kasna ̄ dərəta ̄ za ̨mca ̄ adə ̄ nabåsca ̄ | avapasto ̄is ˇ?‘Who holds the earth below
and the heavens from falling?’ (Y. 44. 4). In Greek epic we find the formula
γα4α κα? ο1ραν: ε1ρ7 περθεν, ‘earth and broad heaven above’. In the
Germanic poetic tradition the word for heaven was prefixed with up-‘above’
to make it alliterate conveniently with ‘earth’;^3 this forms one of the most
widely attested formulae of Germanic verse, as in the Eddic poems, Vo ̨luspá 3.
5f. io ̨rð fannz æva né upphiminn, cf. Vafþrúðnismál 20. 4 f., Þrymskviða 2. 6 f.,
Oddrúnargrátr 17. 5 f.; on the Swedish rune-stone from Skarpåker, iarþ
s
Wessobrunn prayer, ero ni was noh ûfhimil; in the Old Saxon Hêliand (2886)
erda endi uphimil; in Old English, eorðan ic bidde and upheofon (ASPR
vi. 117. 29, cf. Andreas 799, Crist III 968, Psalms 101. 22). Conchobar in the
Táin ( (I) 3448) swears by ‘the sea before them, the sky above them, the earth
beneath them’.
An idiom characteristic of Indo-Iranian, but also found in Old English,
is the addition of deictic pronouns: ‘this earth, that heaven’. So in the
Rigveda, imé dya ̄ ́va ̄pr
̇
thivı ̄ ́, ‘this heaven and earth’ (4. 56. 3); iyám
̇dyaúh
̇,
pr
̇
thivı ̄ ́ mahı ̄ ́,‘this sky, the great earth’ (8. 40. 4); in the Avesta, aiŋ ́håsca zəmo ̄
avaiŋ ́ heca asˇn o ̄, ‘of this earth and that sky’ (Y. 1. 16); ima ̨mca za ̨m... aomca
asmanəm (Yt. 13. 153). The Achaemenid inscriptions proclaim the greatness
of Auramazda ̄,hya ima ̄m bu ̄mim ada ̄, hya avam asma ̄nam ada ̄, ‘who created
this earth, who created that sky’ (DNa 1, DSe 1, etc.). In Old English poetry
we findþisne middangeard‘this middle enclosure’, i.e. the earth (Beowulf 75,
1771); on þysse eorðan (Maxims B 2); on þisse foldan (Solomon and Saturn B
298).
For the whole universe the Vedic poets use the phrase ‘all this’ or ‘this
whole’:vís ́vam idám (RV 1. 98. 1; 10. 58. 10); vís ́va ̄ ta ̄ ́ (2. 24. 11); sárvam...
idám (10. 129. 3); idám
̇
sárvam (AV 10. 8. 6). Sometimes it is expanded to ‘all
this that moves’,vís ́vam idám
̇
jágat (RV 8. 40. 4, AV 6. 44. 1 = 77. 1), ‘this
whole, what has been and what is to be’,idám
̇
sárvam
̇yád bhu ̄tám
̇yác ca
bháviyam (RV 10. 90. 2), or ‘all this, whatever is on the earth’,idám vís ́vam...
yát kim
̇
ca pr
̇thivya ̄ ́ádhi (5. 83. 9); similarly in the Avesta, ‘all this that
is between earth and heaven’,vı ̄spəm imat
̃
... yat
̃an
̇tarə za ̨m asmanəmca
(Yt. 10. 95). Corresponding expressions are used by early Greek philosophers
and poets and by Plato: τα ́ δε πα ́ ντα‘all this’ (Xenophanes B 27, Heraclitus B
64, Empedocles B 35. 5, cf. Aesch. Cho. 985, fr. 70. 2); τα ́ δε (Parmenides B 19.
1); το το τ: π|ν (Emped. B 17. 32); τw ν ν $σορ;μεν {παντα (id. B 38.
(^3) Meid (1991), 20. Any vowel alliterates with any other, including Norse io or ia (jo, ja) < *e.
On the Germanic formula see L. Lönnroth in Ursula Dronke (ed.), Speculum Norroenum
(Odense 1981), 310–27.
- Cosmos and Canon 341