The name Saulė/Saule is both the ordinary word for the Sun in Lithuanian and Latvian and the personal name of the solar being; linguistically it descends from Proto-Baltic *Sauliā/*Saulē. Folklore presents multiple variant accounts of Saulė's relations and episodes (for example, narratives in which the Moon is punished or the Sun is briefly captive), but no single canonical cosmogonic origin story is given in the surveyed material. Medieval and folkloric texts preserve episodic tales (such as a medieval account of the Sun being held captive and later restored) presented as variant traditions rather than a unified creation myth.
Folksongs and tales offer multiple, overlapping motifs rather than a single portrait: Saulė is anthropomorphized and richly ornamented — described in variants as wearing garments woven with gold, silver or silk thread, a sparkling crown, golden slippers, belts, ribbons and tassels, or white/silver clothing. Solar imagery includes red (morning), gold and silver colors, and metaphors such as a golden wheel or circle. Vehicles and accoutrements vary by tale: chariots or carriages with golden or copper wheels, a silver or golden boat, horses (sometimes white or described with metallic colors), and in some accounts a small sleigh made of fish-bones. These elements occur across sources as folkloric variants rather than a single canonical outfit.
Saulė functions as the living Sun: she is the solar goddess associated with life and fertility and is described as responsible for earthly life in folk descriptions. Cosmologically she rises, rides across the sky in a vehicle (chariot, carriage, or boat) during the day and sinks or rests at night (variously said to sleep in the bottom of a lake, sail to an island, or dwell in an eastern silver-gated castle). She figures in seasonal cycles and feast days (summer solstice/Rasos, Līgo/Jāņi; winter solstice as Saulė's return). Mythic relationships are important to her actions: she is frequently depicted as wife to Mėnuo/Mēness (the Moon), mother to figures including Aušrinė (the morning star) and other planetary personifications named in Lithuanian lore (Indraja/Jupiter, Sėlija/Saturn, Žiezdrė/Mars, Vaivora/Mercury), and as patroness of the unfortunate (especially orphans). Folktales include episodic motifs — for example, accounts of Saulė being kidnapped and later rescued — presented as variant narrative traditions.
Aitvaras
Aitvaras is a Baltic (primarily Lithuanian) household/nature spirit that, according to available summaries, lodges in homes and provides its household with material goods—often described as stolen gold and grain—while also bringing misfortune or trouble. It is variously described as a rooster- or chicken-like bird indoors and as a dragon-like or serpentine bird outdoors, often with fiery/meteor imagery.
Alatyr
A sacred world-stone in East Slavic and wider Slavic folklore, described as the "father to all stones" and the "navel of the earth." Located at the world's center (often on Buyan island), it is associated with a miraculous spring, sacred letters, healing properties, and liminality between the human world and other realms.
Alka
Alka (plural alkas) is a class of sacred natural places in pre-Christian Baltic religion—Latvian and Lithuanian—functioning as set-apart cult sites where offerings and sacrifices were made. Treated as holy ground rather than a single anthropomorphic spirit, alkas served as loci connecting communities with ancestors and otherworldly realms and frequently appear in toponyms across the Baltic landscape.
Auseklis
Auseklis is a named youthful celestial being in Latvian folk-song tradition (dainas), associated with the dawn and a particular eight-pointed star emblem. He appears among the Dieva dēli (sons of Dievs) as an attendant of the Sun (Saule), a suitor in the mythic 'celestial wedding', and a participant in household-like sky rituals.
Aušrinė
Aušrinė is the Lithuanian personification and deity of the morning star (planet Venus) in traditional Baltic cosmology. She is a feminine liminal figure associated with dawn, beauty, youth, love, health and renewal who appears each morning to prepare the way for Saulė (the Sun).
Ašvieniai
Ašvieniai are the paired divine twins of Baltic (particularly Lithuanian) tradition, horse-associated celestial beings who pull the chariot of Saulė (the Sun) across the sky and appear as protective little horses used as apotropaic motifs in vernacular architecture and household objects.
Bangpūtys
Bangpūtys is a reconstructed masculine sea-and-storm deity from Lithuanian mythology. Known from very scanty sources, modern mythologists portray him as an austere, vindictive master of winds and the sea and as the reconstructed father-figure of the cardinal wind-gods.
Black cat
A domestic cat with black fur that functions both as an ordinary companion animal and as a versatile folkloric symbol. In many traditions it is an omen of good or bad fortune, is associated with witches and seafaring luck, and has been repurposed in modern political and cultural symbolism.
Dievas
Dievas (Lithuanian; Dievs in Latvian; Diews in Old Prussian) is the primordial supreme sky deity in Baltic religion, understood as the luminous sky-dome, a creator and ruler of gods, and a god of light, prosperity and time. The lexeme is a Baltic reflex of Proto-Indo-European *Dyēus and, following Christianization, the same word came to denote the Christian God.
Dievs (Dievas)
Dievs (Latvian Dievs; Lithuanian Dievas) is the primordial sky‑father of the Baltic traditional pantheon, presented in sources as a supreme luminous sky power, creator and ruler of the gods, and associated with light, prosperity, and cosmic order. The theonym survives in modern Latvian language and civic/religious usage but the supplied corpus gives little on specific myths, iconography, or ritual praxis tied to the pre‑Christian figure.
Eglė the Queen of Serpents (Žilvinas)
A central figure of a Lithuanian folktale in which a speaking serpentine ruler—called the grass-snake/serpent prince Žilvinas—marries the human maiden Eglė, keeps an underwater palace and household, can be summoned by a secret chant, and whose story culminates in human→tree metamorphoses after betrayal.
Gabija
Gabija is the Lithuanian household fire spirit and protector of the hearth and family. Treated as a living presence in the home, she is cared for through routine domestic practices (feeding, covering embers, providing water) and is held responsible in folklore for wandering or destructive fires when offended or neglected.
Community Record
- [1]Saulė. Wikipedia contributors, 'Saulė', Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.wiki
- [2]Saulė (Wikidata). Wikidata entry Q3950908other