This comes from the Yearbooks of Friends of Antiquity Society in the Rheinland (Jahrbücher des Vereins von Alterthumsfreunden im Rheinlande), volume 7.
I discussed the same inscription some time back here along with others mentioned by the society:
- MINERVAE CVR LADAE (above)
- IMPLE O LADA
- P.VAL.LADA
Minerva is, of course, the same as Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom, courage, war, law, etc. She is given the epithet Pallas, a word that is derived either from πάλλω (to brandish [a weapon]), or from παλλακίς (also an interesting fact – note that in Russian palyanka meant a brave woman) and related words, meaning “youth” that is a “young woman.” She is also the protector of the palace and the king. She was the daughter of Zeus.
Lada is, as we know, has been called “Mars” by Długosz who also, elsewhere, called her a Mazovian Goddess. These statements are reconcilable if you interpret the Goddess as a warrior Goddess. In other words, Długosz would not have been saying that Lada was Mars but merely that Mars was the closest analogy to Lada in his interpretatio romana of the Polish Pantheon.
Of course, Brueckner objected that Lada was just a Slavic name for the “betrothed” or “wife.” The interesting thing is, as I pointed out some time back that Lada in Lycian (!) (Lycia in Anatolia) meant the exact same thing (see here).
What escaped my notice that the author of the above (L.J.F. Janssen) also made the claim that not only was Lada the word for a “wife” in Lycian (that is what Gemahlin that is Ehefrau, Ehegattin, Gattin, Frau means in this context) but that – in Lycia – Lada was the wife/betrothed of Jupiter. The source of this assertion, he does not give.
Długosz claimed that Jesse or Jassa was the equivalent of Jupiter (though not that Jassa was Jupiter) in the Polish pantheon. If so, then the matching of both Jassa and Lada by him as well as by earlier writers makes complete sense. Lada is the Athena female wife-protector of Jassa – a bit of an Amazon warrior princess from Mazovia.
Of course, Athena had a complicated relationship with Zeus to say the least. But, again, there is nothing to indicate a similar relationship between Jassa and Lada. If Jassa corresponds better to the Greek Iasion then Lada would have been his companion/consort/female protector. Perhaps a bit like Demeter. Note too that in Polish and a number of Suavic languages the names of the seasons correspond to the above Names:
- wiosna (pron. vyosna) – spring – to Iasion
- lato – summer – to Lada
- jesień (pron. yesyen) – fall – to Iasion, again
It is worth noting that Iasion’s namesake, Jason, was also assisted on his quest by Athena. For similar connections between Jove and Lada from Spain see here. For an English connection (?), see here. For more on the Amazonic connection see here.
Copyright ©2018 jassa.org All Rights Reserved