Anthropogony

Anthropogony

Lithuanian ethological legends speaking about creation of the man occasionally state Dievas made a man from the dirt or clay and then inspired spirit in to the form. This motive does not differ in any detail from the Biblical story. It is quite truthworthy that even before Christianity Lithuanians had a version of the first “Molding” of a man, because it exits in many other isolated nations; the “dirt” version of the human being is also seen in the parallel beetween the words “Žmogus” (a human being) and “žemė” (earth), cf. Latin Homo-humus, Hebrew Adam-Adama. Possibly the idea of a human being stemming from earth irrespective of the Biblical influence exists in many agricultural nations. However, though Lithuanian version of molding must have existed some time ago, it became obliterated by the Biblical version in the legends, therefor it is impossible to discriminate it and to prove that it really existed.

However for Lithuanian tradition undoubtedly belongs human appearance from thhe Gods_ saliva version: the God has walking along the water and spat and on his way back saw some creature, which as it turned out appeared from his saliva. In one legend this is the way how two people ap

ppear: a man and a woman, in other places just a human being and still in other instances Liucius (Liuciperis). These legends are rather numerous. One rare legend, true states that Dievas in stirring fire place smeared his face and started washing, a drop of water while he was washing fell on the ground and in this way the man appeared. A similar motive is stored in shanty and mansiu tribes and in arctic and Siberian mythologies. In either way the overall picture is still here, human being springs from the matters related to the God hitting the ground.

In Lithuanian tales this creativity is completely accidental. Dievas did not intend to create human being, he just spits, without any inntention and in seeing a being appear is surprised himself and in some tales he addresses the new creature: “Who are you?”, and, of course the answer is that it does not know. Dievas had to wreck his head for a long while before he remembers that before some time he spat here. This legend is a reflection of a very ancient ideology, Dievas is not interested in the human being and does not intend to create it.

Some motives sppeaking about the creation of the world have some archaic tradition motives, which differ conspicuously from the biblical insertions. These are the images of nails. It is asserted that “people used to have a robe on their body similar to what we wear on the ends of the fingers. It never wore out and used to be permanent. People turned in too lazy and used to lie somewhere in etch shade and did nothing. Therefor Dievas took off the robe and left the nails on the finger tips”. In another tale it is said that Adam and Eva in etch paradise live with robes which are made from the same material as the nail. It appears that here we have our version of Lithuania “Garden of Eden” version: the first people, who were destined to live forever, because they were protected by the cover, protected from all troubles. Then something happened and people lost it, possibly after the sin to etch heavenly God.

Lithuanian tale about the paradise lost would remind to many isolated nations the known myths about the fact that the first people as the snakes could have changed their cover. IN their old age they could have shhed the old it and rejuvenate. However, because of some fatal misunderstanding or a misdeed they lost the quality and therefore only snakes live forever (they still shed and their skin).

“Paradise nails” still had theological meaning and continuation. Lithuanian legends and tales speak about human death when in the next thing awaiting would be climbing into the high slippery mountain of ice and glass and at whose top there resides divinity. In this climb we need nails, one_s own a or the animals_ (bear_s, lynx_s). Lithuanian superstition state that this climb has to be prepared in advance, do not throw away cut nails but burn them (in this way it would become easier to redeem them in the other world). Older people awaiting death would not cut nails at all, sometimes keep their nails in special bags. All these ides and customs are rather strange but their meaning is deeper than the literal meaning of the superstition. The man after his death returns back to the paradise or else in the world of Dievas through the application of the fragments of the paradise lost.

Sovijus myth tells about the dead the first dead who found the route to the unnder world and who passed it around that the best way to bury is not to dig the body into the ground or place in to the tree but to burn it. This myth explains the tradition of burning the deeds in Lithuania and other Baltic countries.