Päivätär

Material concerning Päivätär derives from Kalevala poetry and regional runic songs rather than a single unified origin myth. In Kalevala cosmology the Sun is produced from the world-egg motif (egg yolk becoming the Sun); within the runic corpus Päivätär functions as the Sun's female agent and owner of the Sun's riches. Regional runic songs variously connect her to the origin of fire (Auringotar in some songs), to freeing the Son of the Sun in freeing-sun motifs, and to social/mythic households (mistress of Päivölä in some songs). Scholarly commentary places her alongside Kuutar as part of a Baltic-influenced tradition of female solar/lunar figures.

Sources describe Päivätär as a 'great beauty' and as richly adorned: runic songs emphasize her possession of silver jewellery and clothes woven from 'silver yarns,' producing an image of a radiant, silvery-adorned woman. No detailed bodily description is provided in the cited material beyond her beauty and garments.

Päivätär is represented as proprietor of the Sun's silver and as an artisan-divinity who spins silver yarns and weaves clothes from them; in Kalevala verses maidens petition her for silver jewellery and clothes. Some runic songs (under the name Auringotar) attribute the creation of fire to her. Incantation material calls her 'mother of wasps' and contains petitions asking her to command her children (wasps) not to sting. She appears in mythic actions such as freeing the Son of the Sun in certain songs and acts as hostess or mistress in narratives linked to banqueting and social governance.