Leszek Kolankiewicz in his groundbreaking work Dziady resuscitated the Polish Pantheon. His ambitious book also tried to tackle the mention of the Goddess (or God?) by the name of Boda. That mention appears to occur only once in the 1538 (?) book Powieść rzeczy istej (see here) as part of a list of three idols: Lada, Boda, Leli:

Kolankiewicz thought that Boda appears in another work – Wacław Potocki’s 1697 translation of John Barclay’s “Argenis” (Argenida). Specifically, he mentions the following line:

O Palladzie ni dudu, ni słówka o Bodzie…

which roughly translates to:

Of Pallas [Athena] no mention, no word of Boda…

This would appear to put Boda on par with Pallas Athena (translated as Pallada into Polish in this case).

The problem with this interpretation is visible if we actually look at the same passage in print (on the left below):

All proper names in this Argenis translation are italicized. Pallas is italicized. But Boda is not. What is more, Boda, in the dative Bodze, appears at least twice more in the book (see on the rights side above), in each case without any italics.

In fact, a cursory review of Polish works suggests that Bodze was another manner of writing Boże, that is “God”. In other words, Potocki’s Bodze was referring to the Pallas Athene – the Pallada – mentioned immediately prior.

Although the Powieść rzeczy istej definitely lists Boda as among Lada and Leli, it is thus possible that the scribe or printer simply mistook the worshippers’ cries of Lado or Lada Boże.

A much more interesting question, however, is why Boda, or perhaps, Bod would even be used as the word for God in Polish and what that says about:

• the derivation of the Suavic Bóg from Bhagga
• the source of the Suavic word for “freedom: > swoboda
  
• the connection between the Germanic Boden and the Suavic concept of Mother Earth

Thus, we have labodzić or lebodzić meaning “to complain” (to God) from the complaint la Boga! presumably (and also labieda or biadać meaning “to despair” possibly the source also of bieda meaning “poverty” – from “poor Boda” meaning “poor Boden” or soil leading to a poor harvest?)

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