Indo-European Poetry and Myth

on, but he is not credited with any mythical accomplishments. Indra, on the other hand, hardly ever causes rain; his activities ...

reddish beard that seems to be a distinguishing feature of the Indo-European thunder-god (Perkunas, Perun, Indra, Thor).^33 Tarh ...

501–6) he received the necessary equipment from three sons of the secondary sky-god Ouranos. Their names, Brontes, Steropes, and ...

Certain aspects of the Indo-European storm-god that might have seemed beneath Zeus’ dignity appear to have been transferred to h ...

much more than the simple thunderer. He was the controller of the weather and hence of the fertility of the crops. He was man’s ...

which he shakes when he becomes angry (Þrymskviða 1. 6). The verb employed here, dýja, corresponds to the dhu ̄ used of Indra’s ...

vádhar,vádhatram), which has a similar meaning, ‘smasher, killer’. It is also denoted by various words meaning ‘stone’ (as ́áni- ...

However, this iconography derives from Near Eastern art and does not reflect Indo-European tradition.^54 Thekeraunos affects its ...

(Old Church Slavonic mlu ̆nı ̆ji, Russian mólnija, Old Prussian mealde; Welsh mellt; cf. Icelandic myln‘fire’). The underlying n ...

On the other hand a popular belief is attested from end to end of Europe and Asia, as well as in parts of Africa, that certain t ...

Vr ̇ tra is a huge serpent, áhi-. The same verb that appears in vr ̇ trahán- is used in the formula áhann áhim, ‘(Indra) smashed ...

The waters’ cleft that had been blocked, by smashing Vr ̇ tra he opened it up. 12... You won the cows, hero, you won the Soma, y ...

Zeus’ thunderbolt scorches all the monster’s heads on every side. Lashed by Zeus’ blows, Typhoeus collapses crippled on a remote ...

that here again some elements of an Indo-European myth have been preserved.^67 Thor, a genuine thunder-god, killed (or perhaps o ...

There is another Vedic myth in which a herd of cows is in the possession of a three-headed dragon (áhi-); the dragon is killed, ...

though cognate with Old Irish gáir‘shout’; it is just possibly relevant that Vis ́varu ̄ pa is described as tuvı ̄rávah ̇ , ‘lou ...

named Garanus. Evidently a native Italic myth featuring this Garanus was assimilated into the Greek saga of Heracles. But who wa ...

whether by diffusion from east Anatolia or by originally kindred tradition.^80 But these are not the features that it shares wit ...

In the Rigveda both Va ̄yu and Va ̄ta, but much more often the former, appear in personified form as divine powers, occasionally ...

No wind-gods play a significant part in the mythology of the North, but the instinct to personify and systematize operated here ...