Re: [tied] Yama's buffalo... or Manus' Horse?

I think it's hard to transform a horse into a buffalo. Other possibility is
that Yama's buffalo represents a Pre-IE concept, Dravidian maybe.
Your concept of *Manus is becoming very expanded: Manu, God Twins, Herakles.

Gayo Maretan means "Mortal Life"

Other problems is the identity (if it'll be possible to define) of Manu's
wife. A goddess? A river-goddess? Three river-goddess (The Matronae, Matris,
Celtic Matrona/Marne) ? A female twin of Manu, like Yama/Yami?

I have the personal opinion that the Celestial Twins were not the same pair
*Yemos - *Manus. How can a Hermaphrodit Giant and the First Mortal Man be
twins? But surely there must be a relation - maybe *Manus was born from
*Yemos's blood, or from the earth. I'm interested on the "Cycle of *Manus".
Did the First Mortal Man died? He was killed?

Joao SL

----- Original Message -----
From: Glen Gordon <glengordon01@...>
To: <cybalist@egroups.com>
Sent: Monday, December 18, 2000 9:10 PM
Subject: [tied] Yama's buffalo... or Manus' Horse?


>
> >Is there some PIE concept at Yama's buffalo?
> >I'm thinking on several possibilities...
> >
> >1) The buffalo represents an older concept, maybe a bison? aurochs?
>
> A horse. *Manus and *Yemos are Horse Twins.
>
> You've hit upon something worth mentioning. I do think that this is an
> ancient herder/hunter symbolism underlying the Horse Twin story stemming
> from IE times. I've arrived to a similar conclusion previously.
>
> However, I don't see how one can convincingly combine the differences
> between the male *Manus and the female bovine deity *Gwo:uXanos
> (Juno-Hera-GoMata), the great Cow Mother/Crone. She is found in many IE
> mythologies and is always a female entity, seperate from the mortal hero
> *Manus who, aside from killing his brother, is seen doing great superhuman
> feats (Heracles). In the end, we can see the hopelessness of this idea
when
> you imagine a male god suckling his brother (?!!) or a cow slaying her
human
> brother (????!!!). Talkin' about "turnin' the tables"!
>
> Now regardless, I think that Joao's idea of "Yama's buffalo" makes some
> sense... but we should say "Manus' horse" instead.
>
> The connection between the creation of earth from a brotherly "sacrifice"
> and the yearly festival of *Ek^woMédhu concerning the slaying of a horse
at
> year's end is important to note. The festival is seasonal and therefore is
> probably chthonic in nature - the seasonal birth-death-rebirth pattern of
> the seasons and vegetation. The horse is slain to re-enact the point when
> *Manus had slain his brother *Yemos, carved him up and made the new earth
> from his flesh. The horse in the ritual festival sacrifice and *Yemos are
> the same. The slaying of the horse and its carving reenact the creation of
> the world, promoting new vegetation and growth in the next spring. (I'll
get
> to the *medhu part in a minute...)
>
> So... we might say that *Yemos is the symbolic "horse" (or any animal that
> can be sacrificed) and that the mythological story of a slaying, itself,
> also reinforces the concept of sacrifice and even the symbiotic
relationship
> between hunter/herder and his prey/herd.
>
> As for the true mother of the giant pair *Yemos and *Manus, I think that
> *Sxwe:l The Sun Maiden is the most logical choice, not a bovine mother.
> Afterall, once *Manus finally kills *Yemos out of jealousy, *Sxwe:l would
> understandably weap for her dead son (ie: earth). Her weaping (ie: rain)
> would cause the rebirth of her son (ie: rebirth of vegetation or
'spring').
> The very reason that these twins are associated with animals at all is
> probably because of the association of the sun with the swift horse
(*ek^wos
> o:k^us).
>
> Now, I promised to mention the *medhu thing. Well, if a "weaping for the
> dead earth" can be said to be part of the creation myth (cf. Inanna and
> Dumuzi), then we can see how *medhu fits in with the ritual. The mead is
> used as the symbolic tears that magically bring *Yemos The Earth
> (represented as the flesh of the horse) back to life.
>
> That puzzle is solved nicely, isn't it?
>
> After his act, *Manus is shrunk down to size by the divine assembly,
> condemned to be mortal and to reside on his brother's dead body. The
> "-Maretan" in "Gayo-Maretan" means "to become mortal", is it not? This all
> explains why we have a mortal hero in other stories. This is *Manus trying
> to atone for his horrendous crime of passion by doing community service.
>
> Speaking of the creation myth, I've been trying to piece together the IE
> story and have made a recreation of it the way I sees it. The story is at:
>
>
http://glen-gordon.tripod.com/LANGUAGE/NOSTRATIC/STEPPE/indoeur_creationmyth
.html
>
> Hope yo'll like
>
> - gLeN
>
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