Perkunatete, Perkunatele or Perkūnėlė is in

Baltic mythology Baltic mythology is the body of mythology of the Baltic peoples stemming from Baltic paganism and continuing after Christianization and into Baltic folklore. History Baltic mythology ultimately stems from Proto-Indo-European mythology. The Bal ...

the thunder goddess mother of

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 m ...

, in

Slavic mythology Slavic paganism, Slavic mythology, or Slavic religion refer to the Religion, religious beliefs, myths, and ritual practices of the Slavs before Christianisation of the Slavs, Christianisation, which occurred at various stages between the 8th and ...

referred to as Percunatele mother of

Perun In Slavic paganism, Slavic mythology, Perun () is the highest god of the Pantheon (religion), pantheon and the god of sky, thunder, lightning, storms, rain, law, war, fertility and oak trees. His other attributes were fire, mountains, wind, ir ...

, which is probably derived from the Balts. Like many such goddesses absorbed into Christianity, she is, today, difficult to distinguish from the Christian madonna, Mary, one of whose

epithet An epithet (, ), also a byname, is a descriptive term (word or phrase) commonly accompanying or occurring in place of the name of a real or fictitious person, place, or thing. It is usually literally descriptive, as in Alfred the Great, Suleima ...

s was Panna Maria Percunatele. Professor

Patricia Monaghan Patricia Monaghan (February 15, 1946, – November 11, 2012) was a poet, a writer, a spiritual activist, and an influential figure in the contemporary women's spirituality movement. Monaghan wrote over 20 books on a range of topics including Go ...

DePaul University DePaul University is a private university, private Catholic higher education, Catholic research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded by the Congregation of the Mission, Vincentians in 1898, the university takes its name from ...

also believes that she was originally derived from the Baltic thunder goddess. The character of Perkunatete seems to be present in the myths of Baltic sun goddess Saulė. This solar goddess, after her daily ride, bathes in a sauna to rest and recover her strength for another daily travel, with Perkunatete waiting on her. In the book of

Georges Dumézil Georges Edmond Raoul Dumézil (4 March 189811 October 1986) was a French Philology, philologist, Linguistics, linguist, and religious studies scholar who specialized in comparative linguistics and comparative mythology, mythology. He was a prof ...

, it is described that Perkunatele was represented as an oak tree with a cleft, resembling the female genitals, where lightning hit. A fire could sometimes break out when the wood was not humid, bringing pain to her. This can be two things, passion that leads to the delivery of a child or a bad lover. If it was the first, laughter will come out of her uterus. If the former, Perkunatele would scream in agony. Its the classic myth of fertility that is present on many cultures, you have to satisfy your lover to bring harmony to the act of coitus. Unlike the Christian Madonna, Perkunatele was not immaculate. The name derivates from PIE *Perkwunos,

cognate In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical effects on both the s ...

to *perkwus, a word for "oak", "fir" or "wooded mountain". Laurinkienė, Nijolé. "Saulės ratų ir laivo mitiniai vaizdiniai: šviesulys paros cikle (Mythical Images of the Solar Carriage and Ship: the Heavenly Body in the Course of an Astronomical Day)". In: ''Tautosakos darbai'' t. 54, p. 13-25.

/ref>Straižys, Vytautas; Klimka, Libertas. "The Cosmology of the Ancient Balts". In: ''Journal for the History of Astronomy: Archaeoastronomy Supplement''. Vol. 28. Issue 22 (1997): p. S73

/ref>

References

Reference bibliography

* * Baltic goddesses Slavic goddesses {{europe-myth-stub