I love reconstruction of PIE language and religion. Being an Asatru Heathen, I also deeply enjoy finding new things about the origins of beliefs about the gods, ancestors and practices of my folk. To know that it, central gods and goddesses and important myths attached to them, is a continuation going back over 40,000 years is very cool indeed.
I wanted to start a discussion of Proto-Indo-European reconstruction, to see what anyone else may know. Given that polytheism isn't very popular, and linguistic and mythological reconstruction isn't popular either, it'd be nice to see what others have found through their digging.
Please note I'm going to write the names in a way which everyone can read and pronounce LOL. So I'm going to add in some vowels when reconstruction didn't leave any. Even though the scholars know, not everyone does
I've found sample of the pantheon of reconstructed deities and some of the mythology. All of them are central deities of course, as it's extremely difficult to trace back nobody's-heard-of-you, goddess of who-cares.
Various gods can be tricky, as a pair of deities from different cultures can have very similar attributes, but the names are completely different (example being Lugus and Odin). I feel that the PIE, although one title would've been most popular, others were used to invoke different aspects or characteristics of the deity in incantations or poetry. This is still a practice in most recent pagan peoples, such as Germanic peoples with Thor. He was called One who thunders from his original name, Atli meaning "the terrible", Véurr meaning "sanctifier" and others.
These are the archetypes which one can say more confidently were believed by the PIE people.
There seems to be multiple races of gods. At least two were probably in PIE worldview. A Dyeus is a celestial god while an Ansu was either a spirit or god with an unclear sphere of influence, maybe of nature. This comes from the mythology of the Germanic Aesir and Vanir and Hellenic Olympians and Titans.
Djews Pater- Chieftain god of the sky. He's reconstruction is derived from Zeus, Tyr, Jupiter, Dyaus Pita, Dispater as well as others. His name literally means "Sky Father" or "Heavenly Father".
Pletawi Mater or Dehghom- Mother goddess of the Earth and fertility. She may or may not have been betrothed to Djews Pater, and more likely not for the later PIEans. She is reconstructed from Pirthivi, Dhe Mote, Mati Zjemla and possibly Demeter.
Perkwunos- God of thunder and lightning. Known from Perkunas and Perun. Another name contains the fragment tar. I personally think the best reconstruction of the name of him is Taranos (any of the As could be Os though), from Proto Germanic Thunraz (also known as Thor), Proto-Celtic Toranos and Vedic Indra.
Heusos or Ausos- Goddess of the dawn. She's the daughter of Djews Pater. From Germanic Eostra, Hellenic Eos, Roman Aurora and Indian Ushas. There's a possibility she also is the origin of Vesta.
Based on the many different nature spirits among PIE cultures like Germ. Dwarves or Elves, Gk Satyrs or Nymphs and Vedic Aspara, it's very likely that there was at least one clan of spirits.
Cosmic Sperpent Either serpent or dragon is also likely. Reconstruction is based on Germ Jormungand, Gk Typhon, Hydra and Python and Hindu Vrtra.
World Tree- The idea of a world tree is present in Vedic, Norse and Celtic mythologies, but seems to be lost in Greco-Roman Lore.
Very likely there was also at least a pair of divine twins, but what they were or how many is unclear.
There are other other proposed deities but it's difficult to say the accuracy of the reconstruction, from their name to existence.
Hepom Nepots- A sea or water god. Greek Neptune, Vedic Apam Napat and Germanic Njord.
Welnos- Sometimes said to be a sky god (Greek Ouranos) or a pastoral deity, from gods of wealth or glory like Slavic Veles, Germanic Ullr.
Three fate goddesses are also hypothesized, from Germanic Norns and Greek Moirai. They weave a thread, which is supposed to represent fate or destiny.
Pehuson- Pastoral god or god of the earth ( Gk Pan, Italic Faunus)
Of the divine twins, I found three, maybe having the same origin, maybe not.
Yemos and Mannus- Brothers who either are the first mortals or cosmological gods who are the first to die. Mannus seems to be the father of humanity (Germanic Mannus, Vedic Manu) while Yemos (Germanic Ymir and Vedic Yama) seems to have some sort of role in cosmology or establishing order. If mortals, they seem to become gods of some sort after their death. Yemos would probably be the god of death or lord of the underworld while Mannus is an ascended ancestral master of some sorts.
Sawul and Menots- Goddess and God of the Sun and Moon, who carried it across the sky on their chariot. Sawul is from Gremanic Sowol, Italic Sol, Greek Helios and Vedic Surya. Menots is from Germanic Monne, Greek Mene and Lithuanian Meno.
Horse Twins- Maybe gods, maybe not, but at least spirits who accompany Sawul and tell her stories to keep her company. One is a horse and the other is a god or spirit. PIEans probably observed Venus and made the myth out of that. Reconstructed from Old English Hengist and Horsa and Greco-Roman Castor and Pollux.
Giants- A race of large, anthropomorphic beings, or at least beings or are giant like were possibly present in PIE religion and worldview. Sometimes they have relations with the gods, such as Odin and Jord bearing Thor or Polyphemos being the son of Poseidon. Notable races of giants are Jotunnar, Ispolini, Cyclopes and Daityas from Germanic, Bulgarian, Greek and Vedic Lore.
I've been wanting to find the origins of Germanic Odin and Loki for a while. After doing some digging, here's what I've found.
Odin seems to have no transcultural linguistic connections. I wondered how a deity so popular among ALL Germanic tribes could only be among them. Gods are rarely just invented, and Odin couldn't have been a minor deity. How can a "nobody's-heard-of-you" deity of "who-cares" all of a sudden become the king of Asgard, replacing Tiwaz (Proto-Germanic Dyews Pater)?
I saw that he is also very much like Celtic Lugus, but his name seems to have some relationship to Loki. As a heathen, I can say from honoring both of these deities, they are very similar. From time to time, I consider The Wise One to be a bit mischievous. At that note, I think that The Trickster has some wisdom to offer. It's worth noting that Loki's been described as the "hypostasis of Odin".
I'm not sure of the PIE name of the trickster god associated with Lugus and Loki, maybe something like Lugios. I do know that there is a pre-Proto-Germanic reconstruction. It's something to the effect of Watunos, derived from the Proto-Celtic word Watis, meaning priest. This appears to be a title given to a deity strongly associated with the Celtic Lugus. I think that scholars should consider the possibility that Loki and Odin started out as the same deity, but a title applied to that deity, along with the indigenous name, began to be worshipped as a separate god. Until I find another term, I'll call the PIE origin of this deity Lugios.
It's also theorized that Dionysos has origins in Perkwunos. As Dyews Pater started to be called Zeus Pater by the Greeks and began to assume the position as wielder of lightning, Perkwunos lost his name, as it means "striker [of lightning]". After he lost his role as god of lightning, he was just called Dionysos, meaning either "Zeus of Mount Nysa" or "Zeus of the trees". It's worth noting that Dionysos is speculated to have similar origins with Indra, because of a Vedic drink sacred to him.
Freyja and Frigga are sometimes thought to be originally the same goddess for the Proto-Germanic people, instead of being the two Fraujon and Frijjo. The argument against says that Frigga is probably cognate to Vedic priya, meaning beloved, while Freyja seems to be related to the Latin verb "progenere" meaning "to produce" and is derived from the PIE verb "gehn" meaning "to produce" or "to give birth to". This explains why Frigga is a goddess of love, but a more Cosmic Mother love, and while Freyja is too, she's not a motherly goddess but a sensual goddess of fertility and sexuality.
So that's it! everything I know about PIE reconstruction! That and I found something that says that all PIE deities are really just different forms or were at first different names of a central pantheon of five gods and goddesses, but that's WAAY too theoretical!! We're probably never going to know what's before this time period sadly What've you guys found?
I wanted to start a discussion of Proto-Indo-European reconstruction, to see what anyone else may know. Given that polytheism isn't very popular, and linguistic and mythological reconstruction isn't popular either, it'd be nice to see what others have found through their digging.
Please note I'm going to write the names in a way which everyone can read and pronounce LOL. So I'm going to add in some vowels when reconstruction didn't leave any. Even though the scholars know, not everyone does
I've found sample of the pantheon of reconstructed deities and some of the mythology. All of them are central deities of course, as it's extremely difficult to trace back nobody's-heard-of-you, goddess of who-cares.
Various gods can be tricky, as a pair of deities from different cultures can have very similar attributes, but the names are completely different (example being Lugus and Odin). I feel that the PIE, although one title would've been most popular, others were used to invoke different aspects or characteristics of the deity in incantations or poetry. This is still a practice in most recent pagan peoples, such as Germanic peoples with Thor. He was called One who thunders from his original name, Atli meaning "the terrible", Véurr meaning "sanctifier" and others.
These are the archetypes which one can say more confidently were believed by the PIE people.
There seems to be multiple races of gods. At least two were probably in PIE worldview. A Dyeus is a celestial god while an Ansu was either a spirit or god with an unclear sphere of influence, maybe of nature. This comes from the mythology of the Germanic Aesir and Vanir and Hellenic Olympians and Titans.
Djews Pater- Chieftain god of the sky. He's reconstruction is derived from Zeus, Tyr, Jupiter, Dyaus Pita, Dispater as well as others. His name literally means "Sky Father" or "Heavenly Father".
Pletawi Mater or Dehghom- Mother goddess of the Earth and fertility. She may or may not have been betrothed to Djews Pater, and more likely not for the later PIEans. She is reconstructed from Pirthivi, Dhe Mote, Mati Zjemla and possibly Demeter.
Perkwunos- God of thunder and lightning. Known from Perkunas and Perun. Another name contains the fragment tar. I personally think the best reconstruction of the name of him is Taranos (any of the As could be Os though), from Proto Germanic Thunraz (also known as Thor), Proto-Celtic Toranos and Vedic Indra.
Heusos or Ausos- Goddess of the dawn. She's the daughter of Djews Pater. From Germanic Eostra, Hellenic Eos, Roman Aurora and Indian Ushas. There's a possibility she also is the origin of Vesta.
Based on the many different nature spirits among PIE cultures like Germ. Dwarves or Elves, Gk Satyrs or Nymphs and Vedic Aspara, it's very likely that there was at least one clan of spirits.
Cosmic Sperpent Either serpent or dragon is also likely. Reconstruction is based on Germ Jormungand, Gk Typhon, Hydra and Python and Hindu Vrtra.
World Tree- The idea of a world tree is present in Vedic, Norse and Celtic mythologies, but seems to be lost in Greco-Roman Lore.
Very likely there was also at least a pair of divine twins, but what they were or how many is unclear.
There are other other proposed deities but it's difficult to say the accuracy of the reconstruction, from their name to existence.
Hepom Nepots- A sea or water god. Greek Neptune, Vedic Apam Napat and Germanic Njord.
Welnos- Sometimes said to be a sky god (Greek Ouranos) or a pastoral deity, from gods of wealth or glory like Slavic Veles, Germanic Ullr.
Three fate goddesses are also hypothesized, from Germanic Norns and Greek Moirai. They weave a thread, which is supposed to represent fate or destiny.
Pehuson- Pastoral god or god of the earth ( Gk Pan, Italic Faunus)
Of the divine twins, I found three, maybe having the same origin, maybe not.
Yemos and Mannus- Brothers who either are the first mortals or cosmological gods who are the first to die. Mannus seems to be the father of humanity (Germanic Mannus, Vedic Manu) while Yemos (Germanic Ymir and Vedic Yama) seems to have some sort of role in cosmology or establishing order. If mortals, they seem to become gods of some sort after their death. Yemos would probably be the god of death or lord of the underworld while Mannus is an ascended ancestral master of some sorts.
Sawul and Menots- Goddess and God of the Sun and Moon, who carried it across the sky on their chariot. Sawul is from Gremanic Sowol, Italic Sol, Greek Helios and Vedic Surya. Menots is from Germanic Monne, Greek Mene and Lithuanian Meno.
Horse Twins- Maybe gods, maybe not, but at least spirits who accompany Sawul and tell her stories to keep her company. One is a horse and the other is a god or spirit. PIEans probably observed Venus and made the myth out of that. Reconstructed from Old English Hengist and Horsa and Greco-Roman Castor and Pollux.
Giants- A race of large, anthropomorphic beings, or at least beings or are giant like were possibly present in PIE religion and worldview. Sometimes they have relations with the gods, such as Odin and Jord bearing Thor or Polyphemos being the son of Poseidon. Notable races of giants are Jotunnar, Ispolini, Cyclopes and Daityas from Germanic, Bulgarian, Greek and Vedic Lore.
I've been wanting to find the origins of Germanic Odin and Loki for a while. After doing some digging, here's what I've found.
Odin seems to have no transcultural linguistic connections. I wondered how a deity so popular among ALL Germanic tribes could only be among them. Gods are rarely just invented, and Odin couldn't have been a minor deity. How can a "nobody's-heard-of-you" deity of "who-cares" all of a sudden become the king of Asgard, replacing Tiwaz (Proto-Germanic Dyews Pater)?
I saw that he is also very much like Celtic Lugus, but his name seems to have some relationship to Loki. As a heathen, I can say from honoring both of these deities, they are very similar. From time to time, I consider The Wise One to be a bit mischievous. At that note, I think that The Trickster has some wisdom to offer. It's worth noting that Loki's been described as the "hypostasis of Odin".
I'm not sure of the PIE name of the trickster god associated with Lugus and Loki, maybe something like Lugios. I do know that there is a pre-Proto-Germanic reconstruction. It's something to the effect of Watunos, derived from the Proto-Celtic word Watis, meaning priest. This appears to be a title given to a deity strongly associated with the Celtic Lugus. I think that scholars should consider the possibility that Loki and Odin started out as the same deity, but a title applied to that deity, along with the indigenous name, began to be worshipped as a separate god. Until I find another term, I'll call the PIE origin of this deity Lugios.
It's also theorized that Dionysos has origins in Perkwunos. As Dyews Pater started to be called Zeus Pater by the Greeks and began to assume the position as wielder of lightning, Perkwunos lost his name, as it means "striker [of lightning]". After he lost his role as god of lightning, he was just called Dionysos, meaning either "Zeus of Mount Nysa" or "Zeus of the trees". It's worth noting that Dionysos is speculated to have similar origins with Indra, because of a Vedic drink sacred to him.
Freyja and Frigga are sometimes thought to be originally the same goddess for the Proto-Germanic people, instead of being the two Fraujon and Frijjo. The argument against says that Frigga is probably cognate to Vedic priya, meaning beloved, while Freyja seems to be related to the Latin verb "progenere" meaning "to produce" and is derived from the PIE verb "gehn" meaning "to produce" or "to give birth to". This explains why Frigga is a goddess of love, but a more Cosmic Mother love, and while Freyja is too, she's not a motherly goddess but a sensual goddess of fertility and sexuality.
So that's it! everything I know about PIE reconstruction! That and I found something that says that all PIE deities are really just different forms or were at first different names of a central pantheon of five gods and goddesses, but that's WAAY too theoretical!! We're probably never going to know what's before this time period sadly What've you guys found?