Saulė

Saulė (, ) is a solar goddess, and the common Baltic solar deity in Lithuanian and Latvian mythology. The noun Saulė/Saule in the Lithuanian and Latvian languages is also the conventional name for the Sun and originates from the Proto-Baltic name *Sauliā > *Saulē.

Representation

Saulė is one of the most powerful deities, the goddess of the sun itself, responsible for all life on Earth. She is the patroness of the unfortunate, especially orphans. The Lithuanian and Latvian words for "the world" (pasaulis and pasaule) are translated as "[a place] under the Sun".

Saulė is mentioned in one of the earliest written sources on Lithuanian mythology. According to the Slavic translation of the Chronicle by John Malalas (1261), a smith named Teliavelis made the Sun and threw it into the sky. That is why the Sun shines during the day, while the Moon visits at night. A third version claims that the face of Mėnuo was disfigured by either Dievas (the supreme god) or Saulė.

She is sometimes portrayed as waking up "red" (sārta) or "in a red tree" during the morning. Saule is also said to own golden tools and garments: slippers, scarf, belt, and a golden boat she uses as her means of transportation. Other accounts ascribe her golden rings, golden ribbons, golden tassels, and even a golden crown. In the Lithuanian tradition, the sun is also described as a "golden wheel" or a "golden circle" that rolls down the mountain at sunset. Also in Latvian riddles and songs, Saule is associated with the color red as if to indicate the "fiery aspect" of the sun; the setting and the rising sun are equated with a rose wreath and a rose in bloom due to their circular shapes.

Movements

Saulė is portrayed dancing in her gilded shoes on a silver hill and her fellow Baltic goddess Aušrinė is said to dance on a stone for the people on the first day of summer. In Lithuania, the Sun (identified as female) rides a car towards her husband, the Moon, "dancing and emitting fiery sparks" on the way.

Dwelling

In a myth from Lithuania, a man named Joseph becomes fascinated with Aušrinė appearing in the sky and goes on a quest to find the "second sun", who is actually a maiden that lives on an island in the sea and has the same hair like the Sun. In Baltic folklore, Saulė is said to live in a silver gated castle at the end of the sea, located somewhere in the east, or to go to an island in the middle of the sea for her nocturnal rest. In folksongs, Saule sinks into the bottom of a lake to sleep at night, in a silver cradle "in the white seafoam".

Vehicle

The Sun, which has a feminine gender in Baltic languages, is described as an anthropomorphized being that rides across the celestial abode in a vehicle, like a carriage or a chariot, which is described as saulės ratai in Lithuanian and saules rati in Latvian.

Saulė also drives a carriage with copper wheels, a "gleaming copper chariot", or a golden chariot pulled by untiring horses, or a "pretty little sleigh" (kamaņiņa) made of fish-bones. Saulė is also described as driving her shining car on the way to her husband, the Moon. or a golden boat, In a Latvian folksong, Saule hangs her sparkling crown on a tree in the evening and enters a golden boat to sail away.

Saulė's horses are also mentioned in several pieces of Baltic folklore. Her horses are said to be of white color; of a golden or a fiery color. When she begins her nocturnal journey through the World Sea, her chariot changes into a boat and "the Sun swims her horses",

Scholars point out that the expressions geltoni žirgeliai or dzelteni kumeliņi ('golden' or 'yellow horses'), which appear in Latvian dainas, seem to be a recurrent poetic motif.

Other depictions

According to studies by professor Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga and ethnologue , Saule is also depicted in folksongs as a "mother" (Lithuanian motinėlė, Latvian māmuliņa) In other folksongs, the personified female Sun is also associated with the color "white" (Latv balt-), such as the imagery of a white shirt, the expression "mīļā, balte" ("Sun, dear, white"), and the description of the trajectory of the sun (red as it rises, white as it journeys on its way).

Footnotes

References

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