From: João Simões Lopes Filho
Message: 3669
Date: 2000-09-14
----- Original Message -----
From: Glen Gordon <glengordon01@...>
To: <cybalist@egroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2000 6:21 PM
Subject: [tied] The Tripartitive Nature of IE Tripartition
>
>
> Here's a great revelation I had while sipping some powerful coffee at my
> favourite cafe. I've already mentioned that I feel that IE mythology
derives
> from three mythologies blended together: Old European, Semitish and
Steppe.
>
> Now, the only problem I was having was trying to seperate, within this
> irish stew of IE mythos, all the elements of the three core mythologies
away
> from each other. I think I started to come around to a solution once I
> imposed a strategy of "cosmological structure" on each of these three core
> myths.
>
> Every mythology/theology has a structure in some sense otherwise it would
be
> hard to remember and people wouldn't follow these religions (duh!).
>
> IE myth appears to have had a "tripartitive" nature, seperating the cosmos
> into three parts: Underworld, Middleworld and Overworld. This is the very
> basis of IE myth and a perfect example of a mythological structure. So now
> that my explanation is done, let me list off the structures of the three
> mythologies and then explain how they eventually would merge together...
>
> Semitoid myth
> -------------
> Let's suppose that Semitoid myth, that is, the myth of the Semitish and
> Semitic peoples stemming from a date of around 8000 BCE, was based on two
> contrastive equations based on an "Overworld" and "Underworld" as follows:
>
> Realm Function Element Colour
> --------------------------------------------
> Overworld = Order = Air = White
> Underworld = Chaos = Fire = Red
>
> The Underworld represented Chaos (not necessarily Evil!) and the Overworld
> represented Order (not necessarily Good!). One important reason why we
can't
> view this simple contrast as Good vs Evil (as in later biblical mythology)
> is because the dead were thought to have lived in the Underworld (aka
> Sheol). Red is the colour of fire and blood and therefore associated with
> the chaotic Underworld; white or any bright colour is associated with the
> brightness of the ordered Overworld whether during day or night.
>
> I haven't completely let go of my view that Semitoid mythology derived
from
> an ancestor-worship mythology. In fact, it makes sense that if around 8000
> BCE when the Palestine-based Semitoid language fractured into Semitic
> (Palestine) & Semitish (Cilicia/W Anatolia), and as the Semitoid-speaking
> peoples were gaining agricultural knowledge from the Caucasic-speaking
east,
> any previous ancestral worship which focused primarily on the Underworld,
> the realm of the dead, would be completely overshadowed by the new
> importance of the heavens in relation to agriculture. Thus, the sky would
> certainly represent a very regular Order where stars had fixed positions
and
> could be predicted, in contrast to the chaotic Underworld where your dead
> ancestors could cause harm to you if you didn't properly take care of them
> in their afterlife. The heavens in other words became more influential on
> the lives of budding agriculturalists than the underworld could ever be.
>
> In fact, the notion of seven planetary objects may have started here,
along
> with the association of the red planet Mars with the firey Underworld of
> Chaos. Thus would start a seed for a new IE association of social
functions
> like "warrior" with gods such as these. The planet Jupiter could have
> already been associated with a storm god (aka. Ea/Enlil/Anu?). And surely
> the planet Venus was *`ATtaru, originally a male god perhaps, which would
> eventually become IE's *Xste:r.
>
> The Semitoid mythology may even have brought the idea of Apocalypse by
fire
> (Underworld!!!) and the whole story has a connection with agriculture as
> well, which coincidentally the Semitish surely would have known about
based
> also on the Mars=fire=underworld association that cannot be European nor
> Steppe in origin.
>
> European myth
> -------------
> As I've mentioned before, the European myth was dominated by a great
Goddess
> figure who lived in everyone and everything. In a way she might be viewed
as
> the Cosmos itself. The associations of the Old European myth as described
in
> part by Gimbutas were as follows:
>
> Realm Function Colour Symbol
> -------------------------------------------------------------
> Overworld (air) = Creation = Red (blood) = Bird
> Middleworld (earth) = Preservation = Black (earth) = Animal
> Underworld (water) = Destruction = White (bone) = Serpent
>
> This would be the immediate source of the tripartition seen in later IE
myth
> but not of the colour associations whose differences to IE colour
symbolism
> have already been remarked upon by Gimbutas. The European mythology
> contributed the story of the Bird Creatrix and central World Tree (later a
> great mountain, nail, post, etc).
>
> Steppe myth
> -----------
> Now for the dessert, I'm starting to realise that there is a simple
bipolar
> contrast between the Heavens and the Earth in Steppe mythology as follows.
>
> Realm Colour
> -----------------------------------------------
> Heavens = Light (white, yellow, cyan, etc)
> Earth = Darkness (green, blue, etc)
>
> Note, there is no underworld, nor again, a concept of Good vs Evil.
> According to these sets of myths, there was no great Creation or
Apocalypse
> either. The earth was thought to have always existed and would always
exist
> in the future. Humans were born from the sun and the moon and
> *T:eien/T:eieu, the Heaven God, "The Bright One", had little interest in
> what went on down below. The mythology was certainly polytheistic and it
may
> have contributed the notion of a female sun and male moon who represented
> rival siblings. I can't agree, therefore, with John that the Steppe
> mythology was "sexless" even though its language probably was.
>
> The Mythological Mix
> --------------------
> The first epicenter of a new mythology would have lied in West Anatolia
> between the Northern Semitoids and Old Europeans at around 7500 BCE or so.
> Overall the Semitoid agricultural-based mythology would win over but they
> would eventually adopt the tripartitive cosmos concept and the story of
> Creation. The myth spread from its epicenter, easily throughout the
> MiddleEast and Egypt, even the Semitic peoples were touched. An important
> thing to note is the change of a firey underworld to a watery one. This
> created some paradoxes that still linger like
> Fire-Born being a _watery_ Underworld deity and the fact that the entire
> Underworld is associated with war (aka Chaos) and the colour red, which
> isn't the colour of normal tap water, need I remind.
>
> The second epicenter of mythological exchange lied in the Balkans and NW
> Pontic, starting at around 6000-5500 BCE after the IEs arrived to the area
> off the steppes. Most of this new hodgepodge SemitoEuropoid mythology
would
> be adopted but new concepts such as a female sun would be infused into the
> new religion as well as the association of *T:eieu with the Overworld god
of
> the SemitoEuropoid myth. Either the associations of social caste to the
> structure started at this time, or were already worked out, at least in
part
> by the European-influenced Semitish a millenium before.
>
> I hope I mentioned everything... Comments? Death threats? I'm here waiting
> :)
>
> - gLeN
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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