Earth-Mother of the Mari
Mari · deity · mythic · Recorded classification
Meadow Mari ⟨Мланде Ава⟩ Mlande Ava (mlande 'earth' + ava 'mother'). Part of the ava series (Tul-Ava fire-mother, Mardezh-Ava wind-mother, Vüd-Ava water-mother).
Domains
- earth and fertility
- childbirth and tillage
Powers
- makes the soil bring forth crops and quickens the womb
Relations
- interpretatio: Mother Earth (Ya-Nebya)Pan-Uralic Earth-Mother concept (an 'earth' + 'mother' calque in each branch) rather than a shared inherited theonym.Uno Holmberg (Harva), Finno-Ugric and Siberian Mythology (Mythology of All Races vol. 4), 1927 (secondary)
- equated with: Earth MotherReciprocal of estonian_maaema.equated-with — Harva's comparative identification of one Finno-Ugric earth-mother type: parallel 'earth'+'mother' compounds with first-fruits and libation cult; names are independent formations — typological equation, flagged as such.U. Harva (Holmberg), Finno-Ugric, Siberian (The Mythology of All Races IV, 1927), ch. on the Earth-mother (secondary); I. Paulson, The Old Estonian Folk Religion (1971) (secondary)
Sources
- Mlande-Ava ('Earth-Mother') is the Mari goddess of the earth, fertility and childbirth, one of the 'mother' (ava) deities.: Toidybekova, L. S. Mari Mythology: Encyclopedic Reference. Yoshkar-Ola, 2007. (secondary); Sebeok, Thomas A., and Frances J. Ingemann. Studies in Cheremis: The Supernatural. 1956. (secondary)