Goddess of Agriculture and the Fertile Earth
Abkhaz · deity · mythic · deity
Abkhaz ⟨Џьаџьа⟩ Ǯʼaǯʼa. A female agrarian deity of the Abkhaz pantheon, functionally parallel to the harvest-patron Anapa-nagua and to Circassian Sozeresh/Thaghaledj and Vainakh Maetsill/Tusholi. SOLITARY: no genealogy, spouse or other named relationship is recorded for her in the surviving tradition — she is attested purely as a functional fertility/agriculture goddess (Mythological Encyclopedia; Inal-ipa).
Domains
- agriculture and tillage
- earth and fertility
- household and domestic labour
Powers
- makes the sown fields bear and brings the grain to ripeness
- fills the soil with fertility and the increase of growing things
- lends her help in the household and domestic labour of the farmstead
Sources
- Mythological Encyclopedia (Мифы народов мира / Мифологическая энциклопедия), article on Caucasian-Iberian (Caucaso-Iberian) mythology, s.v. Dzhadzha; drawing on Sh. D. Inal-ipa's Abkhaz ethnography.
- Hewitt, George (ed.). The Abkhazians: A Handbook. Curzon Press, 1999 (Abkhaz traditional religion and the agrarian deities).
- Mythological Encyclopedia (Мифы народов мира), Caucasian-Iberian mythology (comparative list of agrarian/harvest patrons).