Proto-Indo-European mythology

File:Dyeus.png

Ancient anthropomorphic Ukrainian stone stela (Kernosovka stela), possibly depicting a late Proto-Indo-European god, most likely Dyeus, the thunderer.

The existence of similarities among the deities and religious practices of the Indo-European peoples allows glimpses of a common Proto-Indo-European religion and mythology. This hypothetical religion would have been the ancestor of the majority of the religions of pre-Christian Europe, of the Dharma Faiths in India, and of 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 to presuppose this ancestral religion did exist, though any details must remain conjectural. While similar religious customs among Indo-European peoples can provide evidence for a shared religious heritage, a shared custom does not necessarily indicate a common source for such a custom; some of these practices may well have evolved in a process of parallel evolution. Archaeological evidence, on the other hand, is difficult to match to a specific culture. The best evidence is therefore the existence of cognate words and names in the Indo-European languages.

Priests

The main functionaries of the hypothetical Proto-Indo-European religion would have been maintained by a class of priests or shamans. There is evidence for sacral kingship, suggesting the tribal king at the same time assumed the role of high priest. This function would have survived as late as 11th century Scandinavia, when kings could still be dethroned for refusing to serve as priests (see Germanic king). Many Indo-European societies know a threefold division of a clerical class, a warrior class and a class of peasants or husbandmen. Such a division was suggested for the Proto-Indo-European society by Georges Dumézil.

Examples of the descendents of this class in historical Indo-European societies would be the Celtic Druids and the Indian Brahmins and Persian Magi.

The Germanic tribes may have been an exception in allowing women to become priests: the Völvas (see also witches).

Divination was performed by priests, e.g. from parts of slaughtered animals, see animal sacrifice, haruspex. Birds also played a role in divination, see augur, language of the birds.

Pantheon

Philological reconstructions of some PIE theonyms:

• *Dyēus Ph₂ter is believed to have been the original name of god of the daylit sky and the chief god of the Indo-European pantheon. He survives in Greek Zeus (also Dias), Latin Jupiter (Deus Pater), Sanskrit Dyaus Pita, Baltic Dievas, Slavic Div, Germanic Tyr (also Tiwaz), and Armenian Astwatz, (c.f. also deus pater in the Vulgate, e. g. Jude 1:1, and the Gaulish Dis Pater)
• *Plth₂vih₂ Mh₂ter (Dg'^hōm) is believed to have been the name of (Mother) Earth, see Prthivi.
• A thunder god, possibly associated with the oak, and in some traditions syncretized with Dyeus. A root *per-k^w- or *per-g- is suggested by Balto-Slavic [[Perkwunos|*Perkúnos]], Norse Fjörgyn and Vedic Parjanya. An onomatopoeic root *tar is continued in Gaulish Taranis and Hittite Tarhunt. A word for "thunder" itself was *(s)tene-, continued in Germanic *Þunraz (thunder personified).

Additional gods may include:

• [[Hausos|*H₂ausos]] is believed to have been the goddess of dawn, continued in Greek mythology as Eos, in Rome as Aurora, in Vedic as Ushas, in Lithuanian mythology as Aušra or Auštaras, in Armenian as Astghik and possibly also in Germanic mythology as Eostre, .
• Greek Poseidon was originally an Earth-god, or a god of the underworld, from poti daon "lord of Da", cf. Demeter from Da mater "Mother Da".
• *Velnos, maybe a god of the night sky, or of the underworld, continued in Sanskrit Varuna, Greek Uranos (which is also a word for sky), Slavic Veles, and Armenian Aray.
• There may have been a sea-god, in Persian and Vedic known as Apam Napat, in Celtic as Nechtan, in Etruscan as Nethuns, in Germanic as Njord and in Latin as Neptune, possibly called *Néptonos. [1] This god may be related to the Germanic water spirit, the Nix.
• They may have distinguished between different races of gods, like the Jotuns, Aesir, and Vanir of Norse Mythology. Possibly these were the *Deiw-o- (Deva, Daimon, ablaut variant *Dyēus) and the *Ansu- (Aesir, Asura, Ahura).

According to Russian painter and scholar Alex Fantalov, there are only five main archetypes for all gods and goddesses of all Indo-European mythologies^[2], and quite possibly, these five archetypes were the original deities of ancient PIE pantheon. These, according to Fantalov, are:

1. God of the Sky
2. God of Thunder
3. God of the Earth/Underworld
4. Cultural Hero
5. Great Goddess

The Sky and Thunder gods were heavenly deities, representing the ruling class of society, and in subsequent cultures they were often merged into a single supreme god. On the other hand, the Earth god and the Cultural Hero were earthly gods, tied to nature, agriculture and crafts, and in subsequent cultures they were often split into more deities as societies grew more complex. And while it seems there existed some enmity between the Thunderer and the God of the Earth (which may be echoed in myths about battle of various thunder gods and a serpentine enemy, see below), the Cultural Hero seems to be a sort of demigod son of either the Sky God or the Thunder God, and was considered to be the ancestor of the human race, and the psychopomp. Together with the character of Great Goddess, who was a wife of the ruling Sky God, the Cultural Hero thus balanced between the heavenly God of the Sky/Thunder and the more chthonic God of the Earth/Underworld.

See also Semitic Pantheon.

Mythology

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. Although this concept is absent from Greek mythology, 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.

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, Herakles vs. the Hydra and Ladon in Greek Mythology; Indra vs. Vritra in Vedas; Perun vs. Veles, Svarog or Dobrynya Nikitich vs. Zmey in Slavic mythology; Teshub vs. Illuyanka of Hittite mythology; Thraetaona, and later Keresaspa, vs. Azhi Dahaka in Zoroastrianism . There are also analoguous stories in other neighbouring unrelated mythologies: Anu or Marduk vs. Tiamat in Mesopotamian 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[3]. The myth symbolized a clash between forces of order and chaos (represented by the serpent), and the god or hero would always win[4]. It is therefore most probable that there existed some kind of dragon or serpent, possibly with multiple heads, which were most likely closely linked with the idea of the primordial seabed. This which were probably connotated with the god of the sea, as serpentine aspects can be found in many aquatic Indo-European deities, most notably the Greek Poseidon, Oceanos, and Ophion, and also the Slavic Veles.

There may have been a sort of nature spirit or god akin to the Greek god Pan and the Satyrs, the Roman god Faunus and the Fauns, the Celtic god Cernunnos and the Dusii, Vedic Pashupati, Prajapati and Pushan, the Slavic Leszi, the Germanic Woodwose, and the English Herne the Hunter; There may also have been a female cognate akin to the Greco-Roman nymphs, Slavic vilas, the Huldra of Germanic folklore, the Hindu Apsaras, the Persian Peri. A possibly similar type of spirit may be found in Jewish mythology, the Se'irim, as well as in Arabic mythology, the Jinn.

There may also have been a savage dog or wolf guarding the underworld, such as Greek Kerberos and Norse Garm. 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.

The first ancestor of men was called *Manu-, see Germanic Mannus, Hindu Manu.

The Sun was represented as riding in a chariot, see Sun chariot.

Development

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

• Anatolian
  • Hittite mythology
• Greek
  • Greek mythology
  • Greek religion
  • Greco-Buddhism
  • Greek Orthodox Church
• Italic
  • Roman mythology
  • Roman religion
  • Roman Catholic Church
• Indo-Aryan
  • Vedic religion
  • History of Hinduism
  • Hindu mythology
• Iranian
  • Zoroastrianism
  • Islamic conquest of Iran
• Baltic
  • Latvian mythology
  • Lithuanian mythology
• Slavic
  • Slavic mythology
  • Russian Orthodox Church
• Celtic
  • Celtic polytheism
  • Celtic mythology
  • Celtic Christianity
• Germanic
  • Germanic paganism
  • Norse mythology
  • Germanic Christianity
• Tocharian
  • Silk Road transmission of Buddhism
• Armenian
  • Armenian Apostolic Church
• Albanian
  • Illyrian gods
  • Albanian Orthodox Church

Notes

1. ^ A. Fantalov, "Indo-European mythologies: genesis and evolution of characters." (materials presented at an international symposium at the Pyotr Veliky Anthropology and Ethnography Museum. Saint Petersburg, 1999). [5]

See also

• Chariot burial
• Soma
• Ashvamedha
• Comparing Eastern and Western religious traditions
• Neolithic religion

External links

• ceisiwrserith.com - What was the Proto-Indo-European religion like?
• Neo-pagan article on PIE religion