Skip to content
EntityQ393833· pop 15· linked from 49 articles

Žemyna (also Žemynėlė or Žemelė) (from – earth) is the goddess of the earth in Lithuanian religion. She is usually regarded as mother goddess and one of the chief Lithuanian gods similar to Latvian Zemes māte. Žemyna personifies the fertile earth and nourishes all life on earth, human, plant, and animal. All that is born of earth will return to earth, thus her cult is also related to death. As the cult diminished after baptism of Lithuania, Žemyna's image and functions became influenced by the cult of Virgin Mary.

Key facts

Deity.type
baltic
Deity.name
Žemyna
Deity.deity_of
Earth
Deity.consort
Perkūnas or Praamžius
Deity.Greek_equivalent
Semele
Deity.equivalent1_type
Thracian
Deity.equivalent1
Zemele
Deity.Indo european_equivalent
Dʰéǵʰōm

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Show 1 more fact
Commons category
Žemyna
Sources (2)

via Wikidata · CC0

~4 min read

Article

9 sections
Contents
  • Name
  • Role
  • Family
  • In modern culture
  • Related male deities
  • Footnotes
  • See also
  • References
  • Further reading

Žemyna (also Žemynėlė or Žemelė) (from – earth) is the goddess of the earth in Lithuanian religion. She is usually regarded as mother goddess and one of the chief Lithuanian gods similar to Latvian Zemes māte. Žemyna personifies the fertile earth and nourishes all life on earth, human, plant, and animal. All that is born of earth will return to earth, thus her cult is also related to death. As the cult diminished after baptism of Lithuania, Žemyna's image and functions became influenced by the cult of Virgin Mary.

== Name == Žemyna stems from the name of Proto-Indo-European Earth-goddess *Dʰéǵʰōm. It relates to Thracian Zemele ('mother earth') and Greek Semelē ().

Connections

Categories