Dangus baltų mitiniame pasaulėvaizdyje

LTKnygos autorė, senovės baltų kultūros tyrinėtoja, pasiremdama autentiškais šaltiniais, atskleidžia dangaus ir jo šviesulių sampratą, atkuria dangaus vaizdinių pirmykštę prasmę, aiškinasi jų kilmę. Dangaus mitologinis vaizdynas, savo šaknimis siekiantis tolimą praeitį, atspindi mūsų protėvių mąstyseną, vertybes, įgalina rekonstruoti kažkada gyvavusį Kosmoso ir jame regimų reiškinių suvokimą. [Iš leidinio]Reikšminiai žodžiai: Lietuvos istorija; Pagonybė; Baltai; Mitologija; Etnologija; Simboliai; Istoriniai šaltiniai; The Lithuanian history; The Paganism; Balts; The Mythology; Simbols; Historical sources.

ENCommon to almost all cultures, the mythical concept of the sky reflects a once-dominant archaic worldview. This scholarly study describes and reconstructs the ancient Baltic model of the sky, as well as the imagery and motifs that comprise, connect, and unite it. The concepts of the Sun, the Moon and the Rainbow, alongside other observable astronomical objects and phenomena, are also recreated, and their relation to each other is explored. The research is based on linguistic information, written sources on the Baltic religion and mythology, and Lithuanian and Latvian folklore. The reconstructed Baltic imagery of the sky has preserved some elements of the Indo-European sub-ethnic worldview, therefore, potentially, it is an important source for the recreation not only of Baltic mythology, but also of spiritual culture of the Indo-Europeans. In the Lithuanian language, the word "dangus" ("sky") originates from the verb "dengti" ("to cover"). Western Baltic Prussian tribes used the same word "dangus" (acc. "dangon", "dengon", -an), whereas the Latvians’ word for it, "debess", is based on a different root. Only the Lithuanians and the Prussians used the same lexeme to describe the sky, which suggests that they saw it as a vast cosmic lid covering all people and the world they inhabited. Based on studies into the archaic religions, the sky might have been imagined to be made of a hard substance, like stone. The archaic imagery of a stone sky is connected to the etiology of thunder, especially its powerful sound of crashing and rumbling that was perceived as cutting across the entire universe. The sound of thunder is reminiscent of moving boulders: rolling, falling, crumbling, and crashing against each other. Thus, according to prevalent beliefs, there were huge rocks up in the sky the collapse of which caused the crashing noise of thunder.Alternately, it was the work of the god Perkūnas, who was either driving his chariot on a cobbled stone road, carrying boulders in his chariot and then emptying them out, or simply rolling the stones along. In Baltic mythology the sky also symbolises the paternal God figure, as the light that shrouds the human world and the mysterious force and energy that affected it. The connection between the Sky and God is confirmed by the etymology of the IndoEuropean *diēus (diiēus), "dievas". This word is associated with the root *dei-, dī-, diā- meaning "to shine, to sparkle". The Lithuanian word "dievas", Latvian "dievs" and Prussian "deywis" are also derived from the same root. In a mythical worldview, the Sun was considered the central astronomical object'and one of the dominant forces of Cosmos surrounding the humans and perceived by them. Both in Lithuanian and Latvian, the nouns denoting the Sun are both of feminine grammatical gender ("saulė" and "saule", respectively); in folklore, the Sun is also depicted as female. Traditionally, the Balts deified not only the sky, but also its various celestial objects, including the Sun. The view of the Sun as a deity is supported by folk songs where her imagery is of a figure wearing a crown, and legends where the Sun dominates over other personified celestial bodies. Omniscience was also attributed to the Sun, as she was regarded to be "the eye of God". The adoration of the Sun is also expressed by the presence of a solar cult in annual cyclical celebrations and in daily rituals: small prayers and addresses (that later evolved into ritual songs), ritual dances, bowing to the Sun on certain occasions, and the existence of sacred hills devoted to the Sun. The high-ranking status of the Sun is also seen in the way she is addressed as "mother" in folk songs (Lith. motinėlė, Latvian mamulina).This suggests a connection between the Sun and the role of the Mother in the family. The parallel with the Mother is probably the best description of the Sun’s status in the archaic worldview that reflects both the folk conception and the commonly used terminology. [...]. [Extract, p. 247-249]

• Etnologija / Ethnology
• Istorija / History