Who were the Polish Gods? Jan Długosz is actually quite clear about this question but it’s worth to summarize again. To call these Names a “pantheon” is in some respects an exaggeration. They were made a pantheon by Długosz but each Name has its own development and history and it is quite possible that some of these Names had a different tradition and came from, at least at some point, different tribes or even peoples (Sarmatian, Venetic/Lusatian, Suevic).
The Długosz List
- Yessa/Yassa/Yesza/Yasza (in Polish spelled with a “J” in lieu of a “Y”) – the head of the Polish pantheon – His equivalent being Jupiter; this God’s name survives in Polish folk songs as Jasień is probably the same as the “Germanic” Jecha and Tacitus’ Isidi/Isis; He is also likely the “Greek” Iasion (the Czechs spoke of Chasson sive Jassen) and perhaps the “Greek” Jason; in Aethicus Easter, it seems Yassa as Iasion appears with the Eastern Slavic Paron; As the “yasny” or “light” God, He is also probably the “God of Lightning” mentioned by Procopius, the One who comes “first” (Jeden/Odin) and who is followed by thunder (Thor or Wtory, meaning the “second” or Perun/Paron or Baltic Perkunas); He seems to be also the God of Light and of fertility/harvest rites perhaps equivalent to Jarilo/Yarilo; He may also be linked to Ossirus or Odyseus; at war He may be identical with Yarovit/Gerowit; perhaps too Master of Waters (wenda (water in Old Prussian) > wendrować > wędrować – to wander about; also woda (water in Suavic) > wodzić – to lead); As to the form Yesha/Yessa or Yesza/Yassa, note that the Slavic “sh” or “sz” is nothing more than a diminutive form (compare it with, for example, Sasha); the original Name must have been Iasion or Jasień; later, after introduction of Christianity, a traveller, wanderer – much like Odin but, unlike the scheming and bitter Odin of later Icelandic mythography, Jasień remained the simple Jaś Wędrowniczek – a young boy who travels the countryside – very much in line with the original Iasion/Jason;
- Łada/Ładon – the guardian of Jessa; this deity is either a Mars-like warrior (Didis Lado) or a Goddess of either love or order; perhaps the best answer to this confusion is that Lada is both Mars and a female Deity; She is an an Athena-like Amazon – the protector of Yassa (Alado gardzyna yesse – which may mean something like “Oh, Lada, protect Yassa”); an alternative is that Lada/Ladon were simply the “titles” (meaning “betrothed”) of Jasień and Marzanna (Mother Earth); interestingly, the Goddess Lada was worshipped, as Długosz says (without himself making the Amazon connection) in Mazovia; notice too that a Leda name appears already in Luccan as the consort/spouse of Zeus; the Greek story of Iasion and Demeter has similar connotations and would also make Lada similar to Demeter (though Długosz makes Marzanna be Ceres which was the equivalent of Demeter); perhaps the best choice of an analogy is to recall that Iasion slept with Demeter at his sister Harmonia’s wedding – ład means simply “order” in Suavic and there is much orderly about “harmony;” it is, thus, possible that the later Greek writers failed to understand that Harmonia, or Lada, was simply the Earth (compare with land) – that is She was Demeter; Lada, in Her “orderly” capacity, could also be responsible for the laws, perhaps because laws could be passed at a general meeting at which people swore something like the Anglo-Saxon Lada triplex and to which people were eingeladen (invited); the forms Dzievanna/Devanna and Marzana (see below for discussion) may have been the summer and winter forms of the same Goddess;
- Nya/Niya – the God or Goddess of after life or underworld; the equivalent of Pluto; the God had a temple in Gniezno according to Długosz;
- Dzidzilelia/Didilela/Zizilela – the Goddess of marriage and fertility (Didis Lela?); also associated with Venus; this Goddess is probably the same as the “Germanic” Ciza, Zizara;
- Dzievanna/Devanna – the Goddess of the forests and hunts; this Goddess is probably the same as the “Germanic” Taefana; expressly tied to Diana as a forest Deity; interestingly, the name also appears in India (Vindi) and in Ireland (Dublin-Lublin!) and parts of Britain (Cheshire with its 20th Legion occupying Devana); it is possible that Dzievanna was an aspect of the summer Lada; perhaps also Goddess of sleep (ziewać?) or the form of Lada when Mother Earth sleeps;
- Marzana – harvest Goddess associated with Ceres; it is possible that Dzievanna was an aspect of the winter Lada (when Mother Earth sleeps is frozen – marznąć);
- Pogoda – the Goddess of weather, the “giver of good weather”;
- Sywie/Ziwie/Zyvie/Ziva – God of Life (Zycie or of the being – zijn or sein);
Some Interpretations
The basic cyclical agriculturally related fact pattern of Polish mythology is pretty easy to establish. The details, however, vary. Specifically, the role of is uncertain:
- is Łada the “Mother Earth” or is She a separate Divinity?
- Is Łada female or male given that sometimes we see Łado and sometimes Łada?
- Given that Łada/Łado is sometimes referred to as a gardzina “of Jasień (hero? guardian?), what role does that title impute to that Divinity?
There are a number of iterations of the myth that are possible and that I have discussed here. Roughly speaking they include:
- 1A: Two Person Relationship
- Jaś as the Male Sky Deity
- Łada as the Female Earth
- 1B: Three Person Relationship
- Jaś as the Male Sky Deity
- Łada as His Female Gardzina
- Dzidzilela or Marzanna/Dziewanna as the Earth
- 1C: Three Person Relationship (seems to me the most likely)
- Jaś as the Male Sky Deity,
- Łado as His Male Gardzina
- Łado could be the preparer/announcer of Jaś’ arrival (seems to me the most likely) or
- Łado could be the fertilizing Divinity Himself with Jaś being the Father
- Dzidzilela or Marzanna/Dziewanna as the Earth
The other Divinity to account for in each of these variations is Nya. Nya’s position is even more confusing and some possibilities are discussed below. Another is that it is a female Deity representing the not yet fertilized Earth.
In any event this post expands on the first interpretation (Theory 1A) and also addresses the mysterious Leli. See below “Theory 1A Expansion: Jaś as the Male Sky Deity – Łada as the Female Earth ”
The above assume that Jaś or Jasień is a Sky Deity/Rider (Jaś the Central Hero), the details that are left are basically trying to figure out whether Jaś has a Companion and what are the names of the Mother Goddess related to the Earth.
However, in some lists of Polish Gods, especially the older ones, Łado is listed first. This raises the question whether Łado is the Central Figure and the Rider? This would leave Jaś in, potentially, an important but junior role (maybe along with another?). Let’s call that Theory 2 which this post discusses below as well.
Finally, another theory – Theory 3 – discusses the possibility that Yassa is female while Łado is male and their union may be Nya (understood as wealth not as Pluto of the underworld).
Theory 1A Expansion: Jaś as the Male Sky Deity – Łada as the Female Earth
It is noteworthy that in the oldest examples of these lists we have only:
- Yasza/Yesza,
- Łado or Łada and
- Niya
This is sometimes expressed by saying “Poles had three Gods”.
That said, sometimes we also have Yleli. For example:
- lado yleli yassa tija (Statuta provincialia breviter)
- ysaya lado ylely ya ya (Sermones per circulum anni, Cunradi)
- Alado, yesse, ylely (Sermo De S. Stephano)
The most likely explanation to me is that Łado and Łada are merely titles that refer to a Divine Couple (in fact, these are also nouns that refer to one’s “beloved” or betrothed). The male member of the Couple is Jasień who is the Łado. The female member’s Name (though not certain) is likely Marza who then is the Łada.
Jasień is evidently associated with horse riding and the Sky. He has riders with him and he carries a ring for bonding with or marriage to His Łada. To get “access” however, He needs a Key and indeed the image of a key is associated with both Jasień and his betrothed.
Marza (or Marzanna) seems to be associated with the Earth (compare with marchew meaning “carrot” that is from the ground). Hence we have the Ceres reference in Długosz). Indeed, the very word “marriage” is indicative (Compare with Latin maritare). This Goddess is associated with agriculture and motherhood but also with the main elements on Earth that is land (Lenda the Łada) and water (Wenda but also mare/morze, that is the sea). She is also frozen – sleeps – in the winter but comes alive, after Jasień opens her with his Key (perhaps starting with the lightning strikes or pioruny, the strikes of the Divine “Fork” announcing the arrival of the rains of spring making “dry” Earth suddenly “wet” and ready for intercourse). Think of the chastity belt. During the winter She is asleep (nightmare or marzyc “to dream”) and (see above) maybe associated with freezing (marznąć) but also with death (according to Brueckner, as late as the 15th century mrzeć meant “to kill” – probably cognate with the PIE root *mer- “to rub away, harm” (also “to die” and forming words referring to death and to beings subject to death)). In the Polish tradition Marzanna is initially referred to as “death” which must itself be killed and restored with a gaik – initially a tree.
Yet She is also the protector of either Jasień (the young Jasień) or the new Jasień or Jasień’s Son – that is Man (like Isis protecting Horus) and in that capacity she is a warrior – an Amazon – Lada aka Minerva aka Athena. (Whether the Sarmatian war cry marha (Ammianus Marcellinus) was a reference to Marza (or just the scream of “death” [to the Romans]) is yet another question the answer to which we will likely not ever know)).
Perhaps Jasień (in Jarilo form?) was not just the Sky God as the Divine Son born of Jasień and Marza, that is the Earth – Man. In fact, whether these are not just a pair but also siblings and potentially a mother and son are another set of matters. See below for more on the complicated relationship between the Sister who is a Wife of and also a Mother to the same Divinity.
There is also an equestrian component to Marza if you are willing to look outside of Suavic languages. Here you have, according to the Online Etymology Dictionary: “the Old English meare, also mere (Mercian), myre (West Saxon), fem. of mearh “horse,” from Proto-Germanic *marhijo- “female horse” (source also of Old Saxon meriha, Old Norse merr, Old Frisian merrie, Dutch merrie, Old High German meriha, German Mähre “mare”), said to be of Gaulish origin (compare Irish and Gaelic marc, Welsh march, Breton marh “horse”).” If the mare were “black” and Jasień were associated with “light” (jasny) then we have a pair of light and dark horses connected to the annual and, importantly, agricultural cycle.
In this telling Nya may simply be nothingness. In other words, if Jasień is always the “light” and Marzanna may or may not be in light or in darkness depending on the time of year, Nya may be the perpetual darkness. But this is not the only interpretation and may also refer to the “New” that is reborn (compare this notion with the Egyptian Horus). Długosz refers to Nya as Pluto but Pluto could also mean wealth (Greek ploutos hence “plutocracy”). That is the new wealth of rebirth or of the land which might even suggest that Nya is the offspring of Jasień and Marza (Jarilo?). That is, after all, what agricultural wealth meant. Curiously the Suavic bóg (God) may have originated from bhaga refers to “master”, “lord”. Yet this word also means “wealth.” If so, Nya that is made “of the Earth” may suggest that a bóg meant, in Suavic mythology, a lesser Being than Jasień and Marza Who would not, in this telling, be “simple” bogi but rather some higher forms of Divinity.
Still, Nya is usually mentioned on par with Yassa and Lada. So, on the one hand, Nya may be the “new” Jasień (Iarilo/Horus) but, on the other hand, Nya may be a sibling to Jasień and Marza (just as Horus may initially have been a sibling to Isis and Osiris).
What of the Leli? Well, the word Leli appears where Nya does not. If so, then Leli would only be another Name for Nya. Given that Leli was sometimes referred to as Heli (Scandinavian Hela and “hell” which is anything but dark) we could have a God of the Underworld that is simply the crushed but therefore incandescent new God of Light. Alternatively, Nya could remain a Divinity in His own right but the Leli could be the children of Jasień and Marza or Nya may be just one of the Leli who may be many.
These Leli could be bogi “Gods” or children in the sense that they are like “wealth”. From my perspective the simplest possibility is to see the Sun and Moon (księżyc or Little Prince or, perhaps, Nya(?)) as their offspring. Either way Dzidzilelia would then be just another Name for Łada/Marza.
Thus, we would have:
- Jasień the Łado or the white stallion in the Sky (see here on the very similar Jaryło or Jarilo/Iarilo)
- Marza/Marzanna the Łada, maybe aka the Boda (Earth), the (black?) mare but also a warrior (Amazon-like Minerva/Athena), the protector of Jasień (or of the new Jasień, like Horus) and, once a mother, aka Dzidzilelia
- Nya possibly a separate Deity of Night (or of the New Moon that is księżyc or a Lel or, if there were many, a member of the Leli, that is the children (or child) of Jasień and Marza (though originally, perhaps, only the night (or winter) form of the about to be “newborn” Jasień) but, perhaps also the replacer of Jasień (acting like Set in Egyptian mythology)
But you might say, Nya must be separate from Leli because we have the mention of lado yleli yassa tija wherein tija is probably Nya.
This objection, however, raises a much more complicated issue, namely what does the above phrase really mean?
It may be an exclamation in vocative wherein tija (or *Tîwaz or *Teiwaz !?) may just be twoja, that is “yours” (that is, it may having nothing to do with Nya). If so, we could have further and different interpretations of this phrase. It could mean:
- “Lado! And the Children of your [spouse] Yassa”,
or, if leli were interpreted as a verb meaning lulać that is “try to put someone to sleep” (compare with the English “to lull” or “lullaby”) or ululać (that is to successfully do so), then we might interpret this as:
- “Lado! Lull your Yassa to sleep!”
If this is correct, then it might suggest asking Mother Earth to sing lullabies and hence to put to sleep, the Sky God (perhaps the Sun).
This might also suggest that Yassa is the Son of the Earth starting with the Earth “birthing” the Sun (Son) but also the Sun “dying” into the Earth. This mother-son relationship is not necessarily a replacement for the sibling theory discussed above. In fact, the earliest example of a Brother-Sister pair that is Isis and Osiris (also a vegetation God) produce the “new” Osiris, that is Horus. But Horus is merely made from Osiris. Thus, the Sun is “birthed” by the Earth, “mates” with the same Earth and then “dies” into the Earth, only to be reborn as the same but really the New Divinity.
Notice this is also similar not only to the myth of Iasion and Demeter (Ceres and Earth mother?) but also to Jason and Medea. Jason travels to the underworld and is helped by Media. However, on the Douris cup, Jason is being aided by the Pallas Athena (comes out of a dragon of darkness?). The Return of Jason is also reflected in the Iasion myth in that, after fertilizing the Earth and “dying”, at least in some versions, Iasion is restored to life.
It is interesting that Medea’s cognates include the Polish miedza (meaning literally “boundary” but also a wooden balk), the Latin media and the Gothic midjis or the German Mitte. While this “Earth/Boden” concept seems to have been extended to “measuring,” one’s property presumably, it originally seems to refer to both the Earth and to the Middle (perhaps Middle-Earth is thus a redundancy). If you want you may extend it to Midgard. However, it also establishes a three level hierarchy:
- Jasień in the “Sky” (or “Out There”)
- Nya in the “Underworld” or, really, everywhere else where Jasień and Marza are not
In fact, another interesting word in Polish is miedź meaning “copper” which may itself be cognate with the German Schmiede or “smith”. Is the prefix smi– from the PIE “to cut”? But cut what? We have the Old English simian but we also have the Gothic aiza-smiþa, that is “coppersmith”. This creates a fascinating possibility of a myth in which there is only nothingness – Nya – until there comes the traveling Jasień who is also a “smith” in the sense that he fertilizes the otherwise “sleeping” Earth Who then becomes the Mother of a new Jasień (Man) while Jasień departs to return later (this is a daily, annual but perhaps an even longer cycle). Incidentally, worshipping such a fertility Divinity might have helped the Suavs to demographically take over the continent.
Alternatively, a fascinating possibility is that Łado is the supreme Being but it is Jasień and Dzidzilela that are His Children.
Remember the poem:
Pośród sioła kuźnia stała,
A w tej kuźni
Dwa kowalczyki
Łado! Łado!
Biją młoty w pierścień złoty,
Z młodym Jasieńkiem
Ku ślubowi
Łado! Łado!
in translation:
In the village there stood a smithy
And in this smithy
Two smith’s sons [or children?]
Łado! Łado!
Hammers strike a golden ring
With young Jasień
Towards marriage
Łado! Łado!
Indeed, it thus may well be argued that Athena, Marza, Łada, Medea may have all been the same Earth Goddess.
Of course, the above poem raises other questions: Who was the other smith son or sibling? Perhaps, Marza the Łada? And who was the senior “parent” there? Was there an actual senior Smith? (Svarog? Zeus? Nya as the original nothingness? *Djous patēr?). It is possible that Jasień may have, as the above Jason/Iasion myths may also hint, been downgraded as a new God took over (thunder God?). Of course, the poem does not say there was another smith, that is the seeming patronymic kowalczyk may rather just be a diminutive expression to refer to little smiths. After all that is what a man and woman are when they engage in coitus.
Jason betraying Medea thus carries hints of an unfaithful, departing Jasień or Jaryło who comes and goes, perhaps spreading his magical seed around the universe. Incidentally, this seed may not even be “man” per se. In fact, when Marzanna is tossed out of the village, the villagers bring in a “tree” (gaik – compare with Gaia). In some villages, only the gaik ceremony survived. And Jasień is, after all, also cognate with jesion, the ash tree – elsewhere in Northern Europe, also known as the Life Tree or in Scandinavia, Yggdrasill.
As an aside, given that Łado the Rider would have a name similar to that of Wadon or Wodan (compare this with the Suavic title wojewoda – literally, “warrior leader”), an analogy arises with Frigg/Freya who was an agricultural deity. In fact, her name – Freya – means, literally, the “Lady.” That is, Freya/Freyr are not so much names as just titles, arguably, just like Łada/Łado, except that in the latter case, the titles are not lord/lady but beloved female/beloved male. Perhaps, then we have the “The Lady and the Lad”.
In this version the Lad’s (Łado’s) Name is Jasień and the Lady’s (Łada’s) Name is Lela.
Going back to Egypt, it is curious that the early formula of “An offering the king gives and Anubis” became, by the end of the Fifth Dynasty “An offering the king gives and Osiris”. There is thus also the question of whether Nya is the “Nube” the night form of Yassa yet really not Yassa. Compare this with “navel” (according to the Online Etymology Dictionary from PIE *(o)nobh-). The fact that Osiris may be derived from jsjrj suggests that both the Jas and the Jar (Jarilo, Horus, hero?) may be, in essence, the same – though different – the Father and the Son. And yet, as mentioned above, there is also the question whether the Father is replaced (“killed”) by the Son. In that sense, Horus and Set may be the same person. Or the king is dead, long live the king. Or, to the extent, Łado is Odin and Nya/Leli/Heli can be Hela.
(In fact, in alternative you could see a plural Leli perhaps: the good bohater (compare with the Persian bahadur) półbóg that is “Demigod” or “hero” – Turoń or Jaryło or Veles? and the evil (?) Nya or (female?) Hela. This is, of course, even more fanciful).
Note that the Egyptian connections in Suavic mythology may also be seen in Tacitus’ mention of Isidi (Isis) (indeed, there is a possibility that Jassa refers also to the female Earth Goddess just as Łado has a Łada counterpart) as well as in the crowns of Osiris (Atef crown, with a phallic element in its Hedjet) and Isis (more like an egg element – note the ship connection of Isis also has a lunar connection given how a crescent moon looks like a boat).See this here for the “feathers”, “snakes”, “horses” or “dragons” forming the number “twos” in these crowns.
The above interpretation reduces the number of Polish Divinities. Yet it, in addition to the three above, it would leave the following Długosz Divinities in their role as minor Divinities (maybe these are the Leli or “children”):
- Dziewana (Dzievanna/Devanna)
- Pogoda
- Żywie (Sywie/Ziwie/Zyvie/Ziva)
An alternative interpretation of the same basic paradigm would preserve the Trio of Polish Divinities as well as these but make them all into Leli – that is children of the Three. Here we would have:
but also include some of the other Names as separate Names of the “Leli”:
- Marzanna
- Dzidzilelia
- Dziewana
- Pogoda
- Żywie
Theory 2
Suppose it is Łado that is the Rider and, further, that Jasień is separate from Łado. What are the interesting (and likely) possibilities?
If Łado is the protagonist then you could see Łado as both the “awaked” and the “impregnator” of Mother Earth (the “Sleeping Beauty”). What is the name of Mother Earth? Well, there are two Names potentially associated with the adjective “great” in Baltic languages: Didis Lado and, arguably, Didis Lela (Dzidzilela). In this telling then Jasień may be the Son of the Sky and the Earth. Or there could be Two such children. If Lela is the Name of the Earth then we can also explain the confusion which led to Maciej of Miechow to conclude that Lada was Leda (of the Greeks).
In this telling you could see Łado throwing out Marza/Marzanna (an agent of Nya, the nothingness?) out of Dzidzilela and putting a new Jasień in her womb.
In fact, a variation could be the idea that Jasień is one of two (Sun and Moon?) children of the Sky Father and Mother Earth. These would be the Lelki.
All of these let’s call Theory 2A.
Is there a Theory 2B?
Perhaps Jasień is something other than a child of Łado and Dzidzilela.
Perhaps Łado can be understood as the guardian, in the sense of “caretaker” of Jasień. Interestingly, Jasień is the name of a tree (jesion) but the ancient Suavs referred to stars as trees (gwiazdy/gozdy). You can easily imagine a caretaker that keeps the trees (or The Tree) alive and then departs (to perform similar tasks elsewhere) to come back later.
In fact, perhaps Łado was the protector/guardian of Jassa in the sense that Łado effectuated the rebirth of Jassa, the ash tree. But had to do so in an annual cycle? This becomes similar to Theory 1C.
Theory 3
Did the Suevi really worship Isis? If so, then another possibility is that Yassa (unlike Łado we never have “Jasso” though numerous -a suffixed names such as “Sasha” or, for that matter, Attila, Totila, may nevertheless be male) is a Female Goddess like Mother Earth and Łado is the male Rider. Łado is the protector of Yassa much as above but their children’s are different perhaps Leli? Is Nya some Dark Lord or simply the New – the ploutos – of the union of Łado and Yassa?
Other Mentions
Outside of Długosz’s testimony many of the above Names are merely repeated. However, other Names include:
- Boda/Bodze – this could be another name for the Earth (swoboda – freedom or one own land and, for that matter, the “body” and Boden the “ground”);
- Lel/Heli/Leli – the Polish Castor but perhaps connected with the Germanic Hel; perhaps one of the Tacitean Alcis; connection, if any, with Dzidzilelia/Didilela/Zizilela is unclear;
- Polel – the Polish Pollux; perhaps one of the Tacitean Alcis;
- Pogwizd/Pochwist/Pochwistel/Niepogoda;
- Pan;
- Grom;
- Piorun (probably Ukraine only since, at the time of writing, that was part of Poland);
- Gwiazda (literally “star”; also appears as Gwiazdor – perhaps referring to the World Tree (gozda);
Finally, one book mentions a whole league of Deities and demons (some of these are the same as above):
male:
Farel, Diabelus, Orkiusz, Opses, Loheli, Latawiec, Szatan, Chejdasz, Koffel, Rozwod, Smolka, Harab the Hunter, Ileli, Kozyra, Gaja, Ruszaj, Pozar, Strojnat, Biez, Dymek, Rozboj, Bierka, Wicher, Sczebiot, Odmieniec, Wilkolek [werewolf], Wesad, Dyngus or Kiczka, Fugas
female:
Dziewanna, Marzanna, Wenda, Jedza, Ossorya, Chorzyca, Merkana
For other posts on Polish Gods see here (part I), here (part II), here (part III), here (part IV), here (Part V) and here (Part VI).
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