Devana


Devana, Zevana, less often Zievonia is the goddess of wild nature, forests, hunting and the moon worshiped by the Western Slavs. In the sources, she was first mentioned in the 15th century by Jan Długosz, who compared her to the Roman goddess Diana. Dziewanna is also a Polish name for Verbascum, and the etymology of the word is unclear. After strong criticism from Aleksander Brückner, researchers rejected her authenticity, but nowadays it is accepted by an increasing number of researchers. Sometimes, in folk rituals, she performs together with Morana.

Etymology

Proto-Slavic name for Verbascum is reconstructed as *divizna, with secondary form as *divina. That word has a Proto-Balto-Slavic origin and appears in Lithuanian language as e.g. devynspė͂kė, devynjėgė. The only cognate from outside the Balto-Slavic group may be Dacian word διέσεμα/''diésema, which is being derived from *diu̯es-eu̯smn and compared to German Himmelbrand, but exact etymology of Slavic word is unclear. Russian linguist and etymologist Aleksandr Anikin notes a similarity between the Lithuanian terms for Verbascum and the Lithuanian word devynì "nine".
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. This etymology can be supported by fact, that Diana 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".
It was also proposed to combine Devana's name with the Proto-Indo-European god of heaven *Dyēus. Slavic folklore includes demons with a similar name, e.g. Polish and Czech dziwożona, Russian div, Bulgarian and Croatian samodiva, etc. It is assumed that the feminine demons-divas derive from the Proto-Slavic word *diva, and this word is the feminine form of the word *divъ. *divъ is derived from the PIE. word *Dyēus through the intermediate *deywós and its closest related word is Dievs – god of heaven in Baltic mythology. *Dyēus in the Slavs has acquired demonic characteristics as a result of cultural contacts with Iranian peoples, who have demonized the Iranian continuator of *Dyēus as a result of the Zoroastrianist reform. An argument for such an etymology is that Diana is also etymologically derived from *Dyēus. Anikin notes that Verbascum has sometimes been used to lighten hair, and combines the word with PIE. the root *dei-u̯- or *dī-, from which also comes *Dyēus.
The suffix -ana, -anna, which occurs in the names of many goddesses, may be derived from the PIE. word *ansu'' meaning "lord, ruler, god".

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 or a castle. 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. and interpret The "Proud Lady" as Devana.
Later on, Devana is mentioned by the Scottish folklorist James G. Frazer in his The Golden Bough, who describes a Silesian custom where the figure of Death is melted or destroyed. Then, the young people go to the forest, cut down a small fir, strip away the bark and then decorate it with festoons, paper roses, pisanki, etc. The tree is called May or Summer. Then the boys walk with this tree from house to house and sing songs:
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". A similar practice is described by Marcin Kromer in De origine et rebus gestis Polonorum libri XXX. 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.
In Slavic folklore there are devony – female mountain spirits or demons living in the caves, engaged in spinning, related to the forest fleece, who may be a demonized Devana. It can be similar with dziwożony.

Herb

in Polish, dziewanna 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, and Kolankiewicz that in medieval iconography the Blessed Virgin Mary was sometimes depicted with the verbascum in her hand, and marzanna, was also a synonym for the dziewanna in the 16th century.

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, have been inclined to acknowledge the authenticity of at least some "Polish gods", including Devana.
In Greek mythology, Artemis' helpers are nymphs, whose closest Slavic equivalents are boginki, which are found in Western Slavs, mainly in Poland. Boginki are young girls dressed in white or naked, who inhabited the shores of reservoirs, forests and caves from which they come out at night, especially on summer moon nights. They took care of wild animals and were often hostile to people, especially men. The moon was their "god" – it ruled their activity. Boginki were also supposed to shoot from a bow. In the Ruthenian legends, the number of vilas which are sisters, is 27 or, in another version, 30, and this may be related to the ecliptic division into 27 zodiacs and lunation. These features of boginki-nymphs may tie them to Devana-Artemis – goddess of forests and the moon.

Double goddess

Due to the multiple appearances of the pair Devana and Morana in the spring ceremonies, some researchers have suggested that both of these goddesses could be the two faces of one goddess of life and death. A similar motif occurs in Indo-European religions, e.g. the Scandinavian Hel or the Greek couple Persephone-Kora, who spent half a year underground and half a year on earth. According to Kolankiewicz, double goddess may be indicated by alleged connection of Devana with Proto-Slavic *diva and Iranian deva. The archaic nature of Devana and Morana may be indicated by a connection to vegetation, and that connects them to Mother Earth.

In Christianity

During the Christianization, Devana could have been replaced by Our Lady of Thunder Candle. Polish legend says that she walks on February nights and protects fields from freezing. The iconography depicts her with the wolf 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", 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. In the past, thunder candle wicks were made of verbascum and sometimes was named knotnica, royal candle or braid of the Virgin Mary. Connecting the feast of Our Lady of Thunder Candle with wild animals appears in other Slavic countries.

Legacy