/beloved.md # Beloved/Garden/Flower Goddess eh PIE *preyH- "to love, please" *priHós = *preyH- +‎ *-ós. "dear, beloved, happy, free" *Pria *priHxeHa "beloved, friend" > The original meaning was probably something like “from one's own clan”, from which a meaning “being a free man, not a serf” developed. Lang. Name Festival Notes & trans. ON . Freya May day Hit. Hannahannah Purulli Skr. Priya Ave. Paurwa demonized, replaced by Anahita Grk. Aphrodite Lat. Venus/Flora Alb. Perendi Christianized as St. Prendi > J. Grimm refers to an Old Bohemian (Czech) form Priye, used as a gloss for Aphrodite (p. 303, Deutsche Mythologie). ?? a made-up goddess by the writer Václav Hanka?? Priye is mentioned in Hanka's Mater Verborum? I believe our equivalent of Pria is Mokoš (Mokosh, meaning "moist/moisture" as in "fertile soil"). Perhaps the mythical founder of Czechia, princess Libuše, is another equivalent. She married a ploughman, Oráč (which literally means Ploughman), and together they founded the Přemyslid dynasty and the city of Prague itself. Your queen, Elizabeth II., is actually very (VERY) distantly related to them. Their descendants live here to this day. > In Slavic languages she is also worshiped under the name Paraskeva (a Greek word meaning ‘veil’), and re-christianized as St. Paraskeva. Paraskeva is christianised name of a Mokosh. No Slavic goddess with name similar to Paraskeva is known. > In Bulgarian "PriyaTel" means friend and Purwa ("u" as in urban) means first. > La Primavera means spring in Spanish, even the word here is gendered female, interesting. > Here is a modern Russian hymn to Paraskeva, or rather Praskovya... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Zz9jioWmOI > Many of these Goddesses now give their names to the fifth day of the week, Friday. > In England, May celebrations are often dedicated to the Virgin Mary who is sometimes depicted as the May Queen, a residual pagan rite in which a beautiful maiden is covered with flowers.