Perkūnas

Perkūnas (compare with Lithuanian perkūnas - "thunder," perkūnija - "thunder-storm," Latvian, pērkons and Prussian percunis) in the Lithuanian mythology was the god of thunder, lightning, and rain. In most cases it is represented a chief god.

Perkūnas has many unofficial interdict onomatopoeic names, like Dundulis, Dundutis, Dūdų senis, Tarškulis, Tarškutis, Blizgulis, etc. in Lithuanian.

Name origins

Perkūnas and Pērkons have cognates outside of the Baltic languages, such as:

• Old Slavic - Perun
• Belarus - Pyarun
• Old Indian - Parjanya
• Hittite - Pirva
• Albanian - Perëndi (probably)
• Thracian - Περχων
• Mordovian - Pur'gine-paza (not Indo-European language)
• Finnish and Lappish - Perkele (not Indo-European language)

Perkūnas' wife was named Perkūnija or Perkūnė. See Icelandic Fjorgyn, a name of mother of the Thunderer, and Germanic Fergunna (Latinized form).

The etymology is apparently uncertain. Proto-Indo-European per- (meaning: to strike) and perkwu- (meaning: oak) have been proposed. Comparisons can also be drawn to Hittite peruna (meaning: rock) and Sanskrit parvata (meaning: mountain). The later is supported by myths in which this god is associated with mountain tops. Also in Novgorod a sanctuary of Perun is located on a height called Perynj.

Earliest sources

The earliest attestation of Perkūnas seems to be in the Russian translation of the Chronicle of John Malala (1261) where it is spoken about worship "Перкоунови рекше громоу", and in the Livonian Rhymed Chronicle (around 1290) which mentions idol Perkūnė.

Chronicle of Simon Grunau (around 1520) describes a Prussian banner with Perkūnas on it. The god is represented as an angry middle aged man with the twisted black beard, topped with a flame. It stands between young Patrimpas and old Patulas. Perkūnas maintains the same central position in the description of the sacred oak in Romowe sanctuary. In front of the oak eternal fire (symbol of Perkūnas) was burned. Special priests served at the sanctuary. Old Prussians would try to appeal to the god by prayers. It is believed that some atributes of Perkūnas are borrowed from Perkuns in the Prussian mythology.

In the Constitutiones Synodales (1530) Perkūnas is mentionen in a list of gods before the god of the hell Pikuls and is identified with the Roman Jove (Jupiter). In the Sudovian Book Perkūnas (Parkuns) is mentioned in connection with ritual involving a goat. In Christian compositions, Perkūnas is a malicious spirit, a demon (as in Chronicle of John Malala or in Polish chronicler Jan Dlugosh (the 15th century) writings).

Representation

Perkūnas is the god of thunders and storms. In a triad of gods Perkūnas symbolizes the creative forces (including vegetative), courage, success, the top of the world, the sky, rain, thunder, heavenly fire (lightning) and cosmological elements, while Patrimpas is involved with the ground, crops, and cereals) and Patulas with hell and death. As a heavenly (atmospheric) deity Perkūnas, apparently, is the assistant and the executor of Dievas‘s will. However, Perkūnas tend to surpass Dievas because it can be actually seen and it has defined mythological functions.

Most information about Perkūnas comes from folklore songs. In songs about "heavenly wedding" the Sun cheats on Perkūnas with Mėnulis (the moon); Perkūnas splits Mėnulis in half with a sword. According to other, more popular, version, Mėnulis cheats on the Sun with Aušrinė (the morning star) just after wedding, and Perkūnas punishes it. However, it does not learn and repeats the adultery and is punished again every month. Other explanations say it is why the Sun shines during the day and the Moon at night. Though divorced, both want to see their daughter Žemyna (the Earth).

In other songs Perkūnas on the way to the wedding of Aušra (dawn; the daughter of the Sun) strikes a golden oak (most likely in order to expel evil spirits - velnias or snakes - that usually hide below the roots of an oak). Oak is a tree of thunder god not only in the Baltic mythology. Lithuanian Perkūno ąžuolas or Latvian Pērkona ozols ("oak of Perkūnas") is mentioned in a source dated 1st half of the 19th century).

Other myths say that Perkūnas and one Laumė (or Vaiva (rainbow) on some other accounts) were supposed to get married on Thursday, but the bride was kidnapped by velnias (devil) and Perkūnas hunts velnias ever since.

Some myths mention four sons of Perkūnas, that, apparently, is connected with the four seasons or with the four directions of the world (east, west, south and north). Sometimes there are seven (in connection to seven days of the week?) or nine Perkūnai referred to as brothers. It is said in Lithuanian "Perkūnų yra daug" (there are many thunders).

Perkūnas is also connected to Thursday. Thursday is the day of the Thunderer in many traditions: compare Polabian Peräune-dǻn ("day of Perun"), Lithuanian Perkūno diena, Latvian ceturdiena. Perkūnas in early sources is associated with Roman god Jupiter. Thursday is a day of thunder-storms and rains, and also of weddings.

In some myths Perkūnas expels his wife (and in some cases his children too) and remains in the sky by himself. Some myths offer a very different story: Dievas lifts Perkūnas from the earth into the sky. Perkūnas has stones in the sky (which create rumble during a storm) - the motive connected to Indo-European mythology. Perkūnas dwells on high hills or mountains: compare Lithuanian toponymy of Perkūnkalnis, "mountain of Perkūnas", or Griausmo kalnas, "mountain of rumble."

An important function of Perkūnas is to fight devil (in Latvian, velns, Lithuanian velnias). The image of velnias is affected by Christianity. It is placed as an opponent of Perkūnas. It is the god of hell and death. It names include Vels, Velnias, Velinas.

Perkūnas pursues his opponent velnias for picaroon or theft of fertility and cattle. Velnias hids in trees, under stones, or turns in various хтонических or demonic animals: a black cat, dog, pig, goat, in zoomorphic representatives of three elements (air, the earth and water) - a pigeon, lamb, pike, cow (compare to the Latvian representations of velnias a creature with the cow hoofs) or a person.

In some representations, lightnings are created by heavenly millstones (compare the general Indo-European root *mel|d| for the Balto-Slavic words meaning "lightning", "молот" (sledgehammer), "молотьба" (beating by sledgehammer)). An opponent of Perkūnas hids itself in a hollow of a tree, a stone (attributes of Perkūnas). The culmination of Perkūnas hunt for an opponent is a thunder-storm; it does not only clear the ground of evil spirits, but returns the stolen cattle or weapons.

Perkūnas pursues an opponent in the sky on a chariot, made from stone and fiery (Lithuanian ugnies ratai). Sometimes the chariot is made from red iron. It is harnessed by a pair (less often four or three) of red and white (or black and white) horses (sometimes goats). Compare the Lithuanian deity of horses and chariots Ratainyčia (Ratainicza mentioned in Lasick‘s works; from Lithuanian ratai - "wheel"). It is a mythologized image of a chariot of Didžioji Meška (Ursa Major). It agrees to Samogitian representations, where Perkūnas acts and as a horseman on a fiery horse. On heavenly chariot Perkūnas appears in a shape of a gray-haired old man with a big beard (it differs in colors), in white and black clothes, holding a goat on a cord in one hand and a horn or an axe - in another.

Perkūnas possesses a lot of weapons. They include an axe or sledgehammer, stones, a sword, beating lightnings, an onions and arrows, bullets, bat (club), birches (scourges, Dievo rykštė, "a scourge of the god," is mentioned in Diverikjzj, the Russian annals), a stone, iron, copper, or fiery knife. Perkūnas is the creator of the weapons (Akmeninis kalvis, "the stone smith") or it is helped by heavenly smith Televelis (Kalvelis).

In descriptions of rituals in honour of Perkūnas, it took the first place among the Baltic deities. It was allocated with universal functions, first of all the carrier of fertility. Compare, for example, ritual of calling for rain in Latvia (described in a latin source in 1610), made on a hill in a grove, with sacrifice of black animals, a meal, conections with fire, and relatives Western-Slavic (compare. Dodola, Peperuda) and others Indo-European parallels testifying to the greatest development of the Indo-European cult and mythology of the Thunderer in the Baltic tradition.

External links

• http://www.pantheon.org/articles/p/perkons.html
• http://ausis.gf.vu.lt/eka/mythology/sbp.html
• http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/lt-hist.html
• http://www.lituanus.org/1975/75_1_01.htm
• http://www.druidry.org/obod/deities/lithuanian_paganism.html
• http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/3503/lecture.html
• http://www.kresy.co.uk/lithuania.html
• http://www1.omnitel.net/sakmes/perkunas.html