Devana
Sign in to saveDevana ( , ), 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.
Key facts
- Deity.type
- Slavic
- Deity.name
- Devana
- Deity.god_of
- Goddess of the hunt, wild animals, forests
- Deity.weapon
- Bow and arrows
- Deity.animals
- Sighthounds
- Deity.roman_equivalent
- Diana
- Deity.greek_equivalent
- Artemis
- Deity.norse_equivalent
- Skaði
- Deity.other_names
- Zevana, Dziewanna
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Wikidata facts
- Image
- Devana by Andrey Shishkin.jpg
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- Commons category
- Devana
Sources (1)
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Article
11 sectionsContents
- Etymology
- Sources
- Folklore
- Herb
- Interpretations
- Double goddess
- In Christianity
- Legacy
- Notes
- References
- Bibliography
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 (cf. , Czech and , ), with secondary form as *divina (cf. , ). 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 (Dioscorides), which is being derived from *diu̯es-eu̯smn („burning sky”) and compared to German Himmelbrand (Verbascum; „burning heavens”), 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".