Proto-Baltic Earth Mother
She is *Žemē‑ /*\Žemynā, derived from the PIE *dʰéǵʰōm, via the intermediary Balto-Slavic reflex of *Žemīnā. The PIE goddess theonym has the meaning 'earth, ground', the Proto-Balto-Slavic reflex: 'earth', and the Proto-Baltic: 'Earth Mother'.
From the Proto-Baltic reflex we derive the Lithuanian Žemyna, the Latvian Zemes māte and the Lithuanian *semmē.
The Lithuanian Earth Mother, Žemyna
Žemyna has the meaning of 'Earth Mother', 'Earth Woman'. She personifies the earth, the nourishment it brings and the final resting place waiting for man. Her functions therefore are:
. Earth and fertility.
. Birth and life.
. Death and the underworld.
. Agriculture.
Consequently Her symbols are:
. Soil.
. Grain.
. Meadows.
. Flowers.
. Sacred bread.
. Beer used in libations.
Although Žemyna is the Earth Mother, She is not paired with the Sky Father, Dievas, as one would have expected but instead interacts with the Thunder God, Perkūnas, whose rains fertilise the earth, which parallels Thor's fertilisation of Jörð in the Germanic mythology. This pattern is also paralleled in the Slavic, Iranian, Vedic, Greek, Celtic and Hittite mythologies. This may be illustrated as follows:
The storm god brings rain → the earth becomes fertile → life begins.
There is one important difference between the Baltic mythologies and the other Indo-European ones in this regard: Žemyna is not married to Perkūnas, and neither is there any kind of genealogical relationship, which IS the case with Thor and Jörð, who are mother and son. In the mythology which is closest to the Baltic, the Slavic, this relationship is paralleled between Perun and Mat Syra Zemlya ('Mother Moist Earth'). The Slavic relationship is different in one aspect: the Slavic reflex of Mat Syra Zemlya is the earth itself, while the Baltic Žemyna is the goddess. This reminds me of the distinction between Erce (the goddess) and Eorðe (the earth itself) in the Old English Æcerbot. See: Erce, Anglo-Saxon Mother Goddess of the Earth
The Baltic mythology preserves the dual nature of the earth as both physical soil and a divine being as in the Anglo-Saxon mythology. The Slavic mythology however, only semi-personifies the 'Mother Moist Earth' and has a more ritualistic element, id est sworn oaths where the two entities are invoked together: 'Perun strike me, Earth swallow me.'
The Latvian Earth Mother
Zemes māte has the meaning of 'Mother of the Earth' and Her functions are:
. Guardian of fields.
. Guardian of land ownership.
. Guardian of burial grounds.
. Guarantor of agricultural prosperity.
She is both the physical earth and the personified Earth Mother. As in the Lithuanian tradition, the Latvian preserves the same concept of rain fertilising the earth. In this case, it is the Latvian thunder god, Pērkons who does the fertilising. One key difference between the Lithuanian and the Latvian mythologies is that the latter has over 60 variants of the Earth Mother, while the Lithuanian retains a single deity which occupies that function, the former preserving an ancient Indo-European or possibly pre-Indo-European tradition, before mythologies became more centralised and structured. However, these multiple variants are not separate goddesses but simply varied functions or faces of the same deity.
The Old Prussian Earth Mother
As I have pointed out in my previous post, the Church and its military enforcers, the Teutonic Order, did a thorough job of committing cultural and physical genocide in Prussia, replacing most of the indigenous Prussians with German colonists. Not a great deal of the mythology has survived, and so we are heavily reliant upon comparative linguistics and following the patterns laid down in the Lithuanian and Latvian sources, which are likely to be very close the the Prussian system.
Linguistically, we can conjecture that the Earth Mother is likely to have been called *Semmēnā/*Semmīna. This is a reconstructed form and is based on semmē, the Old Prussian for 'earth' and the feminine suffix ‑in‑ / ‑inā, which is common in Baltic theonyms. This is also supported by the following Indo-European theonyms:
. Thracian Zemelā.
. Greek Semelē ('earth').
. Slavic Mat Syra Zemlya.
. Lithuanian Žemyna.
. Latvian Zemes māte.
The reconstructed Old Prussian theonym has the meaning 'She-of-the-earth' , 'Earth Mother'. We do know from Prussian sources that the earth was treated as a sacred being, 'Swayte Seme' ('Holy Earth'), and oaths were sworn to Her.
