Батыс славян құдайы Девана

Western Slavic goddess

Devana (Dziewanna , Dzewana), Zevana (Ziewanna), less often Zievonya (Ziewonja, Zewonia) is the goddess of wild nature, forests, hunting and the moon worshiped by the Western Slavs. In the sources, she was first mentioned in the 15th century by Jan Długosz, who compared her to the Roman goddess Diana. Dziewanna is also a Polish name for Verbascum, and the etymology of the word is unclear. After strong criticism from Aleksander Brückner, researchers rejected her authenticity, but nowadays it is accepted by an increasing number of researchers. Sometimes, in folk rituals, she performs together with Morana.

Proto Slavic name for Verbascum is reconstructed as *divizna (cf. dziwizna, Czech and , ), with secondary form as *divina (cf. dziewanna, дивина́). That word has a Proto Balto Slavic origin and appears in Lithuanian language as e. g. devynspė͂kė, devynjėgė. The only cognate from outside the Balto Slavic group may be Dacian word διέσεμα/diésema (Dioscorides), which is being derived from *diu̯es eu̯smn („burning sky”) and compared to German Himmelbrand (Verbascum; „burning heavens”), but exact etymology of Slavic word is unclear. Russian linguist and etymologist Aleksandr Anikin notes a similarity between the Lithuanian terms for Verbascum and the Lithuanian word devynì "nine". There are several interpretations of Devana's name. The most obvious etymology are words such as dziewa, dziewka, "girl, young woman, maiden", and dziewica, "virgin", a word derived from the dziewa. This etymology can be supported by fact, that Diana (and Artemis – her greek equivalent) is usually depicted in myths as a virgin and has never had any offspring or a consort. Another word, from which the name of the goddess may come from, may be the old Polish dziwy, "wild". It was also proposed to combine Devana's name with the Proto Indo European god of heaven *Dyēus. Slavic folklore includes demons with a similar name, e. g. Polish and Czech dziwożona, Russian div, Bulgarian and Croatian samodiva ("rusalka, boginka, the magical creature"), etc. It is assumed that the feminine demons divas derive from the Proto Slavic word *diva, and this word is the feminine form of the word *divъ ("div (demon)"). *divъ is derived from the PIE. word *Dyēus ("god of heaven") through the intermediate *deywós ("heavenly") and its closest related word is Dievs – god of heaven in Baltic mythology. *Dyēus in the Slavs has acquired demonic characteristics as a result of cultural contacts with Iranian peoples, who have demonized the Iranian continuator of *Dyēus as a result of the Zoroastrianist reform. An argument for such an etymology is that Diana is also etymologically derived from *Dyēus. Anikin notes that Verbascum has sometimes been used to lighten hair, and combines the word with PIE. the root *dei u̯ or *dī ("to shine, to be bright"), from which also comes *Dyēus. The suffix ana, anna, which occurs in the names of many goddesses, may be derived from the PIE. word *ansu meaning "lord, ruler, god".

in Polish, dziewanna (less often dziwizna) is also the name for verbascum, used for skin care and treatment of respiratory problems. Szyjewski notes, however, that the dziewanna was sometimes called the braid of the Virgin Mary, and Kolankiewicz that in medieval iconography the Blessed Virgin Mary was sometimes depicted with the verbascum in her hand, and marzanna (name for six plants), was also a synonym for the dziewanna in the 16th century.

The first studies on the "pantheon of Długosz" denied the existence of all or most of the gods he mentioned. The main critics were Aleksander Brückner and Stanisław Urbańczyk. After rejecting the hypercritical approach to "pantheon of Długosz" many researchers, such as Aleksander Gieysztor, Andrzej Szyjewski, Vyacheslav Ivanov and Vladimir Toporov, In the past, thunder candle wicks were made of verbascum and sometimes was named knotnica (from knot "wick"), royal candle or braid of the Virgin Mary. Connecting the feast of Our Lady of Thunder Candle (Candlemas) with wild animals appears in other Slavic countries.