Editing Strzyga

{{Short description|Female demon in Slavic mythology}}
[[File:Strzyga Strix.jpg|thumb|{{lang|pl|Strzyga}}, an artistic vision by Filip Gutowski. Excerpt from The Sarmatian Bestiarium by Janek Sielicki]]
'''{{lang|pl|Strzyga}}''' ({{IPA|pol|ˈstʂɨɡa}}, plural: strzygi, masculine: strzygoń), sometimes translated as '''striga''',<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Piotrowska |first=Michalina |date=2024-12-10 |title=The impact of pronouns on the reception of supernatural creatures in Sapkowski’s short stories |url=https://ojs.academicon.pl/jezykoznawstwo/article/view/8482 |journal=Językoznawstwo |language=en |issue=2/21 |pages=67–73 |doi=10.25312/j.8482 |issn=2391-5137|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cooper |first=Brian |date=2005 |title=The Word "vampire": Its Slavonic Form and Origin |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24599658 |journal=Journal of Slavic Linguistics |volume=13 |issue=2 |pages=251–270 |issn=1068-2090}}</ref> (which is also the [[latin]] term for it)<ref>{{cite web|author=Jarosław Kolczyński |date=2003 |journal=Etnografia Polska |number=1-2 |page=s. 214 |title=Jeszcze raz o upiorze (wampirze) i strzygoni (strzydze) |url=https://zbiory.cyfrowaetnografia.pl/public/1605.pdf}}<!-- auto-translated from Polish by Module:CS1 translator --></ref> is usually a female demon in [[Slavic mythology]], which stems from the mythological [[Strix (mythology)|Strix]] of [[ancient Rome]] and [[ancient Greece]].{{r|Kolberg}} The demon is similar to a [[vampire]],<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://bajka.umk.pl/slownik/lista-hasel/haslo/?id=168|title=Strzygoń/strzyga - Polska bajka ludowa. Słownik - red. Violetta Wróblewska|website=bajka.umk.pl|access-date=2019-01-12}}</ref> and is predominantly found in [[Poland|Polish]] and [[Silesia]]n folklore.

== Etymology and origin ==
According to [[Aleksander Brückner]], the word is derived from [[Strix (mythology)|Strix]], Latin for owl and a bird-like creature which fed on human flesh and blood in Roman and Greek mythology.<ref name="Kolberg">{{Cite book|title=The People. Their Customs, Way of Life, Language...|last=Kolberg|first=Oskar|year=1882|volume=15|page=24|location=Kraków|publisher=Uniwersytet Jagielloński}}</ref> Hungarian ''sztriga'', the Albanian ''[[shtriga]]'' and {{langx|ro|[[strigoi|strigă]]}} are also [[cognate]] and related.

It is unclear how the word {{lang|pl|strzyga}} was adapted by the Polish people, though it might have been through the [[Balkans|Balkan]] peoples. The term {{lang|pl|strzyga}} could also sometimes mean a [[vampire]] or ''upiór''.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Mity, podania i wierzania dawnych Słowian|last=Jerzy.|first=Strzelczyk|date=2007|publisher=Rebis|isbn=9788373019737|edition=Wyd. 2., popr. i uzup|location=Poznań|oclc=228025091}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|title=Jeszcze raz o upiorze (wampirze) i strzygoni (strzydze)|last=Kolczyński|first=Jarosław|date=2003|work=Etnografia Polska}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=Pieśni, podania, baśnie, zwyczaje i przesądy ludu z Mazowsza czerskiego|last=Kozłowski|first=Kornel|year=1863}}</ref> After the 18th century, there was a distinction between {{lang|pl|strzyga}} and upiór; the first one was more connected to witchcraft, while the latter was more of a flying, vampiric creature.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=Folklor Górnego Śląska|date=1989|publisher=Wydawn. "Śląsk"|others=Simonides, Dorota.|isbn=8321606040|edition=Wyd. 1|location=Katowice|oclc=20935625}}</ref><ref name=":0" />

The {{lang|pl|strzyga}} remained a popular element in the folklore of rural Poland well into the late 19th and early 20th century, as shown by [[Władysław Reymont]] in his Nobel Prize-winning novel [[The Peasants|''Chłopi'' (The Peasants)]]. Its story takes place during the 1880s in [[Congress Poland]] and follows the everyday life of the peasantry in a typical Polish village. In the tenth chapter of book two, some of the characters gather together to exchange stories and legends, in one of which the striga is described as having a bat's wings (''strzygi z nietoperzowymi skrzydłami przelatują'').<ref>{{cite book|last=Reymont|first=Władysław|author-link=Władysław Reymont|date=1904|title=Chłopi|title-link=The Peasants|location=Warszawa|publisher=Gebethner i Wolff|chapter=Book II: Chapter 10|quote=Po polach błądzili ciemnych, prześwietlonych widziadłami, co jak żagwie buchały krwawą pożogą; na one ruczaje szli srebrne, pełne śpiewań nierozeznanych, tajemnych wołań, plusków; w bory zaklęte, gdzie rycerze, wielkoludy, zamki one; widma straszliwe, smoki piekielnym ogniem zionące; po rozstajach stawali strwożeni, gdzie upiory z chichotem przelatywały, gdzie potępionych głosem jęczą wisielce, a strzygi z nietoperzowymi skrzydłami przelatują; błądzili po mogiłkach za cieniami pokutujących samobójców; w pustych rozwalonych zamkach i kościołach słuchali głosów dziwnych, patrzeli się nieskończonym korowodom mar przerażających, w bojach byli, pod wodami, gdzie śpiące jaskółki, poplątane w girlandy, budzi o każdej wiośnie Matka Boża i na świat wypuszcza.}}</ref>

==Beliefs==
[[File:Page 028 - Scrambles amongst the Alps - Whymper.jpg|thumb|''Scrambles amongst the Alps,'' an illustration by [[Edward Whymper]] of the [[Notre-Dame de Paris|Notre Dame Cathedral]] [[gargoyle]] called La Stryge.<ref>{{Cite web |last=DigitalGeorgetown |date=1981 |title=Notre Dame Cathedral Grotesque Le Stryge |url=https://repository.digital.georgetown.edu/handle/10822/554232 |access-date=2020-01-22 |website=DigitalGeorgetown |language=en}}</ref>]]
A {{lang|pl|strzyga}} is a usually female demon similar to vampire in [[Slavic peoples|Slavic]] (and especially [[Poland|Polish]]) folklore. People who were born with two hearts and two souls, and two sets of teeth (the second one barely visible) were believed to be strzygi.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":0" /> [[Sleepwalking|Somnambulics]] or people without armpit hair could also be seen as ones.<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal|last=Grochowski|first=Piotr|title=Od strzygoni do wampirów energetycznych. Folklor jako system praktyk interpretacyjnych|url=https://www.academia.edu/37558735|journal=Przegląd Kulturoznawczy|date=2017 |volume=32 |issue=2 |language=en}}</ref> Furthermore, a newborn child with already developed teeth was also believed to be one.<ref name=":1" /> When a person was identified as a {{lang|pl|strzyga}}, they were chased away from human dwelling places. During epidemics, people were getting [[Premature burial|buried alive]], and those who managed to get out of their graves, often weak, ill and with mutilated hands, were said to be strzygi by others.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Skarbnik, zmory, utopce i upiory : opowiadania ludowe z ziemi rybnickiej i wodzisławskiej|author=Buczyński, Jerzy|date=2005|publisher=Wydawn. i Agencja Informacyjna "WAW" Grzegorz Wawoczny|isbn=8389802066|location=Racibórz|oclc=153770629}}</ref> It is said that strzygi usually died at a young age, but, according to belief, only one of their two souls would pass to the afterlife; the other soul was believed to cause the deceased {{lang|pl|strzyga}} to come back to life and prey upon other living beings.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|title=Strzygi i topieluchy: opowiadania sieradzkie|last=Dekowski|first=Jan Piotr|year=1987}}</ref> These undead creatures were believed to fly at night in a form of an owl and attack night-time travelers and people who had wandered off into the woods at night, sucking out their blood and eating their insides.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Demonologia ludowa. Relikty wierzeń w strzygonie i zmory|last=J. Bohdanowicz|date=1994|work=Literatura ludowa}}</ref> {{lang|pl|Strzyga}} were also believed to be satisfied with animal blood, for a short period of time.<ref name=":0" /> According to the other sources, strzygi were believed not to harm people but to herald someone's imminent death.<ref name=":3" /> In this, they resemble [[Banshees]].

=== Methods of protection ===
When a person believed to be a {{lang|pl|strzyga}} died, [[Decapitation|decapitating]] the corpse and burying the head separate from the rest of the body was believed to prevent the {{lang|pl|strzyga}} from rising from the dead;<ref>{{Cite book|title=The People. Their Customs, Way of Life, Language...|last=Kolberg|first=Oskar|year=1874|volume=7|publication-date=1962}}</ref> burying the body face down with a [[sickle]] around its head was believed to work as well.<ref name=":2" /> Other methods of protection from the {{lang|pl|strzyga}} (some similar to those from vampires) included:

* Burning the body
* Hammering nails, stakes etc. into various parts of the {{lang|pl|strzyga}}'s body
* Putting a [[flint]] into its mouth after exhumation<ref name=":2" />
* Pealing the church bells (the {{lang|pl|strzyga}} then turns into tar)<ref name=":0" />
* Slapping it across the face with one's left hand<ref name=":0" />
* Burying it again, outside of the village, and pinning it down with a big rock<ref name=":3" />
*Scattering poppy seeds in the shape of the cross in every corner of the house<ref name=":0" />
*Exhumation in the presence of a priest and burying the body again, after additional rituals (such as putting a piece of paper with the word "[[Jesus]]" written on it under the {{lang|pl|strzyga}}'s tongue)<ref>{{Cite news|title=Wśród ludu krakowskiego|last=Ulanowska|first=Stefania|date=1887|work=Wisła: miesięcznik geograficzno-etnograficzny}}</ref>
*Putting small objects in the {{lang|pl|strzyga}}'s grave to make it count them.<ref name=":4" />

==See also==
*[[Dziwożona]]
*[[Mare (folklore)|Mare]]
*[[Shtriga]]
*[[Strigoi]]
*[[Strix (mythology)]]
*[[Vampire]]
*[[Upiór]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

{{Slavic mythology}}

[[Category:Slavic legendary creatures]]
[[Category:Mythological hematophages]]
[[Category:Vampires]]
[[Category:Female legendary creatures]]
[[Category:Banshees]]