Re: [tied] PIE theogony

>A little attempt of a PIE Theogony
>
>1) The primordial couple: *Yemos (Hermaphrodit Giant) and *? (Primordial
>Cow)

!! Now this is a wonderful shock! How did you come to this conclusion,
Joao?! I was just contemplating whether the "Eve" to IE's *Manus was in fact
*Gwo:uXanos (aka Hera, Juno), the wife of *Dye:us! Certainly there must be a
female counterpart to the originator of mankind but who is she? The fact
that *Gwo:uXanas seems to both have a motherly as well as old hag nature to
her suggests to me that for some reason, the two aspects of the original
European Goddess had merged together. We would expect the "mother" to be the
Eve.

I suppose in this way, the Sun doesn't have to give birth to two twins and a
girl where upon both *Manus _and_ his Eve become mortal (kinda awkward!).
Instead, the Sun gives birth to twins, one kills the other, *Manus is
punished to be mortal, *Manus somehow does the dandy with *Dye:us wife,
*Gwo:uXanas, but they produce mortal children because of *Manus mortality,
and bam! You got the human race.

>2) The old generation of gods: I'm still not sure, but I think that's
> >traits of an older generation of gods (cf. Greek Titans, Indian Rshis >or
>Prajapatis, cf. some Nordic Giants like Mimr or Belsta that were >more
>"cosmogonic" than "monstruous"). Maybe this first generation >represent the
>sacerdotal class... They were born or from the Cow or >from the body of
>Giant.

Teehee. So far I've come to the conclusion that there were indeed
"generations" involved in the IE creation myths just like in MiddleEastern
belief. It would go as follows:

Generation
1 *Da:nu "Primordial Waters"

2 *XWewi-De:ru "World Tree"

3 *Dye:us "Sky"
*Gwo:uXanos "Grandmother Cow"
*Wa:tnos "Lord of the Overworld"
*nebhoses "heavens/sky nymphs(?)"

4 *PexwrGnnos "Fire-Born"
*Xste:r "Venus"
*Nepo:t "Lord of the Underworld"
*wedrax "waters/water nymphs"

5 *Sxwe:l "Sun"
*Me:n "Moon"

6 *XeryoManus "Above-Man"
*Yemos "Lord of the Earth"

7 day of rest? the gods were out that day?

>3) Of this first generation, we have *Dyew, that had at least two >wives,
>the sisters *DyuHni: (Nocturnal Sky Goddess, cf. Aditi and >Dione) and
>Da:nu (?) (cf. Diti(Da:nu), mother of Danavas, and Domnu, >mother of
>Fomoire).

Or rather, *Dy:eus is the third generation, maybe? Aren't you getting
*GWo:uXanos and *Da:nu mixed up in your reconstruction of *DyuHni:?

>4) Th Cow's milk originated a sea of milk (cf. India and Scandinavia). >The
>gods and giants churn this sea to make the "ambrosia". From the >milk were
>born the Vanir-like gods (just a guess!). The sea became >salty.

Maybe. Certainly the Cow's milk must be an IE myth, you'd think. It exists
in Hindu mythology too. Hmm, it was anciently connected to the "Milky" Way.
The question is: Is that a recent historical myth or could this derive from
prehistoric times?

>5) The Vanir and Aesir fight, but became friends.

Or maybe they fight and start up "Ragnarok".

>6) The Vanir and Aesir fight the Giants.

Hmmm. Dunno. I doubt but I can't comment.

>I have many doubts in this scheme, so it's very provisory. For example, The
>Vanir are so mysterious. There's no genealogy of them, and their number was
>not known. We have Njoerdr and his two sons Freyr and Freyja, and Guldru:n,
>but we don't know their origin.
>Are the Vanir the interbreed between Giants and Aesir?
>Are they born from Ymir?
>I based my analysis on the deities that sprout from Milk Sea's churning:
>apsaras, Shri:, the Moon. holy cows and horses, the Doctor Dhanvantari,
>etc. Maybe the Greek Pontos represented this Milk-Sea.

>Dumezil considered the Twins as "vanir-like"representing the Third
> >Function, but in my scheme they are sons of a god and a mare-changed
> >giantess,

The twins must represent the commoner caste but *XeryoManus has connections
with the warrior-associated underworld in order to battle the Serpent that
Marduk/Baal was supposed to fight originally. It got transfered over to
*XeryoManus as I said in a previous email because of the particular IE
creation of two twins born of the Sun, giving a new reason for mortality.
Dunno.

- gLeN




_________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com

Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at
http://profiles.msn.com