Editing Latvian mythology (section)

=== 18th – early 20th century ===
Most folklore materials have been collected since the mid-19th century.<ref name="scholar" /> In the 18th and 19th centuries, it was assumed that Baltic tribes were originally one nation and thus had the same deities.<ref>{{cite journal | last =Rozenbergs | first =Jānis | title =Pārdomas par tematu "Garlībs Merķelis un latviešu folklora"| journal =Latvijas Zinātņu Akadēmijas Vēstis |volume=51| issue =1./2.(588./589.)  | pages =1–8 | publisher =Latvijas Zinātņu Akadēmija| location =Rīga | year =1997|language=lv }}</ref> Early authors tried to reconstruct a Latvian pantheon using data from neighboring regions. This trend was later also adopted by Latvian [[Romantic nationalism|national romanticists]].<ref name="scholar" /> After the abolition of serfdom, a new national identity was forming and authors sought to prove that Baltic cultural traditions were as deep as those of other nations.<ref name="neopagans">{{cite encyclopedia |last=Muktupāvels |first=Valdis |author-link=Valdis Muktupāvels |editor-last =Jones |editor-first=Lindsay |title=Baltic religion: New religious movements| encyclopedia =Encyclopedia of Religion |volume=2 |pages=762–767 | publisher =Thomson Gale| year =2005|edition=2nd}}</ref> It was hoped that a grand epic could be constructed using pieces preserved in folklore. It was also thought that the ancient religion, forgotten during 700 years of oppression, could be reconstructed. However, folklore sources proved insufficient for the task.<ref name="reshist" />  Some attempted to reconstruct pantheons to be as impressive as in [[Greek mythology]], which led to some deities being simply invented.<ref name="neopagans" /> Besides the assumption that deities of other Baltic peoples must be Latvian as well but were simply lost over time, many new deities were modeled after Greek and [[Roman Mythology|Roman]] deities.<ref name="reshist" /> An example of the trend is the epic poem [[Lāčplēsis]] by [[Andrejs Pumpurs]], which features a pantheon of Latvian and Prussian gods and some the author has invented himself. Similarly, works of [[Juris Alunāns]] and poet [[Miķelis Krogzemis]] feature pantheons of invented deities.

At the same time, some pagan rites were still practiced. And, as Christianity was seen as alien, attempts were made to recreate the ancient religion. The most successful of the neopagan movements was [[Dievturi]], established in the late 1920s, which claims that ancient Latvians were monotheistic and the various mythological beings are all aspects of one God.<ref name="neopagans" /> While the notion of needing to remove alien influences to reconstruct Latvian traditions was preserved into later times,<ref name="scholar" /> the attempts to create an Olympus-like pantheon of pseudo-gods eventually stopped as national romanticism was replaced by realism and came to be criticized in the first half of 20th century.<ref name="reshist" />  It was also suspected that some of the folklore materials might have been falsified.<ref name="par smitu">{{Cite book | first =L. | last =Bērziņš| title =P. Šmits kā latviešu tautas dziesmu pētnieks | place =Rīga| series =Filologu biedrības raksti| volume =XIX | year=1939}}</ref> The research of this time is characterised not only by skepticism but also with attempts to seek foreign influences.<ref name="reshist" />