Podaga

Podaga (also Latin: Pogaga, Pogada) is a Polabian deity who had his statue in a temple in Plön. Mentioned only in Helmold's Chronicle, which does not give a depiction or function of the deity. Among the Slavs there are many modes of idolatry and not all of them coincide with the same kind of superstition. Some create in their temples statues of fantastic forms, such as the idol of Plön, who is called Podaga, others live in forests and groves, as is the case of the god Prone of Oldenburg, of whom no image exists. According to Aleksander Brückner, it is impossible to read the name Podaga. Grigoriy Il'inskiy concluded that Podaga is another form of Dazhbog (from *Podabog), while Roman Jakobson concluded that Podaga is a corrupted notation of Dazhbog. Mikołaj Rudnicki connected the Podaga notation with the name Dagome in Dagome iudex referring to Mieszko I. According to him, both words are related to each other. The word was supposed to have come to the Piast state through Mieszko's unknown wife, who brought with her the cult of the goddess Podaga. He connected both names with the Proto-Slavic *dag- "to burn", and also with Długosz's Pogoda, whose name was supposed to have been distorted. Leszek Moszyński was the first to link Podaga with the Polish word potęga "power, might". According to him, the stem -dag- corresponds to the Proto-Slavic *tǫgъ "strong, stout", and the whole Latin notation Podaga corresponds to the Proto-Slavic *Potǫga, and the deity would be a divinized power, might (identical to adjective *potǫga "power, might"). Krzysztof Tomasz Witczak commented positively on this reading in his article on the reading of the Latin name Dagome from Dagome iudex. He reads Dag- in Dagome also as Polish Tęg- (PS *Tǫg-), and the whole name as Tęgomir, or...