Joao wrote
> Middle: The Earth
> West : The Land of Night and Darkness
> Greek Hesperis, Tartaros (in some versions);
>
> East: The Land of Light and Sun.
> Greek: Aia, Kolkhida
>
> South: The Land of Eternal Flames
> Greek: Aithiopia Norse: Musspelsheim
>
> North: The Land of Eternal Ice
> Greek: Scythia, Hyperborea Norse: Niflheim India: Kuru
>
> ABove: The Atmosphere
> Norse: Alfheim
>
> More Above: The Heaven
> Aither, Asgard, Amaravati
>
> Below: The Subterraneous Land
> Norse: Svartalfheim India: Naga's land
>
> More Below: The Land of Dead
> Greek: Tartaros Norse: Helheim
This cosmological geography is not exclusive to IE, but in fact is
found in many if not most ancient Northern Hemisphere cultures. For
instance, the fact that the sun rises in the East and sets in the
west, has led to the identification of the former with light, birth,
infancy and childhood. It is associated with Ameratsu's creation
of the world in Japan, the hatching of the Cosmic Egg in Egyptian
mythology with the appearance of the first day in the Heliopolitan
cosmogeny and in Chinese creation myths. The fact that the sun is in
the south at mid-day, and that south facing slopes are visibly warmer
than north facing slopes, has led to the "fire and ice" directions in
Finno-Ugaric, in the North American Indian Medicine Wheel. The
setting of the sun in the west has led to this direction being
associated with the land of the dead/land of the blessed to which the
souls of the departed go when they are dead. For this reason ancient
Egyptians were all burried on the western bank of the Nile, and the
great divinity of the dead, and his court (Osiris) were called the
Westerners. Even among Aboriginal Australians, Kuranup, the land of
the dead for the Wadjuk Nyungar was located to the west. This
direction, east, south, west, north established the natural movement
of the cosmic order and in pagan witchcraft was known as deosil
(Sun-wise), from the old Anglosaxon for *soul (sawol cognate with
Sun). We still speak of "orientation" and sunwise has been built
into "clockwise, starting at Midnight (north) instead of with the
rising sun (morning breaking) as before. It is found in the layout
of
the great Buddhist supas at Angkor and Borobudur, and in the Tibetan
Kalachatra.
Of course, as you would realise Joao, being a fellow person of the
southern hemisphere that the sun goes counterclockwise here, and the
fires are to the north with the cold being to the South. Check out
Brazilian indian cosmologies they are built on a reverse pattern of
the world. We must be careful in applying systems that are almost
universal in their application and saying they are specific to PIE
(or
anyone else for that matter).
Regards
John