SlavonicSlavonic reverence for ‘rivers and nymphs and various other heathen powers’
is already noted by Procopius (Bell. Goth. 3. 14. 24). Cosmas of Prague (1046–
1125) wrote of the foolish people’s adoration of mountain and tree nymphs
(Oreades, Driades, Amadriades).^39 Mountain nymphs were widely known
throughout the Balkan peninsula as víle planinkinje or samovile samogorske.
Tree nymphs danced in the woods and lived in certain trees designated by the
southern Slavs as sjenovite drveta, ‘sprite-trees’, which could not be cut down.
These were generally oaks or limes, and they received cult attention.^40
Water nymphs are widely attested in Slavonic lands, generally under the
name of víly or rusalky or terms meaning ‘goddess’.^41 They are said to be
the souls of girls who died before their time. They are described as beautiful
maidens with long golden or green hair, dressed in white. They sing and
dance in a circle, which leaves its imprint in the long grass or as a ring of
fungi. At night they make swings in the trees. They are widely thought to live
in, on, or beside lakes, rivers, springs, and marshes. Some of them possess
springs with curative properties, and these have prophetic powers. People
bring offerings to their springs, and girls pray to them for beauty. They like
young men, and may help them and protect them in battle. But they can also
do harm if offended. They can send sickness, confuse men’s wits, lead them
away from the path, inflict heatstroke, or cause them to drown; they may also
steal children.^42
BalticOliver of Paderborn, writing in about 1220, says that the Baltic peoples,
before their conversion in the time of Pope Innocent III, walked in darkness
and worshipped the pagan deities, ‘Driades, Amadriades, Oreadas, Napeas,
†Humides (Semideos?), Satiros, et Faunos’; their holy places were groves
untouched by any axe, springs and trees, mountains and hills, rocks and
valleys.^43 The classicizing list of rustic gods is conventional, the first three
being the same as those which Cosmas (above) ascribes to the Slavs, and we
(^39) Chronica Boemorum 1. 4; C. H. Meyer (1931), 18.
(^40) Vánˇa (1992), 107, 122.
(^41) South Slavonic *diva ̄; Ukrainian bohyna, Polish boginka, Czech bohynˇka; Vánˇa (1992),
110 f.; U. Dukova, Orpheus 4 (1994), 6 f.
(^42) Grimm (1883–8), 436, 492, 1406, 1595; Unbegaun (1948), 427 f.; N. Reiter in Wb. d. Myth.
i(2). 193, 203 f.; Vánˇa (1992), 111 f.; E. J. W. Barber in Dexter–Polomé (1997), 6–19.
(^43) Mannhardt (1936), 39; Clemen (1936), 94 f.
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