpha 2] [lower-alpha 3] [lower-alpha 4]
The imagery of the terre humide ("moist earth") also appears in funeral lamentations either as a geographical feature (as in Lithuanian and Ukrainian lamentations) [12] or invoked as Mère-Terre humide ("Mother Moist Earth"). [13] [14] [lower-alpha 5] [lower-alpha 6] [lower-alpha 7] [lower-alpha 8]
Up until World War I and the fall of the Russian Empire, peasant women would perform a rite to prevent against plague by plowing a furrow around the village and calling on the protection of the Earth spirits by shrieking. [6] [22]
The Slavic bogatyr Mikula Selyaninovich, or Mikula the Villager, is closely connected with Mat Zemlya. [23] [24]
Veles, also known as Volos, is a major god of earth, waters, livestock, and the underworld in Slavic paganism. His mythology and powers are similar, though not identical, to those of Odin, Loki and Hermes.
Slavic mythology or Slavic religion is the religious beliefs, myths, and ritual practices of the Slavs before Christianisation, which occurred at various stages between the 8th and the 13th century. The South Slavs, who likely settled in the Balkan Peninsula during the 6th–7th centuries AD, bordering with the Byzantine Empire to the south, came under the sphere of influence of Eastern Christianity, beginning with the creation of writing systems for Slavic languages in 855 by the brothers Saints Cyril and Methodius and the adoption of Christianity in Bulgaria in 864 and 863 in Great Moravia. The East Slavs followed with the official adoption in 988 by Vladimir the Great of Kievan Rus'.
In Slavic mythology, Ognyena Maria is a fire goddess who is the sister and assistant of the thunder god, Perun. Ognyena Maria originates as a conflation of the figures of Margaret the Virgin and the Virgin Mary, both regarded as sisters of Saint Elias.
Perkunatete, Perkunatele or Perkūnėlė is in Baltic mythology the thunder goddess mother of Perkūnas, in Slavic mythology referred to as Percunatele mother of Perun, which is probably derived from the Balts. Like many such goddesses absorbed into Christianity, she is, today, difficult to distinguish from the Christian madonna, Mary, one of whose epithets was Panna Maria Percunatele. Professor Patricia Monaghan of DePaul University also believes that she was originally derived from the Baltic thunder goddess.
Zorya is a figure in Slavic folklore, a feminine personification of dawn, possibly goddess. Depending on tradition, she may appear as a singular entity, often called "The Red Maiden", or two or three sisters at once. Although Zorya is etymologically unrelated to the Proto-Indo-European goddess of the dawn *H₂éwsōs, she shares most of her characteristics. She is often depicted as the sister of the Sun, the Moon, and Zvezda, the Morning Star with which she is sometimes identified. She lives in the Palace of the Sun, opens the gate for him in the morning so that he can set off on a journey through the sky, guards his white horses, she is also described as a virgin. In the Eastern Slavic tradition of zagovory she represents the supreme power that a practitioner appeals to.
Saulė is a solar goddess, the common Baltic solar deity in the Lithuanian and Latvian mythologies. The noun Saulė/Saule in the Lithuanian and Latvian languages is also the conventional name for the Sun and originates from the Proto-Baltic name *Sauliā > *Saulē.
Dodola and Perperuna, are Balkan rainmaking pagan customs practiced until the 20th century. The tradition is found in South Slavic countries, as well as in near Albania, Greece, Hungary, Moldavia and Romania.
h₂éwsōs or haéusōs is the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European name of the dawn goddess in the Proto-Indo-European mythology.
A Slavic dragon is any dragon in Slavic mythology, including the Russian zmei, Ukrainian zmiy, and its counterparts in other Slavic cultures: the Bulgarian zmey, the Slovak drak and šarkan, Czech drak, Polish żmij, the Serbo-Croatian zmaj, the Macedonian zmej (змеј) and the Slovene zmaj. The Romanian zmeu is also a Slavic dragon, but a non-cognate etymology has been proposed.
William Ralston Shedden-Ralston (1828–1889), known in his early life as William Ralston Shedden, who later adopted the additional surname of Ralston, was a noted British scholar and translator of Russia and Russian.
Perkwunos is the reconstructed name of the weather god in Proto-Indo-European mythology. The deity was connected with fructifying rains, and his name was probably invoked in times of drought. In a widespread Indo-European myth, the thunder-deity fights a multi-headed water-serpent during an epic battle in order to release torrents of water that had previously been pent up. The name of his weapon, *meld-n-, which denoted both "lightning" and "hammer", can be reconstructed from the attested traditions.
Gagana is a miraculous bird with an iron beak and copper claws featured in Russian folklore. She is said to live on the Buyan Island. The bird is often mentioned in incantations. It is also said this bird guards the Alatyr, alongside Garafena the snake.
The Fiend or The Vampire is a Russian fairy tale, collected by Alexander Afanasyev as his number 363. The tale was translated and published by William Ralston Shedden-Ralston.
Poludnitsa is a mythical character common to the various Slavic countries of Eastern Europe. She is referred to as Południca in Polish, Полудниця in Ukrainian, Полудница (Poludnitsa) in Serbian, Bulgarian and Russian, Polednice in Czech, Poludnica in Slovak, Připołdnica in Upper Sorbian, and Полознича (Poloznicha) in Komi, Chirtel Ma in Yiddish. The plural form of this word is poludnitsy. Poludnitsa is a noon demon in Slavic mythology. She can be referred to in English as "Lady Midday", "Noonwraith" or "Noon Witch". She was usually pictured as a young woman dressed in white that roamed field bounds. She assailed folk working at noon, causing heatstrokes and aches in the neck; sometimes she even caused madness.
Nav is a phrase used to denote the souls of the dead in Slavic mythology. The singular form is also used as a name for an underworld, over which Veles exercises custody—it is often interpreted as another name for the underground variant of the Vyraj.
Slavic Native Faith (Rodnovery) has a theology that is generally monistic, consisting in the vision of a transcendental, supreme God which begets the universe and lives immanentised as the universe itself, present in decentralised and autonomous way in all its phenomena, generated by a multiplicity of deities which are independent hypostases, facets, particles or energies of the consciousness and will of the supreme God itself.
*Dʰéǵʰōm, or *Pleth₂wih₁, is the reconstructed name of the Earth-goddess in the Proto-Indo-European mythology.
The Alatyr in East Slavic legends and folklore is a sacred stone, the "father to all stones", the navel of the earth, containing sacred letters and endowed with healing properties. Although the name Alatyr appears only in East Slavic sources, the awareness of the existence of such a stone exists in various parts of the Slavdom. It is often mentioned in stories and referred to in love spells as "a mighty force that has no end."
The Sea Tsar and Vasilisa the Wise is a Russian fairy tale published by author Alexander Afanasyev in his collection of Russian Fairy Tales, numbered 219. The tale features legendary characters Tsar Morskoi and Vasilisa the Wise.
Sivko-Burko is a Russian fairy tale (skazka) collected by folklorist Alexandr Afanasyev in his three-volume compilation Russian Fairy Tales. The tale is a local form in Slavdom of tale type ATU 530, "The Princess on the Glass Mountain", wherein the hero has to jump higher and reach a tower or terem, instead of climbing up a steep and slippery mountain made entirely of glass.
