{"history":[],"article":{"id":"6618f61a-ee7f-4498-a4f7-51427722b42a","title":"Mokosh","slug":"mokosh","content":":::summary\n![Twenty-fifth page of Laurentian Codex with mention of the pantheon of Kyiv, 1377. The name of Mokosh is marked in red](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/%D0%94%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%B4%D1%86%D0%B0%D1%82%D1%8C///%D0%BF%D1%8F%D1%82%D1%8B%D0%B9///%D0%BB%D0%B8%D1%81%D1%82///%D0%9B%D0%B0%D0%B2%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%BD%D1%82%D1%8C%D0%B5%D0%B2%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B9///%D0%BB%D0%B5%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%BF%D0%B8%D1%81%D0%B8///%28%D0%9C%D0%BE%D0%BA%D0%BE%D1%88%D1%8C%29.jpg)\n**Type:** Slavic \n**Name:** Mokosh \n**Member Of:** [Vladimir's](https://bliptext.com/articles/vladimir-the-great) pantheon \n**Script Name:** [Old Cyrillic](https://bliptext.com/articles/old-cyrillic) \n**Gender:** female \n**Texts:** [Primary Chronicle](https://bliptext.com/articles/primary-chronicle) and other, dependent texts \n:::\n\n# \n**Mokosh** is a [Slavic goddess](https://bliptext.com/articles/list-of-slavic-deities).\nNo narratives survive to the present day about this deity and so scholars must rely on academic disciplines like [philology](https://bliptext.com/articles/philology) to discern details about her.\nAccording to etymological reconstruction, Mokosh was the goddess of earth, waters and fertility, and later, according to most researchers, she was reflected in [bylinas](https://bliptext.com/articles/bylina) and [zagovory](https://bliptext.com/articles/zagovory) as [Mat Zemlya](https://bliptext.com/articles/mat-zemlya).\nAnother reconstruction was made on the basis of ethnography: at the end of the 19th century, such names of [kikimora](https://bliptext.com/articles/kikimora) as Mokusha or Mokosha were recorded in the [Russian North](https://bliptext.com/articles/russian-north).\nThe coincidence is explained by the fact that kikimora is a demonized version of the goddess, and by approximating between the two, researchers have portrayed Mokosh as the goddess of love and birth, with a connection to the night, the moon, spinning, sheep farming and women's economy.\nSpinning was the occupation of various European [goddesses of fate](https://bliptext.com/articles/time-and-fate-deities), which led to the characterization of Mokosh as a deity controlling fate.\nThis reconstruction does not agree with the data on her etymology, which shows that the function of spinning could not have been the main one.\nA wooden statue of Mokosh, along with other deities, was established by prince [Vladimir the Great](https://bliptext.com/articles/vladimir-the-great) in 980 on one of Kyiv's hills.\nThis event has been described by some historians as a manifestation of Vladimir's pagan reformation, but other scholars deny that such a reformation was carried out, and the question of its existence is debatable in modern scholarship.\nAfter the beginning of the [christianization of Rus in 988](https://bliptext.com/articles/christianization-of-kievan-rus), the statues of deities were destroyed.\nMokosh is mentioned in various Words and Teachings against Paganism along with the [vilas](https://bliptext.com/articles/vila-fairy), but is not described in them in any way.\nIn scholarship, the opinion spread that the cult of Mokosh passed to the [folk-Christian](https://bliptext.com/articles/folk-orthodoxy) [Paraskeva Friday](https://bliptext.com/articles/paraskeva-friday), associated with water and spinning.\nBecause of this identification, [Friday](https://bliptext.com/articles/friday) began to be considered a day dedicated to the goddess, and a conclusion was drawn about the popularity of Mokosh among women in Christian times.\nIn later studies, the idea of an approximation with Paraskeva is criticized because Paraskeva's association with spinning, water and Friday has Christian rather than pagan roots.\nThe Slavic version of the basic myth theory, based on various ethnographic and linguistic data, depicts Mokosh as [Perun](https://bliptext.com/articles/perun)'s wife.\nShe cheats on him with [Veles](https://bliptext.com/articles/veles-god), causing Perun to kill Mokosh's children.\nThe theory itself has not been recognized in scholarship.\nThe supposition that Mokosh is depicted on the [Zbruch Idol](https://bliptext.com/articles/zbruch-idol) and on North Russian [embroideries](https://bliptext.com/articles/embroidery) from the 19th century has also been rejected.\nArchaeologist [Boris Rybakov](https://bliptext.com/articles/boris-rybakov)'s theory that the goddess' original name was Makosh has not been supported by other researchers.\n\n# Name and characteristics\nIn [Old East Slavic](https://bliptext.com/articles/old-east-slavic) texts, the name of the goddess is noted as Mokošĭ, Mokŭšĭ – in ancient texts [uppercase](https://bliptext.com/articles/letter-case) was not used.\nAccording to [Oleg Trubachyov](https://bliptext.com/articles/oleg-trubachyov), the form Mokŭšĭ was formed through the secondary adideation of *Mokošь and *kъšь \"fate\".\nGrammatically, the theonym Mokosh belongs to the [feminine gender](https://bliptext.com/articles/feminine-gender), from which it is inferred that the deity was specifically a [goddess](https://bliptext.com/articles/goddess).\nIn older studies and later chronicles she may appear as a male deity, but this variant is secondary to the original.\nAccording to the most reasonable etymology the theonym was formed by the suffixal method from the Proto-Slavic stem *mok- meaning \"wet\" with the suffix *-ošь.\n[Vladimir Toporov](https://bliptext.com/articles/vladimir-toporov) and [Vyacheslav Ivanov](https://bliptext.com/articles/vyacheslav-ivanov-philologist) comment that this etymology is “indisputable”, understanding her name as \"She who is wet\".\nThe first to put forward such an etymology was [Vatroslav Jagić](https://bliptext.com/articles/vatroslav-jagi), believing that the theonym was a translation or also an [amplification](https://bliptext.com/articles/rhetorical-operations) of the Greek word malakiya, and therefore Mokosh was a literary fiction.\nToporov, Ivanov and [Max Vasmer](https://bliptext.com/articles/max-vasmer) consider Jagić's position to be false.\nMichał Łuczyński believes that the theonym may have appeared only after the 3rd century AD due to the occurrence of the [š] sound, which arose in Slavic languages as part of the [first palatalization](https://bliptext.com/articles/first-palatalization).\nHe derives the name of the goddess from the unattested noun *mokošь \"someone/something wet\", since the suffix *-ošь forms the names of the bearers of features, and this noun he derives precisely from the v-tematic [*moky](https://bliptext.com/articles/wikt-en-reconstruction-proto-slavic-moky) ( *mokъve) \"wet place, mud\" (cf. [Polish](https://bliptext.com/articles/polish-language) dial. mokwa, [Ukrainian](https://bliptext.com/articles/ukrainian-language) mokva) and compares the name Mokosh to other names ending in -osh derived from v-thematic words with topographical meaning, e.g. Old [Polish](https://bliptext.com/articles/polish-language) Bagosz (< [*bagy](https://bliptext.com/articles/wikt-en-reconstruction-proto-slavic-bagy)), Narosz (< *nary).\nIn connection with this etymology, he considers Mokosh to be a \"pluvial goddess with uranic characteristics\".\nSimilarly, Valeriy Mokiyenko understands the theonym as deriving from a word meaning \"moist, swampy place\".\nToporov, Ivanov and Łuczyński believe that the theonym Mokosh is merely a later epithet replacing the original unknown name of the deity.\nThe etymology is compared by Ivanov and Toporov with [Lithuanian](https://bliptext.com/articles/lithuanian-language) makusyti \"to splash\", \"to walk on mud\"; makasyne \"slush\", \"mud\", \"mixture\", \"mess\".\nVasmer, as well as many modern scholars, consider Mokosh to be the goddess of fertility, waters and earth, which brings her closer to the later [Mat Zemlya](https://bliptext.com/articles/mat-zemlya) who is often mentioned in [bylinas](https://bliptext.com/articles/bylina) and [zagovory](https://bliptext.com/articles/zagovory).\n[Aleksander Gieysztor](https://bliptext.com/articles/aleksander-gieysztor) comments that the association with Mat Zemlya is shared by most researchers.\nMokiyenko and [Henryk Łowmiański](https://bliptext.com/articles/henryk-owmia-ski) also suggest a connection with rain.\nLinguist [Andrey Zaliznyak](https://bliptext.com/articles/andrey-zaliznyak) and religious scholar Andrzej Szyjewski have liked Mokosh to the [Iranian](https://bliptext.com/articles/persian-mythology) [Anahita](https://bliptext.com/articles/anahita), as the latter is also called \"Wet\", \"Broad\".\nIn a similar way, philologist Nikolay Zubov links her to the [Scythian](https://bliptext.com/articles/scythian) goddess of earth and water [Api](https://bliptext.com/articles/scythian-religion).\nOn the basis of their approximation with Anahita, Toporov and Ivanov attribute the function of procreation to Mokosh and consider the goddess [Zhiva](https://bliptext.com/articles/zhiva) as her \"higher hypostasis\", opposite to the \"low hypostasis\", that is Mokosh.\nCeltic scholar Viktor Kalygin likened Mokosh to the Irish goddess [Macha](https://bliptext.com/articles/macha), who he believes was originally a fertility goddess.\nHe elevated the theonym Macha to *mokosiā, which \"corresponds exactly to the name of the Slavic goddess Mokosh\", but Celtic scholar Garrett Olmsted derives the theonym Macha from the [Proto-Celtic](https://bliptext.com/articles/proto-celtic-language) *magos \"plain, field\".\n# [The name Mokosh means a combination of earth and water, fertile moisture. Wet Meadow, Fyodor Vasilyev, 1872 | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/Fedor///Vasilyev///-///%D0%9C%D0%BE%D0%BA%D1%80%D1%8B%D0%B9///%D0%BB%D1%83%D0%B3///-///Google///Art///Project.jpg]\n\n## Obsolete and questionable etymologies\nSlavist Grigory Ilinsky put forward a hypothesis for the origin of the theonym based on parallels with the [Baltic languages](https://bliptext.com/articles/baltic-languages).\nAccording to him, the theonym Mokosh has a counterpart in Lithuanian in the words makstýti \"to weave\"; mèksti \"to knit\"; mãkas \"purse\", related to the [Russian](https://bliptext.com/articles/russian-language) moshna \"bag, purse\", and thus theonym comes from Proto-Slavic *mokos- \"spinning\", \"weaving\".\nToporov and Ivanov, who are proponents of the moisture etymology, \"rehabilitate\" Ilinsky's etymology, seeing a connection in the Lithuanian stems in the words mazgas \"knot\"; megzti \"to knit\", \"to tie\" with mazgoti \"to wash\".\nESSJa and Martin Pukanec Martin Pukanec call Ilinsky's etymology \"hypothetical\".\n[Boris Rybakov](https://bliptext.com/articles/boris-rybakov) considered Makosh to be a more correct reading of the goddess' name, dividing the theonym into two parts: ma- and -kosh, where ma- was short for mother (Old East Slavic [мати](https://bliptext.com/articles/wikt), mati), approaching a certain [Cretan-Mycenaean](https://bliptext.com/articles/aegean-civilization) goddess named Ma in a people very distant from the Slavs.\nHe understood the second part -kosh as an Old East Slavic word meaning \"fate\".\nRybakov thus translates this theonym as \"Mother of good fate\", identifying her with the goddess of fate, and also at the same time as \"Mother of good harvests\", since fruit could be placed in the basket (see *košь), adding that Mokosh is also the goddess of fertility, as well as \"Mother of luck\", since, in his opinion, the harvest is luck.\n[Leo Klejn](https://bliptext.com/articles/leo-klejn), who sticks to the reconstruction of Mokosh as the goddess of women's labor, particularly spinning, criticizes Rybakov, noting that such functions are not supported by anything.\nThe etymology is also criticized: mother can be shortened to ma mainly in the language of children.\nKlejn points out that in Russian compound words are constructed differently: the main noun stands at the end and the defining word at the beginning, and gives such examples as [Bogo-matier](https://bliptext.com/articles/theotokos) and [Daz-bog](https://bliptext.com/articles/dazhbog), so the expected form of a name would be *Koshma.\nThe word is indeed found in Russian, but is of [Tatar](https://bliptext.com/articles/tatar-language) origin.\nThe notation Makosh itself is not standard in chronicles, unlike Mokosh.\n[ESSJa](https://bliptext.com/articles/essja), Toporov, Ivanov reject Rybakov's etymology.\nAccording to Nikolay Galkovsky, the name Mokosh was borrowed from an unknown source.\n[Evgeny Anichkov](https://bliptext.com/articles/evgeny-anichkov) believed that the name was derived from the ethnonym of a [Finno-Ugric people](https://bliptext.com/articles/finno-ugric-languages), [Mokshas](https://bliptext.com/articles/mokshas), part of the [Mordvins](https://bliptext.com/articles/mordvins), which he believes explains why [Vladimir the Great](https://bliptext.com/articles/vladimir-the-great) had to establish statues of Slavic gods: The gods of Vladimir's pantheon were of non-Slavic origin, where Perun was said to have been brought from [Scandinavia](https://bliptext.com/articles/scandinavia) as the personal god of the [Rurikids](https://bliptext.com/articles/rurikids), and other gods established by Vladimir, such as Mokosh, were gods of peoples neighboring the Slavs, whose statues were established by Vladimir to centralize his power.\nAnichkov compared Finnish toponyms such as [Moksha](https://bliptext.com/articles/moksha-river), which is a right tributary of the [Oka](https://bliptext.com/articles/oka-river), Ropsha, Shapsha, Kapsha, Kiddeksha with the name of the goddess.\nViljo Mansikka, on the other hand, believed that Mokosh was derived from the Finnish demon Moksha.\n[Henryk Łowmiański](https://bliptext.com/articles/henryk-owmia-ski), who had no doubts about the Slavic etymology, considers the demon Moksha to be most likely a loan from the Slavs, or that the sound similarity is coincidental; Gieysztor also considered the demon to be a loan.\nLater researchers Nikolaĭ Mokshin and Zubov denied the Finno-Ugric origin of Mokosh.\nToporov, Iwanov and ESSJa share a similar point of view.\nMikhail Vasilyev believes that the connection with the Finnish ethnonym Moksha is coincidental, while the very \"affiliation of Mokosh with Slavic paganism is indisputable\".\nEtymologies connecting theonym with [Sanskrit](https://bliptext.com/articles/sanskrit) makhas \"rich\", \"noble\", or, according to [Natalya Guseva](https://bliptext.com/articles/natalya-romanovna-guseva), [moksha](https://bliptext.com/articles/moksha) \"liberation\", \"death\" are questionable.\nRelationship with [Ancient Greek](https://bliptext.com/articles/ancient-greek) mákhlos \"lustful\", \"violent\", with Old Lithuanian kekše \"prostitute\", [Avestan](https://bliptext.com/articles/avestan) maekantis \"tree sap\" also.\n[Thracian](https://bliptext.com/articles/thracian-language) origin of Mokosh is also doubtful.\nGieysztor called the etymology of [Vittore Pisani](https://bliptext.com/articles/vittore-pisani), who considered the theonym to be a word composed of the roots mot- \"to spool, to reel\" and -kos \"abundance\", \"unbelievable\".\n\n## Onomastics\nThere are onomastic data that can be linked to Mokosh: the [Croatian](https://bliptext.com/articles/croatian-language) masculine surname and given name Mokoš, the masculine terms makesh, mokesh in the Russian proverb Bog ne makesh, chem-nibud da poteshit; mokush \"[rusalka](https://bliptext.com/articles/rusalka)\"; mokosha \"troublesome person\"; in [Yaroslavl region](https://bliptext.com/articles/yaroslavl-oblast) mokosha \"phantom, ghost\".\nIn [Tver](https://bliptext.com/articles/tver-oblast) and [Novgorod regions](https://bliptext.com/articles/novgorod-oblast) mokshit \"to cry, beg for something\".\nIn Novgorod meaning \"to obsessively demand something, to pester with requests\" is also attested.\nRussian dialects include the words mokosya \"foolish, stupid woman\", \"whore, hussy\" and Mokrosh, Mokresh meaning the [constellation Aquarius](https://bliptext.com/articles/constellation-aquarius).\nBelarusian family.Mokish [Proper noun](https://bliptext.com/articles/proper-noun) Mokosha, Makosha Khlopun attested in [Pskov](https://bliptext.com/articles/pskov)'s Census book (Rus') from 1585 belonging to cannon maker.\n[Toponyms](https://bliptext.com/articles/toponym): [Czech](https://bliptext.com/articles/czech-language) village [Mokošín](https://bliptext.com/articles/moko-n), attested since 11th century, and hill Mokošin Vrch; [Sorbian](https://bliptext.com/articles/sorbian-languages) Мосоcize, Mockschiez; [Polish](https://bliptext.com/articles/polish-language) [Mokoszyn](https://bliptext.com/articles/mokoszyn), Mokosznica, Mokossko, Mokos; located near [Stralsund](https://bliptext.com/articles/stralsund-region) in [Germany](https://bliptext.com/articles/germany) in the former [Polabian](https://bliptext.com/articles/polabian-slavs) lands, the Old [Polabian](https://bliptext.com/articles/polabian-slavs) toponym Muuks, Mukus attested in 1310; [Croatian](https://bliptext.com/articles/croatian-language) Mokosica near [Dubrovnik](https://bliptext.com/articles/dubrovnik), mountain Mukoša near Marloh and smaller mountains Mukos, Mokoš and Mokos; [Macedonian](https://bliptext.com/articles/macedonian-language) Mukos; Mokoshinsky monastyr in [Russia](https://bliptext.com/articles/russia) in [Chernihiv Oblast](https://bliptext.com/articles/chernihiv-oblast), swampy area Mokoshino boloto in [Belarus](https://bliptext.com/articles/belarus).\nThere was a wasteland or lye called Mokoshevo in [Cherepovetsky Uyezd](https://bliptext.com/articles/cherepovetsky-uyezd) noted by ethnographer Mikhail Gerasimov.\nIt is likely that the onomastics materials speak of the Proto-Slavic antiquity of the goddess, or the toponyms are derived from *mokosъ \"floodplain meadow\" or directly from the stem root *mok-.\nZubov points out that in light of the word mokosha as a term for a troublesome person, the relationship with Mokosh becomes problematic.\nIlyinsky lists a number of toponyms similar to the theonym, but denies their kinship, recognizing toponyms derived from the root *mok- \"to (get) wet\", from words makushka, mak \"[poppy](https://bliptext.com/articles/poppy)\" and from dialectal form of given name Maximus: Mokey.\nLinguist [Stanisław Urbańczyk](https://bliptext.com/articles/stanis-aw-urba-czyk) considers the correlation of toponyms with Mokosh to be questionable.\nToporov associates with Mokosh a character from a [Slovenian](https://bliptext.com/articles/slovenian-language) fairy tale called Mokoška, Mokuška, Mokoška, also known as Lahnwaberl or Lamwaberl.\nStory was recorded by [Davorin Trstenjak](https://bliptext.com/articles/davorin-trstenjak) who heard it from Rudolf Gustav Puff in [Lower Styria](https://bliptext.com/articles/styria-slovenia).\nRecord by Trstenjak from 1855:\n

\nLamwaberl used to live in Grünau, a marshy place not far away from [Šent Florjan Square](https://bliptext.com/articles/florjan-o-tanj), near the [Ložnica](https://bliptext.com/articles/lo-nica-velenje) that often overf lowed its banks.\nArchaeological artefacts confirm that in the olden times the place had been cultivated.\nA lone farming estate is situated there now, but once upon a time there stood the castle of Mokoška, a heathen princess who lived in it.\nThe castle was surrounded by gardens that were always green.\nShe occasionally helped people but sometimes also harmed them; she was especially wont to taking children with her.\nAt long last, God punished her.\nOn a stormy night, the castle and all its gardens sank into the ground.\nBut Mokoška was not doomed.\nShe continued to appear, disguised in different female forms.\nShe still carries off children, especially those who have been neglected by their parents.\n# [In Slovene language spotted crake is also called mokoš, and in Russian regionalisms chyortova kurica, lit. \"devil's hen\" | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/Porzana///porzana///3///%28Marek///Szczepanek%29///cropped.jpg]\n# [Contemporary coat of arms of the village of Mokošín in the Czech Republic, which may be named after Mokosh | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/55/Moko%C5%A1%C3%ADn///Coa.jpg]\n\n# Sources\n\n## Old East Slavic sources\nMokosh is mentioned in the concerning year 980 account of the [Primary Chronicle](https://bliptext.com/articles/primary-chronicle) from the beginning of the 12th century, the oldest copy of which is part of the [Laurentian Codex](https://bliptext.com/articles/laurentian-codex) of 1377.\nFragment:\n
\nAnd [Vladimir](https://bliptext.com/articles/vladimir-the-great) began to reign alone in [Kyiv](https://bliptext.com/articles/kyiv).\nAnd he placed idols on the hill outside the palace: a [Perun](https://bliptext.com/articles/perun) in wood with a silver head and a gold moustache, and [Khors](https://bliptext.com/articles/khors) [Dazhbog](https://bliptext.com/articles/dazhbog) and [Stribog](https://bliptext.com/articles/stribog) and [Simargl](https://bliptext.com/articles/simargl) and Mokosh.\nAnd they offered sacrifices and called them gods, and they took their sons and daughters to them and sacrificed them to the devils.\nAnd they profaned the earth with their sacrifices, and Rus’ and that hill were profaned by blood.\n– [Primary Chronicle](https://bliptext.com/articles/primary-chronicle)\nIn historiography, this event is known as the pagan reform or the first [religious reform of Vladimir](https://bliptext.com/articles/religious-reform-of-vladimir).\nOne point of view, considering the reform, treats it as a transition to [monotheism](https://bliptext.com/articles/monotheism): according to philologist Viljo Mansikka and historians [Aleksey Shakhmatov](https://bliptext.com/articles/aleksey-shakhmatov) and [Henryk Łowmiański](https://bliptext.com/articles/henryk-owmia-ski), initially there was only Perun in the Primary Chronicle, and later other gods were added to make Vladimir a [polytheist](https://bliptext.com/articles/polytheist).\nThe philologist Anichkov shared Shahmatov's position, although he noted that \"there is no objective data to recognize this insertion\".\nHistorian [Evgeny Anichkov](https://bliptext.com/articles/evgeny-anichkov) points out that the existence of the Kyiv pantheon is recorded in parallel sources.\nAnother historian, [Leo Klejn](https://bliptext.com/articles/leo-klejn), denies the existence of the reform, considering the event merely a reintroduction of paganism: the idols were erected immediately after the assassination of [Yaropelk](https://bliptext.com/articles/yaropolk-i-of-kiev), who had sympathies for [Christianity](https://bliptext.com/articles/christianity) and pursued a pro-Christian policy, and after the enthronement of Vladimir.\nThe Perun's idol itself was already standing on a hill in Kyiv at the home of prince [Igor](https://bliptext.com/articles/igor-of-kiev).\nIt has been debated in the past that the passage in the text about \"bringing their sons and daughters\" reflects either human sacrifice or merely indicates participation in a ritual.\nModern scholars consider the text from \"And they offered\" to \"and that hill\" and beyond to be a [paraphrase](https://bliptext.com/articles/paraphrase) of [Psalm](https://bliptext.com/articles/psalm) verses.\nNevertheless, Vasilyev still considers the existence of frequent human sacrifices for the Kyiv pantheon as a historical fact, but according to historian Pavel Lukin the issue of human sacrifices as well as the reform itself is debatable, and the text about Vladimir's reform is merely a reworking of the [Chronicle](https://bliptext.com/articles/chronicle-of-george-hamartolos) of [George Hamartolos](https://bliptext.com/articles/george-hamartolos), which mentions the creation of six idol gods of deities with [Belphegor](https://bliptext.com/articles/belphegor) leading and one female figure, [Astarte](https://bliptext.com/articles/astarte).\nAccording to the Chronicle, the materials used to make the idols were gold and silver, and defiled earth is also mentioned.\nLukin concludes that the story of Vladimir's pantheon and human sacrifices is a chronicler's construction created in the 1170s, and the names of the deities were taken from oral tradition known to the chronicler.\nAmong the deities established by Vladimir, Mokosh was the only goddess.\nPhilologist Nikolay Zubov believes that \"according to the generally accepted opinion, in the circle of Vladimir's pantheon, this is the most mysterious figure\".\nThe chronicle then tells how the elders and [boyars](https://bliptext.com/articles/boyars) decided to cast lots to kill a boy or girl as a sacrifice to the gods.\nIn Kyiv lived a Christian and [Varangian](https://bliptext.com/articles/varangian), [Fyodor, who had a son John](https://bliptext.com/articles/theodore-the-varangian-and-his-son-john), according to the chronicle, \"beautiful in face and soul\", upon whom fate had fallen.\nEmissaries came to Fyodor, saying that his son had been chosen by the gods and should be sacrificed.\nFyodor dismissed the Kyiv statues as gods, pointing out that they were made of wood.\nThe envoys told the people all about it, and, taking up arms, they trashed Fyodor's courtyard and ordered him, as he stood in the hallway with his son, to give his son to the gods.\nIn response, Varangian said that the gods themselves could send someone from their own circle to take his son from him, whereupon the people cut down the hallway, and Fyodor and John were killed.\nThe appearance of the story of the Varangians in the Primary Chronicle is a later addition that probably first appeared in the [First Corpus](https://bliptext.com/articles/first-corpus) of the 1190s.\nThe chronicle entry itself was based on a possibly existing original story about the Varangians, an early short [synaxarion](https://bliptext.com/articles/synaxarion) record in memory of locally honored saints, which was written specifically to glorify the first Rus' martyrs.\nThe Primary Chronicle ' s account used a version already revised and supplemented with some unreliable details, but without the names of the Varangians, which were unknown to the compiler of the Chronicle ' s account.\nAmong the misrepresentations is the location of the death of the Varangians.\nThe existence of human sacrifices among the Slavs is recorded by various sources.\nTherefore, as archaeologists [Irina Rusanova](https://bliptext.com/articles/irina-rusanova) and Boris Timoshchuk wrote, \"the information about human sacrifices among the Eastern Slavs [...] can hardly be considered accusations and propaganda against paganism\" and that \"no special cruelty can be seen in the custom of human sacrifices among the Slavs. These sacrifices were conditioned by the worldview of the time and were used for the good and salvation of society\".\nHuman sacrifices were made under certain circumstances, and bloodless sacrifices were the most common.\nAfter Vladimir [baptized Rus in 988](https://bliptext.com/articles/christianization-of-kievan-rus), he ordered the idols to be overthrown: some chopped up, others burned.\nHe built St. Basil's Church on the spot where the idols stood.\nIn 1975, the foundations of the building were found during excavations on Old Kyiv Mountain.\nArchaeologist [Boris Rybakov](https://bliptext.com/articles/boris-rybakov) recognized the structure as the site of Kyiv's pantheon, claiming that it had \"clearly marked five projections of different sizes: one large one in the middle, two smaller ones on the sides and two very small ones near the side projections...\".\nSubsequent researchers have criticized Rybakov's statement.\nThe kapishche (outdoors templte) itself has not been discovered by archaeologists, nor has any evidence of human sacrifice in Kyiv.\nAfter the adoption of Christianity, various sermons against the old religion appeared.\nIn particular, the Sermon by One Who Loves Christ was written, according to most scholars, in the mid-11th century.\nThe exceptions are Mansikka, who claims the Sermon was written in the 14th century, and Rusanova and Timoshchuk, who date it to the 12th century.\nThe Sermon itself is available in two editions: a short, original edition and a long, later edition.\nFragment from the late 14th century edition of the Paisios' list of the collection:\n
\nAs [Elijah the Tishbite](https://bliptext.com/articles/elijah), having cut the throats of three hundred idolatrous prophets and priests, said: “I burn with zeal for my Lord God Almighty”, so he, too being unable to bear Christians who live a [double faith](https://bliptext.com/articles/folk-orthodoxy) and believe in Perun and Khors, Mokosh, [Sim and Rgl](https://bliptext.com/articles/simargl) and in the Vily, who number thirty ninth sisters, —so say ignorant people who consider them goddesses—and thus give them offerings and cut the throats of hens and pray to fire, calling it [Svarozhits](https://bliptext.com/articles/svarozhits).\n[...] Therefore, Christians must not hold demonic festivities, meaning dancing, music and profane songs, and offerings to the idols, who with fire under the fields of sheaves pray to the Vily, to Mokosh, and Sim and Rgl, to Perun, [Rod](https://bliptext.com/articles/rod-mythology), the [Rozhanitsy](https://bliptext.com/articles/rozhanitsy) and all the like.\n– Sermon by One Who Loves Christ and Is a Jealous Defender of the Righteous Faith\nSlavist [Nikolay Galkovsky](https://bliptext.com/articles/nikolay-galkovsky), due to the fact that the vilas are noted next to Mokosh, believes that they are related to the goddess, but according to historian Igor Danilevsky, the author of the Word used some unknown South Slavic source from which he took information about the vilas, mythological figures of the [South Slavs](https://bliptext.com/articles/south-slavs).\nIn his opinion, the [Eastern Slavs](https://bliptext.com/articles/eastern-slavs) themselves did not worship vilas.\nSimilarly, Mansikka believes that the vilas and Mokosh were taken from the text Vopros, chto yest' trebokladen'ye idol'skoye, which he considers South Slavic.\nAccording to Anichkov, the original version of the Sermon said nothing about deities and they were added by later editors.\nAnichkov's opinion is shared by Mansikka, who believes that the list of deities comes from the Primary Chronicle.\nOn this basis, historian Vladimir Petukhin concludes that the insert with the mention of deities appeared no earlier than the 12th century.\nSince the name Simargl is spelled as Sim and Regl, the author of the Word may not have understood which characters were being referred to.\nMokosh is mentioned in the Old Rus' work Sermon by Saint Gregory, which is a reworking of the 4th century teaching of [Constantinople patriarch](https://bliptext.com/articles/ecumenical-patriarch-of-constantinople) [Gregory of Nazianzus](https://bliptext.com/articles/gregory-of-nazianzus).\nThe unknown Old Rus' author used the condemnation of the Greek gods, supplementing it with a text condemning the Slavic gods.\nAn early edition of the Sermon is preserved in three handwritten copies from the 15th century and is variously dated by different researchers: the 1060s (Anichkov), the 12th century (Łowmiański, Rybakov), as well as dates considered unlikely by Vasilyev: late 13th - early 14th century (Slavists Sreznevsky, Galkovsky), 14th century (Mansikka).\nAccording to Rybakov, Sermon by Saint Gregory was a direct translation, but Danilevsky points out that the Word only partially reflects the Greek original.\nThe original is called On the Theophany.\nDanilevsky notes that it is not known exactly which variant of Gregory Nazianzin's text was used by the Old Russian author himself.\nIt is also unknown how reliable the information about Slavic gods contained in the Sermon is.\nExcerpt from the Novgorod Sophia Library manuscript No. 1295 from the 15th century:\n
\nTo those gods the Slavic people makes offerings too, and to vily, and Mokosh, Diva, Perun, Khors, Rod and Rozhanitsy, to the [vampires](https://bliptext.com/articles/vampire) and to the [beregyni](https://bliptext.com/articles/beregynya), and to [Pereplut](https://bliptext.com/articles/pereplut), for whom they drink in horns while pouring around.\n[...] The [Taurian](https://bliptext.com/articles/taurica) sacrifices made by the first born sons to the idols, the sacrificial blood of the [Laconians](https://bliptext.com/articles/sparta) spilt from wounds, which is their punishment, and with which they bathed the goddess, Yecate, whom they considered a virgin.\nAnd they worship Mokosh, and Kyla, and Malakiya, that is masturbation, saying: Buyakini.\n[...] Following holy baptism, they rejected Perun, but even after accepting Christ, in the border areas they still pray to the accursed Perun, and to Khors, and Mokosh and vil.\nAnd they do it secretly...\n– Sermon by Saint Gregory, Found in the Comments, on How the Ancient Nations, When Pagan, Worshipped Idols and Offered Sacrifices to Them, and Continue to Do So Now\nMansikka notes that the meaning of the word Diva is unknown.\nPerhaps it is a literal translation of the Greek Δἰος (Dios), or the text should be read as Mokosh-Deva (\"Mokosh-Virgin\").\nAccording to Danilevsky, what was meant was the [masculine] [Div](https://bliptext.com/articles/div-mythology). Zubov comments that there is also an opinion that considers [Div](https://bliptext.com/articles/div-mythology)a to be the feminine version of [Div](https://bliptext.com/articles/div-mythology), but analyzing the text, he concludes that the more correct variant is Mokosh-Deva, despite the original Дивѣ ([Div](https://bliptext.com/articles/div-mythology)ě ), instead of the expected *Дѣвѣ (*Děvě ). The schoolar attributes this to the [Novgorodian](https://bliptext.com/articles/old-novgorod-dialect) origin of Sermon and the fact that in the dialect the sound [ѣ] can turn into [i]. Thus, the term \"[Div](https://bliptext.com/articles/div-mythology)a\" becomes an epithet-definition of Mokosh \"according to the Hellenistic model\", regardless of whether Mokosh was a virgin in the original pagan depictions. In favor of this interpretation, according to the scholar, is the fact that the word [Div](https://bliptext.com/articles/div-mythology)a is not mentioned anywhere else. Rybakov and Zubov define Yecate as [Hekate](https://bliptext.com/articles/hekate), believing that the author of the Sermon saw some parallels between [Hekate](https://bliptext.com/articles/hekate) and Mokosh.\nThe term [malakiya](https://bliptext.com/articles/malakas) is of Greek origin and means [onanism](https://bliptext.com/articles/masturbation).\nFrom its proximity to Mokosh, Ilyinsky concludes that Mokosh was associated with [sexual activity](https://bliptext.com/articles/sexual-activity).\nSlavist [Aleksander Brückner](https://bliptext.com/articles/aleksander-br-ckner) rejected the identification of Mokosh with malakiya, as the text shows that they are two different things.\nAccording to Mansikka, \"and they worship Mokosh, and Kyla\" is an insertion made on the basis of the consonance of Mokosh with malakiya.\nDanilevsky literally translates the word Kyla as \"[hernia](https://bliptext.com/articles/hernia)\", but he himself believes, as do many other scholars, that it is more likely to be considered a distortion of the word [vila](https://bliptext.com/articles/vila-fairy).\nGalkovsky viewed buyakini as a vila, which he associated with Mokosh.\nThe term buyakini is associated by [Leo Klejn](https://bliptext.com/articles/leo-klejn) with the words buy, buyvishche, meaning \"[pogost](https://bliptext.com/articles/pogost)\", \"cemetery\", and the buyakini themselves, if not a copyist's error, are understood by Klejn as participants in funeral rites who practiced orgiastic rituals.\nIn Klejn's reconstruction, Perun was a [dying-and-rising god](https://bliptext.com/articles/dying-and-rising-god), and these rituals were a sacred drama of resurrecting a dead god or his reincarnation, and the purpose of the buyakini was not onanism, but the extraction of semen for ritual purposes.\nDanilevsky points out, however, that the Greek original says \"in honor of bliss and fearlessness\", where the latter word was translated as buyestʹ \"courage\", and the form buyakini appeared only as a result of consonance (in relation to malakini).\nAnichkov believes that the text consists of late insertions.\nThe philologist [Nikolai Tikhonravov](https://bliptext.com/articles/nikolai-tikhonravov), in the fourth volume of [Chronicles of Russian Literature and Antiquity](https://bliptext.com/articles/chronicles-of-russian-literature-and-antiquity), cites the text Vopros, chto yest' trebokladen'ye idol'skoye in Moscow synodal manuscript No. 954 from the 14th century, fol.\n33; Galkovsky did not find this text and concluded that either Tikhonravov was mistaken or the manuscript numbers had been changed.\nExcerpt:\n
\nHe is not speaking to pagans, but to peasants.\nMany Christians set meals for idols and fill cups for demons.\nWho are these idols?\nThe first idol is the [rozhanitsa](https://bliptext.com/articles/rozhanitsy).\nThe great prophet [Isaiah](https://bliptext.com/articles/isaiah) speaks of them, crying out in a loud voice: Oh, woe to those who set a meal for the rozhanitsa and fill cups for the demons!\nThe other [meal] is given to the vilas and Mokosh, and they do not pray openly, but secretly call on idolatrous women; and not only poor people, but also the wives of rich husbands.\nUsing the [troparion](https://bliptext.com/articles/troparion) of the holy [Theotokos](https://bliptext.com/articles/theotokos) during an idolatrous meal is very bad.\n– Vopros, chto yest' trebokladen'ye idol'skoye\nLinguists [Vladimir Toporov](https://bliptext.com/articles/vladimir-toporov) and [Vyacheslav Ivanov](https://bliptext.com/articles/vyacheslav-ivanov-philologist) distinguish the category of idol worshippers as the priestesses of Mokosh, but in turn Zubov concludes: the text is a reference to the Sermon of Isaiah, and the vilas and Mokosh are a contemporaneous insertion close to Sermon by Saint Gregory.\nThe work Sermon by the Holy Father Saint John Chrysostom is a compilation and is based specifically on Sermon by Saint Gregory.\nGenerally, the text dates to the 13th century, and historian [Igor Danilevsky](https://bliptext.com/articles/igor-danilevsky) dates it to the end of the 11th century, and is known from the manuscript from St. Sophia Cathedral of [Veliky Novgorod](https://bliptext.com/articles/veliky-novgorod) No. 1262 from the 14th-15th centuries and other copies.\nExcerpt according to the oldest of these:\n
\nMen who have forgotten the fear of God from neglect by renouncing baptism, approach idols and start to make sacrifices to the thunder and lightning, the sun and moon, and others, to Perun, Khors, the vily and Mokosh, to vampires and the beregyni, whom they call three times nine sisters.\nAnd others believe in Svarozhits and Artemid, to whom ignorant men pray.\nThey sacrifice [cockerels](https://bliptext.com/articles/cockerel) to them.\n– Sermon by the Holy Father Saint John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, on How the First Pagans Believed in Idols\nIn the Life of Vladimir preserved in the Bulgarian oldest copy from the 13th century, after the story of Vladimir's baptism in [Kherson](https://bliptext.com/articles/kherson), it is said: \"And he came to Kyiv, beating the idols of Perun, Khurs, Dazhbog and Mokosh and other idols\".\nThe work goes back to Primary Chronicle.\nIn the [Hypatian Codex](https://bliptext.com/articles/hypatian-codex), under the date 1071, we read that “at the same time” a [volkhv](https://bliptext.com/articles/volkhv) appeared in Kyiv to whom five deities appeared.\nHe claimed that within five years the [Dnieper](https://bliptext.com/articles/dnieper) would begin to flow backwards, and the [Rus' land](https://bliptext.com/articles/kievan-rus) would \"pass\" into the hands of the Greeks.\nScholars equated these deities with the Kyiv pantheon, in which they believed there were six.\nExplaining this contradiction, Anichkov excluded Mokosh from this list, as he considered her a borrowed deity.\nŁowmiański also excluded Mokosh because he was of the opinion that she was originally a demon and was added later to the Vladimir pantheon, while Rybakov rejected [Simargl](https://bliptext.com/articles/simargl).\nVasilyev explains this by the fact that Dazhbog bore the double name of Dazhbog-Khors.\nHowever, Petrukhin believes that the prophecy of the volkhv in Kyiv is not due to traces of paganism, but [events in 1068-1069](https://bliptext.com/articles/kiev-uprising-of-1068), when rebellious peasants threatened the princes to burn the city and go to the land of Greece.\n\"Five gods\" were the five planets whose astrological position and referred to by the magician.\nAn annalistic edition of [The Tale of the Battle with Mamai](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-tale-of-the-battle-with-mamai), written perhaps in the early 15th century, describes [Mamai](https://bliptext.com/articles/mamai)'s defeat: \"The impious ... King [Mamai](https://bliptext.com/articles/mamai), seeing his destruction, began to call upon his gods: Perun, Salavat, Mokosh and Gursa\".\nHere the form of Mokosh's name is given in the masculine gender.\nIn the main and most widely circulated editions of the Tale, the god Mokosh is absent.\nVasilyev notes that the list of gods is most similar to their list in the Sermon by the Holy Father Saint John Chrysostom.\n# [Theodore the Varangian and his son John were to be sacrificed to the gods of the Kyiv pantheon. Miniature from the Radziwiłł Chronicle, late 15th century. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Murder///of///Martirs///Theodor///the///Varyag///and///His///Son///Joann.jpg]\n\n## Sources from the 16th-17th centuries\nThere are [Polish](https://bliptext.com/articles/polish-language) chronicles relating to East Slavic paganism and mentioning Mokosh, but researchers consider them secondary, as they are based on Old East Slavic sources.\nIn the 16th-century work [De origine et rebus gestis Polonorum libri XXX](https://bliptext.com/articles/de-origine-et-rebus-gestis-polonorum-libri-xxx) by historian [Martin Kromer](https://bliptext.com/articles/martin-kromer), Mokosh is mentioned among other gods as Mocosi.\nIn the [Chronicle](https://bliptext.com/articles/chronicle-of-poland-lithuania-samogitia-and-all-rus) of the historian [Maciej Stryjkowski](https://bliptext.com/articles/maciej-stryjkowski), published in 1582, in a list of gods whose names are passed down in distorted form, Mokosh is noted as Makosz.\nMansikka notes that the chronicle itself was compiled from other Polish sources and contains \"some fantasies and fabrications\".\nAccording to one of the confessional questions in the 16th century Rule of Saint Sava, the priest had to ask: \"Have you wandered with impious women and prayed to the vilas, and [Rod](https://bliptext.com/articles/rod-god), and the rozhanitsy, and Perun, Khors, Mokosh, and drank and ate?\".\nThree years of penance with bowing was imposed for the aforementioned sin.\nAccording to Anichkov, the mention of Perun, Chors and Mokosh was added as an insertion.\nThe same question was included in the work K posledovaniyu i ispovedaniyu knyazem, boyaram i vsem pravoslavnym khristianam dukhovnym ottsom from the early 16th century, where two years of penance were imposed for a positive answer to this question.\nThe 16th century Khudom nomokanuntse asks: “Did you go to Mokusha?\". Many researchers believe that under the term Mokusha means \"[witch doctor](https://bliptext.com/articles/witch-doctor)\". Akhnikov explained it with the word mokshitʹ \"to beg, to whine\", changed to \"to enchant\", \"to conjure\". According to ethnographer [Elpidifor Barsov](https://bliptext.com/articles/elpidifor-barsov), in the Khudom sel'skom nomokanuntse he possessed, the question was: \"Did you go to Mokosha?\". [Shakhmatov](https://bliptext.com/articles/aleksey-shakhmatov) refers to an unpublished Word on the Beginning of the Rus' Land in the 16th century inventory of the Rumyantsev Museum No. 358, where the sentence \"and Prince Vladimir came to crush the idols of Mokosh and others\" is found.\nA work from a collection dating back to the 16th century, which publisher [Izmail Sreznevsky](https://bliptext.com/articles/izmail-sreznevsky) calls The Spiritual Instruction of Children, and historian Dmitri Schoeppingk calls Sermon of Saint John Chrysostom, contains the following instruction:\n
\nHide yourselves from God invisible, people praying to the lineage and rodzanice, Perun and Apollo, and Mokosha and [peregynia](https://bliptext.com/articles/berehynia), and do not approach any god, nor any vile sacrifices.\nMansikka believes that the names of mythological figures come from a certain work condemning pagans, close to the Sermon by Saint Gregory.\nThe chapter On the idols of Vladimir from the Piskari manuscript No. 153 of the late 17th century lists the statues installed by Vladimir.\nThis work is not original and ancient, as it was based on the chapter On the idols from the [Kievan Synopsis](https://bliptext.com/articles/kievan-synopsis), probably created by the historian [Innocent Gizel](https://bliptext.com/articles/innocent-gizel).\nThe chapter On the idols of Vladimir is similar in content to the text On the idols of Rus' in the [Hustyn Chronicle](https://bliptext.com/articles/hustyn-chronicle) of 1670.\nBoth chapters were written under the influence of Polish chronicles and contain the names of the gods in a distorted form.\nExcerpt from Piskari manuscript no. 153:\n
\nAlso other idols were many, by name [Outlad or Oslad](https://bliptext.com/articles/list-of-slavic-pseudo-deities), [Korsh or Khors](https://bliptext.com/articles/khors), [Dashub or Dazhb](https://bliptext.com/articles/dazhbog), [Strib or Stribog](https://bliptext.com/articles/stribog), [Simargl or Simurgl](https://bliptext.com/articles/simargl), and Makosh or Mokosh; to them, to the demons, the ignorant people, like to a God, offered sacrifices and praises.\nThis abomination prevailed throughout the state of Vladimir.\nThe Hustyn Chronicle similarly lists the gods, including Mokosh.\nMansikka writes that these chronicles are more detailed than the original, and notes that the scribe chose to supplement them with his own notes and insertions.\nAll three works eventually return to [Primary Chronicle](https://bliptext.com/articles/primary-chronicle).\nThe Sermon from the Holy Gospel in manuscript No. 784 from the [Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius](https://bliptext.com/articles/trinity-lavra-of-st-sergius) lists sins of the body and soul.\nAmong the sins of the soul are mentioned:\n
\n[To] learn astronomy and believe in casting [spells] and in false writings, and in Hellenistic books, and in fairy tales, and in ustryatsu, and in Mokosh, and in [snosudets](https://bliptext.com/articles/volkhovnik), divination by birds, in [thunder](https://bliptext.com/articles/gromnik-divinatory-book) and in [kolyada](https://bliptext.com/articles/koliada), and in all the martoloi and damned who make evil days and hours.\nThere is a variant where in place of Mokosh is the word basket kosh \"fate\", according to [Rybakov](https://bliptext.com/articles/boris-rybakov) the word Mokosh instead of kosh was just a scribe's error, and he translates the words snosudets, ustryatsu and martoloi as \"[volkhovnik](https://bliptext.com/articles/volkhovnik)\", \"divination\" and \"astrologers\", respectively.\nAnichkov considered the words ustryatsu and Mokosh to be insertions.\nIn the Ukrainian Life of Vladimir of the XVII century among the list of his gods Mokosh is recorded as Moksha.\nIn the Ukrainian Prologue Life of Vladimir from the manuscript of the Rumyantsev Museum No. 325 of the XVII century tells how Vladimir beat his gods, among them the deity Moksha, and drowned them in the [Dnieper](https://bliptext.com/articles/dnieper).\nThis work, like Life of Vladimir, goes back to the Primary Chronicle.\n# [Christian propagandistic depiction of Mokosh, Georg A. Schleissing, La Religion ancienne et moderne des Moscovites, 1698 | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/Mocossi.png]\n\n# Attempts at reconstruction\nSlavist Grigoriy Ilyinsky concluded that ancient Rus' sources do not provide any information except the name of Mokosh.\nIn his opinion, toponymic traces are equally unreliable and explanatory, and some conclusions about the nature of the goddess can be drawn only on the basis of folklore and ethnographic evidence.\nLater, philologist Aleksandr Strakhov wrote that the features of Mokosh, like the rest of the pagan pantheon, are known \"not from medieval sources, but from numerous reconstructions and observations of scholars-bellerists of the 19th and 20th centuries.\n\n## Early studies\nIn early scholarly literature, Mokosh was considered in various ways: Slavist Pyotr Preys compared Mokosh with [Astarte](https://bliptext.com/articles/astarte), Slavist [Lubor Niederle](https://bliptext.com/articles/lubor-niederle) likened her to [Aphrodite](https://bliptext.com/articles/aphrodite).\nEthnographer M. Nikiforovsky considered her the goddess of winds and water.\nAccording to historian Dmitri Schoeppingk, Mokosh's functions were transferred to [Saint Elijah](https://bliptext.com/articles/saint-elijah) because he is called \"wet\".\nSlavist Nikolai Galkovsky assumed that since Mokosh is mentioned together with the vilas (which, according to him, are called buyakini in the Sermon by Saint Gregory), Mokosh herself was merely the spirit of the deceased residing in the water.\nArchaeologist Aleksandr Velikhanov, referring to Sanskrit, concluded that Mokosh and Simargl were one and the same deity.\nSlavist [Vatroslav Jagić](https://bliptext.com/articles/vatroslav-jagi) did not consider her a deity at all.\nFolklorist [Alexander Krappe](https://bliptext.com/articles/alexander-haggerty-krappe) likened Mokosh to the biblical [Moloch](https://bliptext.com/articles/moloch).\nIn [History of Russia](https://bliptext.com/articles/history-of-russia-from-the-most-early-times), historian [Vasily Tatishchev](https://bliptext.com/articles/vasily-tatishchev) stated: \"Mokos, the god of cattle\".\nGalkovsky claimed that the [Czechs](https://bliptext.com/articles/czechs) had a rain and moisture deity with a similar name, to whom they offered prayers and sacrifices in times of severe drought.\nArchaeologist [Boris Rybakov](https://bliptext.com/articles/boris-rybakov) notes that Galkovsky does not refer to the source of this information.\nIn 1839, ethnographer [Żegota Pauli](https://bliptext.com/articles/egota-pauli) claimed that the Czechs and [Moravians](https://bliptext.com/articles/moravians) had a deity called Makosla, Makosh, Mokosh, worshipped by them in times of drought.\nHe compared this deity to Mokosh, while referring to it as Mokta or Moksha, and considered them the same rain deity.\n\n## Mokosh and Mokosha, Mokusha\nAccording to ethnographic data, a reconstruction of the function of the goddess was carried out.\nAt the end of the 19th century, in the journal \"Zhivaya starina\", ethnographer Mikhail Gerasimov published ethnographic data from the [Cherepovetsky Uyezd](https://bliptext.com/articles/cherepovetsky-uyezd), which noted the villagers beliefs about a demon and [domovoy](https://bliptext.com/articles/domovoy) by the name of Mokoshá.\nLater, Gerasimov denied that Mokosha was a domovoy.\nShe lives in every hut in the Babiy kut and is imagined as a woman with a big head and long arms.\nMokosha likes to spin [sliver](https://bliptext.com/articles/sliver-textiles) at night, left by women without prayer.\nThat is why there is a prohibition in the village of Bolshoy Dvor in Dmitrovsky District: \"Don't leave your linen, or Mokosha will spin it\".\nEthnographer [Elpidifor Barsov](https://bliptext.com/articles/elpidifor-barsov) provided information from the [Olonets Governorate](https://bliptext.com/articles/olonets-governorate) about the belief in a spirit called Mókusha, who goes among the people during [Great Lent](https://bliptext.com/articles/great-lent), spinning wool at night and shearing sheep.\nWhen unsheared sheep scrape out their excess wool, it was said, \"Oh, Mokusha has sheared the sheep\".\nWhen they sleep, and the spindle \"[whirrs](https://bliptext.com/articles/whirr)\", it is said: \"Mokusha spun\".\nWhen Mokusha leaves the house, she might slam the spindle into Bunk (East Slavic) and beam.\nThe offering to her was to put a piece of wool in the shears for the night.\nIf Mokusha is not satisfied, she can cut off some of the housewives' hair.\nThis image of an impure force corresponds to the [kikimora](https://bliptext.com/articles/kikimora), whose depictions are widespread mainly in the Russian North and who is sometimes understood as a domovoy.\nShe is described as an ugly woman whose main habitat is the home.\nShe uses objects to make sounds and acts at night when people are sleeping.\nShe is deterred by prayer.\nThe kikimora's main occupation is harming householders and spinning.\nShe can shear sheep, but she does it badly and can be appeased with a special sacrifice.\nMany other mythological figures of [folk Christianity](https://bliptext.com/articles/folk-orthodoxy) are associated with spinning: [Saint Barbara](https://bliptext.com/articles/saint-barbara), [Theotokos](https://bliptext.com/articles/theotokos), [Paraskeva Friday](https://bliptext.com/articles/paraskeva-friday), [notsnitsa](https://bliptext.com/articles/nocnitsa) and [rusalka](https://bliptext.com/articles/rusalka).\nIn particular, a rusalka could be called мókush; demons could be called mokosh, mokush.\nIn the [Yaroslavl Governorate](https://bliptext.com/articles/yaroslavl-governorate), an \"economic, troublesome man\" could be referred to as a mokoshá, while in the [Vyatka Governorate](https://bliptext.com/articles/vyatka-governorate) a \"hardworking person\" was called a shishimory.\nKikimora was also known in [Novgorod](https://bliptext.com/articles/novgorod-governorate) and [Vologda Governorate](https://bliptext.com/articles/vologda-governorate) as mokrukha, as she left a wet mark at the spinning site.\nBased on the consonance of the names, Gerasimov and Barsov conclude that Mokosh, Mokosha and Mokusha are identical.\nThis proposal was supported by a number of other researchers, who attributed various functions to Mokosh: love, birth, connection with the night, spinning, raising sheep and the feminine sphere.\nAmong them were linguist [Max Vasmer](https://bliptext.com/articles/max-vasmer) and historian [Leo Klejn](https://bliptext.com/articles/leo-klejn).\nBarsov himself believed that Mokosh was associated with sheep farming, wool, yarn, female braids and the feminine sphere in general, and that she was a companion of [Veles](https://bliptext.com/articles/veles-god).\nAccording to Ilyinsky, she is the goddess of spinning, weaving and other household chores, and the patroness of matchmaking, marriage and sexual relations, \"weaving\" meaning bringing lovers together.\nLinguist [Vladimir Toporov](https://bliptext.com/articles/vladimir-toporov), in an attempt to explain the resemblance to kikimora, argued that there was a demonization of the goddess, which reduced her to the level of kikimora.\nPhilologist Nikolai Zubov brought Mokosh and kikimora closer together through the second element in the latter's name: -mora, which he believes goes back to the Proto-Slavic stem *mor- and can mean \"swamp, standing water\".\nThrough the functions of spinning and fate, a connection has been suggested with similar deities: the Germanic [Norns](https://bliptext.com/articles/norns), the Greek [Moirai](https://bliptext.com/articles/moirai) and the Baltic goddess [Laima](https://bliptext.com/articles/laima).\nZubov suggested a connection between Mokosh and the moon, since in European folklore the moon can be associated with spinning and procreation.\nAccording to him, long-armedness is associated with the epithet “long-armed” of Iranian gods and rulers, prince [Yuri Dolgorukiy](https://bliptext.com/articles/yuri-dolgorukiy) and the [princes of Chernigov](https://bliptext.com/articles/prince-of-chernigov), who may have borne this nickname.\nMarina Vlasova suggests a connection between Mokosh and the [rusalkas](https://bliptext.com/articles/rusalkas) and the Theotokos, although she notes that \"it is difficult to characterize with sufficient precision the relationship between the images of Mokosh and Mokosha spinning at home\".\nHistorian Henryk Łowmiański and linguist [Stanisław Urbańczyk](https://bliptext.com/articles/stanis-aw-urba-czyk) made the opposite reconstruction, believing that Mokosh was originally a demon in the 10th-11th centuries, and [Nikon of Caves](https://bliptext.com/articles/nikon-of-caves) himself included her in the annalistic pantheon of Primary Chronicle as an insert due to the lack of information about the real gods.\nIn keeping with Łowmiański's idea, Nikon included the names of the deities surrounding him in [Tmutarakan](https://bliptext.com/articles/tmutarakan), as well as the name of Mokosh, who in Slavic lands was \"held in great esteem as a demon\".\nHowever, historian Vladimir Petrukhin points out that Tmutarakan was not a source of pagan syncretism, remaining a Greek and Christian city.\nPhilologist [Evgeny Anichkov](https://bliptext.com/articles/evgeny-anichkov) believed that the name Mokoshá is of [Finno-Ugric](https://bliptext.com/articles/finno-ugric-languages) origin.\nThe name Mokoshá, according to linguists Toporov and Ivanov, may be an deverbal formation from the Proto-Slavic *mok-oši-ti, understood by them to mean \"to bustle, to potter, to putter\", but this hypothesis has not been supported and the word probably has a later Russian origin.\nAlthough many scholars have linked etymological and ethnographic reconstructions, subsequent researchers have noted that they do not relate to each other in any way.\nŁowmiański criticized that for this reason the function of spinning could not be the main one.\n# [Spinner. Portrait of the Russian painter Nikolay Dubovskoy, 1870 | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/%D0%94%D1%83%D0%B1%D0%BE%D0%B2%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B9///%D0%9F%D1%80%D1%8F%D1%85%D0%B0///1870.jpg]\n\n### Łuczyński's reconstruction\nBased on information about \"going to Mokosh\" as an oracle or fortune teller, Łuczyński interprets Mokosh as the goddess of fate and destiny.\nThis is to be confirmed by dialect dictionaries, which often record the phrase \"to go to [a oracle]\".\nHe treats Russian saying, \"God is not Mokosh, [he] consoles with something\", as an antithesis, i.e. Mokosh is the one who \"consoles\", i.e. gives luck, good fortune.\nShe was also supposed to rule the weather, i.a. rain, as an extension of her rulership over fate.\nThe depiction of Mokosh in the dialects of Russia (including the vocabulary of the [Old Believers](https://bliptext.com/articles/old-believers)) reflects the goddess' association with birth and the determination of fate for the newborn.\nIn addition, Mokosh was associated with household, feminine activities; she was the patroness of women, probably married women in particular, as indicated by the information that it was married women who were \"visiting\" Mokosh, which could express the psychosocial context of the worship of this goddess.\nBased on the above characteristics, Łuczyński concludes that the closest counterpart to Mokosh was the Baltic [Laima](https://bliptext.com/articles/laima) – she was associated with water, and fate (when [Laima](https://bliptext.com/articles/laima) was on a hill, she foretold good fate, when she was in the marshes, by the water, she was supposed to foretold bad fate; [Latvian](https://bliptext.com/articles/latvian-language) toponyms includes the hydronyms Lainuma-zers \"[Laima](https://bliptext.com/articles/laima)'s lake\", lainuma-purvs \"[Laima](https://bliptext.com/articles/laima)'s swamp\"), divination (the [Rambynas](https://bliptext.com/articles/rambynas) stone, used to foretell the future, was [Laima](https://bliptext.com/articles/laima)'s \"house\"), and the birth of children and determining their fate.\nThe only function of Laima that Mokosh does not have is the patronage of agriculture.\n\n## Comparison with Paraskeva Friday\nIt was later suggested that Mokosh was related to [Paraskeva Friday](https://bliptext.com/articles/paraskeva-friday) (Russian: Paraskeva Pyatnitsa): days such as Friday and Wednesday were associated with the [Passion of Jesus](https://bliptext.com/articles/passion-of-jesus) and were accompanied by fasting and [folk Christian](https://bliptext.com/articles/folk-orthodoxy) bans on work, especially women's work: prohibition of spinning, sewing, washing, dishwashing, etc. There were also bans on children and marital relations.\nThe ban on spinning extended to Sunday and Friday, which was called “bloody day” in [Polesia](https://bliptext.com/articles/polesia) and was widely considered an unlucky time.\nIn folk Christianity, Pyatnitsa was personified as a mythical female figure.\nThe same was true of Wednesday and Sunday.\nThese personifications fulfilled the same functions as the Pyatnitsa.\nThe prohibitions were motivated by a number of considerations related to the threat of harm to the spinner herself, her family, and her ancestors in the hereafter.\nFor example, according to beliefs recorded in Polesia, Pyatnitsa in the form of a woman with loose hair would torture whoever broke the ban by suffocating them in his sleep.\nAccording to another belief, in the \"next world\" spindles will enter the mouth and eyes.\nA ban on spinning on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday has also been reported in various places.\nThe mythological Friday has been correlated with Paraskeva Pyatnitsa, whose cult developed from that of the saints [Paraskeva of Iconium](https://bliptext.com/articles/paraskeva-of-iconium) and [Paraskeva of the Balkans](https://bliptext.com/articles/paraskeva-of-the-balkans), whose names (from [Byzantine Greek](https://bliptext.com/articles/byzantine-greek) Paraskeuḗ) translate as \"Friday\".\nIn addition to Friday's prohibitions and injunctions, and its association with spinning, Paraskeva was associated with marriage and childbearing, as well as with curing diseases and water springs, because of which she was called the \"mother of earth and water\".\nThere are legends of an icon of Paraskeva appearing in a spring, after which the spring became healing.\nSacrifices were made to her by throwing coins, ribbons, shirts, handkerchiefs, towels or sheep's wool and thread into the water on [Elijah's Friday](https://bliptext.com/articles/elijah).\nThese items could be thrown directly into the water or left next to the inscription \"for mother Pyatnica for the apron!\".\nIn [Ukraine](https://bliptext.com/articles/ukraine) in the 19th century, the Mokrid ritual was recorded, during which a tethers was thrown into the well.\nIn this ritual, Pyatnitsa was represented by a woman with loose hair.\nThe saint herself was closely associated with wells, on which her icons could be placed.\nThere is a widespread view among researchers that Mokosh was replaced by Paraskeva Pyatnitsa in Christian times, which is why Vladimir Toporov believed that Mokosh was popular among women in the centuries following Christianization.\nFriday itself began to be understood as the day of the goddess Mokosh based on the dedication of this day to [Venus](https://bliptext.com/articles/venus-mythology) by the [Romans](https://bliptext.com/articles/roman-people) and [Frigg](https://bliptext.com/articles/frigg) by the [Germans](https://bliptext.com/articles/germanic-people).\nResearcher and historian Eve Levin notes that such an approximation does not stand up to criticism, since elements of the Paraskeva cult have christian, not pagan, roots, and the cult itself is known in the south, in [Serbia](https://bliptext.com/articles/serbia), [Bulgaria](https://bliptext.com/articles/bulgaria), [Greece](https://bliptext.com/articles/greece) and [Romania](https://bliptext.com/articles/romania), while Mokosh is known only from East Slavic sources.\nThe earliest East Slavic sources speak of Paraskeva not as the patroness of women, but as the patroness of merchants.\nThe basis of Paraskeva's association with spinning were parables depicting her as a maiden.\nIn them, she strikes her tormentor with blindness and then heals him, making her the patroness of those suffering from eye diseases.\nIn the 14th and 15th centuries, Paraskeva's relics rested in [Ternovo](https://bliptext.com/articles/ternovo) and [Belgrade](https://bliptext.com/articles/belgrade), where local water sources were linked to her.\nThe only function that has no obvious Christian origin is the patronage of childbirth, but according to Levin, this is a natural further development of the functions of patronizing women's labor and healing.\nThe [Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/eastern-orthodox-church) itself supported the cult of Paraskeva, although it considered its folk interpretation \"heretical\", arguing that on Wednesday and Friday one was not supposed to stop working, but only fast and refrain from marital relations.\nThe correspondence between Mokosh and Paraskeva is also rejected by philologists Aleksandr Strakhov and Aleksandr Panchenko.\nHistorian Leo Klejn, criticizing the concept of Thursday as Perun's day, points out that the Slavs borrowed the seven-day week from the Romans and [Byzantines](https://bliptext.com/articles/byzantine-greeks), who in turn borrowed it from the [Near East](https://bliptext.com/articles/near-east), naming the days of the week after the planets and gods dedicated to them by distance in the [Ptolemaic](https://bliptext.com/articles/ptolemy) system, where the day dedicated to Venus, Friday, was the seventh.\nSuch names of the week were later borrowed and interpreted by the Germanic peoples.\nThe qualities of Paraskeva, Venus and [Freya](https://bliptext.com/articles/freya) are opposite: Paraskeva patronizes proper female behavior, not sexual activity.\n# [According to an outdated reconstruction, the cult of Mokosh was reflected in the Christian cult of Paraskeva Friday. A stained glass window of Paraskeva of the Balkans from Church of Saint George in Smederevo | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/Serb///Fest///DSC///2146///pp///%2826736896349%29.jpg]\n\n### The theory of basic myth\nLinguists [Vladimir Toporov](https://bliptext.com/articles/vladimir-toporov) and [Vyacheslav Ivanov](https://bliptext.com/articles/vyacheslav-ivanov-philologist) created the [theory of basic myth](https://bliptext.com/articles/theory-of-basic-myth), which reconstructed the Proto-Slavic myth of a battle between a storm god and a chthonic serpent.\nThe first deity was correlated with [Perun](https://bliptext.com/articles/perun), the second with [Veles](https://bliptext.com/articles/veles-god), but in addition to them there was also a female figure.\nToporov believes that Mokosh was a Proto-Slavic deity and correlates this figure with her.\nThe cause of enmity between the gods is the kidnapping of cattle, people or Perun's wife by Veles, and after Veles is defeated with an arrow, abundant rain falls on the earth.\nAccording to Toporov, Mokosh is Perun's wife, as in the lists of gods Perun opens the list and Mokosh closes it.\nHe points to the connection between Thursday as the even day dedicated to Perun/Veles and the odd day, Friday, as dedicated to Mokosh.\nIn a 19th century Ukrainian intimate song, there is a reference to the relationship between Mokosh and [Pokhvist](https://bliptext.com/articles/pokhvist), whom Toporov understands as Perun as a god associated with the winds.\nToporov and Ivanov supported Teodolius Witkowski's assumption, that the toponyms Muukus and Prohn, located in the same circle and correlated with Mokosh and Perun, respectively, speak of the relationship of the deities.\nSimilarly, comparisons have been made between the toponyms [Peryn](https://bliptext.com/articles/peryn) and Mokošin Vrch, where both mean an elevated place, and the Baltic toponyms [Perkun](https://bliptext.com/articles/perkun)o kalnas (\"mountain of [Perkun](https://bliptext.com/articles/perkun)\") and Laumes kalnas (\"mountain of [Laima](https://bliptext.com/articles/laima)\"), Laume dauba (\"ravine of [Laima](https://bliptext.com/articles/laima)\") with the Belarussian Mokoshino boloto.\nBy identifying the prophet [Elijah](https://bliptext.com/articles/elijah) with Perun, they point to the existence in folk beliefs of the prophet's companion, Saint [Macrina](https://bliptext.com/articles/macrina-the-younger), associated with moisture and ultimately with Mokosh.\nTo prove the promiscuity of Mokosh, Toporov cites several parallels: the association of Paraskeva Pyatnitsa with Mokosh speaks to the promiscuity of the latter, since Paraskeva could be depicted with her hair loose.\nHe correlated the term mokosya as a term for an evil woman with Mokosh.\nOne of the Sermons against paganism mentions Mokosh, and earlier there is a question about debauchery with ungodly women.\nFriday's prohibitions correlate with the motif of a woman who lost her children as a result of violating the prohibitions, particularly the prohibition of using \"fire\", a decoction of ashes.\nIn [Baltic mythology](https://bliptext.com/articles/baltic-mythology), there is a myth of a celestial wedding, according to which the goddess of the morning star [Aušrinė](https://bliptext.com/articles/au-rin) is the adulterer.\nToporov then reconstructs the relationship between Mokosh and Veles: Thursday, in his view, was also the day of Veles and correlated with the odd Friday.\nMokosh shares with Veles common connections to water, wool and the pit motif.\nBased on all this, Toporov reconstructed the myth of Mokosh's adultery with Veles and Perun's subsequent punishment of her children.\nFor the betrayal, Perun punishes Mokosh's children with fire, since Mokosh's element, water, is not scary to her.\nBesides, according to Toporov, it is not out of the question that the cult of Mokosh may have enjoyed special reverence in [Moscow](https://bliptext.com/articles/moscow) based on the semantics of the toponym and theonym of Mokosh, as well as the fact that [Moscow](https://bliptext.com/articles/moscow) is mentioned for the first time in the chronicles in connection with the meeting of the princes on Friday, April 4.\nIt has been proposed to identify Mokosh with [Baba Yaga](https://bliptext.com/articles/baba-yaga) and the goddess Laima through her function as a maiden.\nLeo Klein considers this theory to be a stretch and based on speculation and disputes the idea that Thursday and Friday were days dedicated to the gods.\nThe link between Mokosh and Paraskeva has been rejected by later research.\nHenryk Łowmiański argues that the proximity of Perun and Mokosh is due to a literary connection and has no evidentiary value.\nThe \"Ukrainian intimate song\" from the 19th century cited by Toporov is The Tale of the God Pokhvist, on the basis of which an opinion has arisen in scholarly circles that \"the memory of Mokosh in Ukraine was preserved until the middle of the 19th century\".\nEven 19th century scholars [Mykola Kostomarov](https://bliptext.com/articles/mykola-kostomarov) and [Alexander Pypin](https://bliptext.com/articles/alexander-pypin) refused to acknowledge the authenticity of the text.\nPhilologist Andrei Toporkov considers the work to be a forgery created by the writer Oleksandr Shyshats’kyy-Illich.\nReligious scholar Andrey Beskov comments that Ivanov and Toporov showed \"surprising credulity\" in believing in the authenticity of the text.\nThe hypothesis of Mokosh's marriage to Perun, like the theory of the main myth itself, has not found full support in the scientific community.\nHistorian Roman Rabinovich (historian) wrote that Mokosh's features rather testify to a possible marriage with Veles.\n\n### Rybakov's reconstruction\nArchaeologist Boris Rybakov supported the reconstruction of Mokosh through identification with Paraskeva and through her etymology, which is false, deduced that Mokosh's name translates as \"Mother of Fate, Good Harvest\", ultimately characterizing her as a virgin goddess, goddess of fertility, water, patroness of women's labor and virgin fate.\nHe considers Mokosh identical to the West Slavic goddess [Zhiva](https://bliptext.com/articles/zhiva) and to [Mat Zemlya](https://bliptext.com/articles/mat-zemlya) and correlates her with the image of the Paleolithic [Mother Goddess](https://bliptext.com/articles/mother-goddess), claiming that the cult of Mokosh originated in the [Paleolithic era](https://bliptext.com/articles/paleolithic-era).\nOn the basis of the Christian [apocrypha](https://bliptext.com/articles/apocrypha) On Twelve Fridays, Rybakov concludes that every Friday was a celebration of Mokosh.\nAmong them were special twelve Fridays of the year, the most important of which fell on November 1-8.\nAnalyzing Sermon by Saint Gregory, Rybakov wrote that the author equated Mokosh and the goddess Yecate, identifying the latter as [Hekate](https://bliptext.com/articles/hekate).\nHe argued that the approximation occurred on the basis that Hekate was understood to be a deity associated with the afterlife and was surrounded by dogs, while as Mokosh in the sources she is adjacent to [Simargl](https://bliptext.com/articles/simargl) and the oxen, which Rybakov interpreted as a sacred dog associated with crops and [rusalky](https://bliptext.com/articles/rusalky), i.e. the souls of the dead.\nFrom this he deduced that the cult of Mokosh corresponded to the \"middle phase of the cult of Hekate\", which was agrarian.\nRybakov believed that the [Zbruch idol](https://bliptext.com/articles/zbruch-idol) depicted Mokosh with a horn in her hand - in his opinion a symbol of abundance associated with fertility.\nThe female figure below Mokosh in the middle row, as suggested by Leo Klein, should be connected to the image above.\nAbove her shoulder is a small figure, which Klein interprets as a child, spirit or soul, and on this basis concludes that this spirit is in no way related to the functions of the goddess according to Rybakov.\nThere are embroideries of [Finno-Ugric peoples](https://bliptext.com/articles/finno-ugric-peoples) ([Vepsians](https://bliptext.com/articles/vepsians), [Karelians](https://bliptext.com/articles/karelians), [Izhorians](https://bliptext.com/articles/izhorians)), as well as [Russian Northerners](https://bliptext.com/articles/russian-north) with ornaments in the form of anthropomorphic figures with raised or partially lowered arms, combined with geometrized trees, birds, horses and horsemen.\nSometimes the human figures are framed by elements resembling buildings.\nRybakov supported archaeologist Lev Dinces' conjecture that on these North Russian embroideries the figure between the horses represents Mokosh.\nRybakov interprets the structures depicted on the embroideries as pagan temples.\nEthnographer Grigory Bazlov points out the existence of other embroideries in which, in his opinion, the figures in the center have a visible beard, and what Rybakov took to be a dress, he interprets as a [kaftan](https://bliptext.com/articles/kaftan), concluding that the figures in the center were men.\nHe was of the opinion that some of the figures have visible male genitalia.\nFolklorist Natalya Kozlova wrote that there are only two examples with a male figure, and rejected the opinion of male genitalia because \"the style of embroidery is conventional and schematic\", and therefore \"does not give grounds for accurate attribution of details\".\nKlejn believes that the figure in the center represents the Sun and rejects Rybakov's proposed character identifications.\n# [According to Rybakov's interpretation, the Zbruch idol allegedly depicts Mokosh with a horn in her hand. An 1853 drawing of the idol from Joachim Lelewel's book | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/%C5%9Awiatowid///ze///Zbrucza.jpg]\n\n## Family\nThe sources make no mention of Mokosh's family connections.\nAccording to Vladimir Toporow, Mokosh was wife of [Perun](https://bliptext.com/articles/perun).\nAccording to [theory of basic myth](https://bliptext.com/articles/theory-of-basic-myth) created by him and Vyacheslav Ivanov, Mokosh cheated on Perun with [Veles](https://bliptext.com/articles/veles-god) and was later punished by him.\nThat myth, however, is rejected by later scholars.\nŁuczyński, who also rejects the Slavic version of the basic myth proposed by Toporov as incorrect, also links Mokosh to Perun.\nFor the hypothetical early Proto-Slavic pantheon, he reconstructs Proto-Mokosh as the daughter of Zema ([Earth](https://bliptext.com/articles/earth-mother)) and [Div](https://bliptext.com/articles/div-slavic-mythology) ([Heaven](https://bliptext.com/articles/sky-father)), sister of Usa ([Dawn](https://bliptext.com/articles/dawn-goddess)), Proto-[Yarilo](https://bliptext.com/articles/yarilo) ([Morning Star](https://bliptext.com/articles/venus)), Men ([Moon](https://bliptext.com/articles/moon-god)) and Sul ([Sun](https://bliptext.com/articles/sun-goddess)).\nFor the later stage he reconstructs Mokosh as wife of Perun, both of them being parents for [Morana](https://bliptext.com/articles/morana-goddess) and Yarilo.\nWitkowski, on the basis of the fact that the villages of Prohn and Mukus, supposed to derive their name from Perun and Mokosh, were located only 2 km from each other, concluded that the villages \"must indicate cult connections\".\nOn the other hand, historian Roman Rabinovich wrote that Mokosh's features rather testify to a possible marriage with Veles.\n\n# Neopaganism\nMokosh, also known as Makosh, is revered in [Slavic neopaganism](https://bliptext.com/articles/slavic-neopaganism) as the goddess of the earth, fate, harvest and women's labor.\nNeopagans consider Mokosh to be a miraculous maiden, the personification of female nature and the great mother of all living beings.\nThe fifth day of the week is dedicated to women and Mokosh.\nAs an object of worship, she is often chosen by communities consisting mainly of women.\nAccording to [Alexander Asov](https://bliptext.com/articles/alexander-asov), one of the ideologues of neopaganism, the place and time of a person's birth are determined by the gods, and his fate is woven by the goddess Makosh.\nAsow claims that her sign is a ten-pointed red star on a blue background.\nAccording to neopagan author Vadim Kazakov, Veles is the son of [Svarog](https://bliptext.com/articles/svarog) and Mokosh, and [Dola and Nedola](https://bliptext.com/articles/dolya-mythology) are the younger sisters of Mokosh.\nVeles may also be considered the husband of Mokosh.\nAnother husband of Mokosh may be [Stribog](https://bliptext.com/articles/stribog), with whom the goddess has a daughter [Kupala](https://bliptext.com/articles/kupala) and a son [Yarilo](https://bliptext.com/articles/yarilo).\nAnother neopagan author, the [volkhv](https://bliptext.com/articles/volkhv) Veliimir (Nikolai Spyransky), considers Mokosh to be one of the [rozhanitsy](https://bliptext.com/articles/rozhanitsy).\nOne neopagan community, the \"Kingdom of Mokosh\", was named after the goddess.\nTwo festivals of the \"Kingdom of Mokosh\" are dedicated to the goddess: spring Mokosh, celebrated on March 24, and autumn Mokos, celebrated on September 24.\nIn the [USC SNF](https://bliptext.com/articles/union-of-slavic-communities-of-the-slavic-native-faith), chicken is the ritual food at a feast in honor of Mokosh.\nThe ritual calendar of the \"[Veles circle](https://bliptext.com/articles/veles-circle)\" association, which includes the \"Rodolubiye\" community, includes the holiday of the Day of Mokosh or Earth Day.\nThis holiday is celebrated on May 9, when [Mother Earth](https://bliptext.com/articles/earth-goddess) \"wakes up\" after winter.\nHowever, on this day the goddess is still resting and must not be disturbed by plowing, hoeing or pile driving.\nThe summer festival Mokosh's Svyatki or Mokrida is celebrated on July 19, when the [Orthodox Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/eastern-orthodox-church) commemorates the day of Macrida.\nThe [Obzhynki](https://bliptext.com/articles/do-ynki), celebrated on August 15, is dedicated to the gathering of the end of the harvest, for which [Dazhbog](https://bliptext.com/articles/dazhbog) and Mokosh are thanked.\nThe goddess is considered the Mother of the harvest and offerings of fruit are made to her on this day.\nThe harvest festival falls on the Orthodox feast of the [Dormition of the Mother of God](https://bliptext.com/articles/dormition-of-the-mother-of-god).\nOn this day Russians celebrated the harvest festival and the beginning of autumn days.\nIn other parts of Russia, the harvest festival was held on August 16 at the [Bread Spas](https://bliptext.com/articles/nut-feast-of-the-saviour).\nBread Spas itself, also known as Nut Spas, Linen Spas or Water Spas, is understood in neopaganism as a festival of Mokosh, the lady of the waters, in which women should bring small offerings consisting of flax and yarn to the well.\nThe Orthodox Church celebrates the [Transfiguration of Jesus](https://bliptext.com/articles/transfiguration-of-jesus) on this day.\nThe festival of Mokoshino Poletye, or [women's summer](https://bliptext.com/articles/indian-summer), is a series of days from September 1 to 7 dedicated to the goddess.\nThe Day of [Rod](https://bliptext.com/articles/rod-religion) and [Rozhanitsy](https://bliptext.com/articles/rozhanitsy) in Slavic tradition falls on the [Nativity of Mary](https://bliptext.com/articles/nativity-of-mary) and is a celebration of family, harvest and home.\nIt is a time to sum up and welcome autumn, in honor of the goddess Mokosh, in this case known as the Mother of Autumn.\nDuring the Tausienʹ-Radogoshch festival, coinciding with the autumnal equinox, there is a ritual of thanksgiving for the harvest, which includes a ceremony in honor of Mokosh as she walks the fields toward the sun, where Mother Earth is presented with a ceremonial [korovai](https://bliptext.com/articles/korovai) cake.\nOn this day the [Svarga](https://bliptext.com/articles/svarga) is closed and the gods rest until spring.\nThe autumn day of Mokosh is celebrated on October 28, when the earth is believed to \"fall\" into winter sleep.\nAfter sunset, the priestesses of Mokosh, usually three in number, untangle the \"sliver of fate\": they put threads into a cup of enchanted water and, watching the threads unravel, predict the future.\nThe holiday coincides with the Orthodox day of [Paraskeva Friday](https://bliptext.com/articles/paraskeva-friday).\nThe volkhvs of the \"Veles Circle\" also developed the Small Circle of Svarog with the dedication of each month to a specific deity, where the fifth month, May, is dedicated to Mokosh and [Zhiva](https://bliptext.com/articles/zhiva), and the eleventh month, November, to Mokosh and Dark [Mara](https://bliptext.com/articles/mare-folklore).\nVolkhv Veslav (Ilya Cherkasov) identified divine allocations related to the four seasons, days, world directions and elements.\nIn particular, the allotments of Veles and Mokosh are associated with autumn, evening, sunset and air.\nOn the feast of [Kupala Night](https://bliptext.com/articles/kupala-night), women decorate birch trees with ribbons and wreaths of flowers.\nThese decorations are interpreted by neopagans as an ancient form of sacrifice, since the young tree is a symbol of Mother Earth, or Mokosh.\nNearby, a Yarilo doll made of green branches and hammered into the ground, dressed in ornate embroidery with sacred symbolism, is prepared and given food.\nThe doll and the tree symbolically personify the [newlyweds](https://bliptext.com/articles/newlyweds).\nMokosh is mentioned in the [Book of Veles](https://bliptext.com/articles/book-of-veles), which the scientific community considers a [forgery](https://bliptext.com/articles/forgery) created by writer Yuri Mirolubov in the 20th century.\nIn the story of pagan [Bacchanalia](https://bliptext.com/articles/bacchanalia) on page 32 in the 1994 edition of the Book of Veles, following Asov's translation, \"green leaves and mokoshans\" are mentioned, i.e. green leaves somehow associated with the goddess Mokosh, which the translator understands as \"green leaves and [seaweed](https://bliptext.com/articles/seaweed)\".\nIn the list of pagan gods on pages 302-304, the name of Mokosh does not appear.\n# [Statue of Mokosh in Klasak, Poland | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/Mokosz///01.jpg]\n\n# Today\nCultural scholars [Harald Haarmann](https://bliptext.com/articles/harald-haarmann) and [Orlando Figes](https://bliptext.com/articles/orlando-figes) believe that the concept of [Mother Russia](https://bliptext.com/articles/mother-russia) is linked to the earth, \"mythical femininity\" and motherhood due to the original correspondence of the words Russia and earth (, zemlya) with the grammatical feminine gender and the greater prevalence of depicting Russia specifically as a motherland, rather than a fatherland.\nHowever, Russia's feminine identity is also drawn from folklore, [Russian poetry](https://bliptext.com/articles/russian-literature) and literary idioms, indicating the antiquity of the tradition of the connection between the feminine and the earth, which was eventually elevated by scholars to the image of Mokosh as [Mat Zemlya](https://bliptext.com/articles/mat-zemlya).\n[Mokosha Mons](https://bliptext.com/articles/mokosha-[mons](https://bliptext.com/articles/mons-planetary-nomenclature)), [mons](https://bliptext.com/articles/mons-planetary-nomenclature) on [Venus](https://bliptext.com/articles/venus), is named after Mokosh.\nIn modern culture, the names of East Slavic deities are used as advertising names.\nIn particular, the name Mokosh or Makosh is used as an [ergonym](https://bliptext.com/articles/ergonym), especially in the names of companies related to agriculture, crafts, cosmetology and tailoring, since in popular culture Mokosh is understood as the goddess of female crafts.\nReligious scholar Andrey Beskov notes that company naming is often based on pseudoscientific speculation.\nThe linguosemiotic aspect of Russian folk culture was investigated by [HSE](https://bliptext.com/articles/higher-school-of-economics) staff.\nIn order to study it, an association survey was conducted, in which among the proposed words the name Mokosh was represented by a variant of Makosh.\nRespondents did not notice this change in spelling, which is probably due to the de-etymologization of the deity's name in contemporary literature containing its various variants: Maketa, Makosh, Makosha, Mokosh, Mokosha.\nGenerally speaking, there is no established spelling for this name at present.\n# [Personification of Russia on the Russian Empire's 500 ruble banknote of 1912 | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/12/Personification///of///Russia///Russian///Empire///1912///Bill///500///rubles///Obverse.jpg]","current_revision":null,"created_by":"kACnuQmH5k9Nr5VNVEpVeg7XpvUmMctD","created_at":"2025-01-25T20:08:34.272Z","updated_at":"2025-01-25T20:08:34.272Z","search_vector":"'mokosh':1","search_content":" \n \n**Type:** Slavic \n**Name:** Mokosh \n**Member Of:** [Vladimir's](https://bliptext.com/articles/vladimir-the-great) pantheon \n**Script Name:** [Old Cyrillic](https://bliptext.com/articles/old-cyrillic) \n**Gender:** female \n**Texts:** [Primary Chronicle](https://bliptext.com/articles/primary-chronicle) and other, dependent texts \n \n\n# \n**Mokosh** is a [Slavic goddess](https://bliptext.com/articles/list-of-slavic-deities).\nNo narratives survive to the present day about this deity and so scholars must rely on academic disciplines like [philology](https://bliptext.com/articles/philology) to discern details about her.\nAccording to etymological reconstruction, Mokosh was the goddess of earth, waters and fertility, and later, according to most researchers, she was reflected in [bylinas](https://bliptext.com/articles/bylina) and [zagovory](https://bliptext.com/articles/zagovory) as [Mat Zemlya](https://bliptext.com/articles/mat-zemlya).\nAnother reconstruction was made on the basis of ethnography: at the end of the 19th century, such names of [kikimora](https://bliptext.com/articles/kikimora) as Mokusha or Mokosha were recorded in the [Russian North](https://bliptext.com/articles/russian-north).\nThe coincidence is explained by the fact that kikimora is a demonized version of the goddess, and by approximating between the two, researchers have portrayed Mokosh as the goddess of love and birth, with a connection to the night, the moon, spinning, sheep farming and women's economy.\nSpinning was the occupation of various European [goddesses of fate](https://bliptext.com/articles/time-and-fate-deities), which led to the characterization of Mokosh as a deity controlling fate.\nThis reconstruction does not agree with the data on her etymology, which shows that the function of spinning could not have been the main one.\nA wooden statue of Mokosh, along with other deities, was established by prince [Vladimir the Great](https://bliptext.com/articles/vladimir-the-great) in 980 on one of Kyiv's hills.\nThis event has been described by some historians as a manifestation of Vladimir's pagan reformation, but other scholars deny that such a reformation was carried out, and the question of its existence is debatable in modern scholarship.\nAfter the beginning of the [christianization of Rus in 988](https://bliptext.com/articles/christianization-of-kievan-rus), the statues of deities were destroyed.\nMokosh is mentioned in various Words and Teachings against Paganism along with the [vilas](https://bliptext.com/articles/vila-fairy), but is not described in them in any way.\nIn scholarship, the opinion spread that the cult of Mokosh passed to the [folk-Christian](https://bliptext.com/articles/folk-orthodoxy) [Paraskeva Friday](https://bliptext.com/articles/paraskeva-friday), associated with water and spinning.\nBecause of this identification, [Friday](https://bliptext.com/articles/friday) began to be considered a day dedicated to the goddess, and a conclusion was drawn about the popularity of Mokosh among women in Christian times.\nIn later studies, the idea of an approximation with Paraskeva is criticized because Paraskeva's association with spinning, water and Friday has Christian rather than pagan roots.\nThe Slavic version of the basic myth theory, based on various ethnographic and linguistic data, depicts Mokosh as [Perun](https://bliptext.com/articles/perun)'s wife.\nShe cheats on him with [Veles](https://bliptext.com/articles/veles-god), causing Perun to kill Mokosh's children.\nThe theory itself has not been recognized in scholarship.\nThe supposition that Mokosh is depicted on the [Zbruch Idol](https://bliptext.com/articles/zbruch-idol) and on North Russian [embroideries](https://bliptext.com/articles/embroidery) from the 19th century has also been rejected.\nArchaeologist [Boris Rybakov](https://bliptext.com/articles/boris-rybakov)'s theory that the goddess' original name was Makosh has not been supported by other researchers.\n\n# Name and characteristics\nIn [Old East Slavic](https://bliptext.com/articles/old-east-slavic) texts, the name of the goddess is noted as Mokošĭ, Mokŭšĭ – in ancient texts [uppercase](https://bliptext.com/articles/letter-case) was not used.\nAccording to [Oleg Trubachyov](https://bliptext.com/articles/oleg-trubachyov), the form Mokŭšĭ was formed through the secondary adideation of *Mokošь and *kъšь \"fate\".\nGrammatically, the theonym Mokosh belongs to the [feminine gender](https://bliptext.com/articles/feminine-gender), from which it is inferred that the deity was specifically a [goddess](https://bliptext.com/articles/goddess).\nIn older studies and later chronicles she may appear as a male deity, but this variant is secondary to the original.\nAccording to the most reasonable etymology the theonym was formed by the suffixal method from the Proto-Slavic stem *mok- meaning \"wet\" with the suffix *-ošь.\n[Vladimir Toporov](https://bliptext.com/articles/vladimir-toporov) and [Vyacheslav Ivanov](https://bliptext.com/articles/vyacheslav-ivanov-philologist) comment that this etymology is “indisputable”, understanding her name as \"She who is wet\".\nThe first to put forward such an etymology was [Vatroslav Jagić](https://bliptext.com/articles/vatroslav-jagi), believing that the theonym was a translation or also an [amplification](https://bliptext.com/articles/rhetorical-operations) of the Greek word malakiya, and therefore Mokosh was a literary fiction.\nToporov, Ivanov and [Max Vasmer](https://bliptext.com/articles/max-vasmer) consider Jagić's position to be false.\nMichał Łuczyński believes that the theonym may have appeared only after the 3rd century AD due to the occurrence of the [š] sound, which arose in Slavic languages as part of the [first palatalization](https://bliptext.com/articles/first-palatalization).\nHe derives the name of the goddess from the unattested noun *mokošь \"someone/something wet\", since the suffix *-ošь forms the names of the bearers of features, and this noun he derives precisely from the v-tematic [*moky](https://bliptext.com/articles/wikt-en-reconstruction-proto-slavic-moky) ( *mokъve) \"wet place, mud\" (cf. [Polish](https://bliptext.com/articles/polish-language) dial. mokwa, [Ukrainian](https://bliptext.com/articles/ukrainian-language) mokva) and compares the name Mokosh to other names ending in -osh derived from v-thematic words with topographical meaning, e.g. Old [Polish](https://bliptext.com/articles/polish-language) Bagosz ( \nLamwaberl used to live in Grünau, a marshy place not far away from [Šent Florjan Square](https://bliptext.com/articles/florjan-o-tanj), near the [Ložnica](https://bliptext.com/articles/lo-nica-velenje) that often overf lowed its banks.\nArchaeological artefacts confirm that in the olden times the place had been cultivated.\nA lone farming estate is situated there now, but once upon a time there stood the castle of Mokoška, a heathen princess who lived in it.\nThe castle was surrounded by gardens that were always green.\nShe occasionally helped people but sometimes also harmed them; she was especially wont to taking children with her.\nAt long last, God punished her.\nOn a stormy night, the castle and all its gardens sank into the ground.\nBut Mokoška was not doomed.\nShe continued to appear, disguised in different female forms.\nShe still carries off children, especially those who have been neglected by their parents.\n# [In Slovene language spotted crake is also called mokoš, and in Russian regionalisms chyortova kurica, lit. \"devil's hen\" | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/Porzana///porzana///3///%28Marek///Szczepanek%29///cropped.jpg]\n# [Contemporary coat of arms of the village of Mokošín in the Czech Republic, which may be named after Mokosh | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/55/Moko%C5%A1%C3%ADn///Coa.jpg]\n\n# Sources\n\n## Old East Slavic sources\nMokosh is mentioned in the concerning year 980 account of the [Primary Chronicle](https://bliptext.com/articles/primary-chronicle) from the beginning of the 12th century, the oldest copy of which is part of the [Laurentian Codex](https://bliptext.com/articles/laurentian-codex) of 1377.\nFragment:\n \nAnd [Vladimir](https://bliptext.com/articles/vladimir-the-great) began to reign alone in [Kyiv](https://bliptext.com/articles/kyiv).\nAnd he placed idols on the hill outside the palace: a [Perun](https://bliptext.com/articles/perun) in wood with a silver head and a gold moustache, and [Khors](https://bliptext.com/articles/khors) [Dazhbog](https://bliptext.com/articles/dazhbog) and [Stribog](https://bliptext.com/articles/stribog) and [Simargl](https://bliptext.com/articles/simargl) and Mokosh.\nAnd they offered sacrifices and called them gods, and they took their sons and daughters to them and sacrificed them to the devils.\nAnd they profaned the earth with their sacrifices, and Rus’ and that hill were profaned by blood.\n– [Primary Chronicle](https://bliptext.com/articles/primary-chronicle)\nIn historiography, this event is known as the pagan reform or the first [religious reform of Vladimir](https://bliptext.com/articles/religious-reform-of-vladimir).\nOne point of view, considering the reform, treats it as a transition to [monotheism](https://bliptext.com/articles/monotheism): according to philologist Viljo Mansikka and historians [Aleksey Shakhmatov](https://bliptext.com/articles/aleksey-shakhmatov) and [Henryk Łowmiański](https://bliptext.com/articles/henryk-owmia-ski), initially there was only Perun in the Primary Chronicle, and later other gods were added to make Vladimir a [polytheist](https://bliptext.com/articles/polytheist).\nThe philologist Anichkov shared Shahmatov's position, although he noted that \"there is no objective data to recognize this insertion\".\nHistorian [Evgeny Anichkov](https://bliptext.com/articles/evgeny-anichkov) points out that the existence of the Kyiv pantheon is recorded in parallel sources.\nAnother historian, [Leo Klejn](https://bliptext.com/articles/leo-klejn), denies the existence of the reform, considering the event merely a reintroduction of paganism: the idols were erected immediately after the assassination of [Yaropelk](https://bliptext.com/articles/yaropolk-i-of-kiev), who had sympathies for [Christianity](https://bliptext.com/articles/christianity) and pursued a pro-Christian policy, and after the enthronement of Vladimir.\nThe Perun's idol itself was already standing on a hill in Kyiv at the home of prince [Igor](https://bliptext.com/articles/igor-of-kiev).\nIt has been debated in the past that the passage in the text about \"bringing their sons and daughters\" reflects either human sacrifice or merely indicates participation in a ritual.\nModern scholars consider the text from \"And they offered\" to \"and that hill\" and beyond to be a [paraphrase](https://bliptext.com/articles/paraphrase) of [Psalm](https://bliptext.com/articles/psalm) verses.\nNevertheless, Vasilyev still considers the existence of frequent human sacrifices for the Kyiv pantheon as a historical fact, but according to historian Pavel Lukin the issue of human sacrifices as well as the reform itself is debatable, and the text about Vladimir's reform is merely a reworking of the [Chronicle](https://bliptext.com/articles/chronicle-of-george-hamartolos) of [George Hamartolos](https://bliptext.com/articles/george-hamartolos), which mentions the creation of six idol gods of deities with [Belphegor](https://bliptext.com/articles/belphegor) leading and one female figure, [Astarte](https://bliptext.com/articles/astarte).\nAccording to the Chronicle, the materials used to make the idols were gold and silver, and defiled earth is also mentioned.\nLukin concludes that the story of Vladimir's pantheon and human sacrifices is a chronicler's construction created in the 1170s, and the names of the deities were taken from oral tradition known to the chronicler.\nAmong the deities established by Vladimir, Mokosh was the only goddess.\nPhilologist Nikolay Zubov believes that \"according to the generally accepted opinion, in the circle of Vladimir's pantheon, this is the most mysterious figure\".\nThe chronicle then tells how the elders and [boyars](https://bliptext.com/articles/boyars) decided to cast lots to kill a boy or girl as a sacrifice to the gods.\nIn Kyiv lived a Christian and [Varangian](https://bliptext.com/articles/varangian), [Fyodor, who had a son John](https://bliptext.com/articles/theodore-the-varangian-and-his-son-john), according to the chronicle, \"beautiful in face and soul\", upon whom fate had fallen.\nEmissaries came to Fyodor, saying that his son had been chosen by the gods and should be sacrificed.\nFyodor dismissed the Kyiv statues as gods, pointing out that they were made of wood.\nThe envoys told the people all about it, and, taking up arms, they trashed Fyodor's courtyard and ordered him, as he stood in the hallway with his son, to give his son to the gods.\nIn response, Varangian said that the gods themselves could send someone from their own circle to take his son from him, whereupon the people cut down the hallway, and Fyodor and John were killed.\nThe appearance of the story of the Varangians in the Primary Chronicle is a later addition that probably first appeared in the [First Corpus](https://bliptext.com/articles/first-corpus) of the 1190s.\nThe chronicle entry itself was based on a possibly existing original story about the Varangians, an early short [synaxarion](https://bliptext.com/articles/synaxarion) record in memory of locally honored saints, which was written specifically to glorify the first Rus' martyrs.\nThe Primary Chronicle ' s account used a version already revised and supplemented with some unreliable details, but without the names of the Varangians, which were unknown to the compiler of the Chronicle ' s account.\nAmong the misrepresentations is the location of the death of the Varangians.\nThe existence of human sacrifices among the Slavs is recorded by various sources.\nTherefore, as archaeologists [Irina Rusanova](https://bliptext.com/articles/irina-rusanova) and Boris Timoshchuk wrote, \"the information about human sacrifices among the Eastern Slavs [...] can hardly be considered accusations and propaganda against paganism\" and that \"no special cruelty can be seen in the custom of human sacrifices among the Slavs. These sacrifices were conditioned by the worldview of the time and were used for the good and salvation of society\".\nHuman sacrifices were made under certain circumstances, and bloodless sacrifices were the most common.\nAfter Vladimir [baptized Rus in 988](https://bliptext.com/articles/christianization-of-kievan-rus), he ordered the idols to be overthrown: some chopped up, others burned.\nHe built St. Basil's Church on the spot where the idols stood.\nIn 1975, the foundations of the building were found during excavations on Old Kyiv Mountain.\nArchaeologist [Boris Rybakov](https://bliptext.com/articles/boris-rybakov) recognized the structure as the site of Kyiv's pantheon, claiming that it had \"clearly marked five projections of different sizes: one large one in the middle, two smaller ones on the sides and two very small ones near the side projections...\".\nSubsequent researchers have criticized Rybakov's statement.\nThe kapishche (outdoors templte) itself has not been discovered by archaeologists, nor has any evidence of human sacrifice in Kyiv.\nAfter the adoption of Christianity, various sermons against the old religion appeared.\nIn particular, the Sermon by One Who Loves Christ was written, according to most scholars, in the mid-11th century.\nThe exceptions are Mansikka, who claims the Sermon was written in the 14th century, and Rusanova and Timoshchuk, who date it to the 12th century.\nThe Sermon itself is available in two editions: a short, original edition and a long, later edition.\nFragment from the late 14th century edition of the Paisios' list of the collection:\n \nAs [Elijah the Tishbite](https://bliptext.com/articles/elijah), having cut the throats of three hundred idolatrous prophets and priests, said: “I burn with zeal for my Lord God Almighty”, so he, too being unable to bear Christians who live a [double faith](https://bliptext.com/articles/folk-orthodoxy) and believe in Perun and Khors, Mokosh, [Sim and Rgl](https://bliptext.com/articles/simargl) and in the Vily, who number thirty ninth sisters, —so say ignorant people who consider them goddesses—and thus give them offerings and cut the throats of hens and pray to fire, calling it [Svarozhits](https://bliptext.com/articles/svarozhits).\n[...] Therefore, Christians must not hold demonic festivities, meaning dancing, music and profane songs, and offerings to the idols, who with fire under the fields of sheaves pray to the Vily, to Mokosh, and Sim and Rgl, to Perun, [Rod](https://bliptext.com/articles/rod-mythology), the [Rozhanitsy](https://bliptext.com/articles/rozhanitsy) and all the like.\n– Sermon by One Who Loves Christ and Is a Jealous Defender of the Righteous Faith\nSlavist [Nikolay Galkovsky](https://bliptext.com/articles/nikolay-galkovsky), due to the fact that the vilas are noted next to Mokosh, believes that they are related to the goddess, but according to historian Igor Danilevsky, the author of the Word used some unknown South Slavic source from which he took information about the vilas, mythological figures of the [South Slavs](https://bliptext.com/articles/south-slavs).\nIn his opinion, the [Eastern Slavs](https://bliptext.com/articles/eastern-slavs) themselves did not worship vilas.\nSimilarly, Mansikka believes that the vilas and Mokosh were taken from the text Vopros, chto yest' trebokladen'ye idol'skoye, which he considers South Slavic.\nAccording to Anichkov, the original version of the Sermon said nothing about deities and they were added by later editors.\nAnichkov's opinion is shared by Mansikka, who believes that the list of deities comes from the Primary Chronicle.\nOn this basis, historian Vladimir Petukhin concludes that the insert with the mention of deities appeared no earlier than the 12th century.\nSince the name Simargl is spelled as Sim and Regl, the author of the Word may not have understood which characters were being referred to.\nMokosh is mentioned in the Old Rus' work Sermon by Saint Gregory, which is a reworking of the 4th century teaching of [Constantinople patriarch](https://bliptext.com/articles/ecumenical-patriarch-of-constantinople) [Gregory of Nazianzus](https://bliptext.com/articles/gregory-of-nazianzus).\nThe unknown Old Rus' author used the condemnation of the Greek gods, supplementing it with a text condemning the Slavic gods.\nAn early edition of the Sermon is preserved in three handwritten copies from the 15th century and is variously dated by different researchers: the 1060s (Anichkov), the 12th century (Łowmiański, Rybakov), as well as dates considered unlikely by Vasilyev: late 13th - early 14th century (Slavists Sreznevsky, Galkovsky), 14th century (Mansikka).\nAccording to Rybakov, Sermon by Saint Gregory was a direct translation, but Danilevsky points out that the Word only partially reflects the Greek original.\nThe original is called On the Theophany.\nDanilevsky notes that it is not known exactly which variant of Gregory Nazianzin's text was used by the Old Russian author himself.\nIt is also unknown how reliable the information about Slavic gods contained in the Sermon is.\nExcerpt from the Novgorod Sophia Library manuscript No. 1295 from the 15th century:\n \nTo those gods the Slavic people makes offerings too, and to vily, and Mokosh, Diva, Perun, Khors, Rod and Rozhanitsy, to the [vampires](https://bliptext.com/articles/vampire) and to the [beregyni](https://bliptext.com/articles/beregynya), and to [Pereplut](https://bliptext.com/articles/pereplut), for whom they drink in horns while pouring around.\n[...] The [Taurian](https://bliptext.com/articles/taurica) sacrifices made by the first born sons to the idols, the sacrificial blood of the [Laconians](https://bliptext.com/articles/sparta) spilt from wounds, which is their punishment, and with which they bathed the goddess, Yecate, whom they considered a virgin.\nAnd they worship Mokosh, and Kyla, and Malakiya, that is masturbation, saying: Buyakini.\n[...] Following holy baptism, they rejected Perun, but even after accepting Christ, in the border areas they still pray to the accursed Perun, and to Khors, and Mokosh and vil.\nAnd they do it secretly...\n– Sermon by Saint Gregory, Found in the Comments, on How the Ancient Nations, When Pagan, Worshipped Idols and Offered Sacrifices to Them, and Continue to Do So Now\nMansikka notes that the meaning of the word Diva is unknown.\nPerhaps it is a literal translation of the Greek Δἰος (Dios), or the text should be read as Mokosh-Deva (\"Mokosh-Virgin\").\nAccording to Danilevsky, what was meant was the [masculine] [Div](https://bliptext.com/articles/div-mythology). Zubov comments that there is also an opinion that considers [Div](https://bliptext.com/articles/div-mythology)a to be the feminine version of [Div](https://bliptext.com/articles/div-mythology), but analyzing the text, he concludes that the more correct variant is Mokosh-Deva, despite the original Дивѣ ([Div](https://bliptext.com/articles/div-mythology)ě ), instead of the expected *Дѣвѣ (*Děvě ). The schoolar attributes this to the [Novgorodian](https://bliptext.com/articles/old-novgorod-dialect) origin of Sermon and the fact that in the dialect the sound [ѣ] can turn into [i]. Thus, the term \"[Div](https://bliptext.com/articles/div-mythology)a\" becomes an epithet-definition of Mokosh \"according to the Hellenistic model\", regardless of whether Mokosh was a virgin in the original pagan depictions. In favor of this interpretation, according to the scholar, is the fact that the word [Div](https://bliptext.com/articles/div-mythology)a is not mentioned anywhere else. Rybakov and Zubov define Yecate as [Hekate](https://bliptext.com/articles/hekate), believing that the author of the Sermon saw some parallels between [Hekate](https://bliptext.com/articles/hekate) and Mokosh.\nThe term [malakiya](https://bliptext.com/articles/malakas) is of Greek origin and means [onanism](https://bliptext.com/articles/masturbation).\nFrom its proximity to Mokosh, Ilyinsky concludes that Mokosh was associated with [sexual activity](https://bliptext.com/articles/sexual-activity).\nSlavist [Aleksander Brückner](https://bliptext.com/articles/aleksander-br-ckner) rejected the identification of Mokosh with malakiya, as the text shows that they are two different things.\nAccording to Mansikka, \"and they worship Mokosh, and Kyla\" is an insertion made on the basis of the consonance of Mokosh with malakiya.\nDanilevsky literally translates the word Kyla as \"[hernia](https://bliptext.com/articles/hernia)\", but he himself believes, as do many other scholars, that it is more likely to be considered a distortion of the word [vila](https://bliptext.com/articles/vila-fairy).\nGalkovsky viewed buyakini as a vila, which he associated with Mokosh.\nThe term buyakini is associated by [Leo Klejn](https://bliptext.com/articles/leo-klejn) with the words buy, buyvishche, meaning \"[pogost](https://bliptext.com/articles/pogost)\", \"cemetery\", and the buyakini themselves, if not a copyist's error, are understood by Klejn as participants in funeral rites who practiced orgiastic rituals.\nIn Klejn's reconstruction, Perun was a [dying-and-rising god](https://bliptext.com/articles/dying-and-rising-god), and these rituals were a sacred drama of resurrecting a dead god or his reincarnation, and the purpose of the buyakini was not onanism, but the extraction of semen for ritual purposes.\nDanilevsky points out, however, that the Greek original says \"in honor of bliss and fearlessness\", where the latter word was translated as buyestʹ \"courage\", and the form buyakini appeared only as a result of consonance (in relation to malakini).\nAnichkov believes that the text consists of late insertions.\nThe philologist [Nikolai Tikhonravov](https://bliptext.com/articles/nikolai-tikhonravov), in the fourth volume of [Chronicles of Russian Literature and Antiquity](https://bliptext.com/articles/chronicles-of-russian-literature-and-antiquity), cites the text Vopros, chto yest' trebokladen'ye idol'skoye in Moscow synodal manuscript No. 954 from the 14th century, fol.\n33; Galkovsky did not find this text and concluded that either Tikhonravov was mistaken or the manuscript numbers had been changed.\nExcerpt:\n \nHe is not speaking to pagans, but to peasants.\nMany Christians set meals for idols and fill cups for demons.\nWho are these idols?\nThe first idol is the [rozhanitsa](https://bliptext.com/articles/rozhanitsy).\nThe great prophet [Isaiah](https://bliptext.com/articles/isaiah) speaks of them, crying out in a loud voice: Oh, woe to those who set a meal for the rozhanitsa and fill cups for the demons!\nThe other [meal] is given to the vilas and Mokosh, and they do not pray openly, but secretly call on idolatrous women; and not only poor people, but also the wives of rich husbands.\nUsing the [troparion](https://bliptext.com/articles/troparion) of the holy [Theotokos](https://bliptext.com/articles/theotokos) during an idolatrous meal is very bad.\n– Vopros, chto yest' trebokladen'ye idol'skoye\nLinguists [Vladimir Toporov](https://bliptext.com/articles/vladimir-toporov) and [Vyacheslav Ivanov](https://bliptext.com/articles/vyacheslav-ivanov-philologist) distinguish the category of idol worshippers as the priestesses of Mokosh, but in turn Zubov concludes: the text is a reference to the Sermon of Isaiah, and the vilas and Mokosh are a contemporaneous insertion close to Sermon by Saint Gregory.\nThe work Sermon by the Holy Father Saint John Chrysostom is a compilation and is based specifically on Sermon by Saint Gregory.\nGenerally, the text dates to the 13th century, and historian [Igor Danilevsky](https://bliptext.com/articles/igor-danilevsky) dates it to the end of the 11th century, and is known from the manuscript from St. Sophia Cathedral of [Veliky Novgorod](https://bliptext.com/articles/veliky-novgorod) No. 1262 from the 14th-15th centuries and other copies.\nExcerpt according to the oldest of these:\n \nMen who have forgotten the fear of God from neglect by renouncing baptism, approach idols and start to make sacrifices to the thunder and lightning, the sun and moon, and others, to Perun, Khors, the vily and Mokosh, to vampires and the beregyni, whom they call three times nine sisters.\nAnd others believe in Svarozhits and Artemid, to whom ignorant men pray.\nThey sacrifice [cockerels](https://bliptext.com/articles/cockerel) to them.\n– Sermon by the Holy Father Saint John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, on How the First Pagans Believed in Idols\nIn the Life of Vladimir preserved in the Bulgarian oldest copy from the 13th century, after the story of Vladimir's baptism in [Kherson](https://bliptext.com/articles/kherson), it is said: \"And he came to Kyiv, beating the idols of Perun, Khurs, Dazhbog and Mokosh and other idols\".\nThe work goes back to Primary Chronicle.\nIn the [Hypatian Codex](https://bliptext.com/articles/hypatian-codex), under the date 1071, we read that “at the same time” a [volkhv](https://bliptext.com/articles/volkhv) appeared in Kyiv to whom five deities appeared.\nHe claimed that within five years the [Dnieper](https://bliptext.com/articles/dnieper) would begin to flow backwards, and the [Rus' land](https://bliptext.com/articles/kievan-rus) would \"pass\" into the hands of the Greeks.\nScholars equated these deities with the Kyiv pantheon, in which they believed there were six.\nExplaining this contradiction, Anichkov excluded Mokosh from this list, as he considered her a borrowed deity.\nŁowmiański also excluded Mokosh because he was of the opinion that she was originally a demon and was added later to the Vladimir pantheon, while Rybakov rejected [Simargl](https://bliptext.com/articles/simargl).\nVasilyev explains this by the fact that Dazhbog bore the double name of Dazhbog-Khors.\nHowever, Petrukhin believes that the prophecy of the volkhv in Kyiv is not due to traces of paganism, but [events in 1068-1069](https://bliptext.com/articles/kiev-uprising-of-1068), when rebellious peasants threatened the princes to burn the city and go to the land of Greece.\n\"Five gods\" were the five planets whose astrological position and referred to by the magician.\nAn annalistic edition of [The Tale of the Battle with [Mamai](https://bliptext.com/articles/mamai)](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-tale-of-the-battle-with-mamai), written perhaps in the early 15th century, describes [Mamai](https://bliptext.com/articles/mamai)'s defeat: \"The impious ... King [Mamai](https://bliptext.com/articles/mamai), seeing his destruction, began to call upon his gods: Perun, Salavat, Mokosh and Gursa\".\nHere the form of Mokosh's name is given in the masculine gender.\nIn the main and most widely circulated editions of the Tale, the god Mokosh is absent.\nVasilyev notes that the list of gods is most similar to their list in the Sermon by the Holy Father Saint John Chrysostom.\n# [Theodore the Varangian and his son John were to be sacrificed to the gods of the Kyiv pantheon. Miniature from the Radziwiłł Chronicle, late 15th century. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Murder///of///Martirs///Theodor///the///Varyag///and///His///Son///Joann.jpg]\n\n## Sources from the 16th-17th centuries\nThere are [Polish](https://bliptext.com/articles/polish-language) chronicles relating to East Slavic paganism and mentioning Mokosh, but researchers consider them secondary, as they are based on Old East Slavic sources.\nIn the 16th-century work [De origine et rebus gestis Polonorum libri XXX](https://bliptext.com/articles/de-origine-et-rebus-gestis-polonorum-libri-xxx) by historian [Martin Kromer](https://bliptext.com/articles/martin-kromer), Mokosh is mentioned among other gods as Mocosi.\nIn the [Chronicle](https://bliptext.com/articles/chronicle-of-poland-lithuania-samogitia-and-all-rus) of the historian [Maciej Stryjkowski](https://bliptext.com/articles/maciej-stryjkowski), published in 1582, in a list of gods whose names are passed down in distorted form, Mokosh is noted as Makosz.\nMansikka notes that the chronicle itself was compiled from other Polish sources and contains \"some fantasies and fabrications\".\nAccording to one of the confessional questions in the 16th century Rule of Saint Sava, the priest had to ask: \"Have you wandered with impious women and prayed to the vilas, and [Rod](https://bliptext.com/articles/rod-god), and the rozhanitsy, and Perun, Khors, Mokosh, and drank and ate?\".\nThree years of penance with bowing was imposed for the aforementioned sin.\nAccording to Anichkov, the mention of Perun, Chors and Mokosh was added as an insertion.\nThe same question was included in the work K posledovaniyu i ispovedaniyu knyazem, boyaram i vsem pravoslavnym khristianam dukhovnym ottsom from the early 16th century, where two years of penance were imposed for a positive answer to this question.\nThe 16th century Khudom nomokanuntse asks: “Did you go to Mokusha?\". Many researchers believe that under the term Mokusha means \"[witch doctor](https://bliptext.com/articles/witch-doctor)\". Akhnikov explained it with the word mokshitʹ \"to beg, to whine\", changed to \"to enchant\", \"to conjure\". According to ethnographer [Elpidifor Barsov](https://bliptext.com/articles/elpidifor-barsov), in the Khudom sel'skom nomokanuntse he possessed, the question was: \"Did you go to Mokosha?\". [Shakhmatov](https://bliptext.com/articles/aleksey-shakhmatov) refers to an unpublished Word on the Beginning of the Rus' Land in the 16th century inventory of the Rumyantsev Museum No. 358, where the sentence \"and Prince Vladimir came to crush the idols of Mokosh and others\" is found.\nA work from a collection dating back to the 16th century, which publisher [Izmail Sreznevsky](https://bliptext.com/articles/izmail-sreznevsky) calls The Spiritual Instruction of Children, and historian Dmitri Schoeppingk calls Sermon of Saint John Chrysostom, contains the following instruction:\n \nHide yourselves from God invisible, people praying to the lineage and rodzanice, Perun and Apollo, and Mokosha and [peregynia](https://bliptext.com/articles/berehynia), and do not approach any god, nor any vile sacrifices.\nMansikka believes that the names of mythological figures come from a certain work condemning pagans, close to the Sermon by Saint Gregory.\nThe chapter On the idols of Vladimir from the Piskari manuscript No. 153 of the late 17th century lists the statues installed by Vladimir.\nThis work is not original and ancient, as it was based on the chapter On the idols from the [Kievan Synopsis](https://bliptext.com/articles/kievan-synopsis), probably created by the historian [Innocent Gizel](https://bliptext.com/articles/innocent-gizel).\nThe chapter On the idols of Vladimir is similar in content to the text On the idols of Rus' in the [Hustyn Chronicle](https://bliptext.com/articles/hustyn-chronicle) of 1670.\nBoth chapters were written under the influence of Polish chronicles and contain the names of the gods in a distorted form.\nExcerpt from Piskari manuscript no. 153:\n \nAlso other idols were many, by name [Outlad or Oslad](https://bliptext.com/articles/list-of-slavic-pseudo-deities), [Korsh or Khors](https://bliptext.com/articles/khors), [Dashub or Dazhb](https://bliptext.com/articles/dazhbog), [Strib or Stribog](https://bliptext.com/articles/stribog), [Simargl or Simurgl](https://bliptext.com/articles/simargl), and Makosh or Mokosh; to them, to the demons, the ignorant people, like to a God, offered sacrifices and praises.\nThis abomination prevailed throughout the state of Vladimir.\nThe Hustyn Chronicle similarly lists the gods, including Mokosh.\nMansikka writes that these chronicles are more detailed than the original, and notes that the scribe chose to supplement them with his own notes and insertions.\nAll three works eventually return to [Primary Chronicle](https://bliptext.com/articles/primary-chronicle).\nThe Sermon from the Holy Gospel in manuscript No. 784 from the [Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius](https://bliptext.com/articles/trinity-lavra-of-st-sergius) lists sins of the body and soul.\nAmong the sins of the soul are mentioned:\n \n[To] learn astronomy and believe in casting [spells] and in false writings, and in Hellenistic books, and in fairy tales, and in ustryatsu, and in Mokosh, and in [snosudets](https://bliptext.com/articles/volkhovnik), divination by birds, in [thunder](https://bliptext.com/articles/gromnik-divinatory-book) and in [kolyada](https://bliptext.com/articles/koliada), and in all the martoloi and damned who make evil days and hours.\nThere is a variant where in place of Mokosh is the word basket kosh \"fate\", according to [Rybakov](https://bliptext.com/articles/boris-rybakov) the word Mokosh instead of kosh was just a scribe's error, and he translates the words snosudets, ustryatsu and martoloi as \"[volkhovnik](https://bliptext.com/articles/volkhovnik)\", \"divination\" and \"astrologers\", respectively.\nAnichkov considered the words ustryatsu and Mokosh to be insertions.\nIn the Ukrainian Life of Vladimir of the XVII century among the list of his gods Mokosh is recorded as Moksha.\nIn the Ukrainian Prologue Life of Vladimir from the manuscript of the Rumyantsev Museum No. 325 of the XVII century tells how Vladimir beat his gods, among them the deity Moksha, and drowned them in the [Dnieper](https://bliptext.com/articles/dnieper).\nThis work, like Life of Vladimir, goes back to the Primary Chronicle.\n# [Christian propagandistic depiction of Mokosh, Georg A. Schleissing, La Religion ancienne et moderne des Moscovites, 1698 | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/Mocossi.png]\n\n# Attempts at reconstruction\nSlavist Grigoriy Ilyinsky concluded that ancient Rus' sources do not provide any information except the name of Mokosh.\nIn his opinion, toponymic traces are equally unreliable and explanatory, and some conclusions about the nature of the goddess can be drawn only on the basis of folklore and ethnographic evidence.\nLater, philologist Aleksandr Strakhov wrote that the features of Mokosh, like the rest of the pagan pantheon, are known \"not from medieval sources, but from numerous reconstructions and observations of scholars-bellerists of the 19th and 20th centuries.\n\n## Early studies\nIn early scholarly literature, Mokosh was considered in various ways: Slavist Pyotr Preys compared Mokosh with [Astarte](https://bliptext.com/articles/astarte), Slavist [Lubor Niederle](https://bliptext.com/articles/lubor-niederle) likened her to [Aphrodite](https://bliptext.com/articles/aphrodite).\nEthnographer M. Nikiforovsky considered her the goddess of winds and water.\nAccording to historian Dmitri Schoeppingk, Mokosh's functions were transferred to [Saint Elijah](https://bliptext.com/articles/saint-elijah) because he is called \"wet\".\nSlavist Nikolai Galkovsky assumed that since Mokosh is mentioned together with the vilas (which, according to him, are called buyakini in the Sermon by Saint Gregory), Mokosh herself was merely the spirit of the deceased residing in the water.\nArchaeologist Aleksandr Velikhanov, referring to Sanskrit, concluded that Mokosh and Simargl were one and the same deity.\nSlavist [Vatroslav Jagić](https://bliptext.com/articles/vatroslav-jagi) did not consider her a deity at all.\nFolklorist [Alexander Krappe](https://bliptext.com/articles/alexander-haggerty-krappe) likened Mokosh to the biblical [Moloch](https://bliptext.com/articles/moloch).\nIn [History of Russia](https://bliptext.com/articles/history-of-russia-from-the-most-early-times), historian [Vasily Tatishchev](https://bliptext.com/articles/vasily-tatishchev) stated: \"Mokos, the god of cattle\".\nGalkovsky claimed that the [Czechs](https://bliptext.com/articles/czechs) had a rain and moisture deity with a similar name, to whom they offered prayers and sacrifices in times of severe drought.\nArchaeologist [Boris Rybakov](https://bliptext.com/articles/boris-rybakov) notes that Galkovsky does not refer to the source of this information.\nIn 1839, ethnographer [Żegota Pauli](https://bliptext.com/articles/egota-pauli) claimed that the Czechs and [Moravians](https://bliptext.com/articles/moravians) had a deity called Makosla, Makosh, Mokosh, worshipped by them in times of drought.\nHe compared this deity to Mokosh, while referring to it as Mokta or Moksha, and considered them the same rain deity.\n\n## Mokosh and Mokosha, Mokusha\nAccording to ethnographic data, a reconstruction of the function of the goddess was carried out.\nAt the end of the 19th century, in the journal \"Zhivaya starina\", ethnographer Mikhail Gerasimov published ethnographic data from the [Cherepovetsky Uyezd](https://bliptext.com/articles/cherepovetsky-uyezd), which noted the villagers beliefs about a demon and [domovoy](https://bliptext.com/articles/domovoy) by the name of Mokoshá.\nLater, Gerasimov denied that Mokosha was a domovoy.\nShe lives in every hut in the Babiy kut and is imagined as a woman with a big head and long arms.\nMokosha likes to spin [sliver](https://bliptext.com/articles/sliver-textiles) at night, left by women without prayer.\nThat is why there is a prohibition in the village of Bolshoy Dvor in Dmitrovsky District: \"Don't leave your linen, or Mokosha will spin it\".\nEthnographer [Elpidifor Barsov](https://bliptext.com/articles/elpidifor-barsov) provided information from the [Olonets Governorate](https://bliptext.com/articles/olonets-governorate) about the belief in a spirit called Mókusha, who goes among the people during [Great Lent](https://bliptext.com/articles/great-lent), spinning wool at night and shearing sheep.\nWhen unsheared sheep scrape out their excess wool, it was said, \"Oh, Mokusha has sheared the sheep\".\nWhen they sleep, and the spindle \"[whirrs](https://bliptext.com/articles/whirr)\", it is said: \"Mokusha spun\".\nWhen Mokusha leaves the house, she might slam the spindle into Bunk (East Slavic) and beam.\nThe offering to her was to put a piece of wool in the shears for the night.\nIf Mokusha is not satisfied, she can cut off some of the housewives' hair.\nThis image of an impure force corresponds to the [kikimora](https://bliptext.com/articles/kikimora), whose depictions are widespread mainly in the Russian North and who is sometimes understood as a domovoy.\nShe is described as an ugly woman whose main habitat is the home.\nShe uses objects to make sounds and acts at night when people are sleeping.\nShe is deterred by prayer.\nThe kikimora's main occupation is harming householders and spinning.\nShe can shear sheep, but she does it badly and can be appeased with a special sacrifice.\nMany other mythological figures of [folk Christianity](https://bliptext.com/articles/folk-orthodoxy) are associated with spinning: [Saint Barbara](https://bliptext.com/articles/saint-barbara), [Theotokos](https://bliptext.com/articles/theotokos), [Paraskeva Friday](https://bliptext.com/articles/paraskeva-friday), [notsnitsa](https://bliptext.com/articles/nocnitsa) and [rusalka](https://bliptext.com/articles/rusalka).\nIn particular, a rusalka could be called мókush; demons could be called mokosh, mokush.\nIn the [Yaroslavl Governorate](https://bliptext.com/articles/yaroslavl-governorate), an \"economic, troublesome man\" could be referred to as a mokoshá, while in the [Vyatka Governorate](https://bliptext.com/articles/vyatka-governorate) a \"hardworking person\" was called a shishimory.\nKikimora was also known in [Novgorod](https://bliptext.com/articles/novgorod-governorate) and [Vologda Governorate](https://bliptext.com/articles/vologda-governorate) as mokrukha, as she left a wet mark at the spinning site.\nBased on the consonance of the names, Gerasimov and Barsov conclude that Mokosh, Mokosha and Mokusha are identical.\nThis proposal was supported by a number of other researchers, who attributed various functions to Mokosh: love, birth, connection with the night, spinning, raising sheep and the feminine sphere.\nAmong them were linguist [Max Vasmer](https://bliptext.com/articles/max-vasmer) and historian [Leo Klejn](https://bliptext.com/articles/leo-klejn).\nBarsov himself believed that Mokosh was associated with sheep farming, wool, yarn, female braids and the feminine sphere in general, and that she was a companion of [Veles](https://bliptext.com/articles/veles-god).\nAccording to Ilyinsky, she is the goddess of spinning, weaving and other household chores, and the patroness of matchmaking, marriage and sexual relations, \"weaving\" meaning bringing lovers together.\nLinguist [Vladimir Toporov](https://bliptext.com/articles/vladimir-toporov), in an attempt to explain the resemblance to kikimora, argued that there was a demonization of the goddess, which reduced her to the level of kikimora.\nPhilologist Nikolai Zubov brought Mokosh and kikimora closer together through the second element in the latter's name: -mora, which he believes goes back to the Proto-Slavic stem *mor- and can mean \"swamp, standing water\".\nThrough the functions of spinning and fate, a connection has been suggested with similar deities: the Germanic [Norns](https://bliptext.com/articles/norns), the Greek [Moirai](https://bliptext.com/articles/moirai) and the Baltic goddess [Laima](https://bliptext.com/articles/laima).\nZubov suggested a connection between Mokosh and the moon, since in European folklore the moon can be associated with spinning and procreation.\nAccording to him, long-armedness is associated with the epithet “long-armed” of Iranian gods and rulers, prince [Yuri Dolgorukiy](https://bliptext.com/articles/yuri-dolgorukiy) and the [princes of Chernigov](https://bliptext.com/articles/prince-of-chernigov), who may have borne this nickname.\nMarina Vlasova suggests a connection between Mokosh and the [rusalkas](https://bliptext.com/articles/rusalkas) and the Theotokos, although she notes that \"it is difficult to characterize with sufficient precision the relationship between the images of Mokosh and Mokosha spinning at home\".\nHistorian Henryk Łowmiański and linguist [Stanisław Urbańczyk](https://bliptext.com/articles/stanis-aw-urba-czyk) made the opposite reconstruction, believing that Mokosh was originally a demon in the 10th-11th centuries, and [Nikon of Caves](https://bliptext.com/articles/nikon-of-caves) himself included her in the annalistic pantheon of Primary Chronicle as an insert due to the lack of information about the real gods.\nIn keeping with Łowmiański's idea, Nikon included the names of the deities surrounding him in [Tmutarakan](https://bliptext.com/articles/tmutarakan), as well as the name of Mokosh, who in Slavic lands was \"held in great esteem as a demon\".\nHowever, historian Vladimir Petrukhin points out that Tmutarakan was not a source of pagan syncretism, remaining a Greek and Christian city.\nPhilologist [Evgeny Anichkov](https://bliptext.com/articles/evgeny-anichkov) believed that the name Mokoshá is of [Finno-Ugric](https://bliptext.com/articles/finno-ugric-languages) origin.\nThe name Mokoshá, according to linguists Toporov and Ivanov, may be an deverbal formation from the Proto-Slavic *mok-oši-ti, understood by them to mean \"to bustle, to potter, to putter\", but this hypothesis has not been supported and the word probably has a later Russian origin.\nAlthough many scholars have linked etymological and ethnographic reconstructions, subsequent researchers have noted that they do not relate to each other in any way.\nŁowmiański criticized that for this reason the function of spinning could not be the main one.\n# [Spinner. Portrait of the Russian painter Nikolay Dubovskoy, 1870 | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/%D0%94%D1%83%D0%B1%D0%BE%D0%B2%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B9///%D0%9F%D1%80%D1%8F%D1%85%D0%B0///1870.jpg]\n\n### Łuczyński's reconstruction\nBased on information about \"going to Mokosh\" as an oracle or fortune teller, Łuczyński interprets Mokosh as the goddess of fate and destiny.\nThis is to be confirmed by dialect dictionaries, which often record the phrase \"to go to [a oracle]\".\nHe treats Russian saying, \"God is not Mokosh, [he] consoles with something\", as an antithesis, i.e. Mokosh is the one who \"consoles\", i.e. gives luck, good fortune.\nShe was also supposed to rule the weather, i.a. rain, as an extension of her rulership over fate.\nThe depiction of Mokosh in the dialects of Russia (including the vocabulary of the [Old Believers](https://bliptext.com/articles/old-believers)) reflects the goddess' association with birth and the determination of fate for the newborn.\nIn addition, Mokosh was associated with household, feminine activities; she was the patroness of women, probably married women in particular, as indicated by the information that it was married women who were \"visiting\" Mokosh, which could express the psychosocial context of the worship of this goddess.\nBased on the above characteristics, Łuczyński concludes that the closest counterpart to Mokosh was the Baltic [Laima](https://bliptext.com/articles/laima) – she was associated with water, and fate (when [Laima](https://bliptext.com/articles/laima) was on a hill, she foretold good fate, when she was in the marshes, by the water, she was supposed to foretold bad fate; [Latvian](https://bliptext.com/articles/latvian-language) toponyms includes the hydronyms Lainuma-zers \"[Laima](https://bliptext.com/articles/laima)'s lake\", lainuma-purvs \"[Laima](https://bliptext.com/articles/laima)'s swamp\"), divination (the [Rambynas](https://bliptext.com/articles/rambynas) stone, used to foretell the future, was [Laima](https://bliptext.com/articles/laima)'s \"house\"), and the birth of children and determining their fate.\nThe only function of Laima that Mokosh does not have is the patronage of agriculture.\n\n## Comparison with Paraskeva Friday\nIt was later suggested that Mokosh was related to [Paraskeva Friday](https://bliptext.com/articles/paraskeva-friday) (Russian: Paraskeva Pyatnitsa): days such as Friday and Wednesday were associated with the [Passion of Jesus](https://bliptext.com/articles/passion-of-jesus) and were accompanied by fasting and [folk Christian](https://bliptext.com/articles/folk-orthodoxy) bans on work, especially women's work: prohibition of spinning, sewing, washing, dishwashing, etc. There were also bans on children and marital relations.\nThe ban on spinning extended to Sunday and Friday, which was called “bloody day” in [Polesia](https://bliptext.com/articles/polesia) and was widely considered an unlucky time.\nIn folk Christianity, Pyatnitsa was personified as a mythical female figure.\nThe same was true of Wednesday and Sunday.\nThese personifications fulfilled the same functions as the Pyatnitsa.\nThe prohibitions were motivated by a number of considerations related to the threat of harm to the spinner herself, her family, and her ancestors in the hereafter.\nFor example, according to beliefs recorded in Polesia, Pyatnitsa in the form of a woman with loose hair would torture whoever broke the ban by suffocating them in his sleep.\nAccording to another belief, in the \"next world\" spindles will enter the mouth and eyes.\nA ban on spinning on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday has also been reported in various places.\nThe mythological Friday has been correlated with Paraskeva Pyatnitsa, whose cult developed from that of the saints [Paraskeva of Iconium](https://bliptext.com/articles/paraskeva-of-iconium) and [Paraskeva of the Balkans](https://bliptext.com/articles/paraskeva-of-the-balkans), whose names (from [Byzantine Greek](https://bliptext.com/articles/byzantine-greek) Paraskeuḗ) translate as \"Friday\".\nIn addition to Friday's prohibitions and injunctions, and its association with spinning, Paraskeva was associated with marriage and childbearing, as well as with curing diseases and water springs, because of which she was called the \"mother of earth and water\".\nThere are legends of an icon of Paraskeva appearing in a spring, after which the spring became healing.\nSacrifices were made to her by throwing coins, ribbons, shirts, handkerchiefs, towels or sheep's wool and thread into the water on [Elijah's Friday](https://bliptext.com/articles/elijah).\nThese items could be thrown directly into the water or left next to the inscription \"for mother Pyatnica for the apron!\".\nIn [Ukraine](https://bliptext.com/articles/ukraine) in the 19th century, the Mokrid ritual was recorded, during which a tethers was thrown into the well.\nIn this ritual, Pyatnitsa was represented by a woman with loose hair.\nThe saint herself was closely associated with wells, on which her icons could be placed.\nThere is a widespread view among researchers that Mokosh was replaced by Paraskeva Pyatnitsa in Christian times, which is why Vladimir Toporov believed that Mokosh was popular among women in the centuries following Christianization.\nFriday itself began to be understood as the day of the goddess Mokosh based on the dedication of this day to [Venus](https://bliptext.com/articles/venus-mythology) by the [Romans](https://bliptext.com/articles/roman-people) and [Frigg](https://bliptext.com/articles/frigg) by the [Germans](https://bliptext.com/articles/germanic-people).\nResearcher and historian Eve Levin notes that such an approximation does not stand up to criticism, since elements of the Paraskeva cult have christian, not pagan, roots, and the cult itself is known in the south, in [Serbia](https://bliptext.com/articles/serbia), [Bulgaria](https://bliptext.com/articles/bulgaria), [Greece](https://bliptext.com/articles/greece) and [Romania](https://bliptext.com/articles/romania), while Mokosh is known only from East Slavic sources.\nThe earliest East Slavic sources speak of Paraskeva not as the patroness of women, but as the patroness of merchants.\nThe basis of Paraskeva's association with spinning were parables depicting her as a maiden.\nIn them, she strikes her tormentor with blindness and then heals him, making her the patroness of those suffering from eye diseases.\nIn the 14th and 15th centuries, Paraskeva's relics rested in [Ternovo](https://bliptext.com/articles/ternovo) and [Belgrade](https://bliptext.com/articles/belgrade), where local water sources were linked to her.\nThe only function that has no obvious Christian origin is the patronage of childbirth, but according to Levin, this is a natural further development of the functions of patronizing women's labor and healing.\nThe [Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/eastern-orthodox-church) itself supported the cult of Paraskeva, although it considered its folk interpretation \"heretical\", arguing that on Wednesday and Friday one was not supposed to stop working, but only fast and refrain from marital relations.\nThe correspondence between Mokosh and Paraskeva is also rejected by philologists Aleksandr Strakhov and Aleksandr Panchenko.\nHistorian Leo Klejn, criticizing the concept of Thursday as Perun's day, points out that the Slavs borrowed the seven-day week from the Romans and [Byzantines](https://bliptext.com/articles/byzantine-greeks), who in turn borrowed it from the [Near East](https://bliptext.com/articles/near-east), naming the days of the week after the planets and gods dedicated to them by distance in the [Ptolemaic](https://bliptext.com/articles/ptolemy) system, where the day dedicated to Venus, Friday, was the seventh.\nSuch names of the week were later borrowed and interpreted by the Germanic peoples.\nThe qualities of Paraskeva, Venus and [Freya](https://bliptext.com/articles/freya) are opposite: Paraskeva patronizes proper female behavior, not sexual activity.\n# [According to an outdated reconstruction, the cult of Mokosh was reflected in the Christian cult of Paraskeva Friday. A stained glass window of Paraskeva of the Balkans from Church of Saint George in Smederevo | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/Serb///Fest///DSC///2146///pp///%2826736896349%29.jpg]\n\n### The theory of basic myth\nLinguists [Vladimir Toporov](https://bliptext.com/articles/vladimir-toporov) and [Vyacheslav Ivanov](https://bliptext.com/articles/vyacheslav-ivanov-philologist) created the [theory of basic myth](https://bliptext.com/articles/theory-of-basic-myth), which reconstructed the Proto-Slavic myth of a battle between a storm god and a chthonic serpent.\nThe first deity was correlated with [Perun](https://bliptext.com/articles/perun), the second with [Veles](https://bliptext.com/articles/veles-god), but in addition to them there was also a female figure.\nToporov believes that Mokosh was a Proto-Slavic deity and correlates this figure with her.\nThe cause of enmity between the gods is the kidnapping of cattle, people or Perun's wife by Veles, and after Veles is defeated with an arrow, abundant rain falls on the earth.\nAccording to Toporov, Mokosh is Perun's wife, as in the lists of gods Perun opens the list and Mokosh closes it.\nHe points to the connection between Thursday as the even day dedicated to Perun/Veles and the odd day, Friday, as dedicated to Mokosh.\nIn a 19th century Ukrainian intimate song, there is a reference to the relationship between Mokosh and [Pokhvist](https://bliptext.com/articles/pokhvist), whom Toporov understands as Perun as a god associated with the winds.\nToporov and Ivanov supported Teodolius Witkowski's assumption, that the toponyms Muukus and Prohn, located in the same circle and correlated with Mokosh and Perun, respectively, speak of the relationship of the deities.\nSimilarly, comparisons have been made between the toponyms [Peryn](https://bliptext.com/articles/peryn) and Mokošin Vrch, where both mean an elevated place, and the Baltic toponyms [Perkun](https://bliptext.com/articles/perkun)o kalnas (\"mountain of [Perkun](https://bliptext.com/articles/perkun)\") and Laumes kalnas (\"mountain of [Laima](https://bliptext.com/articles/laima)\"), Laume dauba (\"ravine of [Laima](https://bliptext.com/articles/laima)\") with the Belarussian Mokoshino boloto.\nBy identifying the prophet [Elijah](https://bliptext.com/articles/elijah) with Perun, they point to the existence in folk beliefs of the prophet's companion, Saint [Macrina](https://bliptext.com/articles/macrina-the-younger), associated with moisture and ultimately with Mokosh.\nTo prove the promiscuity of Mokosh, Toporov cites several parallels: the association of Paraskeva Pyatnitsa with Mokosh speaks to the promiscuity of the latter, since Paraskeva could be depicted with her hair loose.\nHe correlated the term mokosya as a term for an evil woman with Mokosh.\nOne of the Sermons against paganism mentions Mokosh, and earlier there is a question about debauchery with ungodly women.\nFriday's prohibitions correlate with the motif of a woman who lost her children as a result of violating the prohibitions, particularly the prohibition of using \"fire\", a decoction of ashes.\nIn [Baltic mythology](https://bliptext.com/articles/baltic-mythology), there is a myth of a celestial wedding, according to which the goddess of the morning star [Aušrinė](https://bliptext.com/articles/au-rin) is the adulterer.\nToporov then reconstructs the relationship between Mokosh and Veles: Thursday, in his view, was also the day of Veles and correlated with the odd Friday.\nMokosh shares with Veles common connections to water, wool and the pit motif.\nBased on all this, Toporov reconstructed the myth of Mokosh's adultery with Veles and Perun's subsequent punishment of her children.\nFor the betrayal, Perun punishes Mokosh's children with fire, since Mokosh's element, water, is not scary to her.\nBesides, according to Toporov, it is not out of the question that the cult of Mokosh may have enjoyed special reverence in [Moscow](https://bliptext.com/articles/moscow) based on the semantics of the toponym and theonym of Mokosh, as well as the fact that [Moscow](https://bliptext.com/articles/moscow) is mentioned for the first time in the chronicles in connection with the meeting of the princes on Friday, April 4.\nIt has been proposed to identify Mokosh with [Baba Yaga](https://bliptext.com/articles/baba-yaga) and the goddess Laima through her function as a maiden.\nLeo Klein considers this theory to be a stretch and based on speculation and disputes the idea that Thursday and Friday were days dedicated to the gods.\nThe link between Mokosh and Paraskeva has been rejected by later research.\nHenryk Łowmiański argues that the proximity of Perun and Mokosh is due to a literary connection and has no evidentiary value.\nThe \"Ukrainian intimate song\" from the 19th century cited by Toporov is The Tale of the God Pokhvist, on the basis of which an opinion has arisen in scholarly circles that \"the memory of Mokosh in Ukraine was preserved until the middle of the 19th century\".\nEven 19th century scholars [Mykola Kostomarov](https://bliptext.com/articles/mykola-kostomarov) and [Alexander Pypin](https://bliptext.com/articles/alexander-pypin) refused to acknowledge the authenticity of the text.\nPhilologist Andrei Toporkov considers the work to be a forgery created by the writer Oleksandr Shyshats’kyy-Illich.\nReligious scholar Andrey Beskov comments that Ivanov and Toporov showed \"surprising credulity\" in believing in the authenticity of the text.\nThe hypothesis of Mokosh's marriage to Perun, like the theory of the main myth itself, has not found full support in the scientific community.\nHistorian Roman Rabinovich (historian) wrote that Mokosh's features rather testify to a possible marriage with Veles.\n\n### Rybakov's reconstruction\nArchaeologist Boris Rybakov supported the reconstruction of Mokosh through identification with Paraskeva and through her etymology, which is false, deduced that Mokosh's name translates as \"Mother of Fate, Good Harvest\", ultimately characterizing her as a virgin goddess, goddess of fertility, water, patroness of women's labor and virgin fate.\nHe considers Mokosh identical to the West Slavic goddess [Zhiva](https://bliptext.com/articles/zhiva) and to [Mat Zemlya](https://bliptext.com/articles/mat-zemlya) and correlates her with the image of the Paleolithic [Mother Goddess](https://bliptext.com/articles/mother-goddess), claiming that the cult of Mokosh originated in the [Paleolithic era](https://bliptext.com/articles/paleolithic-era).\nOn the basis of the Christian [apocrypha](https://bliptext.com/articles/apocrypha) On Twelve Fridays, Rybakov concludes that every Friday was a celebration of Mokosh.\nAmong them were special twelve Fridays of the year, the most important of which fell on November 1-8.\nAnalyzing Sermon by Saint Gregory, Rybakov wrote that the author equated Mokosh and the goddess Yecate, identifying the latter as [Hekate](https://bliptext.com/articles/hekate).\nHe argued that the approximation occurred on the basis that Hekate was understood to be a deity associated with the afterlife and was surrounded by dogs, while as Mokosh in the sources she is adjacent to [Simargl](https://bliptext.com/articles/simargl) and the oxen, which Rybakov interpreted as a sacred dog associated with crops and [rusalky](https://bliptext.com/articles/rusalky), i.e. the souls of the dead.\nFrom this he deduced that the cult of Mokosh corresponded to the \"middle phase of the cult of Hekate\", which was agrarian.\nRybakov believed that the [Zbruch idol](https://bliptext.com/articles/zbruch-idol) depicted Mokosh with a horn in her hand - in his opinion a symbol of abundance associated with fertility.\nThe female figure below Mokosh in the middle row, as suggested by Leo Klein, should be connected to the image above.\nAbove her shoulder is a small figure, which Klein interprets as a child, spirit or soul, and on this basis concludes that this spirit is in no way related to the functions of the goddess according to Rybakov.\nThere are embroideries of [Finno-Ugric peoples](https://bliptext.com/articles/finno-ugric-peoples) ([Vepsians](https://bliptext.com/articles/vepsians), [Karelians](https://bliptext.com/articles/karelians), [Izhorians](https://bliptext.com/articles/izhorians)), as well as [Russian Northerners](https://bliptext.com/articles/russian-north) with ornaments in the form of anthropomorphic figures with raised or partially lowered arms, combined with geometrized trees, birds, horses and horsemen.\nSometimes the human figures are framed by elements resembling buildings.\nRybakov supported archaeologist Lev Dinces' conjecture that on these North Russian embroideries the figure between the horses represents Mokosh.\nRybakov interprets the structures depicted on the embroideries as pagan temples.\nEthnographer Grigory Bazlov points out the existence of other embroideries in which, in his opinion, the figures in the center have a visible beard, and what Rybakov took to be a dress, he interprets as a [kaftan](https://bliptext.com/articles/kaftan), concluding that the figures in the center were men.\nHe was of the opinion that some of the figures have visible male genitalia.\nFolklorist Natalya Kozlova wrote that there are only two examples with a male figure, and rejected the opinion of male genitalia because \"the style of embroidery is conventional and schematic\", and therefore \"does not give grounds for accurate attribution of details\".\nKlejn believes that the figure in the center represents the Sun and rejects Rybakov's proposed character identifications.\n# [According to Rybakov's interpretation, the Zbruch idol allegedly depicts Mokosh with a horn in her hand. An 1853 drawing of the idol from Joachim Lelewel's book | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/%C5%9Awiatowid///ze///Zbrucza.jpg]\n\n## Family\nThe sources make no mention of Mokosh's family connections.\nAccording to Vladimir Toporow, Mokosh was wife of [Perun](https://bliptext.com/articles/perun).\nAccording to [theory of basic myth](https://bliptext.com/articles/theory-of-basic-myth) created by him and Vyacheslav Ivanov, Mokosh cheated on Perun with [Veles](https://bliptext.com/articles/veles-god) and was later punished by him.\nThat myth, however, is rejected by later scholars.\nŁuczyński, who also rejects the Slavic version of the basic myth proposed by Toporov as incorrect, also links Mokosh to Perun.\nFor the hypothetical early Proto-Slavic pantheon, he reconstructs Proto-Mokosh as the daughter of Zema ([Earth](https://bliptext.com/articles/earth-mother)) and [Div](https://bliptext.com/articles/div-slavic-mythology) ([Heaven](https://bliptext.com/articles/sky-father)), sister of Usa ([Dawn](https://bliptext.com/articles/dawn-goddess)), Proto-[Yarilo](https://bliptext.com/articles/yarilo) ([Morning Star](https://bliptext.com/articles/venus)), Men ([Moon](https://bliptext.com/articles/moon-god)) and Sul ([Sun](https://bliptext.com/articles/sun-goddess)).\nFor the later stage he reconstructs Mokosh as wife of Perun, both of them being parents for [Morana](https://bliptext.com/articles/morana-goddess) and Yarilo.\nWitkowski, on the basis of the fact that the villages of Prohn and Mukus, supposed to derive their name from Perun and Mokosh, were located only 2 km from each other, concluded that the villages \"must indicate cult connections\".\nOn the other hand, historian Roman Rabinovich wrote that Mokosh's features rather testify to a possible marriage with Veles.\n\n# Neopaganism\nMokosh, also known as Makosh, is revered in [Slavic neopaganism](https://bliptext.com/articles/slavic-neopaganism) as the goddess of the earth, fate, harvest and women's labor.\nNeopagans consider Mokosh to be a miraculous maiden, the personification of female nature and the great mother of all living beings.\nThe fifth day of the week is dedicated to women and Mokosh.\nAs an object of worship, she is often chosen by communities consisting mainly of women.\nAccording to [Alexander Asov](https://bliptext.com/articles/alexander-asov), one of the ideologues of neopaganism, the place and time of a person's birth are determined by the gods, and his fate is woven by the goddess Makosh.\nAsow claims that her sign is a ten-pointed red star on a blue background.\nAccording to neopagan author Vadim Kazakov, Veles is the son of [Svarog](https://bliptext.com/articles/svarog) and Mokosh, and [Dola and Nedola](https://bliptext.com/articles/dolya-mythology) are the younger sisters of Mokosh.\nVeles may also be considered the husband of Mokosh.\nAnother husband of Mokosh may be [Stribog](https://bliptext.com/articles/stribog), with whom the goddess has a daughter [Kupala](https://bliptext.com/articles/kupala) and a son [Yarilo](https://bliptext.com/articles/yarilo).\nAnother neopagan author, the [volkhv](https://bliptext.com/articles/volkhv) Veliimir (Nikolai Spyransky), considers Mokosh to be one of the [rozhanitsy](https://bliptext.com/articles/rozhanitsy).\nOne neopagan community, the \"Kingdom of Mokosh\", was named after the goddess.\nTwo festivals of the \"Kingdom of Mokosh\" are dedicated to the goddess: spring Mokosh, celebrated on March 24, and autumn Mokos, celebrated on September 24.\nIn the [USC SNF](https://bliptext.com/articles/union-of-slavic-communities-of-the-slavic-native-faith), chicken is the ritual food at a feast in honor of Mokosh.\nThe ritual calendar of the \"[Veles circle](https://bliptext.com/articles/veles-circle)\" association, which includes the \"Rodolubiye\" community, includes the holiday of the Day of Mokosh or Earth Day.\nThis holiday is celebrated on May 9, when [Mother Earth](https://bliptext.com/articles/earth-goddess) \"wakes up\" after winter.\nHowever, on this day the goddess is still resting and must not be disturbed by plowing, hoeing or pile driving.\nThe summer festival Mokosh's Svyatki or Mokrida is celebrated on July 19, when the [Orthodox Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/eastern-orthodox-church) commemorates the day of Macrida.\nThe [Obzhynki](https://bliptext.com/articles/do-ynki), celebrated on August 15, is dedicated to the gathering of the end of the harvest, for which [Dazhbog](https://bliptext.com/articles/dazhbog) and Mokosh are thanked.\nThe goddess is considered the Mother of the harvest and offerings of fruit are made to her on this day.\nThe harvest festival falls on the Orthodox feast of the [Dormition of the Mother of God](https://bliptext.com/articles/dormition-of-the-mother-of-god).\nOn this day Russians celebrated the harvest festival and the beginning of autumn days.\nIn other parts of Russia, the harvest festival was held on August 16 at the [Bread Spas](https://bliptext.com/articles/nut-feast-of-the-saviour).\nBread Spas itself, also known as Nut Spas, Linen Spas or Water Spas, is understood in neopaganism as a festival of Mokosh, the lady of the waters, in which women should bring small offerings consisting of flax and yarn to the well.\nThe Orthodox Church celebrates the [Transfiguration of Jesus](https://bliptext.com/articles/transfiguration-of-jesus) on this day.\nThe festival of Mokoshino Poletye, or [women's summer](https://bliptext.com/articles/indian-summer), is a series of days from September 1 to 7 dedicated to the goddess.\nThe Day of [Rod](https://bliptext.com/articles/rod-religion) and [Rozhanitsy](https://bliptext.com/articles/rozhanitsy) in Slavic tradition falls on the [Nativity of Mary](https://bliptext.com/articles/nativity-of-mary) and is a celebration of family, harvest and home.\nIt is a time to sum up and welcome autumn, in honor of the goddess Mokosh, in this case known as the Mother of Autumn.\nDuring the Tausienʹ-Radogoshch festival, coinciding with the autumnal equinox, there is a ritual of thanksgiving for the harvest, which includes a ceremony in honor of Mokosh as she walks the fields toward the sun, where Mother Earth is presented with a ceremonial [korovai](https://bliptext.com/articles/korovai) cake.\nOn this day the [Svarga](https://bliptext.com/articles/svarga) is closed and the gods rest until spring.\nThe autumn day of Mokosh is celebrated on October 28, when the earth is believed to \"fall\" into winter sleep.\nAfter sunset, the priestesses of Mokosh, usually three in number, untangle the \"sliver of fate\": they put threads into a cup of enchanted water and, watching the threads unravel, predict the future.\nThe holiday coincides with the Orthodox day of [Paraskeva Friday](https://bliptext.com/articles/paraskeva-friday).\nThe volkhvs of the \"Veles Circle\" also developed the Small Circle of Svarog with the dedication of each month to a specific deity, where the fifth month, May, is dedicated to Mokosh and [Zhiva](https://bliptext.com/articles/zhiva), and the eleventh month, November, to Mokosh and Dark [Mara](https://bliptext.com/articles/mare-folklore).\nVolkhv Veslav (Ilya Cherkasov) identified divine allocations related to the four seasons, days, world directions and elements.\nIn particular, the allotments of Veles and Mokosh are associated with autumn, evening, sunset and air.\nOn the feast of [Kupala Night](https://bliptext.com/articles/kupala-night), women decorate birch trees with ribbons and wreaths of flowers.\nThese decorations are interpreted by neopagans as an ancient form of sacrifice, since the young tree is a symbol of Mother Earth, or Mokosh.\nNearby, a Yarilo doll made of green branches and hammered into the ground, dressed in ornate embroidery with sacred symbolism, is prepared and given food.\nThe doll and the tree symbolically personify the [newlyweds](https://bliptext.com/articles/newlyweds).\nMokosh is mentioned in the [Book of Veles](https://bliptext.com/articles/book-of-veles), which the scientific community considers a [forgery](https://bliptext.com/articles/forgery) created by writer Yuri Mirolubov in the 20th century.\nIn the story of pagan [Bacchanalia](https://bliptext.com/articles/bacchanalia) on page 32 in the 1994 edition of the Book of Veles, following Asov's translation, \"green leaves and mokoshans\" are mentioned, i.e. green leaves somehow associated with the goddess Mokosh, which the translator understands as \"green leaves and [seaweed](https://bliptext.com/articles/seaweed)\".\nIn the list of pagan gods on pages 302-304, the name of Mokosh does not appear.\n# [Statue of Mokosh in Klasak, Poland | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/Mokosz///01.jpg]\n\n# Today\nCultural scholars [Harald Haarmann](https://bliptext.com/articles/harald-haarmann) and [Orlando Figes](https://bliptext.com/articles/orlando-figes) believe that the concept of [Mother Russia](https://bliptext.com/articles/mother-russia) is linked to the earth, \"mythical femininity\" and motherhood due to the original correspondence of the words Russia and earth (, zemlya) with the grammatical feminine gender and the greater prevalence of depicting Russia specifically as a motherland, rather than a fatherland.\nHowever, Russia's feminine identity is also drawn from folklore, [Russian poetry](https://bliptext.com/articles/russian-literature) and literary idioms, indicating the antiquity of the tradition of the connection between the feminine and the earth, which was eventually elevated by scholars to the image of Mokosh as [Mat Zemlya](https://bliptext.com/articles/mat-zemlya).\n[Mokosha Mons](https://bliptext.com/articles/mokosha-[mons](https://bliptext.com/articles/mons-planetary-nomenclature)), [mons](https://bliptext.com/articles/mons-planetary-nomenclature) on [Venus](https://bliptext.com/articles/venus), is named after Mokosh.\nIn modern culture, the names of East Slavic deities are used as advertising names.\nIn particular, the name Mokosh or Makosh is used as an [ergonym](https://bliptext.com/articles/ergonym), especially in the names of companies related to agriculture, crafts, cosmetology and tailoring, since in popular culture Mokosh is understood as the goddess of female crafts.\nReligious scholar Andrey Beskov notes that company naming is often based on pseudoscientific speculation.\nThe linguosemiotic aspect of Russian folk culture was investigated by [HSE](https://bliptext.com/articles/higher-school-of-economics) staff.\nIn order to study it, an association survey was conducted, in which among the proposed words the name Mokosh was represented by a variant of Makosh.\nRespondents did not notice this change in spelling, which is probably due to the de-etymologization of the deity's name in contemporary literature containing its various variants: Maketa, Makosh, Makosha, Mokosh, Mokosha.\nGenerally speaking, there is no established spelling for this name at present.\n# [Personification of Russia on the Russian Empire's 500 ruble banknote of 1912 | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/12/Personification///of///Russia///Russian///Empire///1912///Bill///500///rubles///Obverse.jpg]","revisionCount":0},"hasMore":false,"nextCursor":null}