Medeinė
Medeinė or Medeina (derived from Medis (tree) and Medė (forest)), often synonymous with Žvorūnė or Žvorūna (derived from Žvėris (beast)), is one of the main deities of Lithuanian mythology , similar to the Latvian Meža māte . She is a ruler of the forest, trees and animals. Your sacred animal is a rabbit .
A Slavic copy of the Chronicle of John Malalas (from 1261) mentions Žvorūna and three other gods. The Chronicle of Hypatius , describing the events of 1252, mentions pagan gods who were still worshiped by King Mindaugas . The chronicle mentions Medeinė and an unnamed rabbit goddess. There is an academic debate as to whether Medeinė is the name of the rabbit goddess mentioned in the chronicles or whether they are two individual deities. As part of the official pantheon, Medeinė represented the military interests of warriors and was later replaced by Žemyna , the earth goddess, who represented the agricultural interests of peasants. In the 15th century Jan Długosz compared Medeinė to the Roman goddess Diana . It was also mentioned by the Polish historian Jan Łasicki , by Mikalojus Daukša and in the Bychowiec Chronicle .
According to a study by Algirdas Julien Greimas , Medeinė is single and unwilling to marry, and at the same time a sensual, beautiful huntress. She is portrayed both as a young woman and as a she-wolf (cf. Vilkmergė ) who is accompanied by other wolves. Your job is not to help the hunters, but to protect the forest. The Lithuanian archaeologist Vykintas Vaitkevičius identified five places of worship (sacrificial stones, hills, forests) in eastern Lithuania (the former Principality of Lithuania ) dedicated to hares and ten wolf footprints (stones with cavities resembling a footprint) associated with the cult of Medeinė in Connected. After the Christianization of Lithuania , the cult lost its importance.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Marija Gimbutas , Miriam Robbins Dexter: The Living Godesses . University of California Press, 2001, ISBN 0-520-22915-0 , p. 210.
- ↑ a b Jonas Žinkus and other authors: Medeina . In: Tarybų Lietuvos enciklopedija , Volume III. Vyriausioji enciklopedijų redakcija, Wilna 1985-1988, p. 32, LCCN 86-232954 (Lithuanian).
- ↑ Endre Bojtár: Foreword to the Past: A Cultural History of the Baltic People . Central European University Press, 1999, ISBN 963-9116-42-4 , p. 309.
- ^ Gintaras Beresnevičius . Lithuanian Religion and Mythology . ( Memento from May 12, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) In: Anthology of Lithuanian Ethnoculture .
- ↑ a b c Vykintas Vaitkevičius: New outlook for Zveruna-Medeina . ( Memento of the original from March 13, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Lietuvos archeologija , 24, 2003, ISSN 0207-8694 .
