In Latvian Mythology
In Latvian mythology Lauma is an assistant at birth, assuring the health and welfare of both mother and child. If the mother does not survive, or gives the child up, she takes on the role of spiritual foster mother for the child. She spins the cloth of life for the child, but weeps at the fate of some. The fact that the cloth can, to a degree, weave itself, indicates a higher power than Lauma.
Over the years, her image has gradually degraded. Accused of baby-snatching by disrespectful husbands (since she is unable to bear children of her own), her looks and sweetness were lost, turning her into an evil old hag. She weeps at her destined fate, hoping for the day when she will return to her former beautiful self.
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Famous quotes containing the word mythology:
“It is not the literal past that rules us, save, possibly, in a biological sense. It is images of the past.... Each new historical era mirrors itself in the picture and active mythology of its past or of a past borrowed from other cultures. It tests its sense of identity, of regress or new achievement against that past.”
—George Steiner (b. 1929)