zemlju crnu, 478 s crnom zemljom. In Serbian the phrase is employed espe-
cially in connection with death or burial.^56 A Lithuanian affirmation takes the
form ‘may the black earth not support me’.^57
Earth and the deadThe Indo-Europeans in all probability disposed of their dead by inhumation.
This was the normal practice in the fourth millennium, which is when the
latest phase of undivided Indo-European has to be dated, in all the lands that
come into serious question as the original habitat. The deceased terrestrial
returned to his Mother Earth. She had therefore a connection with the dead as
well as with life and growth. In a famous funeral hymn in the Rigveda, in
verses used in later funerary ritual, the dead man is advised:
úpa sarpa ma ̄táram Bhu ̄ ́mim eta ̄m, | uruvyácasam Pr ́
̇thivı ̄ ́m
̇sus ́éva ̄m,
Slip in to this Mother Earth, the wide-extending Broad One, the friendly,and she is asked
ma ̄ta ̄ putrám ́
̇yátha ̄ sica ́ ̄, | abhy ènam Bhu ̄ ma u ̄rn
̇uhi.
As a mother her son with her hem, wrap him round, O Earth. (10. 18. 10 f.)In Greek epitaphs from the fourth century and later, Earth is said to
conceal the deceased’s body, or to have received him lovingly, in her κο ́ λποι,
a word suggesting the folds of a garment: CEG 551. 1 σ;μα σ:ν $ν κο ́ λποι,
Καλλιστο4,γα4α καλ3πτει, cf. 606. 9; 611. 1 σ];μα μCν $ν κο ́ λποισι κατw χθdν
kδε καλ[3πτει; 633. 2 6 μα ́ λα δ σε φλω 0πεδξατο γα4, 0π: κο ́ λποι.^58 On one
of the ‘Orphic’ gold leaves from Thurii, from the same period, the dead man
declares δεσπονα δ, 0π: κο ́ λπον #δυν χθονα βασιλεα, ‘I have ducked down
into the κο ́ λπο of the Mistress, the Queen of Earth’.^59 In some Roman devo-
tiones and curses the Di Manes are associated with Tellus or with Terra
Mater.^60 She is evidently conceived as an underworld power in concert with
the spirits of the dead. As mentioned above, the Latvian Mother of Earth,
Zemes ma ̄te, had a similar role and presided over the dead. So did the Old
Prussian Zemynele (Mannhardt (1936), 577, 603 f.).
(^56) Cf. U. Dukova, Orpheus 4 (1994), 9.
(^57) Schleicher (1857), 189, ‘die schwarze Erde soll mich nicht tragen’.
(^58) Similarly, doubtless under Greek influence, in the epitaph of P. Cornelius P. f. Scipio, CIL
i.^2 10. 6 (c. 170 ), quare lubens te in gremiu(m), Scipio, recipit | Te r r a.
(^59) A1. 7 Zuntz. On other leaves (those of the B series) the deceased announces to the guard-
ians of the Water of Recollection that he is a child of Earth and Heaven and therefore entitled to
pass.
(^60) Cf. Livy 8. 9. 8; 10. 28. 13, 29. 4; Suet. Tib. 75. 1; CIL vi. 16398.
180 4. Sky and Earth