Morena
Morena (also Morana , Marena , Marzana , Marzanna or Śmiertka ) is a female deity of Slavic mythology who brings spring and fertility, but is also associated with winter, night and death.
As a young girl, this goddess is called Mara. She is the daughter of the Slavic god of thunder Perun and the goddess Mokosch . In Slavic mythology, every spring she unites with her brother Jarilo , who comes from afar, thereby unleashing fertility. However, Jarilo is unfaithful as a husband, deeply hurting Mara, and she asks her brothers to kill her unfaithful husband. Thereupon she transforms into the old withered figure, which is said goodbye on the evening of the equinox of spring with burns and similar rituals.
Their animal form is the cuckoo .
In some places in Eastern Central Europe , a straw doll clad in an old dress, the Morena, is carried around in procession and then burned or thrown into the water. This should drive out the winter. The counterweight to Morena is a rod decorated with colorful or lively material or a little tree.
The Polish chronicler Jan Długosz described the custom at the end of the 15th century and identified Morena with Ceres , the Roman goddess of agriculture. However, there is no evidence that a goddess of that name was worshiped in pre-Christian times.
literature
- Zdeněk Váňa: Mythology and gods of the Slavic peoples , Stuttgart 1992, ( ISBN 387838937X )
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Radoslav Katičić: Zeleni Lug: Tragovima svetih pjesama naše pretkršćanske starine . IBIS GRAFIKA / Matica Hrvatska, Zagreb 2010, ISBN 978-953-6927-49-4 .