Žemyna (alsoŽemynėlė orŽemelė)[1] (fromLithuanian:žemė –earth) is the goddess of the earth inLithuanian religion. She is usually regarded asmother goddess and one of the chief Lithuanian gods similar toLatvianZemes 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.[2] As the cult diminished afterbaptism of Lithuania, Žemyna's image and functions became influenced by the cult ofVirgin Mary.[3]
Žemyna was first mentioned byJan Łasicki (1582). It was later also described byMikalojus Daukša (1595),Daniel Klein (1653),Matthäus Prätorius,Jacob Brodowski (1740), and in numerous folk legends, beliefs, and prayers.[3] Prätorius described a ritual, calledžemyneliauti, performed at major celebrations (e.g. weddings) or agricultural works (e.g. harvest). The head of the household would drink a cup of beer, but first, he wouldspill some of the drink on the ground and say a short prayer. Then he would kill a rooster or a hen, which would be cooked and eaten by the entire family. Each family member would receive a loaf of bread and say prayers, blessings, and greetings. The bones and other scraps would be sacrificed to the goddess (burned or buried).[3] Other recorded rites included burying bread baked from last crops of prior harvest in a field before new sowing and sacrifice of a black piglet.[9] People would also kiss the earth saying a short prayer thanking Žemyna for all her gifts and acknowledging that one day they will return to her.[10] People addressed Žemyna in various affectionatediminutive names andepithets.
In addition, historical sources onBaltic mythology describe the dual role of goddess Zemyna: while she was connected to the fertility of the land, she was also associated with receiving the dead and acting as their ruler and guardian.[11][a] Pieces of Lithuanian folklore also make references to Earth as mother of humans and their final abode after death.[13][b][c]
The goddess is said to be married to eitherPerkūnas (thunder god) or Praamžius (manifestation of chief heavenly godDievas). Thus the couple formed the typicalIndo-European pair of mother-earth and father-sky.[16] It was believed that the earth needs to be fertilized by the heavens (rain and thunder). Thus it was prohibited to plow or sow before the first thunder as the earth would be barren.[10]
Other characters in Lithuanian mythology are related, etymologically or semantically, to goddess Žemyna and a cult of the earth, such asŽemėpatis[18][19] ('Earth Spouse')[20] andŽemininkas,[21] male deities associated with cattle, agriculture and the fertility of the land.[22] Their names are present in historical records of the Lithuanian non-Christian faith by foreign missionaries.[23][24]
Another male divinity with the nameZemeluks,Zamoluksei,[25]Zameluks orZiameluks[26][27] is also said to be attested. An account tells he is aDEUS TERRAE ('earth god'),[28] while in other he is "a lord or god of earth who was buried in the earth" by the Prussians.[29]
^"Zemyna (otherwise Zemlja or Perkunatelé) is the earth-goddess and psychopomp of the dead."[12]
^"Archeological findings witness that the most ancient phase of Lithuanian culture was definitely Zemyna's culture. The distinguishing factor in these findings was the burial rites. In the oldest cultural phase, the dead were buried - given back to Zemyna, Mother Earth."[14]
^Lithuanian ethnologueNijolė Laurinkienė (lt), at the end of her book on Zemyna, writes thus: "Žemyna was also imagined as the giver and supporter of human life, because like flora and fauna, humanity is a part of nature. (...) The newborn would immediately be laid down on Mother Earth as if she were its biological mother, so that she could ‘accept’ and ‘embrace’ the infant as her own earthly creation and give it vegetative power and vitality on a cosmic plane. (...)".[15]
^Laurinkiene, Nijole. "Gyvatė, Žemė, Žemyna: vaizdinių koreliacija nominavimo ir semantikos lygmenyje". In:Lituanistika šiuolaikiniame pasaulyje. Vilnius: Lietuvių literatūros ir tautosakos institutas, 2004. pp. 285–286.
^Laurinkienė, Nijolė. "Požemio ir mirusiųjų karalystės deivė" [Goddesses of the Kingdom of the Dead and the Underworld]. In:Metai n. 1. 2010. pp. 116–127.
^Laurinkienė, Nijolė. "Motina Žemyna baltų deivių kontekste: 1 d.: Tacito mater deum, trakų-frigų Σεμέλη, latvių Zemes māte, Māra, lietuvių bei latvių Laima, Laumė ir lietuvių Austėja" [Mother-Goddess Žemyna in the context of Baltic deities]. In:Liaudies kultūra Nr. 2 (2007). p. 12.ISSN0236-0551https://www.lituanistika.lt/content/7871
^Duridanov, Ivan (1985).Die Sprache der Thraker. Bulgarische Sammlung (in German). Vol. 5. Hieronymus Verlag. p. 69.ISBN3-88893-031-6.
^"[Zemyna's] name is the linguistic equivalent of that of Semele, mother of Dionysos, in the Greek and Thracian traditions." Jones, Prudence; Pennick, Nigel (1995).A History of Pagan Europe. Routledge. p. 175.ISBN978-1-136-14172-0.
^abDundulienė, Pranė (2018).Pagonybė Lietuvoje. Moteriškosios dievybės (in Lithuanian). Vilnius: Mokslo in enciklopedijų leidybos institutas. pp. 111–115.ISBN978-5-420-01638-1.
^Laurinkienė, Nijolė. "Požemio ir mirusiųjų karalystės deivė" [Goddesses of the Kingdom of the Dead and the Underworld]. In:Metai n. 1 2010. pp. 116–127.
^Jones, Prudence; Pennick, Nigel (1995).A History of Pagan Europe. Routledge. p. 175.ISBN978-1-136-14172-0.
^Vycinas, Vincent.Search for Gods. Springer, Dordrecht. 1972. p. 32.ISBN978-94-010-2816-5
^Laurinkienė, Nijolė.Žemyna ir jos mitinis pasaulis [Žemyna and her mythical world]. Vilnius: Lietuvių literatūros ir tautosakos institutas, 2013. p. 494.ISBN9786094251092
^Sirutis, Dainius (1999). "Žemyna". In Jonas Trinkūnas (ed.).Of Gods & Holidays. The Baltic Heritage. Vilnius: Tvermė. pp. 80–83.ISBN9986-476-27-5.
^Laurinkienė, Nijolė (2008). "Lietuvių žemės deivės vardai" [The Lithuanian names of the Goddess of the Earth]. In:Tautosakos darbai, XXXVI, pp. 77-78.ISSN1392-2831
^Borissoff, Constantine L. (2014). “Non-Iranian Origin of the Eastern-Slavonic God Xŭrsŭ/Xors" [Neiranskoe proishoždenie vostočnoslavjanskogo Boga Hrsa/Horsa]. In:Studia Mythologica Slavica 17 (October). Ljubljana, Slovenija. p. 22.https://doi.org/10.3986/sms.v17i0.1491.
^Laurinkiene, Nijole. "Gyvatė, Žemė, Žemyna: vaizdinių koreliacija nominavimo ir semantikos lygmenyje". In:Lituanistika šiuolaikiniame pasaulyje. Vilnius: Lietuvių literatūros ir tautosakos institutas, 2004. p. 285.
^Doniger, Wendy.Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of World Religions. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. 1999. p. 1161.ISBN0-87779-044-2
^Vaitkevičienė, Daiva. "Nuliejimas žemei: gėrimo apeigos adresato klausimu" [Libation to earth: regarding an addressee of the drinking ritual]. In:Tautosakos darbai [Folklore Studies]. 2004, 28. pp. 104-117.ISSN1392-2831[1]
^Ališauskas, Vytautas. "Apie nemokslinį žalčio ir gyvatės skirtumą: Jono Lasickio knygelės paraštėje". In:Naujasis Židinys–Aidai, 2003, Nr. 11–12, pp. 612–615.
Laurinkienė, Nijolė.Žemyna ir jos mitinis pasaulis [Žemyna and her mythical world]. Vilnius: Lietuvių literatūros ir tautosakos institutas, 2013.ISBN9786094251092
