Mahte Explained

In Latvian mythology, the term Māte stands for "mother", sometimes written in English as Mahte. It was an epithet applied to some sixty-seventy goddesses. They were clearly distinct goddesses in most or all cases, so the term definitely referred to the mother-goddess of specific phenomena. According to professor Lotte Motz, scholar Haralds Biezais mentioned there were at least 70 characters in Baltic religion identified with the title of Mate.[1]

Overview

Latvian ethnographer Pēteris Šmits noted that the Mahtes seem to be a phenomenon exclusive to Latvian mythology, with no equivalent either in its Baltic neighbours (Prussian and Lithuanian), nor in other Indo-European mythologies.[2]

Scholars (e.g., Miriam Robbins Dexter, Lotte Motz. David Adams Leeming, Martin Litchfield West) note that these deities were invoked with the epithet "mate" 'mother' and individually oversaw several aspects of nature, including features of the environment (forests, fields, mushrooms, sea, the wind, etc.), animals (for instance, elks), as well as cultural aspects, such as death and interrement, or milk and cattle.[3] [4] [5] [6]

According to scholar Elza Kokare, the authenticity of some Mahte deities is dubious, but some are firmly established due to a great number of mentions in the dainas (Latvian folksongs).[7]

List of Mahte

Following are some of the Mate characters:[8]

  1. Bangu māte - Mother of Waves
  2. Ceļa māte - Mother of Roads
  3. Dārza māte - Mother of Gardens
  4. Dēkla māte
  5. Gausu māte
  6. Jūras māte - considered a goddess of the sea (from Jura 'sea')[9]
  7. Kapu māte - 'Mother of Graves'
  8. Kārta māte
  9. Krūmu māte - Mother of Bushes
  10. Lapu māte - Mother of Leaves
  11. Lauka māte or Lauku māte - Mother of Fields
  12. Lazdu māte - Mother of the Hazelbush
  13. Lietus māte - Mother Rain
  14. Linu māte - Mother Flax
  15. Lopu māte - Mother of Livestock (Cattle)
  16. Mieža māte - Mother of Barley
  17. Meža māte - Mother of the Forest
  18. Miglas māte - Mother of Fog
  19. Pirts māte - Mother of the Bathhouse
  20. Rijas māte - Mother of the Threshing Place
  21. Sēņu māte - Mother of Mushrooms
  22. Smilšu māte - Mother of Sands
  23. Sniega māte - Mother of Snow
  24. Tirgus māte - Mother of Markets
  25. Ūdens māte - Mother of Waters
  26. Uguns mate - Mother of Fire
  27. Upes māte - Mother of Rivers
  28. Vēja māte - 'Mother of Winds'
  29. Veļu māte or Vélių motę - mother of the souls/spirits[10]
  30. Zemes māte - Earth Mother (Māra)
  31. Ziedu māte - Mother of Flowers

Role of the Mothers

Scholarship on Baltic and Latvian folklore remarks that some of the Mahte characters comprise a complex of deities related to that phenomenon.[11] It is also remarked that, out of this mother cult, "the mainLatvian mother deities are those of the dead, the sea, the forest, and the wind".[12]

Death and the afterlife

For instance, goddess Zemes Mate ('earth mother') was associated with receiving the dead and acting as their ruler and guardian.[13] In Latvian dainas, Zemes Mate is associated with fellow Mahte ("Mothers") Velu Mate ('Mother of Dead Souls') and Kari Mate ('Mother of Graves'). According to researcher Elza Kokare, Zemes Mate and Kari Mate act as the resting places of the dead, guarding its body and holding the key to their graves.[14] As an individual character, Zemes mate is invoked as a person's final resting place.

A second personage is named Veļu māte or Vélių motę (Mother of the souls/spirits of the deceased),[15] etymologically connected to Lithuanian veles 'shades of the dead', velionis 'dead person'[16] and Latvian Vels 'god of the underworld' (as mentioned by scholar Marija Gimbutas) and, by extension, with some relation to Slavic Veles, deity of the underworld.[17] She is considered to be a chthonic goddess and "queen of the dead", who welcomes them at the cemetery.[18] [19]

Another figure named Nāves māte ("Mother Death")[20] was presumed by scholar Nikolai Mikhailov to be connected to Slovenian word navje, an etymon related to the Nav of Slavic folklore, a designation for the dead.[21] He also cited the possibility that Naves mate is another name for Latvian Velu mate and Lithuanian Veliona.[22] The word nāve also means 'death' in Latvian.[23]

Other deities connected with the worship of the dead were Kapu māte ('Mother of Graves', 'Mother of the Grave' or 'Graveyard-Mother')[24] and Smilšu māte ('Mother of Sand' or 'Mother of the Sand Hillock').[25]

The natural world

Another set of Mahte figures relate to the natural world, such as Veju Mate ("The Mother of Winds");[26] Meža mate ("Mother of the Forest"; counterpart to Lithuanian Medeina), protectress of wild life;[27] Miglas mate ("Mother of the Fog") and Lietus mate ("Mother of Rain").[28] Veju Mate (or Veja mate) is said to be the goddess of winds and ruler of the weather.[29]

Bodies of water

Another group is composed of several water divinities: Juras Mate ("Mother Ocean",[30] "Mother of the Seas"[31] or "Sea-Mother"), a goddess of waters;[32] Udens Mate ("Mother of Waters"); Upes Mahte ("Mother of Rivers"), Bangu Mate ("Mother of Waves"; counterpart to Lithuanian Bangputys).[33] Juras Mate is said to rule the seas as a goddess.[34] [35]

Deity Bangu mate is considered to be a recent and more poetical appellation of the Mother of the Water and Mother of the Sea.[36]

Household and home

Lithuanian scholar Marija Gimbutas pointed out that Latvian traditions contain a Uguns mate ('Mother of the Fire') as a counterpart to Lithuanian Gabija, a deity of the hearth and protectress of house and family.[37] Other deities associated with the household and domestic affairs are Mãjas gars ("Spirits of the House") and Pirts mate ("Mother of the Bathhouse").[38]

Agriculture

Mahte deities related to fields and agriculture include Lauka mate ("Mother of the Plough-Land"),[39] a deity said to be worshipped at ploughing time.[40]

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. Mottz, Lotte. The Faces of the Goddess. New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1997. pp. 221-222 (footnote nr. 27).
  2. Šmitas, Pėteris. Latvių mitologija. Iš latvių kalbos vertė Dainius Razauskas. Vilnius: Aidai, 2004. p. 129.
  3. Book: Dexter, Miriam Robbins . Whence the goddesses: a source book . The Athene Series . New York and London . Teachers College Press, Teachers College, Columbia University . 1990 . 54 . 0-8077-6234-2 . [The Mahtes were] goddesses or spirits responsible for the forests, for the fields, for milk, for the sea, for cattle..
  4. Book: Mottz, Lotte . The Faces of the Goddess . New York & Oxford . . 1997 . 78 . 0-19-508967-7 . A closer look at the "mothers" shows them to belong to various categories. [...with] a striking similarity [to] those of the North Eurasian nations ... [they are] owners and guardians of nature, protective deities of dwelling places, personified objects or phenomena that might or might not receive cultic worship, personifications of abstract qualities, or the relatives of gods..
  5. Book: Leeming, David . From Olympus to Camelot: The World of European Mythology . New York, NY . . 2003 . 127 . [The Mahtes] represent[ed] various aspects of nature—fields, mushrooms, elks, and so forth..
  6. Book: West, Martin L.. Indo-European Poetry and Myth . 2007. Oxford University Press. 978-0-19-928075-9. Martin Litchfield West . 141 . In the Baltic lands too, especially in Latvia, we find many Mothers, ... presiding over a specific area or function. In the Latvian folk-songs they proliferate: there is the Mother of wind, the Mother of fog, of forest, of flowers, of death, of the tomb, of the sea, of silver, of bees, and so on..
  7. Kokare, Elza. "A survey of the basic structures in Latvian mythology. In: Journal of the Baltic Institute of Folklore (Tallinn), 1996, Nr.1, pp. 65-91.
  8. Book: Mottz, Lotte . The Faces of the Goddess . New York & Oxford . . 1997 . 221-222 (footnote nr. 27) . 0-19-508967-7.
  9. Lurker, Manfred. The Routledge Dictionary Of Gods Goddesses Devils And Demons. Routledge. 2004. p. 96.
  10. Laurinkienė, Nijolė. "Požemio ir mirusiųjų karalystės deivė" [Goddesses of the Kingdom of the Dead and the Underworld]. In: Metai n. 1 2010. p. 121.
  11. Mottz, Lotte. The Faces of the Goddess. New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1997. p. 78.
  12. Antanaitis, Indre R. "Interpreting the Meaning of East Baltic Neolithic Symbols". In: Cambridge Archaeological Journal 8, no. 1 (1998): 64. .
  13. Laurinkienė, Nijolė. "Požemio ir mirusiųjų karalystės deivė" [Goddesses of the Kingdom of the Dead and the Underworld]. In: Metai n. 1 2010. pp. 116-127.
  14. Kokare, Elza. "A survey of the basic structures in Latvian mythology. In: Journal of the Baltic Institute of Folklore (Tallinn), 1996, Nr.1, pp. 65-91.
  15. Laurinkienė, Nijolė. "Požemio ir mirusiųjų karalystės deivė" [Goddesses of the Kingdom of the Dead and the Underworld]. In: Metai n. 1 2010. p. 121.
  16. Lurker, Manfred (2004). The Routledge dictionary of gods and goddesses, devils and demons. Routledge. p. 197. .
  17. Gimbutas, Marija. "ANCIENT SLAVIC RELIGION: A SYNOPSIS". In: To honor Roman Jakobson: essays on the occasion of his 70. birthday, 11. October 1966. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton, 2018. p. 746. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111604763-064
  18. Jordan, Michael. Dictionary of gods and goddesses. 2nd Edition. New York: Facts On File. 2004. pp. 339. .
  19. Lurker, Manfred (2004). The Routledge dictionary of gods and goddesses, devils and demons. Routledge. p. 197. .
  20. Mottz, Lotte. The Faces of the Goddess. New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1997. pp. 221-222 (footnote nr. 27).
  21. Konickaja, Jelena. "Николай Михайлов: славист, словенист, балтист (11.06.1967–25.05.2010)". In: SLAVISTICA VILNENSIS 2010 Kalbotyra 55 (2). p. 174.
  22. Mikhailov N. "Baltico-slovenica. Alcuni paralleli mitologici". In: Res Balticae Nr. 02, 1996. pp. 166-167.
  23. Valentsova, Marina. "К ИССЛЕДОВАНИЮ БАЛТО-СЛАВЯНСКОЙ ДЕМОНОЛОГИИ". In: RES HUMANITARIAE XX, 2016. p. 71.
  24. Lurker, Manfred (2004). The Routledge dictionary of gods and goddesses, devils and demons. Routledge. p. 197. .
  25. [Marija Gimbutas|Gimbutas, Marija]
  26. Lurker, Manfred (2004). The Routledge dictionary of gods and goddesses, devils and demons. Routledge. p. 197. .
  27. Lurker, Manfred (2004). The Routledge dictionary of gods and goddesses, devils and demons. Routledge. p. 124. .
  28. Doniger, Wendy. Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of World Religions. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. 1999. p. 109.
  29. Lurker, Manfred (2004). The Routledge dictionary of gods and goddesses, devils and demons. Routledge. p. 197. .
  30. Mottz, Lotte. The Faces of the Goddess. New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1997. p. 78.
  31. Dixon-Kennedy, Mike (1998). Encyclopedia of Russian and Slavic Myth and Legend. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. p. 141. .
  32. Lurker, Manfred (2004). The Routledge dictionary of gods and goddesses, devils and demons. Routledge. p. 96. .
  33. Doniger, Wendy. Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of World Religions. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. 1999. p. 109.
  34. Jones, Prudence; Pennick, Nigel (1995). A History of Pagan Europe. Routledge. p. 174. .
  35. Dixon-Kennedy, Mike (1998). Encyclopedia of Russian and Slavic Myth and Legend. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. p. 141. .
  36. Běťáková, Marta Eva; Blažek, Václav. Encyklopedie baltské mytologie. Praha: Libri. 2012. p. 39. .
  37. [Marija Gimbutas|Gimbutas, Marija]
  38. Doniger, Wendy. Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of World Religions. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. 1999. pp. 108-109.
  39. Lurker, Manfred (2004). The Routledge dictionary of gods and goddesses, devils and demons. Routledge. p. 110. .
  40. Jordan, Michael. Dictionary of gods and goddesses. 2nd Edition. New York: Facts On File. 2004. p. 172. .

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