Mėnulis- Baltic GodDeity
Also known as: Menulis, Menuo, Mėnuo, and Mēness
Description
Baltic moon god who married the sun goddess Saulė, then strayed to the morning star Aušrinė. Perkūnas split him with a sword for the betrayal. Each month the moon waxes as the wound heals and wanes as it reopens.
Mythology & Lore
The Celestial Marriage
Mėnulis and Saulė were wed at the beginning of things, the moon and sun joined so that the two great lights might share the sky. Lithuanian dainos preserve the image: he governed the night, she governed the day, and for a time they rose and set in harmony.
Mėnulis did not stay faithful. He turned to Aušrinė, the morning star, Venus in her dawn appearance. Whether he seduced her or only pursued her, the folk songs disagree, but the betrayal was enough. He had broken his vow to Saulė.
The Sword of Perkūnas
Perkūnas discovered the betrayal and struck Mėnulis with his sword, cleaving the moon apart. The wound is visible each month: the waxing moon is Mėnulis healing, the waning moon the injury reopened. The punishment never ends.
Saulė separated from her husband. The sun and moon no longer travel the sky together. In the Latvian Dainas, it is Dievs rather than Perkūnas who passes judgment on Mēness, but the result is the same: a crescent where a full disc once shone, and two lights that share the sky only at the horizon, briefly, before one yields to the other.