BALTIC RELIGION

The religion, typically agricultural, of the Baltic peoples (Latvians, Lithuanians, and Old Prussians). Among the high gods primacy was enjoyed by the gods of heaven. Dievs (Heaven), through etymology directly connected with Dyāus, Zeus, and Jupiter, was the most important of these. In his concrete form he was regarded as a great farmer who worked his fields in the same manner as the modern Latvian peasant. Generally, he was the arbiter of welfare and prosperity. Only Saule (the Sun, a goddess) could compete in importance with Dievs. She was usually regarded as the patroness of fertility, and numerous myths of the courtship of gods were associated with her. A prominent place was allotted also to Pērkons (Thunder), a god of fertility, and Mēness (Moon, a male deity), in whom one can discern traits of a god of war.

Much clearer in her functions was the earth goddess (called Mother Earth). She was patron of fertility, but, at the same time, seems to have been the source of a number of mythical figures of chthonic character. Of the feminine deities, however, Laima, the goddess of Fate, was the most fully developed. She belonged to the Indo-European group of arbiters of fate or destiny, and had a central place in Baltic religion.

Beside these higher deities there were numerous mythological figures who were generally connected with the different phases of agricultural life. The functions of these lower beings and those of the higher gods were not strictly delimited.

The higher gods received a definite cult, which was connected especially with important occasions in human life, and with annual feasts. There were birth and wedding rites; the summer solstice and the harvest were celebrated with special solemnity.

Bibliography: h. biezais, "Baltische Religion," Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart ³ 1:856–859, with bibliog.; Die Hauptgöttinnen der alten Letten (Uppsala 1955); Die Gottesgestalt der lettischen Volksreligion (Uppsala 1961).

[h. biezais]