389 ŽYDRŪNAS VIČINSKAS The veriication of Lithuanian deity Bičbirbis / Birbulis in view of information provided by Matthaeus Praetorius Keywords: Matthaeus Praetorius, Bičbirbis / Birbulis, sundew (Drosera), authenticity, Baltic religion and mythology The object of the article is mythical material on Bičbirbis / Birbulis in Matthaeus Praetorius’ work Deliciae Prussicae or Prussian Theater (Deliciae Prussicae, oder Preussische Schaubühne). The purpose is to evaluate the authenticity of mythical material on Bičbirbis / Birbulis registered in M. Praetorius’ work. Tasks: 3.1. To select and to evaluate interpretations on Bičbirbis / Birbulis by more signiicant researchers of the 19th–21st centuries who had analysed M. P.’s data. 3.2. To collect mythical information on Bičbirbis / Birbulis provided in the work of the late 17th century. 3.3. To prove or to deny the authenticity of Matthaeus Praetorius’ mythical mate- rial. Methods: analytical, structural content analysis, hermeneutical interpretative description, comparative. The main aim of the article is to establish the reliability of a deity which is a patron of bees and which Matthaeus Praetorius calls Bičbirbis (Bicz(ƶ)birbins, Bicž-birbins, bitzbirbins) / Birbulis (bicziu birbullis) 1 . Further the article will chronologically – from the earliest to the latest – present and evaluate interpretations by more signiicant researchers of the 19 th –21 st centuries, those who analysed data on Bičbirbis / Birbu- 1 The previous articles have already discussed the authenticity and the research context of gods de- scribed by M. P. – Perdoytus, Wejopattis, Gardouten, Bangpjtjs, Luobgelda (and partly Bardoayts) [Vičinskas 2015: 178-200; Vičinskas 2017: 434-452]. One of the previous article called Mato Pretori- jaus mitinės medžiagos apie ąžuolą veriikacija (Veriication of Matthaeus Praetorius Mythical Mate- rial on Oak) attempts to evaluate the reliability of M. P.’s mythical material on oak [Vičinskas 2016: 63-84]. The mentioned researches have revealed the tendency of “information noise” and ambiguous authenticity of mythical data, therefore, the mythical material recorded by Matthaeus Praetorius should be veriied further. Perspectives of Baltic Philology III, Poznań 2017