Lithuanian mythology () is the mythology of Lithuanian polytheism, the religion of pre-Christian Lithuanians. Like other Indo-Europeans, ancient Lithuanians maintained a polytheistic mythology and religious structure. In pre-Christian Lithuania, mythology was a part of polytheistic religion; after Christianisation, mythology survived mostly in folklore, customs, and festive rituals. Lithuanian mythology is very close to the mythology of other Baltic nations, such as Prussians and Latvians, and is considered a part of Baltic mythology.
Sources and evidence
Early Lithuanian religion and customs were based on oral tradition. Therefore, the first records about Lithuanian mythology and beliefs were made by travellers, Christian missionaries, chronicle writers, and historians. Original Lithuanian oral tradition partially survived in national ritual and festive songs and legends, which started to be written down in the 18th century. Contemporary scholarship posits that few reliable sources on Lithuanian paganism have survived. These sources are often formulaic, limited in informational depth, and subject to standardized interpretations as guessed by Marius Ščavinskas who also says that the old (pagan) customs (about which we know practically nothing).M. Ščavinskas (2018). Book review: Darius Baronas, S.C. Rowell, The Conversion of Lithuania. From Pagan Barbarians to the Late Medieval Christians, Vilnius: Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore, 2015, 627 p., ISBN 978-609-425-152-8. Lithuanian Historical Studies. 22. 2018. p. 167.
The oldest known texts about Baltic religion were written by Herodotus (in which he describes the Neuri in his Histories) and Tacitus (who mentions in Germania that Aestii wear boar figures and worship a mother of gods). The Neuri were mentioned by Roman geographer Pomponius Mela. In the 9th century, there is one attestation about Prussian (Aestii) funeral traditions by Wulfstan. In the 11th century, Adam of Bremen mentioned Prussians living in Sambia and their holy groves. 12th century Muslim geographer al-Idrisi mentioned Balts in The Book of Roger as worshipers of Holy Fire and their flourishing city Madsun (Mdsūhn, Mrsunh, Marsūna).
The first recorded Baltic myth, The Tale of Sovij, was detected as the complementary insert in the copy of Chronographia (Χρονογραφία) of Greek chronicler John Malalas, from Antioch, rewritten in 1262 in Lithuania. It is the first recorded Baltic myth and also the first placed among myths of other nations – Greek, Roman and others. The Tale of Sovij describes the establishing of cremation custom which was common among Lithuanians and other Baltic nations. The names of the Baltic gods :lt:Andajus, Perkūnas, :lt:Žvorūna, and a smith-god :lt:Teliavelis are mentioned.
When the Prussian Crusade and Lithuanian Crusade started, more first-hand knowledge about beliefs of Balts were recorded, but these records were mixed with propaganda about "infidels". One of the first valuable sources is the 1249 Treaty of Christburg between the pagan Prussian clans, represented by a papal legate, and the Teutonic Knights. The treaty mentions the worship of Kurkas (Curche), the god of harvest and grain, as well as pagan priests (Tulissones vel Ligaschones) who performed certain rituals at funerals.
Chronicon terrae Prussiae is a major source for information on the Teutonic Order's battles with Old Prussians and Lithuanians. It mentions Prussian religion and the center of Baltic religion – Romuva, where lived Kriwe-Kriwajto, a powerful priest who was held in high regard by the Prussians, Lithuanians, and the Balts of Livonia. The Livonian Rhymed Chronicle, which covers the period 1180 – 1343, contains records about the ethical codex of the Lithuanians and other Baltic peoples. Descriptiones terrarum was written by an anonymous author in the middle of 13th century. The author was a guest at the coronation of Lithuanian king Mindaugas. The author mentions that Lithuanians, Yotvingians, and Nalsenians embraced Christianity quite easily, since their childhood nuns were usually Christian, but Christianity in Samogitia was introduced only with a sword.
Die Littauischen Wegeberichte (The descriptions of Lithuanian routes) is a compilation of 100 routes into the western Grand Duchy of Lithuania prepared by the Teutonic Knights and their spies in 1384–1402. It contains descriptions of Lithuanian holy groves and sacrificial places (alkas). The Hypatian Codex, written in 1425, mentions Lithuanian gods and customs. Simon Grunau was the author of Preussische Chronik, written sometime between 1517 and 1529. It became the main source for research of Prussian mythology and one of the main sources of Lithuanian mythology researchers and reconstructors. It was the first source which described the flag of Vaidevutis. The book however also contained many questionable ideas.
Pierre d'Ailly, French theologian and cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church mentions the Sun (Saulė) as one of the most important Lithuanian gods, which rejuvenates the world as its spirit. Like Romans, Lithuanians consecrate the Sunday entirely for the Sun. Although they worship the Sun, they have no temples. The astronomy of Lithuanians is, however, based on the lunar calendar.
Enea Silvio Bartolomeo Piccolomini, who later became Pope Pius II, in the section de Europa of his book Historia rerum ubique gestarum, cites Jerome of Prague, who attested Lithuanians worshiping the Sun and the iron hammer which was used to free it from the tower in which it was being held captive. He also mentions Christian missionaries felling the holy groves and sacred oaks, which Lithuanians believed to be the homes of their gods. Jan Łasicki created De diis Samagitarum caeterorumque Sarmatarum et falsorum Christianorum (Concerning the gods of Samagitians, and other Sarmatians and false Christians), written c. 1582 and published in 1615. Although it has some important facts, it also contains many inaccuracies, as he did not know Lithuanian and relied for his sources upon the first-hand accounts of others. The list of Lithuanian gods, provided by Jan Łasicki, is still considered as important and of interest for Lithuanian mythology. Later researchers Teodor Narbutt, Simonas Daukantas, and Jonas Basanavičius relied on his work.
Matthäus Prätorius, in his two-volume Deliciae Prussicae oder Preussische Schaubühne, written in 1690, collected facts about Prussian and Lithuanian rituals. He idealises the culture of Prussians and considers it belonging to the culture of the Antique world. The Sudovian Book is an anonymous work about the customs, religion, and daily life of the Prussians from Sambia (Semba). The manuscript was written in German in the 16th century. The book includes a list of Prussian gods, sorted in a generally descending order from sky to earth to underworld, and was an important source for reconstructing Baltic and Lithuanian mythology.
The Pomesanian statute book of 1340 is the earliest attested document of the customary law of the Balts, as well as the works of Dietrich of Nieheim (Cronica) and Sebastian Münster (Cosmographia).
Lithuanian song collections were recorded by Liudvikas Rėza, Antanas Juška and many others in 19th century and later, among them mythological and ritual songs. For example, the song recorded by L. Rėza - Mėnuo saulužę vedė (How the Moon married the Sun) reflects beliefs that L. Rėza stated were still alive at the moment of recording. Folklore collections by, among others, Mečislovas Davainis-Silvestraitis (collected about 700 Samogitian fairy-tales and tales (sakmės)) and Jonas Basanavičius (collected hundreds of songs, tales, melodies and riddles).
Scholarship Surviving information about Baltic mythology in general is fragmented. As with most ancient Indo-European cultures (e.g. Greece and India), the original primary mode of transmission of seminal information such as myths, stories, and customs was oral, the then-unnecessary custom of writing being introduced later during the period of the text-based culture of Christianity. Most of the early written accounts are very brief and made by foreigners, usually Christians, who disapproved of pagan traditions. Some academics regard some texts as inaccurate misunderstandings or even fabrications. In addition, many sources list many different names and different spellings, thus sometimes it is not clear if they are referring to the same thing.
Lithuania became Christianized between the end of the 14th century and the beginning of the 15th century, but Lithuanian polytheism survived for another two centuries, gradually losing influence and coherence as a religion. The last conceptions of the old religion survived approximately until the beginning of the 19th century. The relics of the old polytheistic religion were already interwoven with songs, tales, and other mythic stories. Gradually, Lithuanian polytheism customs and songs merged with the Christian tradition. At the beginning of the 20th century, Michał Pius Römer noted - "Lithuanian folklore culture having its sources in heathenism is in complete concord with Christianity".
In 1883, Edmund Veckenstedt published a book Die Mythen, Sagen und Legenden der Zamaiten (Litauer) ().
It is not easy to reconstruct Lithuanian mythology in its entirety, not least because it did not remain static, but developed constantly, undergoing considerable change during the centuries of its survival.
J. Dlugosz tried to research myths and religion of ancient Lithuanians. He considered it close to the ancient culture of Rome. Almost all authors of Renaissance - J. Dlugosz, M. Stryjkowski, J. Lasicki, M. Prätorius, and others, relied not only on previous authors and chroniclers, but included facts and attestations of their time as well. Since Renaissance scholars were quite knowledgeable about the culture of ancient world, their interpretation of Lithuanian religion was affected by Roman or Greek cultures.
Many scholars preferred to write their own reconstructions of Lithuanian mythology, based also on historical, archaeological, and ethnographic data. The first such reconstruction was written by the Lithuanian historian Theodor Narbutt at the beginning of the 19th century.
Interest in the language and mythology of the Lithuanians grew steadily among Indo-Europeanists, who were coming to appreciate the innate linguistic and cultural conservatism of the Baltic nations and the relevance of such archaic survivals to their attempts at reconstructing the remote, Indo-European past.
Italian linguist , along with his research of Baltic languages, studied Lithuanian mythology. Two well-known attempts at reconstruction have been attempted more recently by Marija Gimbutas and Algirdas Julien Greimas. According to G. Beresenevičius, it is impossible to reconstruct the Lithuanian mythology in its entirety, since only fragments survived. Marija Gimbutas explored Lithuanian and Baltic mythology using her method - archaeomythology, where archeological findings are interpreted through known mythology. V. Ivanov and V. Toporov used a material related to the Lithuanian spells to restore the Indo-European myths.
The most modern academics exploring Lithuanian mythology in the second half of the 20th century were Norbertas Vėlius and Gintaras Beresnevičius.
Gods and mythological figures
The pantheon of Lithuania was formed during thousands of years by merging pre-Indo-European and Indo-European traditions. Feminine gods such as Žemyna (goddess of the earth) are attributed to pre-Indo-European tradition,Gimbutas, Marija; Miriam Robbins Dexter (1999). The Living Goddesses. University of California Press. pp. 199, 208-209. . whereas the expressive thunder-god Perkūnas is considered to derive from Indo-European religion. The hierarchy of the gods depended also on social strata of ancient Lithuanian society.