Германиялық көктем құдайы Ēostre

Germanic goddess

Ēostre is a West Germanic spring goddess. The name is reflected in (; Northumbrian dialect: Ēastro, Mercian and West Saxon dialects: Ēostre ), , and By way of the Germanic month bearing her name (Northumbrian: Ēosturmōnaþ, West Saxon: Ēastermōnaþ; ), she is the namesake of the festival of Easter in some languages. The Old English deity Ēostre is attested solely by Bede in his 8th century work The Reckoning of Time, where Bede states that during Ēosturmōnaþ (the equivalent of April), pagan Anglo Saxons had held feasts in Ēostre's honour, but that this tradition had died out by his time, replaced by the Christian Paschal month, a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus. Additionally, scholars have linked the goddess's name to a variety of Germanic personal names, a series of location names (toponyms), and, discovered in 1958, over 150 inscriptions from the 2nd century CE referring to the [[matres and Matronae, goddesses with connected names venerated on the European continent. By way of linguistic reconstruction, the matter of a goddess called Austrō(n) in the Proto Germanic language has been examined in detail since the foundation of Germanic philology in the 19th century by scholar Jacob Grimm and others. As the Germanic languages descend from Proto Indo European (PIE), historical linguists have traced the name to a Proto Indo European goddess of the dawn *, from which may descend the Common Germanic divinity at the origin of the Old English Ēostre and the Old High German *Ôstara. Theories connecting Ēostre with records of Germanic Easter customs, including hares and eggs, have been proposed. Whether the goddess was an invention of Bede has been a debate among some scholars, particularly prior to the discovery of the matronae Austriahenae and further developments in Indo European studies. Due to these latter developments, she is generally accepted as a genuine pagan goddess among modern scholars. Ēostre and Ostara are sometimes referenced in modern popular culture and are venerated in some forms of Germanic neopaganism.

The theonyms Ēastre (Old English) and Ôstara (Old High German) are cognates – linguistic siblings stemming from a common origin. They derive from the Proto Germanic theonym [[wikt:Reconstruction:Proto Germanic/Austrǭ, itself a descendant of Proto Indo European (PIE) * (cf. Lithuanian auš(t)rà, 'dawn, daybreak'), extended from the PIE root *, meaning 'to shine, glow (red)'. The modern English east also derives from this root, via the Proto Germanic adverb ('east, eastwards'), from an earlier PIE * ('east, towards the dawn'). According to linguist Guus Kroonen, the Germanic and Baltic languages replaced the old formation *, the name of the PIE dawn goddess, with a form in , likewise found in the Lithuanian deity Aušrinė. In Anglo Saxon England, her springtime festival gave its name to a month (Northumbrian: Ēosturmōnaþ, West Saxon: Eastermonað), the rough equivalent of April, then to the Christian feast of Easter that eventually displaced it. In southern Medieval Germany, the festival Ôstarûn similarly gave its name to the month Ôstarmânôth, and to the modern feast of Ostern ('Easter'), suggesting that a goddess named *Ôstara was also worshipped there. The name of the month survived into 18th century German as Ostermonat. An Old Saxon equivalent of the spring goddess named *Āsteron may also be reconstructed from the term asteronhus, which is translated by most scholars as 'Easter house', which would parallel the Medieval Flemish Paeshuys ('Easter house'). Frankish historian Einhard also writes in his Vita Karoli Magni (early 9th century CE) that after Charlemagne defeated and converted the continental Saxons to Christianity, he gave Germanic names to the Latin months of the year, which included the Easter month Ostarmanoth. The Old English Ēostre is therefore a distant cognate of numerous other dawn goddesses attested among Indo European speaking peoples, including Uṣás, Ēṓs, and Aurōra. In the words of the Encyclopedia of Indo European Culture, "a Proto Indo European goddess of the dawn is supported both by the evidence of cognate names and the similarity of mythic representation of the dawn goddess among various Indo European groups. [ ] All of this evidence permits us to posit a Proto Indo European * 'goddess of dawn' who was characterized as a 'reluctant' bringer of light for which she is punished. In three of the Indo European stocks, Baltic, Greek and Indo Iranian, the existence of a Proto Indo European 'goddess of the dawn' is given additional linguistic support in that she is designated the 'daughter of heaven'."

Additionally, scholars have linked the goddess's name to a variety of Germanic personal names, a series of location names (toponyms) in England, and, discovered in 1958, over 150 inscriptions from the 2nd–3rd century CE referring to the [[matres and Matronae. A cluster of place names in England and a variety of English and continental Germanic names include the element *ēoster, an early Old English word reconstructed by linguists and potentially an earlier form of the goddess name Ēostre. The Council of Austerfield called by King Aldfrith of Northumbria shortly before 704 convened at a place described in contemporary records both as and , which have led to the site's being identified with Austerfield near Bawtry in South Yorkshire. Such locations also include Eastry (Eastrgena, 788 CE) in Kent, Eastrea (Estrey, 966 CE) in Cambridgeshire, and Eastrington (Eastringatun, 959 CE) in the East Riding of Yorkshire. The element *ēoster also appears in the Old English name Easterwine, a name borne by Bede's monastery abbot in Wearmouth–Jarrow and which appears an additional three times in the Durham Liber Vitae. The name Aestorhild also appears in the Liber Vitae, and is likely the ancestor of the Middle English name Estrild. Various continental Germanic names include the element, including Austrechild, Austrighysel, Austrovald, and Ostrulf. In 1958, over 150 Romano Germanic votive inscriptions to the matronae Austriahenae, a triad of goddesses, were discovered near Morken Harff, Germany. They are datable to around 150–250 CE. Most of these inscriptions are in an incomplete state, yet many are at least reasonably legible. Some of these inscriptions refer to the Austriates. The name of these goddesses certainly derives from the stem austri , which, if Germanic, would be cognate with the Old English Eostre, although the goddesses might equally have developed entirely independently.

Ēosturmōnaþ ('Ēostre's month') was the Anglo Saxon name for the month of April. In chapter 15 (De mensibus Anglorum, 'The English months') of his 8th century work De temporum ratione ("The Reckoning of Time"), Bede describes the indigenous month names of the English people. After describing the worship of the goddess Rheda during the Anglo Saxon month of Hrēþ mōnaþ, Bede writes about Ēosturmōnaþ, the month of the goddess Ēostre:

Before the discovery of the matronae Austriahenae in 1958, scholarship on this topic frequently raised the question of whether Bede invented the deity. In 1892, Charles J. Billson noted that scholars before his writing were divided about the existence of Bede's account of Ēostre, stating that "among authorities who have no doubt as to her existence are W. Grimm, Wackernagel, Sinrock , and Wolf. On the other hand, Weinhold rejects the idea on philological grounds, and so do Heinrich Leo and Hermann Oesre. Kuhn says, 'The Anglo Saxon Eostre looks like an invention of Bede;' and Mannhardt also dismisses her as an etymological [[deus ex machina." Billson wrote that "the whole question turns[ ] upon Bede's credibility", and that "one is inclined to agree with Grimm, that it would be uncritical to saddle this eminent Father of the Church, who keeps Heathendom at arms' length and tells us less of than he knows, with the invention of this goddess." Billson pointed out that the Christianization of England started at the end of the 6th century, and, by the 7th, was completed. Billson argued that, as Bede was born in 672, Bede must have had opportunities to learn the names of the native goddesses of the Anglo Saxons, "who were hardly extinct in his lifetime." According to philologist Rudolf Simek in 1984, despite expressions of doubts, Bede's account of Ēostre should not be disregarded. Simek opined that a "spring like fertility goddess" must be assumed rather than a "goddess of sunrise" regardless of the name, reasoning that "otherwise the Germanic goddesses (and matrons) are mostly connected with prosperity and growth". Simek pointed to a comparison with the goddess Rheda, also attested by Bede. In 2011 Philip A. Shaw wrote that the subject has seen "a lengthy history of arguments for and against Bede's goddess Ēostre, with some scholars taking fairly extreme positions on either side" and that some theories against the goddess have gained popular cultural prominence. Shaw noted that "much of this debate, however, was conducted in ignorance of a key piece of evidence, as it was not discovered until 1958. This evidence is furnished by over 150 Romano Germanic votive inscriptions to deities named the matronae Austriahenae, found near Morken Harff and datable to around 150–250 AD". Most of these inscriptions are in an incomplete state, yet most are complete enough for reasonable clarity of the inscriptions. As early as 1966 scholars have linked these names etymologically with Ēostre and an element found in Germanic personal names. Shaw argued against a functional interpretation of the available evidence and concluded that "the etymological connections of her name suggests that her worshippers saw her geographical and social relationship with them as more central than any functions she may have had". In a 2022 paper published in Folklore, scholar Richard Sermon rejects Shaw's proposal that Ēostre was a localized goddess, and argues that the association with dawn is a central question surrounding Ēostre. Sermon takes particular issue with Shaw's rejection of an association with the dawn:

Nevertheless, my main objection is that Shaw fails to offer any explanation as to why his local group specific goddess would have been celebrated at that particular time of year. Shaw sees no reason to doubt Bede's claim that Eosturmonath was named after the goddess Eostre, and finds it hard to believe that Bede would have invented such an explanation given his reputation as a careful researcher (Shaw 2012), yet he ignores the one piece of evidence Bede provides about her cult: the timing of her month and celebrations. If we accept that the month name combines two elements meaning 'east' or 'eastern' and 'month', then the appearance of the equinoctial sunrise and its nearest full moonrise, in their most easterly positions on the horizon, provide a logical explanation for both the timing and etymology of Eosturmonath. Thus, Shaw's theory cannot be said to have 'done away' with any arguments connecting Eostre—the goddess Bede tells us was worshipped in that month—with the dawn or the spring.

In the first season of the TV series American Gods, based on the novel of the same name, Ostara is portrayed by Kristin Chenoweth. In the series, Ostara has survived into the modern age by forming an alliance with the Goddess of Media (Gillian Anderson) and capitalising on the Christian holiday. Odin (Ian McShane) forces her to accept that those who celebrate Easter are worshipping Jesus and not her, causing her to join his rebellion against the New Gods.

In 1853, Scottish protestant minister Alexander Hislop published The Two Babylons, an anti Catholic tract. In the tract, Hislop connects modern English Easter with the East Semitic theonym Ishtar by way of folk etymology. For example, from The Two Babylons, third edition:

What means the term Easter itself? It is not a Christian name. It bears its Chaldean origin on its very forehead. Easter is nothing else than Astarte, one of the titles of Beltis, the queen of heaven, whose name, as pronounced by the people of Ninevah, was evidently identical with that now in common use in this country. This name as found by Layard on the Assyrian monuments, is Ishtar. Because Hislop's claims have no linguistics foundation, his claims were rejected, but the Two Babylons would go on to have some influence in popular culture. In the 2000s, a popular Internet meme similarly claimed an incorrect linguistic connection between English Easter and Ishtar.

The name has been adopted for an asteroid (343 Ostara, 1892 by Max Wolf), In music, the name Ostara has been adopted as a name by the musical group Ostara, and as the names of albums by :zoviet*france: (Eostre, 1984) and The Wishing Tree (Ostara, 2009).

Politically, the name of Ostara was in the early 20th century invoked as the name of a German nationalist magazine, book series and publishing house established in 1905 at Mödling, Austria.