JŪRATĖ AND KASTYTIS:

Similarities with Homer’s legend

Place of legends:• The sea

Nymph Calipso and mermaid Jūratė:• Loved mortal hero passionately• Were the sea Goddesses• Underwent fatal love

Odysseus and Kastytis:• Endurance, courageous, mortal

Gods were:• Vengeance, jealousy, powerful

Keywords

The Goddess Jūratė lived in a beautiful amber palace in the bottom of the Baltic sea.

Jūratė ruled the sea and all of the sea-life.

The immortal Goddess Jūratė fell in love with the handsome young fisherman Kastytis

Sculpture by Nijolė Gaigalaitė, 1961, Palanga, Lithuania

The father of all Gods – Thunder-god Perkūnas became furious and punished lovers.

Kastytis was killed by Perkūnas and Jūratė mourns him to this day.

To Lithuanians, the small, tear – shaped pieces of amber are the tears of Jūratė, as clear and pure as her fatal love.

In 1937, at the International Graphic Art Exhibition in Paris, artist Vaclovas Rataiskis-Ratas was awarded the prix d'honeur for his woodcut illustrations of Jūratė ir Kastytis