Latvian mythology is a rich collection of myths rooted in Proto-Indo-European practices and pre-Christian Baltic traditions, used primarily to reconstruct historical pagan beliefs and national identity, though details vary regionally. Early historical records from the 13th to 18th centuries are scarce and often biased Christian accounts, making accurate reconstruction challenging and requiring verification with folklore. During the 18th and early 20th centuries, national romanticists aimed to establish a grand Latvian pantheon, leading to the invention of deities—sometimes modeled after Greek or Roman gods—as notably seen in Andrejs Pumpurs' epic "Lāčplēsis." The late 1920s saw the rise of the Dievturi neopagan movement, which advocated for a monotheistic ancient Latvian religion. However, the practice of creating pseudo-gods was later criticized as realism replaced national romanticism, and the study of mythology was suppressed from 1944 under Soviet occupation, continuing mainly among Latvians in exile.