Darza māte

by Aldis Pūtelis

"Garden mother." The goddess of gardens. One of the "mothers," mentioned in Paul Einhorn's seventeenth-century texts describing Latvians and their life (e.g., Historia Lettica, 1649).

After the list of nameless gods the Latvians are said to have worshiped "in the past" comes another list of deities presiding over more or less practical aspects of everyday life, mostly in form of the "mothers" of particular objects and places. It proves the theoretical assertion that minor deities are invoked in everyday life, while the supreme deity is only invoked in case of serious misfortune (see Mircea Eliade's works).

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