page_title: Lithuanian mythology
section_title: Pantheon of Lithuanian gods
hierarchical_section_title: Lithuanian mythology / Pantheon of Lithuanian gods
caption_attribution_description: Flag of mythical Prussian king Widewuto, by en:Caspar Hennenberger after a description by Simon Grunau (16th century).
context_page_description: 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 – Prussians, Latvians, and is considered a part of Baltic mythology.
context_section_description: The pantheon of Lithuanian was formed during thousands of years by merging pre-Indo-European and Indo-European traditions. Feminine gods such as Žemyna - the god of Earth attributed to pre-Indo-European tradition. Very expressive thunder-god Perkūnas came with Indo-European religion. The hierarchy of the gods depended also on social strata of ancient Lithuanian society.
  Dievas also called Dievas senelis (old man God), Dangaus Dievas (the God of heaven) - the supreme god. It is descended from Proto-Indo-European *deiwos, "celestial" or "shining", from the same root as *Dyēus, the reconstructed chief god of the Proto-Indo-European pantheon.  It relates to ancient Greek Zeus (Ζευς or Δίας), latin Dius Fidius, luvian Tiwat, German Tivaz. The name Dievas is being used in Christianity as the name of God.
  Andajus (Andajas, Andojas) was mentioned in chronicles as the most powerful and highest god of Lithuanians. Lithuanians cried its name in a battle. It might just an epithet of the supreme god - Dievas.
  Perkūnas, god of thunder, also synonimically called Dundulis, Bruzgulis, Dievaitis, Grumutis etc. It closely relates to many Indo-European mythologies – the Vedic Parjanya, Celtic Taranis, Germanic Thor. There is a Finnic Mordvin/Erza thunder god named Pur'ginepaz which in folklore has themes resembling Lithuanian Perkunas. Perkūnas is the assistant and executor of Dievas‘s will. It also associates with the oak tree.
  Dievo sūneliai (the "sons of Dievas") –  Ašvieniai, pulling the carriage of Saulė (the Sun) through the sky. Like the Greek Dioscuri Castor and Pollux, it is a mytheme of the Divine twins common to the Indo-European mythology. Two well-accepted descendants of the Divine Twins, the Vedic Aśvins and the Lithuanian Ašvieniai, are linguistic cognates ultimately deriving from the Proto-Indo-European word for the horse, *h₁éḱwos. They are related to Sanskrit áśva and Avestan aspā (from Indo-Iranian *aćua), and to Old Lithuanian ašva, all sharing the meaning of "mare".
  Velnias (Velas, Velinas) – chthonic god of the underworld, related to the cult of dead. The root of the word is the same as of Lithuanian: vėlė – soul of the deceased. After the introduction of Christianity it was equated with evil and Velnias became a Lithuanian name for devil. In some tales, Velnias (the devil) was the first owner of fire. God sent a swallow, which managed to steal the fire. 
  Žemyna (Žemė, Žemelė) (from Lithuanian: žemė – earth) is the goddess of the earth. It relates to Thracian Zemele (mother earth), Greek Semelē (Σεμέλη). She is usually regarded as mother goddess and one of the chief Lithuanian gods. Žemyna personifies the fertile earth and nourishes all life on earth, human, plant, and animal. The goddess is said to be married to either Perkūnas (thunder god) or Praamžius (manifestation of chief heavenly god Dievas). Thus the couple formed the typical Indo-European pair of mother-earth and father-sky. It was believed that in each spring the earth needs to be impregnated by Perkūnas - the heavens rain and thunder. Perkūnas unlocks (atrakina) the Earth. It was prohibited to plow or sow before the first thunder as the earth would be barren.
  Žvėrinė (Žvorūna, Žvorūnė) – is the goddess of hunting and forest animals. Medeina is the name in other sources.
  Žemėpatis (from Lithuanian: žemė – earth and Lithuanian: pàts – denoting autonomous decision maker, ruler) – god of the land, harvest, property and homestead. Martynas Mažvydas in 1547 in his Catechism urged to abandon cult of Žemėpatis.
  Žvaigždikis (Žvaigždystis, Žvaigždukas, Švaistikas) – the god of the stars, powerful god of light, who provided light for the crops, grass and the animals. He was known as  Svaikstikas (Suaxtix, Swayxtix, Schwayxtix, Schwaytestix) by Yotvingians.
  Gabija (also known as Gabieta, Gabeta) is the spirit or goddess of the fire. She is the protector of family fireplace (šeimos židinys) and family. Her name is derived from (from Lithuanian: gaubti – to cover, to protect). It was no allowed to step on firewood, since it was considered a food for fire goddess. Even to
caption: The purported flag of Vaidevutis
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