Potrimpos

Potrimpos is the name of an important deity of the Lithuanians and ancient Prussians previous to the conquest of their country by the Teutonic Order; the second person in the Northern triad — Perkunos, Potrimpos, and Pikollos. It was he who granted victory in war and fertility in time of peace: he also dispensed the bliss of domestic happiness. His image stood in a cavity of the holy oak at Romowe; it looked smilingly at Perkunos, and represented, as far as the rough art of those times would allow, the features of a cheerful youth. If Perkunos was the god of the warming and destroying fire, Potrimpos was the god of the fecundating and devastating water. Corn and incense were the offerings he preferred; a wreath of ears adorned his head. But he was not always content with these unbloody sacrifices: sometimes children had to be immolated in his honor, and reduced to ashes in burning wax. A snake was kept in his honor in an urn of clay, fed with milk, and allays covered with ears of corn. For this reason the snake was a holy animal among the ancient Prussians. Warriors, marching to the bloody encounter, if they chanced to meet a serpent, fancying they beheld in it Potrimpos himself, were hopeful of his assistance, and thought themselves invincible. When a solemn sacrifice was to be offered to him, the priests remained three days stretched on the ground, fasting, and at intervals throwing wax and incense into the flames. It does not appear that particular places, lakes and woods, were consecrated to him, nor can any trace of the expansion of his worship into other countries be ascertained unless we admit with Mone that he is one person with the priapic field-god Friygo worshipped at Upsala; but this is very doubtful. Some modern historians assert that it was a female deity, the wife of the thunder-god; they assimilate him with the mother of the gods mentioned by Tacitus as solemnly worshipped by the AEsthians. See Anderson, Northern Mythology, s.v.