Indo-European Poetry and Myth

Pura ̄n
̇

as, and in the expanded phrase uruga ̄yám s ́rávah

̇

‘wide-going glory’
(RV 6. 65. 6); but the old word urú- was giving way already in the Veda to the
near-synonym pr
̇

thú- (= Greek πλατ3), and hence we find in RV 1. 9.
7 pr
̇

thú s ́rávo... áks

̇

itam, and in 1. 116. 21 the name Pr

̇

thus ́rávas. Later
s ́rávas- itself yielded ground to kı ̄r tí- (which appears only once in the
Rigveda) and yás ́as-, so that in the Maha ̄bha ̄rata we find people’skı ̄rti- or
yas ́as- declared to be aks
̇

aya- (= the Vedic áks

̇

iti- or áks

̇

ita-) or mahat- (as
Vedic máhi s ́rávah
̇

, Greek μγα κλο).^11
Here is another example that involves more languages. There was evidently
in MIE an expression ‘both in word and in deed’ or ‘neither in word nor in
deed’, based on the alliterating instrumentals wekwesh 1 ... wergoh 1. Both
words survive in the archaic Greek poetic version of the idiom, N #πει N
#ργωι (Il. 1. 504, cf. 395); οOτ’#πεϊ ... οOτ τι #ργωι (5. 879); (μCν #πει
(δC κα? #ργωι (Hymn. Dem. 117). In classical prose #πο has been replaced
by λγο, and so for example Lysias (9. 14) writes οOτε λο ́ γωι οOτε #ργωι.
Gathic Avestan preserves the original root for ‘word’, but has a different one
for ‘deed’:vacaŋha ̄ sˇ ́yaoθana ̄ca ̄.^12 Contrariwise, Old English and Norse have a
different root for ‘word’ but the primary one for ‘deed’: in Norse, orð ok verk
‘word and deed’ (Gra ̄ga ̄s i. 162, ii. 336); orð mér af orði orðz leitaði, verc mér af
verki vercs leitaði, ‘word found me word from word, deed found me deed
from deed’ (Hávamál 141); in Old English, wordum ne ̄ worcum‘by words nor
deeds’ (Beowulf 1100).^13 In modern English ‘work’ has come to have a more
restricted sense, and instead of ‘in word and work’ we now say ‘in word
and deed’. Both of the original lexical terms have thus been replaced, but the
five-thousand-year-old phrase retains its identity.
In looking for Indo-European idioms, therefore, it is not necessary to limit
ourselves to comparisons where all the terms stand in etymological relation-
ship. It is legitimate to adduce expressions that are semantically parallel,
even if the vocabulary diverges, provided that they are distinctive enough to
suggest a common origin.

Compound words

Where do ‘poetic’ words come from? They may be archaisms repeated from
older poets, words that were once in general use but are no longer. Or they
may be poetic coinages that never were part of ordinary speech. Much the

(^11) aks
̇
aya-, MBh. 3. 42. 22, 77. 26; 8. 738*. 3; mahatim
̇
kı ̄rtim 3. 83. 106.
(^12) Y. 31. 22, cf. 34. 1, 47. 1, 48. 4; with a different form of the vac root, uxδa ̄is ˇ,sˇ ́yaoθna ̄, 44. 10,

(^13) Cf. Beowulf 289, 1833; Christ III 918, 1237; Christ and Satan 48, 223; Guthlac 581.

2. Phrase and Figure 79