LithuanianLithuanian is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognized as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.96 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 170,000 abroad. Lithuanian is a Baltic language, closely related to Latvian, although they...
Dievas,
LatvianLatvian is the official state language of Latvia. It is also sometimes referred to as Lettish. There are about 1.4 million native Latvian speakers in Latvia and about 150,000 abroad. The Latvian language has a relatively large number of non-native speakers, atypical for a small language...
Dievs,
PrussianPrussian is an extinct Baltic language, once spoken by the inhabitants of Prussia in an area of what later became East Prussia and eastern parts of Pomerelia...
Deywis,
YotvingianSudovian is an extinct western Baltic language in Northeastern Europe. Closely related to the Old Prussian language, it was formerly spoken southwest of the Nemunas river in what is now Lithuania, East of Galindia and North of Yotvingia, and as exiles in East Prussia...
Deivas was the supreme god in the
Baltic mythologyFor Baltic mythology, see*Latvian mythology*Lithuanian mythology...
and one of the most important deities together with
PerkūnasPerkūnas was the common Baltic god of thunder, one of the most important deities in the Baltic pantheon. In both Lithuanian and Latvian mythology, he is documented as the god of thunder, rain, mountains, oak trees and the sky.-Etymology:The name continues PIE *, cognate to *, a word for "oak",...
. Dievas is a direct successor of the
Proto-Indo-EuropeanThe Proto-Indo-Europeans were the speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language , an unattested but now reconstructed prehistoric language....
supreme god
*Dyēus*Dyēus is the reconstructed chief deity of the Proto-Indo-European pantheon. He was the god of the daylight sky, and his position may have mirrored the position of the patriarch or monarch in society....
of the root
*deiwo-. Its
Proto-BalticThe Baltic languages are a group of related languages belonging to the Indo-European language family and spoken mainly in areas extending east and southeast of the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe...
form was *
Deivas.
In English, Dievas may be used as a word to describe the God (or, the supreme god) in the pre-Christian religion of Balts, where Dievas was understood to be the supreme being of the
worldWorld is a highly common name for the planet Earth, but it was originally used to mean the sum of human civilization living on it, specifically human experience, history, or the 'human condition' in general....
.
LithuanianLithuanian is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognized as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.96 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 170,000 abroad. Lithuanian is a Baltic language, closely related to Latvian, although they...
Dievas,
LatvianLatvian is the official state language of Latvia. It is also sometimes referred to as Lettish. There are about 1.4 million native Latvian speakers in Latvia and about 150,000 abroad. The Latvian language has a relatively large number of non-native speakers, atypical for a small language...
Dievs,
PrussianPrussian is an extinct Baltic language, once spoken by the inhabitants of Prussia in an area of what later became East Prussia and eastern parts of Pomerelia...
Deywis,
YotvingianSudovian is an extinct western Baltic language in Northeastern Europe. Closely related to the Old Prussian language, it was formerly spoken southwest of the Nemunas river in what is now Lithuania, East of Galindia and North of Yotvingia, and as exiles in East Prussia...
Deivas was the supreme god in the
Baltic mythologyFor Baltic mythology, see*Latvian mythology*Lithuanian mythology...
and one of the most important deities together with
PerkūnasPerkūnas was the common Baltic god of thunder, one of the most important deities in the Baltic pantheon. In both Lithuanian and Latvian mythology, he is documented as the god of thunder, rain, mountains, oak trees and the sky.-Etymology:The name continues PIE *, cognate to *, a word for "oak",...
. Dievas is a direct successor of the
Proto-Indo-EuropeanThe Proto-Indo-Europeans were the speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language , an unattested but now reconstructed prehistoric language....
supreme god
*Dyēus*Dyēus is the reconstructed chief deity of the Proto-Indo-European pantheon. He was the god of the daylight sky, and his position may have mirrored the position of the patriarch or monarch in society....
of the root
*deiwo-. Its
Proto-BalticThe Baltic languages are a group of related languages belonging to the Indo-European language family and spoken mainly in areas extending east and southeast of the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe...
form was *
Deivas.
In English, Dievas may be used as a word to describe the God (or, the supreme god) in the pre-Christian religion of Balts, where Dievas was understood to be the supreme being of the
worldWorld is a highly common name for the planet Earth, but it was originally used to mean the sum of human civilization living on it, specifically human experience, history, or the 'human condition' in general....
. In Lithuanian and Latvian, it is also used to describe God as it is understood by major world religions today. Earlier *Deivas simply denoted the shining sunlit
dome of the skyThe sky is the part of the atmosphere or of outer space visible from the surface of any astronomical object. It is difficult to define precisely for several reasons. During daylight, the sky of Earth has the appearance of a deep blue surface because of the air's scattering of sunlight. The sky is...
, as in other Indo-European mythologies.
Lithuanian conception of divinity
The conception of divinity in
the old Lithuanian religionLithuanian mythology is an example of pagan mythology containing archaic elements, developed by Lithuanians throughout the centuries.-History of scholarship:The information about Baltic paganism in general is very sketchy and incomplete...
still is not always clear to modern scholars. A number of them suggest, that Lithuanians applied a
pantheisticPantheism is the view that everything is part of an all-encompassing immanent God and that the Universe and God are equivalent...
concept for their religion. This concept, according to the ideas of modern researchers, had to include the following:
- recognition of a single Divine Being, that is the core entity of the Universe.
- recognition of multiple divine beings, that are on a different level of the main God or, in other words, hypostases
In Christian usage, the Greek word hypostasis has a complicated and sometimes confusing history, but its literal meaning is "that which stands beneath".-Hellenic philosophy:...
of the single God.
- recognition of direct participation of the single God in lower levels in shape of lower beings (of manifestation
Manifestation may refer to any one of the following:* the Manifestation of God, which are the prophets of the Bahá'í Faith* the Law of Attraction is a New Age thought that people can manifest reality using thoughts* manifestation of glass, ie...
s of the God). The known later sources give exclusively human shape of God, but it may be a limitation added by Christianity. The told manifestations of the God have features of modesty, fairness, chastity, delicacy etc., that show some moral priorities of ancient Lithuanians.
However, this understanding excludes conception of a pantheon or of some other possible council of gods in the old pagan Lithuanian religion.
Many well established sources concerning Lithuanian mythology do not contradict this conception, although there is not much data available. The lack of data leaves a wide gap for interpretations, and as a consequence, many scholars do not agree on all of the points above.
For example, a historian of the early 19th century, Theodor Narbutt, took the presence of the pantheon in Lithuanian mythology as an axiom. And, in spite of being subsequently criticized that his sources were unreliable, and that his interpretations not always concur with evident data from Lithuanian folklore, Narbutt's mythology, that was presented in pictorial and detailed way. His works had certain influence on thinking and ideas of some scholars.
Gintaras BeresnevičiusGintaras Beresnevičius was a Lithuanian historian of religions specializing in Baltic mythology. He together with Norbertas Vėlius is considered to be the best specialist in Lithuanian mythology....
noted that Dievas assumed a position of non-active divine being -
deus otiosusDeus otiosus or "idle god" is a theological concept used to describe the belief in a creator god who largely retires from the world and is no longer involved in its daily operation, a central tenet of Deism. A similar concept is that of the deus absconditus or "hidden god" of Thomas Aquinas...
- therefore his cult among the Balts was doubtful and that sacred places devoted to Dangaus Dievas are not even mentioned in the Baltic mythology.
Concerning the God (Dievas) in the old Lithuanian religion, modern interpretations lack sources too. Regardless, that the conception of the single Chief God was acknowledged by Lithuanians is well documented and is not in doubt. The word
Dievas itself seems to be omitted respectfully or changed to its
epithetAn epithet is a descriptive word or phrase accompanying or occurring in place of the name of a person or thing, which has become a fixed formula...
s in Lithuanian:
Aukščiausiasis ('the Highest'),
Visagalis ('the Omnipotent'),
Praamžis ('the Eternal one') or
Pondzejis ('Lord God') and in Prussian as
Occopirmzts.
Manifestations
Many of the descriptions of Dievas are known from early Christian texts from Lithuania, which are presumably not a reliable source for earlier times. No earlier sources that describe Dievas in detail have been found. The myths describe Dievas manifesting in the shape of man only, particularly the shape of an old male sage or an old male beggar. But the linguistic data, e.g. the name for the
SouthernwoodSouthernwood is a flowering plant. Found in Europe, the genus Artemisia was named for the Goddess Artemis. Southernwood is known by many other names including Old Man, Boy's Love, Oldman Wormwood, Lover's Plant, Appleringie, Garderobe, Our Lord's Wood, Maid's Ruin, Garden Sagebrush, European Sage,...
in Lithuanian,
Diemedis, literally the God-tree, as well as some hints in historical legends suggest, that the manifestations might be believed to take other forms besides the human, like forms of animals, birds or plants.