responsible for it. It is as the all-seeing one that he is thus invoked: Soph. Ant.
184 Aστω Ζε7 + πα ́ νθ, +ρ;ν qε, ‘let Zeus know it, he who sees all things at
all times’.^26 There is perhaps a Germanic parallel in the Hildebrandslied (30),
where Hiltibrant begins a speech with the words wettu Irmingot obana ab
heuene. One of the more attractive of many interpretations proposed for
wettu is that it is an old third-person imperative (< we ̄tidu), so that the sense
would be ‘let Irmingot know it from above in heaven’.^27
A Germanic reflex of the god Dyeus is not readily identified, since (as
already noted) the Nordic Týr and his continental cognates seem to derive
their names from the generic title deiwós and do not resemble Dyeus
in character. It is possible, however, that Wodan-Odin (proto-Germanic
Wo ̄ðanaz), while not being a direct continuation of Dyeus, took over cer-
tain of his features. In Lombardic myth as retailed by Paulus Diaconus (1. 8),
Wodan was imagined habitually surveying the earth from his window,
beginning at sunrise. This corresponds to the position of Odin in the Eddas.
He has the highest seat among the gods, and from it he surveys all the worlds,
rather as Zeus, sitting on the peak of Mt Ida, can survey not only the Troad
but Thrace and Scythia too.^28 Odin also has the distinctive title of Father. In
the poems he is called Alfo ̨ðr, ‘All-father’. Snorri uses of him the phrase faðir
allra goðanna ok manna, ‘father of all gods and men’, just as Zeus is πατ^ρ
qνδρ;ν τε θε;ν τε, though here we may perhaps suspect the influence of
Classical learning, for example from Virgil’shominum sator atque deorum.^29
THE DIVINE EARTHThe principal Indo-European name for the earth is represented by forms in
many languages. The story of its development is complicated and cannot be
explained here in detail.^30 The original form is reconstructed as *dhég
h
om-/
dhg
h
m-, with a ‘holodynamic’ accentual pattern by which the accented [é]
moves between root, suffix, and ending in different case-forms, with vowel
(^26) For Aστω Ζε3 cf. also Il. 7. 411, Soph. Tr. 399, Ar. Ach. 911, Eur. IT 1077, Pl. Phaed. 62a.
(^27) See W. Braune–K. Helm, Althochdeutsches Lesebuch (13th edn., Tübingen 1958), 154 (not
later editions). On Irmingot as the possible equivalent of the Indo-Iranian Aryaman cf. above,
p. 143.
(^28) Gylf. 9, 17; prose introduction to Grímnismál;Il. 13. 3–6. Cf. Grimm (1883–8), 135–7.
(^29) Grímnismál 48. 3, Helgakviða Hundingsbana A 38. 4; Gylf. 9, cf. 20; Virg. Aen. 1. 254,
(^30) The best exposition is that of J. Schindler, Die Sprache 13 (1967), 191–205, cf. 23 (1977),
31, whom most modern scholars follow; cf. Ernout–Meillet (1959), s.v. humus. A divergent view
recently in C. Rico, IF 109 (2004), 61–111.
- Sky and Earth 173