Proto-Indo-European religion

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Sri Durga as Mahishasura Mardini (Slayer of the Buffalo Demon), flanked by Lakshmi and Saraswati, and (her sons) Ganapati/Ganesh and Kartikkeya/Skanda, with Shiva and the Ten Mahavidyas overhead.

The existence of similarities among the deities and religious practices of the Indo-European (IE) peoples allows glimpses of a common Proto-Indo-European (PIE) religion and mythology. This hypothetical religion would have been the ancestor of the majority of the pagan religions of Europe, and of the Indian religions as well as Zoroastrianism in Iran.

Indications of the existence of this ancestral religion can be detected in commonalities between languages and religious customs of Indo-European peoples. The scientific method of triangulation is used by historical linguists to reconstruct the names of gods and goddesses, the names and processes for religious rituals and many related elements of belief and practice. In addition, many texts relating to the Indo-European religions exist, such as mythological tales and descriptions of religious rituals, including explicit instructions on how to perform them. Archaeological evidence is difficult to match to any specific culture in the earliest period of the Indo-European culture, which is defined as the time when all Indo-European-speaking people could still understand each other and conservatively thought to be about 4000 BCE^[1]. However, there is a vast amount to archaeological evidence that can be connected to specific Indo-European cultures and especially religious topics, such as temple site digs, votive offerings and inscriptions. The names of gods are often the first words we find written in each of the Indo-European languages.

[edit] Pantheon

Linguists are able to reconstruct the names of some deities in the Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) from many types of sources. Some of the proposed deities are more readily accepted among scholars than others.

In order to present a consistent notation, the reconstructed forms used here are cited from Mallory and Adams Oxford Introduction^[2]. Use of this source does not imply agreement in either direction. The laryngeals H_e H_a H_o have been capitalized to make them a little easier to read.

• *pltH₂wiH₂ is reconstructed (p. 267, Oxford Intro.) as "Plenty", a goddess of wide flat lands and the rivers that meander across them. Forms include Hittite Lelwanni, a goddess of the underworld "the pourer" (G&I, p.760); Sanskrit Prthivi; from the ancient Persian, the Euphrates river (Bopp, p. 28^[3]); Greek Leto, in Latin, Latona; and also Greek Ploutos, borrowed into Latin as Pluto. He is responsible for pushing the water up into the springs that form on hillsides.

• *priH_xeH_a, is reconstructed (p. 208, Oxford Intro.) as “beloved, friend”, the god(dess) of the garden. She is known in Hittite as the object of the Purulli festival, in Sanskrit as Priya. In Avestan, she is demonized as Paurwa, but replaced by Anahita. In Greek she is recognized as Aphrodite, although this name does not quite fit the expected phonology, and apparently means the “goddess of the garden”, related word “paradise.” In Latin Venus takes her place (not cognate at all), and in Old Norse she is Freya. She is possibly worshipped under the name Perun in southern Slavic-speaking areas. In Albanian she is Perendi, Christianized as St. Prendi. J. Grimm refers to an Old Bohemian form Priye, used as a gloss for Aphrodite (DM p.303). Many of these goddesses give their name to the fifth day of the week, Friday. They are also very well known in lesser form such as the Germanic Elves and the Persian Peris, charming and seductive beings in folklore. There are also masculine forms of this deity, Sanskrit Prajapati, Greek Priapos, borrowed into Latin as Priapus, and Old Norse Freyr.

• *Perkwunos, known as the “striker” is reconstructed (p. 410, 433, Oxford Intro.) from Skt. Parjanya, Prussian Perkuns, Lithuanian Perkunas, Latvian Perkons, Slavic Perun and Norse Fjörgyn and Frigg. Fjörgyn was replaced by Thor among the Germanic speaking people. These gods give their names to Thursday, the fourth day of the week.

• Devis and Devas are found among all the Indo-Europeans, and the word is often used as a general word for "a god, any god (or goddess)" and sometimes for a specific goddess or god. Note that in Sanskrit, Avestan and Hindi, words that end in -a are masculine and -i is feminine. In the western languages the situation is reversed, so that words that end in -a are usually feminine and words that end in -i, or more often -us, and -os are usually masculine. Here the forms are divided into masculine and feminine forms for convenience.
  • *deiwos-, Deva or Deos (masculine, p. 408, Oxford Intro., but from *dhy-, according to Jaan Puhvel), Hittite, sius 'god'; Greek, dios 'god' (but usually theos); Oscan, Diovis; Latin, Jove, a particular god, also with forms deus, divus, 'god, rich man'; Sanskrit Deva; in Avestan, the daevas, (later Persian divs) were demonized by Zarathustra; Lith. Dievas; Latv. Dievs, a god who causes the rye fields to ripen; ON Týr, OHG Ziu, Old English, Tiw, a particular god; Welsh duw; Irish dia, `god', and possibly Irish Dagda, and Slavic Dazbog.
  • *dyeu-, Devi or Dia (feminine) Sanskrit, Devi, a goddess with a major cult in India, devi 'goddess'; Avestan, daevi 'female demon'; Greek, Demeter (etymology highly arguable), a grain goddess, with the vocative form Deo used to address her; Latin, Dea Dia, a grain goddess, also dia and diva, 'goddess'; Iberian Celtic, Deva; Irish dia, dea, 'goddess'; Slavic, Zhiva, a grain goddess; Old Polish Zywie, Siebe; Lith. deive `goddess'.

• • *dyeus pH₂ter is believed to have been the original name of the god of the daylit sky and the chief god of the Indo-European pantheon. He survives in Greek Zeus (genitive case Diòs), Etruscan Jupiter, borrowed into Latin as Dispater (c.f. also deus pater in the Vulgate, e. g. Jude 1:1) and in Sanskrit Dyaus Pita.

• *H_aeusos is the name of certain specific gods, usually the sun, the stars, especially the planet Venus or hearth fires; a class of gods (`those that shine with a golden light'); and a general word for `a god, any god'. These gods are also general to the Indo-Europeans.
  • *H_aeus(os), is believed to have been the goddess of dawn (p. 409, 410, 432, Oxford Intro.), continued in Greek mythology as Eos, in Rome as Aurora, in Vedic as Ushas but this word is later demonized as an Ashura 'demon'; Avestan, Ahura Mazda, the good god of the Zoroastrians; Ahura, a good spirit; in Lithuanian mythology as Aušra or Auštaras, Latvian Auseklis, the morning star; Ausera, and Ausrina, goddesses of dawn or of the planet Venus; Hittite, assu 'lord, god'; Gallic Esus, a god of hearths; Old Norse, Aesir (pl.), and Old English Os (sg.), general words for a god, any god; Slavic, Iaro, a god of summer. The form Arap Ushas appears in Albanian folklore, but is a name of the Moon. See also the names for the Sun which follow.
  • *H_aeust(e)ro (p. 294, 301, Oxford Intro., but see also the form *as-t-r, with intrusive -t- [between s and r] in northern dialects" given on p. 702, and 780, G&I^[4]) Anatolian dialects: Estan, Istanus, Istara; Sanskrit, demonized and replaced with Agni; Avestan Atar, sacred fire of the Zoroastrians; Greek, Hestia, goddess of the hearth; Latin Vesta, goddess of the hearth; in Armenian as Astghik, a star goddess; and possibly also in Germanic mythology as Eostre or Ostara; Baltic, Austija; and possibly the Tibetan Buddhist goddesses like Green Tara.

• *deH_anu- 'River goddess' is reconstructed (p. 434, Oxford Intro.) from Skt. Danu, Irish Danu; Welsh Don, and a masc. form Ossetic Donbettys. The name has been connected with the Dan rivers which run into the Black Sea (Dnieper, Dniester, Don, and Danube) and other river names in Celtic areas.

• *welnos, is reconstructed as a god of cattle from Slavic Veles, and Lithuanian Velnias, "protector of flocks"; as well as Old Norse Ullr, and Old English Wuldor, and even the Elysian fields in Greek myth and ritual (according to Jaan Puhvel). There may be a god of cattle in the northern lands (Christianized as St. Vlas), but the argument is very thin. These names were also once thought to be connected to Sanskrit Varuna and Greek Ouranos for example by Max Muller (Comparative Mythology p. 84), but this is now rejected on linguistic grounds, ("the etymology is disputed" Shapiro, JIES 10, 1&2, p. 155, ^[5]).

• Divine Twins: There are several sets (the Indo-Europeans seem to be quite fond of twins), which may or may not be related.
  • The Sun and Moon are discussed in the next section.
  • Yama and Manu, the first mortals, (or the first gods to die), become the ancestors of everyone and king(s) of the dead. The first ancestor of men was called *Manu-, see Germanic Mannus, Hindu Manu (p. 435, Oxford Intro.). See also Mythology section.
  • Horse Twins, usually have a name that means `horse' *ekwa-, but the names are not always cognate (no lexical set, p. 432, Oxford Intro.). They are always male and usually have a horse form, or sometimes, one is a horse and the other is a boy. They are brothers of the Sun Maiden or Dawn goddess, sons of the Sky god, continued in Sanskrit Ashvins and Lithuanian Ašvieniai, identical to Latvian Dieva deli. Other horse twins are: Greek, Dioskuri (Polydeukes and Kastor); borrowed into Latin as Castor and Pollux; Irish, the twins of Macha; Old English, Hengist and Horsa (both words mean `stallion'), and possibly Old Norse Sleipnir, the eight-legged horse born of Loki; Slavic Lel and Polel; possibly Christianized in Albanian as Sts. Flori and Lori. The horse twins may be based on the morning and evening star (the planet Venus) and they often have stories about them in which they "accompany" the Sun goddess, because of the close orbit of the planet Venus to the sun, (JIES 10, 1&2, p. 137-166, Michael Shapiro, who references D. Ward, The Divine Twins, Folklore Studies, No. 19, Univ. Calif. Press, Berkeley, 1968,).

• A water or sea god is reconstructed (p. 438, Oxford Intro.) as *H₂epom nepots `grandson/nephew of waters' from Persian and Vedic Apam Napat, and as *neptonos from Celtic Nechtan, Etruscan Nethuns, Germanic Hnikar and Latin Neptune. This god may be related to the Germanic water spirit, the Nix and the Neckar River ^[6]. Poseidon (etymology highly arguable, but certainly not cognate) fulfills the function of this deity in Greek.

The Sun and Moon are often seen as the twin children of various deities, but in fact the sun and moon were deified several times and are often found in competing forms within the same language. The usual scheme is that one of these celestial deities is male and the other female, though the exact gender of the Sun or Moon tend to vary among subsequent Indo-European mythologies. Here are two of the most common PIE forms:

• *seH_aul with a genitive form *sH_a-en-s Sun, appears as Hindu Svar, and Surya, fem. and Surya, masc. form; Avestan, Hvara; Greek Helios (and Helen, the form in the Dorian Greek of the Spartans); Latin Sol; Old Norse Sol; OE Sigel and Sunna, modern English Sun. Other forms are Russian Zorya, and Zaria in folklore; Old Prussian, Lithuanian Saule, Latvian Saule; Albanian Diell, seen in the name of Sunday and in demonized form as a name for the devil. (Most of these forms are given from Encyclopedia of IE Culture, p. 556.)
• *meH₁not Moon, gives Avestan, Mah; Greek Selene (unrelated), although they also use a form Mene; Latin, Luna, later Diana (unrelated), ON Mani, Old English Mona; Sl. Myesyats; Lithuanian,*Meno, or Menuo; Latv. Meness. In Albanian, Hane is the name of Monday, but this is not related. (Encyclopedia of IE Culture, p. 385, gives the forms but does not have an entry for a moon goddess.)

• *peH₂uson is reconstructed (p. 434, Oxford Intro.) as a pastoral god, based on the Greek god Pan, the Roman god Faunus and the Fauns, and Vedic Pashupati, and Pushan. See also Pax.

• There may have been a set of nature spirits or gods akin to the Greek Satyrs, the Celtic god Cernunnos and the Dusii, Slavic Veles and the Leszi, the Germanic Woodwose, elves and dwarves. There may also have been a female cognate akin to the Greco-Roman nymphs, Slavic vilas, the Huldra of Germanic folklore, and the Hindu Apsaras.

• There may also have been a savage dog or wolf (hellhound) guarding the underworld, such as Greek Kerberos, and Norse Garm; Kerberos and Garm (and Grendel) are derived from the Proto-Indo-European root, *gher- (thought to be an onomatopoetic reference to the dog's growl).^[7]

• It is also likely that they had three fate goddesses, see the Norns in Norse mythology, Moirae in Greek mythology, Sudjenice of Slavic folklore and Deivės Valdytojos in Lithuanian mythology.

A fuller treatment of the subject of the Indo-European Pantheon would not merely list the cognate names but describe additional correspondences in the "family relationships", festival dates, associated myths (but see Mythology section) and special powers. Once the cognate names are provided (the linguist's responsibility) everyone can contribute to the research, and I would like to thank especially the Lithuanians, Armenians, Slavs and others who have been contributing information, which would otherwise be very difficult to access.

[edit] Pandemonium

Pandemonium is Jaan Puhvel's word for the mutual demonization that occurred when the (Younger-)Avesta demonized the daevas, and the (post-Rig-)Vedic texts demonized the asuras. Neither demonization occurs in the oldest texts: In the Rigveda, there is not yet any hard-and-fast distinction between asuras and devas, and even in the later Vedas, the two groups (though thematically in opposition) also cooperate at certain times.^[8] In the Old Avestan texts the daevas are to be rejected for being misguided by the "lie", but they are still gods, and not demons.^[9]

However, in the 19th century this distinction between the older and younger texts had yet to be made, and in 1884 Martin Haug "postulated his thesis that the transition of both the words [Asuras and Devas] into the designations of the demons.... is based on a prehistoric schism in religion...."^[10] The observation was reiterated by Jacob Grimm (DM3, p. 985), who, like Haug, considered it to be the theological basis of Zoroastrianism's dualism. Prior to this (in the 1850s), Westergaard had attributed the (Younger) Avesta's demonization of the daevas to a "moral reaction against Vedic polytheism," but that—unlike the general notion of a mutual demonization—was very quickly rejected, and by 1895 James Darmesteter noted that it has "no longer [had] any supporter."^[11] Nonetheless, some modern authors like Mallory and Adams still refer to Zoroastrianism as a "religious reformation" of Vedic religion (p. 408-9, Oxford Intro.). Most scholars however stress that there were two independent developments in ancient Iran and post-Rigvedic India, but nonetheless to be considered against the common background of prehistoric Indo-Iranian religion where both groups coexisted, with the *Asuras perhaps even as a subset (having a particular common characteristic, like the Adityas) of the *Daivas, the national gods.

[edit] Mythology

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There seems to have been a belief in a world tree, which in Germanic mythology was an ash tree (Norse Yggdrasil; Irminsul), in Hinduism a banyan tree, in Lithuanian mythology Jievaras, and an oak tree in Slavic mythology, and a hazel tree in Celtic mythology. In classical Greek mythology, the closest analogue of this concept is Mount Olympus; however, there is also a later folk tradition about the World Tree, which is being sawed by the Kallikantzaroi (Greek goblins), perhaps a reborrowing from other peoples.

[edit] Dragon or Serpent

One common myth which can be found among almost all Indo-European mythologies is a battle ending with the slaying of a serpent, usually a dragon of some sort: examples include

• Thor vs. Jörmungandr, Sigurd vs. Fafnir in Scandinavian mythology;
• Zeus vs. Typhon, Kronos vs. Ophion, Apollo vs. Python, Heracles vs. the Hydra, Ladon, Perseus vs. Ceto and Bellerophon vs. the Chimaira in Greek mythology;
• Indra vs. Vrtra in the Rigveda; Θraētaona, and later Kərəsāspa, vs. Aži Dahāka in Zoroastrianism and Persian mythology.
• Perun vs. Veles, Dobrynya Nikitich vs. Zmey in Slavic mythology;
• Tarhunt vs. Illuyanka of Hittite mythology;

There are also analogous stories in other neighbouring mythologies: Anu or Marduk vs. Tiamat in Mesopotamian mythology; Ra vs. Apep in Egyptian mythology; Baal or El vs. Lotan or Yam-Nahar in Levantine mythology; Yahweh or Gabriel vs. Leviathan or Rahab or Tannin in Jewish mythology; Michael the Archangel and, Christ vs. Satan (in the form of a seven-headed dragon), Virgin Mary crushing a serpent in Roman Catholic iconography, Saint George vs. the dragon in Christian mythology^[12] The myth symbolized a clash between forces of order and chaos (represented by the serpent), and the god or hero would always win (except in some mythologies, such as the Norse Ragnarok myth)).^[13] It is therefore most probable that there existed some kind of dragon or serpent, possibly multi-headed (cf. Śeṣa, the hydra and Typhon) and likely linked with the god of underworld and/or waters, as serpentine aspects can be found in many chthonic and/or aquatic Indo-European deities, such as for example the many Greek aquatic deities, most notably Poseidon, Oceanus, Triton, Typhon (who carries many chthonic attributes while not specifically linked with the sea), Ophion, and also the Slavic Veles. Possibly called *kʷr̥mis, or some name cognate with *Velnos/Werunos or the root *Wel/Vel- (VS Varuna, who is associated with the serpentine naga, Vala and Vṛtra, Slavic Veles, Baltic velnias), or "serpent" (Hittite Illuyanka, VS Ahis, Iranian azhi, Greek ophis and Ophion, and Latin anguis), or the root *dheubh- (Greek Typhon and Python).

[edit] Sun

Related to the dragon-slaying myth is the "Sun in the rock" myth, of a heroic warrior deity splitting a rock where the Sun or Dawn was imprisoned. Such a myth is preserved in Rigvedic Vala, where Ushas and the cows, stolen by the Panis were imprisoned, connected with other myths of abductions into the netherworld such as the mysteries of Eleusis connected with Persephone, Dionysus and Triptolemus.

The Sun was represented as riding in a chariot.

[edit] Earth as a body

There was a creation myth involving the world being made from the body of a giant. The elements in the myth are (1) *Yemós, the "twin" who is (2) dismembered by (3)*Mánu, his brother, and then the parts of the twin's body are used to (4) create the world according to a specific formula "his bones are the rocks, his blood made the rivers and seas", etc. Each entry is followed by the original source of the myth, and then a place where it was published. Many of the references are from the SBE = Sacred Books of the East, ed. by Max Müller ^[14].

While the substance of the formula is essentially folkloric (rocks do look like "bones of the earth"), the use of the formula in this particular context and the linguistic correspondence of the names makes possible the reconstruction of a Proto-Indo-European myth, as recognized by Cox, p. 189^[15]. This myth also appears in the Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture, Mallory and Adams, p. 129-130, and other modern authors, which is why it was chosen as an example.

• Vedic Sanskrit (ca. 1500^[16] to 500 BCE)

• • Yamá dies (it doesn't say how). "Yamá surrendered his dear body." The original source is the RV 10.13.4. This was published in Vedic Mythology, Vol. 2, p. 223^[17].

• • "Yama died as the first of mortals." The original source is the Atharva Veda XVIII.3.13, and this was also published in Vedic Mythology, Vol. 2, p. 222^[18].

• • later Sanskrit (1000 - 500 BCE). First a bull, then the wife of Manu, named Manâvî is killed (with Manu's permission) in sacrifice by the Ashuras (no world making!). The original source is the Satapatha-Brâhmana: 1 Kanda, 1 Adhyâya, 4 Brâhmana 14-17. This was published in the SBE, Vol. 12 (trans. by Julius Eggeling), pp. 29-30.

• Avestan

• • Yima Kshaeta makes the world grow larger three times, but he does this while he is still alive. This version is clearly mythological. Yima is the Avestan form of Sanskrit Yama and Kshaeta means "brilliant, shining." The original source is the Zend-Avesta, Vendidad, Fargard II, and this was published in SBE, Vol. 4 (translated by James Darmesteter), p. 12-21.

• • Avestan "....Aži Dahâka and Spityura, he who sawed Yima in twain." According to the editor of the text (Darmesteter), Spityura was a brother of Yima. The original source is the Zend-Avesta, Zamyâd Yasht, VIII: 46, published in SBE, Vol. 23, p. 293-297.

• • Middle Persian of the 9th-11th centuries. In these source Gayomart Gaya Maratan, the primordial bull, is killed by Ahriman (spelled Aharman in Darmesteter). Out of the bull's body grows the world, including the first humans, Mâshya and Mâshyana (male and female). The name Gayomard is not a good cognate with Yima Kshaeta, but Jaan Puhvel equates them on the basis of the similarity of the stories. The original source is the Bundahišn, Ch. 3, part 23, ("Gayomard spoke thus: `mankind will be all of my race'") and Ch. 15, the whole of it. This is published in SBE Vol. 5 (translated by E.W. West), p. 19 and p. 52, etc. An analysis of this was published by Jaan Puhvel, under the title Remus and Frater, pp. 300-311 ^[19].

• • Middle Persian. Here there is only the bare statement: "Spîtûr was he who, with Dahâk, cut up Yim." The original source is also the Bundahišn, Chap XXXI, Verse 5, and this was published in SBE Vol. 5, p. 131.

• • Persian (around 1100 CE, written by Firdausi). In this source, Jemshid is sawed in two by Zohak. (Jemshid is the Persian form of earlier Yima Kshaeta. Zohak is the Persian form of earlier Aži Dahâka.) In this text, Gayomart is a man, the first king, but he simply "passes away" after winning a battle against the son of Ahriman. The original source is the Shah Namah, which was produced in many books often with beautiful Mughal style illustrations. The first section of it is a "book of kings", hence the name. The Shah Namah has been published in English in many very bad verse translations. The one used here is Vol. 1 of the Shahnama of Firdausi, translated by Arthur George Warner and Edmond Warner, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., London, 1905. There is also an abridged prose version of this on the net, transl. by Helen Zimmerm, 1883, at sacred-texts.

• • Old Norse texts written down in the 13th cent. but composed earlier. Ymir is dismembered by Odin and his brother gods to make the World with the formula: "Of Ymir's flesh the earth was fashioned, And of his sweat the sea; Crags of his bones, trees of his hair, And of his skull the sky. Then of his brows, the blithe gods made Midgard for sons of men; And of his brain, the bitter-mooded Clouds were all created." The original source is Grimnismal 40-41 (Poetic Edda). This version is quoted from p. 21, The Prose Edda by Snorri Sturleson, transl. by Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur, The American-Scandinavian Foundation, Oxford Univ. Press, London, 1923.

[edit] Brothers

• Latin (before CE 17). There are almost no mythological tales of Rome, but the early "history" of Rome is recognized as being an historicized version of various old myths. Romulus and Remus were twin brothers. They both have stories in which they are killed.

• • Remus is killed by his brother Romulus at the foundation of Rome; and

• • Romulus is dismembered by the senators, "...there were some who secretly hinted that he had been torn limb from limb by the senators..." There is no world making here, but Romulus is the eponymous ancestor of the Romans, and the founder of Rome. One of the original sources for the stories of Romulus and Remus is Livy's History of Rome Vol. 1, parts iv-vii and xvi. This has been published in an Everyman edition, transl. by W.M. Roberts, E.P. Dutton & Co. NY, 1912.

• • Gemini is the actual Latin word for `twins' though it usually applies to Castor and Pollux, see Horse Twins in the Pantheon section. They were worshipped all over the Roman world with votive altars with inscriptions, which remained after the Romans were gone. This may be the source of some names which appear in early Christian myths.^[clarify]

• The Germanic languages have information about both Ymir and Mannus, but they never appear in the same myth, rather they appear only in myths widely separated in both time and circumstances.

• • A Roman text (dated CE 98) tells that Mannus, the son of Tuisto, was the ancestor of the Germanic people, according to Tacitus, writing in Latin, in Germania 2. We never see this being again, but the names Allemagne and German(s) are interpreted (perhaps by folk etymology) as "all-men" the German name for themselves.

[edit] Bulls

• Celtic, in this case Irish texts were written down between 11th-14th CE. In one myth a bull is killed and dismembered by another bull and the parts of his body are distributed around Ireland, which explains the names of many features of the landscape, though not the cause of their existence. "It was not long before the men of Erin [Ireland], as they were there in the company of Ailill and Madb early on the morrow, saw coming over Cruachan from the west, the Brown Bull of Cualnge with the Whitehorned [Bull] of Ai in torn fragments hanging about his ears and horns." Among some of the less revolting distributions is this one: "Then he raised his head, and the shoulder-blades of the Whitehorned fell from him in that place. Hence, Sruthair Finnlethe ('Stream of the White Shoulder-blade') is the name given to it." The original source is the last chapter of the Táin Bó Cúalnge, usually called in English, The Cattle Raid of Cooley. These quotations are from the The Ancient Irish Epic Tale, Táin Bó Cúalnge, transl. by Joseph Dunn, publ. David Nutt, London, 1914.

• In Lithuanian, a folktale tells of a bull and 3 cows which are beheaded by Aušrinė, (the morning star) and then the land appears. "The maiden upon returning released her bull. The bull knelt down and spoke in a man's voice: "Chop off my head!" The maiden did not want to chop it off, but she had to. She chopped the head off--a fourth of the seas disappeared, became land. Her brother emerged from the bull. She cut off the heads of all three cows, who were her sisters. All the seas disappeared, turned to land. The earth sprang to life." The original source for this is a folktale called Saule and Veju Plotina (The Sun and the Mother of the Winds), pp. 309-13, of M. Davainis-Silvestraitis' Collection, Pasakos, Sakmes, Oracijos (Tales, Legends and Orations) publ. in Vilnius, 1973. The English version is from p. 67 Of Gods and Men by Algirdas J. Greimas, transl. by Milda Newman, Indiana Univ. Press, Indianapolis, 1992.

[edit] Conclusion

This myth appears in 5/11 language groups (five out of eleven languages since Sanskrit and Avestan are counted as one when estimating the range of a myth). It seems that poor Yam is a personification of the cows which were killed and dismembered for food by the Indo-Europeans who were personified as "Man". This process was ritualized as a "sacrifice" and --perhaps-- the narrative was developed to explain the practice. This presentation addresses only part of this myth, which can be reconstructed further to tell the tale of a great flood which Manu survives, and his subsequent institution of religious rites and law codes.

[edit] Other myths

Other myths may have included:

Creation myths

• Birth of the Horse Twins from the grain/horse mother (Cox, p. 234, found in 7/11 language groups, which is a very conservative statistic)
• Danu killed and cut open to produce a river (a Partition Creation myth, 3/11)

Cyclic Myths

• Spring kills Winter, usually with his sprinkler or his striker (Cox, p. 559, found in 4/11 language groups)
• Cloud/cows stolen from the sun god by the wind god and then released (Cox, p. 232, 4/11)
• Death of the Dying Corn God, rebirth, causes seasons (Frazer, Vol. 8 and 9 of the Golden Bough esp. Vol. 9, p. 412-423; 4/11)
• Uncle Water melts the ice and releases the water causing flooding (G&I, 5/11)

• Quest of the golden apples of immortality, usually by a wind god (Cox, p. 512, 4/11)

Culture Myths Culture myths, stories in which some godlike being teaches the "arts of civilization" (actually technologies) to humans, are found in all cultures. The culture myths of the Indo-Europeans tell how the Culture Gods taught humans such arts as how to make fire, the proper way to kill and butcher an animal (sacrifice), religious rituals and law codes, smithing, weaving, ploughing, and healing. Culture gods (e.g. Prometheus and Loki) sometimes have an intermediate position between gods and humans. They are certainly supernatural, but they often die or are tortured by other gods for their beneficence to humans, nevertheless they are often revived and worshipped like regular gods. Mallory and Adams call them Craft Gods and argue that they are not linguistically reconstructable, however, Cox compares Greek Prometheus with Hindu Pramanthu (Cox, p. 421). Smith gods, a subset of the Culture gods, are slightly reconstructable according to Mallory and Adams.

[edit] Development

The various Indo-European daughter-cultures continued elements of PIE religion, syncretizing it with innovations and foreign elements, notably Ancient Near Eastern and Dravidian elements, the reforms of Zoroaster and Buddha, and the spread of Christianity and Islam.

• Anatolian
  • Hittite mythology
• Indo-Iranian
  • Indo-Aryan
    • Vedic religion & Vedic mythology
    • Kalash surviving para-Vedic religion in Chitral, NWFP, Pakistan
    • Hinduism & Hindu mythology
    • Buddhism & Buddhist mythology
    • Jainism
    • Sikhism
    • Muslim conquest in the Indian subcontinent
  • Iranian
    • Zoroastrianism
    • Persian mythology
    • Islamic conquest of Persia
• Greek
  • Greek religion & Greek mythology
  • Greco-Buddhism

• Italic
  • Roman religion & Roman mythology

• Baltic
  • Latvian mythology
  • Lithuanian mythology
• Slavic
  • Slavic mythology

• Celtic
  • Celtic polytheism & Celtic mythology
  • Lusitanian mythology
• Germanic
  • Germanic mythology & Norse mythology

• Tocharian
  • Silk Road transmission of Buddhism
• Armenian

• Prehistoric Balkans
  • Paleo-Balkanic mythology

[edit] See also

• Chariot burial
• Soma
• Horse sacrifice
• Neolithic religion
• Aesir-Asura correspondence
• World Tree

[edit] Notes

1. ^ In Search of the Indo-Europeans: Language, Archaeology and Myth, by J. P. Mallory, Thames and Hudson, New York, 1989.
2. ^ Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World, by J.P. Mallory and D.Q. Adams, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2006
3. ^ Grammarie Comparée des Langues Indo-Européennes by M. Francois Bopp, translated by M. Michel Bréal, Imprimerie Impériale, Paris, 1866
4. ^ Indo-European and the Indo-Europeans: A Reconstruction and Historical Analysis of a Proto-Language and a Proto-Culture (Trends in Linguistics: Studies and Monographs 80, 2 Vol. Set), by Thomas V. Gamkrelidze, and Vjaceslav V. Ivanov, with Werner Winter, ed., and Johanna Nichols, translator (original title Indoevropeiskii iazyk i indoevropeistsy), M. De Gruyter, Berlin & NY, 1995.
5. ^ The Journal of Indo-European Studies, publ. by JIES, Washington, DC., 1973 and continuing
6. ^ Jaan Puhvel, Analecta Indoeuropaea, (a collection of articles), publ. by Innsbrucker Beitrage zur Sprachwissenschaft, Innsbruck, 1981
7. ^ Alby, Stone (1994). "Hellhounds, Werewolves and the Germanic Underworld". Mercian Mysteries 20. Retrieved on 2007-10-07. 
8. ^ Kuiper, F.B.J. (1983), Irwin, J., ed., Ancient Indian Cosmology, Delhi: Vikas .
9. ^ Herrenschmidt, Clarisse & Kellens, Jean (1993), “*Daiva”, Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol. 6, Cosa Mesa: Mazda, p. 601 .
10. ^ Hillebrandt, Alfred (1891/1981), Sarma, Sreeramula Rajeswara, trans., ed., Vedic Mythology, vol. 2, New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, p. 264 .
11. ^ Darmesteter, James (1895), Müller, Max, ed., Sacred Books of the East, vol. 4, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. lii .
12. ^ .The Wheel or the Sun, The Hammer, The Lightning Bolt, The Light, The Eagle, The Lion
13. ^ Mysteries of the Cosmic Thunderbolt
14. ^ Sacred Books of the East, transl. by various Oriental scholars, series ed. by Max Müller, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1879-1904.
15. ^ The Mythology of the Aryan Nations by George W. Cox, Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., London, 1887.
16. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedic_period
17. ^ Vedic Mythology by Alfred Hillebrandt, transl. by Sreeramula Rajeswara Sarma, publ. Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1981 (orig. 1891)
18. ^ Ibid.
19. ^ Jaan Puhvel, Analecta Indoeuropaea, (a collection of articles), publ. by Innsbrucker Beitrage zur Sprachwissenschaft, Innsbruck, 1981

[edit] References

• The Mythology of the Aryan Nations by George W. Cox, Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., London, 1887.
• Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture ed. J. P. Mallory, Douglas Q. Adams, Fitzroy Dearborn, London, 1997. (abbrev. EIEC)
• Teutonic Mythology by Jacob Grimm, (transl. by Stallybrass), George Bell and Sons, London 1883 (abbrev. DM)
• Golden Bough by James Frazer, MacMillan & Co. Ltd. London, 1919-1920 (12 vol. edition)
• Indo-European and the Indo-Europeans: A Reconstruction and Historical Analysis of a Proto-Language and a Proto-Culture (Trends in Linguistics: Studies and Monographs 80, 2 Vol. Set), by Thomas V. Gamkrelidze, and Vjaceslav V. Ivanov, with Werner Winter, ed., and Johanna Nichols, translator (original title Indoevropeiskii iazyk i indoevropeistsy), M. De Gruyter, Berlin & NY, 1995. (abbrev. G&I)
• Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World, by J.P. Mallory and D.Q. Adams, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2006
• Mallory, J.P., (1989). In Search of the Indo-Europeans London: Thames and Hudson. ISBN 0-500-27616-1
• Renfrew, Colin (1987). Archaeology & Language. The Puzzle of the Indo-European Origins. London: Jonathan Cape. ISBN 0-224-02495-7
• Indo-European Language and Society by Emile Benveniste (transl. by Elizabeth Palmer, orig. title Le vocabulaire des institutions Indo-Europeennes, 1969), University of Miami Press, Coral Gables, Fla., 1973.

[edit] External links

• Bizland linguistic sources
• Internet Sacred Texts Archive
• Neo-pagan article on PIE religion