Making sense of the traditional Lithuanian pantheon

Lithuanians, traditionally, were polytheistic and, collectively, had a very large and diverse pantheon but not everyone had the same pantheon. This makes it impossible to ascertain one single pan Lithuanian pantheon. There were large differences in pantheons of families, individual people and communities as a result of geography, region, dialect, caste or because they related to their own profession. One thing is certain is that the Thunder God, Perkunas, appears to have been recognised by all people in Lithuania as is evident by the large number of sayings, proverbs and curses, still in use to this day, and throughot Lithuania, there are many place names that relate to Perkunas, His myths or His qualities. All this indicates how important this deity was in the minds of pre Christian Lithuanians. Today, I will just focus on the Pantheon of the Lithuanians without trying to determine any supposed hierarchy. Lastly, in this post, I want to convey the thoughts of the late Krivis Trinkunas which seems to simplify the complexity of the traditional Lithuanian pantheon.

Geography played a part in choosing which deities were included in the pantheon of a community. For example, the deities in the pantheon of people who lived by the sea might have been different to that of a persons pantheon who lived by a lake, forest or river, etc.

Many of the deities who were honoured by Lithuanians of the past were related to their own profession. For example,

*Goddess Austeja and the God Bubilas were known of well by Beekeepers.

*The God Teliavelis/Kalvelis were known by Blacksmiths mainly.

*The legends of the Mermaid Goddess, Jurate, and the storm God, Bangputys, were mainly known by fishermen and seamen.

*The pantheon of house, family and farmstead deities can be different in each household.

*The belief and sacrifice to the Goddess Medeina was mostly held by hunters and perhaps forest foragers.

*Deities related to all aspects of agriculture were known to most farmers.

*People involved in animal husbandry and the care of animals had their own pantheon of important Deities.

There are many examples of how the pantheons of Lithuanians of the past were different according to their own profession. There really are too many examples of different deities to name. Just about everything was deified. This gave rise to outsiders,(who didn't truly understand) having the erroneous belief that Lithuanians were pantheists. The mythologies of the Deities were varied in the different regions of Lithuania, the people of different regions of Lithuania may have known variations of the same tales, but some deities may not even been known at all. Certain deities and their mythologies were perhaps only known to those people in that specific profession, their families and some people in the community.

Caste or social standing also played a big part in determining which deities would be included in their own. pantheon. Lithuanians, traditionally had 4 castes or classes. There was, 

*the peasant class,

*the priest class, 

*the warrior class,

*the nobility class.

Although the deities in the pantheons of people from all these classes or castes were varied, the Thunder God, Perkunas, appeared to be common to all, although attention was drawn to different qualities of the God in the different classes. For example, People in the peasant class looked to Perkunas for agricultural concerns while the warrior class and nobility classes looked to Perkunas for His strength, might, justice and His qualities for war. The priest class always seemed to recognise Perkunas in their rites which were performed for the different classes. The Thunder God, Perkunas, is attested to be the greatest and mightiest God of Lithuania. A whole post needs to be dedicated to just to Him but I can say that the Thunder God is quite an international figure in the pantheons of many cultures.

I can't determine if celestial bodies of the Mother Sun and Brother Moon were included in everyones pantheon, in Lithuania, but I do know that there were many folktales about the Morning Star throughout the country. In the Folk Art of Lithuania, people used many symbols, patterns or designs that were used to depict the Sun, Moon and Stars. The symbols would be woven, stitched, sewn or embroidered into fabric, carved into the wooden items, including household items and even often used in the art of metal workers. I believe that, because of the prolific use of these representations of the celestial bodies,(and snakes), in Folk Art, that these deities played an important role in the minds of many Lithuanians and  probably were included in the pantheons with which they lived.

Although there are many differences in the pantheons of the Lithuanians of the past, all pantheons can be divided by deities of light and Deities of Darkness. The late Krivis Trinkunas, founder of Romuva, states in one of his books, that the world is considered to be eternal and is constantly being created and destroyed by these deities of light and dark. Deities of light can be grouped as the creative deities and mostly atmospheric deities, although some atmospheric deities, such as Bangputys,(God of storms), can be seen as a destructive deity. Deities of Darkness can be grouped as deities of the Chthonic world, the Underworld, of death and destruction.

I believe that this post may help to make more sense of the Lithuanian pantheon and I hope this post might answer some questions about it. Although the Lithuanian pantheon might be impossible to define, it is possible to glean some understanding of how, the Lithuanians of the past, may have had with such a diverse pantheon. This post has led me to re evaluate my own personal pantheon and how the Lithuanian deities in it relate to me personally.