Of the Moon, the Sun, the Stars and Wind the Servant

That the Moon has a male gender in Slavic lands is well known. Thus, we have księżyc (Little Prince) in Polish – a term used at least for the new moon – and similar names in other Slavic languages. Even the older Polish miesiąc which comes from the assumed měsęcь may perhaps be a diminutive. Of what?

Of mies (a possible *miesic?). But there is no mies in Slavic languages. Interestingly, in Finnish mies means a “man” or a “husband”. In Estonian we have mees and in Livonian mīez. Could this be the source of the Slavic miesiąc? And what about miecz – “sword”? Certainly that also has male “connotations.” (The word for “moon” in Finnish is ku. Same in Estonian and Livonian – though the latter spelling may have been kū or kuu. Out of curiosity, note that the word for “sun” in Livonian was pǟva – the Polish paw – peacock – comes from Latin pāvo in case you are wondering). 

But here comes the interesting part. The Sun in Slavic languages is famously neuter. We have mentioned that in Polesie the Sun was sometimes nevertheless treated as the “wife” of the Moon but without providing specific evidence. It seems that this has been the case and was also a belief present in neighboring Belarus. Here is a song from the Belarussian newspaper Homan (this was a publication put out under the German administration of the region in World War I):

Jasien miesiac – sam haspadar,
Krasno sonce – žana jaho,
Drobny hwiezdački – jaho dzietački,
Bujen wiecier – jaho služaŭki.

The bright Moon – himself a lord,
The red Sun – his wife,
Tiny stars – his children,
A great wind – his servant.

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