Re: [tied] Digest Number 640

> For the record, I don't believe that Odin was an immigrant. Tacitus

mentions

> that Mercury was the principle god of the Germanics tribes. (Odin is
> compared to Mercury elsewhere, in the names of the days of the week

for

> example).

Not to mention that the Germanic form behind Odinn - *Watonaz - is
clearly a divine name "Wild/Frenzied God", containing the -on-os
suffix common in many IE theonyms (especially in Celtic)

> In Paulus Deaconus' and his predecessors work, roughly 400 to 500
> years later a Godan or Wodan and his wife Frea are mentioned. Later

in the

> Eddas, some 500 years after that, we find Odin and Frigg. The data

is

> consistant over time. I don't think there was enough time for a

local tribal

> god to become a pan-Germanic in that timeframe. If so, where is the
> evidence? I believe that Odin is the Indo-European "sky father"

under a new

> name.

He certainly has some sky-father traits - though Puhvel (Comparative
Mythology) has also demonstrated that Odinn shares traits with "wild"
gods like Rudra (and thus also the original Apollo, who is very
Rudraic).

> He has most if not all of the attributes necessary for this
> identification. On the other hand, Tyr has only been associated

with the IE

> *Dyuaus Pater becaiuse of his name, not any attribute.

I don't even think that this association works - Tyr/Tiw allegedly go
back to a Germanic *Tiwaz - from PIE *deiwos "god", not the same as
Dyeus "Sky[god]", even though the stem from the same root *dei-
"shine". Tyr is also not a father figure, while Odinn is
specifically called "Allfather".

- Chris Gwinn