Mokosh

Mokosh ( MOK-osh) is a Slavic goddess. No narratives about this deity have survived: Mokosh was mentioned in various sermons (called Words and Teachings) against Paganism along with the vilas, but is not described by them, and all modern descriptions are reconstructions. In academia, the opinion has spread that the cult of Mokosh has passed to the folk-Christian Paraskeva Friday, the personification of Friday associated with water and spinning. Because of this identification, Friday began to be considered a day dedicated to the goddess, and a conclusion about the popularity of Mokosh among women in Christian times was drawn. In later studies, the idea of an identification with Paraskeva was criticized because Paraskeva's association with spinning, water, and Friday has Christian rather than pagan roots. According to etymological reconstruction, Mokosh was the goddess of waters and fertility. Later, according to most researchers, she was reflected in bylinas and zagovory as Mat Zemlya, the personification of Earth in East Slavic folklore. Another reconstruction was made on the basis of ethnography; at the end of the 19th century, the names kikimora as Mokusha or Mokosha were recorded in the Russian North. The coincidence is explained by kikimora being 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 night, the moon, spinning, sheep farming and women's economy. Spinning was the occupation of several European goddesses of fate, which led to the characterization of Mokosh as a deity who controls fate. This reconstruction disagrees with data on her etymology, which shows spinning could not have been the deity's main role. The Slavic version of the basic myth theory, based on ethnographic and linguistic data, depicts Mokosh as Perun's wife. It is believed Mokosh cheated on Perun...