Medeina
Sign in to saveMedeina or Medeinė (from – "tree" or medė – "forest"), often treated as synonymous to Žvorūnė or Žvorūna (derived from žvėris – "beast"), is one of the main deities in the Lithuanian mythology, and is similar to Latvian Meža māte (Forest Mother). She is a ruler of forests, trees and animals. Her sacred animal is a hare.
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Vinony's link graph records 40 inbound references to Medeina, and connects out to Baltic mythology, Latvian mythology and Peckols.
It is catalogued under topics including Animal goddesses, Baltic goddesses and Hunting goddesses.
Vinony links it to 16 Wikipedia language editions.
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Medeina or Medeinė (from – "tree" or medė – "forest"), often treated as synonymous to Žvorūnė or Žvorūna (derived from žvėris – "beast"), is one of the main deities in the Lithuanian mythology, and is similar to Latvian Meža māte (Forest Mother). She is a ruler of forests, trees and animals. Her sacred animal is a hare.
A Slavic transcription of John Malalas' Chronicle (dated 1261) mentioned Žvorūna and three other gods. The Hypatian Codex, describing events of 1252, mentioned pagan gods still worshiped by King Mindaugas. The Codex mentioned Medeina and an unnamed hare goddess. It is unclear whether Medeina is the name of hare goddess mentioned in the Codex or whether the two are independent deities. As part of the official pantheon, Medeina represented military interest of warriors and later was replaced by Žemyna, goddess of earth representing agricultural interest of peasants. In the 15th century, Jan Długosz compared Medeina with Roman goddess Diana. She was also mentioned by Jan Łasicki, Mikalojus Daukša, and in the Bychowiec Chronicle.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Medeina” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.