Dievs

by Aldis Putelis

 
Dievs (“god”) is the supreme deity of the Latvians, with the same position Zeus has in Greek religion. The word was later also used to denote the highest Christian deity and the main question is that of Christian influences included in Dievs’ image. The Finno-Ugric (Finnish and Estonian) loan words derived from the Baltic mean “sky” or “heaven” (compare: Finnish and Estonian taivas, taevas and Old Prussian deiwas). For the first time as a Latvian (i.e. non-Christian) deity Dievs is mentioned in Stenders’ Lexicon (1783). It is likely that the previous authors simply overlooked this deity not willing to contaminate the Christian notion.