with a flame. It stands between young Patrimpas and old Patulas. Perkūns maintains the same central position in the description of the sacred oak in Romowe sanctuary. In front of the oak, the eternal fire (symbol of Perkūns) was burned. Special priests served at the sanctuary. Old Prussians would try to appeal to the god by prayers. Perkunatete was the mother of Perkūns. Latvian Pērkons Pērkons was strongly associated with Dievs, though the two were clearly different. The people sacrificed black calves, goats, and roosters to Pērkons, especially during droughts. The surrounding peoples came to these sacrifices to eat and drink together, after pouring beer onto the ground or into the fire for him. The Latvians also sacrificed cooked food before meals to Pērkons, in order to prevent thunderstorms, during which honeycombs were placed into fires to disperse the clouds. Pērkons' family included sons that symbolized various aspects of thunderstorms (such as thunder, lightning, lightning strikes) and daughters that symbolized various kinds of rain. Pērkons appeared on a golden horse, wielding a sword, iron club, golden whip and a knife. Ancient Latvians wore tiny axes on their clothing in his honor. In modern culture Perkunas is occasionally mentioned in the novels of Harry Turtledove. He provides an important macguffin in The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump (1993) and is the patron god of one of the armies in Gunpowder Empire (2003). Günter Grass, in his second novel Dog Years (1963), alludes to Perkūnas ("Perkunos") as a symbol of the dark human energies unleashed by the rise of Nazism in Germany in the 1930s. The fictional parallel to Nazi Germany in the 1966 alternate history novel The Gate of Time by Philip José Farmer is called Perkunisha, named after Perkūnas. The Lithuanian folk music group Kūlgrinda released a 2003 album titled Perkūno Giesmės, meaning "Hymns of Perkūnas". See also Hercynian Forest Indra Perkwunos Perun Thunaer References Further reading Nijolė Laurinkienė. Senovės lietuvių dievas Perkūnas (Perkūnas - The God of Ancient Lithuanians). Lietuvos literatūros ir tautosakos institutas: 1996, Vilnius. Lajoye, Patrice. (2018). The Storm God and the Hunter: A Fragment of an Old Balto-Slavic Epos?Le Dieu de l'orage et le chasseur: un fragment d'une ancienne épopée. Studia mythologica Slavica. 21. 27. 10.3986/sms.v21i0.7064. Tuite, Kevin. (2004). Lightning, Sacrifice, and Possession in the Traditional Religions of the Caucasus. Anthropos: International Review of Anthropology and Linguistics. 99. Tuite, Kevin. “Lightning, Sacrifice, and Possession in