So begins an academic whipping by Omar on IE mythology:
>I have some points regarding your theory of realms (if you may >apologize
>me for my bad English :-))
My, I think I'm in trouble. By all means...
>1.- Warriors
> According to which IE myths can you affirm that the Underworld >is
>associated with the warrior function and in which way?
Well, I assume we can agree that IE myth is tripartitive in nature, that is,
divided into three parts? There are many examples, illustrating Dumezil's
concept of tripartition so I won't get into the details. Basically, one can
see the existence of three functions in all IE myths:
1) magic-law
2) chthonic fertility
3) war-hunting
So we have three castes (classes of people within IE society) that look
after the three roles:
1) priests, chiefs
2) gatherers, herders, farmers
3) warriors, hunters
It doesn't take much to realize that the three functions must surely be
associated with the three realms, each associated with two male deities (one
ruler of the domain, the other the domain itself). Each ruler of the domain
is given a consort while the deities representing the realms seem to be
treated as inanimate and consort-less. The three realms are sky, earth and
underworld. Just common sense so far.
The earth goes with chthonic fertility hands down, controlled by *Manus
(man, ruler of the earthly domain) and *Yemos (fertility, earthly realm),
the Horse Twins. The connections between fertility and the earthly realm are
too bluntly apparent to ramble on about. Agreed?
Now again, magical knowledge and law clearly go with the sky, and is given
to *Dye:us (law) and *Wextnos (magical knowledge & overworld realm). For the
most part, Thor and Odin are in charge of these ideas in Norse mythos and...
they live in the sky. Enough said.
This leaves war and hunting with the underworld but this would imply
strongly that this is the domain of *Nepo:t (waters of the underworld) and
*PerkWnos (war). Now surely *Nepo:t, being the watery realm, has an
automatic connection with the underworld, being a watery place (cf. Styx,
for instance) so I won't say more on that. This leaves only *PerkWnos, the
god of war and storm, to connect securely as the leader of the underworld.
Now the following site, while speaking of that icky "neopaganism" stuff, has
good insights about IE culture regardless.
http://www.neopagan.net/IE_Cosmology.HTML
It states sobrely: "Parallels often existed between the functions
and the 'Three Worlds:' clergy were associated with the Sky,
warriors with the Waters, and producers with the Land. Fire was
viewed as extremely sacred and existed in all Three Worlds (caste-wise, it
was associated with the kingship which affects all other castes)."
This is a very appropriate assessment of IE mythology and it serves as a
good structure. Afterall, every religion or mythology has a structure of
some kind. IE's is clearly tripartitive.
So, we can at least agree that there was a figure (whom I call *PerkWnos)
that served as the god of war and storm, yes? If so, the connection between
war and the underworld is very obvious. Let me outline this out in my own
querky way. War causes casualties, no? It causes death. If it didn't cause
death, we wouldn't call it "war". We would call it a "spat", or a
"disagreement", or a "bad day at work". While spats, disagreements and bad
days at work can cause mental anguish, possibly even requiring the need for
years of intense therapy, war usually causes lots of bloody death. Hence the
underworld and warrior connection with red: the colour of blood, the colour
of dying leaves in autumn, etc.
So where do you think the dead might have gone in the world of the IE? Well,
obviously, the dead could either be cremated or buried. However, since most
people equate the Kurgan cultures with the IE, it would seem that the burial
method is our soup du jour. Burial invariably involves taking a shovel or
some sharp object and digging into the earth to form a large hole in order
to place the dead, or maybe one might want to pile the earth on top of the
dead and avoid the whole hole-in-the-ground thing out of respect for Mother
Earth. Whatever. Either way, the total effect is that the dead are placed
"below the earth". Another cute term for "below the earth" is "underworld".
Hence, I think we can all understand now that the IE pictured the dead as
"living in the underworld", both literally and poetically. There are many IE
myths to prove this (Hades, Hel, yadayadayada...). Ares, the Greek god of
war, is associated with the dog, the animal that protects the entrance to
the underworld in common IE myth. He is also connected with many, many, many
gods and goddesses pertaining to the underworld and death (the Keres,
Phobos, Deimos, yadayadayada...). Then there's Aeropus who was breastfed by
her dead mother Aerope. How? With Ares help, of course. Gee, that looks like
a war/death/underworld connection...
Also, the connection between war and weapons provides a link as well. It's
funny how fashioning spears, hammers, clubs and slingshots goes so well with
the theme of war. Don't you think so? Yet, weapon-fashioning is always tied
in with the underworld (Etruscan-Roman Vulcan & Greek Hephaistos, the war
and weapon-making god Tyr getting his hand bitten off by the hellhound
Fenris, yadayadayada...)
> I admit that the hero has to go to the Underworld to get some
>knowledge or skill specifically related to his warrior function, but
>it doesn't happen always. Sometimes his descent has nothing to do >with
>fighting but knowledge (Odysseus) or adventures (Theseus, in >this case not
>very suitable for a renowned warrior).
Does the myths of Odysseus or Theseus firmly relate to other IE myths or has
the objective of these myths been altered? Regardless, there isn't a direct
one-to-one connection between the Hero and the storm god. That is, the IE
Hero surely has more than one dilemma to overcome, requiring the help of
more than one type of god. The original tale probably involved three trials
(one for each realm/function) since three is obviously associated with these
myths (cf. three-headed serpent). We later find as much as twelve labours in
the myths of Heracles (multiplied by four).
The Hero god, known as *Manus, also the first man, is known at some point to
obtain the help from a certain war god to combat the serpent who has stolen
his cattle. The serpent is of the _underworld_ domain and who better than an
underworld god to help *Manus combat it. But who does he ask for help in the
Indic traditions? Why, it's the warrior god, Indra! Imagine that! The
serpent is slain and creates rivers (again, rivers being connected to the
watery underworld).
>2.- Colours
> Red colour seems to be more appropriate for living beings. Roman
>generals in triumph had artificial coloured cheeks, and I remember
>having read that some buried skeletons (I haven't the source,
> >unfortunately, so perhaps I am wrong) had painted bones, in red, of
> >course.
Red associated with generals in triumph only reaffirms the "red=war"
equation. The red ochre is a very ancient tradition but I might offer a
possible IE interpretation of it. As I have stated, red is the colour of not
only war and the warrior function but of the underworld realm, the land of
the dead. (Light colours like cyan, yellow and white involve the overworld;
Dark colours like blue and green, the earth.)
> > So in the underworld, *PerkWnos is in charge, the god of war and
> > storms.
>
>But storms are originated in the sky. The Underworld may explain
>earthquakes or floods, but storms?
Yes it can. A battle in the sky between the offensive underworld deities led
by *PerkWnos (warrior function) and the defensive overworld led by *Dye:us
(priest function). The clang of weapons causes lightning and the roar of the
gods causes thunder.
>>The wife of *PerkWnos is the beautiful *Xste:r (Venus), goddess of >>love.
>
>I can't swear that all Underworld goddesses are ugly, but beauty >suits
>better to Overworld deities,
Not at all. The underworld was not "evil" as in the Christian sense. Both
good _and_ evil deities could exist in either the overworld or the
underworld. Ugliness has nothing to do with anything. Besides, in Egyptian
myth, Isis is clearly depicted as a beautiful young woman and yet, she hangs
around Osiris, the god of death and the underworld. You're tres wrongo
there.
> I think that Underworld deities are the product of a higher
>developed thought. The Greek Underworld according to the Iliad, for
>example, is very simple and bothering, and the Iliad is a >comparatively
>young work, so probably the IE believing was not so >much elaborated
>either.
You can't understand IE myth without envisioning an underworld. If I am to
take it that you imply "more complex civilisations" such as our own, then
the concept of an underworld is not the product of this "higher thought" at
all. The Greek schemes of underworld were not simplistic. It seems they had
some fairly established ideas about what existed within it and who was
domain over it. The Norse views of the cosmos and the underworld aren't
underdeveloped either. Nor those of Indo-Iranian religions.
Common IE myth appears to have at least a ferocious dog (a semi-tamed wolf)
protecting the underworld who is owned by *Yemos, the earth. The wolf was
probably offered to *Yemos by *Manus as part of his third and last Herculean
labour. The IE underworld is definitely watery, not firey as in Christian
tradition. The watery underworld is deified and known as *Xepom-Nepo:t
(Neptune, Nechtain, Apam Napat, etc) "Grandson of the Deeps", a concept
seperate from the larger great expanse, the primordial waters (or the Deeps)
from which all of creation was born. Already, we can see that the IE myth
must have been fairly developed well before Hellenic, Italic, Germanic and
Indo-Iranian mythologies were ever written.
- gLeN
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