dieviņi

by Aldis Pūtelis

Dieviņi (diminutive plural from dievs) is a collective name for the group of minor gods of the Latvian pantheon. Mostly, the dievini act as protecting and household gods. The word itself seems to be a more recent construction. Although these deities are less described in classical folklore, they could be honored more in day-to-day life as the actual rulers of the household fortune and therefore of more influence.

Eliade suggests that such deities could be the ones honored more often than the higher gods, who were invoked only in cases of great necessity or emergency.

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