Voloska

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Voloska
Goddess of the home and the hearth
Other namesVlasta
Genealogy
Spouse Veles

Voloska, sometimes dubbed Vlasta, [1] is a Croatian and Slavic hearth pseudo-deity that has not been attested in historical sources on Slavic paganism. [2] The first known published source that attests to Voloska is the 1943 book Hrvatska narodna mitologija ("Croatian National Mythology") by psychiatrist Nikola Sučić, [3] which has been criticized by Croatian ethnologists as "incorrectly assessing" pagan myths and as unreliable due to a lack of sources. [4] [5] [6]

Contents

According to Sučić, Voloska was the spouse of Veles and the protector of agricultural workers, symbolized by a cow and a swallow. He claims that all Slavic homes featured an alcove ("mirište") where a small flame would be lit in Voloska's honor. This alcove would allegedly also include statuettes of Voloska made from wood, wax or amber. [3]

After the publishing of Sučić's book, Voloska was mentioned in the poems of Vladimir Nazor ("Miti i legende", 1948) and Boro Pavlović ("Slavenska lipa", 1960). [3]

Commonly cited publicist and movie director Franjo Ledić, whose interpretation of Slavic mythology was described as "romanticized" by ethnologist Tea Škokić [7] and "uncritical" by Lidija Bajuk, [6] wrote a chapter on Voloska based on the work of Sučić and the previously mentioned poems. [8]

References

  1. ↑ Ledić 1969, p. 180.
  2. ↑ Gayatri Horvat, Irena (2014). "U potrazi za ženskim arhetipom: Slavenske i indijske boginje" [In Search of a Female Archetype: Slavic and Indian goddesses](PDF). Zagreb Ethnographic Museum (in Croatian). p. 17. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
  3. 1 2 3 Ledić 1969, p. 183.
  4. ↑ Zorić, Damir. "Hrvatsko bajoslovlje | Kolo 2, 2018". Matica hrvatska (in Croatian). Retrieved 2024-07-03.
  5. ↑ Pletenac, Tomislav (2013). "Pogovor" [Afterword]. Hrvatska narodna mitologija: Biserje priča čarobnog carstva drevnih vremena[Croatian National Mythology] (in Croatian). Edicije Božičević. ISBN   9789536751983 . Retrieved 4 August 2024.
  6. 1 2 Bajuk 2018, p. 2.
  7. ↑ Škokić, Tea (2010). "Elipsa ljubavnog mita u tradicijskoj praksi" [Ellipsis of the love mythos in traditional praxis]. In Marjanić, Suzana; Prica, Ines (eds.). Mitski zbornik [Mythological Almanac] (in Croatian). Zagreb: Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies, Croatian Ethnological Society. p. 319. ISBN   978-953-7387-18-1.
  8. ↑ Ledić 1969, p. 179–183.

Bibliography

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