(Dyadic) Goddess and Duotheism in Nodilo's The Old Faith of Serbs and Croats Cover Image

(Dijadna) boginja i duoteizam u Nodilovoj Staroj vjeri Srba i Hrvata
(Dyadic) Goddess and Duotheism in Nodilo's The Old Faith of Serbs and Croats

Author(s): Suzana Marjanić
Subject(s): Cultural Essay, Political Essay, Societal Essay
Published by: Institut za etnologiju i folkloristiku
Keywords: Natko Nodilo; The Old Faith of Serbs and Croats; (dyadic) goddess; Vida; Živa; Mokoπ

Summary/Abstract: The text considers Natko Nodilo's re/construction of the South Slavic goddess (more precisely, a goddess in the context of the old faith of Serbs and Croats) in the chapter "Sutvid i Vida" of his study The Old Faith of Serbs and Croats (1885-1890) which develops the re/construction of the South Slavic goddess/pantheon on the basis of Helmold's Chronica Slavorum which refers to the Baltic Slavs. By choosing Svantevid as the supreme Slavic deity which was venerated at Arkona temple on the island of Rügen and Siwa/Æiva as the supreme Slavic goddess which was worshipped by the Polabians, Natko Nodilo connects the two different pantheons of the Baltic Slavs — the pantheon of the Baltic Slavs of the island of Rügen and the Polabian pantheon. Nodilo observes the (pluvial) incestuous hierogamy in the context of twin mythem, and reads its trails mainly from the (epic) oral songs and the pluvial rituals of dodole and prporuπe. And while in the world of the oral song about Vid(osav)a and Vid he reveals the goddess under the theonym Vida, in the worlds of mythic stories he re/constructs her by the name of Æiva (and Darinka). By this he inaugurates a dyadic goddess (the celestial one — — Vida and the terrestrial one — Æiva/Earth) in the framework of duotheism (Vid — — Vida/Æiva). Since comparative mythology between Croatian/Serbian old faith and Greek- -Roman mythology is important to Nodilo, he questions the mythological contact of number of goddesses: Phrygian Cybele — Greek Rhea, Hera — Roman Bona Dea [the Good Goddess], Juno, Ops, Ceres — South Slavic Æiva/Vida, which are (mostly) connected with the theriosymbol sow (pig). The stated comparative mythology Nodilo extends to the South Slavic — Scandinavian/German comparative mythology and the theophore binomials Wodan (Odin) — Jörd/ Odin-Frigg/ Freyr — Freyja he interprets in contact with the South Slavic theophore couple Vid — Vida/Živa.

  • Issue Year: 39/2002
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 175-198
  • Page Count: 23
  • Language: Croatian