Forest Mistress
Veps · deity · timeless · Recorded classification
Mecan emäg, the mistress of the forest, is the female partner of the Veps forest master. Veps tradition pictured the spirit-owners of natural and domestic spaces as households: the master (ižand) as a rule had a wife-mistress (emäg) and sometimes children, and the forest family together governed the game, the grazing herds sent into the woods for the summer, and the fate of anyone who wandered there. Herdsmen and hunters addressed the forest's hosts with spoken formulas and small offerings, and cattle or people who went missing were believed to be held by the forest household until it was ritually petitioned to let them go.
Domains
- forest
- wild animals
Powers
- to keep the household of the forest and its animals
- to lead astray or release people and cattle lost in the forest
Relations
- consort of: Forest MasterIn Veps belief the forest master (mecan ižand) headed a spirit family in which he as a rule had a wife-mistress (emäg) and sometimes children (lapsed); the forest mistress is his consort.Vinokurova, I. Yu. Mifologiya vepsov: entsiklopediya. Petrozavodsk: Izdatel'stvo PetrGU, 2015. (secondary)
Sources
- Mecan emäg, the 'mistress of the forest', is the female host spirit of the woodland in Veps belief, wife of the forest master within the forest spirit family.: Vinokurova, I. Yu. Mifologiya vepsov: entsiklopediya. Petrozavodsk: Izdatel'stvo PetrGU, 2015. (secondary); Vinokurova, I. Yu. Zhivotnye v traditsionnom mirovozzrenii vepsov (opyt rekonstruktsii). Petrozavodsk: Izdatel'stvo PetrGU, 2006. (secondary)