Moryana (Russian: Моря́на, pronounced [mɐˈrʲanə]) is a female sea spirit in Slavic folklore, possibly a goddess.[1][2] Moryana was a sea vodyanitsa and daughter of the Morskoy Tsar,[3][4][5] and also, according to some beliefs, she ruled the winds.[1][6] Sometimes the moryany/moryanki (plural; Russian: моряны, морянки; Polish: moriany) were said to be numerous spirits of the sea and a marine kind of rusalki,[7] which posed a great threat to ships,[8][9] 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.[10]

Etymology

Moryana's name is derived from море meaning "sea", and with the feminine ending яна it is roughly translated as "she of the sea". Moryana's name is used in some regions of Russia to describe the cold and harsh winds she personifies; these winds blow from the sea to the land and are also called морянка, морянник and моряной.[11]

In folklore

In Russia, 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, taking the form of a big fish and playing with dolphins. She came ashore only on quiet evenings. At this time of day she swayed on the waves, splashed in the water and fingered sea pebbles. When a storm was rising due to the Morskoy Tsar becoming angry, Moryana calmed him down, and the storm also subsided.[3][4][5] She also rode the sea in a golden canoe. Her beauty was so dazzling that it was impossible to look at her at once.[4] According to Vasily Prokhorov, a Russian archaeologist and ethnographer, Moryana, in the minds of the pagans, was a goddess and beloved of the Sun (possibly Dazhbog), and in one old tale she appears under the name of Tsarevna Anastasia. In this tale, Ivan Tsarevich overhears the conversation of the Sun with his mother, in which the Sun confesses that when Anastasia splashes water on him, she makes him blush with bashfulness.[2] In the beautiful image of Moryana, fairy tales combine the ideas of the goddess Zorya and the goddess of thunder.[4]

In another belief, Moryana was described as a stern, very tall woman with uncombed hair and wearing 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.[6]

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.[8]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 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. 1 2 Prokhorov, Vasily (1872). Русския древности: с рисунками, относящимся ко вшем отрослям русского искусства, разъясняющими события историческия и быт народный во всех отношениях: в военном, гражданском, домашнем и русской одежды в разных периодах и пр [Russian antiquities: with drawings related to all branches of Russian art, explaining the events of the historical and folk life in all respects: in the military, civilian, domestic, and Russian clothes in different periods, etc.] (in Russian).
  3. 1 2 Kononenko, Aleksey (1993). Персонажи славянской мифологии: рисованый словарь [Characters of Slavic Mythology: A Drawn Dictionary] (in Russian). Kharkov: Korsar. ISBN 9785770722307.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Vagurina, Lyudmila (1998). Славянская мифология [Slavic mythology] (in Russian). Linor & Sovershenstvo. ISBN 9785808900240.
  5. 1 2 Elena Kryuchkova, Olga Kryuchkova (2019). Illustrated Encyclopedia of Ancient Slavic Gods and Spirits. Babelcube Inc. ISBN 9781547577798.
  6. 1 2 Kononenko, Aleksey (2013). Энциклопедия славянской культуры, письменности и мифологии [Encyclopedia of Slavic culture, writing and mythology] (in Russian). Folio. ISBN 9785699748600.
  7. ↑ Afansyev, Alexander (1994). Поэтические воззрения славян на природу [The Poetic Outlook of Slavs about Nature] (in Russian). Indrik. ISBN 5-85759-009-4. Archived from the original on 2015-04-16. Retrieved 2021-12-11.
  8. 1 2 "Разновидности русалок" [Kinds of rusalki]. Моя библиотека (in Russian).
  9. ↑ "Легенды и предания. Водяница" [Legends and Stories. Vodyanitsa]. Русская история (in Russian).
  10. ↑ Shubin, Daniel (2004). A History of Russian Christianity, Vol. I: From the Earliest Years through Tsar Ivan IV. Algora Publishing. p. 73. ISBN 9780875862873.
  11. ↑ "Моряна. Словарь ветров" [Moryana. Dictionary of the Winds].
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