‘Mistress of horses’.^86 This figure may be directly compared with the well-
known Celtic horse-goddess Epona: epo-= Latin equus, Greek ππο, and
-na ̄, as we have seen before, is equivalent to a poti- compound.
Naturally it is impossible to prove that the Mycenaean–Celtic parallel rests
on a historical continuity rather than independent development among
peoples for whom the horse was important. But they have to be seen against a
wider Indo-European background of divinities linked with the horse. In the
Rigveda the compound ás ́vapati-, which contains the same elements as Potnia
Ikkeia ̄, is an epithet of Indra. The same word, as a divine name, perhaps
underlies the Irish Echaid, a title of the god known as the Dagda.^87 The twin
sons of Dyeus (pp. 186–91) in their Indic, Greek, and Baltic manifestations
have a strong association with horses, and their Indian name is the As ́vins,
which means ‘having horses’. There was also an Illyrian god Menzanas,
formed with the -no- suffix from mendyo-, denoting a type of small horse.^88
Velesu ̆, Ve ̃linas, and others: a dubious equationOld Russian sources attest an important divinity Velesu ̆ or Volosu ̆ , described
as a god of cattle; he also had to do with the harvest. The famous poet Boyan
is said in the Lay of Igor (17) to have been his grandson. There is evidence for
the name in Czech, as a devil somewhere beyond the sea. This Slavonic deity
has been brought into connection with the Lithuanian Ve ̃linas (Latvian
Ve ̃ ̧ lns), the Vedic Varuna, the Gaulish Vellaunos, the Nordic Ullr or Ullinn,
and a Hittite Walis, all supposedly from the root wel‘see’.^89 If this could all
be substantiated, it would add a significant member to our Indo-European
pantheon.
We met the wel root in Chapter 1 in connection with the Irish fili and the
German prophetess Veleda, where it referred to vatic ‘seeing’. None of the
gods in question, however, is connected with prophecy. Varuna is noted for
being all-seeing (see pp. 171 f.), but this is not expressed with the *wel root
(which is unknown to Indo-Iranian), and his name is more convincingly
(^86) PY An 1281. 1. There is also a po-ti-ni-ya a-si-wi-ya= Potnia Aswia ̄ (PY Fr 1206), usually
interpreted as ‘of Asia (Assuwa)’, but it has been suggested that aswia ̄ is an Anatolian (Luwian?)
equivalent of the Greek ikkweia ̄: K. T. Witczak ap. V. Blazˇek, SIGL 2 (1999), 22. In theory it could
equally be an Indic form from Mitanni, with Potnia Aswia ̄= Indic ás ́vapatnı ̄. There is also a
man’s name a-si-wi-yo= Aswios.
(^87) Dillon (1975), 138.
(^88) Meid (1957), 124 f.
(^89) See especially F. de Saussure in Cahiers F. de Saussure 21 (1964), 115 f.; R. Jakobson in
Studi Linguistici in onore di Vittore Pisani (Brescia 1969), 579–99= id. (1962–88), vii. 33–48;
Puhvel (1987), 234; Bader (1989), 46–8. On Velesu ̆ see also Vánˇa (1992), 76–8.
146 3. Gods and Goddesses