Poklius- Baltic GodDeity"Lord of the Dead"
Also known as: Patolas, Peckols, Pikollus, and Patollu
Titles & Epithets
Domains
Symbols
Description
Pale and wrapped in the cloth of the grave, Poklius waited at the end of every life. The Old Prussian god of death ruled the cold realm beneath the earth. At Romuva's sacred oak his emblem was a skull set among the dead, his place fixed beside Perkūnas and Patrimpas in the divine triad.
Mythology & Lore
The Triad at Romuva
At Romuva, the central sanctuary of Prussian religion, three gods shared the great sacred oak. Patrimpas had a living snake coiled in a grain vessel. Perkūnas had his perpetual flame. Where they displayed life and fury, Poklius displayed the end of both: a pale, cloth-wrapped head and the skulls of the dead.
Simon Grunau recorded this arrangement in his Preußische Chronik. The sanctuary placed death at the center of worship, not apart from it. Worshippers approached Poklius not with celebration or awe but with grim, careful silence.
Funeral Rites
Poklius's realm was cold and dark, but it was not punishment. It was where everyone went. Proper funeral rites ensured smooth passage: grave goods placed with the body, ritual feasts shared with the dead, ceremonies spoken over the burial mound. Without these rites, souls could become stranded between worlds.
The living feared the unquiet dead more than they feared Poklius himself. Offerings went to the death god to keep the boundary between his world and theirs from thinning. The dead who crossed back were dangerous. The dead who stayed were at peace.