Curche (the Harvest God)

Curche (Kurke) is the earliest historically attested Old Prussian deity, named in the Treaty of Christburg (1249) in which the converted Prussians swore to abandon his cult; he is a harvest god embodied in an idol made from the last grain of the field.

Domains

• harvest and firstfruits

Powers

• to embody the harvest in the last sheaf

Sources

• Treaty of Christburg (Christburg/Kishpork, 1249), in Preussisches Urkundenbuch, Bd. 1.1 (Königsberg, 1882), no. 218.
• Wilhelm Mannhardt, Letto-Preussische Götterlehre (Riga: Lettisch-Literärische Gesellschaft, 1936).