Proto-Indo-European religion

Trundholm sun chariot pictured, Nordic Bronze Age, c. 1600 BCE

The religion of the Proto-Indo-Europeans is not directly attested, but reconstruction has been attempted based on the existence of similarities among the deities, religious practices and mythologies of the Indo-European peoples. The hypothesized reconstructions below are based on linguistic evidence using the comparative method. Archaeological evidence is difficult to match to any specific culture in the period of early Indo-European culture in the Chalcolithic.^[1] Other approaches to Indo-European mythology are possible, such as the trifunctional hypothesis of Georges Dumézil.^[2]

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 deity names are more readily accepted among scholars than others.^[3]

The term for "a god" was *deiwos,^[4] reflected in Hittite, sius; Latin, deus, divus; Sanskrit, deva; Avestan, daeva (later, Persian, div); Welsh, duw; Irish, dia; Old Norse, tívurr; Lithuanian, Dievas; Latvian, Dievs.^[5]

Proto-Indo-European[6][7][8]	Meaning	Description[9]	Greek[10][11]	Latin[10][11]	Celtic[11]	Norse[11]	Slavic[11]	Hittite[12]	Vedic[10]
*Dyēus Pater *Dyēus Ph2tēr	Sky father	God of the day-lit sky and the chief god of the Indo-European pantheon	Zeus (with a vocative form Zeu pater)	Jūpiter (from the archaic Latin Iovis pater), Dīs Pater	Dēuos, duw	Tīwaz	div (genitive divese; "miracle")		Dyáus Pitā
*Perkwunos *Perkunos	The striker	God of Thunder and Lightning	Keraunós (a title of Zeus)		Taranis	Thor Fjörgyn	Perun	Pirwa	Parjanya
*Hausōs *H2eus(os)	The shining one	Goddess of the Dawn	Éōs	Aurora		Ēostre	Jarilo or Iaro	Aššu	Ushās
*Haeust(e)ro		Goddess of the Hearth	Hestia	Vesta	Brigid				Atri
*Deiwih2		Goddess of the grain fields	Demeter	Dea Dia					Devi
*Pria *PriHeh2	Beloved, friend	The love goddess, Goddess of the Gardens				Freyja	Priye	Puru	Priya
*Pleto *PltHa wiHa		Goddess of Wide Rivers	Leto, Ploutos	Latona, Pluto				Lelwanni	Prthivi
*Danu *Deh2nu-	River	River goddess			Danu, Dôn				Danu
*Welnos		God of cattle				Ullr	Veles
*Plth2wih2	The broad one	Goddess of wide flat lands and the rivers that meander across them						Lelwani	Prithvi
*Peh2uson		Pastoral god	Pan	Faunus					Pashupati, and Pūshān
*Neptonos *H2epom Nepots	Grandson/nephew of waters	Water or sea god		Neptune	Nechtan	Neck
*Seh2ul with a genitive form *Sh2-en-s	The Sun		Helios	Sol	Sul/Suil	Sól, *Sowilō	Solntse		Surya
*Meh1not	The Moon			Minerva			Myesyats	*Meno, or Mėnuo (Mėnulis)

The form Arap Ushas for *H₂eus(os) appears in Albanian folklore, but is a name of the Moon. See also the names for the Sun which follow. An extension of the name may have been *H₂eust(e)ro,^[13] but see also the form *as-t-r, with intrusive -t- [between s and r] in northern dialects".^[14] Anatolian dialects: Estan, Istanus, Istara; Greek, Hestia, goddess of the hearth; Latin Vesta, goddess of the hearth; in Armenian as Astghik, a star goddess; possibly also in Germanic mythology as Ēostre or Ostara; and Baltic, Austija. The name *Deh₂nu- 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.

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 tends to vary among subsequent Indo-European mythologies. The original Indo-European solar deity appears to have been female,^[15] a characteristic not only supported by the higher number of sun goddesses in subsequent derivations (feminine Sól, Saule, Sulis, Solntse—not directly attested as a goddess, but feminine in gender—Étaín, Grían, Aimend, Áine and Catha versus masculine Helios, Surya, Savitr, Usil and Sol; Hvare-khshaeta is of neutral gender), but also by vestiges in mythologies with male solar deities (Usil in Etruscan art is depicted occasionally as a goddess, while solar characteristics in Athena and Helen of Troy still remain in Greek mythology). The original Indo-European lunar deity appears to have been masculine,^[15] with feminine lunar deities like Selene, Minerva and Luna being a development exclusive to the eastern Mediterranean. Even in these traditions, remnants of male lunar deities, like Menelaus, remain.

Analysis of different Indo-European tales indicate the Proto-Indo-Europeans believed there were two progenitors of mankind: *Manu- ("Man"; Indic Manu; Germanic Mannus) and *Yemo- ("Twin"; Indic Yama; Germanic Ymir), his twin brother. Cognates of this set of twins appear as the first mortals, or the first gods to die, sometimes becoming the ancestors of everyone and/or king(s) of the dead.^[16][17]

Horse Twins, usually have a name that means 'horse' *ekwa-, but the names are not always cognate, because there is no lexical set (Mallory & Adams 2006, p. 432). 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, Dioskouroi (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, pp. 137–166, Michael Shapiro, who references D. Ward, The Divine Twins, Folklore Studies, No. 19, Univ. Calif. Press, Berkeley, 1968).

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. It is also likely that they had three fate goddesses; see the Norns in Norse mythology, Moirai in Greek mythology, Sudjenice of Slavic folklore, Ursitoare in Folklore of Romania and Deivės Valdytojos in Lithuanian mythology. Celtic religion is also rife with triple goddesses, such as the Gaulish Matrones and the Morrigan of Ireland, and sometimes triplicate gods as well, but they are not always associated with fate. See also Triple deities.

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.

Pandemonium

"Pandemonium" is Jaan Puhvel's word for the mutual demonization that occurred when the Younger-Avesta demonized the daevas, and the post-Rigvedic 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 dēvas, and even in the later Vedas, the two groups (though thematically in opposition) cooperate at certain times.^[18] 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.^[19]

However, in the 19th century this distinction between the older and younger texts had not yet been 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 ..."^[20] The observation was reiterated by Jacob Grimm (DM3, p. 985), who, like Haug, considered it to be the theological basis of Zoroastrianism's dualism.

Before 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."^[21] Nonetheless, some modern authors like Mallory and Adams still refer to Zoroastrianism as a "religious reformation" of Vedic religion (Mallory & Adams 2006, pp. 408–09). 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 daevas, the national gods.

Mythology

Dragon or serpent

One common myth among almost all Indo-European mythologies is a battle ending with a hero or god slaying a serpent or dragon of some sort (Watkins 1995).

• Vahagn vs. Vishap in Armenian mythology;
• Zeus vs. Typhon, Kronos vs. Ophion, Apollo vs. Python, Heracles vs. the Hydra and Ladon, Perseus vs. Ceto, and Bellerophon vs. the Chimera in Greek mythology;
• Thor vs. Jörmungandr, Sigurd vs. Fafnir and Beowulf vs. the dragon in Germanic mythology;
• Indra vs. Vrtra in the Rigveda;
• Krishna vs. Kāliyā in the Bhagavata Purana;
• Fereydun, and later Garshasp, vs. Zahhak in Zoroastrianism and Persian mythology;
• Perun vs. Veles, Dobrynya Nikitich vs. Zmey in Slavic mythology;
• Făt-Frumos vs. Zmeu in Folklore of Romania
• Tarhunt vs. Illuyanka of Hittite mythology;
• Dian Cecht vs. Meichi of Celtic 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; 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 (see Book of Revelation 12), Saint George and the Dragon in Christian mythology. 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 Ragnarök myth in which both die). Serpentine aspects can be found in 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 *Varuna/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).

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 the Rigvedic story of 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 god, Helios of Greek mythology, Surya of Hinduism, and Sól of Germanic mythology are represented as riding in a chariot with horses. (Note that the chariot was not invented until Indo-European had already split into linguistic branches .)
• In Norse mythology, the Sun goddess (Sól) and Moon god (Máni) are swallowed by demon wolves Sköll and Hati Hróðvitnisson.
• In Hinduism, the Sun god (Surya) and Moon god (Chandra) are swallowed by the demon serpents Rahu and Ketu resulting in Eclipses.^[22]

Brothers

The analysis of different Indo-European tales indicates that the Proto-Indo-Europeans believed there were two progenitors of mankind: *Manu- ("Man") and *Yemo- ("Twin"), his twin brother. A reconstructed creation myth involving the two is given by David W. Anthony, attributed in part to Bruce Lincoln:^[23] Manu and Yemo traverse the cosmos, accompanied by the primordial cow, and finally decide to create the world. To do so, Manu sacrifices either Yemo or the cow, and with help from the sky father, the storm god and the divine twins, forges the earth from the remains. Manu thus becomes the first priest and establishes the practice of sacrifice. The sky gods then present cattle to the third man, *Trito, who loses it to the three-headed serpent *Ng^whi, but eventually overcomes this monster either alone or aided by the sky father. Trito is now the first warrior and ensures that the cycle of mutual giving between gods and humans may continue.

Reflexes of *Manu include Indic Manu, Germanic Mannus; of Yemo, Indic Yama, Avestan Yima, Norse Ymir, possibly Roman Remus (< earlier Italic *iemus).^[23]

There are almost no mythological tales from 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;
• 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.^[24]
• 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.

The Germanic languages have information about both Ymir and Mannus (cognates of *Yemo- and *Manu- respectively), 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 name Allemagne is interpreted (perhaps by folk etymology) as "all-men" the name for themselves.

Bulls

• Celtic (in this case Irish) texts were written down between the 11th and 14th centuries 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." An example of one of the 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."^[25]
• In Zoroastrianism and Persian mythology, according to the Zoroastrian story of creation, Ahura Mazda existed in light in goodness above, while Angra Mainyu existed in darkness and ignorance below. They have existed independently of each other for all time, and manifest contrary substances. Ahura Mazda first created seven abstract heavenly beings called Amesha Spentas, who support him and represent beneficent aspects, along with numerous yazads, lesser beings worthy of worship. He then created the universe itself in order to ensnare evil. Ahura Mazda created the floating, egg-shaped universe in two parts: first the spiritual (menog) and 3,000 years later, the physical (getig). Ahura Mazda then created Gayomard, the archetypical perfect man, and the first bull.^[26] While Ahura Mazda created the universe and humankind, Angra Mainyu, whose instinct is to destroy, miscreated demons, evil yazads, and noxious creatures (khrafstar) such as snakes, ants, and flies. Angra Mainyu created an opposite, evil being for each good being, except for humans, which he found he could not match. Angra Mainyu invaded the universe through the base of the sky, inflicting Gayomard and the bull with suffering and death. However, the evil forces were trapped in the universe and could not retreat. The dying primordial man and bull emitted seeds. From the bull's seed grew all beneficial plants and animals of the world, and from the man's seed grew a plant whose leaves became the first human couple. Humans thus struggle in a two-fold universe trapped with evil. The evils of this physical world are not products of an inherent weakness, but are the fault of Angra Mainyu's assault on creation. This assault turned the perfectly flat, peaceful, and ever day-lit world into a mountainous, violent place that is half night.^[26]
• In Lithuanian, a folktale tells of a bull and three 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."^[27]

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 parturition 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 and rebirth of the (often grain-associated) life-death-rebirth deity causes the seasons; Frazer calls him the "Dying Corn God" (Frazer, Vol. 8 and 9 of the Golden Bough esp. Vol. 9, pp. 412–423; 4/11)
• Uncle Water melts the ice and releases the water causing flooding (Gamkrelidze and Ivanov 1995, 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-giving figures (e.g. Prometheus and Loki) sometimes have an intermediate position between gods and humans (i.e., demigods). 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 or revered as heroes. Mallory and Adams call them Craft Gods and argue that they are not linguistically reconstructible; however, Cox compares Greek Prometheus with Hindu Pramanthu (Cox, p. 421). Smith gods, a subset of the culture gods, are slightly reconstructible according to Mallory and Adams.

Flood myth

• Flood myth is a widespread myth, in Indo-European as in other cultures (for example, Noah and Utnapishtim myths). In Hindu mythology, there is a story of a great flood, wherein the Matsya Avatar of Vishnu warns the first man, Manu. In Greek mythology, Deucalion is the survivor of the flood, and his sons Aeolus, Ion and Dorus are the founders of the three main lines of modern Greeks.

Ritual and sacredness

Émile Benveniste states that "there is no common [IE] term to designate religion itself, or cult, or the priest, not even one of the personal gods".^[28] There are, however, terms denoting ritual practice reconstructed in Indo-Iranian religion which have root cognates in other branches, hinting at common PIE concepts. Thus, the stem *hrta-, usually translated as "(cosmic) order" (Vedic ṛta and Iranian arta^[29]). Benveniste states, "We have here one of the cardinal notions of the legal world of the Indo-Europeans to say nothing of their religious and moral ideas" (pp. 379–381). He also adds that an abstract suffix -tu formed the Vedic stem ṛtu-, Avestan ratu- which designated order, particularly in the seasons and periods of time. The same root and suffix, but a different formation, appears in Latin rītus "rite".

The following list of reconstructed PIE religious terms is based on EIEC^[30] and Lyle Campbell^[31]

• *isH₁ro ‘holy’
• *sakro- ‘sacred’ (derived from *sak- ‘to sanctify’) [p. 493, EIEC]
• *k̂wen(to)- ‘holy’ [p. 493, EIEC]
• *noib^ho- ‘holy’ [p. 493, EIEC]
• *prek̂- ‘pray’
• *meld^h- ‘pray’ [p. 449, EIEC]
• *g^whed^h- ‘pray’ [p. 449, EIEC]
• *H₁weg^wh- ‘speak solemnly’; [*ueg^wh-, p. 449, EIEC]
• *ĝ^heuH_x- ‘call, invoke’ (perhaps English god < *ĝ^hu-to- from ‘that which is invoked’, but derivation from *ĝ^hu-to- ‘libated’ from *ĝ^heu- ‘libate, pour’ is also possible). [p. 89, EIEC]
• *kowH₁ei- ‘priest, seer/poet’ [p. 451, EIEC]
• *H_xiaĝ- ‘worship’
• *weik- ‘consecrate’ (earlier meaning perhaps ‘to separate’), [*ueik-, p. 493, EIEC; p. 29, Grimm^[32]]
• *sep- ‘handle reverently’ [p. 450, EIEC]
• *spend- ‘libate’
• *ĝ^heu- ‘libate’ and *ĝ^heu-mn̥ ‘libation’
• *dapnom ‘sacrificial meal’ from *dap-, [p. 496, EIEC; p. 484, Benveniste]
• *tolko/eH₂- ‘meal’ (at least late PIE) [p. 496, EIEC]
• *nemos ‘sacred grove’ (used in west and centre of the IE world)
• *werb^h- ‘sacred enclosure’

Benveniste also posits the existence of a dual conception of sacredness, divided into a positive side, the intrinsic, otherworldly power of deities; and a negative side, sacredness of objects in the world that make them taboo for humans. This opposition is found in word pairs such as the Latin sacer/sanctus and Greek ἅγιος/ἱερός.^[33]

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: see Hittite mythology
• Indo-Iranian:
  • Indo-Aryan: see Vedic religion and mythology, Indian religions (Hinduism and Hindu mythology, Buddhism and Buddhist mythology, Jainism, Sikhism), and Kalasha (religion)
  • Iranian: see Zoroastrianism, Persian mythology and Yazdânism
• Greek: see Greek polytheism and mythology, Hellenistic religion, Decline of Hellenistic polytheism, Greek Orthodox Church
• Italic: see Roman polytheism and mythology, Roman Catholic Church
• Celtic: see Celtic polytheism and mythology, Celtic Christianity
• Germanic: see Germanic mythology (Continental, Anglo-Saxon and Norse mythology)
• Baltic: see Latvian mythology, Lithuanian mythology
• Slavic: see Slavic mythology, Christianization of the Slavs
• Tocharian: little evidence, see Silk Road transmission of Buddhism
• Armenian: limited evidence, see Armenian mythology, Armenian Orthodox Church
• Prehistoric Balkans: see Paleo-Balkanic mythology

See also

• Interpretatio graeca, the comparison of Greek deities to Germanic, Roman, and Celtic deities
• Neolithic religion
• Proto-Indo-European society
• Proto-Indo-Iranian religion

References

1. Mallory & Adams 1989
2. Mythe et Épopée I, II, III, by G. Dumézil, Gallimard, 1995.
3. In order to present a consistent notation, the reconstructed forms used here are cited from Mallory & Adams 2006. For further explanation of the laryngeals – <h₁>, <h₂>, and <h₃> – see the Laryngeal theory article.
4. Mallory & Adams 2006, p. 408
5. Indo-European *Deiwos and Related Words by Grace Sturtevant Hopkins (Language Dissertations published by the Linguistic Society of America, Number XII, December 1932)
6. Mallory & Adams 2006, pp. 410–33
7. Mallory & Adams 2006, p. 267
8. (Mallory & Adams 2006, pp. 208)
9. Mallory & Adams 2006, pp. 409, 410, 432
10. Mallory & Adams 2006, pp. 409–31
11. Mythologies. PediaPress.
12. Gamkrelidze & Ivanov 1995, p. 760
13. Mallory & Adams 2006, pp. 294, 301
14. Mallory & Adams 2006, pp. 702, 780; Gamkrelidze & Ivanov 1995
15. Dexter, Miriam Robbins. Proto-Indo-European Sun Maidens and Gods of the Moon. Mankind Quarterly 25:1 & 2 (Fall/Winter, 1984), pp. 137–144.
16. Mallory. In Search of the Indo-Europeans. 1987. p. 140.
17. Lincoln, Bruce. Death, War, and Sacrifice: Studies in Ideology & Practice. 1991
18. Kuiper, F.B.J. (1983). Irwin, J., ed. Ancient Indian Cosmology. Delhi: Vikas..
19. Herrenschmidt, Clarisse; Kellens, Jean (1993). "*Daiva". Encyclopaedia Iranica. 6. Cosa Mesa: Mazda. p. 601..
20. Hillebrandt, Alfred (1891). Sarma, Sreeramula Rajeswara, trans. 1981, ed. Vedic Mythology. 2. New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. p. 264..
21. Darmesteter, James (1895). Müller, Max, ed. Sacred Books of the East. 4. Oxford: Clarendon Press. pp. lii..
22. Charles Hartley. "Rahu & Ketu". Hartwick college, New York, USA. Retrieved 21 May 2013.
23. Anthony, David W. (2010). The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World. Princeton University Press. pp. 134–135.
24. 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, translated by W. M. Roberts, E. P. Dutton & Co., New York 1912.
25. 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 Ancient Irish Epic Tale, Táin Bó Cúalnge, translated by Joseph Dunn, publ. David Nutt, London, 1914.
26. Cavendish, Richard; Ling, Trevor Oswald (1980), Mythology: an Illustrated Encyclopedia, Rizzoli, pp. 40–45, ISBN 0847802868
27. The original source for this is a folktale called Saulė and Vejų Motina (The Sun and the Mother of the Winds), pp. 309–13, of M. Davainis-Silvestraitis' Collection, Pasakos, Sakmės, Oracijos (Tales, Legends and Orations) published in Vilnius, 1973. The English version is from p. 67 Of Gods and Men by Algirdas J. Greimas, translated by Milda Newman, Indiana Univ. Press, Indianapolis, 1992.
28. Indo-European Language and Society by Émile Benveniste (transl. by Elizabeth Palmer, pp. 445–6; orig. title Le vocabulaire des institutions Indo-Européennes, 1969), University of Miami Press, Coral Gables, Florida, 1973.
29. Gamkrelidze and Ivanov 1995 p. 810; c.f. Hittite ara, UL ara, ^DAra (a Hittite goddess).
30. Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture, J.P. Mallory and Douglas Q. Adams, ed., Fitzroy Dearborn, London, 1997.
31. Historical Linguistics, An Introduction, by Lyle Campbell, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., 2004, pp. 391-392; see also Gamkrelidze and Ivanov 1995, pp. 832-7, ritual language.
32. Deutsche Mythologie by Jacob Grimm, (English title Teutonic Mythology, transl. by Stallybrass), George Bell and Sons, London, 1883.
33. Polomé, Edgar C.; Mallory, J. P. (1997). "Sacred". In Mallory, J. P.; Adams, Douglas Q. Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture. Taylor & Francis. pp. 493–494.

Further reading

• Benveniste, Emile; Palmer, Elizabeth (translator) (1973). Indo-European Language and Society. Coral Gables, Florida: University of Miami Press. ISBN 978-0-87024-250-2.
• Cox, George William (1887). The Mythology of the Aryan Nations. London: Kegan Paul. ISBN 978-0-543-94929-5.
• Frazer, James (1919). The Golden Bough. London: MacMillan.
• 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.
• Grimm, Jacob; Stallybrass, James Steven (translator) (1966). Teutonic Mythology. London: Dover. (DM).
• Janda, Michael, Die Musik nach dem Chaos, Innsbruck 2010.
• Mallory, James P. (1991). In Search of the Indo-Europeans. London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-27616-7.
• Mallory, James P.; Adams, Douglas Q., eds. (1997). Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture. London: Routledge. (EIEC).
• Mallory, James P.; Adams, Douglas Q. (2006). "Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World". London: Oxford University Press.
• Renfrew, Colin (1987). Archaeology & Language. The Puzzle of the Indo-European Origins. London: Jonathan Cape. ISBN 978-0-521-35432-5.
• Watkins, Calvert (1995). How to Kill a Dragon: Aspects of Indo-European Poetics. London: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-514413-0.
• West, Martin Litchfield (2007). Indo-European poetry and myth. London: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-928075-9.

External links

• Proto-Indo-European Religion