Lithuanian mythology
Lithuanian mythology
Understand Lithuanian mythology through English pages about gods, goddesses, symbols, stories, and ritual context.
Key gods and goddesses
Perkūnas, Žemyna, Laima and Gabija are names that recur in songs, tales and customs. Each deity page gathers its domains, symbols and the evidence of the sources.
One theme, four reading paths
Follow Perkūnas and the oak into a mythological tale and a spring tradition.
Perkūnas is one of the clearest gods in Lithuanian and broader Baltic mythology: lord of thunder, lightning, storm, and rain, a pursuer of Velnias in folklore,…
In Lithuanian mythology and tradition the oak is a symbol of the sacred tree, strength, lineage, masculine power, Perkūnas, and the sacred grove.
A sakme about a hunter who helps Perkūnas shoot Velnias and receives a magically loaded gun whose power disappears when he boasts.
Jore is a Lithuanian spring greenery festival marking the awakening of nature, the first force of growth, the light of Perkunas, community gathering, and the…
Beings and symbols
Kaukai and the souls of the dead live in folk tales, while rue, the goat and the owl appear in songs, textiles and feasts. Both sections complete the world of the deities.
How to read Lithuanian mythology
Old Lithuanian religion and mythology cannot be reconstructed from one source. The English pages connect chronicles, folklore, ethnography, language, place memory, and custom while keeping source status visible.