Editing Mahte (section)

== Overview ==
Latvian ethnographer Pēteris Šmits noted that the Mahtes seem to be a phenomenon exclusive to Latvian mythology, with no equivalent either in its Baltic neighbours (Prussian and Lithuanian), nor in other Indo-European mythologies.<ref>Šmitas, Pėteris. ''Latvių mitologija''. Iš latvių kalbos vertė Dainius Razauskas. Vilnius: Aidai, 2004. p. 129.</ref>

Scholars (e.g., Miriam Robbins Dexter, Lotte Motz, [[David Adams Leeming]], [[Martin Litchfield West]]) note that these deities were invoked with the epithet "mate" 'mother' and individually oversaw several aspects of nature, including features of the environment (forests, fields, mushrooms, sea, the wind, etc.), animals (for instance, elks), as well as cultural aspects, such as death and interrement, or milk and cattle.<ref>{{cite book |last=Dexter |first=Miriam Robbins |title=Whence the goddesses: a source book |series=The Athene Series |location=New York and London |publisher=[[Teachers College Press]], Teachers College, Columbia University |date=1990 |page=54 |isbn=0-8077-6234-2 |quote=[The Mahtes were] goddesses or spirits responsible for the forests, for the fields, for milk, for the sea, for cattle.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Mottz |first=Lotte |title=The Faces of the Goddess |location=New York & Oxford |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |date=1997 |page=78 |isbn=0-19-508967-7 |quote=A closer look at the "mothers" shows them to belong to various categories. [...with] a striking similarity [to] those of the North Eurasian nations ... [they are] owners and guardians of nature, protective deities of dwelling places, personified objects or phenomena that might or might not receive cultic worship, personifications of abstract qualities, or the relatives of gods.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Leeming |first=David |title=From Olympus to Camelot: The World of European Mythology |location=New York, NY |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |date=2003 |page=127 |quote=[The Mahtes] represent[ed] various aspects of nature—fields, mushrooms, elks, and so forth.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=West|first=Martin L.|title=Indo-European Poetry and Myth |date=2007|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-928075-9|author-link=Martin Litchfield West |page=141 |quote=In the Baltic lands too, especially in Latvia, we find many Mothers, ... presiding over a specific area or function. In the Latvian folk-songs they proliferate: there is the Mother of wind, the Mother of fog, of forest, of flowers, of death, of the tomb, of the sea, of silver, of bees, and so on.}}</ref>

According to scholar Elza Kokare, the authenticity of some Mahte deities is dubious, but some are firmly established due to a great number of mentions in the ''[[dainas]]'' (Latvian folksongs).<ref>Kokare, Elza. "[http://www.folklore.ee/rl/pubte/ee/bif/bif1/kokare.html A survey of the basic structures in Latvian mythology]. In: ''Journal of the Baltic Institute of Folklore'' (Tallinn), 1996, Nr.1, pp. 65-91.</ref>

=== List of ''Mahte'' ===
Following are some of the ''Mate'' characters:<ref>{{cite book |last=Mottz |first=Lotte |title=The Faces of the Goddess |location=New York & Oxford |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |date=1997 |pages=221-222 (footnote nr. 27) |isbn=0-19-508967-7}}</ref>

#Bangu māte - Mother of Waves
#Ceļa māte - Mother of Roads
#Dārza māte - Mother of Gardens
#Dēkla māte
#Gausu māte
#Jūras māte - considered a goddess of the sea (from ''Jura'' 'sea')<ref>Lurker, Manfred. ''The Routledge Dictionary Of Gods Goddesses Devils And Demons''. Routledge. 2004. p. 96. {{ISBN|978-04-15340-18-2}}</ref>
#Kapu māte - 'Mother of Graves'
#Kārta māte
#Krūmu māte - Mother of Bushes
#Lapu māte - Mother of Leaves
#Lauka māte or Lauku māte - Mother of Fields
#Lazdu māte - Mother of the Hazelbush
#Lietus māte - Mother Rain
#Linu māte - Mother Flax
#Lopu māte - Mother of Livestock (Cattle)
#Mieža māte - Mother of Barley
#Meža māte - Mother of the Forest
#Miglas māte - Mother of Fog
#Pirts māte - Mother of the Bathhouse
#Rijas māte - Mother of the Threshing Place
#Sēņu māte - Mother of Mushrooms
#Smilšu māte - Mother of Sands{{efn|In Latvian folksongs there are references of a "hill of white sand" (Latv ''Balta smilksu kalnina'') or to "a sandhill" (Latv ''smiltaja'') as the destination of the deceased in this world before they depart to "The Other Sun" (the afterlife).<ref>Vaira Vīķis-Freibergs (1980). "A structural analysis of lexical and contextual semantics-Latvian Balts ‘white’ in sun-songs". In: ''Journal of Baltic Studies'', 11:3, pp. 226. {{doi|10.1080/01629778000000241}}</ref>}}{{efn|In another ''daina'', the deceased asks to be brought to the sand ("Vediet mani smiltainē") and that he will remain in his grave, by the white sand ("Es palikšu kapsētāi,/ Baltas smiltis rušināt").<ref>''Vija: Dziesmu Krajums''. Sakopojis Ed. Alainis. Trešais izdevāms. Riga: "Laikmets" Izdevums. 1935. p. 175.</ref>}}
#Sniega māte - Mother of Snow
#Tirgus māte - Mother of Markets
#Ūdens māte - Mother of Waters
#Uguns mate - Mother of Fire
#Upes māte - Mother of Rivers
#Vēja māte - 'Mother of Winds'
#Veļu māte or Vélių motę - mother of the souls/spirits<ref>Laurinkienė, Nijolė. "Požemio ir mirusiųjų karalystės deivė" [Goddesses of the Kingdom of the Dead and the Underworld]. In: ''Metai'' n. 1 2010. p. 121.</ref>
#Zemes māte - Earth Mother ([[Māra]])
#Ziedu māte - Mother of Flowers