Proto-Indo-European mythology

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Proto-Indo-European mythology is the body of

comparative method. Different schools of thought have approached the subject of Proto-Indo-European mythology from different angles.^[3]

The Meteorological or Naturist School holds that Proto-Indo-European myths initially emerged as explanations for natural phenomena, such as the Sky, the Sun, the Moon, and the Dawn.^[5] Rituals were therefore centered around the worship of those elemental deities.^[6] This interpretation was popular among early scholars, such as Friedrich Max Müller, who saw all myths as fundamentally solar allegories.^[4] Although recently revived by some scholars like Jean Haudry and Martin L. West,^[7][8] this school lost most of its scholarly support in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.^[9][6]

The Ritual School, which first became prominent in the late nineteenth century, holds that Proto-Indo-European myths are best understood as stories invented to explain various rituals and religious practices.^[10][9] Scholars of the Ritual School argue that those rituals should be interpreted as attempts to manipulate the universe in order to obtain its favours.^[5] This interpretation reached the height of its popularity during the early twentieth century,^[11] and many of its most prominent early proponents, such as James George Frazer and Jane Ellen Harrison, were classical scholars.^[12] Bruce Lincoln, a contemporary member of the Ritual School, argues for instance that the Proto-Indo-Europeans believed that every sacrifice was a reenactment of the original sacrifice performed by the founder of the human race on his twin brother.^[10]

The Functionalist School, by contrast, holds that myths served as stories reinforcing social behaviours through the

One of the earliest attested and thus one of the most important of all Indo-European mythologies is

Another of the most important source mythologies for comparative research is Roman mythology.^[20][22] The Romans possessed a very complex mythological system, parts of which have been preserved through the characteristic Roman tendency to rationalize their myths into historical accounts.^[23] Despite its relatively late attestation, Norse mythology is still considered one of the three most important of the Indo-European mythologies for comparative research,^[20] due to the vast bulk of surviving Icelandic material.^[22]

Baltic mythology has also received a great deal of scholarly attention, as it is linguistically the most conservative and archaic of all surviving branches, but has so far remained frustrating to researchers because the sources are so comparatively late.^[24] Nonetheless, Latvian folk songs are seen as a major source of information in the process of reconstructing Proto-Indo-European myth.^[25] Despite the popularity of Greek mythology in western culture,^[26] Greek mythology is generally seen as having little importance in comparative mythology due to the heavy influence of Pre-Greek and Near Eastern cultures, which overwhelms what little Indo-European material can be extracted from it.^[27] Consequently, Greek mythology received minimal scholarly attention until the first decade of the 21st century.^[20]

Although Scythians are considered relatively conservative in regards to Proto-Indo-European cultures, retaining a similar lifestyle and culture,^[28] their mythology has very rarely been examined in an Indo-European context and infrequently discussed in regards to the nature of the ancestral Indo-European mythology. At least three deities, Tabiti, Papaios and Api, are generally interpreted as having Indo-European origins,^[29][30] while the remaining have seen more disparate interpretations. Influence from Siberian, Turkic and even Near Eastern beliefs, on the other hand, are more widely discussed in literature.^[31][32][33]

Cosmology

There was a fundamental opposition between the never-aging gods dwelling above in the skies and the mortal humans living beneath on earth.

Lincoln reconstructs a creation myth involving twin brothers, *Manu- ("Man") and *Yemo- ("Twin"), as the progenitors of the world and humankind, and a hero named *Trito ("Third") who ensured the continuity of the original sacrifice.^[42][43][44] Regarding the primordial state that may have preceded the creation process, West notes that the Vedic, Norse and, at least partially, the Greek traditions give evidence of an era when the cosmological elements were absent, with similar formula insisting on their non-existence: "neither non-being was nor being was at that time; there was not the air, nor the heaven beyond it" (Rigveda), "there was not sand nor sea nor the cool waves; earth was nowhere nor heaven above; Ginnungagap there was, but grass nowhere" (Völuspá), "there was Chasm and Night and dark Erebos at first, and broad Tartarus, but earth nor air nor heaven there was" (The Birds).^[45][46]

In the creation myth, the first man Manu and his giant twin Yemo are crossing the

Storm-God and the Divine Twins),^[43][47] forges both the natural elements and human beings from his remains. Manu thus becomes the first priest after initiating sacrifice as the primordial condition for the world order, and his deceased brother Yemo the first king as social classes emerge from his anatomy (priesthood from his head, the warrior class from his breast and arms, and the commoners from his sexual organs and legs).^[48][44] Although the European and Indo-Iranian versions differ on this matter, Lincoln argues that the primeval cow was most likely sacrificed in the original myth, giving birth to the other animals and vegetables, since the pastoral way of life of Proto-Indo-Iranian speakers was closer to that of Proto-Indo-European speakers.^[49]

To the third man Trito, the celestial gods then offer cattle as a divine gift, which is stolen by a three-headed serpent named *Ngʷhi ("serpent"; and the Indo-European root for negation^[50]). Trito first suffers at his hands, but the hero eventually manages to overcome the monster, fortified by an intoxicating drink and aided by the Sky-Father. He eventually gives the recovered cattle back to a priest for it to be properly sacrificed.^[51][43] Trito is now the first warrior, maintaining through his heroic actions the cycle of mutual giving between gods and mortals.^[52][43]

According to Lincoln, Manu and Yemo seem to be the protagonists of "a myth of the sovereign function, establishing the model for later priests and kings", while the legend of Trito should be interpreted as "a myth of the warrior function, establishing the model for all later men of arms".[52] The myth indeed recalls the Dumézilian tripartition of the cosmos between the priest (in both his magical and legal aspects), the warrior (the Third Man), and the herder (the cow).^[43]

The story of Trito served as a model for later cattle raiding epic myths and most likely as a moral justification for the practice of raiding among Indo-European peoples. In the original legend, Trito is only taking back what rightfully belongs to his people, those who sacrifice properly to the gods.^[52][53] The myth has been interpreted either as a cosmic conflict between the heavenly hero and the earthly serpent, or as an Indo-European victory over non-Indo-European people, the monster symbolizing the aboriginal thief or usurper.^[54]

Some scholars have proposed that the primeval being Yemo was depicted as a two-fold hermaphrodite rather than a twin brother of Manu, both forming indeed a pair of complementary beings entwined together.^[55][56] The Germanic names Ymir and Tuisto were understood as twin, bisexual or hermaphrodite, and some myths give a sister to the Vedic Yama, also called Twin and with whom incest is discussed.^[57][58] In this interpretation, the primordial being may have self-sacrificed,^[56] or have been divided in two, a male half and a female half, embodying a prototypal separation of the sexes.^[55]

Legacy

Several traditions reveal traces of a Proto-Indo-European eschatological myth that describes the end of the world following a cataclysmic battle.^[86] The story begins when an archdemon, usually coming from a different and inimical paternal line, assumes the position of authority among the community of the gods or heroes (Norse Loki, Roman Tarquin, Irish Bres). The subjects are treated unjustly by the new ruler, forced to erect fortifications while the archdemon instead favours outsiders, on whom his support relies. After a particularly heinous act, the archdemon is exiled by his subjects and takes refuge among his foreign relatives.^[87] A new leader (Norse Víðarr, Roman Lucius Brutus, Irish Lug), known as the "silent" one and usually the nephew or grandson (*népōt) of the exiled archdemon, then springs up and the two forces come together to annihilate each other in a cataclysmic battle. The myth ends with the interruption of the cosmic order and the conclusion of a temporal cyclic era.^[88] In the Norse and Iranian traditions, a cataclysmic "cosmic winter" precedes the final battle.^[89][88]

Other propositions

In the cosmological model proposed by Jean Haudry, the Proto-Indo-European sky is composed of three "heavens" (diurnal, nocturnal and liminal) rotating around an axis mundi, each having its own deities, social associations and colors (white, dark and red, respectively). Deities of the diurnal sky could not transgress the domain of the nocturnal sky, inhabited by its own sets of gods and by the spirits of the dead. For instance, Zeus cannot extend his power to the nightly sky in the Iliad. In this vision, the liminal or transitional sky embodies the gate or frontier (dawn and twilight) binding the two other heavens.^[90][91]

Proto-Indo-Europeans may have believed that the peripheral part of the earth was inhabited by a people exempt from the hardships and pains that arise from the

Gods had several titles, typically "the celebrated", "the highest", "king", or "shepherd", with the notion that deities had their own idiom and true names which might be kept secret from mortals in some circumstances.[104] In Indo-European traditions, gods were seen as the "dispensers" or the "givers of good things" (*déh₃tōr h₁uesuom).^[105] Although certain individual deities were charged with the supervision of justice or contracts, in general the Indo-European gods did not have an ethical character. Their immense power, which they could exercise at their pleasure, necessitated rituals, sacrifices and praise songs from worshipers to ensure they would in return bestow prosperity to the community.^[106] The idea that gods were in control of the nature was translated in the suffix *-nos (feminine -nā), which signified "lord of".^[107] According to West, it is attested in Greek Ouranos ("lord of rain") and Helena ("mistress of sunlight"), Germanic *Wōðanaz ("lord of frenzy"), Gaulish Epona ("goddess of horses"), Lithuanian Perkūnas ("lord of oaks"), and in Roman Neptunus ("lord of waters"), Volcanus ("lord of fire-glare") and Silvanus ("lord of woods").^[107]

Pantheon

Linguists have been able to reconstruct the names of some deities in the

The most securely reconstructed genealogy of the Proto-Indo-European gods (Götterfamilie) is given as follows:[108]^[2][109]

Heavenly deities

Sky Father

The head deity of the Proto-Indo-European pantheon was the god

Due to his celestial nature, Dyēus is often described as "all-seeing", or "with wide vision" in Indo-European myths. It is unlikely however that he was in charge of the supervision of justice and righteousness, as it was the case for the Zeus or the Indo-Iranian Mithra–Varuna duo; but he was suited to serve at least as a witness to oaths and treaties.^[120]

The Greek god Zeus and the Roman god Jupiter both appear as the head gods of their respective pantheons.

The daily course of *Seh₂ul across the sky on a horse-driven chariot is a common motif among Indo-European myths.[note 5] While it is probably inherited, the motif certainly appeared after the introduction of the wheel in the Pontic–Caspian steppe about 3500 BC, and is therefore a late addition to Proto-Indo-European culture.^[125]

Although the sun was personified as an independent, female deity,^[97] the Proto-Indo-Europeans also visualized the sun as the "lamp of Dyēws" or the "eye of Dyēws";^[133]

Divine Twins

Main article:

Divine Twins

The Horse Twins are a set of twin brothers found throughout nearly every Indo-European pantheon who usually have a name that means 'horse', *h₁éḱwos,^[117] although the names are not always cognate, and no Proto-Indo-European name for them can be reconstructed.^[117]

Represented as young men and the steeds who pull the sun across the sky, the Divine Twins rode horses (sometimes they were depicted as horses themselves) and rescued men from mortal peril in battle or at sea.[137] The Divine Twins are often differentiated: one is represented as a young warrior while the other is seen as a healer or concerned with domestic duties.^[117] In most tales where they appear, the Divine Twins rescue the Dawn from a watery peril, a theme that emerged from their role as the solar steeds.^[138][139] At night, the horses of the sun returned to the east in a golden boat, where they traversed the sea^{[note 6]} to bring back the Sun each morning. During the day, they crossed the sky in pursuit of their consort, the morning star.^[139]

Other reflexes may be found in the

Although the etymological association is often deemed untenable,[143] some scholars (such as Georges Dumézil^[144] and S. K. Sen) have proposed *Worunos or *Werunos (also the eponymous god in the reconstructed dialogue The king and the god) as the nocturnal sky and benevolent counterpart of Dyēws, with possible cognates in Greek Ouranos and Vedic Varuna, from the PIE root *woru- ("to encompass, cover"). Worunos may have personified the firmament, or dwelled in the night sky. In both Greek and Vedic poetry, Ouranos and Varuna are portrayed as "wide-looking", bounding or seizing their victims, and having or being a heavenly "seat".^[145] In the three-sky cosmological model, the celestial phenomena linking the nightly and daily skies is embodied by a "Binder-god": the Greek Kronos, a transitional deity between Ouranos and Zeus in Hesiod's Theogony, the Indic Savitṛ, associated with the rising and setting of the sun in the Vedas, and the Roman Saturnus, whose feast marked the period immediately preceding the winter solstice.^[146][147]

Other propositions

Some scholars have proposed a consort goddess named *Diwōnā or *Diuōneh₂,

From another root *(s)tenh₂ ("thunder") stems a group of cognates found in the Germanic, Celtic and Roman thunder-gods Thor, Taranis, (Jupiter) Tonans and (Zeus) keraunos.^[179][180] According to Jackson, "they may have arisen as the result of fossilisation of an original epithet or epiclesis", as the Vedic Parjanya is also called stanayitnú- ("Thunderer").^[181] The Roman god Mars may be a thematic echo of Perkʷunos, since he originally had thunderer characteristics.^[182]

Fire deities

Although the linguistic evidence is restricted to the Vedic and Balto-Slavic traditions, scholars have proposed that Proto-Indo-Europeans conceived the fire as a divine entity called *

The name of an Albanian fire deity, *Enji, has also been reconstructed from the Albanian name of Thursday, enj-të, which is also attested in older texts as egni or a similar variant. This fire deity is thought to have been worshiped by the Illyrians in antiquity, among whom he was the most prominent god of the pantheon during Roman times.^[187] In other traditions, as the sacral name of the dangerous fire may have become a word taboo,^[29] the root served instead as an ordinary term for fire, as in the Latin ignis.^[188]

Scholars generally agree that the cult of the hearth dates back to Proto-Indo-European times.^[186] The domestic fire had to be tended with care and given offerings, and if one moved house, one carried fire from the old to the new home.^[186] The Avestan Ātar was the sacral and hearth fire, often personified and honoured as a god.^[29] In Albanian beliefs, Nëna e Vatrës ("the Hearth Mother") is the goddess protector of the domestic hearth (vatër).^[189][190] Herodotus reported a Scythian goddess of hearth named Tabiti, a term likely given under a slightly distorted guise, as she might represent a feminine participial form corresponding to an Indo-Iranian god named *Tapatī, "the Burning one". The sacral or domestic hearth can likewise be found in the Greek and Roman hearth goddesses Hestia and Vesta, two names that may derive from the PIE root *h₁w-es- ("burning").^[29][183] Both the ritual fires set in the temples of Vesta and the domestic fires of ancient India were circular, rather than the square form reserved for public worship in India and for the other gods in Roman antiquity.^[191] Additionally, the custom that the bride circles the hearth three times is common to Indian, Ossetian, Slavic, Baltic, and German traditions, while a newly born child was welcomed into a Greek household when the father circled the hearth carrying it in the Amphidromia ceremony.^[186]

Water deities

See also:

*Deh₂nu

Wind deities

We find evidence for the deification of the wind in most Indo-European traditions. The root *h₂weh₁ ("to blow") is at the origin of the two words for the wind: *H₂weh₁-yú- and *H₂w(e)h₁-nt-.^[201][202] The deity is indeed often depicted as a couple in the Indo-Iranian tradition. Vayu-Vāta is a dual divinity in the Avesta, Vāta being associated with the stormy winds and described as coming from everywhere ("from below, from above, from in front, from behind"). Similarly, the Vedic Vāyu, the lord of the winds, is connected in the Vedas with Indra—the king of Svarga Loka (also called Indraloka)—while the other deity Vāta represents a more violent sort of wind and is instead associated with Parjanya—the god of rain and thunder.^[202] Other cognates include Hitt. huwant-, Lith. vėjas, Toch. B yente, Lat. uentus, Ger. *windaz, or Welsh gwynt.^[202] The Slavic Viy is another possible equivalent entity.^[203] Based on these different traditions, Yaroslav Vassilkov postulated a proto-Indo-European wind deity which "was probably marked by ambivalence, and combined in itself both positive and negative characteristics". This god is hypothesized to have been linked to life and death through adding and taking breath from people.^[203][204]

Guardian deity

Main article: *Péh₂usōn

The association between the Greek god Pan and the Vedic god Pūshān was first identified in 1924 by German linguist Hermann Collitz.^[205][206] Both were worshipped as pastoral deities, which led scholars to reconstruct *Péh₂usōn ("Protector") as a pastoral god guarding roads and herds.^{[207][208][209]} He may have had an unfortunate appearance, a bushy beard and a keen sight.^[210][209] He was also closely affiliated with goats or bucks: Pan has goat's legs while goats are said to pull the car of Pūshān (the animal was also sacrificed to him on occasion).^[209][211]

Cattle deity

Main article: *Welnos

Velnias, and less certainly to Old Norse Ullr.^[212]

Other propositions

In 1855,

elves and the Hindu ribhus.^[213] Although this proposal is often mentioned in academic writings, very few scholars actually accept it since the cognate relationship is linguistically difficult to justify.^[214][215] While stories of elves, satyrs, goblins and giants show recurrent traits in Indo-European traditions, West notes that "it is difficult to see so coherent an overall pattern as with the nymphs. It is unlikely that the Indo-Europeans had no concept of such creatures, but we cannot define with any sharpness of outline what their conceptions were."^[216] A wild god named *Rudlos has also been proposed, based on the Vedic Rudrá and the Old Russian Rŭglŭ. Problematic is whether the name derives from *rewd- ("rend, tear apart"; akin to Lat. rullus, "rustic"), or rather from *rew- ("howl").^[200]

Although the name of the divinities are not cognates, a horse goddess portrayed as bearing twins and in connection with fertility and marriage has been proposed based on the Gaulish

Aśvins. The Irish goddess Macha gave birth to twins, a mare and a boy, and the Welsh figure Rhiannon bore a child who was reared along with a horse.^[219]

Societal deities

Fate goddesses

Main article:

Fates (Indo European)

It is highly probable that the Proto-Indo-Europeans believed in

Gulses in Hittite mythology, who were said to preside over the individual destinies of human beings. They often appear in mythical narratives alongside the goddesses Papaya and Istustaya, who, in a ritual text for the foundation of a new temple, are described sitting holding mirrors and spindles, spinning the king's thread of life.^[221] In the Greek tradition, the Moirai ("Apportioners") are mentioned dispensing destiny in both the Iliad and the Odyssey, in which they are given the epithet Κλῶθες (Klothes, meaning "Spinners").^[222][223]

In Hesiod's Theogony, the Moirai are said to "give mortal men both good and ill" and their names are listed as Klotho ("Spinner"), Lachesis ("Apportioner"), and Atropos ("Inflexible").^[224][225] In his Republic, Plato records that Klotho sings of the past, Lachesis of the present, and Atropos of the future.^[226] In Roman legend, the Parcae were three goddesses who presided over the births of children and whose names were Nona ("Ninth"), Decuma ("Tenth"), and Morta ("Death"). They too were said to spin destinies, although this may have been due to influence from Greek literature.^[225]

In the Old Norse Völuspá and Gylfaginning, the Norns are three cosmic goddesses of fate who are described sitting by the well of Urðr at the foot of the world tree Yggdrasil.^{[227][228][note 7]} In Old Norse texts, the Norns are frequently conflated with Valkyries, who are sometimes also described as spinning.^[228] Old English texts, such as Rhyme Poem 70, and Guthlac 1350 f., reference Wyrd as a singular power that "weaves" destinies.^[229]

Later texts mention the Wyrds as a group, with Geoffrey Chaucer referring to them as "the Werdys that we clepyn Destiné" in The Legend of Good Women.^{[230][226][note 8]} A goddess spinning appears in a bracteate from southwest Germany and a relief from Trier shows three mother goddesses, with two of them holding distaffs. Tenth-century German ecclesiastical writings denounce the popular belief in three sisters who determined the course of a man's life at his birth.^[226] An Old Irish hymn attests to seven goddesses who were believed to weave the thread of destiny, which demonstrates that these spinster fate-goddesses were present in Celtic mythology as well.^[231]

A Lithuanian folktale recorded in 1839 recounts that a man's fate is spun at his birth by seven goddesses known as the

Fatit, three old women who appear three days after a child is born and determine its fate, using language reminiscent of spinning.^[233]

Welfare god

Main article: *H₂eryo-men

The god *h₂eryo-men has been reconstructed^[

Gāthās, the Iranian god Airyaman seems to denote the wider tribal network or alliance, and is invoked in a prayer against illness, magic, and evil.^[235] In the mythical stories of the founding of the Irish nation, the hero Érimón became the first king of the Milesians (the mythical name of the Irish) after he helped conquer the island from the Tuatha Dé Danann. He also provided wives to the Cruithnig (the mythical Celtic Britons or Picts), a reflex of the marital functions of *h₂eryo-men.^[240] The Gaulish given name Ariomanus, possibly translated as "lord-spirited" and generally borne by Germanic chiefs, is also to be mentioned.^[239]

Smith god

Although the name of a particular smith god cannot be linguistically reconstructed,[199] smith gods of various names are found in most Proto-Indo-European daughter languages. There is not a strong argument for a single mythic prototype.^[241] Mallory notes that "deities specifically concerned with particular craft specializations may be expected in any ideological system whose people have achieved an appropriate level of social complexity".^[242] Nonetheless, two motifs recur frequently in Indo-European traditions: the making of the chief god's distinctive weapon (Indra's and Zeus' bolt; Lugh's and Odin's spear and Thor's hammer) by a special artificer, and the craftsman god's association with the immortals' drinking.^[102]

Love goddess

Main article: *PriHyéh₂

A love goddess

Frijjō.^[243][244] She is also seen as linked to the garden.^{[2][page needed}

]

Other propositions

The Proto-Indo-Europeans may also have had a goddess who presided over the

Nirṛti and the Roman Lūa Mater. Her names derive from the verbal roots "decay, rot", and they are both associated with the decomposition of human bodies.^[200]

Michael Estell has reconstructed a mythical craftsman named *H₃r̥bʰew based on the Greek Orpheus and the Vedic Ribhus. Both are the son of a cudgel-bearer or an archer, and both are known as "fashioners" (*tetḱ-).^[247] A mythical hero named *Promāth₂ew has also been proposed, from the Greek hero Prometheus ("the one who steals"), who took the heavenly fire away from the gods to bring it to mankind, and the Vedic Mātariśvan, the mythical bird who "robbed" (found in the myth as pra math-, "to steal") the hidden fire and gave it to the Bhrigus.^[211][248] A medical god has been reconstructed based on a thematic comparison between the Indic god Rudra and the Greek Apollo. Both inflict disease from afar thanks to their bows, both are known as healers, and both are specifically associated with rodents: Rudra's animal is the "rat mole" and Apollo was known as a "rat god".^[200]

Some scholars have proposed a war god named *Māwort- based on the Roman god Mars and the Vedic Marutás, the companions of the war-god Indra. Mallory and Adams reject this reconstruction on linguistic grounds.^[249] Likewise, some researchers have found it more plausible that Mars was originally a storm deity, while the same cannot be said of Ares.^[182]

Further information:

Chaoskampf

Myths

Serpent-slaying myth

Main articles: *Trito and *H₂n̥gʷʰis

Part of Chaoskampf or Drachenkampf

Comparative mythology of sea serpents, dragons and dragonslayers.

Myths Proto-Indo-European mythology Trito vs. the Sea serpent Jewish mythology YHWH vs. Leviathan YHWH vs. the Tannin Rahab Christian mythology Christ vs. Satan Saint George vs. the Dragon Saint Michael vs. Herensuge[nb 1] Norse mythology Thor vs. Jörmungandr Slavic mythology Perun vs. Veles Zmey Gorynych Hittite mythology Tarhunt vs. Illuyanka Hurrian mythology Teshub vs. Ullikummi Greek mythology Zeus vs. Typhon Heracles vs. the Lernaean Hydra Hindu mythology Indra vs. Vritra Kāliyā Zoroastrian mythology Aži Dahāka Persian mythology Garshasp vs. Zahhak Romanian mythology Făt-Frumos vs. Balaur Canaanite mythology Baʿal Hadad vs. Yam Baʿal Hadad vs. Lotan Baʿal Hadad vs. the Tannin Chinese mythology Yu the Great vs. Xiangliu of Gong Gong Babylonian mythology Marduk vs. Tiamat Egyptian mythology Ra vs. Apep Atum vs. Nehebkau Japanese mythology Susanoo no Mikoto vs. Yamata no Orochi Aztec mythology Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl vs. Cipactli ^ Christian-Basque mythology

serpent or dragon of some sort.[250][251][252] Although the details of the story often vary widely, several features remain remarkably the same in all iterations. The protagonist of the story is usually a thunder-god, or a hero somehow associated with thunder.[109] His enemy the serpent is generally associated with water and depicted as multi-headed, or else "multiple" in some other way.[252] Indo-European myths often describe the creature as a "blocker of waters", and his many heads get eventually smashed by the thunder-god in an epic battle, releasing torrents of water that had previously been pent up.[253] The original legend may have symbolized the Chaoskampf, a clash between forces of order and chaos.[254] The dragon or serpent loses in every version of the story, although in some mythologies, such as the Norse Ragnarök myth, the hero or the god dies with his enemy during the confrontation.[255] Historian Bruce Lincoln has proposed that the dragon-slaying tale and the creation myth of *Trito killing the serpent *Ngʷhi may actually belong to the same original story.[256][257] Reflexes of the Proto-Indo-European dragon-slaying myth appear in most Indo-European poetic traditions, where the myth has left traces of the formulaic sentence *(h₁e) gʷʰent h₁ógʷʰim, meaning "[he] slew the serpent". Hittite mythology, the storm god Tarhunt slays the giant serpent Illuyanka,[259] as does the Vedic god Indra the multi-headed serpent Vritra, which has been causing a drought by trapping the waters in his mountain lair.[253] [260] Several variations of the story are also found in Greek mythology.[261] The original motif appears inherited in the legend of Zeus slaying the hundred-headed Typhon, as related by Hesiod in the Theogony,[251][262] and possibly in the myth of Heracles slaying the nine-headed Lernaean Hydra and in the legend of Apollo slaying the earth-dragon Python.[251][263] The story of Heracles's theft of the cattle of Geryon is probably also related.[251] Although he is not usually thought of as a storm deity in the conventional sense, Heracles bears many attributes held by other Indo-European storm deities, including physical strength and a penchant for violence and gluttony.[251][264] The original motif is also reflected in Fafnir and, in Beowulf, the eponymous hero slays a different dragon.[268] The depiction of dragons hoarding a treasure (symbolizing the wealth of the community) in Germanic legends may also be a reflex of the original myth of the serpent holding waters.[258] Ankara, Turkey ). In Zmey.[266] A similar execution is performed by the Armenian god of thunders Vahagn to the dragon Vishap,[269] by the Romanian knight hero Făt-Frumos to the fire-spitting monster Zmeu, and by the Celtic god of healing Dian Cecht to the serpent Meichi.[254] In Shinto, where Indo-European influences through Vedic religion can be seen in mythology, the storm god Susanoo slays the eight-headed serpent Yamata no Orochi.[270] The Genesis narrative of Judaism and Christianity can be interpreted as a more allegorical retelling of the serpent-slaying myth. The Deep or Abyss from or on top of which God is said to make the world is translated from the Biblical Hebrew Tehom (Hebrew: תְּהוֹם). Tehom is a cognate of the Akkadian word tamtu and Ugaritic t-h-m which have similar meaning. As such it was equated with the earlier Babylonian serpent Tiamat.[271] Folklorist Andrew Lang suggests that the serpent-slaying myth morphed into a folktale motif of a frog or toad blocking the flow of waters.[272] Fire in water Main article: *H₂epom Nepōts Another reconstructed myth is the story of the fire in the waters. The Odyssey 4.404 as an epithet for the seals of Proteus.[280][why? ] King and virgin The legend of the King and Virgin involves a ruler saved by the offspring of his virgin daughter after seeing his future threatened by rebellious sons or male relatives.[282][257] The virginity likely symbolizes in the myth the woman that has no loyalty to any man but her father, and the child is likewise faithful only to his royal grandfather.[283] The legends of the Indic king Yayāti, saved by his virgin daughter Mādhāvi; the Roman king Numitor, rescued by his chaste daughter Rhea Silvia; the Irish king Eochaid, father of the legendary queen Medb, and threatened by his sons the findemna; as well as the myth of the Norse virgin goddess Gefjun offering lands to Odin, are generally cited as possible reflexes of an inherited Proto-Indo-European motif.[283] The Irish queen Medb could be cognate with the Indic Mādhāvi (whose name designates either a spring flower, rich in honey, or an intoxicating drink), both deriving from the root *medʰ- ("mead, intoxicating drink").[284] War of the foundation A myth of the War of the Foundation has also been proposed, involving a conflict between the first two functions (the priests and warriors) and the third function (fertility), which eventually make peace in order to form a fully integrated society. Aśvins (representing the third function as the Divine Twins) are blocked from accessing the heavenly circle of power by Indra (the second function), who is eventually coerced into letting them in.[287][286] The Trojan War has also been interpreted as a reflex of the myth, with the wealthy Troy as the third function and the conquering Greeks as the first two functions.[286] Binding of evil Main article: Binding of evil Jaan Puhvel notes similarities between the Norse myth in which the god Týr inserts his hand into the wolf Fenrir's mouth while the other gods bind him with Gleipnir, only for Fenrir to bite off Týr's hand when he discovers he cannot break his bindings, and the Iranian myth in which Jamshid rescues his brother's corpse from Ahriman's bowels by reaching his hand up Ahriman's anus and pulling out his brother's corpse, only for his hand to become infected with leprosy.[288] In both accounts, an authority figure forces the evil entity into submission by inserting his hand into the being's orifice (in Fenrir's case the mouth, in Ahriman's the anus) and losing or impairing it.[288] Fenrir and Ahriman fulfill different roles in their own mythological traditions and are unlikely to be remnants of a Proto-Indo-European "evil god"; nonetheless, it is clear that the "binding myth" is of Proto-Indo-European origin.[289] Other propositions The motif of the "death of a son", killed by his father who is unaware of the relationship, is so common among the attested traditions that some scholars have ascribed it to Proto-Indo-European times. Hippolytus; when the lie is finally exposed, Hippolytus is already dead. According to Mallory and Adams, the legend "places limitations on the achievement of warrior prowess, isolates the hero from time by cutting off his generational extension, and also re-establishes the hero's typical adolescence by depriving him of a role (as father) in an adult world".[290] Although the concept of elevation through intoxicating drink is a nearly universal motif, a Proto-Indo-European myth of the "cycle of the mead", originally proposed by Georges Dumézil and further developed by Jarich G. Oosten (1985), is based on the comparison of Indic and Norse mythologies.[291] In both traditions, gods and demons must cooperate to find a sacred drink providing immortal life. The magical beverage is prepared from the sea, and a serpent (Vāsuki or Jörmungandr) is involved in the quest. The gods and demons eventually fight over the magical potion and the former, ultimately victorious, deprive their enemy of the elixir of life.[291][292] Rituals Proto-Indo-European religion was centered on sacrificial rites of cattle and horses, probably administered by a class of shamans[citation needed]. Animals were slaughtered (*gʷʰn̥tós) and dedicated to the gods (*deywṓs) in the hope of winning their favour.[293][failed verification – see discussion] The Khvalynsk culture, associated with the archaic Proto-Indo-European language, had already shown archeological evidence for the sacrifice of domesticated animals.[43] Priesthood Main article: Mithra-Varuna (Indo European) The king as the high priest would have been the central figure in establishing favourable relations with the other world. magico-religious nature of priesthood, while the other is involved in religious sanction to human society (especially contracts), a theory supported by common features in Iranian, Roman, Scandinavian and Celtic traditions.[293] Sacrifices The reconstructed cosmology of the Proto-Indo-Europeans shows that ritual sacrifice of cattle, the cow in particular, was at the root of their beliefs, as the primordial condition of the world order.[53][43] The myth of *Trito, the first warrior, involves the liberation of cattle stolen by a three-headed entity named *Ngʷʰi. After recovering the wealth of the people, Trito eventually offers the cattle to the priest in order to ensure the continuity of the cycle of giving between gods and humans.[294] The word for "oath", *h₁óitos, derives from the verb *h₁ey- ("to go"), after the practice of walking between slaughtered animals as part of taking an oath.[295] Proto-Indo-Europeans likely had a sacred tradition of Aśvamedhá, the horse sacrifice is performed on behalf of the warrior class or to a warrior deity, and the dismembered pieces of the animal eventually goes to different locations or deities. Another reflex may be found in a medieval Irish tradition involving a king-designate from County Donegal copulating with a mare before bathing with the parts of the sacrificed animal.[257][298] The Indic ritual likewise involved the symbolic marriage of the queen to the dead stallion.[299] Further, if Hittite laws prohibited copulation with animals, they made an exception of horses or mules.[298] In both the Celtic and Indic traditions, an intoxicating brewage played a part in the ritual, and the suffix in aśva-medhá could be related to the Old Indic word mad- ("boil, rejoice, get drunk").[284] Jaan Puhvel has also compared the Vedic name of the tradition with the Gaulish god Epomeduos, the "master of horses".[300][301] Cults Scholars have reconstructed a Proto-Indo-European cult of the weapons, especially the dagger, which holds a central position in various customs and myths.[302][303] In the Ossetic Nart saga, the sword of Batradz is dragged into the sea after his death, and the British King Arthur throws his legendary sword Excalibur back into the lake from which it initially came. The Indic Arjuna is also instructed to throw his bow Gandiva into the sea at the end of his career, and weapons were frequently thrown into lakes, rivers or bogs as a form of prestige offering in Bronze and Iron Age Europe.[302] Reflexes of an ancestral cult of the magical sword have been proposed in the legends of Excalibur and Durandal (the weapon of Roland, said to have been forged by the mythical Wayland the Smith). Among North Iranians, Herodotus described the Scythian practice of worshiping swords as manifestations of "Ares" in the 5th century BC, and Ammianus Marcellinus depicted the Alanic custom of thrusting swords into the earth and worshiping them as "Mars" in the 4th century AD.[303] See also Interpretatio graeca, the comparison of Greek deities to Germanic, Roman, and Celtic deities Neolithic religion Proto-Indo-European society Notes ^ West 2007, p. 2: "If there was an Indo-European language, it follows that there was a people who spoke it: not a people in the sense of a nation, for they may never have formed a political unity, and not a people in any racial sense, for they may have been as genetically mixed as any modern population defined by language. If our language is a descendant of theirs, that does not make them 'our ancestors', any more than the ancient Romans are the ancestors of the French, the Romanians, and the Brazilians. The Indo-Europeans were a people in the sense of a linguistic community. We should probably think of them as a loose network of clans and tribes, inhabiting a coherent territory of limited size. ... A language embodies certain concepts and values, and a common language implies some degree of common intellectual heritage." Gaulish) and Pauso (Messapic).[1] ^ The name Garm also appears in the compound Managarmr ('Moon-Hound', 'Moon's dog'), another name for Hati Hróðvitnisson, the lupine pursuer of the moon in Scandinavian mythology.[85] ^ "Classic" is defined by David W. Anthony as the proto-language spoken after the Anatolian split, and "Archaic" as the common ancestor of all Indo-European languages.[28] Pahlavi Bundahishn narrates that creator Ohrmazd fashioned the sun "whose horses were swift".[132] ^ Probably the northern Black Sea or the Sea of Azov.[140] ^ The names of the individual Norns are given as Urðr ("Happened"), Verðandi ("Happening"), and Skuld ("Due"),[226] but M. L. West notes that these names may be the result of classical influence from Plato.[226] ^ They also, most famously, appear as the Three Witches in William Shakespeare's Macbeth (c. 1606).[226] References ^ Mallory & Adams 1997, p. 415. ^ a b c Mallory & Adams 2006. ^ Mallory & Adams 2006, pp. 427–431. ^ a b Puhvel 1987, pp. 13–15. ^ a b c d Mallory & Adams 1997, p. 116. ^ a b Mallory & Adams 2006, p. 428. ^ Mallory & Adams 1997, p. 117. ^ a b c West 2007, p. 141. ^ a b Puhvel 1987, pp. 14–15. ^ a b Mallory & Adams 2006, pp. 428–429. ^ Puhvel 1987, pp. 15–18. ^ Puhvel 1987, p. 15. ^ Dumézil, Georges (1929). Flamen-Brahman. ^ Dumézil 1986. ^ Mallory & Adams 2006, pp. 429–430. ^ a b West 2007, p. 4. ISBN 978-0-226-48202-6 . ^ a b c d e Mallory & Adams 2006, p. 431. ^ a b Mallory & Adams 1997, p. 118. ^ a b c d Mallory & Adams 2006, p. 440. ^ a b Puhvel 1987, p. 14. ^ a b Puhvel 1987, p. 191. ^ Puhvel 1987, pp. 146–147. ^ Puhvel 1987, pp. 223–228. ^ Puhvel 1987, pp. 228–229. ^ Puhvel 1987, p. 126–127. ^ Puhvel 1987, p. 138, 143. ^ a b Anthony 2007. ^ a b c d e f West 2007, p. 266. ^ Macaulay, G. C. (1904). The History of Herodotus, Vol. I. London: Macmillan & Co. pp. 313–317. ISBN 978-90-04-09628-8 . ^ Bessonova, S. S. 1983. Religioznïe predstavleniia skifov. Kiev: Naukova dumka ^ Hasanov, Zaur (January 2014). "Argimpasa – Scythian goddess, patroness of shamans: a comparison of historical, archaeological, linguistic and ethnographic data". Bibliotheca Shamanistica. ^ West 2007, p. 340. ^ a b Delamarre 2003, p. 204–205. ^ a b c West 2007, p. 354. ^ West 2007, p. 346. ^ a b Polomé 1986. ^ See: Puhvel 1987, pp. 285–287; Mallory & Adams 2006, pp. 435–436; Anthony 2007, pp. 134–135. West 2007 agrees with the reconstructed motif of Manu and Yemo, although he notes that interpretations of the myths of Trita and Thraētona are debated. ^ Lincoln 1975, p. 124. ^ Leeming 2009, p. 144: "The cosmic egg found here is also found in many Indo-European mythologies." ^ Lincoln 1976, p. 42–43. ^ a b c d e f g h Anthony 2007, pp. 134–135. ^ a b c d Mallory & Adams 2006, p. 435–436. ^ Polomé 1986, p. 473. ^ West 2007, pp. 355–356. ^ West 2007, p. 357. ^ Lincoln 1975, p. 139. ^ Lincoln 1975, p. 144. ^ Anthony 2007, pp. S. 134. ^ Lincoln 1976, p. 58. ^ a b c Lincoln 1976, p. 63–64. ^ a b Mallory & Adams 1997, p. 138. ^ Lincoln 1976, pp. 58, 62. ^ a b West 2007, p. 358. ^ OCLC 6917651 . ^ Mallory & Adams 1997, p. 129. ^ West 2007, pp. 356–357. ^ Mallory & Adams 1997, p. 367. ^ Lincoln 1975, pp. 134–136. ^ Lincoln 1975, p. 129. ^ Mallory & Adams 1997, pp. 129–130. ^ Lincoln 1976, p. 47. ^ West 2007, p. 260. ^ Lincoln 1975, p. 125. ^ Lincoln 1976, p. 46. ISBN 978-90-04-16092-7 . ISBN 978-0-19-172670-5 . ISBN 978-1-136-83565-0 . Ṛta, for example, is impersonal. ... Pande defines Rta as 'the ideal principle in ordering, the paradigmatic principle of ultimate reality'. Rta is the great criterion of the Rgveda, the standard of truth both for individual instances of human morality and for cosmic order and truth. The god Varuna is the guardian and preserver of the Rta, although Varuna also must abide its rules. Rta is more passive than the active god of christianity, but nevertheless it encompasses the order of the sacrifice, the physical order of the universe and the moral law. ^ Beekes 2009, p. 128. ^ a b c d Mallory & Adams 2006, p. 276: "17.4 Law and Order The vocabulary of law ... is not extensive in Proto-Indo-European and much of the concept 'law' derives from that of 'order' or 'what is fitting'. For example, we have *h₂értus from the root *h₂er- 'fit' which had already shifted to an association with cosmic order by the time of Indo-Iranians (e.g. Lat artus 'joint', MHG art 'innate feature, nature, fashion', dialectal Grk artús 'arranging, arrangement', Arm ard 'ornament, shape', Av arəta- 'order', Skt ṛtu- 'right time, order, rule', Toch B ārtt- 'love, praise'). More closely associated with ritual propriety is the Italic-Indo-Iranian isogloss that yields *yew(e)s- (Lat iūs 'law, right, justice, duty' "), Av yaož -dā- 'make ritually pure', Skt śáṃca yóśca 'health and happiness') with a derived adjective *yusi(iy)os seen certainly in OIr uisse 'just right, fitting' and possibly OCS istǔ 'actual, true'. 'Law' itself, *dhéh₁-men-/i-, is 'that which is established' and derives from *dhéh₁- 'put, establish' but occurs in that meaning only in Grk thémis 'law' and Skt dhāman- 'law' (we also have *dhéh₁tis [e.g. Lat conditiō 'basis', NE 'deed', Grk 'order', Skt -dhiti- 'position']) though the same kind of semantic development is seen in Germanic (e.g. NE law) and Italic (e.g. Lat lex 'law'), both from *legʰ- 'lie', i.e. 'that which is laid out'. and thus the concept is pan-Indo-European. doi:10.5617/ao.5352 . ISBN 978-90-04-30427-7 . Themis' children clearly show her to be a divine principle of natural and political order, a principle humans and gods alike need to obey. OCLC 8900320 . ^ West 2007, p. 388. ^ a b c Mallory & Adams 2006, p. 439. ISBN 978-0-313-35712-1 ^ West 2007, pp. 389–390. ^ West 2007, pp. 390–391. ^ West 2007, p. 390. ^ West 2007, p. 391–392. ^ a b Anthony & Brown 2019, p. 104. ^ Lincoln 1991, p. 289. ISBN 978-0-19-955732-5 . ISBN 978-0-521-05382-2 ^ Mallory & Adams 2006, p. 439–440. ^ Mallory & Adams 1997, p. 180. ^ a b Mallory & Adams 1997, p. 180–181. ^ Puhvel 1987, p. 285. ^ Mallory & Adams 1997, p. 131. ^ Haudry 1987. ^ West 2007, p. 349. ^ Lincoln 1991, p. 36. ^ West 2007, p. 135–136. ^ West 2007, p. 138–139. ^ Mallory & Adams 1997, p. 232. ^ a b c Mallory & Adams 2006, p. 427. ^ West 2007, p. 121–122. ^ West 2007, p. 120. ^ Mallory & Adams 2006, p. 408 ^ West 2007, p. 124. ^ a b West 2007, p. 157. ^ a b West 2007, pp. 135–136, 138–139. ^ West 2007, pp. 129, 162. ^ Beekes 2011, p. 41. ^ West 2007, p. 130. ^ a b c West 2007, p. 137. ^ Fortson 2004. ^ a b West 2007. ^ Jackson 2002, pp. 66–67. ^ a b Mallory & Adams 2006, pp. 409, 431–432. ^ West 2007, p. 171. ^ a b Burkert 1985, p. 17. ^ West 2007, p. 168: "But in general we may say that MIE had *dyéus (Dyéus) for 'heaven (Heaven)' [...] In Anatolian the picture is a little different [...] The reflex of *dyeus (Hittite sius) does not mean 'heaven' but either 'god' in general or the Sun-god. [...] The Greek Zeus is king of the gods and the supreme power in the world, his influence extending everywhere and into most spheres of life. There is little reason, however, to think that the Indo-European Dyeus had any such importance." ^ West 2007, p. 166. ^ a b c Mallory & Adams 1997, p. 230–231. ^ a b c d e Mallory & Adams 2006, p. 432. ^ West 2007, pp. 166–168. ^ Green, Miranda J. (1990). "Pagan Celtic Religion: Archaeology and Myth". Transactions of the Honourable Society of the Cymmrodorion: 13–28. ^ West 2007, p. 171–175. ^ Puhvel 1987, pp. 198–200. ^ Mallory & Adams 2006, pp. 409 and 431. ^ Mallory & Adams 2006, pp. 410, 432. ^ West 2007, pp. 217–227. ^ a b c d Fortson 2004, p. 23. ^ West 2007, p. 222. ^ West 2007, p. 219. ^ West 2007, p. 221. ^ a b West 2007, pp. 217–218. ^ O'Brien, Steven. "Dioscuric Elements in Celtic and Germanic Mythology". In: Journal of Indo-European Studies 10:1–2 (Spring–Summer, 1982), pp. 117–136. ISBN 978-0-86516-510-6 . ISBN 978-0-19-087904-4 ^ West 2007, p. 195. ^ West 2007, pp. 185–191. ^ West 2007, p. 187, 189. ^ Parpola 2015, p. 109. ^ West 2007, p. 187-191. ^ West 2007, p. 189. ^ a b Mallory & Adams 1997, p. 161. ^ a b West 2007, p. 191. ^ West 2007, p. 190. ^ Michael Shapiro. Journal of Indo-European Studies, 10 (1&2), pp. 137–166; who references D. Ward (1968) "The Divine Twins". Folklore Studies, No. 19. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. ^ Beekes 2009, p. 1128–1129. ^ Georges Dumézil, Ouranos-Varuna – Essai de mythologie comparée indo-européenne (Paris: G.-P. Maisonneuve, 1934). ^ a b Jackson 2002, p. 72–74. ^ Mallory & Adams 1997, p. 290. ^ Haudry 1987, p. 72. ^ Dunkel, George E. (1988–1990). "Vater Himmels Gattin". Die Sprache. 34: 1–26. ^ West 2007, p. 192–193. ^ Mallory & Adams 1997, p. 124. doi:10.1016/S0148-0685(80)92239-3 . ^ Halverson, Dean C. (1998). "Animism: The Religion of the Tribal World" (PDF). International Journal of Frontier Missions. 15 (2): 2. ISBN 978-963-9116-42-9 . ^ a b Arvidsson 2006, p. 136. ISBN 978-1-137-58520-2 . ^ Paul Friedrich: Proto-Indo-European trees (1970) ^ Lincoln 1991, p. 6. ^ a b West 2007, p. 180–181. ^ a b West 2007, p. 178–179. ^ a b c West 2007, p. 181. ^ a b c d e Mallory & Adams 1997, p. 174. ^ West 2007, p. 180–181, 191. ^ a b West 2007, p. 182–183. ^ West 2007, pp. 181–183. ^ West 2007, p. 183. ^ West 2007, p. 174–176. ^ a b West 2007, p. 174–175, 178–179. ^ Jackson 2002, p. 80–81. ^ Jackson 2002, p. 75–76. ^ West 2007, p. 251. ^ West 2007, p. 241. ^ West 2007, p. 240, 244–245. ^ a b Mallory & Adams 1997, p. 582–583. ^ Mallory & Adams 1997, pp. 582–583; West 2007, p. 241; Matasović 2009, p. 178; Delamarre 2003, pp. 165–166 ^ Jakobson 1985, pp. 6, 19–21. ^ West 2007, p. 243. ^ Mallory & Adams 2006, p. 410, 433. ^ West 2007, p. 245. ^ Matasović 2009, p. 384. ^ Delamarre 2003, p. 290. ^ Jackson 2002, p. 77. ^ a b York 1988. ^ a b Mallory & Adams 1997, p. 203. ^ Derksen 2008, p. 364. ^ Jakobson 1985, p. 26. ^ a b c d West 2007, p. 269. ^ Treimer 1971, p. 32. ^ Mallory & Adams 2006, p. 122. ^ Tirta 2004, p. 410. ^ Mallory & Adams 1997, p. 263. ^ Fortson 2004, p. 24. ^ West 2007, p. 285. ^ West 2007, p. 291. ^ West 2007, p. 290. ^ West 2007, p. 285–288. ^ West 2007, p. 274. ^ West 2007, p. 279. ^ Dumézil 1966. ^ a b c Mallory & Adams 2006, p. 410. ^ a b c d e Mallory & Adams 2006, p. 434. ^ Mallory & Adams 2006, p. 129. ^ a b c West 2007, p. 263–264. ^ a b Vassilkov, Yaroslav (2001). "Indo-Iranian Vayu and Gogolean Viy: an old hypothesis revisited". Studia Orientalia Electronica. 94: 483–496. Retrieved 18 August 2023. ^ Vassilkov, Yaroslav (1994). "Some Indo-Iranian mythological motifs in the art of the Novosvobodnaya ('Majkop') culture". South Asian Archaeology 1993. ^ Beekes 2009, p. 1149. ^ H. Collitz, "Wodan, Hermes und Pushan," Festskrift tillägnad Hugo Pipping pȧ hans sextioȧrsdag den 5 November 1924 1924, pp 574–587. ^ Puhvel 1987, p. 63. ^ Mallory & Adams 2006, pp. 411 and 434. ^ a b c West 2007, p. 282. ^ Jackson 2002, p. 84. ^ a b Jackson 2002, p. 85. ^ Jaan Puhvel, Analecta Indoeuropaea, (a collection of articles), publ. by Innsbrucker Beitrage zur Sprachwissenschaft, Innsbruck, 1981 Kuhn, Adalbert (1855). "Die sprachvergleichung und die urgeschichte der indogermanischen völker" . Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung. 4., "Zu diesen ṛbhu, alba.. stellt sich nun aber entschieden das ahd. alp, ags. älf, altn . âlfr" ISBN 978-1-84383-294-2 . ^ West 2007, p. 297. ^ West 2007, p. 303. ^ O'Brien, Steven (1982). "Dioscuric elements in Celtic and Germanic mythology". 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The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-1-4008-3110-4 . Anthony, David W.; Brown, Dorcas R. (2019). "Late Bronze Age midwinter dog sacrifices and warrior initiations at Krasnosamarskoe, Russia". In Olsen, Birgit A.; Olander, Thomas; Kristiansen, Kristian (eds.). Tracing the Indo-Europeans: New evidence from archaeology and historical linguistics. Oxbow Books. ISBN 978-1-78925-273-6 . Arvidsson, Stefan (2006). Aryan Idols: Indo-European Mythology as Ideology and Science. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-02860-7 . ISBN 978-90-04-32186-1 . Beekes, Robert S. P. (2011). Comparative Indo-European Linguistics: An Introduction. John Benjamins Publishing. ISBN 978-90-272-1185-9 . ISBN 978-0-87024-250-2 . ISBN 0-674-36281-0 . ISBN 978-2-87772-369-5 . Derksen, Rick (2008). Etymological Dictionary of the Slavic Inherited Lexicon. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-15504-6 . ISBN 978-0-8018-5482-8 . ISBN 978-2-07-026961-7 . ISBN 1-4051-0316-7 . Gamkrelidze, Thomas V.; Ivanov, Vjaceslav V. (1995). Winter, Werner (ed.). 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. Berlin: M. De Gruyter. ISBN 978-2-251-35352-4 . Jackson, Peter (2002). "Light from Distant Asterisks. Towards a Description of the Indo-European Religious Heritage". Numen. 49 (1): 61–102. JSTOR 3270472 . ISBN 978-3-11-085546-3 . Kurkjian, Vahan M. (1958). "History of Armenia: Chapter XXXIV". Penelope. University of Chicago. Retrieved 6 April 2017. ISBN 978-1-59884-174-9 . ISBN 978-0-941694-28-5 . S2CID 162101898 . Lincoln, Bruce (August 1976). "The Indo-European Cattle-Raiding Myth". History of Religions. 16 (1): 42–65. S2CID 162286120 . Lincoln, Bruce (1991). Death, War, and Sacrifice: Studies in Ideology and Practice. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-48200-2 . ISBN 978-0-500-27616-7 . ISBN 978-1-884964-98-5 . Mallory, James P.; Adams, Douglas Q. (2006). The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-929668-2 . ISBN 978-90-04-17336-1 . ISBN 978-0-19-022692-3 . ISBN 978-90-272-7946-0 . ISBN 978-0-8018-3938-2 . ISBN 978-0-521-35432-5 . Telegrin, D. Ya.; Mallory, James P. (1994). The Anthropomorphic Stelae of the Ukraine: The Early Iconography of the Indo-Europeans. Journal of Indo-European Studies Monograph Series. Vol. 11. Washington D.C., United States: Institute for the Study of Man. ISBN 978-0-941694-45-2 . Tirta, Mark (2004). Petrit Bezhani (ed.). Mitologjia ndër shqiptarë (in Albanian). Tirana: Mësonjëtorja. ISBN 99927-938-9-9 . Treimer, Karl (1971). "Zur Rückerschliessung der illyrischen Götterwelt und ihre Bedeutung für die südslawische Philologie". In Henrik Barić (ed.). Arhiv za Arbanasku starinu, jezik i etnologiju. Vol. I. R. Trofenik. pp. 27–33. ISBN 978-0-19-514413-0 . ISBN 978-0-19-928075-9 . Winter, Werner (2003). Language in Time and Space. Berlin, Germany: Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-017648-3 . ISBN 978-0-19-981285-1 . York, Michael (1988). "Romulus and Remus, Mars and Quirinus". Journal of Indo-European Studies. 16 (1–2): 153–172. ISSN 0092-2323 . Further reading General overview Calin, D. "Dictionary of Indo-European Poetic and Religious Themes", Les Cent Chemins, Paris 2017. Calin, Didier (1996). "Indo-European Poetics and the Latvian Folk Songs". Lincoln, Bruce (January 18, 2020). "Indo-European Religions: An Overview". Encyclopedia.com. Encyclopedia of Religion. Gale. Retrieved February 9, 2019. Matasović, Ranko (2018). "A Reader in Comparative Indo-European Religion" (PDF). University of Zagreb. Witczak, Krzysztof T. and Kaczor, Idaliana 1995. «Linguistic Evidence for the Indo-European Pantheon», in: J. Rybowska, K. T. Witczak (eds.), Collectanea Philologica II in honorem Annae Mariae Komornicka, Łódź, 1995. pp. 265–278. On solar deities Blažek, Václav. "The Indo-European motif of "Celestial wedding": the solar bride and lunar bridegroom". In: wékwos. 2022, vol. 6, No 1, p. 39-65. ISSN 2426-5349. Cahill, Mary (2015). "'Here Comes the Sun...'". Archaeology Ireland. 29 (1): 26–33. JSTOR 43233814 . Dexter, Miriam Robbins. "Dawn and Sun in Indo-European Myth: Gender and Geography". In: Studia Indogermanica Lodziensia II. Lodz: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego, 1999. pp. 103–122. Gjerde, Jan Magne. "A Boat Journey in Rock Art 'from the Bronze Age to the Stone Age – from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age' in Northernmost Europe." In: North Meets South: Theoretical Aspects on the Northern and Southern Rock Art Traditions in Scandinavia. Edited by Skoglund Peter, Ling Johan, and Bertilsson Ulf. Oxford; Philadelphia: Oxbow Books, 2017. pp. 113-43. www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvh1dpgg.9. Huld, Martin E. (1986). "Proto- and post-Indo-European designations for 'sun'". Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung. 99 (2): 194–202. JSTOR 40848835 . Kristiansen, Kristian (2010). "Rock Art and Religion: The Sun Journey in Indo-European Mythology and Bronze Age Rock Art". Representations and Communications: Creating an Archaeological Matrix of Late Prehistoric Rock Art. Oxbow Books. pp. 93–115. JSTOR j.ctt1cd0nrz.10 . Lahelma, Antti. "The Circumpolar Context of the 'Sun Ship' Motif in South Scandinavian Rock Art". In: North Meets South: Theoretical Aspects on the Northern and Southern Rock Art Traditions in Scandinavia. Edited by Skoglund Peter, Ling Johan, and Bertilsson Ulf. Oxford; Philadelphia: Oxbow Books, 2017. pp. 144–71. www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvh1dpgg.10. Massetti, Laura (2019). "Antimachus's Enigma on Erytheia, the Latvian Sun-goddess and a Red Fish". The Journal of Indo-European Studies. 47 (1–2). Valent, Dušan; Jelinek, Pavol. "Séhul a jej podoby v hmotnej kultúre doby bronzovej" [Séhul and Her Representations in the Material Culture of the Bronze Age]. In: Slovenská Archeológia – Supplementum 1. A. Kozubová – E. Makarová – M. Neumann (ed.): Ultra velum temporis. Venované Jozefovi Bátorovi k 70. narodeninám. Nitra: Archeologický ústav SAV, 2020. pp. 575–582. ISSN 2585-9145. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31577/slovarch.2020.suppl.1.49 Valent, Dušan; Jelinek, Pavol; Lábaj, Ivan. "The Death-Sun and the Misidentified Bird-Barge: A Reappraisal of Bronze Age Solar Iconography and Indo-European Mythology". In: Zborník Slovenského národného múzea [Annales Musei Nationalis Slovaci]: Rocník CXV. Archeológia 31. Bratislava, 2021. pp. 5–43. ISBN 978-80-8060-515-5. DOI: https://doi.org/10.55015/PJRB2648 Wachter, Rudolf (1997). "Das indogermanische Wort für 'Sonne' und die angebliche Gruppe der l/n-Heteroklitika". Historische Sprachforschung / Historical Linguistics. 110 (1): 4–20. JSTOR 41288919 . On storm deities and the dragon combat Dandekar, R. N. (1950). "VṚTRAHĀ INDRA". Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute. 31 (1/4): 1–55. JSTOR 44028390 . Ivanov, Viatcheslav; Toporov, Vladimir (1970). "Le Mythe Indo-Européen du Dieu de l'Orage Poursuivant le Serpent: Reconstruction du Schéma". Échanges et communications. pp. 1180–1206. ISBN 978-3-11-169828-1 . Robert D. Miller II (2016). "Iconographic Links between Indic and Ancient West Asian Storm Gods". Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft. 166 (1): 141–151. JSTOR 10.13173/zeitdeutmorggese.166.1.0141 . Miller, Robert D. (2021). "Tracking the Dragon across the Ancient Near East". Archiv Orientální. 82 (2): 437–458. ProQuest 1629401850 . On the smith deity Briquel, Dominique (1998). "Tarquins de Rome et idéologie indo-européenne: (I) Tarquin l'Ancien et le dieu Vulcain" (PDF). Revue de l'histoire des religions. 215 (3): 369–395. JSTOR 43998720 . Leroy, Marie-Magdeleine (1982). "A propos de Pieds d'or: la claudication du forgeron indo-européen en Europe occidentale". Ethnologie française. 12 (3): 291–296. JSTOR 40988730 . On the "fire in waters" motif Sterckx, Claude; Oudaer, Guillaume. "Le feu dans l'eau, son bestiaire et le serpent criocéphale". In: Nouvelle Mythologie Comparée, 2, 2014: 9. White, David Gordon (2017). "Variations on the Indo-European 'Fire and Water' Mytheme in Three Alchemical Accounts". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 137 (4): 679–698. JSTOR 10.7817/jameroriesoci.137.4.0679 . On the canine guardian Andrés-Toledo, M. Á. (2013). "The Dog(s) of the Zoroastrian Afterlife". E. Pirart (ed.). Le sort des Gâthâs. Études iraniennes in memoriam Jacques Duchesne-Guillemin. Acta Iranica 54, Peeters, Leuven – Paris – Walpole: 13-23. ISBN 978-90-429-2733-9 . Other themes Anderson, R. T.; Norouzalibeik, Vahid (2008). "Father-Son Combat: An Indo-European Typescene and its Variations". The Journal of Indo-European Studies. 36 (3–4): 269–332. Berezkin, Yuri (2014). "The Dog, the Horse and the Creation of Man". Folklore: Electronic Journal of Folklore. 56: 25–46. doi:10.7592/FEJF2014.56.berezkin . doi:10.3406/slave.1925.7342 . Janda, Michael (2005). Elysion: Entstehung und Entwicklung der griechischen Religion. Institut für Sprachen und Literaturen der Universität Innsbruck. ISBN 978-3-85124-702-2 . Janda, Michael (2010). Die Musik nach dem Chaos: der Schöpfungsmythos der europäischen Vorzeit. Institut für Sprachen und Literaturen der Universität Innsbruck. ISBN 978-3-85124-227-0 . Grimm, Jacob (1966) [1835], Teutonic Mythology, translated by Stallybrass, James Steven, London: Dover, (DM) Frazer, James (1919), The Golden Bough , London: MacMillan Jendza, Craig (2013). "Theseus the Ionian in Bacchylides 17 and Indo-Iranian Apam Napat". The Journal of Indo-European Studies. 41 (3–4): 431–457. ProQuest 1509068735 . Miller, Dean (2006). "Cú Chulainn and Il'ya of Murom: Two Heroes, and Some Variations on a Theme". Studia Celto-Slavica. 1: 175–184. doi:10.54586/YJKV4327 . Ranero, Anna M. (1996). "'That Is What Scáthach Did Not Teach Me:' "Aided Óenfir aífe" and an Episode from the "Mahābhārata"". Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium. 16/17: 244–255. JSTOR 20557325 . Shulman, David Dean (2014). Tamil Temple Myths: Sacrifice and Divine Marriage in the South Indian Saiva Tradition. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-1-4008-5692-3 . Varenne, Jean (1977). "Agni's Role in the Ṛgvedic Cosmogonic Myth". Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute. 58/59: 375–386. OCLC 6015346838 . External links Media related to Proto-Indo-European mythology at Wikimedia Commons Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Proto-Indo-European_mythology&oldid=1218796855"