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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Voloska, sometimes dubbed Vlasta,[1] is a Croatian and Slavic hearth pseudo-deity that has not been attested in historical sources on Slavic paganism.[2] The first known published source that attests to Voloska is the 1943 book Hrvatska narodna mitologija ("Croatian National Mythology") by psychiatrist Nikola Sučić,[3] which has been criticized by Croatian ethnologists as "incorrectly assessing" pagan myths and as unreliable due to a lack of sources.[4][5][6]
Voloska | |
---|---|
Goddess of the home and the hearth | |
Other names | Vlasta |
Genealogy | |
Spouse | Veles |
According to Sučić, Voloska was the spouse of Veles and the protector of agricultural workers, symbolized by a cow and a swallow. He claims that all Slavic homes featured an alcove ("mirište") where a small flame would be lit in Voloska's honor. This alcove would allegedly also include statuettes of Voloska made from wood, wax or amber.[3]
After the publishing of Sučić's book, Voloska was mentioned in the poems of Vladimir Nazor ("Miti i legende", 1948) and Boro Pavlović ("Slavenska lipa", 1960).[3]
Commonly cited publicist and movie director Franjo Ledić, whose interpretation of Slavic mythology was cited as "romanticized" by ethnologist Tea Škokić[7] and "uncritical" by Lidija Bajuk,[6] wrote a chapter on Voloska based on the work of Sučić and the previously mentioned poems.[8]
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