Givoyte

The livoyta is mentioned by Jan Lasitsky (b. 1534). Matei Stryikovsky (b. 1547) said that under the main altar in the Vilnius Cathedral Church he saw a dungeon in which, in pagan times, sacred snakes were kept and fed ^[1] . Researcher of Lithuanian mythology Theodor Narbut attributed them to deities ^[2] . The Polish author of books on history and ethnography, Jozef Ignace Kraszewski in his work “The Art of the Slavs” ( Polish. Sztuka u Slowian , 1858) described the pagan sanctuary in Vilna, which contained and worshiped the Givoyta ^{[3] [4]} .

Givoyte was a symbol of eternity, since it was previously believed that snakes did not die, but, dropping their old skin every year, became younger and reborn with it ^[1] .

In the manuscript Stryjkovsky 1578 year written Yurgiyu Olelkovich, Prince Slutski «O początkach, wywodach, dzielnościach, sprawach rycerskich i domowych sławnego narodu litewskiego, żemojdzkiego i ruskiego, przedtym nigdy od żadnego ani kuszone, ani opisane, z natchnienia Bożego a uprzejmie pilnego doświadczenia» there is an excerpt that describes the war of Keistut with the Germans, the burning of a captured German Reiter and the cries of the Lithuanians. This passage contains references to Givoyta.