Indo-European smith god
The Proto-Indo-Europeans had a smith god in their pantheon.[1][2] Although the name of a particular smith god cannot be linguistically reconstructed.[3] Smith gods occur in nearly every Indo-European culture, with examples including the Hittite Hasammili, the Vedic Tvastr, the Greek Hephaestus, the Germanic Wayland, the Irish Goibniu, the Lithuanian Teliavelis and the Ossetian Kurdalagon and the Slavic Svarog.[1][2] Mallory notes that "deities specifically concerned with particular craft specializations may be expected in any ideological system whose people have achieved an appropriate level of social complexity".[4]
| Smith God | |
|---|---|
| Equivalents | |
| Greek equivalent | Hephaestus, Daedalus |
| Roman equivalent | Vulcan |
| Norse equivalent | Wayland the Smith |
| Slavic equivalent | Svarog |
| Hinduism equivalent | Tvastr |
| Hittite equivalent | Hasameli |
| Irish equivalent | Goibniu |
| Ossetian equivalent | Kurdalægon |
Crafting the weapon of the main god
Nonetheless, two motifs recur frequently in Indo-European traditions: the making of the chief god's distinctive weapon (Indra’s and Zeus’ bolt; Lugh’s spear) by a special artificer[5]
Such weapons include Indra's Vajra in Hindu mythology[6][7][8] made by Tvastar,[9] Ukko's Ukonvasara in Finnish mythology,[lower-alpha 1][6][7][8] Thor's Mjolnir in Norse mythology[6][7][8] and Perkwunos' *meld-n-.[10][11] or *h₂ekmōn.[lower-alpha 2]
Drinking
The craftsman god is associated with the immortals’ drinking.[5]
Lameness
Smith mythical figures share other characteristics in common. Hephaestus, the Greek god of blacksmiths, and Wayland the Smith, a nefarious blacksmith from Germanic mythology, are both described as lame.[13]
Escape from the island
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Additionally, Wayland the Smith and the Greek mythical inventor Daedalus both escape imprisonment on an island by fashioning sets of mechanical wings and using them to fly away.[14][15]
See Also
Notes
- Not an Indo-European mythology, but with a lot of influence. For more info see Ukonvasara#Indo-European influence.
- A term for the sky, also used as a term for the weapon of Perkwunos occasionally.[12]
References
- West 2007, pp. 154–156.
- Jakobson 1985, p. 26.
- Mallory & Adams 2006, p. 410.
- Mallory & Adams 1997, p. 139.
- West 2007, p. 157.
- Thomas Berry (1996). Religions of India: Hinduism, Yoga, Buddhism. Columbia University Press. pp. 20–21. ISBN 978-0-231-10781-5.
- T. N. Madan (2003). The Hinduism Omnibus. Oxford University Press. p. 81. ISBN 978-0-19-566411-9.
- Sukumari Bhattacharji (2015). The Indian Theogony. Cambridge University Press. pp. 280–281.
- Rigveda 1.32, translated by Ralph T. H. Griffith
- West 2007, p. 251.
- Watkins 1995, p. 429.
- Le Quellec 1996, p. 292.
- West 2007, p. 156.
- West 2007, p. 155.
- "Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines: Typological Perspectives on Wayland and Daedalus | IASH". www.iash.ed.ac.uk. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
Sources
- Jakobson, Roman (1985). "Linguistic Evidence in Comparative Mythology". In Stephen Rudy (ed.). Roman Jakobson: Selected Writings. Vol. VII: Contributions to Comparative Mythology: Studies in Linguistics and Philology, 1972–1982. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 9783110855463.
- Mallory, James P.; Adams, Douglas Q. (1997). Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-884964-98-5.
- Mallory, James P.; Adams, Douglas Q. (2006). The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-929668-2.
- West, Martin L. (2007). Indo-European Poetry and Myth. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-928075-9.
- Beekes, Robert S. P. (2009). Etymological Dictionary of Greek. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-32186-1.
- De Bernardo, Patrizia (2009). "La gramática celtibérica del Primer Bronce de Botorrita: nuevos resultados". Palaeohispanica. Revista sobre lenguas y culturas de la Hispania Antigua (9): 683–699. ISSN 1578-5386.
- Delamarre, Xavier (2003). Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise: Une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental. Errance. ISBN 9782877723695.
- Derksen, Rick (2008). Etymological Dictionary of the Slavic Inherited Lexicon. Brill. ISBN 9789004155046.
- Derksen, Rick (2015). Etymological Dictionary of the Baltic Inherited Lexicon. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-27898-1.
- de Vaan, Michiel (2008). Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages. Brill. ISBN 9789004167971.
- Fortson, Benjamin W. IV (2004). Indo-European Language and Culture. Blackwell. ISBN 978-1-4443-5968-8.
- Jackson, Peter (2002). "Light from Distant Asterisks. Towards a Description of the Indo-European Religious Heritage". Numen. 49 (1): 61–102. doi:10.1163/15685270252772777. ISSN 0029-5973. JSTOR 3270472.
- Kloekhorst, Alwin (2008). Etymological Dictionary of the Hittite Inherited Lexicon. Brill. ISBN 9789004160927.
- Koch, John T. (2020). Celto-Germanic, Later Prehistory and Post-Proto-Indo-European vocabulary in the North and West. University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies. ISBN 9781907029325.
- Kroonen, Guus (2013). Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic. Brill. ISBN 9789004183407.
- Lajoye, Patrice; Oudaer, Guillaume (2014). "*Percos/*Ercos: An Unknown Celtic Theonym". The Journal of Indo-European Studies. 42 (1–2): 40–100. ISSN 0092-2323.
- Lajoye, Patrice (2015). Perun, dieu slave de l'orage: Archéologie, histoire, folklore. Lingva.
- Le Quellec, Jean-Loïc (1996). "Mégalithes et traditions populaires. La hache et le marteau de vie et de mort". Bulletin de la Société préhistorique française. 93 (3): 287–297. doi:10.3406/bspf.1996.10169.
- Matasović, Ranko (2009). Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic. Brill. ISBN 9789004173361.
- Nagy, Gregory (1974). "Perkūnas and Perunъ". In Mayrhofer, Manfred; Meid, Wolfgang (eds.). Antiquitates Indogermanicae. Institut für Sprachwissenschaft. pp. 113–131. ISBN 978-3851245202.
- Orel, Vladimir E. (1998). Albanian Etymological Dictionary. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-11024-3.
- Orel, Vladimir E. (2003). A Handbook of Germanic Etymology. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-12875-0.
- Puhvel, Jaan (1987). Comparative Mythology. Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-3938-2.
- Treimer, Karl (1971). "Zur Rückerschliessung der illyrischen Götterwelt und ihre Bedeutung für die südslawische Philologie". In Henrik Barić (ed.). Arhiv za Arbanasku starinu, jezik i etnologiju. Vol. I. R. Trofenik. pp. 27–33.
- Watkins, Calvert (1995). How to Kill a Dragon: Aspects of Indo-European Poetics. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0198024712.
- York, Michael (1993). "Toward a Proto-Indo-European vocabulary of the sacred". WORD. 44 (2): 235–254. doi:10.1080/00437956.1993.11435902. ISSN 0043-7956.
- Zaroff, Roman. "Organized pagan cult in Kievan Rus: The invention of foreign elite or evolution of local tradition? [Organizirani poganski kult v kijevski drzavi: Iznajdba tuje elite ali razvoj krajevnega izrocila?]". In: Studia mythologica Slavica. 2 (1999): 56-60. 10.3986/sms.v2i0.1844.