Mr Caws:
> I don't think Veles/Veltha/Vala is a storm deity, though. I see
>this deity as a god of natural power, death, the otherworld, cattle,
>the forest.
Yes, the otherworld, or more specifically, the under-world. Here's how it
works. It's very simple: *Dye:us is the sky figure associated with the
priestly function and the overworld. Then there are chthonic deities, those
associated with the earth or middleworld, the Divine Twins *Manus (the first
man) or his brother *Yemos (the earth), who are both associated with the
commoner function (farmer-herder function). Finally, *PerkWnos (equatable
the most to our "Vel" deities) is the leader of the underworld associated
with the warrior function. The IE cosmos is thus arranged very tightly
according to tripartition, each realm coming automatically with a set of
identifiable symbolisms. Along with the above realm associations, there are
other connections as with colour (light=overworld, red=underworld,
dark=earth), season (winter=overworld, fall=underworld, spring/summer=earth)
and general type of animal (birds=overworld, serpents/fish=underworld,
mammals=earth). Here's a nifty diagram:
societal ruling realm
colour animal function deity deity
-------------------------------------------------------------
overworld light bird priest *Dye:us *Wextnos
earth dark mammal commoner *Manus *Yemos
underworld red serpent warrior *PerkWnos *Nepo:t
So in the underworld, *PerkWnos is in charge, the god of war and storms. His
season is autumn. I couldn't fit this into the diagram but there is also a
"material" or "medium" association (air=underworld, earth=middleworld,
water=underworld) and so that makes *Nepo:t, the god of water, the
underworld realm itself, equivalent to Norse Hel. The wife of *PerkWnos is
the beautiful *Xste:r (Venus), goddess of love. It's interesting to note
that the love/war opposition in the underworld is matched by the law/justice
opposition in the overworld with *Dye:us and *GWo:us (Cow Mother),
strengthening the priest-warrior opposition (cf. priesthood and rulership
are closely linked in IE society, btw)
Now, underworld deities are easily made into chthonic deities since the
ground and the underworld are in the same direction - down. The association
of the earth (as well as the underworld) with death is readily associable by
the typical IE act of burial. The act of burying the dead brings them closer
to their journey to the underworld, in a manner of speaking. The association
of cattle is due to the animal symbolism concerning the middleworld and
mammals, usually hooved animals like deer, horses or cattle but also bears.
This animal association stems back to pre-neolithic European times. The use
of "horns" is a very early symbolic outcrop of this chthonic imagery but the
presence of snakes in religious imagery in Europe are also indicative of
underworld connections (ignoring the later Christian re-interpretations of
snakes as purely evil things).
Veles' (and Volos') association with autumn is a strong indication that
there are underlying underworld connections alongside chthonic ones. If he
were entirely chthonic he would be associated with spring, n'est-ce pas. His
connection with wolves is another indication since the wolf is traditionally
associated with the moon (cf. werewolf) as well as criminality and both are
underworld symbolisms. The moon is also connected with the autumn and winter
seasons in European cultures because of the night being longer and therefore
the moon more prominent in the sky. Finally, the fact that Veles evidently
takes over the role of the three-headed cattle-stealing _serpent_ of
traditional IE mythology (as in Indic traditions) shows even more that this
deity has underworld overtones (cf. serpent=underworld).
> I have found several instances of this deity stealing the Thunder
>god's cattle. Slavic Veles stole Perun's cattle, Baltic Vels stole
>Percunas' cattle, Indo-Iranian Vala stole Indra's cattle.
Hmm, perhaps there is some mythological interference then between a name for
the 3-headed serpent (something like *Welos?) who steals *Manus' cattle and
the one for the warrior underworld deity *PerkWnos who helps *Manus recover
said cattle? Both entities belong to the underworld, the serpent monster
being malevolent, the warrior god being benevolent.
> If Velchans is related to this Vel divinity, then I think the
>connection must lie elsewhere. One of Velchans' prinmary attributes
>was metalworking. Ore is taken from within the mountain,
>traditionally the land of the dead in many mythos.
Yes, the land of the dead... but since the dead were buried under the earth,
that "land" was located in the _underworld_. *PerkWnos (and the resulting
Velchans) was an underworld god. A great mountain had the function of
holding up the sky in some southern traditions (eg: Greek Mount Olympus) but
the original IE world view would be one where a great tree held up the sky.
Both the tree and the mountain (as well as pillar, double-axe or pin in
other traditions) also served as a supernatural medium for travelling from
this world to the next (to both overworld _and_ underworld depending on
which direction you plan on going, up or down). Thus the mountain
association involved the idea that Velchans guarded the gateway to the
underworld. The original associations with war led to a late connection with
metalworking since warriors like nice shiney double-axes and the like. As
the *PerkWnos myths travelled westward, the much later bonus connection with
firey vulcanoes (fire mountains, as it were) would further specify Velchans
home in vulcanoes rather than an originally vague direction of "under the
earth".
> I admit my Sethlans connection is problematic, though. Good luck >on the
>backlog of messages, I am looking forward to the tanist post.
I've succeeded in gaining control of my mail! Hooray!
- gLeN
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