indicate the level to which a name has been verified.
Gender Feminine
Usage Baltic Mythology, Lithuanian
Scripts Мѣидѣина(Russian)
Other Forms FormsMedeinė, Modeina (the form used by Łasicki), Medziojna (the form used by Narbutt)
Meaning & History
Lithuanian goddess of the forest and the hunt, her name deriving from either Lithuanian medis "tree; wood" or Lithuanian medė "forest".Medeina was first recorded in the form Měiděina (Мѣидѣина) in Russian chronicles dating back to the 13th century, such as the so-called Hypatian Codex. This Codex, which described the events of 1252, mentioned the gods and goddesses worshipped by King Mindaugas, among them Medeina and an unnamed hare goddess.
Ever since, there has been a vivid discussion among scholars and academics whether Medeina and said hare goddess are two different deities or one and the same goddess, with advocators of the latter hypothesis supporting their notion with the fact that the hare is an animal sacred to Medeina.
Her function, however, seems to be largely agreed upon: she is a ruler of forests, trees and animals.Influential research done by Algirdas Julius Greimas discovered that Medeina was thought of as a "vilkmergė", a she-wolf goddess with an escort of wolves, and a young, beautiful huntress who was unwilling to get married. Her duty was not to help the hunters, but to protect the forest and every creature living in it (which seems to be corroborated by folk tales mentioning that King Mindaugas wouldn't dare entering a forest for hunting purposes whenever he saw a hare).Some scholars argue, however, that Medeina was, much like Žvoruna, not a goddess herself, but simply an epithet (or a "euphemism") of the actual goddess of the hunt whose name might be lost. They further conclude that Medeina seems to have been worshipped mainly by peasants.In Lithuania, her designated name day is August 21.
Ever since, there has been a vivid discussion among scholars and academics whether Medeina and said hare goddess are two different deities or one and the same goddess, with advocators of the latter hypothesis supporting their notion with the fact that the hare is an animal sacred to Medeina.
Her function, however, seems to be largely agreed upon: she is a ruler of forests, trees and animals.Influential research done by Algirdas Julius Greimas discovered that Medeina was thought of as a "vilkmergė", a she-wolf goddess with an escort of wolves, and a young, beautiful huntress who was unwilling to get married. Her duty was not to help the hunters, but to protect the forest and every creature living in it (which seems to be corroborated by folk tales mentioning that King Mindaugas wouldn't dare entering a forest for hunting purposes whenever he saw a hare).Some scholars argue, however, that Medeina was, much like Žvoruna, not a goddess herself, but simply an epithet (or a "euphemism") of the actual goddess of the hunt whose name might be lost. They further conclude that Medeina seems to have been worshipped mainly by peasants.In Lithuania, her designated name day is August 21.