Dzidzilela
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Dzidzilela, Dzidzileyla, Dzidzilelya is an alleged
Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...
goddess. First mentioned by
Jan Długosz Jan Długosz (; 1 December 1415 – 19 May 1480), also known in Latin as Johannes Longinus, was a Polish priest, chronicler, diplomat, soldier, and secretary to Bishop Zbigniew Oleśnicki of Kraków. He is considered Poland's first histo ...
as the Polish equivalent of the Roman goddess
Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is often called Earth's "twin" or "sister" planet for having almost the same size and mass, and the closest orbit to Earth's. While both are rocky planets, Venus has an atmosphere much thicker ...
, goddess of marriage. Nowadays, the authenticity of the goddess is rejected by most researchers, and it is believed that the
theonym A theonym (from Greek (), 'god', attached to (), ) is a proper name of a deity. Theonymy, the study of divine proper names, is a branch of onomastics, the study of the etymology, history, and use of proper names. Theonymy helps develop an und ...
was created by recognizing a fragment of folk songs as a proper name.


Source

Dzidzilela first appears in the ''Annals'' of
Jan Długosz Jan Długosz (; 1 December 1415 – 19 May 1480), also known in Latin as Johannes Longinus, was a Polish priest, chronicler, diplomat, soldier, and secretary to Bishop Zbigniew Oleśnicki of Kraków. He is considered Poland's first histo ...
, who compared her to
Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is often called Earth's "twin" or "sister" planet for having almost the same size and mass, and the closest orbit to Earth's. While both are rocky planets, Venus has an atmosphere much thicker ...
, the Roman goddess of love: After Dlugosz the information about Dzidzilela was repeated by
Maciej Miechowita Maciej Miechowita (also known as ''Maciej z Miechowa, Maciej of Miechów, Maciej Karpiga, Matthias de Miechow''; 1457 – 8 September 1523) was a Polish Renaissance scholar, professor of Jagiellonian University, historian, chronicler, geogra ...
,
Marcin Kromer Marcin Kromer (Latin: ''Martinus Cromerus''; 11 November 1512 – 23 March 1589) was Prince-Bishop of Warmia (Ermland), a Polish cartographer, diplomat and historian in the Kingdom of Poland and later in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. He w ...
,
Alexander Guagnini Alexander Guagnini (; ; 1538, in Verona, Republic of Venice – 1614, in Kraków, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth) was a Republic of Venice, Venetian-born Poland, Polish writer, military officer, chronicler and historian of Italy, Italian her ...
,
Maciej Stryjkowski Maciej Stryjkowski (also referred to as Strykowski and Strycovius;Nowa encyklopedia powszechna PWN. t. 6, 1997 – ) was a Polish historian, writer and a poet, known as the author of ''Chronicle of Poland, Lithuania, Samogitia and all of Rutheni ...
, Marcin and
Joachim Bielski Joachim was, according to Sacred tradition, the husband of Saint Anne, the father of Mary (mother of Jesus), and the maternal grandfather of Jesus. The story of Joachim and Anne first appears in the Gospel of James, part of the New Testament apoc ...
, and the priest
Jakub Wujek Jakub Wujek (1541 – 27 April 1597) was a Polish Jesuit, religious writer, Doctor of Theology, Vice-Chancellor of the Vilnius Academy and translator of the Bible into Polish. He is well-known for his translation of the Bible into Polish: the ...
in the following variations: ''Dzidzilia'', ''Zizilia'', ''Zyzylia'', ''Zezylia''.


Historicity

The authenticity of Dzidzilela, like that of other deities mentioned by Długosz, was initially not questioned. This situation changed when
Aleksander Brückner Aleksander Brückner (; 29 January 1856 – 24 May 1939) was a Polish scholar of Slavic languages and literature (Slavistics), philologist, lexicographer, and historian of literature. He is among the most notable Slavicists of the late 19th ...
criticised the sources about the goddess. Originally, he acknowledged the historicity of the goddess, reading her name as ''Dziecilela'', which was supposed to mean "the one who lull, rock the children" (from
Old Polish The Old Polish language () was a period in the history of the Polish language between the 10th and the 16th centuries. It was followed by the Middle Polish language. The sources for the study of the Old Polish language are the data of the co ...
''lelać'' "to lull, rock",
Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...
''dzieci'' "children"), rejecting the role of the goddess of love ascribed to her by Długosz. A few years later he pointed out the similarity with the word ''dziedziły'' "
dziady Dziady ( "grandfathers, eldfathers", sometimes translated as Forefathers' Eve) is a term in Slavic folklore for the spirits of the ancestors and a collection of pre-Christian rites, rituals and customs that were dedicated to them. The essence o ...
". Ultimately, however, he rejected the authenticity of the goddess, arguing that Długosz's original record does not support such an interpretation, and considering ''dziedziły'' to be a contemporary invention. He concluded that Dzidzilela derives from the refrains of folk songs; however, he did not know how to interpret the first segment, ''dzidzi'' – he pointed out that just as the words ''vyelom'' or ''lelom'' appear before the fragment of the refrain ''lado'' (see:
Lada LadaAccording to various sources, the name Lada is derived from a Russian word for Viking longships (). (, , marketed as LADAFrom 2004 onwards Lada is marketed worldwide, including in Russia, using the all-capitals brand name written in Latin sc ...
), ''dzidzi'', or something similar, could have appeared too. In the case of the second segment, ''-ilelya'', he believed that it could have derived from the alleged theonym ''Ileli'' (Latin: ''Yleli'', ''Ylely'') mentioned in church sermons. A similar opinion was held by
Henryk Łowmiański Henryk Łowmiański (August 22, 1898 near Ukmergė - September 4, 1984 in Poznań) was a Polish historian and academic who was an authority on the early history of the Slavic and Baltic people. A researcher of the ancient history of Poland, Lith ...
. In the case of the analysis of Długosz's manuscript record (''Dzydzilelya''), the reconstruction of ''Dziecilela'' proposed by Brückner, which he eventually abandoned, was an arbitrary reading of ''dz'' as Polish ⟨c⟩ and ''y'' as Slavic ⟨ě⟩. According to Zorian Dolęga-Chodakowski, this theonym originated from a phrase like "oj, didi Lelo". A similar conclusion was reached independently by Anatoliy Zhuravlov, who reconstructed ''*did(i) lel(e)'' as a song formula, similar to ''*dedъ lada'' found in East Slavic calendar and ritual songs. This reconstruction is supported by East and South Slavic formulas, e.g.:
Serbo-Croatian Serbo-Croatian ( / ), also known as Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS), is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. It is a pluricentric language with four mutually i ...
"Kraļu! Lelo!", "Pero, lelo!", "Lele mužu", "Jelo le!", "lelja le", Bulgarian "Tatko-le", "Lubo-le", "Vily-le", "Goro-le",
Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...
"Lele didu", "lele babo", etc., whose structure consists of name (
vocative In grammar, the vocative case (abbreviated ) is a grammatical case which is used for a noun that identifies a person (animal, object, etc.) being addressed or occasionally for the noun modifiers (determiners, adjectives, participles, and numeral ...
singular Singular may refer to: * Singular, the grammatical number that denotes a unit quantity, as opposed to the plural and other forms * Singular or sounder, a group of boar, see List of animal names * Singular (band), a Thai jazz pop duo *'' Singula ...
) + ''*le'' or ''*lele''/''*lelo''. In the fragments of East Slavic folk songs, there often appears the unintelligible word ''did-'', e.g.: Ukrainian "Oy, didi Lelo", "Did i Did i Lado", "Oy Did, Did i Łado", or Russian, "Oy Did i Lado", "Dido kalina! Lela malina", which has its counterpart in Old Lithuanian ''didys'', Lithuanian dialectic ''dzidzis'', Lithuanian ''didys'', which also occurs in songs, for example: "Oj did, didi...", "Ar i didi...", "Didi divaj buvo", "Didis... Devie!" The word is explainable in a Baltic context, and it is related to the Lithuanian ''didis'' "big, great". For this reason, some scholars believed that the word was borrowed from Baltic to East Slavic (e.g. Aleksandr Faminstyn), but the example of the fragment of the Old Slovak song "Didi-Jane", "Didi-Jene" meaning "oh St. John", sung during St. John's Day may indicate a native Slavic origin of the word – the presumed
Proto-Slavic Proto-Slavic (abbreviated PSl., PS.; also called Common Slavic or Common Slavonic) is the unattested, reconstructed proto-language of all Slavic languages. It represents Slavic speech approximately from the 2nd millennium BC through the 6th ...
''*did-'' "big, great", like its Baltic counterpart, would be a continuation of the
Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. No direct record of Proto-Indo-European exists; its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-Euro ...
''*d(e)ih₂-dʰe'' "to be visible". Thus, it is possible that the first segment of the song formula "name + ''lelo''" contains a Polish continuant of the Proto-Slavic ''*did-'', which may have yielded the song-formula ''*didi lela'' or ''*didi lelo'', which was recognized as a proper name by Długosz and later recognized as a deity. According to Michał Łuczyński, this interpretation is the most likely. The recognition of Dzidzilela as a relic of a pagan ritual language, and not as a goddess, was also advocated by Anatoliy Zhuravlov, Vyacheslav Ivanov and
Vladimir Toporov Vladimir Nikolayevich Toporov (; 5 July 1928 in Moscow5 December 2005 in Moscow) was a Russian philologist associated with the Tartu–Moscow Semiotic School. His wife was Tatyana Elizarenkova. He is also recognized as a prominent Balticist. ...
, and other scholars. It is unlikely to be related to the Latinized given name ''Didislav'', which probably renders the
Western South Slavic The South Slavic languages are one of three branches of the Slavic languages. There are approximately 30 million speakers, mainly in the Balkans. These are separated geographically from speakers of the other two Slavic branches (West and East) ...
''*Didislavъ'', and the Old Polish surname ''Dzidziula'', as their transcription may be tainted, e.g., the Slavic ⟨ě⟩ non-standardly transcribed as ''i'', which may be indicated by the Old Slovak given name ''Dedislav''. In the case of the name ''Didislav'', if the transcript is correct, the analysis suggests that the first segment is a imperative from a hypothetical Proto-Slavic verb ''*diditi'' of unknown meaning not preserved in any language, which also causes problems, and the etymology of this name may also be explained in other ways. Reading the name as a name similar to the Old Polish ''*Lelistryj'' (12th century), with the segment being a kinship term, where the first segment derives from the Proto-Slavic ''*dědъ'' "grandfather" is also unlikely, because in personal names ''*dědъ'' passed into the root ''*Dědo-'' or ''*Dědu-'', e.g.: Old Polish ''Dziadumiła'',
Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...
''Dědomil'',
Serbo-Croatian Serbo-Croatian ( / ), also known as Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS), is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. It is a pluricentric language with four mutually i ...
''Djedomir''/''Dedomir'', Russian ''*Dedoslavъ''. Therefore, form ''*Dziadolela'' should be expected, which, however, is not indicated in the record of Długosz. The Old Polish surname ''Dzidziula'' (Latin: ''Dzydzula'' (1485), ''Dzidziuła'' (18th century)), which was connected with the word ''dziad'' "grandfather" and surnames with a similar suffix, e.g. ''Dziadul'', ''Sowul'', ''Szewczul'' and others, cannot be connected with the theonym because it is a polonized Lithuanian surname (Lithuanian: ''Dìdelis'', ''Didžiùlis''). In the case of later editions of Długosz's ''Annals'', where records of ''Dzidziela'' (Rozrożowski's codex) and ''Dzidzielia'' (Dobromił's edition) are found, the theonym may be reconstructed as the Old Polish name ''*Dzidziela'', which would be the feminine equivalent of the masculine name ''*Dzidziel'' (consisting of the root ''Dziad'' + the suffix ''-el'') with the suffix ''-ela'', cf. with the attested personal name from the 15th century ''Dzidziula'', or be an abbreviation of an unknown full name. However, these editions are later and contain their own variations of theonyms, making them less reliable. The vast majority of researchers reject the authenticity of the goddess, and many ignore her in their publications;
Roman Jakobson Roman Osipovich Jakobson (, ; 18 July 1982) was a Russian linguist and literary theorist. A pioneer of structural linguistics, Jakobson was one of the most celebrated and influential linguists of the twentieth century. With Nikolai Trubetzk ...
,
Aleksander Gieysztor Aleksander Gieysztor (17 July 1916 – 9 February 1999) was a Polish medievalist historian. Life Aleksander Gieysztor was born to a Polish family in Moscow, Russia, where his father worked as a railwayman. In 1921, the family relocated to Poland ...
among others connected the sound of ''Dzidzilela'' to the sound of the South Slavic rainmaking ritual ''
Dodola Dodola (also spelled ''Dodole'', ''Dodoli'', ''Dudola'', ''Dudula'' etc.) and Perperuna (also spelled ''Peperuda'', ''Preperuda'', ''Preperuša'', ''Prporuša'', ''Papaluga'' etc.) are rainmaking pagan customs widespread among different peoples ...
''.


References

;Notes ;References


Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * {{Authority control Slavic pseudo-deities