Indo-European Poetry and Myth

MAGIC, CHARMS Prayers are predicated on the belief that the gods are like human potentates who have the means to grant boons and ...

Greek an incantation is $παοιδ, $πωιδ, ‘singing over’ something or someone, and the corresponding verb is $παεδω. Italic and ...

Protect us from the enemy, O Mazda ̄ and holy Rightmindedness. Begone, demon Lie, begone, demon-sprung one, begone, demon-create ...

We noted in Chapter 2 the use of polar expressions, and in particular those of the type ‘both X and non-X’, ‘both seen and unsee ...

the official term). This sacral cycle recurs in Adam of Bremen’s account of the great sacrifice at Uppsala: it took place every ...

of a king who had thrice nine chariots in his train, superstitiously confident that this number would always secure him victory. ...

Herdsmen found you, culled you without hands, cooked you without fire, ate you without teeth.^50 The parallelism is astonishing; ...

century Merseburg manuscript is such a releasing spell, apparently for a warrior in difficulties on the battlefield. It relates ...

Healing A passage in the Vide ̄vda ̄t (7. 44; cf. Yt. 3. 6) distinguishes three types of healer: the knife-healer (karəto ̄.bae ...

As in maledictions, so also in healing spells the parts of the body may be listed. From your eyes, from your nose, from your ear ...

Legendenzauber Some healing incantations begin in narrative mode, stating the mythical basis for the operation and so establishi ...

The gods’ incantations are to be understood as the source of the formula ‘bone to bone’, etc. Many later versions of this spell ...

This was one of Kuhn’s most famous discoveries.^67 The similarities in form and purpose between the Indic and Germanic incantati ...

his incantations, medicines, and surgery: #στασεν %ρθο3 (Pyth. 3. 53), the same lexical elements as in tis ̇ t ̇ ha urdhváh ̇ . ...

9 Cosmos and Canon If chapters had subtitles, this one’s would be something like ‘Indo-European perceptions of the world, and th ...

kasna ̄ dərəta ̄ za ̨mca ̄ adə ̄ nabåsca ̄ | avapasto ̄is ˇ?‘Who holds the earth below and the heavens from falling?’ (Y. 44. 4) ...

2); τ:ν κο ́ σμον το ́ νδε‘this set-up’ (Heraclitus B 30); τ: Jλον τοτο (Pl. Gorg. 508a); τ: π|ν το ́ δε (id. Tim. 29d, al.).^4 ...

thunderstone can be called Perku ̄ ́no akmuõ, ‘Perkunas’ stone’. This makes a possible link between the senses of ‘stone’ and ‘s ...

verse: ofer wæteres hrycg (Beowulf 471, cf. Solomon 19); y ̄ða hrycgum, ‘on the waves’ backs’ (Exeter Riddle 4. 33). Pindar and ...

mythical location; it is the fire-pit at the place of sacrifice where Agni blazes and forms a link with heaven. In Greece too th ...