Mythical Relations of Lineage in Archaic Lithuanian Songs

Žilvinas Svigaris

Introduction

The article explores ancient Lithuanian folkloric songs, namely, the aspect of kinship
relations, which profoundly penetrates not only different genres of Lithuanian folklore, but
also its different periods. The diversity of relatives in Lithuanian folklore is so extensive that
there is no doubt regarding its primordial importance to ancient Lithuanians. However, how
can one study such a phenomenon? Ancient Lithuanian folklore reveals a mythical world,
which is very different from modern. Therefore, in this paper, instead of classifying the
ancient Lithuanian tradition into formal categories, we attempt to reach a different aim.
Namely, we try to unveil the essence of old archetypes expressed in ancient Lithuanian songs
and proverbs, especially their subconscious content, that reveals the mythical consciousness.
The restoration of mythical consciousness is significant in our time, when there is a
growing evidence and recognition1 that the calculative rationality and instrumental reason
although useful and needed are too limited and therefore insufficient. The world becomes not
only global and technical but exceptionally based on consumerism and pragmatism in our
days. Economic, political, social, and other processes intensively consolidate the concept of a
fully liberated individual and nurse new qualities of modern man. Now he can settle down
and work wherever he can express himself more effectively and earn a higher salary. He no
longer attaches himself to the place, and even things are more convenient to rent. He no
longer belongs to his homeland. The individual in the global world is becoming a nomad.
Global popularity-based transient processes replace local cultural underpinnings of old
traditions such as dressing conventions, food customs, family relations, and others on an
increasing scale. All attempts to maintain an ethnic, national, or other locally acquired
identity become a matter of survival for many nations, and this is no longer dependent on the
size of the nation. Max Weber predicted that ethnic and national identity would inevitably be
replaced by individual identity, that instead of identifying with heroes of myths, individuals
would pursue personal careers unrelated to nation, ethnicity country.

1
Jean Gebser, Martin Heidegger, Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Carl-Gustav Jung
 However, at the same time, there are an increasing number of countries that have
already enrolled into counter-globalization processes against the massive adverse effects of
global migration of populations. More and more nations are protecting their local
communities that underpin the country's identity. These communities, this ethos cannot be
dissolved in any solvent2. They preserve conservative slow-changing traits of local tradition.
Local traditions are based on mythical consciousness and mythical rationality that reveals the
possibilities to overcome limitedness of pragmatic individualism. Local tradition, especially
ancient, opens the very universe in a uniquely meaningful way and gives a place to a man in
the world in a distinctive way. There is a growing evidence, that as global phenomena evolve,
identity will be maintained only by those communities that preserve and cultivate essential
relations with their traditions that primarily lie in their lineage substratum. So, the question is,
how to preserve this world of local tradition and active local communities which protect the
individual from alienation and standardization in the contemporary global world?

The concept of kinship relations

The man was once rooted in his lineage, and in some countries still belongs to it. It is
no accident, therefore, that many well-known anthropologists3 have intensively studied the
substrate of lineage. For example, Claude Lèvi-Strauss, Anthropologie Structurale,
emphasizes the significance of lineage relationships that reveals the distinctive features of
ancient community traditions. The archetype of kinship primarily connects man to the
cultural heritage of tradition, its wisdom and values. The first lessons are given to the
individual in his immediate environment – in his family. Family is the substrate where
tradition is primarily preserved for generations. In most traditions, symbolic kinship links
individual with the distant past and with the mythical world of the gods. In archaic Lithuanian
folklore, especially in songs, proverbs, riddles and narratives, man is related by kin to trees,
animals, natural phenomena and the cosmos. Hence establishment, adherence, wisdom and
harmony with the world around him. Here, the ancient Lithuanian is connected, not
superficially, but in his deepest essence. The kinship ties underlie his deepest existential
values and his own identity in archaic Lithuanian songs. However, it is not enough to name it
formally. How can we reveal these subconsciously formed kinship ties? What consciousness
could do that?

2
Mickūnas 2016: 115
3
Claude Lèvi-Strauss, Radcliffe-Brown A.R., Rivers W.H.R, Lowie R.H., Williams F.E.
 Theoretically, distanced instrumental thinking does not fit here. The alienated attitude
and abstract methods are suitable for dealing with static, inanimate matter, gathering facts,
and artificially linking them with the method of causation. However, such access cannot
capture the dynamics of vibrant, alive and interconnected structures that requires a different
kind of consciousness, which Jean Gebser calls mythical. How can one reveal this
consciousness? Kinship relations reveal uninterrupted connections of a man with the past and
the future. Let’s point out that we can explore this phenomenon not only externally, but also
from within the phenomenon itself. We cannot deny that every individual has inevitable
kinship links with his ancestors. Any individual inevitably has a family and is interwoven
into kinship relations. This opens to everyone the door to the consciousness that is based on a
different way of thinking.
The difference comes from the inner coherence between the thinker and the very
phenomenon of kinship relations. The thinker is part of the phenomenon and is thinking from
inside. Hence, the thinking comes from the phenomenon itself. Theoretically, distanced
instrumental thinking lacks this coherence and is helpless in understanding the deep meaning
of kinship links can have to the man. Artificial causation linking and understanding remains
speculative rather than real in this case. While we can formally document the names that
make up the lineage, the name itself says nothing about the impact that the lineage has on the
man as a member of the family and the community. However, mythical consciousness
accompanied by rich mythical narratives integrates the man into the world, urging him to
experience the reality of myth as if it was his own body. It is no coincidence that most ancient
traditions (the Hebrew Torah, the Pantheon of the Greek gods, the Hindu Mahabharata, and
others) use kinship relationships to articulate their historical identity. Moreover, the most
important social phenomena and historical events in many ancient societies were determined
exclusively by kinship or dynastic relations 4. Let us examine examples of kin relations in
archaic Lithuanian tradition.
Until the middle of the last century, the largest Lithuanian community lived in the
villages and countryside where the primordial source for the restoration of the Lithuanian
language and identity was preserved. Often, small villages were named after a family name in
Lithuania. Lithuanians themselves often call the country a land of relatives. The long list of
family names5, which we find in old dialects and words rarely used today, testify that family
ties were always of utmost importance to Lithuanians. The list of names was not just formal

4
Lèvi-Strauss 2008: 61
5
A compiled list of family names is attached at the end of the article
nomenclature, and every member of kin was an invaluable treasure. No one doubted the
necessity of attending the most significant celebrations of each relative, from births,
weddings, funerals, and other important events. Each family name was mentioned in
countless songs, interlaced in amusing, sad or instructive stories, witty proverbs, or knotted
riddles. Every name was woven into the kin fabric using multiple multicolored threads. Thus,
each member of the family inevitably experienced his or her role in the family relationship:
norms, respect, intimacy, concern, love, duty, or joy.
Furthermore, kin relations were continually changing, because kinship is a dynamically
renewed phenomenon. Action of each participant influenced all the actors involved, and
changed their position within the family, community and society. A newborn girl is a
daughter, a year later she becomes a sister, and later - a cousin, aunt, mother, grandmother,
great-grandmother. At the same time, it preserved all family names and relationships that
were acquired before. Even death in Lithuanian folklore did not break kinship relations.
Death here was not an end. It was only a part of being, a specific, temporary state of life 6.
There are a lot of the written sources of testimony that dead ancestors often became home
spirits, guardians or gods in the ancient Lithuanian tradition. Thus, the man's connection with
his family in ancient Lithuanian tradition did not break even after death 7. Lithuanians
believed that the human spirit could help after death and were highly respected. Roof poles
and chapel posts were erected for them near the road or in the woods. Also, the whipsnake at
home represented an embodiment of ancestral souls. "It was conceived as the movement of a
non-extinct life from one body to another."8 So, the world of ancestors in the ancient
Lithuanian community was always nearby.
In such a society, one felt responsible from beginning to end. We could say that in
archaic Lithuanian tradition, where death did not break ties with relatives, every member of
kin became immortal inasmuch as the community remembered him. This attitude formed the
community, which connected every member with ancestors of the ethnos. Each member in a
certain sense was the grandchild of all his ancestors and the grandfather of all his
grandchildren at the same time. Continuous relationships opened a completely different
consciousness that was not only all-encompassing, but also alive and dynamic.

6
Girininkas 2009: 244-246
7
Balsys 2005: 42
8
Gimbutienė 1994: 39
 Lithuanian folklore

The remarkable craft of singing, the songs themselves hold a special place in ancient
Lithuanian life and worldview. Song is omnipresent in Lithuanian folk. There is hardly any
sphere of life that we cannot find in songs: births and deaths, weddings, festivities of the year,
haymaking, rye harvesting, flax harvesting, or pasturing of horses for the night 9. Quiet, long
winter evenings, when girls and men span hemp ropes, everything began with song and ended
with song10. The Lithuanian language itself helps to rhyme lines of the song, and this is not a
poetic phenomenon, but the nature of the language itself. Thus, we can assume that even the
Lithuanian language developed its extraordinary songfulness not by chance, but from
generation to generation in singing songs.
The abundance of diminutive in songs enriches not only nouns, but also verbs and
adjectives. They also help to rhyme the lines of a song. At the same time, diminutives reveal
particularity of the relation to the world of ancient Lithuanian. Sincerity, a warm and
compassionate dialogue with the world around him. Such the relationship of Lithuanians with
the world also determined that there are almost no epic songs that are usually inspired by war.
For Lithuania, the topic of war seems neither close nor attractive. Mostly, as Maceina
observes, songs about war are that of grief or despair; there we can find neither aggressive
anger nor desire to defeat. Jucevicius also notes that the songs that Lithuanian folk often sing
are mostly about love or elegy. The feelings in those songs are gentle, simple, clean, pure.
There are no greasy or inappropriate expressions there. Lithuanian folk are pious, innocent,
hospitable, affectionately attached to their homeland, transmit virtues inherited from their
ancestors11. Their thoughts, desires and feelings come straight from the heart.
Similarly, Rėza writes that Lithuanian songs are characterized by naivety, with
“intimate tone, the delicacy of communication and gentleness of feelings”, elegance and
gracefulness, which is characterized by subtle wit, naturalness, often accompanied by a bold
lyrical drive, harmoniously interchanged with that impressive simplicity12. Reza rightly
observes that folk songs reveal the emotions prevailing in the nation and the thoughts that
surround it, much better and more faithfully than the many formal descriptions of the
country’s customs and habits. Singing songs of love and joy, the happiness of family life is

9
Maceina 1993: 147
10
Maceina 1993: 148
11
Jucevičius 1959: 550
12
Rėza 1964: 330–331
the simplest way of showing gentle relationships between family members and relatives. 13 So,
we can say that a man of such community finds himself in a warm friendly world. This
perception of the atmosphere in which ancient Lithuanians lived also helps us to understand
that warm relations established in the family and community expanded further to the
surrounding world14. This world encompassed not only the community, but also natural
phenomena, like rivers and trees. Warm words were said to animals and birds. Pranė
Dundulienė insightfully observes that even heavenly bodies in Lithuanian mythological
folklore were not only personalized and deified, but also extended to the human family.
The entire universe was related to warm family ties in ancient Lithuanian folklore.
Relationships link the Sun, Moon, Venus. Although there are exceptions, the Sun is mostly
identified in songs with mother, Moon with her father, the Pleiades with brother, Venus with
her sister:

- I don't have a mother – Nėr man motušės

To lay the dower, Kraiteliui kloti,
I don't have a father Nėr man tėtušio
To give a part. Dalelei skirti.
I don't have a sister Nėr man sesulės
Wreath to wreath, Vainikui pinti,
I don't have a cousin Nėr man brolaičio
To accompany. Lauku lydėti.

The sun is the mother Saulė – motušė

To lay the dower. Kraiteliui kloti.
Month – Daddy Mėnuo – tėtušis
To give a part. Dalelei skirti.
Star – Sister Žvaigždė – seselė
Wreath to wreath. Vainikui pinti.
Pleiades – Brother Sietyns – brolelis
To accompany. Lauku lydėti.15
...

13
Rėza 1964: 337
14
Rėza 1958: 327
15
Sruoga 1949: 17
 Pleiades Shining in Heaven, Šviečia danguj Sietynėlis,
That's my brother there. Tai ten mano brolužėlis.

- Soldiers hard-workers, – Žalnierėliai vardienėliai,

Where's your brother? Kur jūsų brolelis?
High in the heavens, Aukštai danguj padangėlėj,
Lightful Pleiades, Šviesusis Sietynas,
This is our brother. Tai mūsų brolelis.16

Pleiades also escorts a married girl:

Star sister for wreath to weave, Žvaigždės sesutės vainikui pinti,

Pleiades brother to sit by side. Sietis broliukas šaly sėdėti.
...

Pleiades flowing in the sky, Teka danguj Sietynėlis,

That's my brother there. Tai ten mano brolužėlis.
Moon my dad gave me a part, Mėnuo tėvelis manik dalelę skyrė,
Pleiades brother prepared a dower. Sietyns brolelis manik rangelę rengė.
...

I sit among the five brothers, Sėdžiu tarp penkių brolelių,

Like a Pleiades between the stars. Kaip Sietynas tarp žvaigždelių.17
...

There are numerous shepherd songs that calls the Sun Mother:

- Sun mother, tend to be evening, – Saulele motinėle, vakaran, vakaran,

Small kids go, to bed, to bed. Vaikeliai mažuolėliai, patalan, patalan.18

16
J.Dovydaitis collected at 1959 m. from O.Navikienė, born 1891 m. Žiūrių-Gudelių k., Marijampolė
dist.
17
Liethuanian folklore 1967: t.1 534
18
Dundulienė 2008: 31
 What does it mean to be the daughter or son of a Sun? It means to participate in the
cosmic processes, to be part of the cosmos. These songs open a peculiar integration into the
play of the cosmic events. The empathic attitude of the archaic Lithuanian in songs underpins
the primordiality, the connection with the primordial sanctity of the world, opens its fresh
purity.
The goddesses and the fairies, the sun and the moon take care of the orphans19:

- Month, Month, – Mėnesėl, Mėnesėl,

When will I end that misery? Kada aš tuos vargelius pabaigsiu?
I have neither father nor mother - Neturiu nei tėvelio nei motinėlės –
No one has mercy on me! Niekas manęs nežėlavoja!
Have mercy on me, orphan, Pasigailėk manęs, našlaitėlės
Take me, orphan, on your own! Paimk mane, našlaitėlę, ant
savęs!20

Shepherds asking the Sun where it has gone:

- Dear Sun girl, daughter of god, – Miela saulyte, dievo dukryte,

Where have you been so long? Kur taip ilgai užtrukai?
Where have you lived so long, Kur taip ilgai gyvenai,
Apart from us? Nuo mūsų atstojusi?

Sun replies to them:

- Under the seas, under the hills – Po jūrų, po kalnelių

I was hiding orphans, Kavojau našlaitėlius,
I warmed the shepherds, Sušildžiau piemenėlius,
- Lots of my presents. – Daug mano dovanėlių.

Shepherds ask the Sun:

- Dear sun girl, daughter of god, – Miela saulyte, dievo dukryte,

19
Dundulienė 2008: 26
20
Lithuanian folklore 1967: 421
 Every morning and evening Kas rytais vakarėliais
Who made a fire for you, Pakūrė tau ugnelę,
Who was laying the bedding? Tau klojo patalėlį?

The Sun replies that her relatives are preparing bedding for her:

- Star of dawn and Evening: – Aušrinė, Vakarinė:

Dawn star lit a fire, Aušrinė ugnį pakūrė,
Evening star laid the bedding – Vakarinė patalą klojo, –
Lots of my relatives. Daug mano giminėlės.21

Such a dialogic attitude not only supports the man in his daily deeds and concerns but is
also a source of spiritual renewal and rebirth, a revelation of the broader world, transcending
the boundaries of subjectivity. Dialogue emphasizes mutual empathic listening, avoiding the
monologic imposition of final knowledge inherent in modern man, often addressed by asking
questions — rhetoric in dealing with plants, animals and natural phenomena.

Stream of the river Upele streventėle

- River stream, – Upele streventėle,

River stream, Upele streventelėle,
Why do you flow without rest? Ko tekis neperstoji?
- The lakes were not late, – Ežerai nevelino,
The lakes were not late, Ežerai nevelino,
The springs helped. Šaltiniai pamačino.

- Young maiden – Mergele tu jaunoji,

Young maiden, Mergele tu jaunoji,
Why do you cry without rest? Ko verki neperstoji?
- The brothers were not late, – Broleliai nevelino,
The brothers were not late, Broleliai nevelino,
The sisters helped. Sesutės pamačino.22

21
Sruoga 1949: 25
22
LLD 1993: 389
 Man is not encapsulated in his subjective situations. He is open to the whole world. The
spheres of nature extend the boundaries of the human world. Plants, animals and birds, like a
mirror, reflect the events of human life on another dimension.

Oh, what linen says Oi, ką klaba linelis

Oh, what linen says Oi, ką klaba linelis

Growing in the field, Gale lauko augdamas,
Standing near the forest, Pamiškėly stovėdams,
Nodding at the meadow: Papievėly linguodams:
- You didn't let me grow – Jūs nedavėt man užaugt
Nor the heads ripen, Nei galvelių pribrandint,
Threads to mature. Valaknėlių prispėjint.

What the daughter is talking about Vai ką kalba dukrelė

Walking through the dirt: Per aslelę eidama:
- You didn't let me grow – Jūs nedavėt man užaugt
No hair to comb, Nei galvelės sušukuot,
No braid to weave. Nei kaselių sumastyt.23

The swallow is going to Ketina štarelis

The swallow is going to Ketina štarelis

Marry the cuckoo. Gegelę vesti.
Can’t you find Ar tu nerandi
Any birds in the woods? Miške paukštelių?
Birds in the woods, Miške paukštelių,
With colorful feathers? Margaplunksnelių?

The boy is going to Ketina bernelis

Marry the maiden. Mergelę vesti.
Can’t you find Ar tu nerandi
23
LLD 1993: 118
 Maidens in the world? Sviete mergelių?
Maidens in the world, Sviete mergelių,
Workers? Darbininkėlių?24

The kinship that binds everyone manifests itself as a peculiar way of thinking. The man
not only gets his place and time but becomes meaningful both in his tradition and in the
world around him. Man lives fully immersed in a tradition where the names of relatives are
not only symbolic signs of place and time, but also a structure that gives sense to the man.
Such a living world is never empty or alien. It is extraordinarily rich, filled with meaningful
content. Creatively developed kinship bonds, the strands of which reach even the farthest
corners of the universe, restore the original unity of the soul and the world. These essential
qualities from generation to generation were developed in songs by harmonizing, balancing
and renewing the relationship with the living world.

Conclusions

So many ancient Lithuanian folklore songs and stories reveal the mythical family
relations as the central axis that underpins the very understanding of the surrounding world.
Nothing can be perceived without a reference point, nor can it be understood without the
structure of perception. The alien boundlessness of the cosmos cannot be grasped as such.
Therefore, space in ancient Lithuanian folklore acquires heterogeneity as a family emerges.
Even today, hometown, homeland, and other family-related places, even for a non-religious
person, have an exceptional meaning. The world without the meaningful places and void of
human-related connections becomes chaotic, alienated, an empty wasteland. Meaningfulness
of the world in Lithuanian tradition starts from family links, then grows further through the
community relations and then to the whole world-encompassing links, that are based on
empathy, balance, and care.
Unlike modern man, who forms his identity in processes of standardization and
industrialization, an archaic man acquires his identity in the intimate family-like community
context. This context in ancient Lithuanian tradition was full of songs and mythical stories
that naturally integrate the individual into the world of his ancestors. Hence, the identity of
archaic man comes from symbolic relations of his kin, here he acquired his distinctive place
in the world. Kinship relations in ancient Lithuanian folklore were connected not only the

24
LLD 1993: 377
family and kin members. Those relations extend the realm of the community joining all the
surrounding world. That involved the sun, moon, stars, wind, river, trees, birds, animals, and
other phenomena of the world. The ancient Lithuanian was organically integrated into the
dialogue with the surrounding world. That uniquely leverage the man’s attitude toward his
living place and his homeland, which becomes for him of extraordinal importance.
Therefore, so many ancient Lithuanian songs and stories express sincere attunement to
the surrounding world. Ancient Lithuanians were deeply rooted in the heritage of the
tradition, where not only the living but also the already dead ancestors played a significant
role. Hence, the perception of time in archaic Lithuanian culture differs from the modern.
Modern man after losing mythical dimension and symbolic relations of his kin began to
suffer from loneliness and boredom. Lacking meaning, he searches for it in entertainment and
in futuristic visions of the progress, that in fact is based on the paradigm of consumption.
Ancient Lithuanian is very different. He embodies the mythical story of his community. His
meaning comes from the rich heritage of the past and brings rootedness and meaningfulness
of his being into each moment of the life. We find here the evidence of vivid experience of
being alive.
The mythic Lithuanian tradition shows that technical, instrumental worldview, that
dominates the world today, is not the only one possible, that alongside there can be developed
a productive and open stance that reveals the world with warmth and friendliness. That
understanding is essential in the global world of our days, where we unavoidably face
collisions of different civilizations, cultures, and traditions. There is enough of evidence that
the next war can be the last affair in the history of humanity. Therefore, it is an obvious
demand for peaceful and balancing ways of overcoming a growing alienation, which comes
with the procedural causal logic and aggressive stance of pragmatic individualism. The
intellect that in modern world has reached the unprecedented strength should be balanced
with dialogic and emphatic attitude. A mythic Lithuanian tradition that reveals the world
in qualitative rather than a quantitative way is not naïve, it extends boundaries of the modern
worldview and overcomes the limits of a modern monologic individual incapsulated in his
procedural methodologies. Dialogic attitude underpins the way of staying different but being
together in a global multicultural world.
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Names of kinship

Wife – pati, patni, viešpatni, boba, bobė, motė, senė, žiuponė, draugė, drauguonė;
Male – diedas, patis, senis, tėvas, draugas;
The mother of a man – anýta;
The father of a man – šẽšuras;
Husband's brother – dieveris, švogeris;
Husband's sister – móša, dieverė, moša, švogerka, svainė, marti, brolaitė;
For wife, husband's sister's husband – mošėnas;
Husband's brother’s wife – jéntė, ìntė, gentė, žentė, jentė, dieverienė, brolienė;
Wife's father – úošvis;
The mother of the wife – úošvė;
Wife's brother – láigonas
For husband wife's brother’s wife – laiguonienė;
Wife's sister – sváinė;
Wife's sister's husband – sváinis;
Son's wife - martì, sūnienė;
Son's wife's brother – marčiabrolis;
Husband of daughter – žentas, martas, dukravedis, dukterėnas;
Brother's wife – martì, marša, brolienė, brolaitė;
Sister’s husband – žéntas, svainis;
For a father or a mother, the mother of a stepdaughter – svočia;
For father or mother, the father of a stepdaughter – svotas;
Brother or sister sister's husband – svainis;
Brother or sister Brother's wife – brolienė.
Mother's brother, uncle – avynas;
Wife of mother's brother – ava, avynienė, mūma;
Cousin boy – brosis, broterėlis, brolelis, brotužis;
Cousin girl – brosė, brotužė;
Late aunt's husband – dėdbuvis;
Uncle, after her husband died – dėdėnbuvė, dėdienė;
Husband of a father’s or mother's sister – tetėnas, tetulėnas;
Aunt's husband – tetinas, tetutinas, tetulis, tetulius;
 Grandmother's husband – bobutinas;
Daughter of a brother or sister – dukterėčia;
Son of a brother or sister – sūnėnas;
The daughter of a brother – brolėčia;
Brother’s son – brolėnas, brolainis, brolaitis
Wife of brother's son – brolainienė;
Daughter of sister – seserėčia;
Sister's son – seserėnas;
A child of a child, grandson, grandchild – nepotis, anūkas, anūkė, vaikaitis, vaikvaikis;
A great-grandchild – provaikis, proanūkis;
Granddaughter' s wife – anūkienė;
Husband leaving to wife's house after marriage – užkurys, priekuras, įkuris, ančkurys,
priimčius, įsodas, namininkas, ateitinys, įvestinys, atvestinys;
Widow's husband – preikšas;
Widower after wife’s death – šeirys, šeiris, udaučiu;
Husband after wife left him for another man – gyvanašlis;
Wife left without husband (in case of husband's death) – šeirė, udava;
Wife without a husband, who left wife for another woman – gyvanašlė;
The second man of a woman – užgulis, pavadas;
The third man of a woman – užtupys, ančtupinis;
The fourth man of a woman – bobkalis, kaliboba;
The fifth man of a woman – bobos baigis;
Husband's second wife – pavada, antravedė, antrapatė;
The third wife of a husband – trečiapatė;
Widower married and settled in his home – preikšė, preikšienė;
Cohabiting, not real wife living together – puspatė, pusbobė.
Spouses – pora, pačiudu, draugysta;