Abstract
Amongst other female characters within the literary works of Bolesław Leśmian, we can fi nd the dziwożony (dreaded dryads) – demons from Slavic mythology inhabiting wetlands or forests, which are considered malicious and dangerous, because they kidnap newborn children and replace them with their own offspring. These characters were presented as wild women with long hair and breasts so saggy that they would use them as washing paddles. Analyzing literary texts from the 19th and early 20th centuries written by Polish authors (Seweryn Goszczyński, Michał Bałucki, Miron [Aleksander Michaux], Maria Konopnicka, Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer, Wiktor Gomulicki), Czech (Karel Jaromír Erben) and Russian writers (Konstantin Balmont), I would like to show how the representations of these female demons have changed over time and how Bolesław Leśmian stylized them in the poem Dziwożona and in the prose fragment Podlasiak, from the volume Klechdy Polskie.
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