Māra

Source material presents Māra as an ancient Dawn-goddess (previously called Austra) and the highest-ranking goddess in Latvian mythology. Scholarly opinion is divided: some view her as a pre-Christian Baltic deity, while others see her as a syncretic figure shaped by identification with the Christian Mary among semi-Christian Livonian peasants. The celebration of Māra on August 15 (the same date as the Assumption of Mary) is noted as probable evidence of Christian influence on the timing and perhaps the character of the festival.

The cited source does not provide a consistent anthropomorphic description. Instead, Māra's presence is registered through role-titles and toponyms: she is named 'Govu māte' ('Mother of Cows'), associated with 'Māras zeme' ('Māra's land'), and referenced through domestic-economic epithets (e.g. in the saying 'God made the table, Māra made the bread'). Regional name-forms (Māre, Mārīte, Mārša, Māršava) indicate local folk personifications, but no fixed physical iconography or bodily attributes are specified in the cited material.

According to the source, Māra functions as patroness of all feminine duties (children, cattle), patroness of economic activities, markets and money, and as a territorial/pastoral goddess (Māras zeme; Mother of Cows). Cosmologically she operates as the counterpart to Dievs: 'Being the alternate side of Dievs, she takes a person's body after their death while Dievs is taking the soul.' In western Latvia she was strongly associated with Laima and in some contexts may have been considered the same deity, indicating overlapping lifecycle and fortune-related functions.