Baltic Paganism

Baltic mythology is the body of mythology of the Baltic people stemming from Baltic paganism and continuing after Christianization and into Baltic folklore. Baltic mythology ultimately derives from Proto-Indo-European mythology. The Baltic region was one of the last portions of Europe to be Christianized, a process that began in the 15th century and continued for at least a century afterward. No native texts survive detailing the pagan mythology of the Baltic peoples, but knowledge of these beliefs may be gained from Roman and German chronicles, from later folklore, from etymology, and from the reconstructions of comparative mythology. Fragmentary evidence found exclusively in folklore indicates only two complexes of ideas with any certainty. The first concerns the structure of the world. The second describes the enmity between Saule (Sun) and Mēness (Moon). There is disagreement as to whether the Balts pictured the world as consisting of two regions or of three. The two-region hypothesis is more plausible and is supported by a dualism found frequently in the corpus of Latvian oral traditions, the dainas: šī saule (literally "this sun”) and viņa saule (literally “the other sun”). The metaphor šī saule symbolizes ordinary everyday human life, while viņa saule indicates the invisible world where the sun goes at night which is the abode of the dead. The sky is considered to be a mountain, sometimes made of stone, and is the residence of the sky gods. Dievs is the sky god. Dievs and Laima (goddess of human fate) determine human destiny and world order. Dievs is a suitor of Saule, the sun. Wearing a silver gown, pendants, and a sword, he occasionally rides down to earth on horseback or in a horse-drawn chariot to watch over farmers and their crops. The word dievs was also used by the ancient Balts to denote god in general, and in modern usage refers to the Christian God.Dievs has two sons (Dieva dēli in Latvian) who are known as the Heavenly Twins and are the morning and evening stars. The Dieva dēli are skilled horsemen. They associate with Saules meita, the daughter of the sun, and when she is sinking into the sea with only her crown still visible, the Dieva dēli come to her rescue. Sun goddess Saule rides over the sky in a chariot drawn by a varying number of horses, and moon god Mēness rides to pay court Saule. Pērkons (Latviann for Thunderer) makes weapons and jewelry in the sky. Mēness, dressed in a starry gown and riding in a chariot drawn by gray horses, displays the traits of a war god but is known chiefly as another suitor of Saule. In some traditions, Mēness marries Saule, but he is unfaithful to her. For this infidelity, he is punished by Pērkons, the Thunderer.