Janeen Grohsmeyer wrote:
>
>>Do the constellations and star-lore of the Greeks, Aryans, Celts, >>and
>>other PIE-language groups show any similiarities? If so, have >>the PIE
>>names for the constellations been reconstructed? How about >>the PIE
>>names for the pantheon?
Anne W. supplies an extensive list:
>Here is a list of PIE words that contain the name of a constellaion.
Holy doodle! Quite the list there. It seems apparent from your list however
that while we can find IE origins to the names invented for constellations
in Latin or Greek astonomy, there isn't much to say about IE astronomy
itself.
I just noticed Janeen's other question which I had overlooked the first
time: "How about the PIE names for the pantheon?". This List had a whole
slew of mythological postings just a month or couple monthes ago... or maybe
it was last year... Life is a blur and then ya croak.
Anyways, there were some common divinities mentioned:
*Dye:us god of sky & overworld
(Jupiter,Tiw)
*Wextnos god of magical knowledge/overworld
(Odin,Wodan,Athena?)
*Sxwe:l god/goddess of the sun
*Me:n god/goddess of the moon
*Xste:r Venus, the morning/evening star
*Yemos god of earth and death; slain by brother *Manus
*Manus twin of *Yemos; first man; the mortal hero
(Mannus,Aryomannus?,Trita Aptya)
*Nepo:t Grandson of the Waters; god of water (& underworld?)
(Nechtain,Neptune,Apam Napat)
*Dexnu the primordial waters (cf.Egyptian Nu)
*PerkWnos
(or *Pexwr-Gnnos "Fire-Born"?)
god of war, storm, chaos (cf.Canaanite Baal)
(Fjo"rgynn,Perunas)
*XegWnis Little Fire; god of fire; catalyst of Apocalypse
(Loki,Agni)
And then there were the common IE concepts mentioned like:
The World Tree - the tree that binds the overworld,
middleworld (earth) and underworld together
The Cosmic Egg - the egg from which the World Tree is born
The Creatrix Bird - it would seem that there are some recurring
myths about a bird flying out of the Great
Void giving birth to the above
Cosmic Egg and it appears to relate with
Maria Gimbutas' thoughts on a Mother Goddess
of Early Europe
Finally, I explored the early relationship of IE or preIE mythos with the
Middle Eastern mythologies since the same themes are repeated throughout
(World Tree/Tree of Knowledge; Manus&Yemos/Cain&Abel...) in Sumero-Akkadian
and Canaanite mythology. Together with a suspected transaction of Semitic
*`Athtar- to IE *Xster, it all spells out a prehistoric cultural exchange.
- gLeN
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Get more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download :
http://explorer.msn.com