myth in which the origin of man was bound up with the creation of the world
from the body of a giant or proto-human killed and carved by the gods.
CANON AND CATECHISMThe myth of the world’s construction from the body of the primal Twin
must have been transmitted as a coherent narrative, not necessarily always in
poetic form, but probably so for the most part. There is less basis for
assuming that Indo-European poets expounded cosmological or other philo-
sophical doctrines in verse, or indeed that there was any integrated system to
be expounded. Caesar (Bell. Gall. 6. 14. 3–6) says that those studying to
be Druids in Gaul had to learn a large quantity of oral poetry, and that they
were taught about the transmigration of souls and much about cosmology
and theology; but even if this is true, it is not matched by evidence for a
corresponding genre in other Indo-European traditions. What seem more
characteristic media for the transmission of popular, poetic, or priestly wis-
dom (insofar as it was not embedded incidentally in hymnic and narrative
compositions) are simple, small-scale forms such as lists, catechisms,
proverbs, and riddles.
As for lists, we noted in Chapter 1 the practice of codifying traditional
material in the form of verse catalogues, the learning of which perhaps
formed part of the poet’s training. A more distinctive type of canon, used
especially for precepts and philosophical aphorisms, but to some extent also
for the codification of legend, takes the form ‘there are three (or some other
number) so-and-sos’, this pronouncement being followed by the explanation
of what they are. Examples occur from India to Ireland.
There are three measures, bull of the Bharatas, that they say apply to men: low,
middling, and good... There are three kinds of people, king: good, bad, and
middling; one should properly charge to them three kinds of tasks. Three hold no
property, king: the wife, the slave, and the son, whatever they obtain belongs to him
who owns them. They say, and a pan
̇
d
̇
it should know, that a king who is powerful
should avoid these four: he should not consult with dimwitted men, woolgatherers,
sloths, and flattering bards.^60
Offive I partake, of five I do not partake: of good thought I partake, of bad thought
I do not partake; of good speech I partake, of bad speech I do not partake, [etc.]
(Y. 10. 16).
(^60) MBh. 5. 33. 50–9, continuing with more fours, then fives, and so on up to ten; further
examples in 5. 35. 37–48, 64; 37. 25, 29 f., 33, etc.
- Cosmos and Canon 359