Saulė
Lithuanian · deity · mythic · Recorded classification
Lithuanian sun goddess who drives a copper-wheeled chariot; wife of the Moon and mother of the planetary Daughters of the Sun.
Children
Domains
- sun
Powers
- Ride the sky in a copper-wheeled chariot of tireless horses
- Mother the Daughters of the Sun (Saulės dukterys)
- warm and quicken the earth as queen of the heavenly bodies
Epithets
- Saulė motulė Dear Mother Sun; the sun-goddess of the dainos who drives her chariot across the skyLithuanian dainos; Gimbutas, on Baltic religion (secondary)
Relations
- spouse: MėnulisThe celestial marriage of Sun and Moon, sundered when Mėnulis strayed with Aušrinė — the mythic charter of the dainos 'Mėnuo saulužę vedė'.A. J. Greimas, Of Gods and Men: Studies in Lithuanian Mythology (1992) (secondary)
Sources
- existence: Lithuanian dainos; the Saulė–Mėnuo celestial-wedding cycle (primary); Indo-European solar goddess; M. Gimbutas, The Balts (1963) (secondary)