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Moryana

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File:Moryana.gif
Illustration of Moryana in the book by Aleksey Kononenko "Characters of Slavic mythology: A drawn dictionary"

Moryana (Russian: Моря́на, pronounced [mɐˈrʲanə]) is a female sea spirit in Russian folklore, possibly a goddess.[1] Moryana was a sea vodyanitsa and daughter of the Morskoy Tsar,[2][3][4] and also, according to some beliefs, she ruled the winds.[1][5] Sometimes the moryany (plural) were said to be numerous spirits of the sea and a marine kind of rusalki, which posed a great threat to ships,[6][7] but usually Moryana was represented as a single entity.

Due to the consonance of her name with the name of the goddess Marena, Moryana was sometimes identified with her and was called the goddess of death.[8]

In folklore

She was also known as the Sea Tsarevna (Russian: Морска́я царéвна) and the Tsar Maiden (Russian: Царь-девицá). It was believed that Moryana often swam deep in the sea, while taking the form of a fish. She came ashore only on quiet evenings, swayed on the waves, splashed and fingered sea pebbles. When a storm was rising due to the Morskoy Tsar becoming angry, Moryana calmed him down, and the storm also began to subside.[2][3][4] She also rode the sea in a golden canoe. Her beauty was so dazzling that it was impossible to look at her at once. In the beautiful image of the Sea Tsarevna or the Tsar Maiden, fairy tales combine the ideas of the goddess Zorya and the goddess of thunder.[3]

In another belief, Moryana was described as a stern, very tall woman with disheveled hair and dressed in white clothes. She controlled the southeast winds at the mouth of the Volga, which posed a huge threat to sailors and fishermen on the northwest coast of the Caspian Sea. Slowly walking across the water, she brought disasters and devastation. Moryana's main enemy was Ded Shapka Dranaya (Russian: Дед – ша́пка дра́ная; transl. Old man-in-a-torn-hat), the ruler of the northwest wind, but he almost always lost to the giantess. When they were colliding in battle, the waves of the sea were swirling and rising like a pillar to the sky before sinking the ships.[5]

It was also believed that Moryana and her sisters were waiting for the ships at the coastal cliffs, and, rising from the waves, rocked them so that they were wrecked. Sometimes they attacked people, and the only way to avoid the attack of the sea vodyanitsy was to pull out as much of their sea foam-like hair as possible.[6]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Remizov, Aleksey (2004). Сторона небывалая: легенды, сказки, сны, фантастика, исторические были-небыли [An unprecedented side: legends, fairy tales, dreams, fantasy, historical true and fiction] (in Russian). Russkiy Put'. p. 479. ISBN 9785858871552.
  2. ^ a b Kononenko, Aleksey (1993). Персонажи славянской мифологии: рисованый словарь [Characters of Slavic Mythology: A Drawn Dictionary] (in Russian). Kharkov: Korsar. ISBN 9785770722307.
  3. ^ a b c Vagurina, Lyudmila (1998). Славянская мифология [Slavic mythology] (in Russian). Linor & Sovershenstvo. ISBN 9785808900240.
  4. ^ a b Elena Kryuchkova, Olga Kryuchkova (2019). Illustrated Encyclopedia of Ancient Slavic Gods and Spirits. Babelcube Inc. ISBN 9781547577798.
  5. ^ a b Kononenko, Aleksey (2013). Энциклопедия славянской культуры, письменности и мифологии [Encyclopedia of Slavic culture, writing and mythology] (in Russian). Folio. ISBN 9785699748600.
  6. ^ a b "Разновидности русалок" [Kinds of rusalki]. Моя библиотека (in Russian).
  7. ^ "Легенды и предания. Водяница" [Legends and Stories. Vodyanitsa]. Русская история (in Russian).
  8. ^ Shubin, Daniel (2004). A History of Russian Christianity, Vol. I: From the Earliest Years through Tsar Ivan IV. Algora Publishing. p. 73. ISBN 9780875862873.