Thursday, October 20, 2022

Baba Yaga

Baba means grandmother or old woman. Yaga or Iaga has no definitive scholarly consensus. The word means horror and shudder in Serbian and Croatian, anger in Slovenian, witch in old Czech, wicked wood nymph in Modern Czech, witch and fury in Polish, and serpent or snake in Sanskrit.
~Historic Mysteries


For Art Thursday we have Baba Yaga, the Slavic witch who might grant your wishes or eat you.

Baba Yaga "has the power to help or hurt anyone who crosses her path. Those who seek her wisdom, truth, and knowledge must first complete several tasks. Only upon completion of the tasks will she provide help. If the tasks are not fulfilled and the seekers have not found a way to escape, she will cook and eat them." (Historic Mysteries)

"In fairy tales Baba Yaga flies around in a mortar, wields a pestle, and dwells deep in the forest in a hut usually described as standing on chicken legs." (Wikipedia) In some tales, she is three sisters, all bearing the same name.

Hotelo Berjozka. Ĉelabinsko.
RG72

Contes de L'isba
Ivan Bilibin

Баба-Яга
Artemiy Ober

Contes de L'isba
Ivan Bilibin

I don't know who drew this one:

Baba Yaga's hut by The Gorgonist
Baba Yaga's house by Jamie Sapp
Baba Yaga's hut on Erin Ye's Tumblr
A sculpture of Baba Yaga's Hut by Michael Locascio

2 comments:

Pop said...

Scary all around. The first sculpture is really nicely done...I like the cat. :-)

Wonder what the male version is called?

Tabatha said...

In the John Wick movies, John Wick is referred to as Baba Yaga meaning "boogeyman." So I would guess the male version would still be Baba Yaga?