Original scientific paper
(DYADIC) GODDESS AND DUOTHEISM IN NODILO'S THE OLD FAITH OF SERBS AND CROATS
Suzana Marjanić
orcid.org/0000-0002-6158-3006
; Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Reseach, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The text considers Natko Nodilo's re/construction of the South Slavic goddess (more
precisely, a goddess in the context of the old faith of Serbs and Croats) in the chapter
"Sutvid i Vida" of his study The Old Faith of Serbs and Croats (1885-1890) which develops
the re/construction of the South Slavic goddess/pantheon on the basis of Helmold's
Chronica Slavorum which refers to the Baltic Slavs.
By choosing Svantevid as the supreme Slavic deity which was venerated at Arkona
temple on the island of Rügen and Siwa/Živa as the supreme Slavic goddess which was
worshipped by the Polabians, Natko Nodilo connects the two different pantheons of the
Baltic Slavs — the pantheon of the Baltic Slavs of the island of Rügen and the Polabian
pantheon.
Nodilo observes the (pluvial) incestuous hierogamy in the context of twin mythem,
and reads its trails mainly from the (epic) oral songs and the pluvial rituals of dodole and
prporuše. And while in the world of the oral song about Vid(osav)a and Vid he reveals the
goddess under the theonym Vida, in the worlds of mythic stories he re/constructs her by the
name of Živa (and Darinka). By this he inaugurates a dyadic goddess (the celestial one —
— Vida and the terrestrial one — Živa/Earth) in the framework of duotheism (Vid —
— Vida/Živa).
Since comparative mythology between Croatian/Serbian old faith and Greek-
-Roman mythology is important to Nodilo, he questions the mythological contact of
number of goddesses: Phrygian Cybele — Greek Rhea, Hera — Roman Bona Dea [the Good
Goddess], Juno, Ops, Ceres — South Slavic Živa/Vida, which are (mostly) connected with
the theriosymbol sow (pig). The stated comparative mythology Nodilo extends to the
South Slavic — Scandinavian/German comparative mythology and the theophore
binomials Wodan (Odin) — Jörd/ Odin-Frigg/ Freyr — Freyja he interprets in contact with
the South Slavic theophore couple Vid — Vida/Živa.
Keywords
Natko Nodilo; The Old Faith of Serbs and Croats; (dyadic) goddess; Vida; Živa; Mokoš
Hrčak ID:
33144
URI
Publication date:
2.12.2002.
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