Ancient Lithuanian Mythology and
Religion
http://www.scantours.com/lithuania_history.htm
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Lithuania
http://vinland.org/heathen/pagancee/lithrel.html
http://www.emporia.edu/earthsci/amber/lithuania.pdf
http://www.kresy.co.uk/lith_tatars.html
http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi201.htm
http://pirmojiknyga.mch.mii.lt/Leidiniai/Prusijoszem.en.htm
Lithuanian language
Lithuanian is considered one of the most archaic of
the living Indo-European languages. It is one of two
(another is Latvian) living Baltic family of languages, which is perhaps
closest to the Slavic family. It is the official language of Lithuania,
spoken by about 3.5 million native Lithuanians.
Like most of the Indo-European languages, Lithuanian employs modified Roman
script (including 32 letters). There are two grammatical genders in Lithuanian. It
has the free stress. Each noun is declined in seven cases: nominative, genitive,
dative,
accusative, instrumental, locative,
and vocative. The 1st scientific Compendium of
Lithuanian language was published 1856/57 by August Schleicher, a professor at Prague
University.
In older literature on Baltic
languages, "Lithuanian" can sometimes refer to Baltic Languages in
general.
The Lithuanian pagan faith
and mythology, as well as the ritual connected with them, are among the oldest
phenomena of human spiritual creation. Religious and mythic imagery permeated all
the spheres of society life that was based on hunting and gathering already
during the period of the early tribal system which comprised the
The history of Lithuanian
faith and mythology can be subdivided into three epochs. The first epoch is
that of the early matriarchal tibal system, during
which religious imagery (totem, animist and craft cult imagery) connected with
feminine supernatural beings appeared in the hunters' and gatherers' society
(the
The tribes of the Aestii created their religion jointly throughout millennia.
In the middle of the Ist
millennium A.D., as they began to split into separate nations, their religious
imagery changed but a little.
The main sources of
knowledge of the Lithuanian religion and mythology are the archaeological and etnographic data, as well as various written sources, toponymy and other objects of linguistic study.
In our attempts to disclose
the genesis of religious beliefs and rites, to reconstruct their functional
content and to discern their transformation under different social and economic
conditions, we turn to traditional folk art and ritual, i.e., to the cultural
layer that has reached us from under the cover of millennia. The semantics of
archaic beliefs and of the traces of mythical imagery related to them require a
thorough analysis based not only on local but also on general
Proto-Indo-European or Indo-European materials that have partially survived in
the Christian ritual, in the cult of the Christian god and various saints. The
semantic analysis indispensable to the study of religion and mythology is
inevitably connected with ancient philosophy.
A great
deal of elements of ancient world-outlook have survived to this day through legends,
fairy-tales, exorcisms and songs. Relics of the dissolving religion were
transferred into these genres of folklore; rather undisputable evidence of totemism, animism and the cults of ancestors and different
deities can be traced there. This evidence is especially noticeable in ballads
and in epic and mythological songs that remind of, and are probably even more
archaic than, the ancient Hindu Vedas.
Some religious elements of
remote past, going back to the Stone age, can be in
use together with the Christian iconology until the 18th century and even the
first decades of 20th century. These elements reflect the essence of the
religious outlook. The patterns of ornament in folk art are some kind of Holy
Writ that needs deciphering, though it sometimes may be difficult to grasp the
historical moment or the symbolic meaning of one or another ornament.
In the study of pagan
religion, the support of certain written sources and iconological material is
indispensable, though often it is already transformed and deprived of its
original meaning.
The pantheon of Lithuanian
gods is rather rich and diverse. Lithuanians, as well as other ancient nations,
developed in the period of patriarchy an image of the unique supreme God, the
creator and lord of the Universe and all life. 'Dievas',
the name of God in Lithuanian, has a common root with the words of this meaning
in all ide languages. The word 'Dievas'
often personifies the shining sky, light, or day.
The Lithuanian supreme God,
as the myth retales, had a wife, the primorial Great Mother, the goddess Lada,
who had given birth to the first-born twins. God's twin children, in the shape
of twin horses, are known from the myths; they are related to the fire of the sky , the Sun, and lighting.
The Lithuanian supreme God
was considered to be as well the Master of Fate, the Lord of the world who
ruled the Heaven and Earth, while his children assisted him.
The names reffered by to the supreme and most powerful God varied in
Lithuania from region to region during the course of time. In the Highlands of
Lithuania as well as in the major part of the Lowlands the word 'Dievas' was used together with personal name Praamzius, in Suvalkija the God's
name were Prakurimas, Ikurejas,
Sotvaras, while in the west of the Lowlands and
in Prussia he was reffered to as Ukopirmas.
Praamzius is described as the omnipotent
ruler of time, the inescapable fate. The sky and the air, water and all live
creatures had to obey him, with none exclusion even for other deities. All
decisions made by Praamzius are inscribed in
stone and thus is no escape from them; while ordering the present, he is awere of both the past and the future. Similar functions
are ascribed as well to Prakurimas and Ukopirmas.
The chiel
ritual addressed to the supreme God was performed during the winter solstice.
The importance of this ritual especially increased by the time agriculture
became known and was cultivated. The rites permeated with archaic totem,
animist, symbolic imagery would continue for twelve days associated with the
twelve the twelve months of the year. Together with rites addressed to the
supreme God, souls of remote ancestors from the other world were paid homage
to.
In Lithuanian religion,
just as it is the case with other religions, the trinity of gods is known: Perkunas, Patrimpas and
Pikuolis. The most prominent among these gods
was Perkunas, the master of the atmosphere and the
"waters" of the sky, as well as the fecundity of flora, human
morality and justice. Beside the supreme God, Perkunas
occupied perhaps the most important place in the Lithuanian divine pantheon.
Under the influence of Christianity the supreme God's image was transformed and
Perkunas acquires the position of the Lord of
Heaven.
The major imagery
representing Perkunas is of zoomorphic
character, while later on it becomes antropomorphic,
sometimes retaining certain zoomorphic attributes. Perkunas
used to inspire awe and punish people, thus he was often called the "god's
scourge". He was supposed to punish by throwing at the culprit his stone
axes, that often had symbols of the Sun and lightning. People knew then how to
turn away Perkunas's wrath.
The second god was Patrimpas. He was supposed to bring the spring, joy,
peace, maturity, abundance, as well as to take care of domestic animals,
ploughed fields, and crops. Sheaves of corn, amber, vax,
etc., were offered to him during the rites.
The third member of the
Lithuanian divine trinity was Pikuolis,
otherwise called Pikulas. He was the god of
the underworld, all kinds of evil and death.
When presented in a horizontal and vertical lines, the divine, trinity of
the Aestii corresponds to the model of universal
space, i.e., the sky, the earth and the underworld. The analogy may also be
seen with the time recurrence: adolescence, maturity and old age, or otherwise,
spring, autumn and winter.
The sky gods form a
separate group. Here belongs the heavenly smith, who had forged celestial
bodies, as well as the god Menulis (Moon) and
the goddess Saule (Sun). The latter tho constituted the celestial family: Menuo
(another forms of the name Menulis)
and Saule are represented as spouses, while
the planets and stars as their daughters. The god's sons are known too. It is
interesting to note that in the mythologies of some other nations the Sun and
the Moon may be of opposite sex.
The Lithuanians respected
the gods and goddess of the farmstead and home. The cult of these deities
originated from the deified remote primordial mother image; later on the father
image influenced it too. These deities protected the house, the people living
there, farm- buildings, domestic animals and fowl.
Some archaic elements of
the primordial mother cult survived as long as the 19th century. During the
wedding, as the bride bade farewell to her paternal home and its gods, she
would pray and make sacrifices to a female idol made of a sheaf of straw,
begging to forgive her for leaving home and moving to a new one, where she
would have to adore other gods. Nonadieve, a godness mentioned in the Voluine
Chronicle (middle of the 13th century), must probably have been the domestic
goddess. She corresponds to J.Lasickis Numeja. The sentence "Numeias
vocant domesticos"
should be translated as "Numejas are called
domestic goddesses".
The goddess Dimstipati mentioned in the written sources was
later transformed into a male deity Dimstipatis,
but the offering rites addressed to him were performed by women, which may
indicate his feminine origin. Women used to take care of the most important
place in the house, the corner behind the table, where goddess
were supposed to live. Zeme pati, the goddess of the farmstead mentioned in the
written sources, was also later transformed into a male god Zemepatis.
Since ancient times, the
Lithuanians used to respect fire. In the course of time, fire was personified
and at first it assumed a zoomorphic image, which later became ornitomorphic and, finally, antropomorphic
(female). The personified and deified fire was reffered
to as Gabija, while the fire in the threshing
barn (jauja) was called Gabjauja.
These goddess protected not only fire but also the
farm itself, the cattle and women's chores in the whole.
The goddesses of birth and
death were, respectively, Laima and Giltine. They both belonged to the senior generation
of goddesses. Laima was responsible for fertility,
predetermined the fate of the newly-born, took care of women in childbirth, ordained the cosmic phenomena. Originally her image was ornitomorphic, but gradually she acquired human shape. In
the area of Aestii, the flint birds found in the
ground must have represented the goddess Laima.
These bird-figurines express the idea of the feminine element. The cult of
lime-trees is kindred to that of Laima-bird.
As Laima acquired an antropomorphic
image, she became the protectress not only of the
earthly but also of the heavenly life.
Giltine, the death goddess, ordained the
end of human life and took care that people be not superfluous on the earth.
The most prominent flora gods
were probably Puskaitis and Pergubre. Puskaitis
took care of the earth's fruit, and of the cereals in particular; he lived
under the elder, which was considered a sacred tree
associated with fertility and the underworld kingdom). The name Puskaitis is associated with blossom ('puskuoti' means 'to blossom'). Feasts to his honour
were held twice a year: in spring and in autumn. Early in spring the ancient
Lithuanians used to worship goddess Pergubre
(which was by mistake called in written sources by the male name Pergubrius). She supplied the earth with blossom and
protected the first field-works. Her dedication feasts were held early in
spring.
Among the goddesses that
had survived from the Neolithic there was Kaupuole,
or Kupuole, associated with the luxuriance of
flora, the activation of vegetative powers. She was the goddess of field
vegetation, while her daughter Rasyte used to
water the vegetation with silver dew. Thus Rasyte
assisted her mother Kaupuole. The both goddesses
took care of the growth of flora. In earliest times, still before the rise of
agriculture, this idea was personified by a dying and resurrecting goddess.
Another archaic Lithuanian
goddess promoting the vegetation growth was Vaisgamta,
who was worshipped by women engaged in flax growing and breaking. Ritual
addressed to her was performed on the day of Ilges
festival (corresponding to the Halloween).
Harvesting ritual was
performed in honour of the deities of the cereals, the so-called rye-wives (rugiu boba),
the idols made of the last sheaf of rye and carried ceremoniously home.
An ancient custom to
respect water sought to preserve it clean, and forbade polluting it. Taht was associated with the belief that variouss deities lived in water: mermaids, spirits, souls, especially those of the drowned. The queen of the
Baltic Sea was the beautiful mermaid Jurate.
By will of god Praamzius, she was killed by
another god Perkunas, for a love affair with Kastytis, a son of the earth.
The atmosphere is represented
by the wind gods and spirits. Since ancient times their images had been
zoomorphic (those of a bear or a horse), later they become anthropomorphic.
Myths recount of the Mother of winds and her spouse, her daughter and four
sons; the most quick-witted among them was Siaurys
(the North wind). The wind gods, and sometimes the spirits, were represented
with wings. They were supposed to communicate with Saule
and Menulis (the Sun and the Moon). Bangputys, or Vejopatis,
is depicted in Rusne as a winged man.
Aitvaras should also be grouped with the
atmosphere gods. The image of this creature originated while watching flashing
meteors, most probably after agriculture had already spread. At first aitvarai were supposed to live in the sky or in the woods;
under the influence of Christianity they were settled in garners and denounced
as thieves. On the whole, aitvarai were
considered to be divine creatures, to regulate human relations and to influence
the state of wealth. Being of divine origin, they were supposed to be immortal.
Kiled or wounded, an aitvaras
would regain his strenght after touching the ground,
similarly as Anteus in the Greek tradition.
Among other gods Pilnytis, the wealth god, may be mentioned, as well
as the war god Kovas and the goddess Junda, the health god Ausaitis,
the schepherds' god Ganiklis,
the god of roads Keliukis, the love and
freedom goddess Milda, the goddess of corn
ears Krumine, the underworld god's wife Nijole, the goddess of woods and trees Medeine, and finally, Austeja
and Bubilas, the goddess and the god of bees.
Among the oldest goddesses
there were as well laumes, and goddesses of
earth, water and sky. Raganos (witches) were
supposed to practise sorcery and perform different magic actions ordaining the
cosmos, the fates of people and animals. They were lunar nightlife creatures.
Supernatural powers to order and regenerate not only the live world, but the
whole Nature were attributed to them.
Among the underworld
spirits kaukai were best known to the
Lithuanians. The image of this creature originated from still-born babies or
those that died without the birth rites. Kaukai
were represented as little manikins, both men and women. Beside kaukai, the underworld also had spirits which
guarded treasures hidden in the ground.
Since earliest times the
Lithuanians had idols of their respected divine creatures (first totems, later
zoomorphic-antropomorphic and finally purely
anthropomorphic deities). This was proved by archeological
and written sources, as well as linguistic and etnographic
data.
Our remote ancestors used
to perform their religious rites in sacred forest, near sacred streams. Later,
especially in the Metal Age, temples appeared; relics of temples have been
discovered in different places of Lithuania. Lately remnants of temple (an
altar, a pit of offerings) were found in the vaults of Vilnius Cathedral.
This abstract was taken from Prane Dunduliene book
"Senoves lietuviu mitologija ir religija"
translated
into English "Ancient Lithuanian Mythology and Religion"
THE LITHUANIAN TATARS
The
self-designation of
the ethnic group is simply Tatars and the neighbouring people also refer
to them as such. In literature they are more often referred to as the Lithuanian
Tatars, Byelorussian Tatars, Polish Tatars, Byelorussian Muhammadans
and Byelorussian Muslims. Some Polish authors have used the term lipiki, and Turkish and Crimean Tatar sources of the
19th century have called them lupkalar or lupka tatarlar. The
origin of lipki/lupka is not clear. As
the habitat of these Tatars is mostly the former Lithuanian Grand Principality,
they are primarily known as Lithuanian Tatars.
Habitat. Today the Lithuanian Tatars live in the
western part of the Minsk Region of Byelorussia, in the region northeast of
Population. There has been no ethnic census of the
Lithuanian Tatars under the Soviet regime, so their number is unknown. An
approximate estimate of their number in
Language. In the middle of the 16th century the
Lithuanian Tatars apparently gave up Turkish and started to speak Byelorussian.
Some intellectuals took up Russian and Polish in the middle of the 19th
century.
The origins of the
Lithuanian Tatars are particularly interesting. According to their legends they
are the descendants of the wanderers far from the Baltic coast -- Nogays and Crimean Tatars -- who were brought to
No noticeable changes in
Tatar social status or in their fields of activity took place after the
incorporation of their settlements into
After World War I the
Lithuanian Tatars became citizens of one of three countries -- the
Naturally, the absence of
all nationalist activities considerably damaged the ethnic integrity of the
Tatars and they were assimilated by the Byelorussians (quite easily so, there
being no language barrier). The same happened in socialist
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LITHUANIAN CULTURE |
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They say that culture is
the mainstay of the survival of
Lithuanian ethnic customs
and traditions are reflected through rural architecture, clothing, dances,
songs, legends and tales. The unique method of Lithuanian singing, the sutartine, is known all over the world. The unique
tradition of a national song festival, which takes place every five years, is
alive in
The folklore festivals keep
gaining in popularity every year. The international folklore festival, Baltica, is also well known. A
carnival-type religious holiday, Uzgavenes (Shrove
Tuesday), which marks the start of Lent (40 days before Easter), found its way
to the cities from the villages and became a big occasion for children. Since
the 14th century, the 24th of June has been celebrated in observance of the
Feast of St John, or Rasa Day.
Lithuanian arts became
particularly abundant under the conditions of the independent state, between
the two world wars. Lithuanian stained-glass art, paintings and sculpture may
be ascribed to the most outstanding manifestations of that period. Religious
art is an important part of Lithuanian art, too. Most examples of this art have
survived within churches of all styles and epochs. Another aspect of religious
art can be found in the Lithuanian countryside tradition. Carved wayside
crosses and statuettes of Christian saints of wood, most frequently wooden
(oak), still stand in the central regions of
The first book in
Lithuanian, the Evangelical Lutheran Catechism, was published in
Poetry predominates in
Lithuanian literature to this day, depicting the soul of the nation and the
memory permeated with the tragedy of history. In the form of songs, it has
assisted in preserving the identity of the nation after the population has
moved to the cities. Theatre constitutes an important part of cultural life as
well, and represents
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Education |
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Education and science play
a particular, and at times even a decisive, role in
The history of the
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Religion |
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Lithuanians were the last
pagans in
Present
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THE LITHUANIAN
LANGUAGE AND WRITING The Lithuanian
language belongs to the Indo-European family of languages Hydronyms of Baltic origin have been found
by linguists far to the east of present-day Lithuania and Latvia, namely, in
the upper and central parts of the Dnieper basin,
in the upper reaches of the Volga, and in the Oka
basin. Even in the environs of scientists have found several hundred toponyms of Baltic origin. It is assumed that isolated
Baltic islets existed in the east up to the 13th century. Thus, Balto-Slavic
links are of very old standing. Common features between the Lithuanian
language and the Russian and Byelorussian languages corroborate the above
inference. |
The western border areas of
Long before our era Old
Baltic branched off into separate dialects of which there were two groups: the
western and the eastern. The latter comprised Lithuanian and Latvian as well as
the eventually extinct Curonian, Selonian
and Semigallian languages which we know of only from
occasional references in historical sources. Lithuanian and Latvian began to
branch off into separate languages approximately in the 7th century. A. D.
Lithuanian developed two main dialects, namely, Zemaiciu
(Samogitian) spoken by western Lithuanians, and Aukstaiciu (Highlander) spoken by southern, eastern and
northern Lithuanians. Both main dialects have a wealth of preserved the old
sounds and forms.
Old Prussian, belonging to
the western Baltic group and spoken by ancient Prussians who lived on the
Baltic to south-west of the Lithuanian lands (former East-Prussian territory),
was still a living language in the late 17th century. The lands of the ancient
Prussian tribes had been seized by the Tectonic Knights as far back as the 13th
century; part of the original Prussians were
exterminated and the remaining part, which was enslaved and formed into a
nation, became assimilated in the course of fierce germination. Old Prussian
died away, and hardly half a dozen written texts, e. g. three catechisms
translated into Old Prussian and printed in the 16th century and two small
dictionaries in manuscript, have reached our days.
The Lithuanians had no
written language of their own for a rather long period of time, up to the
mid-16th century. After the rise of the Lithuanian state all foreign
correspondence with West-Europe countries was conducted in
With the introduction of
Christianity in the 14th and 15th centuries the Lithuanian language and culture
were faced with the ever increasing danger of pollination. The Polish nobility
and gentry tried in every way possible to force the Polish language, alphabet
and customs upon Lithuania. The Lithuanian nobility and gentry were gradually
adopting the Polish language and customs. Eventually they began to look upon
their Lithuanian origin as a disgrace and called themselves „gentle lituanus natione polonus” (people of Lithuanian stock, Poles by
nationality). In mouth of the privileged the word „Lithuanian” was a mere
geographic term without any national designation. The nobility and gentry did
not speak Lithuanian, they despised the Lithuanian
language and customs. The catholic Church was a
particularly zealous polonizer for very few priests
spoke Lithuanian. Only the peasantry and the petty unprivileged gentry spoke
Lithuanian. The alienation of the ruling circles and the privileged gentry from
the vernacular, from popular traditions and the people’s culture was a genuine
tragedy for the Lithuanian nation as it set back the development of the
Lithuanian national culture for the period of several centuries. As a result,
Lithuanian literature and book printing were rather late in developing and
developed at a very slow rate.
The spread of the Reformation in Lithuania in
the 16th century initiated the appearance of the first Lithuanian book. Martynas Mazvydas Catechismvsa Prasty Szadey (Catechism) , printed
in Königsberg, East Prussia, in 1547. The book was
not only a catechism but also, in the words of its title page,
2a teacher for reading and
singing Christian songs printed in a new manner and meant for young people”. The
book contains the first ABC, a primer, rudiments of reading in Lithuanian,
samples of syllabification and the first grammatical terms. It was soon
followed by other religious books; these were printed in Lithuania herself.
In order to counteract the
growing influence of the Reformation the Catholic Church, which up till then
had used alien Latin and Polish, was forced to use Lithuanian and to print
religious books in Lithuanian. The first Vilnius-printed books in Lithuanian
were the Catechism (1595) and the Postilla (1599),
both translated into Lithuanian by canon Mikalojus Dauksa.
The historical significance
of the Postilla lies not in the sermons it contains
but in its
„Prefatory Word to the
Gentle Reader” in which Dauksa explains the paramount
importance of the native tongue and voices his grief over the circumstance that
the mother tongue is despised in Lithuania:
„Where could you find in
the world a nation so dark and vile which not possess three innate things of
its own, viz., its own land, customs and language?.. A nation lives not by the
fertility of the soil, not by the diversity of garments, not by the pleasantness
of the country, not by the strength of its towns and castles, but most of all
by the preservation and usage of its own language which is the mainstay of a
nation and enhances its qualities, its concord and brotherly love. The native
tongue is the link of love, the mother of unity, the father of civic virtues,
the guardian of the state… Do away with the language, and you will do away
concord, unity and honesty whatsoever! Do away with the language, and you will
put out the sun in the sky, you will throw the world into disarray, you will
take away life and order!.. I say so not because I want to censure the
know-ledge of foreign languages… My sole aim is to stigmatise the neglect, the
contempt, nay, the outright rejection by us of our own Lithuanian language. God
grant you come to reason and rise one day from that degradation!.. I for my part will be content of having, with this my
modest booklet, initiated and awakened my people to love, keep and foster our
mother tongue.”
The above Prefatory Word, a
signal display of the anxiousness about the most precious possession of a
nation – its language, shows that even in those times of alien influences there
were people in Lithuania who understood the abnormality of the situation.
In 1629 there appeared the
Lithuanian-Polish-Latin dictionary by Konstantinas Sirvydas. The first Lithuanian grammar, written in Latin by
Daniel Klein, was printed in Königsberg in 1653. Many
of the books published at the time stressed the importance of the native tongue
and shoved concern for the spread of written Lithuanian. Unfortunately, these
were but isolated instances which did not bring about a vigorous cultural
development. Written Lithuanian got more and more burdened with Polonisms and few cared about its purity and improvement. The
18 th century can be called
the age of impoverishment of written Lithuanian and of the decline of
Lithuanian book publishing.
The spread of national
liberation ideas, the formation of the consciousness of the Lithuanian national
character and the rise of the Lithuanian intelligentsia brought about a gradual
revival of the popular traditions of the Lithuanian language only in the 19th
century. A galaxy of writers, such Dionizas Poska, Simonas Stanevicius, Simonas Daukantas, Motiejus Valancius, Antanas Baranauskas and others, were particularly prominent in this
field abolition of serfdom in 1861 many Lithuanian intellectuals of peasants
extraction began showing their concern for nationalism and the national
language. And despite an ever growing tsarist oppression ,
in the course of which printing of Lithuanian books in Lithuanian (Latin) type
was banned for four decades (1864 to 1904), the Lithuanian language experienced
a kind of renaissance.
Lithuanian books and
newspapers were printed abroad and then smuggled into Lithuania. People who had
some education taught secretly peasant children the Lithuanian ABC as well as
reading and writing.
Up to the last decades of
the 19th century
Thus
ultimately evolved a literary common to all Lithuanians. Spoken Lithuanian preserves still
dialects and subdialects, but these are gradually
levelled out under the impact of literary Lithuanian. Therefore, the collection
of old linguistic material still extant among the people and valuable for
linguistics is of paramount importance.