MOKO

also spelled Mokosh, the goddess of life-giving in ancient Slavic mythology. She is the only female deity mentioned in the Old Kievan pantheon of AD 980 and has survived in East Slavic folk beliefs as Mokoa, or Mokua. A tall woman with a large head and long arms, she spins flax and wool at night and shears sheep. Her name is connected, on the one hand, with spinning and plaiting and, on the other, with moisture. Associations with spinning, plaiting, and moisture suggest early European roots: the Great Goddess, or Fate, the spinner of life's thread, dispenser of life's water.