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Lithuanian Mythology
Lithuanian mythology () is the mythology of Lithuanians, Lithuanian polytheism, the religion of pre-Christian Lithuanians. Like other Indo-European studies, Indo-Europeans, Lithuanians (tribe), ancient Lithuanians maintained a polytheistic mythology and religious structure. In pre-Christian Lithuania, mythology was a part of polytheistic religion; after Christianisation mythology survived mostly in folklore, customs and festive rituals. Lithuanian mythology is very close to the mythology of other Balts, Baltic nations such as Old Prussians, Prussians and Latvians, and is considered a part of Baltic mythology. Sources and evidence Early Lithuanian religion and customs were based on oral tradition. Therefore, the very first records about Lithuanian mythology and beliefs were made by travellers, Christian missionaries, chronicle writers and historians. Original Lithuanian oral tradition partially survived in national ritual and festive songs and legends which started to be writ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pomponius Mela
Pomponius Mela, who wrote around AD 43, was the earliest known Roman geographer. He was born at the end of the 1st century BC in Tingentera (now Algeciras) and died AD 45. His short work (''De situ orbis libri III.'') remained in use nearly to the year 1500. It occupies less than one hundred pages of ordinary print, and is described by the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' (1911) as "dry in style and deficient in method, but of pure Latinity, and occasionally relieved by pleasing word-pictures." Except for the geographical parts of Pliny the Elder, Pliny's ''Historia naturalis'' (where Mela is cited as an important authority), the ''De situ orbis'' is the only formal treatise on the subject in Classical Latin. Biography Little is known of Pomponius except his name and birthplace—the small town of Tingentera or Cingentera (identified as Iulia Traducta) in southern Spain, on Algeciras Bay (Mela ii. 6, § 96; but the text is here corrupt). The date of his writing may be appr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Treaty Of Christburg
The Treaty of Christburg (modern Dzierzgoń in Poland) was a peace treaty signed on 2 February 1249 between the pagan Prussian clans, represented by a papal legate, and the Teutonic Knights. It is often cited as the end of the First Prussian Uprising, but it was not adhered to or enforced, especially after the Battle of Krücken in November 1249, where Prussians massacred and tortured to death 54 knights who had surrendered. The treaty guaranteed personal rights to all Prussians who converted to Christianity, but it did nothing to establish peace as many Prussians did not wish to convert and the Knights swore to root out paganism. It is one of the few documents from the period that survive in full to this day. It provides a useful insight into the life and religious tensions in pagan Prussia. It also offers a small glimpse into the Prussian mythology and traditions. Background In 1230 the Teutonic Knights, a Roman Catholic religious order, settled in the Chełmno Land and be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lithuanian Crusade
The Lithuanian Crusade was a series of campaigns by the Teutonic Order and the Livonian Order under the pretext of forcibly Christianizing the pagan Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The Livonian Order occupied Riga in 1202 and in the 1230s they settled in Chełmno Land, a fief of Poland. They first conquered other neighboring Baltic tribes—Curonians, Semigallians, Latgalians, Selonians, and Old Prussians—in the Livonian Crusade and Prussian Crusade. The first raid against the Lithuanians and Samogitians was in 1208. From then on, the orders played a key role in Lithuanian politics, but they were not a direct threat until the 1280s. By that time, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was already a centralized state and could mount defenses. For the next century, the order organized annual colonialist (raids) into Samogitian and Lithuanian lands, without great success but at immense human cost. Border regions in Samogitia and Suvalkija became sparsely inhabited wilderness due to ethnic cleans ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prussian Crusade
The Prussian Crusade was a series of 13th-century campaigns of Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Crusades, crusaders, primarily led by the Teutonic Knights, to Christianization, Christianize Forced conversion, under duress the Prussian mythology, pagan Old Prussians. Invited after earlier unsuccessful expeditions against the Prussians by Christian Poland, Polish princes, the Teutonic Knights began campaigning against the Old Prussians, Prussians, Lithuanians (tribe), Lithuanians and Samogitians in 1230. By the end of the century, having quelled several Prussian uprisings, the Knights had established control over Prussia and administered the conquered Prussians through their monastic state of the Teutonic Knights, monastic state, eventually erasing the Prussian language, culture and pre-Christian religion by a combination of physical and ideological force. Some Prussians took refuge in neighboring Lithuania. Early missions and conflicts Wulfstan of Hedeby, an agent of Alfred ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Perkūnas
Perkūnas (, , Old Prussian: ''Perkūns'', ''Perkunos'', Sudovian language, Yotvingian: ''Parkuns'', Latgalian language, Latgalian: ''Pārkiuņs'') was the common Baltic languages, Baltic List of thunder gods, god of thunder, and the second most important deity in the Baltic Pantheon (gods), pantheon after Dievas. In both Lithuanian mythology, Lithuanian and Latvian mythology, he is documented as the god of sky, thunder, lightning, storms, rain, fire, war, law, order, fertility, mountains, and oak trees. Etymology The name continues PIE ''*'', cognate to ''*'', a word for "oak", "fir" or "wooded mountain". The Proto-Baltic language, Proto-Baltic name *''Perkūnas'' can be reconstructed with certainty. Slavic Perun is a related god, but not an etymologically precise match. Finnish people, Finnish Perkele, a name of Ukko, is considered a loan from Baltic. Another connection is that of ''terpikeraunos'', an epithet of Zeus meaning "''who enjoys lightning''". Perkūnas in wri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Malalas
John Malalas (; ; – 578) was a Byzantine chronicler from Antioch in Asia Minor. Life Of Syrian descent, Malalas was a native speaker of Syriac who learned how to write in Greek later in his life. The name ''Malalas'' probably derived from the Syriac word 'rhetor, orator'; it is first applied to him by John of Damascus. The alternative form ''Malelas'' is later, first appearing in Constantine VII. Malalas was educated in Antioch, and probably was a jurist there, but moved to Constantinople at some point in Justinian I's reign (perhaps after the sack of Antioch by the Sasanian Empire in 540); all we know of his travels from his own hand are visits to Thessalonica and Paneas. Writing He wrote a ''Chronographia'' () in 18 books, the beginning and the end of which are lost. In its present state it begins with the mythical history of Egypt and ends with the expedition to Roman Africa under the tribune Marcianus, Justinian's nephew, in 563 (his editor Thurn believi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Antioch
Antioch on the Orontes (; , ) "Antioch on Daphne"; or "Antioch the Great"; ; ; ; ; ; ; . was a Hellenistic Greek city founded by Seleucus I Nicator in 300 BC. One of the most important Greek cities of the Hellenistic period, it served as the capital of the Seleucid Empire and later as regional capital to both the Roman and Byzantine Empire. During the Crusades, Antioch served as the capital of the Principality of Antioch, one of four Crusader states that were founded in the Levant. Its inhabitants were known as ''Antiochenes''. The remains of the ancient city of Antioch are mostly buried beneath alluvial deposits from the Orontes River. The modern city of Antakya, in Hatay Province of Turkey, lies in its place. Antioch was founded near the end of the fourth century BC by Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander the Great's generals, as one of the tetrapoleis of Seleucis of Syria. Seleucus encouraged Greeks from all over the Mediterranean to settle in the city. The ci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sovij
Sovij () is a character in a Baltic myth recorded in the Russian translation of ''Chronography'' by the Byzantine chronicler John Malalas (1261). According to the myth, Sovij was the instigator of the ancient Baltic tradition of burning the deceased and the subsequent rituals of sacrifice for the Baltic gods of Andajus, Perkūnas, Žvorūnė, and Teliavelis. His other purpose was also the escort of dead souls to the underworld, akin to the ancient Egyptian Anubis and ancient Greek Charon. Name of Sovij The origin and meaning of the Sovij name are disputed. For example, Eduards Volters, a linguist, ethnographer, and archeologist of the Baltic languages and culture states that it's a borrowed word from Arabic, while philologist Antoni Julian Mierzyński states that it originates from the name of a Lithuanian tribe. But the majority of etymologists think that it originates from the Indo-European root ''sāue'', meaning sun. Myth of Sovij The myth revolves around the three mai ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
