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Slavic Mythology & Goddesses
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Akkan
(Northern Europe) The Akkan are a quadrinity of Saami Goddesses who
oversee conception, birth and destiny. They are Madderakka, Sarakka,
Juksakka and Ugsakka.
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Baba
Yaga
(Jezi Baba) says, "Intelligence ripens with age." In Slavic
oral traditions, Baba Yaga was the old crone of autumn who lived in the
last sheaf of harvested grain. Fittingly, the woman who bound that sheaf
would bear a child the next spring, for the old Baba was also guardian
of the fountain of the waters of life. Her legend suggests she was the
preserver of herbal knowledge and medicinal healing. Let us return this
wise crone to glory! Conversely, she is called the grandmother of the
devil, and a cannibal; a hideous man-eating female demon. Her mouth is
said to stretch from earth to the gates of hell.
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Bereginy
The Bereginy, like the Nymphae of Greece and Rome, were spirits of nature.
They were honored by women throughout the Slavic regions of Europe even
through the Middle Ages.
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Dazhbog
Also known as Dabog (Serbia) and Dazbog (Poland). The sun god. Son of
Svarog (god of the sky), and brother of Svarazic (god of fire). In the
Igor-song (1185) the Russians are mentioned as his grandchildren. He rides
through the sky on his diamond chariot, starting out in the morning as
a newborn and ending the day as an old man. Sometimes she is said to be
married to Myesyats (the moon goddess) and to be the father of Zvezda
Dennitsa, the Morning Star. (In some stories Myesyats is a male moon god
and is married to Zvezda Dennitsa.)
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Dennitsa
(Zvezda Dennitsa) The Slavonic goddess of the morning star. Her sister
Vechernyaya is the evening star. Together they help Dorya, the Dawn, tend
to the Sun's white horses. In some legends, Dennitsa is the wife of Myestas,
the moon god. (In slavonic legend, the Moon and the Sun are typically
male, but Myestas is sometimes female.)
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Dolya
This spirit was said to live behind the stove. When she was in a fine
mood, she was called Dolya, the little old lady who brought good luck;
when annoyed, she was Nedolya, the shabbily dressed old hag of bad fortune.
Occasionally she appeared as a young woman rather than the usual gray-haired
granny; in either shape she presided over birth.
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Drac
(Draca) An invisible female water spirit which tempts women and children
by means of baubles in order to lure them into the water and there devour
them.
Dugnai
Slavonic house goddess who ensured that the dough would not spoil.
Edji
The first woman; she had a fur covered body.
Erce
The earth mother who was honored each spring by the pouring of milk, flour,
and water into the newly-turned furrows of the tilled farm.
Kikimora
A Slavonic domestic goddess, known in some locations as the wife of the
house-god, the Domovi. She would trouble the children at night if the
housewife was lazy. To placate her, pots and pans were washed in fern
tea.
Krimba
A house goddess worshipped primarily in Bohemia.
Kupala
The Slavonic water mother who annually renews her virginity and vitality
of nature with baptism. Her worshipers bathed themselves in rivers and
purified their souls with the Dew of Kupala, gathered during the night
of Her festival. The goddess of herbs, sorcery and sex.
Kupula
A Slavic goddess of water, sorcery and herbal lore. Kupula personifies
the magical and spiritual power inherent in water, and Kupula's devotees
worshipped her with ritual baths and offerings of flowers cast upon water.
Since fire as well as water has powers of purification, her worshippers
also danced around and leaped over huge bonfires. Frequently her effigy
was burned or cast into pools of water. Kupula's cult preserved an extensive
lore of magical plants and herbs which gave men the power to read minds,
control evil spirits, find hidden treasures, and win the love of beautiful
women.
Lady
of Beasts
Surrounded by members of the animal kingdom, this Goddess displays her
role in supporting life on earth. Her kinship with animal totems shows
she is a driving force for fertility in the natural world and able to
assume animal form herself. The lions link Her with an arc of Great Goddesses
from Sekmet to Lilith, Cybele, Anahit, across to Durga. The alternating
rabbits show the union of opposites and the beginning of the spiral of
life.
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Leshachikha
A Slavonic forest goddess (les = forest), wife of the forest god
the Leshy and mother of the Leshonki. The Leshies died in October and
were reborn in the spring. They were territorial, often leading those
who entered their forests astray, but almost always releasing them in
the end. To avoid their spells, one must remove their clothes under a
tree, then put them on again backwards. |
Marina
Slavic goddess of the moon.
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Mati
Syra Zemlia
Not a name, rather a title which means Moist Mother Earth. An earth goddess,
the most ancient and possibly the most important of the Slavic gods. Ever
fruitful and powerful, Mati Syra Zemlia was worshipped well into the twentieth
century. Mother Earth was an oracle whom anyone could consult without
any need for a priest or shaman as a go-between. The Slavs felt the profoundest
respect for Mother Earth. Peasants settled property disputes by appealing
to Mother Earth to witness the truth of their claims, and oaths were sworn
in her name.
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Mokosh
(Mokysha, Mokush) The Slavic goddess who both gives and takes life, the
spinner of the thread of life, the giver of the water of life. Mokosh
later became Paraskeva-Piatnitsa, a goddess of spinning, water, fertility,
health with marriage.
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Myesyats
The moon deity. In some myths he is the cold, baldheaded uncle
of the sun-god Dazhbog. In other myths she is a beautiful woman,
the consort of Dazhbog and mother by him of the stars.
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Pereplut
Slavic goddess of drink and changing fortunes.
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Samovila
The Eastern European goddess who lived deep in the woods and was a great
protector of animals. If anyone harmed any of her creatures, they could
be lured into a magical circle and danced to death, or perhaps caught
in a landslide or drowned in a river. As a shape shifter, she could be
a falcon, swan, snake, horse or whirlwind. She might agree to teach a
human her skills if the proper ceremony were performed in the woods on
a full moon Sunday before sunrise. A bear mother goddess figure was found
at Kosovska-Mitrovica (Fafos II) Yugoslavia, of the Vinca culture, c.
5300-4000 BCE.
The Slavic goddess of the woods who has the ability to shapeshift into
a falcon, horse, snake, swan or a whirlwind; and would not hesitate to
cause harm to anyone who threatens her creatures. She lives deep in the
woods and has great knowledge of plant medicine.
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Saule
The Baltic sun goddess and, according to some myths, the mistress of the
thunder god Perkuno. She was worshipped by Lithuanians, Prussians and
Letts. Her worship took the form of looking after a harmless green snake.
Every house kept one. Apart from ensuring a household's wealth and fertility,
the kindness shown to the snake was regarded as a guarantee of Saule's
generosity. To kill a snake was an act of sacrilege. Saule was usually
depicted as pouring light from a jug. The golden liquid which she gave
to the world was the basis of life itself; the warmth so necessary after
the cold northeastern European winter.
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Sudicy
The Slovenian fates.
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Sudjaje
Female deities from Slavic myth who control destiny.
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Tabiti
Tabiti was the Scythian Goddess who ruled the realm of animals and fire.
The early Eastern Europeans swore their allegiance to her as part of the
earth that witnesses everything. She was part of Eastern European culture
before the Scythian nomads arrived, at first represented by a Goddess
bearing a child and later, adopted by the Scythians, as half serpent with
a raven on one side and a canine on the other.
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Va-Kul
Zyrian Mother of Waters, worshipped throughout the Middle Ages as a powerful
Goddess Whose displeasure could cause catastrophe.
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Ved'Ma
A Slavic demon goddess who flies over the clouds and mountains on a broom
or rake. Ved'ma causes storms, keeps the water of life and death, and
knows the magical properties of plants. Ved'ma can be young and beautiful,
or old and ugly as she pleases.
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Vesna
Slavic goddess of spring.
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Vila
of the Forest
A guardian of the forest animals and plants, Vila was a shape-shifter
and might be a swan, horse, snake, falcon or whirlwind. Born on a day
of misty rain, she was a winged Goddess whose dress shimmered in the dappled
light of the deep forest where she lived. She had a profound knowledge
of herbal healing and protected the purity of streams. If anyone brought
harm to her creatures, she would cause great harm to them in turn; perhaps
they would be caught in an avalanche or even danced to death.
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Zaria
(Zoria) The heavenly bride, goddess of beauty and morning. At down her
worshippers greeted her as "the brightest maiden, pure, sublime,
honorable."
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Ziva
(Siva) Slavic goddess of life.
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Zorya
They were three Slavic dawn goddesses. There was Utrennyaya, the morning
star; Vechernyaya, the evening star; and the midnight Zorya. All have
the same job: to guard a chained dog who tries to eat the constellation
Ursa Minor, the little bear. If the chain should ever break and the dog
should ever get loose, the universe will end. Thus the Zoryas are guardian
goddesses.
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Zvezda
Dennitsa
The morning star goddess. The wife of the man in the moon.
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