Perkūnas
Lithuanian · deity · mythic · Recorded classification
Lithuanian/Baltic thunder god, second only to Dievas; god of storms, oak, fire, law and fertility, eternal foe of Velnias; cognate with Slavic Perun.
Domains
- thunder
Powers
- Hurl the thunderbolt and strike devils with his axe
- Cleave the unfaithful Moon for courting Aušrinė
Epithets
- Dundulis The rumbler / thunderer (folk by-name of Perkūnas)Greimas, Of Gods and Men: Studies in Lithuanian Mythology (secondary); Gimbutas, The Balts (Perkūnas folk-names) (secondary)
- Dievaitis Little god / son of god — affectionate folk title of PerkūnasGreimas, Of Gods and Men: Studies in Lithuanian Mythology (secondary)
Relations
- enemy: MėnulisReciprocal of lithuanian_menulis.enemy — Perkūnas cleaves the adulterous Moon with a sword for betraying Saulė with Aušrinė, the etiology of the moon's waning phases.A. J. Greimas, Of Gods and Men: Studies in Lithuanian Mythology (1992) (secondary)
- enemy: VelniasThe Baltic thunder god eternally pursues the chthonic Velnias, striking the stones and trees where the devil hides.M. Gimbutas, 'Perkūnas/Perun: The Thunder God of the Balts and Slavs', Journal of Indo-European Studies 1 (1973) (secondary)
- equated with: PerunClassic Balto-Slavic thunderer pair under PIE *Perkwunos — reconstruction flagged (Slavic lacks -k-; some make Perun a parallel *per- 'strike' formation); oak cult, axe emblem and devil-chase folklore match closely.V. V. Ivanov & V. N. Toporov, Issledovaniya v oblasti slavyanskikh drevnostey (1974) (secondary); M. L. West, Indo-European Poetry and Myth (2007), ch. 6 on *Perkunos (secondary)
Sources
- existence: Lithuanian dainos; Malalas Chronicle interpolation (1261) listing Perkūnas (primary); Indo-European *Perk(w)unos; M. Gimbutas, The Balts (1963) (secondary)