Dumezil, Trito and Athena: mystery solved the gLeN way

From: Glen Gordon
Message: 3271
Date: 2000-08-19

While others do their battles, Loki lurks in the darkness waiting for the
perfect moment to pounce:

>Is it so very far Piotr? Final t's were dropped both in Greek and in >Late
>(New Kingdom) Egyptian. A prothetic vowel or contamination from >the
>obviously related Semitic Anat could provide an explanation of the >initial
>a. So we have a possible ath-a-nei-.

Erh, I think none of these hypotheses so far are likely to be so. Therefore,
in the cloud of confusion, I shall put forth my own silly thoughts which I
just devised last night after drinking a couple of shooters and passing out.
I'll keep it brief.

Tripartition needs a change
---------------------------

First, let's reorganize Dumezil's funny-looking tripartition triangle thingy
into a prettier "tree"-like diagram, shall we?

CASTE REALM/ELEMENT
OVERWORLD priest sky

MIDDLEWORLD commoner earth

UNDERWORLD warrior water


Okay, everybody get it so far? We have a first layer of "elements" with a
second layer superimposed, suggesting some sort of post-mesolithic social
organisation. Let's further this diagram by pretending that these above
items are in fact "deified" into IE personifications. We can go nuts with
this one!...


OVERWORLD Xedhnos Dye:u-Pxte:r

MIDDLEWORLD XWeryo-Manus Yemos

UNDERWORLD Pexwr-Genos Da:nu-Nepo:t


Everybody happy-happy now? Everything is explained! :)

This way we can plainly see that *Dye:us is Jupiter-Thor-Tiw-Dyaus "the
sky"; *Yemos is Ymir-Yama "the earth" and *Nepo:t is Nechtain-Neptune-Apam
"the sea". These are the elements/realms of IE world-view. There is a reason
why *Yemos is also the "god of the dead". The dead, when buried, can be said
to be "given to *Yemos".

As for THE CASTES, we first see my new and precious reconstruction *Xedhnos
portrayed by Athena-Odin who are both conveniently "wise warriors" who make
eight-legged creatures subservient to them(Arachne/Seipnir). How does
everybody feel about the sound correspondances? You like? *Xedhnos' wisdom
makes him a fine candidate as a god of the priest caste.

*Pexwr-Genos "Fire-Born" is the Thunder god represented by
Ares-Vulcan-Parjanya-Fjo"rgyn. An association between "thunder/storm" and
"the sea" now makes more sense, n'est-ce pas? It also makes sense why he
should get involved with Venus, I think. He represents the warrior caste. He
might be born of fire in the sense that thunder is born of lightning, since
the sound follows the flash.

Finally, *XWeryo-Manus "Highmost Man" is the first human being. He slayed
his brother *Yemos to create the earth. He is represented by
Ariomanus-Aryaman-Airem. It is _him_ who is the originator of mankind, not
*Yemos who definitely gets sliced and diced. He is also a god of the
commoner caste (Roman Quirinus?).


War of the Functions
--------------------

Not convinced yet? Well, the War of the Functions (aka the Apocalypse) makes
waaaay more sense now. Instead of two functions fighting against poor
defenseless commoners. We have all three!

"Huh?" you say? Well, has anybody ever noticed how Loki starts the ball
rolling here? But who is Loki? He should be appropriately renamed Little
Fire (*HegWnis) as in Indic Agni. There are few places where a pyromaniac
can get his jollies. He can't do it in the air and he can't do it in the
water. Fire only really exists in the Middleworld (well, except for the sun,
but ignore that). Therefore, Little Fire represents the earth who "fires up"
the sky and the waters to join him in his war against humankind.

Hence, all three elements are battling against us... and isn't that what
human perseverence is all about in the end?


Trito
-----

Oh, and I almost forgot my promise, Joao. According to Mallory, *Trito is a
herder who lost his cattle to a three-headed monster (possibly a serpent).
He then regained his cattle with the help of the god of war. *Trito is
represented through Vedic "Trita Aptya", Avestan "Thraetaona Athwya", Greek
"Heracles", Norse "Hymir" and Hittite "Hupasiya". I suspect that the name
itself might not be properly reconstructed in IE, but I digress.

- gLeN

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