I am not a linguist, but I study the history and mythology of the
Balts. Here is my two cents. Vakarine might be a derivative, but if
so you could also probably say the same about Ausrine and many
others. It may not be mentioned as a worshiped deity in the medieval
sources, but it is definitely attested in folklore. There is a folk
song that begins "Vakarine zvaigzdele" which describes the evening
Venus' love with the moon, and her lament - that she will leave him
and join the mother Sun the next morning. Here the star is definitely
personified, on the same level as the Moon and Sun. It is an
authentic folk song, and a very typically Lithuanian one at that,
drawing parallels between the world of sky/nature and that of humans
(the motif continues with daughter, mother and mother-in-law).
Countless examples of such poetic device in other folk songs (Tureja
liepa; Kas tar teka per dvareli; Bite lingo). I do not currently have
the appropriate literature at hand, so I cannot cite the specific
source of this song, but it should be known to anyone living in
Lithuania. It was rendered into modern pop music in a project by the
folk singer Veronika Povilioniene and the rap group ZAS. I think this
is an artefact of polytheism in our folk culture (we have _hundreds_
of such as well).
Thank you,
Martin
--- In cybalist@..., "Sergejus Tarasovas" <S.Tarasovas@...> wrote:
> Vakari`ne. 'of the evening' is a derivation from
va~karas 'evening',
> but I am not aware of such a goddess and doubt it ever existed.
Looks
> like an artefact of a 19th c. romantic writer (we have _hundreds_
of
> such artefacts).