Joao wrote
PIE seemed to have a couple Primeval Bissexual
Giant *Yemos
> (Ymir, Purusha, Eros?,Gayomars, Remo (humanized) cp. Chinese Pan-Ku)
> and Primeval Cow or Bovine. Other possibility: Gaia *Ghmya "earth"
> from *dheghem-, through another IE dialect.
Norse *Ymir shows up in the Indo-Iranian *Yama (the first man, an
adam). In later times he became Yamshad (Yama-Shah), Jamshedpur, the
city, named after him.
> Gaia have features of Tiamat (Mother of monsters, Primeval Mother).
> The strongest possibility for me is Sumerian Ki, unless of the name
>Gaia.
Taimat had a huge influence. In the West Semitic *Tehom was the
Deeps, (found in the Christian Bible as when Yahweh separated the
creation from "the deeps" as in
1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the
face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the
waters.
3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
Taimat had a face, even in the Hebrew scriptures.
Other questions. There is some argument over whether the
Indo-European divinites were fully anthropomorphic, or completely
aniconic. Indra in the Rg Veda is described literally as a Bull.
There are these quotes above suggesting "the Great Cow", and the
Milky
Way is described as "Cows' Mlk" in some places. Celtic divinities
begin to assume human shape fairly late, and then as strange double
headed figures, or as Cunernos, a man with horns. It would seem that
as I-E peoples left their homeland and moved elsewhere coming into
contact with Middle Eastern, or Mediterrean peoples, there was a
tendency to portray their divinities as progressively more
anthropomorphic. *Dyaus (bright sky) became Zeus, Tiwaz and Jupiter.
Thus Thunder progressively became "humanised" to become Thor, half
giant, a god with a huge hammer, raised on the Milk of a Giant Cow.
I
understand Slavic and Baltic peoples retained the aniconic,
pre-anthromorphic views for the longest (as they were furtherest away
from Middle Eastern and Mediterranean influence).
This leads me to speculate on the role of the Shaman in I-E religion.
Dumezil spoke of the three way split in I-E religion between the
"priest", "the warrior" and "the common farmer". Their seem to be
cognates existing between Celtic or druidic *filid, Latin *flamen,
Germanic *vanir, Indic *brahman. My linguistic skills (and knowledge
is weak but I could suggest an I-E *bhamn(?). There was also the way
in which "altered states of consciousness" were important religious
practices. Indic *soma and Iranian *haoma are obviously related, but
the Greek Gods had their ambrosia (which seems related) and others
had
nectar. Odin took himself off to achieve shamanic insight by hanging
himself upon a tree, and there are many who are supposed to have
undergone death and rebirth experiences typical of shamanic rituals.
Would be interested to hear other's thoughts.
Regards
John