Dievs

Dievs is the supreme god of Latvian folk religion, a celestial father-figure whose name derives from the common Indo-European word for the bright daytime sky. In the dainas he is imagined less as a remote ruler than as an aristocratic farmer who rides or slides down the sloping heavenly hill in a grey homespun coat to walk among the rye and bless the herds. He shares the governance of human life with the goddesses Laima and Māra, the three together weighing the destiny apportioned to each child at birth. Under Christian influence the pagan Dievs was assimilated to the Christian God, yet the songs preserve an older, thoroughly agrarian and paternal figure who moves familiarly through the cultivated Latvian landscape.

Domains

• sky heaven
• fate blessing
• farmstead prosperity

Powers

• descends from the heavenly hill on horseback
• apportions each person's lot with Laima and Māra
• blesses grain, cattle and household

Epithets

• Dieviņš — dear little GodBarons & Wissendorff, Latvju dainas; the affectionate diminutive is the commonest form of address in the songs. (primary)
• vecais Dieviņš — the old dear GodŠmits, Latviešu mītoloģija, 1926. (secondary)

Relations

• ally: MāraCo-decider of the material world and human fate.Biezais, Die Hauptgöttinnen der alten Letten, 1955, on the Dievs-Māra-Laima triad. (secondary)
• ally: LaimaTogether they measure out the span of a human life.Biezais, Die Hauptgöttinnen der alten Letten, 1955, on the fate-deciding triad. (secondary)

Sources

• Dievs is the pre-Christian Latvian sky-god and highest ordering power of the folk-song pantheon, pictured as a farmer-lord who descends from a heavenly hill.: Biezais, Haralds. Die Gottesgestalt der lettischen Volksreligion. Stockholm, 1961. (secondary); Gimbutas, Marija. The Balts. London, 1963, pp. 190-192. (secondary)
• Dievs forms with Laima and Māra the triad that decrees human fate in the dainas.: Biezais, Die Hauptgöttinnen der alten Letten, Uppsala, 1955. (secondary)