A Theory of Textual Reconstruction in Indo-European Linguistics 3631497512, 9783631497517, 0820429759

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Schriften Uber Sprachen und Texte Herausgegeben von Georg Holzer

Band 2

PETER LANG Frankfurt am Main - Berlin - Bern - New York - Paris - Wien

Ranko Matasovic

A Theory of Textual Reconstruction in IndoEuropean Linguistics

E

PETER LANG

Europäischer Verlag der Wissenschaften

Die

Deutsche Bibliothek - CIP-Einheitsaufnahme

Mitasovié, Ranko:

A theory of textual reconstruction in Indo-European linguistics / Ranko Matasovic. - Frankfurt am Main ; Berlin ; Bern ; New York ; Paris ; Wien : Lang, 1996 (Schriften über Sprachen und Texte ; Bd. 2) ISBN 3-631-4975 1-2 NE: GT

The publication of this book was supported by: Faculty of Philosophy,

University of Zagreb ,,Produkt“, Zagreb

ISSN 0949-023X ISBN 3-631-49751-2 US-ISBN 0-8204-2975-9 © Peter Lang GmbH Europäischer Verlag der Wissenschaften Frankfurt am Main 1996 All rights reserved. All parts of this publication are protected by copyright. Any utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without the permission of the publisher, is forbidden and liable to prosecution. This applies in particular to reproductions, translations, microfilming, and storage and processing in electronic retrieval systems. Printed in Germany

123

567

CONTENTS Preface 0... ceecccccccccccceeceeccceceeeeeeennaananaaaeeasaaaeececeeessseesaeaeeeceeeeeeeeeteeseeeeeees

7

1. Introduction ee

11

2. Textual reconstruction since 1965...................... eese Textual reconstruction and ἴγροίοσγ..........ἐνννννννννννννοννννννονννεννενενεενννενεννεννον Comparative stylistics and the prehistory of literary forms........................ Textual reconstruction and reconstruction of the proto-culture.................

15 21 36 46

3. Outline of the theory.....................eesssssesesssseseee eene nennen A syntactic typology of textual correspondences..............................sssusss Three levels of textual γθοοπϑίγμιοζου.......Ψ.νννννννννννννννννοννννννννενννυννννννννεννονον Criteria for evaluating γθοοηϑίγιος οη8.......ἍΨἍννννννννννννννννεννννννοννννννννενενεννσνννον Heuristic PrOCECUIES........... c cccccceeecccccaeeesceeeeesesueseeeeceaasceesueseceessaeneeseesenanes Is textual reconstruction reconstruction of "ρβϑγο!θ" Ὁ..... ννννννννννννννννννννννννον Textual reconstruction and the related disciplines.................................... Textual reconstruction and the PIE poetic language................................ Textual reconstruction and comparative poetics......................................

57 72 84 88 89 90 91 93 95

4. The formal elements of PIE poetry........................seeeeseeeeeeneen 97 Metrical structures of PIE poetry....................ssesssssesseen 97 Anagrams: a Stylistic figure of PIE poetry........................ssseeees 114 Structure and function of ἰΘχίϑ......Ψ. νννννννννονννννννννννεν εν νυν νον νον νον εν ννενενεννννεννν 128 5. Poetry and poets in the PIE ρϑηοα.......ννννονοννννννννννονννεν νον εν νννννενοενεννονν 133 Indo-European poetic terminology........................... sees 134 Proto-Indo-European metapnors.................ccccccececcccceseseeceeesseesesseseeeesenes 156 6. CONMCIUSION..............ccccceccccccceuseeescceeeseaceusesseeeescecesssaeaueceeesseueesesseesesees 179 π{-)1-}1-}} Ὁ ἘΝ 183 ΒΙΟΠΟσγαρῆν.......Ψ..νννννννννον νειν νννονννννννννεννννεννενενενενν σεν ενεννσνενεοννσνννενενννννννννν 186 Abbreviations of ἰῆσυθα695...... νννννννννοννννννοννννννον εν νννοννννννυνεννννν νον nnne nnns 195

PREFACE The reader will perhaps be confused with the title of this book’, and with the very idea that Indo-European linguistics has something to do with the reconstruction of texts. Therefore, | should probably say at the outset that | shall be concerned with a discipline whose last synthetic overview was published almost thirty years ago by Rudiger Schmitt (1967). This fact shows that there is a need for a new assessment of the development of that discipline. However, in contrast with Schmitt, who was concerned primarily with gathering evidence for the reconstructed fragments of PIE poetic texts, my concern will be in the first place the theoretical foundations of textual reconstruction. We shall try to determine on which principles this discipline is based, in what relation it stands with respect to the rest of comparative linguistics, and whether its methods lead to equally reliable results. For reasons of space, some philological details will have to be omitted, but discussion

can be easily found

in the references. Thus,

even

if

my presentation of the data is sometimes superficial, | still hope that my book will offer an insight into the totality of the discussed problems. As regards the notation of PIE forms, | follow Mayrhofer's “Segmentale Phonologie des Indogermanischen” (1986), except with respect to the following: 1. | do not distinguish between the PIE palatals and the pure velars, as this distinction was probably not phonemic

in PIE; 2. | do not write

the laryngeals with capital letters; 3. | write the non-syllabic allophones of *i and *u as *y and *w. 4. | leave the syllabic allophones

of *m, “n, *I, and

*r unmarked, as their syllabicity was fully predictable in PIE. In this | follow R. S. P. Beekes (1995). Quotations from modern European languages and Latin are left untranslated; translations from other languages are my own, unless otherwise indicated. | am thus responsible for their imprecisions. | would like to express my gratitude to my teacher, Mate Krizman, for his support and advices, without which | would never have undertaken the task of writing this book. | must also stress how much my own efforts owe to the work of Radoslav Katicic, who first introduced me to the fascinating field of comparative linguistic analysis of texts. | only hope that mistakes and inconsistencies in this book, for which only | am responsible, will not make him regret that. | have also profited much from the discussions | had with Mislav Jezié and Dubravko Skiljan, and the encouragement and help of the editor of this series, Georg Holzer, was most valuable to me. | ! This book is an abridged and partially rewritten English version of my Ph. D. thesis "Rekonstrukcija texta u indoeuropeistici", submitted to the University of Zagreb in February 1995. The members of the examining commission were Radoslav Katieic (University of Vienna), Mate Krizman, Dubravko Skiljan, and Mislav Jezic (University of Zagreb).

would also like to thank other people who helped me in various ways: Stipe Botica, Dalibor and Dunja Brozovic, Jolanta Doschek, Heiner Eichner, Alex Hoyt, Jerko Matos, Ante Zuzul, and last but not least, my wife Tajana Matasovic, to whom the book is dedicated. Vienna, February 1996

Ranko Matasovic

vixere fortes ante Agamemnona multi; sed omnes inlacrimabiles urgentur ignotique longa nocte, carent quia vate sacro

(Horatius carm. 4. 9)

1. INTRODUCTION §1 This book is dedicated to a very peculiar linguistic discipline. Although it is according to many linguists more than a century old, and although scores of scientific publications profess to deal with it (see Bibliography), there are still no theoretical works dealing with its methodological foundations, and there is still not a single result of this discipline that is not subject to doubt. §2 Every scientific discipline is determined by its method, its object and its goal.

In this book,

| shall put forward a claim that the method

reconstruction is just a natural extension to the traditional procedures of comparative historical linguistics. The object pline is the set of protolinguistic texts (i. e., texts composed language) which left traces in the earliest poetic traditions of European peoples. We shall not question the presupposition ject existed,

as there are no linguistic communities

of textual

methods and of our disciin the protoseveral Indothat this ob-

in the world which

do

not produce any sort of—written or oral—literary texts, and one may legitimately suppose that such communities never existed in the linguistically recoverable past. The real question that we have to face is therefore not whether the Proto-Indo-Europeans composed poetry, but rather—what the major features of their poetry were and whether any fragments of their poetry can be reconstructed by means of the comparative method. Such reconstruction is indeed the goal of the linguistic discipline presented in this study. Another envisaged discipline, which has yet to be founded, will have for its goal to explain the entirety of the developments leading from PIE poetry to the attested poetic traditions of the Greeks, Indians, Iranians, Celts, and other Indo-European peoples. If this discipline, which we shall call COMPARATIVE INDO-EUROPEAN TEXTUAL LINGUISTICS, can be scientifically established and justified, one can expect that it will yield important insights into the prehistory of a major area of the world's literature and cultural history. §3 It is of course perfectly possible that the object of Indo-European textual reconstruction is unknowable, and that its goal is unattainable. However, in spite of the opinion of the majority of laymen and many linguists, | am convinced that we cannot know that a priori. Though it may appear quite unbelievable that traces of poetic expressions, formulas, or stylistic figures might have been preserved from an age preceding the first written monuments by a thousand years or more, such a possibility cannot, nevertheless, be excluded. Only after our discipline is methodologically founded and its results carefully examined, will we be able to say with a

11

certain degree of probability whether the effort of writing this book has been useless. In saying this, ! have in mind Jürgen Untermann's witty comment about the reconstruction of PIE poetics and culture in general: "In seinem Vorwort meint der Herausgeber [Wolfgang Meid in the foreword to Meid 1987], daf* es gelte, nun endlich die Skepsis und den Agnostizismus zu überwinden, die der Erforschung der Sozial- und Geisteswelt der Indogermanen im Wege stehen. Es ist durchaus möglich, daß dies gelingen wird. Ich wage

aber auch

damit zu rechnen,

daß es so kommen

könnte, wie es

im Laufe des 18. Jahrhunderts in einem anderen Bereich gekommen ist: damals machte sich ein gewisser Agnostizismus hinsichtlich der Erforschung der Natur der Engel oder der schwarzen Magie bemerkbar, die bis dahin durchaus zu den ernsthaften Themen der Universitátswissenschaft gehört hatten; aber eines Tages merkte man eben, daf& man sich um Gegenstande bemühte, die in einem inzwischen veránderten Wissenschaftsbild keinen Platz mehr fanden." (Untermann 1989: 54). Is the reconstruction of PIE culture, or, to be more precise, the reconstruction of the fragments of PIE texts, just a contemporary equivalent of the study of black magic, demonology, and angelology? 84 Comparative genetic linguistics has achieved a tremendous development from the first speculations about the common origin of the European languages and Sanskrit until the scientific form given to our discipline by the Neogrammarians; they founded Indo-European linguistics upon the precisely defined notion of sound law, the notion that has been incorporated into the foundation of the comparative method. If it is possible to show that sound laws play a similar role in comparative (genetic) textual linguistics, then the epistemological foundations of our discipline shall not be more disputable than those of, say, etymology or comparative phonology. In this book,

| shall try to show that the reconstructions of fragments

of

PIE texts are indeed based upon principles valid in other fields of reconstruction; the reconstructed fragments of texts can be postulated only on the basis of expressions occuring in texts composed in the attested languages; moreover, these expressions must be derivable from a common proto-form by a set of acknowledged sound laws, and the meanings of these expressions

must also correspond.

There

is, however,

an additional

condition that has to be fulfilled in the comparative textual linguistics: the compared expressions must also correspond with respect to the function that they perform in the texts in which they occur, in other words, with respect to the CONTEXTS in which they are attested.

§5 This book is intended as a synthetic overview of the most important topics of textual reconstruction, and also as a systematic introduction into that discipline. The chapter dedicated to questions of the methodology of textual reconstruction (chap. 3) is probably central to the whole study, and some readers may wish to read that chapter first. The methods and theory put forward in that chapter were based on the analysis of the research procedures employed by several linguists who have contributed to various problems of textual reconstruction during the last thirty years (chap. 2). | have given more space to the work of those linguists whose results | was able to supplement or correct, hopefully without neglecting other authors. The other chapters are dedicated to particular problems of textual reconstruction. Finally, if the concluding chapter of this book does not contain completely new and certain conclusions about the nature of PIE poetry and the methods of reconstructing it, let every reader judge whether this is the consequence of the superficiality of our enquiry, or rather the fruit of the investigator’s reasonable caution in making far-reaching conclusions.

13

2. TEXTUAL RECONSTRUCTION

SINCE 1965

§6 In this study we cannot hope to retell the whole

history of the disci-

pling we call “(ΕἸ textual reconstruction", and fortunately, it is unnecessary Io do so. The history of the discipline we are dealing with was investigated hy Rüdiger Schmitt in his dissertation (Schmitt 1967). This fact allows me

Io limit the discussion in this chapter to the developments in the field of textual reconstruction during the past thirty years. §7 Rudiger Schmitt defended his dissertation on the PIE poetic lanquage in the summer of 1965 at the University of Saarland (Schmitt 1967: IX). This dissertation was subsequently enlarged and published under the title "Dichtung und Dichtersprache in indogermanischer Zeit" in 1967. The published version of Schmitt's dissertation consists of ten chapters,

in ad-

dition to a short prolegomena and epilegomena. The author set himself the task of collecting all of the previously established etymological correspondences found in IE languages, which consisted of expressions longer than a single word (i. e., expressions such as syntagms and longer syntactic constructions). Beginning with Kuhn's famous comparison of G κλέος ἄφθιτον and Ved. akSiti ... srava/?, in the first chapter Schmitt ex pounds a

history of the related

studies,

before evaluating

them

and

sup:

plementing them with his own results in the chapters that follow. The sources that Schmitt examined while searching for textual correspond ences are explicitly enumerated (par. 6): The Vedas, Avesta, Homer and the earliest Greek lyrics, Tabulae Iguvinae, the earliest Latin texts, Edda, the Hildebrandslied and Beowulf. One notices very easily that works from the Celtic, Balto-Slavic and Anatolian traditions did not enter Schmitt's selection, and it is fairly understandable why he decided not to use thé Tocharian, Armenian and Albanian texts. The correspondences are of ganized according to the literary genre in which, according to the author‘ opinion, they tend to occur. Therefore, all correspondences containing re’ ? Both expressions mean ‘imperishable fame’; Kuhn did not notice the Vedic expres sion sravo ... aksitam, which is completely correspondent to G κλέος ἄφθιτον

(Ved. aksil

is a different formation involving a suffix *-tey-/-ti-, cp. G φθίσις 'decay'). Kuhn publishe4 his comparison in a paper entitled "Über die durch Nasale erweiterten Verbalstämme”, “ἢ the second issue of the Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung auf dem Gebiel® der indogermanischen Sprachen in 1853. It is interesting that Kuhn, who had personal! founded this famous journal, was more preoccupied with the reconstruction of PIE myth

ogy and social structure than with the reconstruction of PIE language or poetry. Althoud the aforementioned article is epoch-making in the first hand for the IE textual reconstru~ tion, its basic subject is not at all related to the textual correspondences. On the work of Kuhn and his contemporaries, who founded the IE comparative mythology (especialy Grimm), the reader is referred to the book by Maria Patrizia Bologna (Bologna 1988).

15

Hloxos of PIL *klewos ‘fame’, including the af tioned correspondonce ΟἹ G KAtog ἄφθιτον : Ved. sravo ... ak sits Delon “to fh ha tor on

tho. ΡΠ heroic poetry (Heldendichtung). N e'ong to leon that the criterion of classification of the corresponde A wever, ne lin ear tna re of the texts in which the reflexes of the recong,

IS ir

namely, stavo ... akSitam, for example, is atte, cte

^ THUS

ia Ved

occur

that is

in a collection of religious hymns, whereas κ᾿ Θὰ in the Rig Veda, that is, of a completely different nature—in Homer's ‚05 ἄφθιτον M nh In eons

of the lyric poets (Sappho and Ibycus). It Se. 0o that end ἢ we

criterion applied in Schmitt’s work rests on the ems

ed PIE formulas, but his attitudes remain ray},

self admits (see §6). Besides the correspon

that

the cla

OKs

—

MEANING of the e he hi -

er unexpained. as de

title of heroic poetry, Schmitt presupposed t NN

the

esse PIE reli.

gious hymns (Gótterdichtung, chap. 4) and s c existence o k sid n chap. 5); the correspondences that could no, al Poetry (Sakraldichtung, aforementioned genres were collected under „DE attributed to any of the respondences of indeterminate stylistic genre /'* title DR eo ga cor

does not explicitly say so, it appears that such ‘CaP. 7). Although

d Tot

be elements of the PIE PoETIC language at all. Tre esponce ch ters (710) had not been a part of the original Version t Schmitt's di A rtafion

but were written later. They contain a brief Skat of Schmitt's ISS fields of comparative PIE textual reconstruction. The ch of the remaining iol 8 ments of the PIE poetic language (chap. 7) den Pier on ne formal one

elements (see chap. 3 of this book): corres oL 9 WI the Tor tonal techniques characteristic of particular poetic fo, 'dences in composi ae dialogic composition of the cosmological poem's are aoe (6. 9. : well as the correspondences in stylistic techni u in RV an h in Edda), M ing poems"—Aufreihlieder—in which the feats fr (e. g., the umerated

rather than narrated), nence of the verb 'to tion of a narration). In integrated among the

and the syntactic correspon eoe are the promi be' at the beginning of the ences (e. a inttod the following chapter, Whig Semence In Ni in "b Her first six chapters, Schmitt di would have been be 4

ences that point to the existence of the PIE ma

‘Scusses the corr eich.

tung), relying in the first place on the comparj cal Por

ae auper Nh

construct the PIE metrics, whereby the author ran oft e

allemp's i R

Zaubersprüche" and the Atharvavedic charms. "UM tf ‘th hapt u Oe author adduces the etymologies of the reconstrug,. the ninth c ter er, Ä gy (words for ‘poet’, ‘poem’ and semantically ς 56 PIE poetic and ce οcepts). The last chapter consists of a short very orate words ot to re.

point of view (cf. Meillet 1923, 1935)

16

lies heavily on Meillet's

§8 The procedure followed by Schmitt in examining every single correspondence is very careful and precise. For each IE language, he adduces a thorough list of sources in which a particular expression, having an etymological correspondence in another IE language, is attested. Thus, the list of places in which the formula κλέος ἄφθιτον appears in Greek literature has remained substantially unchanged since the publication of Schmitt's book, although there have been many works dedicated to it since then (Floyd 1980, Finkelberg 1986, Naafs-Wilstra 1987). Every correspondence examined is accompanied by a bibliographical note indicating the original work in which the correspondence had been noted for the first time, if it was not discovered by Schmitt himself. Although he did consider also the cases where only roots, and not whole words corresponded, Schmitt regarded only the complete correspondences as convincing enough to allow for a reconstruction of PIE formulas. Schmitt's reconstructions are established with great care and acriby. He was prepared to use the trilaryngealistic theory, which had still been rather fresh in 1967, but which is almost universally accepted today; also, to judge by his reconstructions, Schmitt's views on PIE vowel and consonant systems were

not

distinct from the contemporary understanding of comparative PIE phonology, as expressed, for example, in Mayrhofer's handbook (Mayrhofer 1983). Although | would disagree with Schmitt on some particular reconstructions?, his Indo-European theoretical framework is essentially the same as that used in this book. 89 After publishing such a masterpiece of contemporary philology and comparative linguistics, Schmitt unfortunately has not published much about textual reconstruction; in 1968 he edited a collection of the most important essays from the history of the discipline, under the title "Indogermanische Dichtersprache"; most of the papers contained had been analyzed thoroughly in his dissertation, but he also contributed a sort of an epilogue to the collection, where his thoughts about the method of textual reconstruction and its results are expounded. The only later work by Schmitt known to me, in which he continued the kind of research started in his dissertation, is "Indogermanische Dichtersprache und Namengebung”, published in 1973. In this booklet he developed the thesis that many poetic formulas found their reflexes in the compound names of several IE peoples. However, although it is perfectly true that names such as Croatian Beri-slav or G Φερε-κυδής are hardly conceivable without an underlying system of poetic formulas, such analyses of onomastica can be relevant to the textual reconstruction only insofar as they confirm the conclu-

? For an example concerning the reconstruction of the PIE word for ‘name’, see 899.

17

sions about formulas, or reconstructed textual fragments, that had previ-

ously been attained by comparative analysis of TEXTS’. 810 The first reviews of Schmitt's monograph of 1967 were rather favorable (see, for example, Scherer 1968, Bloch 1968). The great erudition of the author, the philological scrutiny of his method and the linguistic foundedness of his reconstructions were virtues that could not be ignored even by those scholars whose views were contradicted by Schmitt's implied thesis that it was possible to reconstruct fragments of PIE texts. In the sixties, Indo-European linguistics was still dominated by the so-called anti-realist approach to reconstruction (see Matasovic 1992). According to this view,

the reconstructed

forms

should

be considered

only as an

eco-

nomical way of noting the correspondences between the attested languages; the Protolanguage was thought of as a set of such correspondences, not as a language in its own right, imperfectly known due to the lack of directly observable data. Schmitt's conclusions were contrary to the belief, inaugurated by Meillet (cp., e. g., Meillet 1937), that the real subject of Indo-European linguistics is not the Protolanguage, but the system of correspondences between the IE languages. Such beliefs were present in many works on IE subjects published in the sixties, and they were implicitly expressed in an article by Helmut Humbach on the PIE poetic language (Humbach 1967), where the author considered correspondences such as those analyzed by Schmitt to be typological parallels, present in a large number of various Indo-European and non-Indo-European traditions. This was the only way in which the comparison of IE poetic formulas could be reconciled with the anti-realist view of reconstruction, for, if it makes sense to talk about reconstructed textual fragments, then the reconstructed language itself has to be considered a historical fact, and not just a system of observable facts called correspondences. 811 However, in spite criticisms soon appeared. correspondences should European languages are

of the majority of positive reviews, a few serious W. Wüst, for example, argued that PIE textual not be adduced unless parallels from non-Indoconsidered as well (Wüst 1969b). Such parallels,

^ Schmitt's investigations of the traces of PIE formulas in anthroponymy were in a sense continued by a very interesting paper by E. Risch (1987); in that paper, the name agi-ti-ta, appearing in Mycenaean Greek, is interpreted as /Akwthita:/ ‘Imperishable’. As this name can be understandable only as an abbreviation of *Akwthitoklewejja (op. cit.: 9-10), or something similar, it appears that this Mycenaean name contains the earliest evidence for the formula κλέος ἄφθιτον. Risch's argument, however, still seems inconclusive to me as long as the (presupposed) full name form is not found. It is also curious that neither Aphthita, nor any name with the element phthi- is found in the post-Mycenaean period.

18

uccording to Wüst, usually show that some reconstructed formulas contain nothing specifically “Indo-European”. He adduces an example from an | ly Hawaiian (sic!) cosmogonic poem, which, by its structure and in "ome details, indeed reminds one of the Avestan and Nordic poems used hy Schmitt to establish the possible PIE form of the "solemn initial poetic formula” (Schmitt 1967: §572ff.). Although this objection raised by Wust is justified in principle, we can still understand why Schmitt did not take into consideration any sources in non-Indo-European languages. As he says himself (1967: §6), the tremendous increase in the scope of the investigalion by considering the non-Indo-European parallels would not have been justified by the benefit attained in that way. In any case, the possible nonI: parallels of some reconstructions do not refute their validity, though they can, occasionally, decrease their credibility. 812 A. Scherer (1968: 43-4, Scherer's emphasis) raised what is, | believe, a more important objection against some of Schmitt’s theses: “Nicht so fest begründet ist dagegen die Ansicht, daß es sich dabei um GEMEINindogermanische Dichtersprache handelt (gegen diesen Schluß wendet sich

auch

V.

Pisani,

AGIt

51,

1966,

105ff.).

Es

is ja keineswegs

sicher,

daß im Sinne der herkömmlichen Betrachtungsweise die ursprüngliche Spracheinheit erst durch die sogenannte ‘Volkertrennung’ aufgelöst worden ist.” Scherer thinks that it is perfectly possible that the IE peoples separated only after the PIE linguistic community had ceased to exist. It is possible, too, that one people imposed its own poetic conventions on other IE peoples—perhaps through wandering minstrels—after the languages had separated (ibid.). Similar were also the critiques of Schmitt's views by Durante (1976), Ivanov (1984), Sternemann & Gutschmidt (1989: 259ff.), and others. At the core of all these answers to Schmitt’s book is the claim that the material that he collected does not allow us to reconstruct any Common Indo-European textual fragments, but rather the elements of the Graeco-Indo-Iranian poetic tradition, because the largest part of the

material

that Schmitt

relies on

is from

the

Rig-Veda,

Avesta,

and

Greek poetry. It is not possible to answer this objection simply by saying that the earliest attested poetic texts are in the Greek and Indo-Iranian languages, because this is neither correct (the Anatolian tradition is older than both), nor relevant. Today, it is widely believed that Greek, Indo-lranian (and Armenian) were very closely related branches of the IE linguistic family (cp. Meid 1975, Gamkrelidze & Ivanov 1984: 859ff.). Therefore, the reconstructions reached on the basis of textual correspondences between these languages cannot be attributed to the Common Proto-Indo-European without further ado. In order to examine the implications of this objection to Schmitt's method, we shall now consider the central chapter of

19

model is constituted by a system of binary oppositions of notions such as warm/cold, cooked/raw, night/day etc. Such oppositions are part of the structure of human culture and society, and they crucially determine the consciousness

of the

members

of a

particular

culture,

their

ideas

and

“Weltanschauung”. This world model, based on semantic oppositions, is expressed in texts that are produced by the culture formed by that world model. Texts are, however, linguistic facts that can be compared by the comparative method; moreover, texts composed in different, genetically related languages can be used to reconstruct fragments of proto-texts, and thereby the world model of which the proto-texts were the expression. It is the basic belief of lvanov and Toporov that it is “the cultural and social factors that determine the linguistic facts" (Ivanov, 1982: 418). Therefore, the folklore texts of the Slavs and Balts are examined with respect to their social and cultural function. Ivanov and Toporov's method yields particularly interesting results when applied to texts containing reflexes of ancient ritual formulas. §18 As well as stressing the interdependence of texts and the culture that produces

them,

the work

of Ivanov

and

Toporov

implies the interde-

pendence between the texts themselves. “The basic myth”, as they call the Slavic myth about the duel of the Thunder-God (*Perung) and his adversary (*Veless/Volost+) is also “the basic text, determining many other texts in several aspects. These other texts can be regarded as being derived from the basic text" (Ivanov ἃ Toporov 1974: 3). It is regrettable that lvanov and Toporov have not developed their ideas about the interdependence of the reconstructed texts, so that their notion of “basic text” remains intuitive in their works. §19 Ivanov and Toporov use mostly the material derived from Slavic and Baltic folklore, but they do also adduce other, historical sources (e. g., the Russian Chronicle) whenever they are relevant. The results of textual reconstruction on the Slavic and Balto-Slavic levels are often compared with fragments of Germanic, Old Indian, or Anatolian (chiefly Hittite) texts, so that their works are very important for Indo-European textual reconstruction, although they are mostly dedicated to the reconstruction of the Proto-Slavic world model and textual fragments’. 7 It is interesting that, inspite of the great erudition of both authors, we do not often find references to Greek texts in their work, while analyses of Old Irish texts hardly ever appear.

On the other hand,

Ivanov has tried to apply the method

of textual reconstruction

also to languages other than Indo-European, e. g., on Ket and Tibetan; he has also tried to use the method to prove the linguistic relatedness of Proto-Hattic and Northwest Caucasian (sic!) languages (see Ivanov 1982: 417, 1984: 70).

22

820 One of the most important contributions of Ivanov and Toporov to the Indo-European textual reconstruction is their appreciation of the importance of Baltic and Slavic folklore for the reconstruction of Balto-Slavic mythological texts. Although Slavic folklore, and Baltic in particular, had been used much earlier in the reconstruction of the mythology of the Baltic and Slavic peoples (cf., e. g., Biezais 1975), such attempts were strongly influenced by the views of Grimm's school®. Scholars like Mannhardt in Latvia, or Nodilo in Croatia recognized elements referring to pagan gods in Baltic and Slavic folk songs, but tended to interpret such mythological elements as representing a more or less exact parallel to the pagan pantheon of the Greeks and Romans. They did not use methods of the comparative linguistics, except occasionally in seeking the etymologies of the names of the pagan gods, and their results were often confusing and ambiguous. Before Ivanov and Toporov, there were no systematic attempts to collect etymologically correspondent expressions appearing in similar contexts and exhibiting traces of paganism. To take one example, it has long been known that St. Ilias, a personage appearing in several Slavic popular traditions, represents an interpretatio christiana of the pagan Thunder-God, Perun (cf., e. g., Nodilo 1981). However, it was not until the publication of Ivanov and Toporov's work that the etymologically correspondent attributes, modifying the names of St. Ilias and Perun in several Slavic traditions have been compared, and their identity demonstrated. This discovery led to the fuller understanding of the character of Perun in his pagan, Proto-Slavic context. In their magna opera (Ivanov ἃ Toporov 1965, 1974), Ivanov and Toporov have shown that certain etymologically correspondent attributes of the Slavic Thunder-God appear in similar contexts in Slavic folklore, which can be explained only as the result of a long oral tradition, originating in the pagan past of the Slavic peoples. In this way it was shown that the folklore texts cannot be regarded as mythological IN THEMSELVES, as had been supposed by Grimm's school, but that they do keep traces of mythological texts, although in a transformed manner. Such traces have been preserved in spite of the long process of oral transmission and various transformations, and the proper method of extracting those traces is comparative genetic linguistics. 821 It is rather difficult to follow the arguments of Ivanov and Toporov because of the large number of untranslated quotations from Slavic, Baltic, and other languages. Their style, too, does not make it easier to the reader to discern the way in which reconstructions are obtained, and the authors' line of reasoning. Thus, for example, it is often not quite clear ex* Another school, headed by Lubor Niederle, tended to neglect folklore texts in the reconstruction of Slavic folklore (cp. Niederle 1926).

23

actly how one is supposed to attain the binary semantic oppositions that determine the structure of texts on the basis of the etymologically correspondent expressions occuring in those texts. Here are some oppositions adduced by Ivanov and Toporov (1965) as basic determinants of the Proto-Slavic world model: good luck/bad luck, life/death, even/odd, right/ left, up/down, sky/earth, day/night, spring/winter, etc. It is obvious that such oppositions are abstract enough to describe the “world model” of ANY culture, not necessarily the Proto-Slavic. The authors are, of course, aware of that, because they write: “the description of any particular system that is based on the [aforementioned] list of oppositions, which is common to different systems, has the same goals as the phonological description, which is based on a universal meta-language of different features. The monograph proposed by us was actually intended as an attempt to come closer to the investigation of this basic, common human list of semantic oppositions, inasmuch as it was reflected in early Slavic semiological systems" (Ivanov and Toporov 1965: 238). In order to show the universality of the semantic oppositions that characterize the reconstructed fragments of Proto-Slavic texts, Ivanov and Toporov often adduce examples from other cultures (e. g., from the Caucasus, Africa, and America), where those oppositions also play important roles. With respect to this, the goal of their investigation greatly surpasses mere textual reconstruction: their intent is to prove the existence of some regularities in the organization of all human cultures, thus following the programme of Lévi-Strauss. It is important to emphasize this point to discern in the work of Ivanov and Toporov what is irrelevant for the purpose of textual reconstruction. Let us make ourselves clearer by means of an example. 822 In their reconstruction of the Proto-Slavic mythological texts, espedally of the myth of the fight between Perun, the Slavic Thunder-god, and veles, the Snake-god, Ivanov and Toporov find the following key words, characterizing those two personages of the myth: Perung ognp ‘fire’ gora ‘mountain’ sux?» ‘dry’ strela ‘arrow’ groms ‘thunder’

Velesp voda ‘water’ dol» ‘valley’ mok(r-) ‘wet’ l'utb zvérb ‘angry beast’ ZMbjb ‘dragon’

Some of the adduced key words do occur frequently in the analyzed texts, e. g., "Perun's arrows", or the expression “angry beast" as applied to perun's adversary. Still others are attested in toponymy (e. g., Perunova

ah

gora ‘Perun’s mountain’). Some of the key words are well integrated in the system of semantic binary oppositions (e. g., mountain/valley, fire/water, dry/wet), but others are not so easily reconciled with them (e. g., it would be difficult to find Perun’s epithet that is semantically opposed to Veles’s “angry beast”). However, in one sense this does not matter at all: the question of whether the reconstructed semantic elements of texts can be integrated into a system of binary oppositions does not diminish the credibility of the reconstruction. The reconstructed expression * l'uts zvérs, attributed to the adversary of the Slavic Thunder-god,

is a valid reconstruc-

tion, because it relies on the whole set of textual correspondences (Ivanov & Toporov 1974: 56-8), and it will stay valid irrespective of the binaristic interpretation of the whole system of expressions refering to those two Slavic gods. Therefore two different sets of problems should be distinguished in the publications of Ivanov and Toporov: the reconstructed expressions, being fragments of Proto-Slavic texts, and their binaristic semiological interpretations. These interpretations represent, in a sense, a theoretical superstructure that is not necessary to the reconstructions themselves. We do not have to believe that human cultures are based upon the conceptual binary oppositions in order to believe that certain textual reconstructions actually reflect fragments of protolinguistic texts. Cultural phenomena can certainly be DESCRIBED in binary conceptual oppositions, just as in Dumézil's theory (see 889), in which Indo-European social phenomena are described by means of ternary oppositions. However, it remains unproved whether these oppositions are in any sense immanent to the human consciousness as modelled by the society, as is claimed by Lévi-Strauss, and subsequently by Ivanov and Toporov. 823 We have shown that typological confirmations and the binaristic interpretation of reconstructions are not necessary elements of textual reconstruction. These elements are indeed not found in the works of Radoslav Katicic, who has contributed to the reconstruction of Balto-Slavic

texts connected with the pagan fertility rites. Moreover, in his most recent works, Katici¢ has adduced evidence that his reconstructions have an undeniable Proto-Indo-European background (Katició 1993). Katicic uses mostly Baltic and Slavic folklore material, and he uses it in a way that owes a lot to Ivanov and Toporov. In Katició's papers published in "Wiener Slavistisches Jahrbuch" (see Bibliography), all of the reconstructed textual fragments are extremely well documented and confirmed by various texts, which is not always the case in the works of Ivanov and Toporov. 824 Furthermore,

in contrast to the Russian school, Katició is very care-

ful in his interpretations. It is perhaps for this reason that he has still not

25

proposed the complete reconstruction of the Proto-Slavic fertility rite and the texts connected with it, although the number of reconstructed fragments belonging to that complex is already very considerable. For IndoEuropeanists, his work is very important because of the fact that he seems to have discovered very convincing Greek and Balto-Slavic textual correspondences. If his analysis of the data can be shown to be correct, and confirmed on some new material, it will be a very convincing proof of the common Indo-European nature of the reconstructed textual fragments connected with the fertility rites. Namely, Greek and Balto-Slavic represent two branches of the IE linguistic family for which neither intensive cultural contacts, nor a particular dialectal relatedness can be supposed. If any genuine textual correspondences exist between those two branches, they go back directly to common Proto-Indo-European. §25 Precisely for this reason we must now consider those elements of the complex of Balto-Slavic texts reconstructed by Katicic, for which it can be supposed that they have Proto-Indo-European origins. We shall not discuss the procedure by which these elements were reconstructed in the first place; for this, the reader should consult Katicic’s works (see bibliography). §26 The reconstructed scene of the “holy marriage” in the Balto-Slavic tradition is placed, according to Katició, on a meadow (PSI. *loNgs», *loNka, Lith. pieva, lanka) covered by dew (PSI. *rosa, Lith. rasa, Latv. rasa) and fog (PSI. *msgla, Lith. migla, Latv. migla). The participants of the holy rite are *Jarylo, a mythological personage attested in the folklore of the Eastern and Southern Slavs (usually identified with St. George), and *Mara, which is probably the name of a Slavic goddess, the daughter of *Peruns, and Jarylo's sister. The holy marriage is thus a sacrilege, the incest of the two divine personages. They lie together (*let'i) in a green meadow, where grass and clover grow. The scene is watched by an eagle (*orplp), sitting on the top of a holy tree (usually an oak-tree or a fir-tree). In the end, the brother and sister recognize each

about her kin (*kaka jego jesi roda?). The al slaughter of *Jarylo in the shape of a Vedic horse sacrifice (asvamedha-) or the the king and his land (banais ríge), which

other, when

rite probably horse, which Old lrish rite also included

he asks her

ended with the ritureminds one of the of the matrimony of a horse sacrifice.

827 In the adduced sketch of the Proto-Slavic (and Balto-Slavic!) fertility rite one clearly sees the features of Katicic’s method. He does not interpret the reconstructed elements of the myth with respect to their possible function in the structure of the ritual, in order not to impose any aprioristic

26

preconceptions on the reconstructed textual fragments. Therefore, the role played by some elements of the myth, like the “world-tree” with an eagle at its top, or the meaning of the final horse sacrifice, are still unclarified and will probably remain so, because of the necessarily fragmentary re: sults of textual reconstruction. The fact that some elements of the recon. structed texts remain unexplained is not a drawback, but a virtue o Katicic’s approach, because it shows that the myth is not invented on the basis of aprioristic hypotheses. 828 Katicic (1993) found some elements of the aforementioned Slavic myth in a passage of the lliad (14. 346-351):

Balto

*H pa καὶ ἀγκὰς ἔμαρπτε Κρόνου παῖς ἣν TAPAKOILTIV' τοῖσι δ' ὑπὸ χθὼν δῖα φύεν νεοθηλέα ποίην λωτόν θ' ἑρσήεντα ἰδὲ κρόκον ἠδ' ὑάκινθον πυκνὸν καὶ μαλακὸν, ὃς ἀπὸ χθωνὸς ὑψόσ' ἔεργεν. τῷ ἔνι λεξάσθην, ἐπὶ δὲ νεφέλην ἕσσαντο καλὴν χρυσείην: στιλπναὶ ἀπέπιπτον ἔερσαι

“Thus spoke Cronos's son and embraced his wife with his arms. Beneath them, divine earth bore new grass, lotus, and dewy saffron, and hyacinth, thick and tender, that rose upwards from the ground.

The two of them lay there, and they drew around them a beautiful golden fog, while a shiny dew was falling.” §29 We see from the quoted passage that the hieros gamos episode c Zeus and Hera also takes place in a wet place with young grass (G xoín : Lith. pieva « *pohyweh;), in the fog (νεφέλη) and dew (Hom. &épon < PII *h,werseh2 cp. OCS rosa < *h4wroseh?)*. The occurrence of the key wor PIE *pohyweho in this particular context confirms Katicic's conclusion the the same tradition that shaped the Baltic and Slavic texts pertaining to th fertility rite is reflected in the quoted passage of the lliad. Moreover, th expression νεοθελὴς ποίη seems to be formulaic, as its equivalent i found in Hesiod (Theog. 576-7): there it is told how Athene put ornament on Pandora, created by Zeus to punish mankind, and placed the "gentl garlands of young grass, flowers of the meadow around her head" (aud δέ oi στεφάνους νεοθηλέας, ἄνθεα ποίης ἱμερτοὺς περίθηκε καρήατι). Th

? Other related words are L ros, roris, Olr. frass ‘stream’. Olnd. rasa ‘juice, sap’ cann be from PIE *(h,)wroso- because that would contradict Brugmann's law, and becaus initial *wr- remains in Olnd. Thus, Olnd. rasa- probably has nothing to do with PSI. *ros and Lith. rasa.

Hesiodean expression στεφάνους νεοθηλέας, ἄνθεα ποίης is ably dependent on the Homeric νεοθηλέα ποίην. Furthermore, the name of the protagonist of the Slavic myth, etymologically related to Hera's name; both are derived from yor- ‘warm period of the year’ (cp. Haudry 1987); it is also to be

very prob*Jarylo, is PIE *yér-/ noted that

Zeus is Hera's brother, just as Jarylo is Mara's in the Slavic myth"®. §30 The correspondence between G ποίη and Lith. pieva < *pohyweh, is especially important; it is an exclusive Baltic and Greek isogloss, and indeed a very archaic one. The word is probably derived from the root *pehy-/pohy-/phi-, from which we have OCS pitati ‘to feed’, Olr. ithid ‘eats’, Eng. feed, etc. If this is so, the word *pohyweh, probably meant ‘fodder’, or the kind of grass often grazed by horses. The word ποία is also used by Pindar in Pyth. 9. 36: ὁσία κλυτὰν χέρα οἱ προσενεγκεῖν ἦρα καὶ ἐκ λεχέων κεῖραι μελιαδέα ποίαν; "Is it permitted to reach out an ennobling hand towards her, and cut the grass, sweet as honey, from the bed?"

In these verses Apollo asks Cheiron, the Centaur, about Cyrene, the girl he has fallen in love with. It is obvious that the expression ποίαν κείραι hides sexual connotations, which become apparent if we remember that ποία is the key word in the context of the holy matrimony. It is also important to note that Pindar, as well Homer in the quoted passage from the lliad, use words derived from the PIE root *leg"- ‘lie’ (λέξασθαι, ἐκ λεχέων) related to PSI. *let'i, which is the verb used in many folk songs noted by Katicic. 831 Just as in the Slavic myth, the hieros gamos of Zeus and Hera is watched by a bird sitting atop a holy world-tree: it is Hypnos, Dream, who is helping Hera to put Zeus to sleep so that she could help the Achaeans. In lliad, 14. 286-291 we read: ἔνθ' Ὕπνος μὲν ἔμεινε πάρος Διὸς ὄσσε ἰδέσθαι, εἴς ἐλάτην ἀναβὰς περιμήκετον, ἣ τότ' ἐν Ἴδῃ μακροτάτη πεφυυῖα δι' ἠέρος αἰθέρα' ἵκανεν: ἔνθ' ἤστ' ὄζοισιν πεπυκασμένος εἰλατίνοισιν, »

? |n Hom. Hymn, Aphr. 40 it is said that Hera is to Zeus ‘sister and wife’, a clear statement of their incestuous relationship.

28

ὄρνιθι λιγυρῇ ἐναλίγκιος, ἣν τ' ἐν ὄρεσσι χαλκίδα κικλήσκουσι θεοί, ἄνδρες δὲ κύμινδιν. “There Dream remained before Zeus’ eyes saw him, having climbed a tall pine, the highest on Ide, reaching the Aether through the air. There he sat, covered with

branches of the larch, similar to a light-sounding bird called khalkis by the gods, kymindis by men.” In the preceding passage, there are three key words which semantically and in part etymologically correspond to the key words found in the Slavic myth: ὄρνις ‘bird’ < PIE *h,er- (cp. PSI. *orpIp ‘eagle’); ἦστο < *h,eh,s- (cf. Ved. as- ‘sit’); ἐλάτη ‘larch’, perhaps from *h,ed"l-nt-eh, (with the unetymological loss of *d"?), cp. PSI. *jedla < *h,ed’-I-eh, (Lith. eg/é, L ebulus). | must repeat that the episode with the bird watching the holy matrimony is not well understood

in the Slavic myth; the fact that it is unmotivated

in the

lliad as well, might be used as an argument that the two are in some way related. 832 In the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite we find numerous parallels to the holy coupling of Zeus and Hera. The formulas used and the vocabulary are so similar, that the hymn must have been shaped on the model of the passage from the 14th book of the lliad, or both texts were influenced by a third, unknown source"'. In the hymn, it is told how Aphrodite seduced

Anchises,

Aeneas’

father,

on

the

mountain

Ide

(whose

peak

Gargaros is also the place where the hieros gamos of Zeus and Hera takes place). Aphrodite fell in love with the shepherd Anchises, "hero as beautiful as the gods" (Hymn. Aph. 77: ἥρωα θεῶν ἄπο κάλλος ἔχοντα). The mountain Ide bears the same attribute μήτηρ θερῶν “mother of beasts" as in the lliad. There are meadows covered with grass on its slopes, where Anchises guarded his cattle; in the expression νομοὺς κάτα ποιήεντας "on the grass-covered pasturages" (ibid.: 78) we encounter the reflex of the PIE key word *pohyweh,. Aphrodite wears shining clothes (86): πέπλον μὲν yàp ἕεστο γαεινότερον πυρὸς αὐγῆς

“She wore a peplos more shining than the gleam of fire” " Richard Janko, one of the most prominent contemporary authorities on the Homeric Hymns, thinks that the Hymn to Aphrodite is one of the most beautiful, but also most mysterious hymns, with respect to its place and date of origin, and to its relation to other poetry (Janko 1982: 151); | hope that the opinions expressed in this chapter could contribute to a better understanding of the place of this hymn in the whole Homeric tradition.

29

She also wears a miraculous belt (C@vn < *yeh,sneh,, v. 164), that she lent to Hera in the Iliad episode (Il. 14. 214-222). In the Slavic tradition, the related word *pojass (< *po-yeh,s-) appears as the usual attribute of the divine bridegroom, or as a wedding gift, just like in the Lithuanian folklore (Lith. juosta < *yeh,s-t-, cp. Biezais 1975)'?. Anchises, stunned by Aphrodite’s beauty, thinks that she is a goddess or a nymph (91-99): “Hail to you, madam, who comes to these dwellings of the blessed, Arthemide or Leto, or golden Aphrodite, or well-born Themis, or Athene with shining eyes. Or are you one of the Charites, that socialize with all the gods and call themselves immortal, or one of the nymphs that dwell in beautiful groves, or one of the nymphs living on this nice hill and by these river sources and grassy woods (πίσεα ποιήεντα)" Anchises, by addressing the goddess, uses a very ancient textual pattern, appearing in a similar context when Odysseus meets Nausiacaia (Od. 6. 149ff.): "| beg thee, lady, are you a deity or a mortal? If you are one of the deities that dwell in the broad Heaven, then you seem to me as Artemide, the daughter of Great Zeus, by your appearance and countenance." 833 An unusual correspondence to the aforementioned textual pattern, used by a mortal when he meets an unknown woman or goddess, can be found in Mahabharata (1. 160. 34ff.), when king Samvarana meets the daughter of the Sun-god, Tapati: "Who are you? Whose are you? What brought you here, o girl with wonderful hips? Why do you wander alone in this lonely wilderness, o girl with a pure smile? ... | do not know whether to consider you a goddess, or Asuri, YakSi or a Snake-woman, Gandharvi or

a woman?"? Are there traces of a PIE textual pattern in these passages from Homer and Mahabharata? This matter cannot be settled definitely, but | must mention another possible parallel, found in Edda, Skírnismál 17. In that song

it is told how

Skírnir wooed

Gerd,

the daughter

of a Giant,

on

the

behalf of the god Freyr; Gerd addressed Skirnir with the following words (loc. cit.):

"2 In Croatian songs, the bridegroom wears the speckled belt (pisan pojas, cp. Katicié 1990b); the word pisan 'speckled' is from the same root (PIE *peyk-) as G ποικίλος that characterizes Aphrodites miraculous belt (μμάντα ποικίλον, Il. 14. 214-215). The belt was possibly a gift of the bridegroom to the bride in the PIE wedding rite. 13 Pisani (1968: 161) adduces another parallel from the Mahabharata (1. 92. 30ff.) where the formula of addressing a girl is almost identical: “Are you a goddess or a daughter of Giants, Gandharvi or Yak$i ...”.

30

“Are you one of the Albs, or of the sons of Ases, or of the wise Vans?”

The fact that the roles have been switched—that it is the girl who poses Ihe question—cannot conceal the similarity of the textual pattern, when compared with the already analyzed passages from Homer and the Mahabharata. In the same Eddic poem, we find another motive that has its correspondences in Greek and Balto-Slavic tradition—the motive of the golden apples, offered by Skirnir to the divine bride as dowry (Skirnismal 19:

epli ... algullin)'*. In the Slavic tradition, the question about the bride's kin has a ritual importance (see above), as it precedes the moment when the divine bride and bridegroom recognize each other as brother and sister. §34 Is there any reason to believe that Tapati, Aphrodite, and Mara from the Balto-Slavic tradition represent the same personage, inherited from the PIE mythology? Perhaps the following arguments will contribute to that conclusion. Tapati, being the daughter of the Sun (Savitar), is certainly identical with Süryä, who is also Sun's daughter, to whom several wedding songs were dedicated (cp. RV 10. 85, AV 14. 1, 14. 2). Surya is conceived as a prototypical bride, and the earthly bride is often compared with her. Her relationship with the Vedic god Sürya, who was in the postVedic pantheon replaced by Savitar, is not altogether clear. It is possible that Surya is only a hypostasis of the Vedic Dawn, USas. The Balto-Slavic myth, as reconstructed by Katicic also features a heavenly wedding. In a Serbian folk-song, the bride speaks: Ja sam Suncu rodena sestrica, a mjesecu prvobratuceda “| am the Sun’s own sister, and the nearest cousin

of the Moon" (Srpske narodne pjesme, 1. 232, see also Katicié 1993). In the Baltic tradition, the bride is Saules meita (Latv. ‘Sun's girl’), and in a Lithuanian folk-song it is explicitly stated that the bride’s mother is Saule ‘Sun’ (see below). Again we see that the heavenly wedding is the prototype of the terrestrial wedding, and that the bride of the heavenly wedding is the "Sun's maiden", most probably the Dawn (Ved. USas, Lith. Ausra). In a very well-known Lithuanian daina, “AuSriné’s wedding" (Gabrys 1913: 10) the Morning Star (Ausriné) is identified with the Sun's daughter (Saulés dukryté, v. 7). The bridegroom in Lithuanian wedding-songs is usually identified with the Moon (Ménuo), see Gabrys, op. cit.: 9-10.

* For the motive of the golden apple in the Slavic myth, see Katiéié 1990b: 189; the reconstructed PSI. formula *zolto(je) ablbko corresponds etymologically to the quoted ON expression epli algullin. In the Greek tradition, the motive of the golden apples is well known from the myth of the apples of Hesperides.

31

Our claim that Aphrodite was also involved in the divine wedding myths, reflected in the analyzed passage from the lliad 14, is confirmed by the following verses from Hesiod, where it is said about Aphrodite (Theog. 194-5): ἐκ δ' ἔβη αἰδοίη καλὴ θεὸς, ἀμφὶ δὲ ποὶη ποσσὶν ὕπο ῥαδινοῖσιν ἀέξετο" “And she went out of there,

a modest,

beautiful

goddess,

and poia began to grow under her light feet.” | do not believe that the key word ποίη appears accidentally in this passage; among very few words dedicated to Aphrodite in Theogony, we find precisely the word which plays such an important role in the reconstructed myth. The importance of this word is confirmed by the following verses of a Lithuanian folk-song containing many elements related to the Balto-Slavic fertility rite (Katalogas, 6, No. 55): Vasaros naktele menulis tekéjo, bernulis mergele i namus lydéjo. Kur jiedu sédéjo, pievelé Zaliavo "During a summer night, the moon rose, a young man accompanied a girl to her house. Where the two of them sat, the grass (pieva) was green ...". 835 What justifies the assumption that Dawn, Ἠώς, was the original bride in the myth of the divine wedding in the Greek tradition? Here are some details pointing to that conclusion: in verse 81 of the Hymn to Aphrodite, the goddess is called θυγάτηρ Διὸς 'daughter of Zeus', although she is not his daughter in the proper sense, as she was born from the sea foam (ἀφρός). The etymologically correspondent Vedic syntagm duhita divas ‘daughter of Dyaus (Sky) is the exclusive epithet of the Dawn,

USas.

Furthermore,

USas

is often referred to as ‘Bright’ vibhati (see

Gonda 1959), and the etymologically connected epithets are used in the description of Aphrodite's clothes and jewelry, to the extent that the use of exactly these words cannot be due to chance. Her peplos is "brighter than a gleam of fire" (v. 86, see above), and her jewelry is also bright (κόσμον ... φαεινόν, v. 162). Finally, one of the epithets of USas is hiranyavarnd (e.

15. The most convincing etymology of Aphrodite's name also brings this goddess in a relation with heavenly phenomena (one should recall one of her epithets, Obpa via ‘heavenly’). Her name is compounded of PIE *nb"ro- ‘cloud’ (cp. Olnd. abhra- ‘cloud, rain’) and *dih-teh, ‘bright’ (cp. Olnd. diti- ‘bright, shiny’). In PIE *nb"ro- we have the same PIE root as in G νέφος 'cloud', and this is the word used in the episode about Zeus and Hera making love on the Gargaros (see 831) to refer to the cloud wherein they were hidden. | owe the etymology of Aphrodite’s name to Deborah Dickelmann Boedeker (1974: 7ff.).

32

4. RV 3. 61. 2), whereas Aphrodite is the only Greek goddess that is relored to as χρυσεία ‘golden’ (in the Hymn, v. 93: χρυσέη ‘Adpoditn)”. §36 The most striking textual correspondence connecting Aphrodite with the Vedic Dawn and the PIE myth of heavenly wedding is found in the Hymn to Aphrodite (v. 217ff.). There Dawn (Hoc) herself appears in a story told by Aphrodite to Anchises; as he was seduced by Aphrodite, Dawn had seduced Titho, and then kept him in her dwelling forever, making him immortal; however, she had forgotten to ask Zeus to grant him eternal youth, and therefore Titho keeps on aging, while remaining with her forever. This episode of the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite shares with the description of the hieros gamos of Zeus and Hera, and the description of the seduction of Anchises by Aphrodite, a formula that must have been initially connected with Dawn: it is said that Eos left Titho in her dwelling and "closed the shining doors" θύρας 5' ἐπέθηκε φαεινάς (I. 236). The very same formula appears also earlier in the Hymn, when Aphrodite closes the door of her temple in Paphos on Cyprus: Ev0' ἥ γ' εἰσέλθοῦσα θύρας ἐπέθηκε φαεινάς “And then, entering, she closed the shining doors” Hera, before seducing Zeus, did the same thing, entering her chamber (θάλαμος), which Hephaestos had built for her, with a secret key (κληῖδι κρυπτῇ): Evo’ ἥ γ' εἰσέλθοῦσα θύρας ἐπέθηκε φαεινάς (ll. 14. 169) The shining doors mentioned in this formula were initially the attribute of Dawn.

In RV,

it is USas who

opens

the doors of heaven

(dvdrau divas,

cp. 1. 48. 15). She does it through her brightness (bhanund), and that is a word derived from the same root as Hom. φαεινός (PIE *b"eh,-nyo-). If there was an original myth about the holy wedding of the Dawn and a certain hero, it is easy to imagine how several elements of that myth were transferred to new contexts, to stories about the love adventures of other goddesses. This is understandable if it is taken into account that Eos lost

‘© In the Gargaros episode, Hera's hair is also bright (πλοκάμους ... φαεινούς, Il. 14, 176), and her shawl (κρήδεμνον) is "bright (or white) like the sun" (λευκὸν δ' ἣν ἠέλιος ὦ, ll. 14. 185); USas "wears bright clothes" (RV 7. 77. 2). Textual correspondences between Usas and Aphrodite are, however, much more penetrating (see also Dunkel 1992). It appears, then, that Hera took over some of Aphrodite's epithets in the Gargaros episode of the Iliad.

33

her importance in the development of Greek religion, so that traces of her earlier importance can be found only in Homer". §37 There are other elements connecting the Balto-Slavic fertility rite and the PIE Dawn-Goddess. Those correspondences are not altogether reliable, but | shall adduce them nevertheless, hoping that other elements might be discovered in the future, and that at least some of the correspondences shall be confirmed. Firstly, the “golden garland” is a very important element in many Baltic and Slavic wedding songs. Such garlands usually adorn the bride, e. g. in a Russian song: Krasnaja devuska tamo guljala ... tamo guljala per'ja sbirala ... V rukavok brala, venok vila ... zlat venok “A beautiful girl lied there ... she lied there and picked feathers ... she picked them into her sleeve, she wove a garland ... a golden garland” (Katició 1989: 92) The same motive is encountered in the South Slavic folklore; in a Croatian song from the fertility cycle we read: Devet brace sve zlatara, skovat cemo vijencu kite, vijencu kite i urese (ibid.) “Nine brothers, all goldsmiths, we shall coin the crests and ornaments on the garland”. The wedding-garland (venac) is a very important item in the Serbian folklore as well, see SMR 60. The etymologically identical word, Lith. vainikas, Latv. vainags, is also usually encountered in the Baltic weddingsongs (Katalogas, 6, No. 8, 17, 25, Dainos, passim). One must recall that Aphrodite is the only Greek goddess whose epithet is “well-garlanded” (εὐστέφανος). It is almost certain that the key episode of the Balto-Slavic fertility myth takes place at dawn. Several Lithuanian songs depicting a meeting of the lovers begin with the expression iSauso ausrelé “the dawn dawned” (cp., e. g., Dainos, 8, 135); this expression is a figura etymologica, and a very probably related formula is attested in the Rig-Veda (see §187). The Croatian songs collected by Katició very often begin with the episode in which Mara awakes her brothers-in-law, the sons of Perun (e. g., Mara djevojka po gradu Sece, po gradu Sece, deverke budi “The girl Mara walks There is another set of correspondences worth examining; we know that the holy marriage is incestuous in the Slavic tradition, as the marriage is between brother and sister. In the Latvian tradition there is a trace of the motive of divine incest in the songs dedicated to a fertility-god (Jumis) who wooes his own sister (Jumala), cp. Barons 50246: Jumeits sovu Jumalepu / ap teirumu dancynuoja; / Jumalepa riksem skréa, / Jumeits leksiem paka/ä “Jumis led Jumala / to dance on a pasturage; Jumala ran with light steps / Jumis ran after her”. Furthermore, in a song adduced by Toporov (1982: 163), we read: "Jumis looks for Jumala // walking on a meadow. // Brother looks for his bride // enquiring with his sister". Jumis and Jumala's names are probably related to the names of Yama and Yami, the brother and sister who were the first to commit incest according to the RigVedic religion (cp. RV 10. 10).

34

through the garden, walks through the garden, law",

Katició

1989:

90). This motive,

awakes

the brothers-in-

unclear within the Croatian

tradition,

is perhaps related to the fact that the verb derived from the same root (PIE *b"ewd"-) is very often predicated to USas; she is the goddess who awakes (bodhayati) the sleeping mankind: mahé no adyá bodhayóso rayé divitmati "O divine USas, awake us today for a great wealth" (RV 5. 79. 1). She awakes the gods as well, e. g. the divine twins, Asvins: prá bodhayóso asvinä pra devi sünrte mahi “Wake the Asvins, o great goddess Usas, with good strength" (RV 8. 9. 17; see also 1. 113. 8, where the epithet of the goddess is bodhayant/'awakening"). Finally, in at least one instance, dawn is also explicitly mentioned in a Slavic song related to the divine wedding myth. In a Serbian song, of the heavenly bride it is said /z lica joj sunce sjase, a iz grla mjesecina, iz njedara zora sjajna "From her face, the sun shone, from her throat the moon, and from her breasts, the shiny dawn" (Katicic 1989: 87). 838 Many claims put forward in the preceding pages are not more than conjectures. However, only by exploring such conjectures can our reconstructions become more firmly established. What is already known, however, seems to justify the supposition that the Balto-Slavic, Greek, and Indo-Iranian traditions preserve rather pale traces of PIE mythological texts pertaining to a myth of a heavenly wedding. The importance attributed to this conclusion depends on the way that textual reconstruction is looked upon in general. 839 | personally find the course taken by Katicic’s investigation of BaltoSlavic folklore important,

because

it seriously questions

a "dogma"

about

PIE culture, namely, the belief that that culture was completely dominated by warriors' values and ideology. The picture of the PIE poetry suggested by the works of Schmitt, Campanile (see S56ff.) and others, is perfectly in accordance with that dogma: social relations and values attested in the societies of Medieval Europe and Homeric Greece are transferred into the distant past of the PIE protolanguage, and the poetry of the Proto-IndoEuropeans is depicted as consisting mostly of hymns and eulogies to gods, chiefs and warriors, praising military and patriarchal virtues, cp. Schlerath 1995: 14: “Es ist auffällig, daß in den Fragmenten der idg. Dichtersprache, die wir erschlieRen kónnen, jeder Bezug auf Fruchtbarkeitsriten oder Fruchtbarkeitskult (also Dumézils dritte Funktion) fehlt." Katiéié’s 35

results, to which

| hope

| have been able to contribute, on the other hand,

offer a completely different picture of at least some of the poetry of the Proto-Indo-Europeans, and the fertility rites that appear through the fragments of the reconstructed texts have very little in common with the allegedly “militaristic” PIE culture. They probably represent the remnants of a very archaic religious stratum, older than the religious ideas expressed in the Iliad or the Indra hymns of the Rig-Veda.

COMPARATIVE STYLISTICS AND THE PREHISTORY OF LITERARY FORMS

§40 | have already pointed out that the strategies of comparative textual research in IE linguistics after Schmitt's synthesis had been mostly inductive: starting with one or two literary traditions, conclusions have been reached—whenever that seemed possible—in general about the PIE poetic tradition. A typical example of such a strategy is found in the work of the Italian philologist Marcello Durante. In a series of articles, some of which were published in Schmitt's collection (1968), Durante tried to examine the correspondences between the Greek and Old Indian poetic traditions in the domain of style and poetic expression. From this research evolved his great synthetic monograph about the prehistory of Greek poetry (Durante 1976). §41 Before analyzing Durante’s views in some detail, we must say something about the backgrounds of his theoretical orientation. It originates, namely, in the neolinguistic current of the Italian comparative school;

Durante’s

teachers

and

forerunners

were

Bonfante,

Devoto,

and

Pisani. It is therefore not surprising that he is not as interested in the PIE language as in the contacts and mutual influences of particular daughter languages, or the “language mixing”, by which the Neo-linguists used to explain the correspondences between the IE languages. Accordingly, Durante thought that the real object of his investigations were the mutual influences between the Greek and Indo-Iranian poetic traditions, occuring, in his opinion, on the Northern coasts of the Black Sea in the 3rd millennium BC. According to Durante, correspondences in poetic language and style in the earliest poetry of Greeks and Indo-lranians are exclusive, as they do not extend to the other IE languages (except, perhaps, Armenian, about whose original poetic tradition very little is known). 842 The isoglosses connecting the Greek and Indo-Iranian languages arose, Durante thinks, during the intensive contacts of the two peoples (Durante 1976: Il, 48). Although he never says so explicitly, it appears that

36

he did not believe at all in the hypothesis that Greek and Indo-Iranian are particularly closely related dialects of PIE (in the genetic sense). In any case, he tried to explain away the linguistic isoglosses connecting these two branches by means of contact linguistics. He sees the fact that many morphologically isolated words in Homeric Greek are related only to Vedic forms (cp. G στεῦται, Ved. stauti ‘solemnly proclaims’, G ἄμβροτος Ved. amyta- ‘immortal’, etc.) as a consequence of the cultural domination of the Indo-Iranians over the ancestors of the Greeks. The Proto-Greek language was, according to Durante, the recipient, and the (Proto-)Indolranian language the source of such words. “Il lessico greco ereditato, nella misura

in cui non deriva da archetipi a vasta diffusione indoeuropea,

presenta rapporti non soltanto con l'ario, bensi anche con l'armeno e col baltoslavo, et periodicamente con altre lingue. Orbene, i corrispettivi greci di tali isoglosse non hanno uno specifico rapporto col linguaggio poetico" (Durante 1976: Il, 45). He compares the relationship of Greek and Old Indian poetry with the relationship of Italian and Provengal poetic languages in the 13th century: in both cases, according to Durante, are the specific correspondences within the poetic languages much greater than the correspondences of the lexica, which result from the genetic relatedness of the languages. 843 The fact that he regards the relationship between Greek and IndoIranian poetry in a new way made it possible for Durante to offer a new explanation to the textual correspondences discovered or collected by Schmitt. His greatest reproach to Schmitt is that he does not show "i quali criteri asseverino che una serie di coincidenze fra tradizioni poetiche di lingue apparentate sottende un rapporto preistorico; e se questo rapporto sia di natura tale da implicare necessariamente la ricostruzione di archetipi, oppure ammetta un’ interpretazione diversa" (Durante 1976: Il, 7). The "other explanations" mentioned by Durante are offered by the hypothesis of mutual cultural influences; therefore, we seldom find reconstructions of PIE forms in Durante's works, but only comparisons of similar expressions or stylistic procedures, pointing to common conceptions and cultural patterns within which the Greek and Indo-Iranian poetic traditions were formed. The traditional comparative method is not applicable in the examination of the relationship between the poetic traditions, because the explorer's task is not the reconstruction of the proto-linguistic forms. The object of examination are not only the syntagms with correspondent expressions,

as in Schmitt's book,

tutti quegli rattiva,

quali

aspetti della poesia la versificazione,

but "si tratta poi di estendere

che

siano

la tematica,

la ricerca a

possibili di indagine

compa-

i generi

poetico"

di discorso

(Durante, op. cit.: Il, 10). The most important thing, according to Durante,

37

is to compare the stylistic procedures, 6. g., the use of epithets, metaphors, and other figures of speech. He rightly pointed out that that field of research had been rather neglected in Greek and Indian studies (ibid.). Schmitt and other German scholars laid too much emphasis on the comparison of the etymologically correspondent expressions; those expressions are very rare, and have no greater importance as proof of a cultural contact than those expressions that are correspondent with respect to their meaning only, so long as both kinds of correspondences point to the same cultural heritage. “Non dunque la coincidenza tra due delle tante realizzazioni, ma l'affinità delle respettive tecniche di produzione poetica, nonché dei temi trattati, deve costituire il momento centrale della comparazione" (Durante 1976: Il, 12). 844 It is Durante's great merit to have directed the attention of scholars to comparative

stylistics, to which

he had

much

contributed.

However,

his

interpretation of the correspondences between the Greek and Indo-Iranian poetic traditions is very probably wrong. Though there are a number of very old isoglosses separating them", the correspondences of Greek, Indo-Iranian and Armenian are so abundant that they cannot be explained solely by borrowing, which allegedly took place due to close cultural contacts. It am not referring to the archaisms preserved by Indo-lranian and Greek,

because

archaisms

can

never prove

close dialectal

relatedness;

am referring rather to common innovations. According to H. Rix (1976: 89), the Greek vocabulary has its closest relative in Armenian, while the Greek phonological system shares most correspondences with Iranian, and the Greek verbal system is closely related to Old Indian. We should add that some correspondences, probably representing common dialectal innovations, are attested in the nominal system as well, e. g., the formation of the G. sg. of the thematic nouns by means of *-osyo (cp. Hom. AOKo10, Olnd. vykasya ‘of the wolf)'?. | also think that the comparative formation by the means of the suffix *-tero- (G -tepoc, Olnd. -tara-) should be counted as an isogloss connecting Greek and Indo-Iranian, as that suffix was used to form contrastive adjectives in other IE languages (cp. L dexter, sinis-ter).

18 E. g., the reflex of the PIE labiovelars, which were preserved in the Western IE languages and Greek, and merged with the velars in the Eastern IE languages (cp. Matasovic 1992). 19 The Faliscan ending -osio (cp. the vase inscription eko Kaisiosio) and the Arch. L G. sg. POPLIOSIO VALESIOSIO (Satricum) are still unclear. They might be explained as an independent innovation, or as implying that the Italic languages were a part of the IE dialect group that had developed that genitival ending (cp. Szemerényi 1989: 194-195).

38

|

845 The phonological isoglosses of Greek and Indo-Iranian are very old: in both branches operated the so-called Bartholomae’s law, which

cannot be traced back to common PIE”; moreover, in both branches the reflexes of the vocalic nasals (PIE *n and *m) are the same, namely G a and Olnd. a (cp. G δέκα, Olnd. dasa « PIE *dekm ‘ten’). However, the common innovations in the verbal systems of Greek and Vedic are the most apparent. They are manifested in the existence of three temporal! stems (Present, Aorist and Perfect), in the thorough correspondence of the primary medial verbal endings (*-h,ey, *-soy, *-toy, *-medh,, *-d"we, *-ntoy ...), in the parallel formation of medial perfect, which does not go back to common PIE, in the use of the augment (the preverbal particle *e) in all past tenses, etc. In some of the cases the parallelism might be due to convergence, typical of some "linguistic areas"; namely, it has been noted that languages can develop whole grammatical categories under the influence of a substratum or adstratum (e. g., the development of plusquamperfect in Welsh under the Romance influence, or the development of the secondary, local cases in Lithuanian under the Finnic influence); even morphemes expressing certain grammatical categories can be borrowed (e. g., the vocative sg. in -o of the feminine nouns in Romanian was probably borrowed from Slavic). However, borrowing of whole morphological paradigms has not been observed so far, and so the parallelism of the endings in Greek and Old Indic medial present cannot be due to borrowing. Such isoglosses point to the existence of a GraecoIndo-Iranian(-Armenian) dialectal sub-group within PIE, and perhaps also to the existence of a Graeco-Indo-Iranian(-Armenian) proto-language?'. 846 Concerning the lexical correspondences of Greek and Old Indian pertaining to the poetic language (mostly, of the Homeric corpus and the Vedas), they can simply be interpreted as archaisms, characteristic of poetic language as such. Thus, they are not borrowings, results of intensive cultura! contacts, as Durante thought. The fact that Hom. στεῦμαι and Ved. stauti were attested in the respective poetic languages does not prove that these words were originally characteristic only of poetry; they

? Contrary to the opinion of Mayrhofer (1987). The law has been observed in Greek examples such as πάσχω ‘I suffer’ < *b"nd^skoh,, κύσθος ‘vulva’ « "kud"-to-s, cp. Olnd.

buddha- ‘awaken’ « *b" ud"-to-. the has un, the

21 Phrygian possibly also belongs to this dialectal sub-group of PIE; it has developed augment (cp. Phrygian εδαες 'posuit). Albanian was perhaps also related, because it the prohibitive negation derived from the root *meh, (> Alb. mos), just like Olnd. ma, Ὁ Arm. mi. To this list Toch. A, B, má should probably be added. In other IE languages prohibitive negation is derived from the root *ne-.

39

were only preserved in poetry, thanks to the well-known tendency of poet-

ic language to preserve archaic vocabulary”. 847 | conclude that Durante's explanation of the correspondences in the poetic texts of the Greeks and the Indo-lranians is untenable; there are no linguistic arguments proving the presence of the Greeks (or “ProtoGreeks”) on the North-Eastern coast of the Black Sea before the time of the Greek colonization; there are also no compelling reasons to believe that either Proto-Greek or (Proto-)Indo-Iranian borrowed lexical elements from each other. The correspondences of the poetic traditions, analyzed by Durante, were inherited from the period of Graeco-Indo-Iranian(-Armenian) dialectal community. Although | do not share Durante's opinion that the poetic traditions of other IE languages were "sostanzialmente difformi rispetto al modello di poesia greco-ario" (Durante 1976: Il, 66), it is yet to be shown whether there are any features common to all IE poetic traditions. 848 A large part of Durante's monograph is dedicated to the examination of the use of different stylemes in Greek and Indo-Iranian poetry. He systematically compared personifications, metaphors and figures of repetition. However, most thorough is his research in the use of epithets in the oldest Greek and Indo-lranian texts (Durante 1976: ||, 89-104). Durante thinks that the use of epithets of correspondent meaning points to a common (in the sense of a cultural community) Graeco-Indo-lranian poetic tradition.

The

particular

epithets

are,

in his

opinion,

used

exclusively

in

these traditions, and in no other. Durante claims that only one expression consisting of an epithet and a noun, "black earth", is attested outside of Greek and Indo-Iranian, namely in Germanic and Slavic (1976: ll, 99, n. 4; see also Durante 1962). This claim is, as we shall see, plainly false. Namely, among the 28 correspondent expressions of the type epithet + noun adduced by Durante (loc. cit.), the following parallels are found in branches other than Greek and Indo-Iranian: 1. "Swift horses’—Ved. asvä äsavas, Hom. ὠκύες ἵπποι, Av. aspágho asaso (Y 17. 12). There are correspondences (although etymologically non-identical) in ORuss. (6opaue xoMouu), OEng. (swifta mearh) and in Olr. (eich lüaith); for attestations, see 8104.

22 For lexical isoglosses of Greek and Indo-Iranian see Porzig 1954: 158-161. For other isoglosses connecting these branches of IE see Meid 1975, Gamkrelidze & Ivanov 1984: |, 370-418. | should note that | agree with the views of the two latter authors on the dialectal sub-grouping within PIE; however, | reject the Italo-Celtic hypothesis, while Gamkrelidze and Ivanov accept it.

40

2. "Broad earth"—Ved. k$àm urvim, Ὁ εὐρεῖα χθών. Durante (1976: Il, 92) admits that there is a parallel formula in OEng. wide geond eordan ‘on the broad earth’ (Beowulf, 226). In Slavic folklore, we often encounter expressions such as Russ. nome wmupoxoe ‘wide field’; in the Baltic tradition, we find verses such as the following: Vaj, Janiti, Dieva dels,

“O, Janis, son of Dievs,

tavu platu cepuriti visa plata pasaulite apaks tavas cepurites.

your hat is so broad! the whole broad world is under your hat!”

(B 32909)

We should note that the Latv. adjective plats is etymologically related to Olnd. pythivi ‘earth’, originally ‘the broad one’; the Celtic name of Bretagne,

Litavi, is the etymological

equivalent of Ved. py/thivi, and

it probably

also meant ‘the broad one’ (cp. Olr. /ethan ‘broad’ « *litano-). This toponymic fact becomes more easily understandable in the light of the proposed PIE poetic expression. 3. "Famous name”—Ved. nama srutyam, Hom. ὄνομα κλυτόν. One should certainly add the etymologically related ORuss. formula cnaspHoe uma (for attestations see §99). 4. "Good man'—Ved. viras ... vasu-, Hom. ἀνήρ ἠύς (te μέγας te). In Olr. we find the very old, etymologically correspondent compound soér ‘noble’ < *su-wih,ro-. However, the etymological correspondence could easily be coincidental. Therefore, we should note another Olr. parallel: fö fer (Mac Cécht) ‘good man (Mac Cécht)' (Togail Bruidne Da Derga, 1495); Olr. fo fer is completely parallel to Ved. viras ... vasu- (< PIE *wesu wih,ro-). 5. “Otherworld (/’a/dila) with good horses", G "Aıdı κλυτοπώλῳ (D. 56.), Av. hwa6wo ‘with good horses’, the constant epithet of the Underworld god Yima. The same conception appears in Old Irish descriptions of the Otherworld, e. g., in the song describing it in the saga “Serglige Con Culainn" (490-494): Atát arin dorus tíar insin áit hi funend grían graig ngabor nglas, brec a mong is araile corcorndond. "Near the western door, there, where the sun sets, there is a herd of grey horses with speckled manes and another purple-brown (herd)." 41

A very similar descriptionis found in the description of the otherworld in the story "Immram Brain" (815): Graig dir buidi and for srath // graig aile co corcordath “There is a yellow-golden herd of horses on the meadow // and another herd, purple in colour’. 6. "Strong spirit"—Ved. isirena ... manasa, G ἱερὸν μένος. The following parallel is from Old English, “The Battle of Maldon” (312-313): Hige sceal be heardra, heorte be cenre mod sceal be mare, be ure mzgen Iytlad “Our spirit shall be stronger, our heart braver, our mind shall be greater, the more our power diminishes” Also, in “The Seafarer” (109): Stieran mon sceal strongum mode “One should steer the strong spirit". OEng. mod is probably the closest semantic equivalent of Olnd. manas, G μένος. 7. "Man-slaying hero (or god)'—Ved. rudraya nyghne (D. sg.), Hom. Ἕκτορος ἀνδροφόνοιο (G. sg.). Such epithets are rather common in Old Irish eulogies for various chieftains (cf. Campanile 1988: passim). In a very archaic Olr. poem ('retoiric") from the saga "Serglige Con Culainn" (186) we read: Créchtnaigid curpu gonaid sóeru saigid oirgniu

"He wounds bodies he slays nobles he seeks destructions"

The emphasized expression contains the verb gonaid, which is from the same PIE root as Ved. han- ‘slay’ in nfh2-. It is possible that a parallel to this Vedic epithet is also to be found in the Gaulish personal name Vosugonum (G. pl.), cp. Ellis-Evans 1967: 210. On the relation of anthroponymy and poetic language, see above, 89. 8. "Bright mantle, (suit)', usually worn by gods, cf. G πέπλος φαεινός, Ved. rusad vasas; Old Irish gods and heroes also usually wear shining clothes, especially golden, bright mantles, cf. bratt gélfhind 'bright white mantle' of the druid Sencha Mac Ailella (Mesca Ulad, 746), or bratt brec banöir ‘speckled mantle of white gold’ (ibid.: 397). The supreme Irish god Dagda also wears 'a shiny, milk-colored mantle' (sárbratt lachtnai, ibid.: 625). 9. "Broad fame"—G κλέος εὐρύ, Olnd. uru- sravas, psthu- sravas. In Olr., we can compare a very archaic legal formula pertaining to the King's honor (Triads, 235): is leithiu enech ríg aidbriud "The King's honor is broader than any (legal) request”.

42

849 We see that of 28 Graeco-Indo-lranian correspondences in the use of poetic epithets, for at least one third there are parallels in other IE traditions. Some of those correspondences are not full, and the etymological equivalence of expressions is encountered very rarely. However, considering that all other IE traditions must have gone through a long period of independent development since the separation of the Graeco-IndoIranian dialect group, and considering that their texts are attested much later than the Vedic and Homeric poems, such pale and incomplete textual correspondences are to be expected a priori. Durante’s rejection of “Western Indo-European” traditions seems to be motivated largely by his ignorance of those traditions. 850 Durante's effort “di confermare l'inadeguatezza del ipotesi di una poesia panindoeuropea" (Durante 1976: Il, 66) has failed. He did, however, succeed in showing a set of correspondences in style and phraseology between

Greek

and

Indo-Iranian

traditions,

but,

on

the

other

hand,

existence of such correspondences does not allow us to conclude they are the exclusive heritage of those two traditions.

the

that

851 Although some of his conclusions cannot be accepted, it is Durante's great merit to have elucidated a part of the prehistory of the Greek poetry, and to have shown how much of that poetry had been inherited from earlier periods. It is very important to emphasize his conclusion that the Greek epic had developed from hymnic poetry, comparable in form with the Vedic süktas. It is interesting that a similar conclusion was reached independently by a Croatian indologist, Mislav Jezic (JeZzic

1987)?. He has compared the Homeric hymns (especially the Hymn to Helios) with the Vedic suktas, and concluded that they contain elements of a common poetic tradition; such elements are threefold: either they are etymologically correspondent syntagms of the kind analyzed by Schmitt (e. g. Ved. süryam spasam, G Ἠέλιον σκοπόν ‘overlooking sun’), or they represent less obvious correspondences, without completely parallel form and meaning in Greek and Vedic: that is, etymologically related words have been replaced by synonyms in semantically related syntagms (e. g., Ved. hiranyapraugam ratham, G χρυσόζυγον ἅρμα ‘a golden-yoked car’), or the syntagms have remained etymologically related, but their meaning and use have changed (e. g., the correspondence between the epithet of

? Durante's works are not referred to in Jezié’s monograph (1987), which is primarily concerned with the interpretation of Vedic hymns; however, its contribution to matters Indo-European is also considerable.

43

the Vedic god Savitar, citrabhanu- ‘of pure brilliance’ and the name of Helios’ mother Εὐρυφάεσσα ‘of broad brilliance’, cp. Jezié 1987: 35-47)”. §52 Besides such arguments in favour of the genetic relatedness of the two traditions, JeZic occasionally points out that one can sometimes conclude that a poetic expression had been inherited from the Protolanguage, although no etymologically related expression can be found in other traditions. This can be seen clearly in the example of the isolated Homeric epithet βοῶπις 'ox-eyed', attributed to Hera and Euryphaessa. In Greek, that epithet is rather unusual, very different from other epithets attributed

to Homeric gods?, but in the Rig-Veda, epithets of that kind are very common (op. cit.: 46-47). Therefore, it is plausible, according to JeZic, to suppose that such Greek epithets were inherited from an earlier period, when gods had not yet been conceived of in human shape, so that βοῶπις Εὐρυφάεσσα had originally meant ‘the goddess of broad brilliance, whose eye

is a bull’.

In the

RV

the sun

is often

identified with a bull, whence

it

becomes clearer why βοῶπις is so often attributed to Helios’ mother. Jezic’s argument thus follows a very important methodological principle that can be generalized as follows: if an expression, isolated and hardly understandable in one Indo-European tradition, becomes understandable when compared with expressions of a similar type in other traditions, we can conclude that the expression had been inherited from the Protolanguage, although it may be the case that no etymological equivalent has been found. This principle is actually parallel to Meillet's dictum that in the morphology of a language it is irregularities that preserve the earlier linguistic patterns, whereas the regular forms tend to be innovations. 853 The anthropomorphism of the Homeric gods, because of which the analyzed epithet loses its original meaning, is the result of the epic stylization of the religious content of the Hymns. According to JeZic, the epic stylization occured within the Greek tradition only after the Greek and the Indo-Iranian branches of Indo-European had been separated. The influences of the epic stylization are manifested in many features of Greek religious poetry, especially when it is compared to the stylistic features of the Vedic saktas (op. cit.: 120). It thus becomes clear why the adventures of gods were represented as historic events in the Homeric Hymns (as well as in some episodes of the epics), whereas in the Vedic hymns they 24 Jezié (1987: 119) considers another type of correspondence, where only etymologically related words are used in similar contexts, irrespective of their meaning or use (e. g., the use of the words derived from PIE *dyew-/diw- ‘sky’ in religious poetry). 25 The only similar epithet in Homer is γλαυκῶπις 'with gleaming eyes', attributed to Athene.

44

are depicted in an indeterminate, eternal present.“ This is a result of the close connection of the Vedic hymns and the sacrificial rituals (op. cit.: 127ff.). Gods are invited to partake in the offering, and the offering impels them to do service to the priest, who is also the poet-seer (/síi). In Greece, the connection of hymns and sacrifices had been broken, as there is no evidence that hymns to gods were sung or recited at the sacrifice. The songs dedicated to gods became mere introductions, sung by wandering poets before the main body of an epic. As they were connected to the epic by the circumstances in which they were performed, the Greek hymns got some of the epic stylistic features as well. "The crown proof of epic stylization" is seen by Jezic (op. cit.: 41) in the fact that the poet calls the god Helios ἐπιείκελος θεοῖσιν 'similar to gods', which implies that the epithet had been transferred to the god from a mortal hero. 854 Besides genetic correspondences, implying a common literary (textual) tradition, JeZic takes into consideration the typological textual correspondences as well (op. cit.: 48-68). Thus we find in his monograph a very clear distinction of typological and genetic analysis of textual correspondences. The Psalms, as an original form of Hebrew hymnic poetry, are compared by JeZic with the Vedic hymns. There are many correspondences of the Psalms and the hymns to the Vedic god Varuna. Like Yahweh in the Psalms, Varuna, "God of the True Word" is called king?'. He also lives in the sky and rules over the waters. In contrast to most other Vedic gods, Varuna is addressed by a man with a feeling of internal moral responsibility and fear of sin and punishment, especially punishment for a broken word (see also Lüders 1959). "The eye of Yahweh” in some

Psalms

seems to refer to the Sun, just as, in the Rig-Veda,

the Sun

is conceived of as “the overseer?, Together with Mitra "the Contract” Varuna is the protector of contracts made by people and gods; this reminds one of the contract (covenant, Hebr. b*rith) made by Yahweh and the people of Israel. As Varuna is one of the gods mentioned in the contract of the Hittite and Mitanni rulers (in 14th c. B. C.), JeZic does not exclude the possibility that the Indo-lranian cultural patterns influenced the Hebrew 26 Thence the very common use of the tenseless "injunctive" in the hymns describing the deeds of Indra and other gods. ?' |n the Greek tradition, gods also bear the title of βασιλεύς ‘king’, or ἄναξ ‘king, lord’, but much more often on the votive inscriptions than in literary works (see Campanile 1978: 67-70). It should also be emphasized here, that the typological correspondences between the hymns to Varuna and the Psalms were first noted by Winternitz (1909: 71). 22 The metaphor identifying the sun as "the eye of the sky” is almost certainly ProtoIndo-European; it can account for the fact that in Olr. the PIE word for 'sun' refers to the eye, i. e. Olr. suil ‘eye’ « PIE *suh;li- ‘sun’; cp. also Arm. areg-akn ‘sun’, literally 'sun's eye'.

45

conceptions of the Covenant made by Israel and its God (ibid.: 68). Therefore, this would be a matter of a contact correspondence, not a mere typological parallel between texts. However, considering Varuna’s very special position within the Vedic pantheon, | must note that one could also envisage the influence going the other way round; the Indo-lranians, who of all Indo-Europeans (except the Anatolian peoples), had the most cultural contacts with the Near East, could have assimilated some Semitic conceptions in their religion. On the other hand, the Hebrew conception of a covenant with God is also without parallels in the Semitic religion. Thus, the question of the direction of the influence remains open. 855 Although his book is intended primarily for Indologists, Jezic’s comparative approach to the Vedic subjects has enabled him to clarify several aspects of Old Indian, Greek, and Indo-European literary prehistory. By paying particular attention to the circumstances in which poetic texts were performed in the Greek and Old Indian traditions, he has made an important contribution to the approach we have called comparative IndoEuropean stylistics (see §142ff.).

TEXTUAL RECONSTRUCTION AND RECONSTRUCTION OF THE PROTO-CULTURE

856 One of the most persistent opponents of Schmitt's approach to the comparison of texts of various IE traditions was Enrico Campanile. In a series of publications that have appeared since the mid-seventies, this Italian Celtologist and classical philologist has tried to counter the traditional approach to the "Indogermanische Dichtersprache" with a new method

of research,

which

he called “cultural reconstruction”

(It. ricostru-

zione culturale). 857 In contrast to both linguists referred to in the preceding chapter, Campanile approaches textual comparison by using all, or nearly all, IndoEuropean poetic traditions. Unlike other linguists, who lay most emphasis upon evidence from Greek and Indo-Iranian, Campanile has on many occasions stressed the importance of other traditions, especially of the Celtic and Italic material”. In Campanile's opinion, Rüdiger Schmitt was wrong in believing that fragments of PIE texts can be reconstructed only on the basis of Greek and Indo-lranian correspondences, whereas other languages contribute merely confirmations to such reconstructions. "Meine ganze Erfahrung im Bereich des Keltischen rebelliert dagegen", says 29 It appears, however, that Campanile neglected, to a certain extent, the Baltic and Slavic traditions. Non omnia possumus omnes!

46

! uinpanile (1987: 22). He believes that some correspondences of Old Ih and other IE languages are even more certain than any Graeco-IndoI anta parallel (sic!, loc. cit.). $58 In many publications Campanile has tried to establish an approach ulternative

to Schmitt's,

but

he

has

not succeeded

in that anywhere

so

ı lmarly as in one of his most recent papers (Campanile 1993). We shall Iherefore follow his exposition on examples from that article. 859 Campanile starts with the etymological comparison of Ved. vacam hliaranti (RV 1. 147. 2) ‘they speak’, literally ‘they bear the word’, Av. vwcom baraiti (Y 31. 12) ‘he speaks’, G ἔπος φέρειν (in Eurippides), L vocem (ad-)fert (in Vergilius). On the basis of these examples, it is impossible to reconstruct a complete PIE formula meaning ‘to bear the word’ ( 'to speak). This impossibility becomes evident as soon as we ask ourselves—in which person should we reconstruct the verb (*b"ereti, *h"eronti, or something else?); and was the noun meaning ‘word’ a rootnoun (Ved. väk- « *wok"), or an s-stem (G ἔπος < "wek"os)? If we compare the Vedic expression vacam bibharti ‘he carries the word’ (RV 10. 177. 2) as well, wherein the verb forms a reduplicated present, we should conclude that the only possible reconstruction of the PIE formula is ""wek"- + some verbal form of *b"er-” (Campanile 1993: 2). However, an even greater problem will arise if we ask ourselves whether Greek expressions such as μῦθον φέρειν (‘to carry the story’ = ‘to tell’), φάτιν φέρειν, λόγον φέρειν, or Olr. do-beir guth (‘id.’; see Campanile 1993: 3 for attestations) also represent variants of the same PIE formula? Campanile believed that the answer was yes, and that the variations in expression are the result of lexical replacements that had occurred already in the Protolanguage, as well as during the period between the disintegration of the PIE language and the composition of the texts in the attested languages. We are therefore only justified in reconstructing the meaning of the PIE formula, namely ‘to carry the word’ in the sense ‘to speak’. The “formal” or “formalist” reconstruction (a term used by Campanile to label Schmitt's method) could not accept such a reasoning: where no correspondences in form are found, no PIE formulas can be reconstructed on the basis of meaning alone. So much the worse for the formalist reconstruction—Campanile argues. When we analyze correspondences between formulas in various IE languages, we should always take into account processes of lexical innovation and replacement, which is why not only etymologically identical expressions are relevant for comparative study. Therefore, Campanile believes that “the reconstruction of the poetic

47

formulas of Indo-European should be based not on the identity of signifiers, but on that of the signifieds” (Campanile 1993: 11). §60 The same paper analyzes many reconstructions based on the identical meaning of expressions found in texts of different IE traditions (ibid.: 3-10). In some of them, and in the more convincing ones, if | may say so, there is a partial etymological correspondence as well; for example, Campanile compared Av. viduua viduse mraotü (Y 31.170) “the one who knows should speak to the one who knows" with Ved. vidvdn viduse brayat (RV 2. 30. 2) "id.", and G εἰδότι τοι ἐρέω (Pindar, Pyth. 4. 142) "I shall speak to the one who knows”. Whereas the Indo-lranian formula presupposes PIE *widusey mlewh-, in the Greek phrase only the dative of the perfect participle of the verb *weyd- ‘to see, know’ is correspondent, and the second word (ἐρέω < PIE “wer-) had been replaced. However, Campanile’s conclusion that the formula is inherited from PIE is plausible; it should be counted under our concept of incomplete formula (see §102). On the other hand, the following example, adduced by Campanile, is much less convincing (op. cit.: 7). A PIE formula ‘golden chariot’ is reconstructed on the basis of Av. caxra zaranaena ‘golden wheel’ (Y 10. 136), Ved. cakram hiranyayam ‘id.’ (RV 8. 5. 20), G χρύσιον ἅρμα ‘golden chariot’ (Sappho) and Olr. cuing Gir ‘golden yoke’ (for attestations see Campanile, loc. cit.). The formula is certainly Indo-lranian, as the Vedic and Avestan expressions for ‘golden wheel’ are etymologically correspondent; moreover, in the metaphoric meaning they both refer to the Sun. However, | fail to see any justification not to consider coincidental the fact

that,

in

the

whole

of

the

Greek

and

Old

Irish

literatures,

‘golden

chariot’ or some golden part of a chariot are mentioned in a handful of places. In any barbarian culture that esteems gold highly and uses warchariots, such expressions are likely to appear in poetry, and no hypothesized PIE poetic tradition is needed in order to account for that fact. We might as well suppose that the concept of 'golden throne' is of PIE origin, on the basis of the Homeric epithet χρυσόθρονος and the ORuss. expression 3zar» croi» that figures as a formula in "Igor's Epic" (cp., e. g., Slovo,

420,

429,

etc.).

However,

in this case,

as well as

in Campanile's

last example, such a reconstruction would seem to be completely ad hoc. 861 In a similar vein, | believe that there is some sophistry in Campanile's argument; namely, there appears to be an important difference between the formula 'to carry the word' and the alleged formula 'golden chariot': in the first case the formula is a metaphor, and thus an a priori less expected expression, as the verb "b'er- usually has nouns denoting material things for its direct objects. Besides that, *b"er- is the

48

minimal element common to G φέρειν λόγον, L vocem ad-ferre, as well as to Ved. vacam bharanti (see above). There is, after all, an etymological correspondence, although it is restricted to only one lexical element; on the other hand, in the case of the alleged formula ‘golden chariot’ not even such a minimal correspondence is found (except for Olnd. and Av.). | believe, therefore,

that the formal

textual

reconstruction

as advocated

by

Schmitt is justified in requesting the existence of etymological correspondences between formulas (though such correspondences—and that is where Campanile was right—need not encompass more than a single word). 862 It would not be altogether fair to say that Campanile rejected the value of the formal reconstruction; he only claimed that the formal reconstruction did not lead to the results that its adherents would have liked to attain, as the form of fragments of PIE texts can never be reconstructed with any certainty. However, in Campanile’s opinion we can reconstruct cultural and ideological! presuppositions on which the proto-linguistic texts were

based;

"Und

dementsprechend

wird

das,

was

wir

rekonstruieren

werden, weder ein Wort noch eine Formel, noch ein Text sein; es wird das historische, faktische und intellektuelle Element sein, das die Voraussetzung und den Inhalt des Textes darstellt. Mit anderen Worten rekonstruieren wir. eine Weltanschauung, eine Ideologie, eine Kultur; wir machen also eine kulturelle Rekonstruktion." (Campanile 1987: 25). Besides all that, Campanile believed that the method of the formal reconstruction had already been completely exhausted: "Die formalistische Methode hat heute schon alles gegeben, was sie geben kónnte; dem, was wir besitzen, werden vielleicht noch einige Formeln hinzugefügt werden kónnen; nach einer jahrhundertelangen Ernte wáre es jedoch unrealistisch, darauf zu hoffen, daß noch viele zu lesende Ahren übrigbleiben" (ibid.: 22). 863 | cannot agree with this "prophesy" of Campanile's; it is undoubtedly correct that more than a century has been spent in search of etymologically correspondent syntagms, but it is also true that there have been few systematic investigations. We could say that only the Vedas and the Homeric epics have been examined (chiefly in the works of Schmitt and Durante) to the extent that hardly any new etymologically related syntagms are to be expected in them. On the other hand, the Vedas and Homer's epics are only a small part of the corpus of texts that should be taken into account by textual reconstruction. Especially the Balto-Slavic and Celtic sources are still rather neglected, and it is a major task of IndoEuropean textual reconstruction to carry out systematic examinations of those sources.

49

864 Furthermore, | think that Campanile's definition of the object of “cultural reconstruction” should be taken with great care. Cultural facts and patterns are not easily definable, and it is doubtful to what extent they are expressed in poetic traditions. To be sure, we need not know the

exact meaning of *klewos nd"g'"itom in the context of PIE culture, yet we are convinced that that expression is a poetic formula of the proto-language. Reconstructions of its meaning, which always have to rely on the meanings of G κλέος ἄφθιτον and Ved. sravo ... aksitam might as well be false, although the reconstruction of the form is correct, as it is established

on the basis of a number of ascertained sound laws. In other words—one cannot reach the cultural context of a reconstructed formula except by examining the meaning of that formula, and the form of that formula must previously be established on the basis of firm sound laws. Even when that is the case, the original meaning will very often be irrecoverable, and any effort to attain it will be no more than a speculation. §65 Some of Campanile’s conclusions about the PIE culture are speculations indeed. He has attempted to base his arguments on correspondences in content between texts, not between isolated words: “Se i contenuti dei testi di piü culture indoeuropee coincidono tra loro, noi ne dedurremo che questi contenuti sono eredita della cultura indoeuropea, ammeno che non esistono argomenti tali da farci ritenere che si tratti di creazioni parallele o di prestiti dall’ una all’ altra cultura” (Campanile 1990: 15). However, Campanile seems to have omitted the answer to a very important question: on whom does the burden of proof lay? If the elements of content of, say, two Old Irish and Vedic texts coincide, what justifies us in assuming that it is a matter of inheritance, and not of a parallel development? The only real evidence of a genetic relationship is yielded by etymological relatedness of expressions, and that is not a necessary condition for Campanile. This problem seems also to be alluded to by Jurgen Untermann (1989: 48) in his critique of the “cultural reconstruction””: "Etymologien, verstanden als Hypothesen Uber ursprüngliche Form-Inhalt-Zuordnungen, können nur durch andere Etymologien bestätigt oder paralleli30 For a similar critique, see the important study by B. Schlerath (1987) on the reconstruction of the PIE "social structure”. He rejects the possibility of such a reconstruction by claiming that it would be similar to the reconstruction of the Roman social structure on the basis of lexical correspondences between the Old Spanish and Old French heroic poetry; although in both "Chanson de Roland" and “EI Cid" some terms referring to social functions etymologically coincide (e. g. OSp. rey, OFr. reis, OSp. emperador, OFr. emperere, OSp. conde, OFr. cunte), the names of the most important Roman social functions, like consul, praetor, aedilis, etc. do not appear in those texts at all (op. cit.: 261ff.). Moreover, the social role of a king (rey, reis) in Medieval Spain and France have almost nothing to do with the social position of the Roman rex.

50

ert werden. Der Verweis auf gleiche Inhalte mit anderen formalen Träern kann eine solche Bestatigungsfunktion nicht erfüllen". 866 When Campanile compares the texts in Vedic, Homeric, and Caesars Latin, in which chariot-fights are described (1990: 16ff.), he claims that they point to the importance of chariot-fighting in the PIE culture. However, | think that his reasoning is based upon a simple transposilion of the contents observed in the attested languages into the protolinguistic reality, and not upon reconstruction in the usual meaning of the term. Campanile even believed that one could know that the war-chariots of the "Proto-Indo-Europeans" were manned by a fighter and a driver, and that the fighter was placed to the left of the driver (loc. cit.)! But the abyss of time that can be bridged by etymology on the side of form can only be jumped over on the side of content; there are no established rules of semantic development that can assure us that correspondences in meaning can simply be projected into such a distant past. Besides that, to suppose that the Proto-Indo-Europeans, like their Vedic, Celtic, and Greek heirs, charged

into

battle

on

war-chariots,

means

not to take

into account

im-

portant archaeological findings (cp. Clark 1977: 81): in the third millennium, the last period when the PIE culture can be supposed to have existed, the war-chariots of the Proto-Indo-Europeans could have been drawn only by oxen or donkeys! §67 On the whole, my assessment of the reconstruction of PIE culture is not completely negative. It is a completely legitimate discipline, though its results are not especially reliable, if they are based only upon the correspondences

of content. Textual

reconstruction,

on the other hand,

should

be established as a discipline that takes into account the (etymological) correspondences of forms as well as meanings. To what extent the reconstructed textual fragments reflect the PIE cultural patterns, depends upon the semantic interpretation of these fragments; that interpretation is, however, quite a different procedure from the reconstruction itself. §68 Calvert Watkins, American Celticist and Indo-Europeanist, is very close to many of Campanile’s views. Over the past thirty years, he has dedicated many of his publications to different fields of comparative textual linguistics—from comparative metrics (1963), comparative poetics (1981), to the reconstruction of PIE formulas (1992). His views have certainly evolved in this period, but uatirthe recent publication of his monograph on the PIE poetics, there: wéresno” synthetic works containing the results of Watkins’ researche$:1 ‚shall ‘therefore be mostly concerned with his numerous articles (see bibliegraptiy) In this, chapter, | shall deal only

51

with Watkins’ theoretical views, as his works are often referred to in other

parts of this book as well. §69 We should start with Watkins’ analysis of FORMULA, as the central concept of the IE textual reconstruction. In his opinion, a formula is primarily determined by semantic factors: a formula is an expression of an idea, of an ideological or cultural motive important to some society. The ideological importance of the content of a formula—called "theme" by Watkins— can explain the fact that formulas are often transmitted in identical words from generation to generation in a society. The identity of the form, or expression of a formula, is unimportant: what enables us to say that two utterances are variants of the same formula

is the identity of their content,

and the importance of that content lies in the social context; thence, in a somewhat clumsy analogy with generative grammar, Watkins says: “That is to say that theme is the deep structure of formula” (Watkins 1992: 392, italicized in original). §70 Watkins insists upon the semantic definition of formula because he believes that themes, or socially important meanings, are what a particular culture usually tends to preserve over time; expressions, carrying these meanings, are preserved only by intertia: “Preservation [sc. of themes and formulas] occurs in particular there where the formula or phrase is the expression of a particular nexus or node in the culture—grosso modo ‘something that matters’. After nearly a decade of studying the preservation, diffusion, transformation,

and

revitalization of a single formula,

that of the

dragon-slaying myth and confeners, in the majority of the Indo-European poetical traditions | am more firmly than ever convinced of the extraordinary longevity of surface phraseology and verbal behavior when it serves as the expression of an enduring cultural theme. The formula can be something big like a myth (Ved. ahann ahim ‘he slew the serpent’), or transposed to a charm (Olr. gono mil ‘| slay the beast’); a component of a myth (Olr. teora ferba fira ‘three milk cows’); a value (Olr. milsem cotalta coiblige ‘copulation is the sweetest part of sleep’); a tabu (Grk. ὀρθὸς ὀμείχω = meksyami ürdhvah ‘to urinate upright); a kenning or other indexical figure (Olr. melg n-etha ‘milk of grain’ = cuirm ‘ale’); or simply a marked designation of things, like a merism (Olr. beodil 7 marbdil ‘goods and chattels’) or paired words linked by phonetic figures (Olr. brechtaib ban ‘by spells of women’) or by a figure of grammar (Olr. gonas génta(i)r ‘he who kills will be killed’). The list is merely illustrative, hardly exhaustive.” (Watkins 1992: 393-4).

52

§71 In another place (Watkins 1987: 270-271) Watkins explained his enception of the relation of cultural and textual reconstruction in the following passage: "Formulas are the vehicles, the carriers of themes; theme in the deep structure of formula. These formulas are collectively the verbal expressions of the traditional culture of the Indo-European, which is the lotality of themes. These formulas are the expression of an underlying numiotic system. They are not remembered and repeated merely because thay delight the ear; rather they are signals, in poetic elaboration and as varbal art, of the relations of things: of the traditional conceptualizations, Ihe perception of man and the universe, the values and expectations of Ihe society. The function of the Indo-European poet was to be the custodian and transmitter of this tradition. The totality of themes as expressed in formulas was in a preliterate society entrusted precisely to the profes'ionals of the word, the poets" (italics in original). 872 If Watkins’ theses are accepted, however, the following question must be raised: how do we PROVE that cultural facts or patterns are genetically related? Two "themes" (in the sense given to the term by Watkins) can be correspondent by chance, or a theme can be borrowed from one culture into another, in spite of the fact that members of these cultures

may speak different languages. The genetic correspondence of themes can be proved only by etymological correspondence of the formulas by which these themes are expressed in the genetically related languages; we must try to avoid at any cost the circular reasoning by which some cultural contents are attributed to the Proto-Indo-Europeans, because they are expressed by formulas in various IE languages, while, on the other hand, we define formulas as those syntagms or phrases that express the contents attested in other IE linguistic communities. Unfortunately, such circular reasoning is rather often encountered in the works of the linguists advocating the "cultural reconstruction". 873 However, although he defines formulas on the basis of their meaning, Watkins identifies them very often on the basis of their form, namely, on the basis of the etymological correspondences of words in different IE languages. For example, in the already quoted article (Watkins 1992:

396ff.) he discusses a set of words derived from the PIE root *b"eyd"(*boyd"-/bid"-). He thinks that the root referred to a special relation of interdependence between the members of the PIE linguistic community, based on mutual trust and exchange of gifts (op. cit.: 399). It was the relation of a host and a guest, of a poet and his sponsor, as well as the relation of a chieftain and those submitted to him. Such relationships are a well attested cultural phenomenon, encountered in many IE and non-IE

53

traditions. But, when

Watkins adduces a whole set of expressions, con-

taining words derived from PIE *b"eyd"-, and appearing in contexts that involve exactly the aforementioned kind of social relationships, we can hardly suppose that such correspondences are coincidental. In Greek, the phrase (npo)&eviaı πείθεσθαι ‘to trust, to rely on the hospitality’ is very often found in Pindar, while in Latin, the phrase fidem dare et accipere also involves a relation of socially interdependent obligations (op. cit.: 398, where the attestations are quoted). Watkins relates that to the meaning of the Albanian word be, besé ‘promise, trust’, that is derived from PIE

**blid"-ti-eh,. It appears, then, that PIE *b"eyd"- referred to a sort of an obligatory relationship between the members of the society, based on the mutual confidence. It is a pity that Watkins does not mention the Slavic

word béda < b"oyd"eh, (OCS beda), which meant exactly that kind of relationship—forced labour that the peasant was obliged to do for his lord (cp. Skok, s. v. bijediti). §74 It is important to point out a consequence of the preceding discussion that bears a lot upon our evaluation of Watkins’ and Campanile’s work: for a reconstruction of a PIE formula, it is of little importance whether we understand it or not, it is irrelevant whether we can get any insight into the PIE cultural setting associated with that formula. Just as for the validity of the reconstruction of the PIE verbal form *b"eroh,, on the basis of G φέρω, L fero, Olnd. bharami, etc., it does not matter whether PIE *b"eroh,

was the 1. person sg. of the indicative present of the verb meaning

'to

bear', thus for the reconstruction of a PIE formula the question whether we

understand its meaning and function in the PIE culture is of little importance. What really matters for the reconstruction of *b"eroh, to be valid, is, of course, whether G φέρω, Ved. bharami correspond in meaning AT LEAST

PARTIALLY,

and

whether

they

can

be

derived

from

the

same

PIE

proto-form by recurrent sound laws. What matters in the reconstruction of a PIE formula is that it can be derived from the etymologically correspondent expressions, appearing in AT LEAST PARTIALLY correspondent contexts, attested in at least two IE languages (see S100). 875 If we finally try to sum up the development of IE textual reconstruction during the past thirty years, we should note two basic directions of research that have to a great extent contributed to the spreading of our discipline. One of them has been characterized by the effort to expand the number of texts and traditions that are being subjected to comparative analysis; in that manner, the focus of interest that had been on the Greek and Indo-Iranian traditions until Schmitt's monograph, has shifted to the Balto-Slavic (Ivanov, Toporov, Katicic) and Celtic traditions (Campanile,

54

Watkins). The other direction that the research has taken implied the Inoadening of Schmitt's conception of formula, so that the textual correpondences are no longer restricted to the etymologically identical syn{π|Π|5 in IE languages, but those with correspondent meaning and context are also taken

into account.

boen expanded, as ural levels, not only thought it necessary Ihe theory of textual

In that way as well, the field of research

has

textual correspondences are now observable on sevon the superficial, formal level as in Schmitt's work. | to use both of those developments in the build-up of reconstruction to which this book is dedicated?'.

*! | cannot conclude this chapter without at least mentioning two authors who have also greatly contributed to the discussion of the PIE poetic tradition. Wolfgang Meid has published several short articles in which his views on the nature of the PIE poetry were expressed (see, in particular, Meid 1978). He has laid much emphasis on the need to take into account the dialectal divergences within Indo-European in space and time, and the consequences of these divergences for our conception of (Common-)Proto-Indo-European poetry. Frangoise Bader, in the tradition of the French school of Indo-European studies, has tried to apply Dumézil's thesis about the "trifunctional" nature of the PIE society and culture on textual comparison. In a work published in 1980, she claimed to have discovered structural correspondences in the stories about Nestor in the "Iliad" and the Irish hero Cu Chulainn in "The Boyhood Deeds of Οὐ Chulainn" (see Bader 1980). In her monograph, published in 1989, she tried to develop a hypothesis about the central nature of the distinction between the "language of gods" and "language of men", familiar from Homer, the Rig-Veda, and Edda, for the PIE poetic tradition.

55

3. OUTLINE OF THE THEORY §76 Textual reconstruction in Indo-European linguistics is a field within 4 broader discipline that we shall call COMPARATIVE INDO-EUROPEAN TEXIUAL LINGUISTICS. It is a discipline ignored by most handbooks and textbooks of IE linguistics: Meillet (1937), Devoto (1966), and Szemerenyi (1989) do not even mention it, while Hirt (1927), Haudry (1984), and Sternemann & Gutschmidt (1989) restrict themselves to the problems of reconstruction of the P/E poetic language, not of the proto-linguistic texts, or textual fragments themselves. Only in the large monograph of Gamkrelidze and Ivanov (1984) do we find a chapter dedicated to textual reconstruction, but in that chapter no methodological principles of textual reconstruction are analyzed, and the discipline is presented only through examples

taken from other linguists’ works, or from the works of Ivanov.

It

must also be emphasized that no handbook dedicated to the problems of linguistic reconstruction deals with textual reconstruction as such (cp. Hoenigswald 1960, Katicic 1970, Birnbaum 1977, Fox 1995, Holzer 1996). Comparative IE textual linguistics has therefore yet to be affirmed as an independent scientific discipline with an equal right to existence. The following pages are dedicated to that purpose. §77 Languages can be compared on all levels of their organization. Like comparative phonology, morphology, semantics, or syntax, comparative textual linguistics is a discipline whose object is the comparison of languages on one level of language organization. In the case of comparative textual linguistics, it is the highest level of organization of linguistic systems. The methods used by that discipline, its goals, and its results represent a natural

extension

of the methods,

goals

and

results of the com-

parative phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics. However, besides features shared with those disciplines, the comparative textual linguistics has its own peculiarities. §78 Just as with other comparative disciplines, it is not the task of every scientific comparison of texts in different languages to reconstruct the common proto-text, or to prove the genetic relatedness of a set of texts. The task of the comparison can also be to establish typological or contact correspondences. Let us look at the following two passages, one from a Greek text, and the other from a Latin one: Ille mi par esse deo videtur ille, si fas est, superare divos,

57

qui sedens adversus identidem te spectat et audit (Catullus, Carm.

51. 1)

Φαίνεταί μοι κῆνος ἴσος θέοισιν ἔμμεν ὥνηρ;: ὄττις ἐνάντιός τοι ἰσδάνει καὶ πλάσιον Adv φωνεί-σας ὑπακούει (Sappho, Fr. 2, Edm.). The typological correspondences of these verses are more than evident; in both cases we are dealing with love poems, composed in metrically identical verses, with syntactically and semantically correspondent first sentences. The contentual correspondences are so complete that we would conclude that Catullus's poem is a translation of Sappho's, even if we did not know that on the basis of non-linguistic, historical data. TRANSLATIONS are in fact nothing else than the result of semantic borrowing on the textual level. Textual borrowing can also manifest itself in other areas; for example, organization or internal structure of texts of a particular type can be borrowed by one linguistic and cultural community from another; such a process led to the establishment of a pattern in which Hittite contracts are structured, by imitating the patterns of the Akkadian and Babylonian, i. e., non-Indo-European originals. A special kind of textual borrowing is a paraphrase, or an incomplete translation, reflecting only some of the elements of the original text in a different language. Such are, for example, Horace’s paraphrases of Alcaeus' and Archilochus' poems (e. g., the parable of the state as a ship, Horatius, Carm. 1. 14, and Alcaeus, Fr. 30); even in that case, we should not be confused by the fact that we know of the direct influence exercised by the Greek lyrics on Horace; if we lacked that information, we would still have texts whose interdependence and interrelations could be analyzed by linguistic methods. On many occasions the explorers of Anatolian languages are in exactly such a situation, as they cannot determine whether some Hittite text is a translation

or a paraphrase of a Hurrian or Akkadian original. 879 The same relations holding between languages on all other levels, hold on the textual level as well; thus texts can correspond TYPOLOGICALLY, GENETICALLY, OR BY CONTACT. Typological correspondences of texts are the largest class, and they can manifest themselves on any level that the researcher considers as relevant, or, in other words, any TEXTUAL ELEMENTS

can be related typologically. We shall say that themes, motives, narrative techniques, literary forms, metrical patterns (etc.) of texts in different languages correspond typologically if their correspondences are not the re58

sult of mutual influence or common origin. Contact correspondences, on the other hand, arise as a result of mutual influence, whereas the genetic correspondences arise as a result of transformations of a single text, over 4 long period of time. It should be clear that the genetic correspondences are possible only between texts composed in a single language, or in languages that are themselves genetically related, while the other two types of correspondences are possible between texts in any set of languages. 880 Let us now try to clarify things by ar example. We shall consider textual correspondences between themes and motives occuring in texts from four different traditions: 1. The story of Rurud and Pramadvara (preserved in Mahabharata, 1. 8. 14—1. 9. 15): a young girl named Pramadvara was playing with her friends on a meadow the day before her wedding with a young man named Rurud. She unintentionally stepped on a serpent, which bit her in the ankle. The girl died, but Rurud could not be reconciled, and so he took the advice of a brahmin who told him to sacrifice half of his life to the gods. He did so, and the gods in return brought back Pramadvara from the dead. 2. The myth of Orpheus and.Eurydice (attested in the works of many classical authors, e. g., in Ovid, Metamorphoses, 10. 8ff.): just before her wedding with Orpheus, the nymph Eurydice was playing with her companions on a meadow. A serpent bit her in the ankle, and she died. Orpheus could not suffer her death, and so he went into Hades to ask the infernal gods for the life of his fiancée. The gods were moved by Orpheus' singing, and they agreed to release Eurydice, under the condition that he should not look at her until they both leave the Underworld. Being impatient, Orpheus looked at Eurydice, and she ... ex oculis subito, ceu fumus in auras // commixtus tenues, fugit diversa, neque illum // prensantem nequiquam umbras et multa volentem // dicere praeterea vidit (Vergilius, Georgica, 4. 500-503). 3. The story of Etain (from the Old Irish saga "The Wooing of Étain" from the 8th century): King Echu Feidlech, whose wife Étain had been stolen by the infernal deity Midir, went to the Underworld to bring her back. Midir agreed to yield Etain, but only under the condition that Echu recognize his wife amid fifty maidens looking exactly like her. Unfortunately, Echu picked Étain's daughter, conceived to her by Midir, by mistake? 4. The myth of Izanagi and Izanami (from the Japanese collection of ancient traditions, Kojiki, from the 7th century): Izanagi, inconsolable be32 The same motive is encountered in the Mahabharata, in the "Song of Nala”, where the roles are reversed: there Nala's wife Damayantı has to pick her husband amid many heroes of the same appearance.

59

cause of the death of his wife Izanami, killed by the Fire-God, descended into the infernal regions to bring her back. Only the God of the Underworld could set her free, and Izanagi was forbidden to look at the body of his wife. He was unable to resist, and so he looked at the dead body; the sight was so terrible that he was terrified and ran away. However, Izanagi joined him later, alive, in spite of that.

§81 All of these stories correspond with respect to their themes: the husband (or fiancé) cannot cope with the death of his wife, and tries to return her from the Otherworld, agreeing to some difficult condition imposed by the gods of the infernal regions. The correspondence of the theme is matched by the correspondence of the characters: Rurud Pramadvara = Orpheus Eurydice = Midir Etain = Izanagi Izanami. There are,

however,

even

more

detailed

correspondences,

extending

to partic-

ular motives. Thus, stories 2 and 4 have the same ending: the husband is too anxious to see his wife, so that the rescue from the Underworld fails. On the other hand, in the stories 1 and 2 the snake is the cause of death of Eurydice and Pramadvara. All of these correspondences should be treated as typological correspondences, unless there are reasons to believe that the correspondent contents are the result of mutual influences, or of transformations of a common proto-text. It is very unlikely that the tradition reflected in the text no. 4 could have been

in any contact with the others, as well as the direct

contacts of the Old Irish tradition (text no. 3) and the rest. On the other hand, contacts between the Greek and Old Indian traditions are well attested, e. g., between some of Aesop's fables and the Pafcatantra (Macdonnell 1971: 375), as well as between some stories from Mahabhärata and Homer (Pisani 1968). §82 The possibility of mutual influence or borrowing is occasionally even greater. Thus, the story of the tragic duel between a father and his son is attested in texts composed in four different Indo-European traditions over the time span of more than a millennium. Such a story is told in the G “Cyclic” epic Telegony, in the OHG “Hildebrandslied”, in the Olr. story “The Death of Aife’s only son” (8th century), and in one of the central episodes of Firdusi's Shah-name, about the duel of the hero Rustem and his

son

Suhrab.

The

parallelism

of these

motives

is incontestable,

but

there are three possible ways of explaining it: as genetic, typological or contact textual correspondence; it is clear that we need a method of distinguishing between such correspondences.

60

§83 In order to be able to answer the questions—which texts should be considered as genetically correspondent, and how on the basis of genetically correspondent texts one can reconstruct elements of proto-texts— we first have to define a number of concepts. A TEXT is an ordered array of meaning carriers with a particular structure and function. Under MEANING CARRIERS (Germ. Bedeutungsträger, for this concept see Holzer 1996) we subsume all linguistic units more complex than morphemes, and morphemes themselves. All meaning carriers contained in a text represent the MATERIAL ELEMENTS of that text. The structure of a text is built up of the FORMAL ELEMENTS of that text. However, there is no need to enumerate in full all of the formal elements that constitute the structure of a text; it is up to a general theory of textual structure to determine all relevant formal elements of different texts. What we need is an informal list of such elements, a set of examples that can be used in textual reconstruction: 1. a set of connectors, cataphoric and anaphoric relations that yield coherence and cohesion to a text (see, e. g., Dressler 1972); such elements impose the appearance of a meaningful whole upon a text. 2. The internal division of expression and meaning of a text; the form (expression) is divided by means of different markers, determining the internal boundaries of paragraphs, or other parts of the text. The meaning, content, or THEME (a term referring to the totality of the content of a'text) is divided into a number of units, such as MOTIVES. 3. The rhythmical, or metrical structure of a text should also be considered

ing to the set of formal elements of that this particular formal element, but those as POETIC TEXTS. 4. STYLISTIC FIGURES, or elements of a text (the meaning carriers) tion attributed to them

as belong-

text; of course, some texts lack that possess it will be referred to procedures by which the material are brought into a specific func-

in a particular text, are also counted

as the formal

elements of that text. The function of the stylistic figures in a text is usually aesthetic. §84 Thus, in every text form and matter should be distinguished, just as on all levels of linguistic organization—as well as on the textual level— meaning and expression of linguistic units are consistently distinguished. These two distinctions should not be forgotten, nor confused, in the following paragraphs. §85 Two texts are IDENTICAL (to be more precise: two utterances represent the same text) if, and only if, all of their formal and material elements are identical. Texts are GENETICALLY IDENTICAL if they are transformations of an original text, composed in the language-ancestor of the languages in which they are composed. Under transformations only such changes are

61

accepted that arise as a consequence of the “normal” linguistic development, i. e., phonological, morphological, syntactical, and possibly also lexical changes, occuring in the period between the composition of the proto-text and the attestation of the genetically identical texts derived from it. Transformations of the original text that are the result of deliberate, conscious innovations in the transmission are not accepted as transformations that preserve the identity of the text. §86 It is perfectly clear that the probability of transmission of genetically identical texts is extremely small. Let us suppose two genetically identical texts, T1 and T2, composed in languages L1 and L2, and derived from a text T3 in the language L3, which is the language-ancestor of L1 and L2. The genetic identity of T1 and T2 presupposes that all meaning carriers in these texts are also genetically identical, and that the formal elements of

T1 and T2 are also identical”. 887 Following ordinary language usage we shall say that two texts are SIMILAR if they contain identical (formal or material) elements in some observable quantity. The problem with the concept of similarity is that it is rather subjective; different people will find different texts similar or dissimilar to various extents. Therefore, in comparative linguistics, the concept of similarity is replaced with the more formally defined concept of CORRESPONDENCE. Two meaning carriers are correspondent if, and only if, they contain a SYSTEM of identical elements. Thus, we say that the correspondences between texts should be SYSTEMATIC for them to be considered genetically related (or correspondent in the genetic sense). S88 It is more difficult to answer the question—WwHICH correspondences are to be considered systematic, i. e., which correspondences prove the common (genetic) origin of texts? The answer to that question cannot be different from the answer to a much more general question: how are genetic relations of meaning carriers established at all? The only solid basis for proving the genetic relatedness of meaning carriers are SYSTEMS OF SOUND CORRESPONDENCES. On the word level, the proof that G πατήρ, L pater, Olnd. pità and Olr. athir are genetically (etymologically) related, consists of showing the identity of the meaning of those words, and of stating the system of correspondences between the sounds: 33 The relation of genetic identity exists on other linguistic levels as well: e. g. It. -mente and Fr. -ment are genetically identical suffixes (more precisely, from the same word), and It. otto and Fr. huit are genetically identical words, as they are derived from a single protoform. When single words are concerned, | shall use the terms GENETICALLY IDENTICAL and ETYMOLOGICALLY IDENTICAL synonymously.

62

(1) G x: L p: Olnd. p: Olr. (2) Ga: La: Olnd. i: Olr. a (3 Gt: Lt Olnd. t: Olr. t, etc. On the basis of such correspondences, SOUND LAWS are stated, and these sound laws in turn explain the correspondences. The correspondence (2) could be explained by a tentative sound law A: PIE *a» Ga,L a, Olnd. i, Olr. a. We know, however, that such an explanation would be false; we owe the fact that we know that to the FALSIFIABILITY of sound

laws as hypotheses of comparative linguistics. Namely, every hypothesis can be checked, i. e., confirmed or falsified, in a large number of examples. The example falsifying hypothesis A could be, e. g., the following set of words: G ἄγω, L ago, Olnd. ajami, Olr. agid; the sound correspondences of G a: L a: Olnd. a: Olr. a can be explained only by rejecting the initial hypothesis A and reformulate it as two different sound laws™: A’: PIE *a > Ga, La, Olnd. a, Olr. a; A": PIE *e» Ga,L a, Olnd. i, Olr. a.

889 Sound laws are the basis of the entire field of comparative genetic linguistics. Their falsifiability is what makes our discipline scientific, because it is necessary for scientific hypotheses that they can be falsified, i. e., that their truthfulness can be tested. In this lies the main difference between the comparative method, as applied in textual reconstruction, and

the FUNCTIONAL COMPARATIVE MYTHOLOGY of Georges Dumezil”. His theory of the “tripartite” ideology of Indo-Europeans, and of the three “functions” in PIE society is formulated in such a manner that it can only be confirmed by research: as he did not rely on any empirically established “sound laws", that could be refuted by future research, Dumézil was able to find tripartite “functional schemes” in such different material as Livy’s account of the beginnings of Rome and the contemporary Ossetic lengends about the Narts;

such

functional

schemes

were

then

all too easy to conform

to

his views concerning the “tripartite ideology” of the Indo-Europeans. The difference between Dumézil's theory and any hypothesis of contemporary comparative linguistics can best be observed if one poses the question: ** A more careful examination of sound correspondences would show that those two hypotheses (A’ and A”) are not the only possible sound laws; the laryngeal theory would request us to reformulate A’ as A”: PIE *h;e > Ga, L a, Olnd. a, Olr. a. For the sake of brevity, | cannot now enter the discussion about the logical structure of arguments showing the advantages of the laryngealistic hypothesis. 35 For the criterion of falsifiability of the scientific theories, see Popper 1980; for the application of Popper's theories to comparative linguistics, see Holzer 1996; for the most recent criticism of Dumézil's views, see Schlerath 1996.

63

can we imagine that in the future research facts (or counter-examples) refuting that theory will be found? Whereas for Dumézil's theory we can predict that only further confirmations can be discovered, | hope that things are different with textual reconstruction: this discipline can only be scientific if we

can

be sure that its conclusions,

where

false, can

also be

shown to be false. §90 The relationship of genetic relatedness between texts should not be identified with the relationship of genetic relatedness between languages. Whereas from the fact that two languages, A and B, are genetically related, it follows that there was a particular third language, C, such that C is the language-ancestor of A and B, for texts such reasoning is not valid. If texts T, and T, are genetically related, it does not follow that there was a text T, from which the texts T, and T, were developed (that would be true for GENETICALLY IDENTICAL TEXTS): from the genetic relatedness of T, and T, we can conclude only that there was at least one text T, (and, maybe, several such texts) that contained some (or, perhaps, all) elements that are genetically correspondent in T, and T,. Thus, the genetic relatedness of texts is more like the genetic (etymological) relatedness of words:

e.

g.,

from

the

relatedness

of

Lat.

fors

‘case’,

Croat.

birati

‘to

choose’, Olnd. bhytih ‘carrying’ and Olr. asbeir ‘he speaks’ we cannot conclude that there was ever a word (*b"er) from which all of the adduced words

have

evolved;

all that can

be concluded

is that there was

at least

one word in the proto-language that contained the element common to the genetically related words (namely, the root *b"er-). §91 However, the genetic relatedness of texts differs from the genetic relatedness of words by a very important trait: while the latter relation is TRANSITIVE, the genetic relatedness of texts is not. In other words, from the fact that A and B, and B and C, are genetically related words, it follows that A and

C are also

genetically

related

words;

in contrast to that,

if T,

and T,, and T, and T, are genetically related texts, IT DOES NOT FOLLOW that T, and T, are also genetically related, because T, and T, may contain different correspondent elements than T, and T,. 892 As on the other linguistic levels, the criterion of genetic relatedness of texts consists of the systematic correspondences of meaning and form of the meaning carriers. This means that we expect that in two genetically correspondent texts at least some meaning carriers correspond genetically, i. e., that genetic correspondences of elements can be established between at least two fragments. This does not mean that etymologically related texts cannot be so transformed that they do not contain etymolog-

64

ically (genetically) correspondent fragments any more; it means, however, that only etymologically correspondent fragments can be accepted as a scientific justification— "proof" is too strong a word—that two texts ARE etymologically related. It can never be proved that two texts are completely unrelated, unless the history of those two texts is completely known. On the other hand,

in texts that are not related,

genetically

related

elements

can occur by chance. 893 The totality of texts, containing elements genetically related to elements of texts in other languages of the same linguistic family can be called TRADITION. Thus, under Greek tradition, for example, we mean

the total-

ity of—attested and lost—Greek texts that contain elements that are genetically correspondent to elements of texts in other IE languages. In contrast to a tradition we can speak of INNOVATIONS, which can arise as a result of the influence of another tradition (a set of texts defined in a similar manner for another language), or as a result of the creativity of the authors of particular texts. Traditions in particular languages will be "resistant” to innovations in different degrees, and this "resistance" will depend mostly on extralinguistic and extraliterary conditions. Thus, we conceive of tradition as opposed to innovations, which often arise as a consequence of the creativity of the human mind. Human creativity is, in its turn, often encouraged by the special conditions of development of a particular civilization. It appears, paradoxically, that the greatest obstacle to the transmission of texts and their "natural" transformation lies in human creativity. The tradition, which renews itself by a careful transmission of the same texts and their elements, is always being destroyed from the inside by human creativity, and from the outside—by some stronger, foreign culture and its "cultural filters". 894 Correspondences of textual elements represent a confirmation of the hypothesis that they are genetically related only insofar as the meaning carriers in those texts correspond AS TEXTUAL ELEMENTS; this means that the correspondences of the material elements of texts do not suffice, and that the formal elements must correspond as well. Correspondences of the formal elements of texts that contain genetically correspondent material elements will be called CORRESPONDENT CONTEXTS. Etymologically correspondent meaning carriers appearing in correspondent contexts in texts T, and T; in genetically related languages L, and L, represent the systematic correspondences that should only be considered as confirmations of the hypothesis of the genetic relatedness of T, and Τ,. The existence of such correspondence is the only thing that makes the hypotheses of the comparative genetic textual linguistics falsifiable, and thus scientific.

65

895 Let us take into consideration, as an example, Kuhn's famous comparison of G κλέος ἄφθιτον and Olnd. sravo ... aksitam, considered by many Indo-Europeanists today as pointing to a PIE (or, at least GraecoIndo-Iranian) textual fragment *klewos nd^g""itom ‘imperishable fame’. We shall call this reconstruction a FORMULA, because it is reconstructed on the basis of the correspondent expressions (meaning carriers) longer than words, namely, on the basis of the syntagms G κλέος ἄφθιτον and Olnd. sravo ... aksitam”®. What makes this reconstruction particularly convincing is its falsifiability,

or,

in other words,

the fact that there

is

a method

that

would, in case the reconstruction were false, probably allow us to refute it. We can envisage two possible ways of refuting this reconstruction: we can show that G κλέος ἄφθιτον and Olnd. sravo ... aksitam are not reducible, via the accepted sound laws, to a common PIE form, i. e., we can show that the material textual elements are not genetically related. On the other hand, the reconstruction can be refuted if a thorough examination of the contexts in which its reflexes occur can be shown not to correspond at all (i. e., the formal elements of texts can be shown not to correspond)". In this way, we would show that, though there is a correspondence between κλέος ἄφθιτον and sravo ... aksitam, it is probably accidental. 896 However, both strategies for refuting a textual reconstruction seem not to be applicable in this particular case, firstly, because the etymological equation is impeccable, and secondly, because of a set of formal correspondences between the contexts in which κλέος ἄφθιτον and sravo ... aksitam appear. Let us sum up those formal correspondences, and try to adduce more arguments to the already very abundant discussion of this formula (see Schmitt 1967, Nagy 1974, Floyd 1980, Naafs-Wilstra 1987). Firstly, both syntagms, κλέος ἄφθιτον and sravo ... aksitam, occur in texts of the same type, namely in eulogies, either to gods or to heroes; compare the following verse of Ibycus, dedicated to Polycrates (Fr. 1, 4636 Our definition of the formula thus differs from that offered by Calvert Watkins (1992). For him, a formula is any expression referring to what he terms the "theme", or a culturally important meaning transmitted in an oral culture. In our system of definitions Watkins's theme would be equivalent to what we have named "motive"—a particular element of the content of a text transmitted within a tradition. ?' This is what E. D. Floyd tried to do in his paper, published in 1980; his argument was that in the RV the expressions sravo aksitam and aksiti Sravas are used to refer to the fame brought by earthly riches in this life (cp. the epithets of fame, sravas, in RV 1. 9. 7, e. g., gomat ‘rich in cows"), whereas κλέος in Greek poetry refers to glory, remaining in oral tradition after a hero's death (see below). However, Floyd's argument does not convince me; the fact that Vedic rishis are more preoccupied with earthly fame-conveying treasures can be explained by the nature of the Vedic text, which is not intended only as an eulogy, but also as a prayer to gods, who are often asked to convey riches to mortals.

66

48): καὶ σύ, Πολύκρατες, κλέος ἄφθιτον ἕξεις “And you, Polycrates, shall lave imperishable fame” and RV 1. 9. 7 (an eulogy to Indra): sam gomad Indra vajavad / asmé prthu srávo byhät visvayur dhehy aksitam “Convey upon us, o Indra, a fame rich in cows, full of booty, high, (lasting) the whole life long, imperishable”. Secondly, both the Greek and the Vedic syntagms are only a part of the system of formulas containing the nouns κλέος and sravas, cp. the PIE formulas *weru- klewos ‘broad fame’, *wesu klewos ‘good fame’, etc. (see §13). Thirdly, the meanings of the compared syntagms correspond not only on the level of their basic lexical meaning (which is necessary if the etymology connecting them is to be valid), but also on the level of their specific meaning, acquired by these syntagms through the function that they perform in the particular contexts in which they appear. The identity of this specific meaning guarantees that sravo ... aksitam and κλέος ἄφθιτον represent correspondent MOTIVES, (and therefore correspondent formal textual elements). Namely, both syntagms represent metaphors in the Greek and Vedic texts in which they appear, and this specific meaning that they acquire aS ELEMENTS of texts implies that the etymological correspondence is not accidental. The metaphorical nature of the expression κλέος ἄφθιτον can be seen if one looks at other examples of use of the epithet ἄφθιτος in Greek; in Homer and Hesiod ἄφθιτος is attributed usually to material objects: throne—Opovog (Il. 14. 238), scepter—oxfintpov (ll. 2. 46), or liquids (water—óócop Theog. 389). In the RV the epithet aksita- also usually stands with concrete things, mostly with liquids, and then it means 'unexhausted', cp. e. g., utsam aksitam ‘unexhausted current’ (1. 64. 6), or avatam akSitam ‘unexhausted spring’ (8. 72. 10). All this shows that in the syntagms κλέος ἄφθιτον and sravo ... aksitam the adjective is used metaphorically, with an abstract noun; the metaphor is understandable in the context of the Vedic and Homeric poetic traditions, as in both of them 'glory' is considered to be one of the greatest human values. Fourthly, Gregory Nagy (1974) has shown that the Greek and Vedic formulas are preserved in metrical environments which can be shown to have developed from common metrical patterns. Both syntagms have the same metrical value (,,.,,), and Nagy, on the basis of his theory of comparative IE metrics, supposes that these syntagms originally stood at the end of the line; in that position κλέος ἄφθιτον is attested in Sappho's (incomplete) line (Fr. 44. 4): τάς τ' ἄλλας ᾿Ασίας .[.]5e.av κλέος ἄφθιτον

67

Nagy explains that, in the Rig-Vedic lines that had originally ended with sravo aksitam, the original line ending *sravo aksitam v

ν

-

V

X

was replaced with aksiti savas ν

-

ν

(e.g. RV 1. 40, 8. 103)

Χ

This is a syntagm of the same meaning as sravo aksitam, but with a structure more adequate to the Vedic meter, because in the Rig-Veda, metrical sequences of two short syllables (, ,) are avoided in the last, quantitatively determined part of the syllable (Nagy, op. cit., Arnold 1905). The hypothesis that the earlier form aksitam was replaced by aksiti- is confirmed by the fact that aksiti- occurs in the RV EXCLUSIVELY with the noun sravas, in contrast to the adjective aksita-, which occurs with many other nouns (see Grassmann, s. v.). If Nagy's analysis is correct, we can attribute to PIE (or Graeco-Indo-lranian) poetry a metrically structured formula

*klewos nd^g""itom // v

v

-

ν

ν

with an extraordinary high degree of probability. The correspondent metrical patterns in the Greek and Vedic texts, in which the reflexes of that PIE formula occur, are a significant formal element with a great bearing upon the credibility of our reconstruction. 897 Besides metrical environment, there is another points to the deep antiquity of the Greek formula κλέος circumstance was left unnoticed by Schmitt and later compositional and artistic context in which the formula

circumstance that ἄφθιτον, and that scholars. It is the appears. Namely,

in the lliad we find only one” attestation of κλέος ἄφθιτον, but exactly in the passage that is decisive for the action and the artistic impression of the whole epic: Achilles, doubting whether to return in safety to Phthia, or to accept to fight for Troy and perish, but thus acquire "imperishable fame",

utters the lines that can

be understood

as a "motto"

of the whole

Iliad: 38 Because κλέος ἄφθιτον appears in Homer only once, Margalit Finkelberg (1986) expressed doubts as to whether the expression is a Homeric formula at all. | cannot accept her argument, as the formula is well attested in post-Homeric poetry, and it is improbable that all of the places in which it occurs depend upon a single line of Homer.

68

εἰ μέν αὖθι μένων Τρώων πόλιν ἀμφιμάχωμαι ὥλετο μέν μοι νόστος, ἀτὰρ κλέος ἄφθιτον ἔσται "If | should stay here, and fight around the city of Troy,

my return is lost, but | shall have imperishable fame"? (Il. 9. 412-413). Whoever composed the final version of the Iliad could not have chosen it more decisive moment to use the formula κλέος ἄφθιτον, which at that lime had already acquired connotations of dignity and antiquity (see also Nagy 1981). 898 On the basis of all of the adduced material and formal correspondences, we can conclude that the syntagm "klewos nd"'g""itom is an element of the common Graeco-Indo-Iranian, and perhaps even PIE, textual tradition. 899 The correspondences between material elements of texts are, however, often not so complete as in the preceding example. Of course, the metrical patterns in which the etymologically correspondent expressions occur usually do not correspond—the case of *klewos nd"g""itom is an exception rather than a rule. Moreover, it often happens that only word's roots correspond etymologically; from a rather severe point of view of formalistic reconstruction, advocated by Schmitt (see §8ff.), such correspondences should not be taken as confirmations of the genetic relatedness of texts. However, such correspondences are actually sometimes very convincing, above all if they occur in correspondent contexts (i. e., if they are backed by formal correspondences between the compared texts). We shall name such correspondences between syntagms, composed of etymologically related, but not identical elements, INCOMPLETE CORRESPONDENCES,

and

formulas

reconstructed

on

the

basis

of

such

corre-

spondences will be termed INCOMPLETE FORMULAS. An example of such an incomplete formula is PIE *hjnomn klew-* ‘famous name’; Schmitt recon39 |n contrast to Margalit Finkelberg (op. cit.), who thinks that ἄφθιτον is in the predicative position, | think that the translation “1 shall have imperishable fame" should be preferred to "my fame shall be imperishable". ? | see no need for the second laryngeal in the PIE word for "name", so my reconstruction differ's from Schmitt's. Greek ὄνομα and Olnd. nama are from PIE "h4nómn, while Goth. namo can be derived from *h4nomón (a generalization of the PIE *h,ekmon type); Proto-Slavic *jeme is from *h,nmen-, as well as OPruss. emmens, probably by dissimilation *inmen » *enmen, and subsequent assimilation to emmen-. Olr. ainm is from *h,nmn; if there had been another laryngeal in this word, as Schmitt suggested, the expected Olr. reflex would have been *náim. L nomen is from PIE *h,nomon, and the vowel

69

structs that formula on the basis of G ὄνομα κλυτόν (also as a compound, ὀνομάκλυτος), Ved. nama srutyam ‘famous name’, Toch. A fiom-klyu-, originally a dvandva-compound ‘name and fame’ (for attestations see Schmitt 1967, §§155-160). In all three languages, only the roots of the words meaning ‘famous name’ correspond, but the formations are different. Thus Ved. srutyam points to PIE *klutyom, whereas the Greek adjective is from PIE *klutom. If such discrepancies are tolerated, then another correspondence can be adduced: in ORuss. we find the syntagm cnasHoe uma in several places of the medieval epic ZadonScina (e. g. S67, 880 of Jakobson's edition, cp. Jakobson 1966: 565). This ORuss. formula can be derived from PIE *kl6w-ino- h,nmen-, where both words are etymologically related to those on the basis of which the PIE formula had been reconstructed. We must emphasize again: it is not only the etymological correspondence that makes the reconstruction of *hanomn klew- possible; the correspondence of contexts is equally important: namely, the aforementioned syntagms usually occur in heroic poems, and are constantly connected with the motive of heroic fame. Thus, they are usually attributed to heroes: in ZadonScina, to a duke's druzina (companions), in Homer, e. g., to Odysseus (Od. 9. 364), and in the RV to Indra, the warrior-god (e. g. 8. 46. 14). The existence of such a formula can explain the fact that in Latin, nomen often acquires the metaphorical sense of "fame", e. g., in Cicero (magnum in oratoribus nomen habere, Or. 6. 22). In Olr., ainm ‘name’ can also mean ‘glory’, cp. TBC?, 556: forbiad a ainm ar gnimaib gaiscid firu Erend “let his name in feats of arms be stronger than the men of Ireland’. 8100 Besides all that, the incomplete formula *h,znomn klew- is well integrated in the system of formulas that contain the constant element *klew- ‘glory’ (see §13ff.). We see how a more careful examination of the formal correspondences brings about the conclusion that the formula is not restricted to the Graeco-Indo-lranian area (with the doubtful case of Toch.

A),

but that it is also traceable

in the Slavic,

Italic, and

Celtic lan-

guages. Of course, an incomplete formula is not as firm evidence for the reconstruction

of

should

bear in mind the fact that in comparative

always

a PIE

fragment

as

a complete

formula;

however,

one

linguistics, we

length is due to the analogy with the words derived from *gneh,- ‘to know’ (cp. cognomen with unetymological -g-). All the supposed PIE forms constituted a PIE "hysterodynamic" paradigm (see Beekes 1987). ^! Olr. ainm sometimes occurs with the verb gaibid ‘get, take, seize’, which etymologically corresponds to L nomen habere (for attestations, see D. 1. A., s. v. ainm). "Name" can mean "glory" in Greek as well, cp. Od. 12. 248: Ἰθάκης ye καὶ ἐς Τροίην óvop' tke “and the name of Ithaca reaches Troy" (see also Od. 24. 93).

70

never deal with the facts such as we would like them to be, but only with the facts that are given or can be discovered. §101 Complete textual correspondences, on the basis of which formulas such as PIE *klewos nd"g""itom are reconstructed, are not the only type of material correspondences that, provided formal correspondences are also present, can be considered to be a confirmation of the genetic relatedness of texts. Moreover, incomplete formulas are more often found in various works dealing with textual reconstruction, though they are not

consequently distinguished from the complete formulas”. 8102 We can go another step forward. When we defined the notion of textual correspondence, we did not imply that it was a necessary condition that syntagms, i. e., expressions longer than a single word, correspond etymologically; sometimes, it may be enough that a single word in one language corresponds etymologically with another word, attested in a text in another language, provided that the etymological correspondence is supported by the correspondence of context. When a PIE formula is reconstructed on the basis of such correspondences, we shall call it a DEFECTIVE formula.

For an example

of a defective formula,

we

shall com-

pare Schmitt's reconstruction of PIE *klewos megh, ‘great fame’ (on the basis of G péya κλέος and Olnd. mahi sravas, cp. Schmitt 1967: 8133), the Russian formula czasa semuxas (The Vseslav epos, |. 58, cp. Jakobson 1966)", and Olr. clumor = clü mór (see D. |. A., s. v. clu). Although only the nouns are etymologically related to G κλέος and Ved. sravas (Olr. clu and Russ. casa are both from PIE “klew-), the formal correspondences might support the claim that we are dealing with the same formula; in both Olr. and Russ. the expressions "great fame" appear in heroic poetry, and represent items of the respective poetic languages. Moreover, in both Olr. and Slavic a lexical innovation had occured, so that there is no adjective meaning 'great', derived from PIE *megh,. This enables us to suppose that in both languages reflexes of PIE *klewos megh, are preserved, but that the first part of that formula has been replaced by lexical innovation. The unreplaced lexical element, the reflex of PIE *klew- in both languages, is the minimal textual element that justifies the supposition of genetic relatedness. That minimal etymologically correspondent textual ele? Schmitt (1967), for example, does not distinguish the complete formula, such as PIE *megh, klewos 'great fame' and the incomplete formula, such as the aforementioned *h,nomen klew-. ? Lines 58-59, where the expression "great fame" occurs, are as follows: IIpoınma Ta cnaBa Kiev".

BeJHKa3,

KO

CTOJBHOMy

Tpany

Kuesy

"This great fame went to the capital city of

T1

ment shall be called a KEY WORD. Key words are, thus, minimal etymologically correspondent expressions (meaning carriers) in texts, composed in genetically related languages, that, when occcuring in correspondent contexts, confirm the hypothesis that the texts in question are genetically related. Only after key words referring to a concept (or motive) have been established, can etymologically unrelated, but semantically similar textual elements

be adduced

as evidence for a reconstructed

PIE formula. Thus,

“great fame” is a formulaic expression in OEng. as well, although it is expressed in words that are not etymologically related to PIE *klewos megh,, cp. Beowulf, 884 ff.:

Sigemunde gesprong after dead-daege DOM UNLYTEL, syddan wiges heard wyrm acwealde heordes hyrde "No small glory shone for Sigemund, after his death-day;

hardened by wars, he killed a dragon, treasure's keeper”. The syntagm dom unlytel in this passage is the semantic equivalent of the PIE formula "great fame", exhibiting a typical Anglo-Saxon taste for litotes. The reader has noticed that words derivable from the root *klew- are key words

in a whole

series of texts mentioned

so far. Of course,

constructions based on the correspondences of key words are probable than those based on the correspondences of complete However, one must notice that it is a matter of different degrees bility, and not of a difference in principle; when we say this, we ing that the same principle that is valid in etymology applies in construction as well: the probability of an etymology is greater, the meaning carriers (related by that etymology) are.

the re-

much less formulas. of probaare claimtextual rethe longer

A SYNTACTIC TYPOLOGY OF TEXTUAL CORRESPONDENCES

8103 The division of textual correspondences and reconstructed formulas into full, incomplete, defective, and key-words should be complemented by another division, equally important. A large number of textual correspondences adduced in the literature are composed of nouns and modifying adjectives, just as in the case of "imperishable fame"; such formulas can be called "type N-Adj". Formulas of the type N-Adj are very common 72

in Schmitt's monograph (1967). In that book, the etymological comparisons of expressions are mostly incontestable, but the author often fails to take into account the correspondences of other elements of texts. Let us take,

for

example,

Schmitt's

reconstruction

of

the

formula

*h,ekwos

heh,ku- ‘swift horse’ (op. cit.: 8501). The correspondences adduced by Schmitt are G ὠκύες ἵπποι (in n. pl. 11 times in Homer, 6. g. Il. 5. 257, 8. 88, etc.), and RV 10. 78. 5 asväso ... äsavo (also in other cases, see Schmitt, op. cit.: §493); in Avesta, the etymologically related expression (asu.aspa-) is also encountered, but never in n. pl. (Schmitt, op. cit.: §4956). Regardless of the incontestable fact that these formulas correspond etymologically, we must emphasize an important difference between a

formula such as, say, *klewos nd"g""itom and *h,ekwos heh,ku-. Whereas the former formula represents an important element in the structure of Greek and Vedic texts—the metaphor of ‘imperishable fame’ as an award for the hero’s deeds—such a correspondence of MOTIVE is wholly absent with the latter formula. §104 While the epithet “imperishable” is metaphoric, and thus highly informative with respect to the noun “fame”, the epithet “swift” is rather banal, uninformative, with respect to the noun “horse”. By examining a large number of places adduced by Schmitt where this syntagm occurs, no formal-correspondence of contexts can be discovered. The fact that the adjective is uninformative with respect to the noun is the reason why the possibility of coincidental etymological correspondence is much greater in the case of the syntagm “swift horses”. Moreover, such uninformative epithets are a rather usual stylistic phenomenon in a large number of oral traditions; thence, we shall not be surprised to find out that the expressions meaning “swift horses” are often encountered in Slavic, Celtic, and Germanic literatures. In the ORuss. "Igor's Epic" we find the formulaic syntagm

6pp3bIH

KoMmoHH ‘Swift horses’ (Slovo, Is. 83, 45).

In Zadonscina

(ed.

Jakobson 1966) the same expression occurs (Ha 6pp3% ΚΟΗΜ, |. 84), thus confirming that the syntagm is a formula in the ORuss. epic. The same formula is attested in OEng., e. g., se swifta mearh (Beowulf, 2264), and in Olr., where /uath ‘swift’ often modifies ech ‘horse’ (see D. |. A., s. v. luath); a bahuvrihi-compound echdian ‘whose horses are swift’, referring to the hero Ailill, is also attested. In spite of the possibility that all these formulas are genetically related, these parallels cannot be considered very important until a correspondent context can be found, in which the expressions meaning “swift horses” play a similar role as TEXTUAL ELEMENTS. Another possibility would be to show that nouns meaning “horse” in different IE languages share a number of common epithets that constitute a system in a number of IE traditions. If that were the case, the etymological corre-

73

spondence between the Greek and Indo-Iranian syntagms would also become more important, and could be used as confirmation of the hypothesis that these syntagms were inherited from PIE, and are not just typologi-

cal parallels, characteristic of many IE and non-IE traditions^. 8105 Let us consider another example. In a large number of IE (and, presumably, non-IE) traditions, we find formulaic expressions meaning "green grass". In such expressions, the adjective "green" is semantically void, because the most apparent property of grass is greenness. Thus, "green" is uninformative with respect to "grass", and the occurrence of the syntagm cannot be used as an argument for genetic relatedness of texts, in spite of the fact that the number of traditions in which that syntagm occurs is impressive: Croatian (zelena trava, see Katició 1993: 4), ORuss. (Slovo,

|. 631

crnasmy

eMy

sembuyro

TpaBy),

Lithuanian

(Zalia

veja,

cp.

Nevskaja 1985: 54), and OFr. (Chanson de Roland, |. 2175: sur l'erbe verte puis l'at suef culchet "he let him down gently on the green grass". In the Germanic tradition, the expression "green grass" (OEng. grene graes, Germ. grünes Gras) conforms easily to the alliterative metrical patterns of those languages. The syntagm is so common that in Welsh, the everyday word for "grass" is the expression etymologically derived from "green grass": W glaswellt 'grass' is a compound of glas 'green, blue' and gwellt 'grass'. If we ask ourselves whether anything would be significantly different if any etymological correspondences could be established between all those expressions meaning "green grass", it is clear that the answer would be negative; to confirm a hypothesis of genetic relatedness of two formulas, it is not enough that their meanings and forms are related. It is necessary that these formulas also occur in correspondent contexts, i. e., that

there is a system of formal correspondences between texts in which they occur. §106 Words for colors are often such uninformative, common epithets; this fact can be established as a sort of typological universal of comparative textual linguistics. Let us take the expression “white hands” for example; this expression occurs independently in many traditions: from Balto-Slavic folklore (Lith. baltos rankos, Croat. bijele ruke) to OFr. Chanson de Roland (blanches mains, |. 2250). In a similar manner, we find the correspondence of the expressions for “red gold” in Russ. folklore (KpacHoe 30moro, Katició 1988: 68) and in Olr. sagas, where there is a very common compound dercör (e. g. Serglige Con Culainn, 60, TBC 2094, Scéla Cano Meic Gartnäin, 7, etc.). The expression “black earth” is 45 For example, in Tamil epic poetry, the expression “swift horses” is a very common formula, cp. Kailasapathy 1968: 77.

74

also fairly common: ORuss. uppHa 36 Μμπ4 (Slovo, 229, Zadonscina, 71), Ὁ γαῖα μέλαινα (e. g. Il. 2. 669), Olr. domunn donn (Serglige Con Culainn 345). §107 Accidental correspondences can, of course, also occur between expressions that are etymologically related, if no formal correspondences are present. Let us consider the following example. In Slavic folklore, a very common epithet of “fire” is the adjective “living”. The attestations from the East Slavic folklore can be found in Ivanov and Toporov (1974), but the syntagm “living fire” is attested in South Slavic as well, e. g., in the Serbian song Zmaj ognjeni Vuk (“Vuk, the fire-dragon") published by Jakobson (1966: 373), where other syntagms discussed in the previous chapters also occur: /z zuba mu Ziva vatra sipa // sasipa se na zemljicu crnu // pa zelenu zapaljuje travu "From his teeth a living fire pours, pours down to the black earth, and sets the green grass aflame". The word vatra can be considered as lexical innovation, but the inherited PIE word for "fire", *ngnis (or *h,egnis) > oganj, is also present in South Slavic folklore, e. g., in a Montenegran song: Ako pustih Ziva ognja, gnijezdo cu ti opaliti "if | leave a living fire, it will burn your nest” (Katicic

1990: 36, Cubelic 1970: 304). The L expression vivitis ignes, attested in Ovid (Fasti 3, 427: quos sancta fovet ille manu, bene vivitis ignes; cp. also Remedia Amoris 732, vivit ... ignis) contains two etymologically related roots, derivable from PIE *g"ihwo- h,egnis. However,

it is difficult to expect

any traces of ancient textual tradition in a poet as late as Ovid, and no correspondences in context can be established between the Latin and Slavic passages in which the syntagms occur. The same could be said about the Vedic expression (divam) jinvanty agnayah “fires enliven the sky" (RV 1. 164. 51) and the Heraclitean πῦρ ἀείζωον "eternally living fire" (Fr. 62, Mansfeld), which also contain etymologically related material, but presumably as a result of pure chance. 8108 On the basis of the preceding paragraphs, the following methodological principle can be formulated: for the etymologically and/or semantically correspondent formulas of the type N-Adj, the probability that they represent genetically related textual elements is greater, the more informative the adjective (Adj) is, with respect to the noun (N).

^9 Cp. also Bulg. xus oreu, a term of sacral origin according to Ivanov and Toporov (1974: 117). ?' In Greek, one PIE word for fire, *ngnis, was lost, but the other (πῦρ « *peh,wör) replaced it in all functions.

T5

8109 Whereas “green grass” served as example of an uninformativo epithet, “sweet dream” could represent an example of a rather unexpect. ed, informative expression with a metaphorical, rather than straightforward sense: a dream can be “sweet” only by analogy, i. e., pleasant to the senses (?) just as sweetness is pleasant to the taste. Such a metaphor occurs in a large number of languages, and it is difficult to discover its origin. It is possible that expressions such as Eng. sweet dream, Germ. süßer Traum, or even Olr. suan binn (e. g., Compert Con Culainn, 81, 26) are taken over directly from Greek poetry, where the phrase γλυκὺς ὕπνος occurs rather often (e. g. Il. 23. 232, or Hom. Hymn. 5. 170; cp. also 1j δυμος ὕπνος, Hom. Hymn. 4. 240, Il. 4. 131, etc.). However, in Latin poetry, for which one would be tempted to assume that it had been the mediator between the Greek and the Western European traditions, expressions such as *somnus suavis (dulcis), or “somnium suave (dulce) seem not to occur at all. Besides that, the occurrence of the syntagms with the same meaning in the Balto-Slavic folklore would be difficult to explain as borrowing from the classical tradition (cp. Lith. miegas saldus, Dainos 182, also Nevskaja 1985: 58). Still, as no etymological correspondences can be established between all these syntagms of identical meaning, we cannot but consider them accidental. §110 A particular case of correspondence of the type N-Adj are compounds that contain the adjectival prefixes “su- (? *h,su-, *wesu-) ‘good’ and *dus- ‘bad’. For example, the G complex adjective εὐώνυμος ‘whose name is good’ (e. g. Hesiod, Theog. 409, Pindar, Ol. 2. 7) has its etymological correspondence in Olnd. sunaman-. Also, the Ved. adjective sanyta- (‘beautiful, rich, powerful’) corresponds to Olr. sonairt ‘strong’ (Celt. "su-nerto-). The original, PIE *(h,)su-nerto-, was probably a bahuvrihi compound meaning ‘whose strength is good’. Similarly, we can compare Olr. söer ‘noble’ and Ved. suviras ‘manly, heroic’, as they can both be derived from PIE *(h,)su-wih,ro-. However, these correspondences might very well be accidental, because the formation of adjectives by means of the prefix *(h,)su- remained productive long after the break-up of the PIE linguistic community. On the other hand, these correspondences are very easily understandable in the context of the presupposed PIE heroic or religious hymnic poetry. §111 Besides the commonly adduced tactic patterns. We formulas consisting genitive case.

76

formulas of the type N-Adj, which are by far the most in literature, one also finds formulas of different synshall first consider formulas of the type N-Gen, i. e., of a noun and another noun determining it in the

A typical case of such a formula is PIE *d'ugh,ter diwos ‘daughter of Ii ky’. This formula, reflected as θυγάτηρ Διός in Greek, and as duhita divas

in Vedic,

is

a good

example,

because

it is reconstructed

luis Of irreproachable etymological correspondences. i'enpondences

of the contexts,

in which

that formula

on

the

However, the coroccurs,

are

no

less

important, although they seem to have been rather neglected by Schmitt's lmmalist method (see Schmitt 1967: ὃ 340). By examining these contexts " 5280ff. we shall show that the contextual correspondences are very farreaching; not only does the noun in the genitive always refer to the same personage in the G and Ved. mythological texts (namely, the PIE Sky-god, ‘dyews), but the noun *d'ugh,tér also reflects the same deity of the PIE pantheon. We shall thus be able to add the Lith. formula dievo dukte to Ihe evidence for a PIE poetic formula; moreover, the contextual corre„pondences will show that it is possible that Olr. ingen in Dagdai (‘daughter of Dagda’), the epithet of the pagan Irish goddess Brigit, is also related. 8112 There are also incomplete formulas of the type N-Gen. In three IE traditions, there is an expression metaphorically denoting the center of the Iarth, in the sense of the sacral orientation in space. That expression is "the navel of Earth", which must have been expressed as, approximately, *hmbhel- d^g^mos in the proto-language; however, as the word for Earth was often replaced by a description (e. g. as ‘the broad one’, *plth;wih, > Ved. prythivi 'earth'), or words of later origin, perhaps as a result of taboo, we never find expressions of exactly that reconstructed formula. In Greek, the expression "the navel of Earth" refers to Delphi, e. g., in Pindar: γᾶς ὀμφαλόν, Pyth. 8. 59, μέσον ὀμφαλόν ... ματέρος, Pyth. 4. 74, or Paean 6. 120. The syntagm appears to be formulaic in Pindar. The Vedic formula nabhih ksamah is completely parallel to the Greek expression; it appears in many hymns of the RV (cp., e. g., 1. 59. 2), and usually refers to the place of the sacrifice, which is conceived of as a sacral center of the world. In the Irish tradition, we find a corresponding formula translated into Latin, in Topographia Hiberniae (144) of Giraldus Cambrensis (11th century). Of a place called Uisnech, which had been considered to be the center of Ireland, Giraldus writes: ... umbilicus Hiberniae dicitur quasi in medio et meditulio terrae positus. The Olr. tradition calls this place, where druids used to gather in pagan ceremonies, medón Erenn ‘the center of Ireland’ (Ó Rahilly 1946: 147). That this place was actually called imliu (< PIE *h,mb"elyön) is confirmed by the expression 6s imlind Usnig ‘above the navel (= center) of Uisnech' (D. I. A., s. v. imliu)'*. 48 Cp. also the medieval L text Chronicon Briocense, from Bretagne, quoted in Le Roux and Guyonvarc'h (1986: 221): /Rex ludhael] vidit insomnis montem excelsissimum esse

77

§113 Of course, these parallels do not prove the existence of the PIE formula, and it is possible that the correspondences are typological, not genetic, as is often the case with incomplete formulas. On the other hand, when we have complete formulas it is sometimes even less probable that they represent reflexes of PIE originals. Such is the case with expressions meaning “lord, master of the house”, derived from PIE *wikos/woykosyo potis. Such a formula would be reconstructible on the basis of Ved. visasya patih, or vispatih (e. g., RV 26. 7), which corresponds etymologically with the Lith. compound viespatis, viespats ‘lord, ruler, God’. The problem is, however, that this compound does not play any specific function in Lith. folklore poetry, so that no formal correspondences with Ved. visasya patih are observable; in other words, the correspondences of context do not permit us to claim that we are dealing with formulas inherited from the PIE textual tradition. §114 The next class of formulas actually represents the core of a sentence; it is the type V-O, consisting of a transitive verb and its object. In Schmitt's monograph (1967: S600ff.) we find, e. g., "wek"os teks- ‘to carpenter the word’ = ‘to compose a song’. This formula will be dealt with in the following chapters (see 8258). The formula *g"ons h,eg- ‘to drive cows’ has the same structure; it can be established on the basis of the following Ved. and Olr. formulaic expressions. In Olr., in several different texts, one finds a formula which means “men are killed, women are taken,

cattle is driven away”. This formula is uttered by Sualtaim, the father of the hero Cu Chulainn, in the most famous Irish saga Tain Bo Cuailnge (TBC, 3425): Fir gontair, mna brattair, bai agthar. That phrase probably had a ritual meaning, because it is followed by the question asked by a chorus of the warriors of Ulad: “who kills, who takes, who drives away?”. The formulaic character of this phrase is confirmed by a number of other places in which it occurs, with small aberrations: Mná brataitir, οἱ Ca Chulaind, eti agatair, fir gonaitir “Women are taken, said Cu Chulainn, cattle is driven

away, men are killed” (TBC 2124); here the key word bó « PIE *g"ows has been replaced by a younger word, éit ‘cattle’. The same phrase is repeated in another saga, The cattle raid of Regamain (Tain bö Regamna, §4): gaib eti eblatar “cattle will be driven away by spears” (eb/atar is 3 pl. future of the verb agid). All of these examples occur in very archaic contexts, connected with the motive of cattle raids, which is very probably Proto-Indo-European. In the Vedic tradition, this motive is contained in the myth of the god Indra, who took away the cattle, locked by the demon constitutam in medio suae regionis Britanniae, id est IN UMBILICO per quem ambulandi callis difficilis inueniebatur. For the reasons why the PIE word for “Earth” was tabooised in PIE, see Nunez

78

1993.

Vila (cp. Schmidt 1968), whereas in the Roman tradition, there is a parallel myth of Hercules, who took away the cattle, stolen from him by the damon Cacus. In Greek mythology, there are two myths about the stealing of cattle—the myth of Heracles, who stole the cattle of Geryon, and the le

about

Hermes,

who

stole

Apollo's

cows;

only the

first of these

two

inyths shows some structural parallels with the other IE motives. 8115 In the RV, the formula gam (gäh) aj-, corresponding to the aforementioned Olr. expressions, is attested in several places. In RV 2. 12. 3, we read: yo hatvahim árinat sapta síndhün, yó ga udájad apadhd valásya, yO ásmanor antár agnim jajäna, samvjk samatsu sa janasa indrah “He who, having killed the snake, let seven rivers flow, who, moving aside Vala drove

out the cows,

who

gave

birth to the fire between

two

stones,

who gets booty in combats—he is Indra, o men”. Also, in RV 2. 14. 3: üdhvaryavo yo dfbhikam jaghäna yó gä udäjad... "O Adhvaryus, he who killed Drbhika [a demon], who drove out the cows...” (said again of Indra). In RV 2. 24. 3, of Indra: Ud gá äjad ábhinad brahmana valám, "He drove out the cows, he broke Vala with a brahman / [a magic incantation],", and, finally, in 3. 44. 5: ud σᾶ háribhir ajata "with (his) horses he drove out the cows”. §116 It is a conspicuous correspondence that in both Olr. and Vedic texts the formulas are related to the protagonist of the myth about the freeing of the cows, and that in the Vedic texts, very near the reflex of the formula *g"ons h,eg-, the verb han- also occurs (see above, hatvahim, Jaghana), and that verb also occurs as a key word in the reconstruction of the PIE myth about the combat of the Thunder-god and the dragon (see Watkins 1987); it is important to note that the Olr. verb gonid is etymologically correspondent to the Vedic verb han-, as they can both be derived from PIE *g""en- ‘slay’ (cp. L de-fendo, etc.); Olr. gonid is, in its turn, also present in the Olr. formulas (cp. fir gonaitir ‘men are killed’). This is probably an indication that the dragon-slaying myth and the myth about the setting

free of the cows

were

connected

in PIE,

as

some

scholars

have

suggested (e. g., Ivanov & Toporov 1974). 8117 In the Greek tradition, | could not find the formula ἄγειν βοῦν in the context of the myth about the freeing of cattle. The reason is probably that most accounts of how Heracles stole Geryon's cattle are attested in rather late sources. The expression ἄγειν βοῦν 'to drive a cow' does appear, actually, in Od. 3. 439, in a description of a sacrifice, but this is probably coincidental. The Latin sources of the myth about Hercules and Cacus are also late; the myth is told in Livy (Ab urbe condita 1. 7) and in

79

Vergil (Aeneis, 8. 192ff.). Vergil’s account is certainly more original, and hardly any old traditions are to be sought there; Livy, who had certainly used older, lost sources, might have deliberately echoed the old formula (boves agere): Herculem in ea loca boves mira specie abegisse memorant ... actae boves ... (o. c.). However, this does not really have any probative value. The formula of the PIE dragon-slaying myth, reconstructed by Watkins

(1987), *g""ent h,eg”"im ‘slew the dragon’ (Ved. ahann ahim, G "πεφνεῖν ὄφιν, Av. janat azim) is also of the type V-O. 8118 As an example of an incomplete formula of the type V-O we can take the expression "to sing the fame". This expression is also metaphorical, and it is attested in Homer (ἄειδε δ' ἄρα κλέα ἀνδρῶν, Il. 9. 189) and in ORuss. noror» cnasy (S/ovo 300). In Vedic, as far as | can tell, sravas does not appear as the object of any verb meaning 'to sing', but in Av. srauuá (« *klewos) can also mean 'eulogy' (e. g. Y 28. 10: at vo xsmaibiia asunaà vaéda x‘eraidiia vaintiia srauuá ‘| know for you, o wealthy, beautiful songs of praise, driven by a skilful charioteer’ (following Humbach's translation). If “fames” are actually songs of praise, then they can be the direct object of the verb “to sing” (though | was unable to find that in Avesta). §119 Calvert Watkins (1992) reconstructs the following formula of the type V-O: *wih,ro- peku peh,- ‘protect men and cattle’; Watkins reconstructs that formula on the basis of L pastores pecuaque salua servassis (Varo, De re rust. 2. 1. 12) and Av. 6ra6rai pasuuá viraaia ‘protect cattle and men’ (Yast 13. 10; for other examples see Watkins, op. cit.). The formulaic character of the reconstructed syntagm “wih,ro- peku peh,- had been noted already by Schmitt (1967: §535ff.); this expression referred to the whole of the movable possessions (Watkins, op. cit.: 402). The syntactic structure of this formula may also be called the N-N type, as it consists of two nouns, usually connected by a conjunction. §120 The formulas of the type N-N, whether with a conjunction or as asyndeta,

are

rather seldom

found

in literature. To the rather scarce

ex-

amples found in Schmitt (1967) and other works, we can now add the following; in the Olr. saga Tain Bo Cuailnge (TBC 2042) there is a phrase, that seems

to have

been

so archaic that the scribe did not understand

it,

as can be deduced from his commentary. In one of the key episodes of this saga, the hero Cu Chulainn says to the evil goddess Morrigain— bennacht dé 7 andee fort! “Blessing of gods and non-gods upon you!”. The scribe, who felt the need to clarify this utterance, continues: “Gods

80

were magicians to them, and non-gods were farmers”. The same Olr. blessing is also attested in the eulogistic poetry; in the eulogy of the | cinster king Áed mac Diarmata (8th cent.), the anonymous poet wishes him cach maith do dé nó anddae "every good of gods or non-gods" (Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus, Il, 248). If we “translate” the construction de ... unde into PIE, we get (in N sg.) *deywos ... ndeywos. PIE *deywos was a word that referred to celestial gods (another formation of the same root is “dyéws 'sky'), so that, with a prefixed negation, *n-, it could have meant only 'mortal, man'. The phrase *deywos

... ndeywos

could refer, in

a meta-

phorical sense, to gods and men, i. e. to all intelligent beings. In exactly the same sense, we find the expression devas ... adevas in the Rig-Veda; that Rig-Vedic expression is the regular reflex of the reconstructed PIE formula *deywos ... ndeywos. In RV 6. 22. 11 we read: na yd ádevo varate na devá äbhir yahi tüyam à madryadrik “those (horses) that neither god come quickly to me with them”.

nor non-god

can

restrain,

Although Olnd. adeva- usually means ‘godless (man)', Grassmann (s. v.) supposes also the meaning 'non-god' precisely for the quoted passage. Although such correspondences might be accidental, it is worth noting that in Hittite ritual texts, we encounter a partially correspondent expression asivant- « PIE *ndiwo-nt-, but the usual meaning of this word is ‘poor’ (cp. Croat. u-bog ‘poor’). However, Ivanov and Toporov (1974: 133) found a context in which asivant- means derived from the stem Siu- ‘god, divine'^.

‘mortal’,

in contrast to the words

8121 Perhaps one could consider the following phrases, noted by Campanile (1993: 8-9), as incomplete variants of the preceding formula: Ved. devanam uta ... martyanam ‘of gods and men’ (RV 6. 15. 13), Gaul. deuoxtonion ‘id.’ (the Vercelli inscription, L deum atque hominum (Terence, Hec. 298), G θεῶν καὶ ἀνδρῶν (Hom. Hymn. 2. 96). In the first three expressions only the first words are etymologically correspondent (from PIE *deywo-). In Latin, the expression deum atque hominum is certainly formulaic, cp. the exclamation pro deum atque hominum fidem! (e. g. Plautus, Curc. 5. 3. 16, Terence, Heaut. 1. 1. 9, etc.). Etymologically, this Latin formula is parallel to Gaulish deuoxtonion (6. pl.).

^ The Ved. adjective adevayant- ‘godless’, with the suffix correspondent to Hitt. -nt-, also appears in opposition to devayant- 'god-obeying' (RV 2. 26. 1): "A rightful singer, a conquerer, shall overcome the vanquished, and the god-obeying [shall overcome] the godless".

81

8122 Just as “gods and non-gods" are conceived of as the totality of the (intelligent) beings, so “earth and heaven” metonymically represent the world in its totality, in a large number of IE traditions. The complete formula (approximately *d"eg"om dy&wsk"e) cannot be found, perhaps because

the word for “earth” was often tabooized”. The nearest equivalent to the reconstructed proto-form is the Vedic expression dyavaksama ‘heaven and earth’ (e. g., in RV 1. 102. 2, 1. 140. 13), but one finds dyavapsthivi

‘id.’ more often°". In the hymns layers of the Rig-Veda, dyavap;tthivi becomes an abstract deity to which certain hymns are dedicated. In Hittite, we find the expression nepisas taknassa ‘of heaven and earth (G sg.) < PIE *neb"esos d"g"mos (ΚΒ XXXI, 127, 1, 14). In Slavic folklore, expressions such as Croat. nebo i zemlja 'heaven and earth' are very common, e. g., in the mythological folk-song The dispute of Heaven and Earth (Cubelié 1970: 5). It should be noted—though | do not say that this has any probative force—that the Croatian nouns nebo and zemija are etymologically related

to Hitt. nepis and tekan (PIE *neb"os, d'eg"om).

In the Germanic lan-

guages, the following formula, discovered by Wolfgang Meid (1992: 496), is well attested: compare OLG erda endi uphimil (Heliand 2886) with OEng. "Blessing of the fields" eordan ic bidde and upheofon "Earth | pray, and the Heavens". Although they are related semantically, the Germanic parallels do not correspond etymologically to the previously discussed examples from other IE languages. 8123 Formulas of the type Adv-V, i. e., examples of etymologically related expressions consisting of adverbs and verbs, cannot be found in the literature, which is not surprising, because the PIE language probably did not have adverbs as a separate category of words. Adverbial phrases were expressed by nouns and adjectives in different cases (see Meillet 1937, chap. 6). Schmitt (1967: 88516-519) offers only a rather problematic case of PIE *h,rd"wo- steh,- ‘to stand up straight’, reconstructed on the basis of Greek and Vedic correspondences™; however, PIE *h,rd"wo- was actually an adjective, not an adverb, so that the formula should be inter50 See above. On tabooizing the word for "earth", see Nufiez 1993. It is possible that Phrygian dewg ζεμελως κε, appearing on tomb inscriptions, contains a variant of the reconstructed PIE formula “earth and heaven” (see Toporov 1983b: 11). 51 “The broad one”, prthiv/, is one of the expressions for earth, pressuposing a PIE formula *plth,wih, d"eg^óm in which *plth,wih, was the poetic epithet of earth. In G, the nearest etymological equivalent of *dyew- d"eg"óm would be δῖα χθών, occuring in Hesiod (Theog. 866) and Homer (e. g., Il. 14. 347), but that expression means simply "divine earth". 2 Ved. ürdhva-stha-, G ὀρθὸς στη-, attestations in Schmitt, loc. cit. Durante (1976: II, 8) rightly says that this syntagm is not at all characteristic of POETIC LANGUAGE.

82

preted as ‘to stand up while being straight’. The same applies to the formula *h,rd"wo- h,meyg"- (‘to urinate upright’, G ὀρθὸς ὀμείχειν, Ved. meksyami ürdhvas) reconstructed by Watkins (1992: 395). 8124 An interesting problem occurs with respect to the following correspondence. When Homer describes the rising of the Dawn (Hoc), he usually uses the formula which contains the medial imperfect of the verb ὄρνυμι;

in

the

active,

the

verb

means

‘to

urge,

to

move’,

but

in

the

medium, it means ‘to rise, to hurry, to stand up quickly’. In Il. 11. 1-2 we read: Ἠὼς δ' ἐκ λεχέων παρ' ἀγαοῦ Τιθωνοῖο ὥρνυθ' ἵν' ἀθανάτοισι φόως φέροι ἠδὲ βροτοῖσι “Dawn

rose from her bed, beside the honorable Tithonus,

to bring light to immortals and to mortals”. In Il. 19. 1-2: Has μὲν κροκόπεπλος ἀπ' Qxeavoio ῥοάων // ὥρνυθ' ἵν' ἀθανάτοισι φόως φέροι ἠδὲ βροτοῖσι “And Dawn, with yellow veil, rose from the Okeanos to bring light to immortals and to mortals”. Finally, in Od. 5. 1-2 the lines from Il. 11. 1-2 are repeated. Thus, Ἠὼς ... ὥργυτο

is a well-attested expression

in the Homeric

tradition.

In Vedic,

the verb snomi ‘| move, stand up’ is etymologically parallel to G ὄρνυμι. It is derived from the root - by the same present suffix *-new-/-nu-. Both verbs can be deduced from PIE *h;r-new- (see Rix 1976: 209). The Vedic verb is also well attested in the contexts where the Dawn, USas, and USas also occurs as the subject of that verb. However,

appears, in these

contexts, the Vedic verb is in the active, and it is transitive; thus it has its object, and that object is regularly "the doors of the Sky"; thus in RV 1. 48. 15 USas "opens the doors of the Sky with brightness", uso yád adyá bhanunda ví dvarav rnavo diváh. The same picture is attested also in RV 1. 69. 10: [usásas] tmana vahanto duro vy rnvan “dawns, driving by themselves, opened

the doors". The doors, on the border of light and darkness,

are pushed away (r-) by USas, when she appears on the horizon in the morning. As we already know that the motive of the opening of the shining doors is well attested with Ἠώς (see 836), nothing stands in the way of reconstructing a PIE formula *h;ewsos h,r-new(ti) dwer- / *hewsös h,rnuto. In both cases the same verb stands with the same subject, in a clearly

83

mythological context”. This formula can be characterized as belonging to the type S-V. §125 There are other correspondences between the Greek and the Vedic Dawn. Just as Ἠώς rises to bring light to gods and men (φόως φέροι see above), so USas also brings light, or, actually, the Sun: Usas tac citram ä bharasmabhyam vdjinivati "O Dawn, rich in mares, bring us that brightness” (RV 1. 92. 13); the correspondence of G φέροι: Ved. bhara (PIE

*b"er- ‘carry’)™ is also conspicuous, though it could easily be accidental, because both verbs occur very frequently number of different contexts.

in G

and

Olnd.

in a large

§126 One could envisage formulas of other syntactic types as well, but examples are very difficult to find. Thus, it is possible that the Lith. epithet simtasakelis ‘with a hundred branches’ (attributed to trees that symbolize fertility, cp. Gabrys 1914), and the Olnd. compound satasakha- ('id.'; the word occurs in the AV) represent reflexes of the same PIE poetic expression *kmto-kok(h)o-, yet the probability that the correspondence is merely typological is considerable. Such a formula would be an example of the type Num-N. The same can be said of the formula *dvipod-/k"etwrpod‘two- and four-legged (animals) adduced by Schmitt (1967: 8436). 8127 If we look at the adduced syntactic types of the formulas now, we shall see that the formulas of the type N-Adj are not only the most frequent, but also the most probable reconstructs. The reason for this lays probably in the often observed feature of oral litarature, which uses "standing epithets", epitheta ornantia, much more frequently than "standing objects" or "standing subjects" (etc.).

THREE LEVELS OF TEXTUAL RECONSTRUCTION

8128 Until now, our main concern was to adduce different kinds of arguments used to prove the genetic relatedness of elements of texts in different traditions. The genetic relatedness of two meaning carriers that represent elements of texts in genetically related languages is explainable 53 In Latin, a verb derived from the same PIE root (*hser-/hsr-), orior, oriri, is used very often to express the rising of the sun, i. e. to express the action that the Dawn (L Aurora) brings about. Thence the "sunrise" is called ortus solis, and the region where the sun rises is called oriens, “East”. 54 RV 5. 80. 1 claims that USas brings the Sun, devim usäsam svar avahantım "goddess Dawn, who is bringing the Sun".

84

only by assuming the existence of a proto-linguistic formula from which Ihose meaning carriers are derived. The proto-linguistic formula is reconstructed on the basis of the genetically correspondent elements in the meaning carriers. With respect to the degree of correspondence we can distinguish three cases (see above): (1) the attested correspondent expressions are etymologically identical (e. g., κλέος ἄφθιτον : sravo ... aksitam); in this case we can reconstruct a COMPLETE proto-linguistic formula, in which all morphological elements are specified. However, as Calvert Watkins points out, "Formulaic equations in a few optimal cases can

be

expressed

by

reconstruction

with

full lexical,

morphological,

and

syntactic specification ... but more frequently are at best only incompletely specifiable, usually just in terms of root semantics" (1992: 400). Therefore, we accept also the INCOMPLETE FORMULAS (2), where only the roots of the compared meaning carriers are etymologically related; on the basis of such formulas, only the correspondent PIE roots can be reconstructed (e. g., PIE *klewos); finally, it is possible that only "key words" correspond (see 8102), i. e., minimal meaning carriers occurring in correspondent contexts. On the basis of such correspondences only DEFECTIVE formulas (3) can be reconstructed where only one lexical element is phonologically and morphologically specified (namely, the KEY WORD), whereas the other(s) can be only semantically characterized (e. g. *h,nob"i- OF EARTH ‘the navel of earth’, see §112). §129 We reconstruct PIE formulas using the usual methods of linguistic reconstruction (see Hoenigswald 1960, Katició 1970, Fox 1995, Holzer 1996); however,

one must bear in mind that every linguistic reconstruction

can be viewed at three different levels of abstraction”: at the first level of reconstruction (A), we use the asterisk (*) to represent a condensed record of the phonological and morphological correspondences between the genetically related meaning carriers. Instead of *klewos nd'g""itom, we could as well write an array of algebraic symbols, under the single condition that the same phonological correspondences (e. g., G «x: Olnd. s, or G x: Olnd. r) are represented by the same algebraic symbol. At the level (A), the reconstructions are conceived of as uninterpreted formulas, as an economical way of recording a set of sound correspondences. §130 At the second level of abstraction, (B), the material elements of the reconstructed text—formulas—are interpreted and brought into a relation with respect to the formal textual elements. At the level (B), one no 55 In my M. A. thesis (Matasovié 1992), | described the reconstruction of the PIE phonological system as a process having three levels; the three levels of phonological reconstruction correspond, at least in principle, to the three levels of textual reconstruction.

85

longer raises the question whether κλέος ἄφθιτον and sravo aksitam are related as textual elements, but in what sort of text—or texts—the formula *klewos nd^g""itom occured in the proto-language. We seek the answer to that question by comparing the elements of this formula—e. g., the "key word" *klewos—with elements of other reconstructed formulas (e. g., *klewos megh,, *klewos weru-, etc.) and by trying to establish systematic correspondences between contexts in which a set of formulas appears. The fact that reflections of the "key word" *klewos occur in a certain type of formula, in a certain class of texts, and in (at least partly) predictable contexts allows us to set up hypotheses about the PIE texts in which this

word played a role?*. By examining a set of reconstructed formulas and the contexts in which their reflexes appear, it is possible to establish hypotheses concerning the nature, motives, and content, as well as stylistic and formal features of the PIE texts. Under stylistic and formal features we subsume the stylistic figures and the metrical structure of the reconstructed texts; it is also possible to make conclusions about such features on the basis of recurrent repetitions of such elements in a number of reconstructed formulas. 8131 It is impossible to estimate the credibility of the reconstructed formulas and formal elements of texts at level (B) without considering the typological plausibility of the reconstructions. If "fame" was actually the central concept of PIE poetry, then we can expect that an examination of other, non-Indo-European traditions—or of younger PIE traditions—will reveal that there are societies in which the concept of "fame" plays a similar role. If we can establish a number of features of texts about the combat of the PIE thunder-god and the dragon in the PIE tradition, it is advisable to check whether similar elements occur in traditions which are neither genetically, nor by contact, connected with the Indo-European traditions. If we suppose that a certain literary type or form existed in PIE, we should check whether similar literary types occur in non-Indo-European societies which are on the same level of social development that can be posited for the PIE linguistic community. This kind of reasoning can help us avoid some

false conclusions;

for example,

in almost

all IE traditions,

one

en-

counters legal texts, codes, as a special literary form. However, the ethnological and anthropological findings do not allow us to suppose the existence of such a literary form in PIE, i. e., during the late neolithic period. 8132 Furthermore, if we consider that a particular principle of versification was a feature of PIE poetry, we must try to find out in what relation it 36 One such hypothesis is Schmitt's (1967) claim that "fame" was the central concept (Zentralbegriff) of the PIE heroic poetry.

86

„lands to the rest of our knowledge about the PIE language; it is well khown-as a result of a comparative typology of languages and versificalion principles—that the structure of a language tends to model the forms ut versification in that language (cp. Wimsatt 1972). Finally, only a typology of the attested poetic (especially oral) traditions can show us how the transmission of texts through generations actually works, and which phenomena can be expected accordingly. Thus, the works of Parry, Lord, and their followers (cp., e. g., Finnegan 1977) can show us how to direct our investigations of the PIE poetic tradition. Just like the reconstruction of the lower levels of the proto-language, comparative textual linguistics needs typology as a necessary corrective that "protects" our theories against improbable, typologically incredible conclusions. 8133 Finally, by the third level of reconstruction (C) we mean the spatio-temporal interpretation of the reconstructed formulas. As the PIE language certainly developed in time and space, we must assume that the development of texts in that language followed the general linguistic development. A spatio-temporal model of the PIE language, proposed by W. Meid (1975), could also be applicable in textual reconstruction. If this is the case, one could suppose that some reconstructed elements of texts will reach farther in the past than others, that some reconstructions will be attributable to Common

PIE, while others will be dialectal; there will be a

complex of spatio-temporal interdependences between the reconstructed elements, and that complex shall never be completely recoverable by reconstruction. However, we can still make hypotheses about this development if we pay due attention to the question—in which IE branches the correspondences on which a particular reconstruction is established are attested. It can be assumed a priori that the greatest number of complete formulas will be reconstructed on the basis of material from closely related IE

dialects:

Graeco-Indo-Iranian,

Balto-Slavic

and

Italo-Celto-Germanic.

To examine the reconstructed elements of texts at level (C) means to try to falsify or confirm that assumption. 8134 It is needless to say that the from level (A) towards level (C). At based on arguments e silentio: if some the Graeco-Indo-lranian area, this still present in other traditions, as it could trace. At level (A), on the other hand, tics yields the most probable

credibility of hypotheses decreases level (C), most conclusions will be formula is NOT confirmed outside of does not prove that it had not been have disappeared without leaving a comparative genetic textual linguis-

results, because

it does

not even

claim any-

87

thing about the proto-linguistic, unattested texts, but only about the mutual

relations of elements in the attested texts?'. §135 We must bear in mind another difficulty relevant to textual reconstruction. When we compare two meaning carriers to reconstruct a morpheme of the proto-language, the necessary condition for their being genetically related is the correspondence of meaning, besides the regular sound correspondences of their forms. When we compare two meaning carriers in order to reconstruct elements of proto-texts, there is a third con-

dition: the correspondence of contexts in which the meaning carriers occur (or, in other words, the correspondence of the formal elements of texts containing these meaning carriers). It is obvious that this represents the weakest point of the method of textual reconstruction: there is simply no procedure for ascertaining the correspondences of contexts. Therefore, the ambitions of textual reconstruction must necessarily be more modest when compared with other fields of linguistic reconstruction: the possibility of mistake is considerably greater.

CRITERIA FOR EVALUATING RECONSTRUCTIONS

§136 Each linguistic discipline must contain criteria for evaluating the probability of its theories. If there were no such criteria, we would not be able to tell why it is more rational to believe any particular theory, rather than an alternative explanation of the phenomena that the theory purports to explain. Thus, we expect that textual reconstruction also contains some mechanisms that can be used to estimate the probability of particular reconstructions. §137 Some of such principles, intuitively used in the analysis of various syntactic types, have already been mentioned (see §103ff.). Without trying to be exhaustive, we shall now summarize these principles: 57 It is sometimes even possible to relate the reconstructed formulas with some elements of the non-linguistic reality. Hercenberg (1987: 94-4) reconstructed a PIE formula

*d'g"om leyg- “to shake the earth" on the basis of Indo-Iranian *dZham raig'atai (RV 4. 22: ksam rej-) and G ἐλελίχθων, which is the constant epithet of Poseidon. Can this formula be interpreted to mean that the Proto-Indo-Europeans were acquainted with earthquakes, and that they viewed this phenomenon as the result of action of divine forces? If this is the case, then this reconstructed formula yields valuable data about the possible homeland of the speakers of PIE. Namely, the proposed homeland in the steppes of the Southern Ukraine (see, e. g., Mallory 1989) becomes improbable in light of this formula, because that area had been seismically stabile for many millenia. The nearest seismically instable areas are the Caucasus and the region of Moldova.

88

(1) The probability of the reconstruction of textual element A increases with the number of languages in which reflexes of A are attested. (2) The probability of the reconstruction of textual element A is greater, if A is reconstructed on the basis of elements that are formulaic in the attested languages. (An element is formulaic in language L if it recurs in the identical contexts in L.) (3) A reconstructed formula is more probable, the longer it is. (4) A reconstructed formula is more probable, the more unexpected or informative its elements are (cp. 8105). (5) Reconstructed formal elements of texts are more probable if they are typologically plausible, i. e., if they are widely attested.

HEURISTIC PROCEDURES

§138 The preceding discussion of method would be incomplete if we do not attempt to answer the following question: is there any particular procedure which should be used in seeking textual correspondences? Is there a heuristic method for finding them, or should we be as discouraged as Schmitt, who quoted one of his predecessors (1967, §5): “Man kann auf diesem Gebiet nicht eigentlich planmäßig und mit einer festen Zielsetzung forsehen. Man muß die alten Texte ... immer wieder lesen ... und darauf vertrauen, daß einem im richtigen Augenblick die richtige Parallele einfällt”. This whole book is dedicated to the effort to show that textual reconstruction is not so helpless with respect to methodology. From what we have already said, two complementary methods of research can be envisaged; the first method consists in looking for etymologically correspondent expressions, irrespective of the contexts in which they appear. In numerous dictionaries or concordances (e. g., Grassmann's dictionary of the Rig-Veda, or Bloomfield’s Vedic Concordance) one looks for syntagms having PIE etymology, and then, in similar handbooks of other languages (e. g., Ebeling's Lexicon Homericum) one checks whether etymologically identical—or at least related—syntagms are attested. Finally, if the answer is positive, one checks the contexts in which the correspondences are attested, to reduce the possibility of chance. Now that there are many computer concordances of texts in classical languages, this method becomes much easier to pursue. 8139 The other method is complementary: we start with the context, by comparing corresponding motives in different languages, and then seek the genetically related expressions. This method is more economical, because it does not require a subsequent check of contexts. It is, however,

89

more difficult to pursue, because it presupposes that we already know where to seek correspondent contexts or motives in different IE traditions. Needless to say, both methods have been used abundantly throughout this book.

IS TEXTUAL RECONSTRUCTION RECONSTRUCTION OF “PAROLE”?

§140 The following passage by Wolfgang Meid (1978: 10) will serve well as an introduction to a discussion of this question: “Es ist nun gut, sich darüber klar zu werden, was wir mit unseren Bemühungen um die idg. Dichtersprache eigentlich erfassen können. Wenn wir glauben, wirkliche Texte oder Fragmente wirklicher Texte rekonstruieren zu können, also gesprochene Rede (parole) fassen zu können, unterliegen wir einer Täuschung.

eines

Die

Formeln,

die

wir

rekonstruieren,

Inventars, die in konkreten Äußerungen

können,

und

als solche

haben

sind

Versatzstücke,

nutzbar gemacht

sie /angue-Charakter

Teile

werden

(oder vielleicht bes-

ser, sind Teil einer bestimmten “Norm”). Es ist genau das gleiche, wenn wir aus G θυμός, ai. dhumas, L fumus ein idg. *dümos rekonstruieren: wir rekonstruieren es nicht als gesprochenes Wort, sondern als Element des sprachlichen, hier des lexikalischen Systems ... Wir können daher nicht ein idg. Gedicht, oder einen Teil davon,

rekonstruieren, sondern

nur Scha-

blonen, die zum Bau von Gedichten verwendet wurden. Ein konkretes Gedicht ist eine intrinkate Schöpfung, zustandegekommen und zusammengehalten durch einen Bezug auf eine wirkliche Situation (die “pragmatische” Situation); diese ist immer einmalig und kann nie sprachlich rekonstruiert werden, weil sie außersprachlich ist” (italics in original). The theses expressed in the preceding quotation are sufficiently clear for us to see that they are basically true, but also sufficiently unclear to need further clarification. If by "a concrete poem” we mean a particular utterance which occurs whenever a text is performed within an oral tradition, and

whenever

it is written

vious that such concrete poems method.

down

in a

literate tradition,

then

it is ob-

are not reconstructible by any linguistic

It is also clear that the PIE textual tradition was oral, just as many

of the earliest IE traditions (Olnd., Celtic, Greek) are shaped under the influence of oral poetry. However, it does not follow from this that texts composed within an oral tradition are “einmalig”, and therefore a part of parole instead of langue. In spite of variations that occur from performance to performance, texts composed within an oral tradition also have their structure and firm core; this gives them their identity, which is preserved in many concrete performances. Texts conceived in this manner are real inasmuch as they exist in the consciousness of the people who

90

transmit reality of *klewos OCCURED type and

them; in this respect their “reality” is not much different from the any other linguistic units. When we reconstruct a formula such as nd"g""itom, we do not claim just that this expression COULD HAVE in PIE texts, but that it actually DID occur in texts of a particular structure, which can be determined on the basis of correspond-

ences of contexts in which the reflexes of this PIE formula are attested™. §141 Thus, it is inaccurate to say that we cannot reconstruct elements of concrete texts, though it is true that we do not know in which concrete texts the reconstructed elements occurred. Contextual correspondences and assumptions about the formal features of PIE poetry can help us reduce the number of a priori conceivable possibilities, but not to determine the exact class of texts in which the reconstructed elements occurred. If we were able to compare genetically IDENTICAL, not merely RELATED texts, the results of reconstructions would be concrete PIE texts. As genetically identical texts are never available (at least, insofar as we know), we can only reconstruct elements for which we know that they occurred in at least one concrete PIE text. And of course, the same elements could have been shared between many PIE texts. Any set of texts sharing a number of common

motives,

formulas,

or key

words

shall

be

called

A COMPLEX

OF

TEXTS. To conclude, then, we are not saying that a particular PIE formula COULD HAVE OCCURRED in the proto-language, just like the invented Latin sentence Filia agricolae palumbas amat COULD have occured in Classical Latin (although it presumably didn’t). We are saying that the reconstructed formulas actually occurred in at least one text in the proto-language.

TEXTUAL RECONSTRUCTION AND THE RELATED DISCIPLINES

§142 Textual reconstruction is part of a wider discipline that we have called COMPARATIVE GENETIC TEXTUAL LINGUISTICS. That discipline is concerned with the comparative analysis of genetically related texts (a term defined in §90), and should be distinguished from comparative typological textual linguistics and contact textual linguistics. §143 Textual reconstruction has its own sub-disciplines. The basic division is between material and formal textual reconstruction. MATERIAL TEXTUAL RECONSTRUCTION deals with the reconstruction of fragments of PIE 58 Irrespective of the features of oral cultures, the principles of textual reconstruction should apply to all types of cultures, including, e. g., the early literate cultures of the early Middle East.

91

texts,

i. e., with

the

reconstruction

of formulas

and

key

words

that

are

characteristic of particular contexts. FORMAL TEXTUAL RECONSTRUCTION uses the analysis of the reconstructed formulas and the comparison of the formal features of texts to reconstruct formal elements of PIE texts. This discipline includes aspects of COMPARATIVE STYLISTICS, which involves a stylistic analysis of the reconstructed fragments, and the reconstruction of the stylistic figures and procedures characteristic of the PIE poetic tradition.

Formal

textual

reconstruction

involves,

moreover,

COMPARATIVE

MET-

RICS, which seeks to establish the metrical patterns of PIE texts. It should include also a comparative analysis of the internal structure of texts of a certain type in the attested languages, and the reconstruction of the corresponding structures of the PIE texts of the same type. By internal structure of texts | mean the organization and the articulation of texts and of their parts, the so-called TEXT-BUILDING STRATEGIES, and the anaphoric and cataphoric relations that provide for the cohesion and coherence of texts. Lacking a better term, we shall call this aspect of formal textual reconstruction COMPARATIVE DISCOURSE ANALYSIS. The comparative investigation of the formal elements of texts can, in a sense,

be

called

COMPARATIVE

POETICS,

inasmuch

as the compared

texts

are usually artistic, poetic compositions. However, there is a conceptual difference between these two disciplines, as comparative poetics seeks to examine how artistic texts are shaped in different, genetically related languages, while textual reconstruction of the formal elements of texts does not necessarily take the artistic value of texts into account. We should also mention the possibility of another aspect of the comparative analysis of texts. The typology of texts, speech acts, and functions that particular types of texts have in a society, as well as the relations that hold between authors and recipients (or audience) of texts are a subject of pragmatics. COMPARATIVE (GENETIC) PRAGMATICS can be thought of as a discipline that explores how the relationships between author, text, and society are realized in linguistic communities that use genetically related languages. The results of such research can then be used to reconstruct these relations for the PIE linguistic community. In such a way, comparative pragmatics stands in between comparative linguistics and the comparative theory of culture, because it synthesizes and relates the results of both of these disciplines. Although many of the enumerated sub-disciplines, or aspects of comparative textual linguistics, are still to be developed, | do believe that there is room for all of them. Everyone agrees that language is such a complex phenomenon that it should be studied by many different disciplines: | cannot see why the reconstruction of a language should be subject to a single-sided approach of only one discipline.

92

8144 The proposed classification of comparative disciplines that deal with texts was necessary in order to show that material textual reconstruction (the reconstruction of formulas) is only one of many related disciplines, though—perhaps—the primary among them, because of the severity of its method based upon sound laws. My views, thus expressed, can now be confronted with two different conceptions of textual reconstruction.

TEXTUAL RECONSTRUCTION AND THE PIE POETIC LANGUAGE

§145 Rudiger Schmitt has named his dissertation (1967) “Poetry and the Poetic Language in the Proto-Indo-European Period”; accordingly, he does not speak about reconstruction of PIE TEXTS, but exclusively about

reconstruction of the PIE POETIC LANGUAGE”. In this approach he is followed by, for example, Haudry (1984), while the views of Wust (1969a, 1969b) and others are closely related. 8146 Although Schmitt's views do have some advantages, | must explain why | think they should not be adopted. Firstly, though this may sound like a paradox, whenever poetic texts are used to reconstruct PIE sounds and forms, one is involved in the reconstruction of the PIE poetic language. If the language of poetry, as a high functional style that puts a set of specific restrictions on the use of lexicon and syntax, is opposed to the common, everyday language (or “low” functional style), then we should consider the fact that the oldest and most archaic texts of the IndoEuropean languages are monuments of the poetic languages par excellence: the Homeric epics, Rig-Veda, most of the remains of Hittite literature. All of these works, from which most of our materials for comparison are derived, represent works of refined literature. The reconstructions attained by using such materials will in the first place reflect the features of high, poetic functional style, and only secondarily the features of the common, everyday speech. It was already Meillet (1937) who warned that our notion of the “everyday” speech of the "Proto-Indo-Europeans" is most likely incorrect, and that in the whole of classical literature there are very few writers, such as Plautus or Petronius, in whose work we can find traces of non-marked, non-poetic language. Poetic language, as a particular functional style, is different from "spoken", unmarked language to the extent in which it imposes restrictions in the grammar and lexicon that do not operate within the unmarked idiom. Thus "poetic language" has a grammar and a lexicon that correspond only *? The term "indogermanische Dichtersprache" was first used by J. Wackernagel in a posthumously published lecture (see Schmitt 1967).

93

partially to the grammar and lexicon of the unmarked idiom. To reconstruct the poetic language would mean reconstructing that grammar and lexicon; however, for any practical purposes, that would be the same as reconstructing the grammar and lexicon of a set of poetic TEXTS, used as a representative corpus of the poetic language. Thus the reconstruction of poetic texts includes the reconstruction of the poetic language, to the extent in which it permits us to reach conclusions about the grammar and lexicon of that idiom of the proto-language on the basis of the reconstructed textual fragments. Only by examining poetic texts, or fragments of texts, can we gain any knowledge about the poetic language. §147 The second reason why the term “reconstruction of poetic language” should be rejected lies in the fact that our method can be applied to reconstructing fragments of non-poetic texts. It is questionable whether magical

formulas,

such

as those contained

in Atharva-Veda

and the Mer-

seburger Zaubersprüche, analyzed by Schmitt, should be considered as poetry. The method we are seeking to develop should be applicable to any

sort

of texts,

irrespective

of the

fact

that

it is,

indeed,

most

often

applied to poetry. Schmitt was, of course, aware that the reconstruction of PIE metrics, in-

cluded in his monograph (1967), is not, strictly speaking, subsumable under the reconstruction of the PIE poetic LANGUAGE. That discipline is, however, very naturally included in the reconstruction of the (formal) elements

of texts. The

reconstruction

of formulas, which

is the main

concern

of Schmitt's work, we understand as the reconstruction of the material elements of texts; need it be mentioned that formal and material elements of texts are never strictly separated? EvERY key word, as well as complete and incomplete formulas, are always examined in the contexts in which they appear; at level (B) of reconstruction (see 8130) the formal and the material elements of texts are related and incorporated into the overall system of the reconstructed elements of texts and COMPLEXES OF TEXTS in which the elements occur. 8148 The third reason why ! hold that the term "reconstruction of the PIE poetic language" is inadequate is that it suggests that the goal of reconstruction is not to establish elements of quite particular texts or complexes of texts (see 8141). For example, when we reconstruct elements of the complex of texts dealing with the duel of the Thunder-God and the dragon (see, e. g., Watkins 1987), the reconstructed elements, formulas, and motives belong to this particular complex, and probably to no other; thus, they cannot be attributed indiscriminately to the whole of the PIE poetic language.

94

TEXTUAL RECONSTRUCTION AND COMPARATIVE POETICS

§149 In his very important article about the duel of the PIE ThunderGod and the dragon (Watkins 1987: 270), Calvert Watkins calls the comparative IE poetics "a linguistic approach, both diachronic (genetic) and synchronic (typological), to the form and function of poetic language and archaic literature in a variety of ancient Indo-European societies from India to Ireland." He thinks of the PIE poetic language as “a sort of grammar. On the level of sound alone, this grammar has a phonological component, Ihe domain of metrics and phonetic figures, and a morphological component, the domain of grammatical figures. On a higher level, where meaning per se is pertinent, it has a syntactic component, the domain of what we may call ‘formulaics’, and a semantic component, the domain of what we may call ‘thematics’. It has as well a pragmatic component, the domain of poet-performer/audience interaction, which dominates the whole ‘grammar’ (ibid.: 270; italics in original). §150 Although the quoted passage contains a draft of a coherent theory, | have to raise a few objections. Firstly, the term “comparative poetics” is inadequate inasmuch as we are not ready to limit our comparisons and reconstructions to POETIC texts. Secondly, Watkins’ approach does not emphasize that in textual reconstruction the same methods of comparative linguistics are applied on the highest level of textual organization, which is exactly the essence of the approach advocated in this book. Finally, the discipline called "formulaics" by Watkins is inadequate, because it is not precisely defined. A reconstruction of a PIE formula such as

*klewos nd"g""itom is not only a matter of the syntactic component of the poetic language, as should be inferred from Watkins’ definition. Such formulas—or key words, for that matter—are a result of the reconstruction of material elements of texts, which occur in particular contexts, and their syntactic structure is completely irrelevant for the validity of the reconstruction, although it can serve as a basis for a syntactic typology of the reconstructed formulas (see above). Moreover, the reconstructed meaning carriers need not be syntagms at all, i. e., they need not have any syntactic structure. They can consist of only a single “key word” whose reflexes occur in similar contexts in attested languages. Watkins’ term “formulaics” corresponds,

to some

extent, to our “material textual reconstruc-

tion”, but his description of the domain of that discipline is either incomplete or wrong. To conclude, the pragmatic aspects of the interaction between the text, the poet, and the audience (society) are probably best separated from the reconstruction of the text itself (see §143).

95

§151 We thus conclude our overview of the alternative theories of textual reconstruction and comparative textual linguistics. Although some linguists (especially Watkins) have contributed greatly to the methodology of these disciplines, no one has yet constructed a theory describing the logical structure, method, and epistemological status of the object of research. | hope that the chapter that is now ending will be a right step towards such a theory.

96

4. THE FORMAL §152

ELEMENTS OF PIE POETRY

In this chapter we shall examine the formal elements of PIE texts,

to the extent in which they are recoverable by reconstruction. Here formal elements

are understood

to include

metrical

structures,

the characteristic

stylistic figures, the internal articulation of texts, etc. (see §83).

METRICAL STRUCTURES OF PIE POETRY

§153 By METRICAL STRUCTURE OF A TEXT | understand all the expressive procedures by which rhythm, i. e., the regular repetition of identical linguistic elements, is realized. The first attempt to reconstruct common IE metrical structures occurred more than a hundred years ago. In an article published in 1860, the German philologist Rudolf Westphal tried to reconstruct the form of a PIE meter on the basis of Greek, Avestan, and Vedic verses. Although this pioneer work is now only of historical interest, the date of its publication shows that the reconstruction of FORM of PIE poetry is only a decade younger than the reconstruction of formulas, i. e., the material elements of PIE texts. A valuable historical account of Westphal's work is contained in a paper by Enrico Campanile (1979). 8154 A number of rather unnoticed papers dealing with the problem of PIE meters followed Wesphal's work, but it was not until the publication of Meillet's book on the IE origin of Greek metrics (1923) that comparative IE metrics was fully established as a scientific discipline. The theses of this book, shortly recapitulated in the "Outline of the History of the Greek Language" (1935: 138-145), can be summarized as follows: the basic features of the PIE meter were ISOSYLLABISM (i. e., in larger poetic units, lines consisting of equal number of syllables are repeated), CAESURA (i. e., the obligatory break within a line) and the quantitatively determined line ending (CADENCE). According to Meillet, the beginning of a PIE line was quantitatively free, i. e., short and long syllables could be alternated in any way. Vedic

meters,

whose

initial part is not quantitatively

determined,

still dis-

play this property of the PIE metrics, and the most archaic Greek verses

are those whose initial parts are quantitatively free9?.

6 Even two years before Meillet, this conclusion had been reached by Wilamowitz (1921: 90). Moreover, the great German philologist foresaw the possibility of a comparative IE metrics exactly in the form given to that discipline by Meillet and Jakobson. It should be noted that most of the comparative analyses of Greek verses are even today based on the theoretical views of the Wilamowitzian school. My own account of the prob-

97

Furthermore, in Greek poetry, the so-called Aeolic meters, used by poets such as Alcaeus and Sappho, are the most archaic. It is typical of those meters that they do not permit the substitution of a long syllable with two shorts (i. e., _ is not equivalent with y y). The equivalence of _ and yy is an innovation of the “lonic verses”, such as the hexameter. This last meter was assumed by Meillet to have developed from some Aegean, non-Indo-European source. Finally, Meillet has assumed a genetic correspondence of the eleven-syllable lines, of which the Vedic stanza triSfubh is composed, and the Sapphic hendecasyllable, as well as of the twelvesyllable line of the Vedic jagat/ stanza and the Greek iambic trimeter. While Meillet’s other theses are today almost generally accepted among those linguists who believe that it is possible to reconstruct the PIE metrics, the thesis of the Aegean origin of the hexameter has been almost completely abandoned. Among various theories about the origin of hexameter we can mention Nagy's (Nagy 1974) and Vigorita’s (Vigorita 1977); they both start with Greek verses of the "Aeolic" type, rather than with some imaginary “Aegean” source. 8155 Meillet's work was not very well received in the twenties, especially among the classical philologists; the only linguists that accepted Meillet's theses with much appreciation were his pupil Emile Benveniste and

the

pioneer

of

Russian

structuralism,

N.

S.

Trubetzkoy,

who,

in a

letter to his French colleague, hinted at the possibility that the metrical patterns of the Slavic folk songs are genetically related to the Vedic and Greek verses that had been compared by Meillet. The content of this correspondence between Trubetzkoy and Meillet has been published recently by Pierre Swiggers (1991). §156 However, Trubetzkoy’s ideas had remained unknown to the scientific community until recently, so that it is now impossible to say to which extent they influenced Jakobson's theory about the origin of the Slavic decasyllable. Roman Jakobson has, namely, in his work about the reconstruction of Common Slavic metrics (see Jakobson 1966: 414- 463), assumed the PIE origin of the Slavic epic decasyllable, which is the meter of the epic tradition of Croats,

Serbs,

and

Bosnians.

According

to Jakobson,

this Slavic meter is functionally and structurally parallel to Greek decasyllabic paroemiacus (op. cit: 462-3). The supposed PIE meter, from which the Greek and Slavic decasyllables have evolved, was named "PIE gnomic-epic decasyllable".

lem will also be based on standard works such as Snell (1962) and Majnaric (1948), while most alternative approaches, such as Del Grande's (1960), will be ignored.

98

8157 Jakobson's results were used by Calvert Watkins (1963) in his analysis of Olr. metrics. His hypothesis was that the heptasyllabic Olr. meter had actually developed from Celtic and PIE, i. e., that it was a reflex of the PIE gnomic-epic verse, and not a borrowing from Latin early medieval hymnic, as had been supposed by earlier scholars such as Meyer (1909). Watkins' paper was followed by negative reactions from Campanile (1979) and other Celticists (Klar et al. 1984, McCone 1991). Schmitt (1967, §619ff.) rejects Watkins’ conclusions as too bold, but his own account of the problem is merely a resumé of Meillet's views. However, though some of his conclusions will be discussed in detail below, | believe that Watkins’ analysis of Olr. metrics has proved beyond doubt that the basic metrical forms of Olr. were inherited and not borrowed from the Latin Christian hymnic poetry. This is implied by the following facts: 1. The earliest Olr. legal texts do not show any considerable influence of Latin learning, and the syllabic verses analyzed by Watkins occur most frequently in precisely such sources”. 2. The Latin heptasyllable, often adduced as the source of the Olr. verse, occurs most frequently in the works of Irish monks and those early medieval authors who were in contact with Celtic monastic culture (Cole 1969). 3. Some Christian Latin hymns that were composed in heptasyllable show

the

influence of the Celtic literary forms; the following

uted to Oengus Mac Tipraiti (8th century) is composed corresponds very closely to the Olr. heptasyllable:

stanza,

attrib-

in a meter that

Martinus mirus more ore laudavit Deum;

puro corde cantavit atque amavit eum. However, in this poem only rhyme is doubtlessly a feature of Latin hymnic poetry. Alliterations and "concatenations by rhyme", on the other hand, should probably be attributed to the Irish influence; moreover, nothing prevents us from claiming that the metrical structure of the text itself was taken over from the Irish tradition (see Matasovic 1995).

5! It does not follow from this, as Campanile (1979) concluded that legal texts such as Senchas Már must have been composed before the intensive contacts of the lrish with Christianity (i. e., before the 5th century). McCone (1991), on the other hand, objects that there is no evidence of Latin monastic learning in the early legal texts. This matter is still disputed (see also Breatnach 1991).

99

8158 A hypothesis of PIE origin was stated for Saturnian verse, the earliest Roman metrical pattern, as well. In his exhaustive study of Saturnian verse, Thomas Cole (1969) adopted this hypothesis, though he was not the first scholar to state this (for a discussion see, e. g., Pasquali 1936). Finally, we can conclude that the evolution of comparative metrics during the last quarter of the century has closely followed the evolution of textual reconstruction in general: the earlier exclusive interest in the Greek and Indo-Iranian traditions®? has been gradually supplemented by comparative research of Celtic, Slavic, and other metrical traditions. In his reconstruction of PIE verses, M. L. West (1976) even used some evidence from languages such as Lydian and Tocharian. §159 metrics,

Before

we

discuss

it is advisable

the possibility of the reconstruction

to hear

the voices

of the

sceptics.

For

of PIE

example,

Wolfgang Meid explicitly denied that reconstructions of particular “PIE” verses, as suggested by Jakobson, Watkins, and West, is sensible: “Ich halte alle Bemühungen, eine idg. Metrik zu erschließen, fur illusorisch, sofern man etwa hofft, konkrete Schemata gewinnen zu kónnen ... behaupte ich, daß jede Epoche ihre eigene, der jeweiligen Struktur der Sprache angemessene Metrik besaf*. Die Metrik steht in engem Zusammenhang mit dem natürlichen Rhythmus der Sprache" (Meid 1978: 14). Meid rightly emphasizes that every reconstruction, including metrical reconstruction, should take into account the temporal and spatial differentiation within the proto-language; it is quite possible that in Early PIE there had existed different metrical patterns from those that were usual in the dialectally differentiated Late PIE language. Scholars like Watkins and West do not pay due attention to the dialectal differentiation of PIE, and they tend to ascribe all the reconstructed metrical patterns to the undifferentiated common proto-language. It would be more advisable to start with particular, dialectally more related, sub-families (e. g., "Western IE", Graeco-IndoIranian, Balto-Slavic) and first seek the correspondences among them; only after that can we try to find a common core that can be reasonably attributed to PIE. If it exists, that common core of metrical correspondences will be ascribable only to the final period of the existence of the PIE language. To reconstruct earlier metrical patterns, we must rely on internal reconstruction. 8160 Moreover, one must agree with Meid's thesis that the structure of the language determines, to some extent at least, metrical structures in 52 In 1923, Meillet explicitly stated that traces of PIE metrics were not preserved outside Greek and Indo-Iranian.

100

that language. Thus, languages with opposition of long and short vowels often develop a quantitative versification, whereas languages with strong expiratory accent tend to develop accentual versification. The development of alliteration, characteristic of Germanic verse, is usually related to the strong initial stress that had developed during the Proto-Germanic period (Meid, ibid.). In a tonal language, such as Chinese, one often finds ISOTONY, the metrical rule according to which every line of a stanza must end with a word bearing the same tone. However, the correlation between the structure of a language and the type of metrics is not absolute. Welsh verse, for example, has compulsory alliteration, although the stress in Welsh is never on the first syllable. Besides that, two different metrical principles can coexist in a language: e. g., during the Vulgar Latin period quantitative

and

accentual

verses

were

composed.

For instance,

we

find

regular trochaic meters in the works of St. Ambrose: Deus creator omnium V-VV VV x’ XXX xX Xx X However,

the Ambrosian

Hymns

contain also verses

in which the regu-

lar patterning of longs and shorts has been replaced scheme identical to the one from the preceding line:

by an accentual

Rex aeterne Domine _

2.2.

VVV

V

Similarly, during the development of the Irish language, there were periods during which accentual and syllabic meters coexisted (6. g., in the 17th century). The greatest variation of different metrical principles is encountered in Thai poetry (Preminger 1974): there are forms characterized only by rhyme (klon), eutony and rhyme (Khlong), rhyme and isosyllabism (kap), and only isosyllabism (chanta). Although coexistence of different metrical principles is encountered usually in "transitional periods", after which one of the principles wins, we cannot exclude the possibility that during a certain period of the PIE language DIFFERENT metrical principles coexisted. It is important to bear in mind also that the structure of a language sometimes excludes a priori certain principles of metrical organization of poetic texts: while the syllabic verse is possible in any language, quantitative versification can occur only in languages in which there is an opposition between short and long syllables. Similarly, isotony is possible only in languages with tonal oppositions. Unfortunately, such "metrical universals"

do

not help

us a

lot in the reconstruction

of PIE

metrics,

be-

101

cause the PIE language, by almost complete consent of scholars, differentiated between long and short vowels, and it is quite possible that it also had tonal oppositions (though this is not the majority opinion). §161 Enrico Campanile objected to the reconstruction of PIE metrics at the level of principle and method (Campanile 1979, 1990: 142-169). In his opinion,

the

reconstruction

of PIE

metrics

is not

based

on

comparative-

historical method in the usual sense of the term, because it does not rely on any sound laws. The reconstruction of metrics does not rely on regular sound correspondences (as phonological or lexical reconstructions do), but on mere SIMILARITIES. How justified are we to conclude, on the basis of similarity of a Vedic and a Greek meter, that they developed from a common PIE proto-meter? When we think of it on a deeper level, Campanile’s objection can be reduced to the thesis that we do not actually know the laws that determine the historical evolution of metrical structures, and that we are therefore unable to reconstruct metrical proto-forms with any certainty. Such an objection should actually be raised, e. g., to Watkins’ reconstruction of the PIE dodecasyllable (1963). Watkins suggested that that PIE meter was reflected as Olnd. jagat/and G iambic trimeter, whereas in Olr. it developed into a heptasyllabic verse, because in Olr. syncope and apocope had reduced the number of syllables in a word with respect to Proto-Celtic and PIE. At the same time, he accepts Jakobson's thesis about the common origin of the Slavic epic decasyllable and Greek Paroemiac. However, the Slavic languages have also reduced the number of syllables in most words,

because of the loss of yers, and that did not affect

the length of the inherited verse. Why did the loss of syllables in Olr. lead to the shortening of meter, whereas in Slavic it did not? In a similar way, both Jakobson and Watkins (and, following them, West and Vigorita) supposed that in languages that had lost the difference between long and short vowels, the final long vowel of the verse was replaced by a stressed syllable; thence Watkins is able to compare the Olr. cadence ,., , with Greek

and Vedic cadences

of the form _ yy

. Now,

knowing

the evolution

of the classical verses in the Vulgar Latin period, we can conclude that such a change is possible, but we cannot be sure that it represents a general rule in the development of meter. We should therefore be aware that our reconstructions are based on two assumptions, both of which are plausible, but not necessarily true: 1. Metrical structures change independently of the change of linguistic structures, so that the loss of syllables in the language does not affect the number of syllables in a verse.

102

2. If the difference between short and long syllables is obliterated in a language, the metrics of that language will be transformed so that accented syllables will appear in the positions of long syllables. We are aware that these assumptions could be false, but we nevertheless accept them as a starting point of our investigation. §162 We can now take a look at the metrical correspondences between the IE languages whose literary traditions are discussed in this book.

TABLE OF METRICAL CORRESPONDENCES Av.

G

isotony

Ved. -

-

-

isosylla-

+

+

+

-

Lat.

Celt.

Ger.

OF IE LANGUAGES: Balt.

Hitt.

-

-

-

Slav. -

-

- (?)

+

-

+

-

+

+

+/-

-

+

+

+

+

+

+/-

+

-

-

+

bism syllable quantity

stress

-

strophicality

-

-

-

-

+

+

+

?

+

+

-

+

?

+ +

+ ?

+ +

+ ?

+ +

+ -

+ -

? -

- (?) -

+/-

+/-

+/-

-(?)

+/-

+/-

+/-

+/-

+

+

+

+

-

-

+

-

'

caesura catalexis

refrain

Ἐ--

combi-

+

nation of verses of unequal length rhyme

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

allitera-

-

-

-

+/-

+

+

-

-

-

tion

The table clearly requires explanation. Under “strophicality” | mean the existence of poetic forms obligatorily divided into stanzas. In the Greek tradition, lyric poetry is usually strophic, whereas epic poetry is not; on the other hand, Vedic poetry has only strophic forms. “Caesura” refers to the obligatory pause within a line; for example, the Slavic epic decasyllable has the obligatory caesura after the fourth syllable, there are, of course,

103

meters that do not include an obligatory caesura, 6. g., the Sapphic hendecasyllable in Greek. By “catalexis” | mean the possibility of occurrence of lines without the last syllable, so that the rest of their metrical structure

remains unchanged; in Greek and Vedic poetry, e. g., many lines permit catalexis; thus the Vedic hendecasyllable (tristubh) is only a catalectic form of the twelve-syllable line, the jagati The feature "combination of verses of unequal length” is present in languages where poetic forms, consisting of regular combinations of different lines, are attested; such forms are, e. g., the Vedic stanza byhat/ (consisting of three octosyllables and a dodecasyllable) and the Greek elegiac couplet (consisting of a hexameter and a pentameter). 8163 The symbol “+” signifies that a metrical feature is attested as obligatory in at least one of the metrical forms of a tradition. Therefore “+”, when applied to “strophicality” in Greek does not mean that all metrical forms

in Greek

are strophical,

but only that there are forms

that are obli-

gatorily strophical (e. g., the Sapphic or Alcaeic stanzas). In cases where some feature is certainly taken over from a foreign tradition—as was the case, e. g., with rhyme, which was borrowed from Latin medieval poetry into Olr.—the symbol "-" applies. This symbol means that some feature does not occur originally in a tradition, or that it occurs very seldom; for example, rhyme exists in Croatian and Slavic folk poetry (see, e. g., Zima 1988), but it occurs very seldom, as well as alliteration. Therefore, the Slavic tradition was marked with "-" for both features. The symbol “+/-” signifies the features that are common in a particular tradition, but non-obligatory; for example, in the older Latin poetry (e. g., in Naevius, Ennius and Plautus) alliteration is very common, though not compulsory (i. e., it is not a part of the definition of a particular metrical form, as it is, for example, in Germanic poetry). The symbol "?" signifies that presence of a feature is doubtful. For example, we cannot say whether strophicality is an original feature of Latin poetry, or some of its forms, because longer poems from the pre-Hellenistic period have not been preserved. 8164 From the table of metrical correspondence it can be seen that isosyllabism is present in most of the IE traditions as a metrical principle. In Germanic, meters are purely accentual (i. e., only the number of stressed syllables in the line counts), but that is probably related to the development of strong initial stress in Proto-Germanic. In Lithuanian and Latvian, accentual verses are also very common, but there are syllabic metrical forms as well. For Hittite, it is difficult to determine the dominant metrical principle, because few poetical texts have been preserved; it appears that

104

some of them are quasi-syllabic based upon syntactic parallelism, recognizable meter (West 1976). verse, and it appears that they are

(Campanile 1979), whereas others are as in Semitic poetry, without a clearly In Lydian, there are some passages in isosyllabic (West, op. cit.)®.

8165 There are other metrical correspondences related to isosyllabism. Namely, not only basic principles of versification are correspondent, but also some particular verses. They can be classified as follows: 1. Twelve-syllable verses: Vedic jagat/ (or, more precisely, the meter that constitutes the jagat), e. g., RV 5. 11. 1: jánasya gopá ajanista jagrvir, the basic scheme of this verse is x -x -xvv/-v-vx,

OFx-x-vv-/-v

-M X.

This verse has its parallel in Greek Oedipus Tyrranos, 14:

iambic trimeter, e. g. Sophocles,

ἀλλ᾽

Ὦ κρατύνων Οἰδίπους χώρας ἐμῆς

KX

7

WM

7

X

7

WMV

7

X.

^

WM

X

Besides being correspondent with respect to the number of syllables, both verses have identical cadence (- y x). In the Slavic tradition, there is a correspondent dodecasyllable, occurring mostly in laments (Jakobson 1966: 428), e. g. Croat. Jos se nadam u milosna brata moga, or Russ. B IMKU TEMHbIN Jeca πᾶ BO Apemyyun (both examples from Jakobson, op. cit.). “Identical cadences” of Greek and Vedic verses should be taken cum grano Salis, as quantitatively regular endings of Vedic verses represent only a statistical tendency, not an absolute rule (cp. Campanile 1979: 184ff., Elizarenkova 1993). However, there is no absolutely regular adherence to metrical rules even in the most refined Roman poets. 2. Eleven-syllable meters: Vedic, e. g., RV 1. 32. 1: indrasya nu viryani pra vocam. Its basic structure is: x - x -vv-/-v-x0Ofx-x-xvv/v - x; it can easily be seen that frisftubh is only a catalectic variant of jagati. When one syllable is taken away, the cadence changes from y, - v x into y - x (because the last syllable is always anceps, i. e., of indeterminate quantity). Similarly, in Greece we have a number of eleven-syllable

* Gamkrelidze and Ivanov (1984, Il: 839-40) claim that in some Hittite texts (e. g., in those related to funerary rituals) octosyllables, formally correspondent to Vedic and Baltic verses, can be recognized. However, the analysis of the only Hittite passage that they offer (loc. cit.) seems improbable to me, especially because the lines of that passage are not of equal length. $5 Moreover, these verses contain rhyme, so that in Lydian we find the earliest versification in the world that is based on rhyming (West, op. cit.).

105

verses, of which the Sapphic hendecasyllable has a cadence identical to the cadence of the Vedic verse: Φαίνεταί μοι κῆνος ἴσος θέοισιν (Sappho, Fr. 2.1) -νν TOM M cC ovr OX Similarly as with the twelve-syllable lines, the eleven-syllable lines have cadences correspondent in the Greek and Vedic traditions (- y - x), which could serve as an argument in favor of their common origin. In the oldest Avestan

texts, there

is also an eleven-syllable

line, with a break after the

fourth syllable. It is perhaps the most common verse of the older Avesta, whereas in the younger Avestan texts the meter is accentual. The possibility that the Indo-Iranian and the Greek eleven-syllable lines are genetically related is confirmed by their partial functional identity: in Greek poetry this line is used predominantly in solemn, hymnic poetry (e. g., in Alcaeus, see Durante 1975: 43-44), and in the RV it is the most common meter in the solemn hymns dedicated to Indra (in contrast to the octosyllabic gayatr/, which is used in the magical saktas dedicated to Soma). 3. Ten-syllables: Jakobson compared the Slavic epic decasyllable with the Greek paroemiacus (1966: 461-2). The Greek paroemiacus is a meter in which proverbs are often ὌΝ e. g: μενετοὶ Ogot, οὐκ ἀπατηλοί; its metrical form is: y vy v - x, Whereby in the first two anapests short syllables can be replaced by long ones. The Slavic epic decasyllable is also attested in proverbs: Croat: Boj ne bije svijetlo oruzje, vec boj bije srce u junaka; OCzech: Jeden nevie co druhého hiete. Jakobson thought that besides the functional correspondence, as well as the correspondence in the number of syllables, both verses have correspondent cadences. He represented the cadences of both Slavic and Greek decasyllables as y y - x. However, this representation is still doubtful for the Slavic decasyllable. In South Slavic decasyllable, there is a rule that seventh and eighth syllables should be short, but the ninth syllable is not necessarily long (nor accented), for example in the couplet Kog su ljube dosle sjetovale / s dugom kosom a pamecu kratkom (Zima 1988: 199); an analysis of a random sample of 200 decasyllables from Cubelic's collection (1970) shows that in 2096 of the cases the ninth syllable in the verse is short. The fact, noted by Jakobson (op. cit.), that singers tend to lengthen the ninth syllable in recitation, does not necessarily mean that this syllable is metrically long. It is interesting that in the Lithuanian tradition we find a meter formally and functionally correspondent to the Slavic decasyllable; it is common in historic poems (/storijos dainos):

106

Cia karan joti, da sliaban stoti Vai, ner kam, né kam ärga balnoti (Dainos, 14).

The metrical structure of this verse is x x x x x /x x x x x With an obligatory break after the fifth Syllable. Although more recent works on the metrics of Lithuanian dainas is not available to me, an analysis of the songs

composed

in this meter (e. g., Dainos

5, 6, 14, 35; Senn

1966,

II:

13, 14) shows that the ninth syllable either contains a long vowel, or that it

bears a long intonation (i. e., " Or ')9. The possibility that the Lithuanian decasyllable was borrowed from the Slavic tradition is reduced by the fact that the Lithuanian and the Slavic verses differ with respect to caesura: in the Lithuanian meter, the caesura falls after the fifth, whereas in the Slavic decasyllable it is after the fourth syllable. In Vedic metrics, there are also verses with ten syllables; they are uncommon,

but

they

are

attested

in

very

archaic

parts

of the

Rig-Veda

(Arnold 1905: 15); they probably developed from hendecasyllables by leaving out one syllable from the middle of the line. The fact that they neither occur in the Atharva-Veda,

nor in any later Vedic collection,

could

point to the conclusion that they are an archaism (Arnold, loc. cit.). Among the Rig-Vedic decasyllables, there are those that have caesura after the fourth syllable, as in Slavic (RV 2. 11. 14, the so-called virafsthana verse: räsi ksdyarn/ räsi mitrám asme), but also those with a caesura after the fifth syllable, as in Lithuanian: @yur na pränö / nityo na sunüh (RV 1. 66. 1). 4. Nine-syllable verses are found in Greek metrics, but, as far as | can tell, not in other IE traditions. Not even in Greek are there examples of the use of enneasyllables κατὰ στίχον: the Alcaic enneasyllable is used only as the third line of the Alcaic Stanza. If Watkins' (1963) thesis that the PIE verse opposed a long (10-12 syllables) and a short line (7-8 syllables) is true, then the non-existence of correspondences to the—rather rare— Greek nine-syllable verses should not surprise us. 5. Vedic gäyatriis a stanza composed of lines of eight syllables: RV 1.

1: agním ie puróhitam(x x x x ! v -v x): In the

Greek

Sophocles,

OC

tradition,

the

correspondent

671: à λίγεια μινύρεται

(x x x

verse

is Glyconeus,

cp.

v v - v x)-

Snell (1962: 9) thinks that this verse is "the oldest Aeolic meter". It is important to note the identity of cadence in both verses (y - y x). Octosyllables are also attested in the Slavic metrics; the "epic octosyllable" can be represented as x x x x x/x

x x, Whereas the form of

the "lyric

66 Even in cases where this contradicts the accentuation of the standard language, Senn (op. cit.) marks the accent on the ninth vowel in these songs.

107

octosyllable” is x x x x / x x x x (Jakobson 1966: 450). The epic octosyllable is frequent in Bulgarian folk poetry, but it occurs also in Croatian poets such as Dore Drzic: Lovac loveci diklice, s kragujcem drobne pticice. The cadence is regularly x'x x, which is correspondent to the cadences of Greek and Vedic octosyllables, if one assumes that length has been replaced by stress. The Lithuanian octosyllable, adduced by Gamkrelidze and Ivanov (1984, Il: 839-40) is usually combined with a heptasyllable; there is a similar verse in Latvian as well: Zelta zvaigzne atspkdeja pa celipu man ejot (8//7) However, | believe that experts on Latvian metrics will have to express their opinion about this; | was unable to find a single Latvian daina in which regular alternation of heptasyllables and octosyllables could be observed, and the dominant principle of Latvian metrics is accentual. Finally, octosyllables are also attested in the Celtic tradition. In Olr., there is a meter named Oll-Chasbairdne, composed of eight-syllable lines:

Ri Achaid Üir ibardraignig crathaid in luin lethanmerlig ocon maigin muiredruimnig Laigin ina lebargemlib. The presence of rhyme testifies that this particular verse is not especially archaic, but perhaps it is noteworthy that the cadence is after the fifth syllable, as in the Slavic "lyric octosyllable". Moreover, if some Gaulish inscriptions are metrical, as several scholars believe, they may also contain octosyllables, cp. the beginning of the inscription from Chamaliéres: Andedijon vedijumi / Maponon arverijatin / divijon risu naritu (see the discussion in Meid 1989). Also, with a few emendations, the inscription from Alise-Sainte-Reine (R. |. G. Il, L-13) can be read in octosyllables: Martialis Dannotali / jeuru Ucuete sosin / celicnon etic gobedbi / dugijontjo ucuetin / (in Alisia). Although this is probably a coincidence, one should never exclude the possibility that some day we shall discover some of the magnus numerus versuum that the Gaulish druids, according to Caesar (De Bello Gallico 6. 14. 3), used to memorize. 6. In Greek poetry, the catalectic variant of Glyconeus, called Pherecrateus, is well attested. It is originally a heptasyllabic verse, although it permits the replacement of two shorts with a long syllable in the first two feet, cp. Sophocles, Ant. 109: κινήσασα χαλινῷ (x x x v v - x). This verse, however, has a rather limited function (it does not appear κατὰ

108

στίχον, but mostly as a final verse of a stanza, usually in combination with Glyconei, see Majnaric 1948: 78, Del Grande 1960: 325); it is therefore difficult to compare it with Vedic heptasyllables, which occurs in archaic parts of the RV (Vine 1976), to be sure, but it is extremely rare. The Vedic heptasyllables are actually "acephalic" variants of the gàyatr/, i. e., they have the same cadence, but one syllable less, cp., e. g., RV 9. 113 5b: sam sravanti samsraväh (x x x v - v x). It is therefore best compared with the acephalic variant of the Glyconeus, namely with the Telesileus, e. g., Aristophanes, Birds 1737: *O 8’ ἀμφιθαλὴς Ἔρος (x x x v - v x). We see again that the cadences of the Greek and the Vedic verses correspond to each other, but one must bear in mind that in the whole

RV there are only

28 heptasyllables (Arnold 1905), so that the correspondence might be accidental. One of the most common archaic lrish meters is also a heptasyllable; that verse also usually has a cadence of the form x x x : Bé dia mbiat ilairdbe // eter Ultu erredaib (Longes mac nUislenn, 1). As the caesura falls after the fourth syllable, the structure of the meter is x x x x / x x x. If we suppose that the length was replaced by stress, the cadence of the Olr. meter corresponds to the cadences of the Greek and the Vedic heptasyllables (Watkins 1963). However, we have seen that the Graeco-IndoIranian correspondence is doubtful, because of the small number of the attested Vedic heptasyllables. On the other hand, there is a more convincing parallel to the Olr. meter in the archaic Latin metrics. One of the most plausible analyses of the Saturnian verse (Cole 1969) shows that it was composed ot two cola, one of which was completely correspondent to

the Olr. meter". 8166 Cole (1969: 46) shows that the most common, and at the same time the most archaic, cola of the Saturnian meter were a heptasyllable and a hexasyllable; thereby the heptasyllable contained an internal caesura after the fourth syllable, and

a cadence

of the usual form x

-

x, cp.

the beginning of the translation of the Odyssey by Livius Andronicus: Virum mihi Camena (x x x x ! x- x). We find the structure of the same colon at the beginning of Carmen Arvale:

*' For a different opinion about 1960. The thesis that the verse was 68 The exact reconstruction of the complex, because in some positions with two, see Cole, op. cit.

the nature of the Saturnian verse, see, e. g., Rose purely accentual cannot be discarded. metrical structure of the Saturnian is somewhat more within the line it was permitted to replace one syllable

109

Enos Lases iuvate x

x

x

x!x-x

8167 On the other hand, the hexasyllabic colon of the Saturnian (insece versutum, x x x / x - x) could be correspondent to the Olr. hexasyllable lines, which are found in archaic Olr. poetry: crui tire do tellach // ni aenan main moigther (Watkins 1963, example 101). However, one should not jump to conclusions, because in the earliest Olr. poetry one very often encounters poems in which lines of seven, six, five, and four syllables freely alternate, without having identical cadences, e. g., in the following poem of the very archaic rosc type (Serglige Con Culainn, 828): XX Xx X XXX Xxx XX XX X Xx XXXXXXXxXxx

Mór espa do láech laigi fri süan serglige, ar donadbat genaiti áesa a Tenmag Trogaigi

XXX XXX

x X

condot rodbsat, condot ellat,

XXX

X Xxx

eter bríga banespa.

The best analysis of such poems is probably the one that starts from the quite obvious fact that there is no isosyllabism in them at all. | think it is dangerous to assume with Watkins (op. cit.) that in such poems verses with a determined number of syllables freely alternate; although similar compositions are attested (e. g., in the Greek lyrics), such an analysis should be backed by stronger arguments than those that seem to be at hand. It is not contradictory to claim that Olr. poetry featured both syllabic

and non-syllabic principles of versification at the same time®. Moreover, in some non-syllabic poems from the earliest period the dominant principle is almost certainly accentual, cp. Serglige Con Culainn 819, where we find a different number of syllables per line, but every line contains five stresses: Rechmi cath n-imrind n-imda n-imamnas, imberta claideb nderg ar dornaib desaib, tuathaib ilib óenchridiu Echdach luil.

69 A similar conclusion was reached by Kim McCone, who believes, nevertheless, that the syllabic principle was taken over from Latin (1991: 41): "Broadly speaking, stress count, syllable count, or combinations of the two determine its various rhythms and these in turn may be ornamented by alliteration, assonance/rhyme or both. There is, of course, a tendency for stress patterns to correlate with alliteration and for syllabic structures to correlate with rhyme and consonance, but this is far from absolute".

110

Thus, in the same saga we encounter poems composed two different metrical principles.

according to

§168 Such accentual meters relate the Olr. poetic tradition with Germanic poetry, where the accentual versification became dominant already during the Proto-Germanic period. One does find syllabic forms as well, in the Old Norse eulogies composed in dróttkvaett stanzas, but for such forms it is generally assumed that they represent an innovation, and that they only arose under the influence of Olr. and Latin versification (De Vries 1941: 9-70). Common Germanic verse, whose reflexes are found in the Older Edda, in the OEng. heroic epics, as well as in the OHG Hildebrandslied, consisted of two cola, both of which contained two stressed syllables linked by alliteration (Heusler 1956), cp., e. g., Hildebrandslied 44: Hiltibrant gimahalta, / Heribrantes sunu, and Beowulf, 1381: Beowulf madelode, / bearn Ecgdeowes. In the quoted passages we see how similar epic formulas are expressed in the correspondent meters. §169 Irrespective of whether the Saturnian verse is accentual or syllabic, it is difficult not to see that in the earliest Latin poetry accent played a certain metrical role. For example, the formulaic fragments of a prayer to Mars, preserved by Cato (De agri cultura, 141) can be analyzed in a meter similar to the Proto-Germanic accentual verse: Mars pater / te precor quaesoque, or: pastores pecuaque / Salva servassis. A similar pattern can be observed in proverbs, such as Hiberno pulvere / verno luto / grandia farra, / Camille, metes. One could object that these texts are not in any kind of verse, but it is difficult to deny that they contain some kind of rhythm (see Pasquali 1936: 75ff.). Besides all that, the versification of Vulgar Latin, attested since late Antiquity, is accentual. It is quite possible that it continues an original Italic metrical tradition; the Versus in Aurelianum (3rd. century) is accentual: Mille, mille, mille decollavimus ... tantum vini nemo habet

quantum fudit sanguinis. The accentual

rhythm occurs also in one of the earliest Italian texts, the

so-called /ndovinello Veronese from early 9th century: Boves se pareba arba pratalia araba et albo versorio teneba et negro semen seminaba.

It is quite possible that, besides the Saturnian, which was reserved for more elegant forms, archaic Latin poetry had another verse, which was

completely accentual"?. §170 The Germanic, Celtic, and Latin (Italic?) traditions are related by another metrical feature—alliteration. In Latin poetry this is more common the more we venture into its past. For example, in Naevius we often find completely alliterative lines, such as Fr. 53: magnae metus tumultus pectora possidit; in later poets alliteration is avoided, and even considered to be a feature of vulgar, bad taste (Rose 1960). However, to judge by the remaining fragments of the archaic poets, even in the earliest period, alliteration was only an ornament, not an obligatory feature of the metrical structure of verses; a similar situation is encountered in Olr. poetry, but there alliteration is even

more

usual. On

the other hand,

in Germanic

and

Welsh poetry alliteration is obligatory; OEng. Hige sceal de heardra, heorte de cenre (The Battle of Maldon, 312); Olc. Hliöds bid ek allar helgar kindir (Edda, Voluspa 1); W Meirch mwth myngvras (Gododdin, 3). 8171 If the frequent occurrence of alliteration in Latin and Olr., viz. its obligatoriness in Germanic, can be explained by a strong initial stress obtained in one period of these languages, it is impossible to account for alliteration in Welsh verse in this way, because Welsh never had a generalized initial stress (Klar et al. 1984). We are therefore justified in assuming—though this assumption cannot be proved—that frequent use of alliterations is a dialectal feature of Western IE poetic traditions". §172 The results of this chapter can be summarized as follows: Greek and Indo-lranian metrics show similarities which enable us to conclude that at least some of their verses (most probably the octosyllabic and dodecasyllabic lines) are genetically related. The characteristic alternations of long and short syllables at the ends of the lines in Greek and Vedic verses correspond to each other also in the fact that the length of a syllable is determined not only by the length of the vowels that it contains, but 7° Only after the completion of my manuscript did | discover that an expert on Latin versification, J. Blansdorf (1991) had expressed a similar opinion. "! |n ORuss. "Igor's Epic" alliterations occur quite frequently in the non-narrative parts of the epic, e. 9: Hu nu Becmbra 6pino, sbureh bosne, BemnecoB» Buyye (64-5). It is certain that frequency of such alliterative lines is greater than in, e. g., Croatian folk poetry (Zima 1988: 268-9), but in ORuss. poetry one cannot a priori exclude the influence of Scandinavian alliterative verse. However, Jakobson (1966: 603-610) does not consider such figures in the "Igor's Epic" to be alliterations in the real sense, but rather paronomasies and figurae etymologicae; both of these stylistic procedures are, as we shall see, well attested in other IE traditions.

112

also by the existence of a consonant, or a consonant cluster, that closes the syllable (i. e., in both languages

syllables can be long not only natura,

but also positione, although the conditions under which a syllable is long positione are somewhat different for Vedic and Greek). §173 The Western IE traditions (Germanic, Italic, Celtic) also share some common elements of metrical structures. In all of these traditions we

find shorter lines (6-8 syllables), and there is a tendency to develop accentual verses and alliteration. The Balto-Slavic poetic tradition is rather difficult to classify as belonging to either of these two dialectal areas. One of the reasons for that is certainly the late character of our sources; however, the decasyllable, which is the only meter that can be posited for the Balto-Slavic period with some degree of certainty, has its only correspondence in the Greek paroemiacus. What has been said so far is well understandable from the point of view of the dialectal differentiation of IE languages. On the other hand, little can be said about the nature of Common

PIE metrics; it is probable that the PIE meter, or meters, were syllabic, with an obligatory caesura, and that it was used strophically. There are no reliable attestations of quantitatively determined cadences outside of the Graeco-Indo-Iranian area.

§174 From the point of view of typology, the syllabic principle of versification is very broadly diffused, so that correspondences in mere number of syllables are not particularly informative. For example, the Classical Arabic verse rajaz consists of twelve syllables, just like jagat/ and the Greek iambic trimeter, yet the possibility of common descent or borrowing

must be discarded. Furthermore, an eight-syllable meter is attested in classical Georgian metrics; it is one of two cola which make shairi, the meter in which the famous Rustaveli's epic "Knight in Panther's Skin" was composed. The seven-syllable verse is one of the basic meters of classical Japanese poetry; it is the middle line in a Haiku stanza. Its correspondence with the Olr. heptasyllable is, of course, a purely typological correspondence. All of this shows how careful one must be in making hypotheses about the genetic relationships of metrical forms. The analysis of data from Preminger (1974), shows that syllabic versification is typologically the most common of all in the languages of the world. Besides the already mentioned Japanese and Georgian versifications, syllabic meters are attested in Turkic folk poetry, Korean sijo poetry, Tibetan poetry, the oldest Javanese poetry (kakawin), etc. 8175 Typological investigation of the evolution of metrical forms in nonIndo-European languages is probably the basic condition for the develop-

113

ment of PIE metrics. We

shall be able to reconstruct the meters

of the IE

proto-language only after we learn more from typology about the general laws of the evolution of verse—if such laws exist at all.

ANAGRAMS:

A STYLISTIC FIGURE OF PIE POETRY

§176 One of the tasks of formal textual reconstruction is the reconstruction of typical stylistic figures of PIE poetry (see §83). Earlier scholars were also aware of the importance of this task, and Schmitt devoted a chapter of his monograph (1967: chap. 7) to the comparison of the stylistic figures that he considered to be characteristic of PIE poetry: kenning (e. g., "fire" as “the descendent of the waters" in the Nordic and Indo-Iranian traditions, 8577)", figura etymologica (e. 9. "wek"os wek*- ‘to utter a word’

in Greek and Indo-Iranian, §§546-547”, different syntactic figures, such as “Behagel’s law" (attested in many traditions, 88564-565)’*, etc. In that chapter, Schmitt had to give up, to a large extent, his formalistic method, which requires that the compared expressions in IE traditions be etymologically correspondent. Namely, when we compare, e. g., two kennings, we do not ask ourselves whether they are etymologically correspondent, but whether they express the same meaning and whether they perform the same function in the respective poetic texts. §177 Stylistic figures in IE traditions have been explored by many scholars since the publication of Schmitt's book; Enrico Campanile (1974) collected various “IE metaphors”, Marcello Durante devoted his works (1958, 1976) to the study of the use of epithets in Greek and Vedic (see above, 840ff.). A special “etymological figure" (*dónom dö- ‘to give a gift’) in Italic and PIE was the subject of a study by Wolfram Euler (1982)^, and

” ON saevar niör is only partially correspondent to Olnd. apam napat "the descendent of the waters",

which

is

a common

epithet of Agni, who

was

born

in water.

In Irish my-

thology, one of the gods is called Manannan mac Lir, literally "Manannan, son of the sea"; his counterpart in Welsh is Manawyddan vab Lir. 7? Schmitt did not notice that the same figure appears in Latin as well, e. g., in Vergil, Aen. 6. 247: VOCE VOCANS Hecaten, caeloque Ereboque potentem. It is improbable that this expression was coined on the basis of Homeric ἔπος εἰπεῖν, because the syntax of cases and the meaning are different.

7% According to "Behagel's law", when several nouns occur next to each other in poetic speech, the epithet will precede the last of them, e. g., in a Croatian folk-song: Sesíra, bratac i premila majka "Sister, brother and dear mother". 7*5 The same figure occurs also in the Balkan Slavic epic tradition, cp. Bulg. nap AapyBaM, Map pa3uasaM (Kostov 1971: 13-16). It is also interesting that in such etymolog-

114

over the last few years there was a very vivid discussion about riddles, kennings, and “obscure metaphors” in the works of the oldest Greek, Vedic, Celtic, and Germanic poets (cp., e. g., Campanile 1990); to these problems the monograph of Francoise Bader (1989) is mostly devoted. §178 However, relatively little was done to explore the totality of figures and stylistic procedures in Indo-European languages, at least as far as | know. Of course, a large part of the stylistic inventory of any tradition is universal, common to all languages, and it is therefore unclear whether such a study would yield any significant results. Stylistic figures such as metaphor, comparison, and epithet can probably be found among all peoples and in all historical periods; | have already mentioned some universal uses of epithets in various epic traditions (see §104-5). However, | believe that careful research would show that a particularily frequent use of some figures is characteristic of some epochs rather than others, and that, in the earliest periods of some poetic traditions, some figures are not used at all. For example, | am convinced that syntactic figures, such as litotes, that are “fashionable” in the works of Greek and Roman orators, occur much less frequently in Homer. On the other hand, in OEng. poetry litotes are probably the most frequent stylistic figures of all (Chickering 1977). A comparative and historical study of the development of particular figures in IE languages would contribute to a better understanding of the historical process of man’s mastering of the expressive powers of language. §179 In this book, we shall have to limit ourselves to a much more modest task. Instead of looking into the development of stylistic figures in particular languages and trying to reconstruct the system of stylistic means οἱ expression in PIE, we shall try to depict the usage of one stylistic figure, characteristic of the earliest literary texts of IE languages, namely, the anagram. §180 Zima (1988: 288) defines the anagram as “the case when two οἱ more

words

consist

of the

same

letters,

but

in

a

changed

order’);

his

example is the name Alstedius, “anagrammed” as sedulitas. We shall be concerned precisely with such kinds of anagrams, wherein a proper name is divided into sounds or syllables that are repeated in a poetic text tc cause associations to that name. This poetic procedure is so distinctive that its frequent use within a poetic tradition cannot be explained by poetic and stylistic universals in the way that the use of epitheta ornantia can be ical figures adduced by Kostov (rpax rpaımna, XbTBa XbHeM), the object always pre cedes the subject, which probably points to their archaic origin.

115

considered an universal feature of epic poetry. A frequent use of such anagrams in a tradition must be considered to be a consequence of specific poetic conventions within that tradition. Thus, it is my aim to show that anagram is a stylistic feature characteristic of the poetic conventions of PIE tradition. This does not mean that “anagramming” personal names is the EXCLUSIVE feature of that tradition: this procedure is found, here and there,

in various

periods

and with very different poets,

e. g., in Petrarch,

who also used to “hide” the name of his beloved Laura in anagrams: La ver’ l'aurora, che si dolce l'aura al tempo novo suol movere i fiori ... (Rime sparse, CCXXXIX) However,

such “anagrams” are isolated, and they reflect only the stylis-

tic individuality of particular poets, not elements of poetic conventions of a literary tradition. 8181 We owe the discovery of anagrams in PIE poetry, like so many other discoveries, to Ferdinand de Saussure. In his posthumously published notes, the great linguist developed the basics of a coherent view on the poetics of the common

Indo-European

poetic tradition, so that he can

be

considered as the founder of that discipline in the same sense as he is

considered to be the founder of the laryngeal theory”. 8182 In his notebooks, published by Jean Starobinski (1971: 36), De Saussure wrote: "j'affirme en effet (comme étant ma thése dés ici) que le poete [i. e., the Proto-Indo-European poet] se livrait, et avait pour ordinaire métier de se livrer à l'analyse phonique des mots: que c'est cette science de la forme vocale des mots qui faisait probablement, dés les plus anciens temps indo-européens, la supériorité, la qualité particuliére, du Kavis des Hindous, du Vates des Latins, etc." The reasons why words were analyzed phonetically by the PIE poets lie, according to De Saussure, in "l'idée réligieuse qu'une invocation, une priére, un hymne, n'avait d'effet qu'à condition de méler les syllabes du nom divin au texte" (op. cit.: 60). Thus it is possible to explain the frequent use of anagrams of the personal names of gods and men, which was 76 tn contrast with the laryngeal theory, which was accepted by at least some linguists after it had been first formulated (e. g., by Maller), De Saussure’s views about anagrams were left completely unnoticed until the 1970s. Even the close friends of De Saussure, such as Meillet, to whom he had corresponded about the anagrams, were not convinced that De Saussure's theses are justified (see Starobinski 1971). It is therefore not surprising that Schmitt (1967) does not even mention De Saussure's theory of anagrams.

116

discovered by De Saussure at first in the earliest Roman poetry. For example, the verse Taurasia Cisauna Samnio cepit on the sepulcre of the Scipios contains the anagram of the name of the deceased (op. cit.: 29). At the beginning of Lucretius epic “De rerum natura” De Saussure found many

allusions

to the

Greek

name

of Venus

(Aphrodite),

to whom

the

invocation at the beginning of the poem is dedicated. Indeed, although not a single complete anagram is found in the first fifty lines of that poem, syllables contained in the name of the goddess (a-, -pro- or -fro-, -di-, -te-) occur very frequently. De Saussure saw similar allusions to proper names in a large number of Saturnian verses, to which he devoted many pages of his notebooks". 8183 De Saussure thought that anagrams were also a feature of Greek poetry, but in the published notebooks, we find only one example, from the Odyssey (11. 400): ὄρσας ἀργαλέων ἀνέμων ἀμέγαρτον αὐτμήν

“causing a deadly tempest of terrible winds” In this line the name of Agamemnon seems to be “anagrammed”, and such an interpretation is encouraged by the fact that the verse is taken from Odysseus’ speech to the soul of the murdered Agamemnon in Hades. On the other hand, it is different to make conclusions about the use of anagrams in Greek poetry on the basis of only one line from the whole Homeric corpus. However, | am convinced that an even better example of the use of anagrams is found in Hesiod. In the introduction of the “Theogony”, after the invocation of the Muses, and before they are enumerated (lines 77-79), Hesiod “anagrammed” most of their names in lines 65-71:

” De Saussure even believed that he had discovered a “law”, according to which each

sound, occuring in a Saturnian, must occur an even number of times within that, or the following line. The law actually appears to apply to vowels in lines such as malum dabunt Metelli Naevio poetae, or Taurasia Cisauna Samnio cepit, where each vowel occurs an even number of times. However, | have tried to check De Saussure’s observation on the material gathered by Cole (1969), and it appears that most of the preserved Saturnians do not exhibit the regularity predicted by De Saussure. It is interesting that Peter Raster (1992), following De Saussure, established phonetic symmetries (even numbers of occurrences of particular classes of sounds) in the first hymn of the Rig-Veda. He reached a stunning conclusion that the frequence of almost all classes of sounds (e. g., nasals, aspirates, labials) is equal to a number divisible by either 8 or 24, which is the total number of syllables in the line or stanza (gayatr/ in which that hymn is composed. Raster's results are difficult to believe, but on closer inspection also to disbelieve.

117

ἐν θαλίης ἐρατὴνδὲ διὰ στόμα ὄσσον ἰεῖσαι μέλπονται, πάντων τε νόμους καὶ ἤθεα κεδνὰ ἀθανάτων κλείουσιν, ἐπῆρατον ὄσσαν ἱεῖσαι. αἵ τότ᾽ ἴσαν πρὸς Ὄλυμπον, ἀγαλλόμεναι ὀπὶ καλῇ,

ἀμβροσίῃ μολπῇ περὶ δ᾽ ἴαχε γαῖα μέλαινα ὑμνεύσαις, ἐρατὸς δὲ ποδῶν ὕπο δοῦπος ὀρώρει νισομένων πατέρα εἰς óv ὁ δ᾽ οὐρανῷ ἐμβασιλεύει, ... "Joyfully sending a lovely voice from their mouths they sing, and ordinances and proper practices of. all the immortals they glorify, sending a lovely voice. It is then that they were going to Olympus, boasting with beautiful voice and immortal song. The black earth resounded around them, as they were singing hymns, and under their feet a nice sound was heard, while they were going to their father. He reigns in the skies ..." If | am not mistaken, in the quoted lines the poet alluded to the names of Thalia, Erato, Melpomene, Clio, and perhaps also of Polyhymnia and Urania. One can explain why all of the Muses have been alluded to by recalling that their number was not fixed before the classical period, while the particular functions were not assigned to Muses before Roman times (according to Pauly, p. 1477). The editor of Hesiod's Theogony, M. L. West (1980: 180), thinks that the names of the Muses did not even exist before Hesiod, and that they were "suggested to him by things he has said about the Muses in the preceding lines". Whether this be the case or not, his playing with their names strongly reminds one of the different kinds of anagrammatic allusions to divine names that we are analyzing in this chapter. Other traces of this usage can be found in Greek poetry (see, e. g., Watkins 1987: 285), but we shall not follow them here. 8184 De Saussure attributed the stylistic procedure of the anagramming of divine names also to Vedic poetry; he mentions that words like anga, giras, angiras often occur in the hymns dedicated to Agni (Starobinski, op. cit.: 36), but he does not systematically analyze such examples. Of course, if anagrams of divine names play some role in Greek poetry, we should expect that such a procedure has its parallels in the Old Indian tradition, rather than in Archaic Latin, because the Greek and Indolranian traditions exhibit many other common features. Indeed, an unequivocal example of anagramming has been discovered by V. N. Toporov in the Rig-Vedic hymn 10. 125, dedicated to the goddess of poetic speech, Vac. Toporov discovered this in 1965, independently of De Saussure’s intuitions (cp. lvanov 1976: 254). The analysis of that hymn was published in the works of Elizarenkova & Toporov (1979) and Toporov (1981). The

118

kavi who composed RV 10. 125 addresses the deity of poetic just like Hesiod does; however, in contrast to Hesiod, the Vedic not mention AT ALL the name of that deity: it is completely (Olnd. guhyam nama) in the anagrams. The deity is herself the the hymn, whose first and last stanza we quote:

inspiration, poet does concealed speaker in

Ahám rudrebhir vásubhis caramy ahám adityaír uta visvadevaih aham mitravarunobhä bibharmy ahám indragní ahám asvinobhä “| go with the Rudras and with the Vasus, with Adityas and with all the gods. | carry both, Mira and Varuna, Indra and Agni, both Asvins.” Ahám eva vata iva pra vamy arabhamana bhüvanani visva paró diva para end prthivyaitWati mahind sam babhwa "| blow like the wind, | encompass all beings Away from the sky, away from the Earth: so great have | become." The reader will easily notice how often the syllables va-, va- occur in this hymn, as well as the construction vásubhis ... carami in the first stanza. In other stanzas

such

"anagrams"

also occur,

and

in the whole

hymn

(consisting of eight stanzas), syllables beginning with v- occur almost 50 times. If we know that the name of the goddess to whom the hymn is dedicated is not expressed at all—which seldom occurs in the RV—we can accept Toporov's thesis (1981: 223) that the SACRAL SENSE of the hymn is expressed precisely by phonetic allusions to the "hidden name" of the goddess. Only a kavi-, who knows how to shape the words by his insight (dhj), and the goddess, to whom the hymn is directed, will grasp that concealed meaning. 8185

If anagrams

play

a role

so

important

in the

poetics

of the

Rig-

Veda as Toporov thinks, it would be unusual if Avesta contained no traces of the same poetic procedure. However, nobody has yet ventured to seek anagrams there, at least as far as | am aware. Luckily, a rather superficial overview of the Old Avestan corpus yields a very fruitful result: at the very beginning of the Gathas (Y 27. 13) we read a couplet that conceals the name of Zarathustra's supreme deity, Ahura Mazda: yada ahü vairiio/ αθ ratus asatcit haca vagheus dazda managho/ siiaodananam agheus mazdäi

119

“Just as (a judgement) is worthy of being chosen by the world, so the judgment, (which) in accordance with truth itself, (is to be passed) on the actions

of good

thought

of the

world,

is assigned

to the

Wise

one,

..."

(Humbach's translation, p. 115). The prominent position of this hymn within the Gathas guarantees that itis poetically prototypical. A similar anagram of Ahura is also to be found in the first verse of Yasna 28: ahiia yasa nemanha ustanazasto rafadrahiia “With hands stretched out (and) reverence to Him | first entreat all" (Humbach). | would predict that further research of Old Avestan texts would reveal more such anagrams. 8186 It cannot be established with any certainty whether anagrams of names are a stylistic feature of the Balto-Slavic poetic tradition. Zima (1988) says that this figure is rather uncommon in Croatian folk poetry; on the other hand, Ivanov and Toporov (1974: 114) believe that in some East Slavic magical incantations, used to invoke rain, the name of the ThunderGod, Perun, is anagrammed, cp. the refrains such as JlocxXgyHkK,

JIOXKJIMK,

IIpHIIOIIOHE, Or:

IloxuHuk,

ΠΟΚΠΗΚ,

mepectans (loc. cit.)

It is a pity that the Russian linguists have not explored systematically such phenomena, because, on the basis of the material that they offer, it is difficult to decide whether we are really dealing with anagrams, pure coincidences, or forms of divine names that were corrupted by Christian censorship. In a similar vein, one could doubt whether the following lines from ORuss. "Igor's Epic" contain an anagram of the name of the pagan Slavic god Veles: O Bose, CONOBHIO CTaparo BpeMeun (56) COJIOBUU BECENBIMH IrbcH'&MMH / cBbTb ΠΟΒΈΠΔΙΟΤΡ (655-6) The mythical poet Boyan, to whom the invocation in verses 56-75 of the epic is addressed, is called "Veles' grandson" (I. 70), or "grandson of that one"

(roro

BHyky,

|. 64); the poet, who

in |. 64 does

not dare to say ex-

plicitly whose grandson Boyan is, wanted perhaps to allude to the pagan deity in |. 56, by calling Boyan “the nightingale of old times”. In any case, it is difficult to establish more than a possibility that an anagram is involved

here”. 78 It is likewise possible that Veles name is anagrammed in the name of the magician Volxov, in the Novgorod legends (cp. Katici¢ 1988).

120

8187 A very interesting case is when in two traditions etymologically related names are anagrammed, i. e., when the correspondence of the formal elements of texts is backed

by the correspondence

of formulas, the

material elements. This is what we find in the following example. One οἱ the goddesses with whose name the Vedic rishis often like to play is USas. In many hymns dedicated to her, her name is mentioned together with words derived from the root vas- ‘to kindle, light’, from which the very name of the goddess, usas-, is also derived. As noted by Elizarenkove (1993), with most Vedic verbs of that meaning other gods (such as Agni Οἱ Sürya) can appear as subjects, but the verb vas- almost always has USas as its subject, e. g., RV 1. 48. 3: uvasosä uchäc ca nu “USas has beer shining,

let her

shine

forth

now";

similarly

in 7.

81.

2:

távéd

uso

vyus

"when you, USas, shine ...". Although the adduced examples do not represent anagrams in the proper sense, but rather figurae etymologicae, that are used to evoke the original meaning of the goddess’ name, it is interesting that the name o! Dawn occurs in similar figures in Lithuanian folk poetry, where figurae ety: mologicae are rather uncommon. Thus, expressions such as austa ausrele "the dawn

breaks"

(Katalogas,

6, no.

135),

or isauso

ausrelé “it dawned’

(ibid.: no. 8) are felt as marked, or even archaic. Vedic vas- and Lithuanian austi are derived from the same PIE root *h,wes-/h,us-/h,ews-; if one could show

that Lith. ausra austa really is an inherited formula,

one

coulc

reconstruct PIE *h,ewsds h,ews- ‘the dawn dawns’. However, Baltists wil have to say the final word about such a possibility. $188 Finally, anagrams are well attested in archaic Old Irish poetry. Ar Early Irish fili, praising the king of his tribe, analyzes his name into the sounds of which it is composed, suggests its etymologies and plays with i freely, e. g., in the eulogy for Fergus, attributed to Colmán Mac Lenén (who died in 604): sirt cach n-ainm ainm gossa fer

"It surpasses every name the name of a man's strength"

The poet interprets the name Fergus as being composed of fer 'man and gus 'strength', and makes an anagram of it by using the expressior gossa fer. A similar procedure is applied in "Amorgein's incantation", at tributed to the mythical poet Amorgein: Am gáeth immuir am füam immuir

"| am the wind on the sea | am the whisper on the sea

121

am séig for aill am tonn terthain ...

| am a falcon above a rock | am a wave of the ocean ..."

Other examples of anagrams in Olr. poetry can be found in Kalygin's monograph (1986: 718.) and in my book on Irish literature (Matasovic 1995, chap. 2. 2). 8189 Considered as a whole, the evidence adduced so far enables us to attribute anagramming, as a stylistic procedure, to PIE poetry—unless one considers that figure to be a poetic universal. | think that my hypothesis is also confirmed by the fact that anagrams are frequent only in the OLDEST monuments of IE languages, whereas they are rather rare in subsequent periods. Besides that, anagrams of proper names are not a common figure in any non-Indo-European poetic tradition, at least as far as | am able to tell. 8190 Considering the PIE anagrams, we should mention another related stylistic figure: polyptoton, mentioning divine names in different grammatical cases; it is also a poetic procedure whereby the attention of the listener (or reader) is directed to the name of a deity to which supernatural powers are attributed. The first four stanzas of RV 1. 1. begin with the name of Agni, in different cases: Agním 78 puróhitam yajhasya devám stvijam, hötaram ratnadhätamam. Agnih pürvebhir fsibhir iyo nütanair uta, sa devamr éhá vaksati

Agnina rayim asnavat pösam eva divé-dive yasasam viravattamam.

Agne, yam yajfiam adhvaram visvatah paribhür asi sa id devésu gacchati “Agni | praise, the domestic priest, the god, helper at sacrifices, the invoker, the best giver of treasures. Agni, who is worthy of praise by the original seers and by those of today, let him bring the gods here. May

122

(one) acquire wealth and well-being, glorious and rich in men,

by Agni! O,

Agni, the sacrifice and the rite that you encompass from everywhere, may

all that go among the gods.""? In the Greek tradition, where lyric hymns addressed to gods are very rare, we can compare Anacreon's poem dedicated to his lover Cleobulus (Fr. 303): Κλεοβούλου μὲν ἔγωγ ἐρέω =“! love Cleobulus, Κλεοβούλῳ δ᾽ ἐπιμαίνομαι | | am mad about Cleobulus, Κλεοβούλον δὲ διοσκέω. | am watching Cleobulus!” Campanile (1988: 31) adduces the following example of polyptoton in Olr. poetry. It is an eulogy for the king Fiachu Baiccid: Fichit filed fiu bed nath n-airech fordairc fri Fiachach: Fiachu ferr 6en ilur braithre mBaiccedo.

“Let the poem for Fiachu, the famous noble, be worthy of twenty poets: Fiachu alone is better than the lot of the brothers of Baiccid.” §191 One could speculate about the reasons for the frequent use of anagrams in the Indo-European poetic traditions. There is probably some truth in De Saussure's intuition, according to which the "play" with divine names is related to the efficiency of the hymn or prayer; in Greek and Vedic,

Gods

are

often

called

‘many-named’

(Ved.

pürupaman-,

G

πολυ--

ὦώνυμος). For example, in RV 8. 93. 17b Indra is called purunaman purusfuta "many-named, often-praised", and Hades is in Hom. Hymn. 3. 18 Κρόνου πολυώνυμος υἱός “many-named son of Kronos" (see also Schmitt 1967: §§369-371 and Campanile 1978: 55ff.). In the Greek tradition, there are many places where gods are called "many-named", whereas in RV there are rather few such places. However, it is only in the Vedic tradition that the explanation for the use of such epithets should be sought??. In Greek poetry, πολυώνυμος is a remnant of the sacral, pre-epic poetic terminology, so that it is unclear why this word serves as an epithet of such

79 Toporov (1981) thinks that in such hymns, in which divine names are "inflected for case", contain the origins of Old Indian grammar and linguistics. Similar polyptota are also found elsewhere in RV, e. g., at the beginning of the hymn to Mitra, RV 3. 59. 1-2. 80 Schmitt (loc. cit.) rightfully claims that it is impossible to reconstruct a PIE compound on the basis of G πολυώνυμος and Ved. purunaman. These words are etymologically related, but not identical. Olr. /anman 'many-named', which occurs only in glosses, is also etymologically related.

123

different gods as Hades, Apollo (Hom.

Hymn.

3. 82) and Nike (Bacchy-

lides, Fr. 1. 1).

§192 The knowledge of divine fulness of the prayer addressed to portant for the proper performance divine names are a secret that only

names is important for the successthe deity. In the Vedic religion, it is imof the sacrifice; for the uneducated the a seer can discover by his insight:

mahat tan nama guhyam purusp/g yéna bhatam janayo yéna bhavyam (RV 10. 55. 2, to Indra) “That secret name is great, many times invoked, engendered what is and what is becoming’.

by which

you

have

Vedic mahat nama ‘great name’ has its etymological correspondent in G μέγα ὄνομα (6. g. in Thucydides, τὸ μέγα ὄνομα τῶν ᾿Αθενῶν, 2. 64). Both syntagms metaphorically mean ‘great fame’ (see 899) and can be derived from PIE *megh, h4nomn, which is a correspondence that has not yet been noted. The etymological parallel is not complete, because Ved. mahat- contains a suffix *-nt- which Greek lacks. §193 Sometimes

gods want to be called by some

others, and only a wise sacrificer knows

them.

Thence

names

rather than

we often find such

confusions as when the same god in RV is addressed as Brhaspati and Agni, or Savitar and Sürya (though these are probably different gods by their origin): bfhaspate prati me devatam ihi mitró và yad varuno väsi pusaá (RV 10. 98. 1) "O Brhaspati, go for me to the deity, whether you are Mitra, Varuna, PuSan”.

or

In some of the earliest Roman prayers, it appears as if the supplicant doubts by which name to address a deity (cp. Campanile 1979), e. g., Juppiter optimus maximus, sive quo alio nomine te appellari volueris (Servius ad Aen. 2. 351). 8194 Occasionally, gods reveal their names to mortals; thus Odinn himself revealed his secret names to king Geirród, who had captured him (Edda, Grimnismál 44): "My name is Grim, my name is Gangmatt, HelmetBearer,

124

The

Father of Battle, The

Father of All ..." We

find an

interesting

parallel in an Olr. passage, where the goddess of war, Bodb.

reveals her

names to her enemy Cu Chulainn: "The woman who ig talking Ὁ Vou is

Coimm

Diuir,

Folt Scenb,

Gairit

i Uath

|»

(Tain

bó

Regamna

3).

In the

story Cath Maige Tulred’, the Supreme god Dagda Presents himself with 26 different names, which the princess of the demonic Fomoire has to

memorize (cp. Matasovié 1995)'.

§195 The name of the deity iS Sometime S WOnt to be kept secret, so could cause misfortune by 5 Wearing; Macrobius (Sat. 3. 9) writes that Romans did not wantto reveal t he name of deity—pr otec"ui tor of their city: nam propterea et ipsi Romani et deum inthe cuius tury that no enemy

Roma est et ipsius urbis Latinum nomen ign otum esse voluerunt Or the other hand, there is no essential difference between praising he m the name and praising the deity itself; thus in Avesta there is a VOW: "we worship him, [his] Ahurian names that are dear [to him], o Mazda ne holy" (Y 37. 3). , ; A Rig-Vedic kavi begins one hymn (1. 24. 1 ) as follows: kásya nünám katamasyamjtanam manamahe caru devä sya nama “whose, of which immortal god shall we remember the de ar name?" Pindar's rhetorical question at the beginning of the 2nd Olympi an Ode is typologically parallel: τίνα θεόν, τίν᾽ ἥρωα, τίνα δ᾽ ἄνδρα κελαδήσο μεν;

“Which god, which hero, which man Shall we sing?"

8196 The worship of names yields power to the worshj _ human knowledge to the poet-seer®?, On the other nanper, and supernames of men is the key to the understanding of the human world. "Glorious name’"name" ("hÀnom Klew-)mean is what after the death therefor e cann also "fame"remains in G

of a hero;

' and 108-20 Old Irishi) (see 899). In Hesiod's myth about the five races reek, of τοςLatin,(Erga. ee

~ Not from only do bear different names, to speakthattheir language©. different the gods language of mortals. Therebutis they a lot appear of evidence tne own pela

“language of gods"

language men”traces is Proto-Indo-European 1970 Toporov 1981, Baderand 1989). It has of left in the Indo-Iranian (cp.NorseWatkins (A Ivissmál) Greek (e. g., Il. 1. 403-4), and Olr. traditions. ' *?? The understanding of names is the basis of knowle dge of t he world for a primitive man. To understand a phenomenon means to understand its “real name”; therefore etymology is one of the first sciences that developed in India, but also in the European Middle Ages (e. g., in the work of Isidore of Seville, or as dinnsenchas ‘the science of the

place-names' in Ireland). Even today it appears that some Scholars do not distinguish between naming a phenomenon and explaining it.

125

third “race οὗ bronzen

men’ is said to have remained “nameless” after their

death (154-5): βῆσαν ἐς εὐρώεντα δόμον κρυεροῦ ‘Aidao, νώνυμοι

“They descended nameless’.

into

the

foul

house

of terrible

Hades,

The bronzen men are nameless after death, because poets do not sing about them as they sing about the race of heroes, created by Zeus thereafter (Erga, 156-173). If “nameless” means “unsung of”, then it is clear that to praise heroes means to praise their names, and the names of their ancestors. Thus Dallan Forgall, the author of Olr. Amra Coluimb Chille (ed. Kelly 1973) praises the name of the saint (4th stanza): Ro-fes i n-ocus, i céin, Columb coích boí, acht ba oín,

"It is known near and far who was Columb, he was unique,

tindis a ainm amail gréin ba lés i comar cách oin.

his name shone like the sun it was the light in front of everyone."

8197 Within the whole complex of conceptions about the names of heroes, it is clear that a name can be immortal for a Vedic poet, cp. RV 5. 57.

5:

sujataso

janüsa

rukmávaksaso

amftam

náma

bhejire

having golden ornaments on their breasts since birth, they selves an immortal name with a divine song" (cp. also RV 9. name is immortal because the poetic text that transmits it is There is a syntagm παγὰν ἀμβροσίων ἐπέων "the source words" in Pindar (P 4. 299), whereby ἔπη in Pindar usually own poetry (Koller 1972).

"well-born,

gave them122. 4). The immortal too. of immortal refers to his

8198 To us, who are accustomed to view names as conventions, tags, it may appear unusual that in many IE traditions names of heroes are MOTIVATED by their deeds or by their nature. There are many examples of such name-giving in Homer (cp. Nagy 1981): Hector's son Scamandrios is also called Astyanax 'the master of the city' after his father who protects the city from the Achaeans. Hector himself bears the name that means ‘the protector’ (from ἔχω in the sense of ‘protect’). In the Old Irish tradition, Οὐ

Chulainn

killing

the

got

dog

his

of

name,

a

which

blacksmith

reflecting the nature of their bearers

means

named

'the

hound

Culann.

In

of

Culann',

Beowulf,

are also very common;

after

names

for example,

Hygelac, the ruler who almost destroys his tribe by an imprudent raid on

126

the Frisians, has a name which literally means ‘the unsteadiness of thought’ (about the symbolism of names in Beowulf, see Chickering 1977). Therefore, it is understandable that “name” appears as a key-word in several PIE formulas (cp. Schmitt 1967: §§373-374), e. g., *hnomn priyo-

friendly name’ (OEng. freo nama, Ved. priyam nama)?, or PIE *h,nomn dheh,- ‘to give a name’ (Proto-Slav. *jgme déti, G ὄνομα θέσθαι (e. g., Od. 19. 403), Ved. naman dha- (for attestations see Gamkrelidze & Ivanov 1984: Il, 833-4). In the Greek and Indo-Iranian traditions, there is a common conception, according to which gods—or a single deity—gave names to all things. Thus, Plato's ὀνομαθέτης 'the giver of names' is paralleled by a myth from the Rig-Veda,

wherein

as name-giving. Visvakarman names: yo nah pita janita yó devanam namadhd éka eva parent, who [as] the divider who is the only giver of names

the creation of the world

is conceived

'the creator of everything' is also the giver of vidhata dhämani véda bhüvanani vísva, yo (RV 10. 82. 3) “[He] who is our father and knows the forms (dhamani) and all beings, among the gods".

8199 The sacral importance of the names of heroes and gods is typologically well-attested in many cultures. Ancient Israelites called their god Yahvee, but also ?aelohim (which is usually translated simply as ‘God’). This reflects the two different traditions, Yahwistic and Elohistic, from which the Bible originated. In Hebrew sem, besides 'name', may mean

‘glory’, just as in Greek. Therefore the Psalmist often praises the name of Yahweh:

"It is a good

thing

to give

thanks

unto

the

Lord,

and

to

sing

praises unto thy name, o most High" (Psalm 92. 1). Just as the Vedic kavi, the Psalmist also believes in the power of God's name: "The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble; the name of the God of Jacob defend thee" (Psalm 20. 1). The name of Yahveh is also "great" (Jsh. 7. 9), "terrible" (Deuteronomy, 28. 58), it can be loved (Ps. 5. 12) and praised (Ps. 7. 18). The idea that the names of the heroes of old are sung by the present generations also occurs in the Bible: "All these were glorious in their time, each illustrious in his day. Some of them have left behind a name and men recount their praiseworthy deeds" (Sirach, 44, 7-9). We could certainly adduce more such typological correspondences. The belief in the power of words is typical of a large number of archaic cultures, besides the PIE culture, and names are words par excellence, because the origin of language is conceived of as the act of giving names to men and things. However, as far as we know, only within the PIE culture the stylistic procedure of anagramming of the divine names has developed. This stylistic 9? This reconstruction is doubtful, because the OEng. syntagm actually means "family name, cognomen". As no correspondences of contexts have been found, the parallelism is probably coincidental.

127

feature of the PIE poetry left its traces in the earliest poetic traditions of IE peoples.

STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION OF TEXTS

§200 We shall now limit ourselves to the comparison of short texts with a precisely defined function, namely the magical incantations against ankle-dislocation. Although the correspondences between Olnd. and Germanic formulas for healing were noted already by Kuhn in the 19th century, | believe that the following passages will add new elements to this century-old discussion. Let us first consider the texts in question: 1. Phol ende

Uuodan

vuoron

zi holza.

du uuart demo

Balderes

volon

sin vuoz birenkit. thu biguolen Sinthgunt, Sunna era suister. thu biguolen Friia, Volla era suister. thu biguolen Uuodan, so he uuola conda. 5056 benrenki, sose bluotrenki, sose lidirenki; ben zi bena, bluot zi bluoda, lid zi

geliden, sose gelimida sin. (2nd. Merseburger Zauberspruch, quoted from Schmitt 1967: 8588). "Fol und Wotan fuhren ins Holz. Da ward dem Fohlen Balders sein Fuß verrenkt. Da besprach ihn Sinthgunt, der Sunna Schwester. Da besprach inn Frija, der Volla Schwester.

Da

besprach

ihn Wotan,

so gut er konnte.

Wie die Beinverrenkung, so die Blutverrenkung, so die Gliederverrenkung. Bein

zu

Bein,

Blut

zu

Blut,

Glied

zu

Glied;

so

seien

sie

festgefügt."

(Schmitt's translation). 2. róhany asi róhany asthnas chinnásya róhani rohayedam arundhati yat te risfam yat te dyuttám asti péStram ta atmáni dhatá tad bhadráya punah sam dadhat párusa páruh sam te mamsasya visrastam sam ásthy api róhatu majjä majjfid sam dhiyatàm carmana cárma rohatu ásfk te ásthi rohatu mamsám

marmséna rohatu

lóma lómna sam kalpaya tvacd sam kalpaya tvácam

)

asfk te ásthi rohatu chinnam sam dhehy osadhe

sa uttiStha préhi pra drava ráthah sucakrah supavíh sunabhih práti tiSthordhváh yádi kartám patitvd samsasré yádi vásma prahyto jaghäna fohd rathasyeväangani sam dadhat párusa paruh (AV 4. 12)

128

“Grower art thou, grower; grower of severed bone; make arundhati.—What of thee is torn, what of thee is inflamed,

this grow, is crushed

O in

thyself—may Dhätar excellently put that together again, joint with joint; together let what of thy flesh has fallen apart, together let thy bone grow over.—Let marrow be put together with marrow; let skin grow with skin; let thy blood, bone grow; let flesh grow with flesh.—Fit thou together hair with hair; fit together skin with skin; let thy blood, bone grow; put together what is severed, O herb.—Do thou here stand up, go forth, run forth, a chariot well-wheeled, well-tired, well-naved; stand firm upright.—lf, falling into a

pit, he hath been crushed, or if a stone hurled hath smitten (him)—as a Rbhu the parts of a chariot, may it put together joint with joint" (W. D. Whitney's translation). Schmitt (1967: 8591), following Krause and Schróder, relates these texts to an Olr. formula, which is uttered by the physician Dían Cecht in "The Second battle at Mag Rath" (833): ault fri halt di, ocus feith fri feth "article with article, vein with vein". However,

although this formula

is cer-

tainly similar to the respective formulas in Olnd. and OHG, by itself it does not say much here, as our attention should be directed to comparison of the entire texts, not isolated formulas. This is where my approach differs from those of earlier scholars; a better example for comparison is found in a Modern lrish incantation against the dislocation of a horse's ankle. It is preserved in many versions, but, as a text, it shows many correspondences with the quoted OHG and Olnd. texts: 3.

Dochuaigh Críost ar an gcreig do leonadh cos eich;

“Christ went over a rocky hill, a horse broke his leg;

chuir sé fuil le fuil,

he put blood with blood,

feoil le feoil, cnamh le cnámh. Mar shlánaigh sé sin go slánaí sé seo. Amen.

meat with meat, bone with bone. As he healed that may he heal this. Amen." (Duanaire, 350)

Irrespective of the fact that this Irish text was recorded very late, | think it should be discussed in this context. If Baltic and Slavic folklore texts can sometimes preserve traces of PIE antiquity, as has been assumed, there is no reason do doubt a priori that such traces can be preserved in Celtic folklore as well.

129

§201 If we compare now all the three texts, not as a set of formulas, but as structured DISCOURSES, we shall find some correspondences that have been left unnoticed—or, at least, not explicitly stated—so far. Firstly, the texts are composed of several parts, and each of their parts performs a specific function within the discourse. The part where the healing formula is expressed (F) is in opposition with respect to the part where it is told how

some

deity (Wotan,

Rbhu,

Christ)

performed

a similar deed

(healing

of a leg or joining the parts of a chariot). That part (N) is expressed narrative introduction in the OHG and Olr. incantations, whereas in Vedic text it is very reduced, and included in the last sentence of the (E). The last sentence is also detached from the rest of the text in the and OHG

texts as well, and

it contains a deictic element

(D), which

in a the text Olr.

refers

to the particular ankle which is to be healed (sose gelimida sin / go slanai sé seo). In the Vedic text, D is included in the first sentence of the text (rohayedam arundhati “may this grow, o Arundhati”). The disposition of the parts of text in Olr. and OHG is N—F—E, and in Vedic F—E(N). The principle of coherence for all three texts is the syntactic parallelism and repetition. Parallelism is found in part F of all three texts, as the healing formula is expressed by a series of syntactically parallel syntagms. Repetition of different textual elements is present especially in the Merseburger Zauberspruch (e. g., the strings sose ... sose ... sose, or thu biguolen ... thu biguolen ... thu biguolen) and in the incantation from the AV (e. g., the repetition of verbs such as sam... rohatu, or alliterative nouns like asrk ... asthi). Parts F of texts are syntactically parallel in all three traditions; they are expressed by three nouns, referring to the injured parts of the animal's body. These nouns are coordinated by a preposition (lr. fri, OHG zi) or case (l. sg. in Vedic). In Vedic, the formula contains the repetition of a verb, whereas

in OHG,

and

Ir. it does

not (in the Irish text, the verb chuir

appears only once, at the beginning of F). 8202

Having

enumerated

the textual correspondences,

we can

now

discuss the possible explanations of these correspondences. As is usually the case when linguistic correspondences are concerned, genetic, typological and a contact explanations are possible. The genetic explanation, offered by Kuhn, would mean that there was a particular text in the PIE language, functionally a "incantation against the dislocation of the ankle", from which

the Irish, OHG,

and Vedic texts have developed. A typological

explanation would mean that the correspondent structure of all three texts is determined by universal principles of human culture, which in turn determine the conception of medicine in primitive societies. Such a thesis would imply that structurally correspondent incantations would be attested in many non-Indo-European primitive societies. And actually, R.

130

Ködderitzsch (1974) adduces a similar example from the Finnish Kalevala (Rune 15, 307ff.), but persuasively explains that correspondence as a borrowing from the Germanic folklore. Finally, the contact explanation would mean that “patterns” of such texts have dispersed by borrowing

from one IE culture into another, well after the dissolution of the PIE linguistic community.

§203 Of course, different combinations of such explanations are possible; we could, for example, claim that the correspondences between the lrish and OHG texts should be explained as instances of borrowing (probably from Celtic into Germanic), whereas the correspondences of these texts and the Atharva-Vedic incantation should be explained otherwise. Namely, it is quite obvious that the correspondences between the Merseburger Zauberspruch and the Irish text are greater than those between any of them and the Atharva-Vedic text. 8204 Kódderitzsch (1974) believes that textual correspondences of this kind are best explained by borrowing, as magical formulas—just like fables and tales—easily travel from one people to another. However, this is only a hypothesis that should be checked in a large comparative Study. Schmitt (1967) thinks that the hypothesis of a common descent is the most plausible of all, because similar magical formulas have not been attested in languages spoken between India and the Germanic territory. However, as there are no etymologically related expressions in the discussed texts, Schmitt thinks that that hypothesis cannot be decisively proved. §205 Moreover, the thesis that such formulas cannot be found anywhere between Germany and India is not altogether correct. In Latvian folklore, there is a magical formula for healing similar to those (labeled F) from the Irish, Vedic, and OHG texts: pantins pe pantipa, kaulins pe kaulipa, dzislipa pe dzislipas "Joint with joint, bone with bone, vein with vein"

(Jouet 1989: 157). * Only shortly before this book was finished, | managed to see Kuhn's original paper about the Merseburger Zaubersprüche, only to discover that Kuhn had already mentioned similar magical formulas that he had heard in Latvia and Estonia. Also, Kuhn adduced other examples of such formulas from Germanic folklore. Some of these formulas also contain stunning correspondences with the texts that we have discussed, cp. the following text from the Shetlands (Kódderitzsch 1974: 48): Our lord rade, his foal's foot slade; //

131

Of course, this formula could easily be just a translation from some Germanic dialect. However, when everything is taken into account, | have to agree with Schmitt's opinion that the genetic explanation is the most probable. We still do not have any firm proof for it, but one should never lose hope: Merseburger Zauberspruche and the Atharva-Vedic healing formulas have been studied by the linguistic community for “only” a century and a half, and who can tell what future generations will discover in them!

down he lighted, his foal’s foot righted. // Bone to bone, sinew to sinew, // blood to blood, flesh to flesh; // heal in the name

132

of the Father,

Son and Holy Ghost.

5. POETRY AND POETS IN THE PIE PERIOD 8206 If anything can be recovered from the poetry of the Proto-In« Europeans, then a legitimate question to ask is—how did the poets of tl period refer to themselves and to their art, what conceptions about th own poetry did they develop? Is there a common PIE word for "poot', are there many related terms, all descending from the PIE porio Francoise Bader (1989: 18) formulates this problem as follows: “Un pt bléme nait du fait que, si l'on connait par ses techniques l'existence d'un poésie indo-européenne, on n'a pas de nom unique qui designe I poétes—lettrés, savants, intellectuels—à qui nous la devons". This quo tion is not new; it was raised by Giacomo Devoto thirty years ato: poeta-indovino non aveva invece una rappresentazione lessicalo uni nemmeno ai margini [of the PIE linguistic area]" (Devoto 1966: 298), iu the same problem was discussed by Schmitt (1967: §§610-614) and Mo (1978: 18). One could argue, perhaps, that there could not bo poots in th PIE period, because there are no traces of words for "poets" in tho racer structed common IE lexicon. At least the old Schrader-Nehring "I oxicor (p. 191) explicitly claims that the speakers of the proto-language did 1« know of the institution of poetry as such. Indo-European languages, generally speaking, preserved the term: f occupations and trades rather poorly. There are no common PIL words f "priest", "prophet", "potter", "hunter", "smith", not even for "warrior", ana ia these words must have existed in the proto-language. To deny tho ox: ence of the social institutions of poets and poetry on the basis of the non existence of words for these institutions is to use an argumentum o silon tio. On the other hand, in many IE languages there are severa! words fo poets and poetry, and a careful etymological examination of such word: might reveal not only that they have a PIE pedigree, but also a set o metaphors, conceptions and even textual fragments relating to the art o poetry, and reaching back into the PIE period. However, if no common IE words for poets and poetry are found, this will not mean that the whole business of IE textual reconstruction is fruitless. If they are found, the study of their meaning and function could yield important insights into the role of the PIE poets in society, as well as into their relationship towards their own art and culture in which they composed and performed their works. Such an investigation would be the proper subject of study of comparative IE PRAGMATICS (see 8143).

133

INDO-EUROPEAN POETIC TERMINOLOGY

§207 By “poetic terminology” we mean the totality of words in some language, whose meanings can be subsumed under the semantic field of poetic art. The language to which most of the modern European languages owe their poetic terminology is certainly Greek. Words such as ποιητής, ποίημα, ποίησις, were first borrowed into Latin (poeta, poema, poesis), and through this medium they found their way into the Romance languages, English (poet, poem, poetry), a part of the Slavonic (cp. Russ. 103T, mos3ua), and Baltic languages (Lith. poéfas). However, the original words are attested very late in Greek in their meanings related to poetry. Thus ποιητής does not occur before Herodotus (e. 6. Hist. 2. 23), and the word ποίημα, meaning ‘poem’, first occurs in Cratinus (Fr. 186 K.), i. e., also in the 5th century B. C. If one wants to reconstruct the original Greek poetic terminology, one must look in the works of Homer and Hesiod. 8208 In Homer's epics, people that can be considered poets are called ἀοιδοί. They are court singers, such as Phemius or Demodocus. ἀοιδός actually means ‘singer’, more precisely a singer accompanying himself on an instrument, usually a formynx. The word is derived from the same root as ἀείδω ‘to sing’, and ἀοιδή ‘song’. In some passages, these words appear together, e. g.:

ταῦτ᾽ ἄρ᾽ ἀοιδὸς ἄειδε περικλυτός “the famous poet sang that” (Od. 8. 367) In this line, we find a characteristic IE stylistic figure, the figura etymologica ἀοιδὸς ἄειδε which has already been discussed above. Furthermore, from what we gather about the ἀοιδοί

in Homer,

one can-

not conclude that they compose their poems themselves. It is possible that they learned several compositions in schools, or poetic “fraternities”, like rhapsodes later did. One such a “fraternity” of rhapsodes were the Homeridae from Chios (cp. Sealey 1957). However, the ἀοιδοί could also be self-taught, like Phemius in the Odyssey (22. 330ff.). He was inspired by a god with many poems (θεός δὲ μοι ἐν φρεσὶν οἶμας / παντοίας ἐνέφυ-σεν, 347-8), which means that he did not learn them from other singers. In any case, it appears that aeds were respected in the society, not as chieftains, of course, but surely more than simple commoners

aeds,

Phemius

and

Domodocus,

bear

the

same

or artisans. Both

epithet

περυκλυτός famous”. *5 This epithet is etymologically related to Olr. airchlotach < *p,ri-klut-ako-. 134

in

Homer,

It is unclear, however, whether being an ἀοιδός is a “permanent occupation”; in the Iliad, we find the warlord Achilles singing (ἄειδε) about the glorious deeds of heroes (Il. 1. 186-189). A deity (a Muse) can also be the subject of ἀείδω, e. g., at the beginning of the lliad. The objects of that verb are (in Homer) the events of the recent past (as when Phemius sings about the return of the Achaeans), the deeds of the dead heroes of the past (the subject of Achilles’ song, the content of the Iliad). A song (ἀοιδή) is what remains after the death of a hero (Il. 6. 357-8, Od. 579-90). An ἀοιδή can also be a lament (Il. 24. 721), as well as a hymn to the gods (Hesiod, Fr. 265, Rzach). Morphologically, ἀοιδός is a noun derived from the verb ἀείδω, and its meaning must have been originally ‘the one who sings’, i. e., it was a nomen agentis. Thence the broadness of meaning it has in Homer: everyone who is engaged in singing as a profession is ἀοιδός, whereas ἀοιδῇ is any song, irrespective of its theme. This set of words is derived from the root *h,weyd-, and it is probably related (by metathesis ?) to αὐδή ‘voice, sound’ (Boisacq, Frisk). In Olnd. vadati ‘speaks’ we have the same root in a different Ablaut form *h2wed-, and yet another form (*h;wod-) is encountered in OCS vada 'accusation' (whereby Winter's law, the lengthening of vowels before PIE mediae, is also involved). However, although the meanings 'to sing' and 'to utter, speak are closely related, a formal difficulty remains in connecting ἀοιδῇ and ἀυδή. The solution offered by Beekes (1969: 56), which requires of us to suppose two different bases (*h;w-ey-d- > ἀείδ-, and *h,w-ew-d- > av6-) is not entirely satisfactory, because one would expect that the root *h;ew- should be attested in some other set of words with a related meaning, and this is not the case. | think it is better to suppose a (pre-Greek) metathesis of *-dy- > *-yd- in a PIE abstractum *h,wodyeh, ‘what is utter-

ed’ from which G ἀοιδή can then be derived®. 8209 The relation that holds between ἀείδω and ἀοιδή is the same relation that holds between μέλπω and μολπή. Hesychius also adduces the word μολπός, which is parallel to ἀοιδός. Thus the sets ἀείδω / ἀοιδή / ἀοιδός and μέλπω μολπῇ / μολπός are completely parallel. On the other hand, the etymology of μέλπω, μολπῇ and μολπός is difficult. In Homer, and even later, μέλπειν means 'to sing and dance', especially when dancing in a wheel-dance. Similarly, μολπή seems to be a song accompanied by dancing. In the Iliad this word can simply mean ‘dance’ (e. g. Il. 18. 574). 86 The etymology offered by F. Bader (1989: 21) must be rejected as an ad hoc hypothesis; she derives G ἀείδω from PIE *weyd- 'to see' by simply supposing a "prothetic" &-.

135

All these words can be derived from PIE *melp-/molp-, a root which is

also reflected in Olr. molaid ‘praises, glorifies’ < *molp-ä-ti?”. If the original meaning of μολπή was ‘dance’, rather than ‘song’, this is no problem, because in several languages the same word can have both meanings; e. g., in Latvian, diét can mean

both ‘to sing’ and

there are very old passages in Greek ‘praise’, e. g. in Hesiod’s Fr. 256 (Rzach):

‘to dance’. On the other hand,

where

péAnw

can

also

mean

ἐν Δήλῳ τότε πρῶτον ἐγώ Kai Ὅμηρος ἀοιδοὶ μέλπομεν ἐν νεαροῖς ὕμνοις ῥάψαντες cody, Φοῖβον ᾿Απόλλωνα χρυσάορον, ὃν τέκε Λητώ. “Then

in Delos first Homer and

|, aeds, sang,

in new hymns sewing a song about Phoebus Apollo, who had been borne by Leto.” In these lines we cannot replace the verb “we sang” by the verb “we danced”, as μέλπομεν has an object in the accusative; it is also clear that ἀοιδή refers to a hymn (ὕμνος) in this passage, not just to any kind of poem. 8210 The last-named word has also a very unclear etymology. It would be tempting to derive it from PIE *(h,)su-mn-os, and thus relate it to the root *men-

‘think, remember’;

in Olnd., we

have

sumna-,

which

occasion-

ally means 'hymn' as well (Monier Williams, s. v. sumna-), and which might be etymologically identical to G ὕμνος (Durante 1976, II). However, there are difficulties with this etymological equation. Firstly, in Greek, PIE *h,su- ‘good’ should yield ev-, as it does in many words containing that prefixed adjective. There are very few examples such as ὑγιής 'healthy' « *(h,su-)g"i(h)es ‘who lives well’ (Boisacq), and they are rather doubtful. Moreover,

there is also a problem with the meaning.

In the earliest Greek

texts, ὕμνος appears to mean ‘what is sewn together’, e. g., in the expres-

sion ὕμνος ἀοιδῆς5, Besides that, sumna- is neuter in Olnd., not masculine as ὕμνος. ὕμνος should now we have Greek. From

Thus, the etymology proposed by Frisk, according to which be derived from PIE *syuh- 'to sew' could be correct. But to determine what is the regular outcome of initial PIE *sy- in the comparison of G ὑμήν ‘membrane’: Olnd. syüman-, one

could conclude that aspiration, ', is the regular outcome,

but there are very

87 Frisk (s. v. μέλπω) thinks that the etymology of these words is uncertain. However, he believes that they are related to μέλος ‘article, Glied. *! in RV 1. 113. 17 we find the expression syamaná vacas ‘with a string (bridle?) of word’; this could be a trace of the same formula as G ὕμνος ἀοιδῆς.

136

few reliable examples for this sound change, and the alternation of *sy-/s(cp. Szemerényi 1989: 99) must be reckoned with. Thus the root meaning ‘to sew’ appears as *syuh- (OCS siti, Lith. siüti), but also as “suh- (Olnd. sütram ‘book’, orig. ‘what is sewn together’, L suo). The example from Olnd. teaches us that the difference in meaning between ὕμνος and the root meaning ‘to sew’ (*syuh-/suh-) is not a problem because "sewing" is sometimes used as a metaphor for a poetic composition. Hesiod's already quoted fragment (265 Rzach) seems to confirm this: ἐν νεαροῖς ὕμνοις ῥάψαντες ἀοιδήν

“sewing a song in new hymns” This line probably contains a word-game: a song can be “sewn” in hymns, because “hymns” are etymologically “what has been sewn together’. Therefore, both etymologies are acceptable, but their combination is yet another possibility. As ὕμνος usually refers to a solemn poetic composition, mostly

in praise of gods

and

heroes,

it is possible that in Greek

two

different words were confused: *sumnom ‘good thought (directed to gods)’, and *suh-mnos ‘what has been sewn together (= song)’. Because of this confusion, the meaning of G ὕμνος could have been narrowed only

to songs in praise of gods”. §211 A similar metaphor is present in the term that refers to travelling minstrels who used to perform epic poems, namely the rhapsodies (G paywddc). The first part of this compound is also reflected in the verb pantw < *wrp-yö ‘to sew’; thus, rhapsodes are originally ‘the sewers of song’ (016); in Hesiod's fragment (Fr. 265 Rzach) we saw the figura ety-

mologica ῥάψαντες ἀοιδήν, 8212 The etymology οἵ G οἴμη probably also reveals a metaphor. This word can be derived from PIE *soymeh,, whose meaning must have been ‘thread, string’ (cp. Olcel. seimr ‘thread’, OEng. sima ‘rope’, Olr. sim ‘chain’). In G, the same PIE root yielded two words, namely οἴμη and οἶμος 'path'?'. The metaphor which equates the path by which one travels when reciting a song, and the song itself, is still alive in the Homeric hymn 89 In Od. 8. 429, however, ὕμνος refers to a profane song ἀοιδῆς). 9 On this metaphor, see further below, and cp. Sealey 1957: 911 fail to see why a laryngeal should be reconstructed in this Bader (1989) does. Hitt. ishamai ‘to sing’ probably has nothing rather related to Olnd. sáman- (on which see below).

(in the expression ὕμνος 315ff. word (*sh,oymeh,), as F. to do with G οἴμη, but is

137

to Hermes ([. 451), where the expression ἀγλαὸς οἶμος ἀοιδῆς "the glorious path (thread) of a song” is preserved. Thence, προ-οίμιον refers to a proemium, introduction, in which the poet addresses the Muses or gods, before venturing into the path of his poem. The form φροοίμιον, which occurs in lyrics, can only be derived from *pro-soym-yo-m, which proves that οἴμη was originally a word with a psilotic reflex of PIE *s > 0. The metaphor “POEM = THREAD” can also be traced in the RV (see Renou 1955: 16), and in Olr., one lyric form is called snaithe ‘thread’ (see §236). §213 Finally, G ἔπος, which had originally meant ‘word’, later acquired the meaning ‘epic’ in the modern sense (e. g., in Aristotle's Poetics). This evolution of meaning is parallel to the evolution of ORuss. cmoso ‘word’, but also ‘a longer epic composition’ (cp. Cxoso o ΠΠΈΚΥ Mropest). In fact, ἔπος meant 'word', but also 'prophecy', 'utterance', etc. Hermann Koller (1972) showed that in the earliest poetry ἔπεα also had a technical meaning

‘words

shaped

into

a

meter’,

above

all

hexameter,

which

was

the

metrical form of heroic and prophetic poetry. The root *wek"-, from which G ἔπος is derived, probably meant 'meaningful sound, word' in PIE. This is the meaning of L vox, vocis, which is the old root-noun corresponding to Olnd. vak-. In Vedic, vak- can also refer to

poetic words, and it can even be the name of the goddess of poetic speech (Vac), to which RV 10. 125 is dedicated. In G, ἔπος is a neuter sstem (PIE *wek"os), and one can suppose that its original meaning was 'what is uttered', just like κλέος « *klewos meant 'what is heard'. However, in Olr. we find füach « *wok"- which meant both 'word' and 'poem', thus corresponding to Olnd. väk-. Olr. anocht ‘a metrical flaw in poetry’ is from the same

PIE root *n-uk"-to-, and

it corresponds

to Olnd. anukta- 'what is

not (to be) said'. V. Ivanov (1976: 259) believes that these words preserve a PIE "metapoetic" technical term which is, | fear, too bold a conclusion. In some poets, e. g., in Pindar (Koller 1972), ἔπος also meant 'poetic word’. In this, stylistically marked meaning, G ἔπος and Olnd. vacas occur in the following passages: Ἤθελον Χίρωνά κε Φιλλυρίδαν, εἰ χρεὼν TOD’ ἁμετέρας ἀπὸ γλώσσας κοινὸν εὔξασθαι ζώειν (Pindar, Pyth. 3. 1-3)

ἔπος

“| wish that Cheiron, son of Phillyra, were alive,

if | am allowed to pray this simple Word with my tongue" Another attestation of the same phrase is found in Simonides' Fr. 12 (D), 19-20: θαρσαλέον ἔπος εὔχομαι "I pray a daring word [prayer]". 138

An etymologically correspondent syntagm is contained in RV 1. 30. 4: ayám u te sam atasi kapóta iva garbhadhim // vácas tác cin na ohase “That (sc. Soma) is Yours. You go like a pigeon to his mating-place // you glorify this Word for us”. Olnd. ohase and G εὔξασθαι are etymologically related just as much as ἔπος and vacas are. It appears that here we have traces of a PIE formula *wek"os h,ewg"- ‘to utter a word (solemnly)’. Such a reconstruction

is further confirmed

by Yt. 13. 90, where

it is said about

Ahura Mazda, yo paoiryö vacim aoxta “who first uttered the Word (sc. which repels the Daévas)”. Av. aoxta is the medial aorist of a verb that can be classified in media tantum, just like Ved. ohate and G εὔξασθαι. PIE *h,ewg"- probably meant something like ‘to utter solemnly, to praise’, and this verb can be included in the poetic terminology. It should be emphasized that the correspondence of contexts in this example is guaranteed by the fact that the reflexes of PIE *wek"os are used in a specific, poetic sense. 8214

In Vedic,

as we

have

noted,

vak means

‘word’,

but also

‘poetic

word, words shaped in a poem’. In RV 10. 71 2. it is said yatra dhira manasa vacam akrata “where the (poets) with spirit full of insight made the Word”. The insightful poets (dhirás) made (akrata, medial aorist of kr-) the poetic Word (vacam). This syntagm vacam ... kr- is perhaps inherited from PIE

*wek"m

k"er-;

the existence

of such

a poetic

formula

might

explain

why in the Celtic languages, the word for "poetry" is derived from the same PIE root (*k"er-), which meant simply ‘to do, to shape’, cp. Olr. creth ‘poetry’, W prydydd ‘poet’ (from an unattested noun *pryd ‘poetry’, cp. Vendryés, s. v. creth)”. Similarly, the word kürinys ‘poetical work, poem’ in Lithuanian is also derived from the verb kurti 'to make, to kindle (a fire)', which is also from PIE *k”er- (Fraenkel, s. v. kurti), cp. also Croat. (dial.) kuriti ‘to kindle"". The root *k"er- in PIE had, besides its primary meaning ‘to make’ also an additional meaning ‘to change shape (by magic, or magical formulas)’. Namely, in Balto-Slavic, this root yields such words as Lith. kerai ‘spells’, Croat. cari ‘magical spells’, and Russ. uapoyen ‘magician’ < PIE "k"er-od"eh,-. The PIE conception of the relationship between poetry and magic

> It is difficult to derive Olr. creth from PIE *k"rteh;, as Vendryés suggested, because the old g. sg. of that noun is cretha. Therefore, creth was an old i-stem. The old nominative *crith « "κ΄ πί- was replaced on the analogy with the oblique cases. It is possible that the oblique-case stem creth- was generalized to avoid homonymy with crith ‘fever’ « *(s)krey- (Pokorny, 937). * | am not sure, however, that karinys is not a calque of Russ. cruxorBopenne, or Germ. das (dichterische) Werk.

139

becomes apparent when the Vedic expression väcam ... kr- is compared with the full range of words derived from PIE *k"er-?*. §215 A shaped word of the poets, acting as a magical formula (Thieme), is referred to as brahman in the Vedas (cp. also Luders 1959: 22). There are many etymologies of this word; Meillet compared it with L

flamen (from PIE *b"lag"(s)men-, see Ernout & Meillet, s. v.), and Thieme derived it from *mreg""men, and thus related it to

G μορφή. Most recently,

McCone connected Olnd. brahman- and Olr. broimm 'flatulus??. | believe that the best etymology is offered by Mayrhofer (s. v. brahma-): Olnd. brahman is related to ONorse bragr ‘poetry’. Both words, in this interpreta-

tion, can be derived from PIE *b"rog"-. This PIE root, in a different ablaut form, yielded also Olr. bricht (< *b"rg"-ti-) ‘magical formula, spell’, and Gaul. brixtia, brictom (Larzac) ‘(?) magic’. The complex of words related to this root leads us deeper into the understanding of the magical function of poetry in the PIE culture. Thus Bragi, the Nordic god of poetry, whose name is adduced by Snorri (Gulfaginning, 29), probably owes his name to the

same

PIE

root.

In

Gaul,

a theonyme

Brixantos

is attested,

but

the

function of that deity is unknown. However, Olr. Brigit had certainly been the goddess of poetry and poetical inspiration before she was identified with a Saint of that name. This pagan goddess is described in Cormac’s Glossary (9th century) as follows: Brigit .i. banfile ingen in Dagdai. iseiside Brigit baneces (no bé neicsi) .i. Brigit bandee noadraidis filid. arba romor 7 baroan a frithgnam. is airesin ideo deam vocant poetarum “That Brigit, the daughter of Dagda, is a wise woman (or a woman full of wisdom), namely Brigit is a goddess that poets used to venerate. Her devotion was very great and very bright, and therefore she is called the goddess of poets". In the Olr. saga Scéla Cano Meic Gartnain, Brigit is depicted as the wife of the great poet Senchan Torpeist.

Olr. Brigit can be derived from PCelt *Brigantia < PIE *b"rg"ntih,. This very same PIE word is reflected as byhatiin Olnd., which is the name of a Vedic

stanza.

(see above)

It is a coincidence,

is attested

Auraicept na nEces,

but an

in the meaning

interesting

one,

that Olr.

bricht

'a meter of eight syllables', cp.

1427-8: bricht .i. ocht mbríathra and, no bricht iarsinni

brigtair ocht sillaba and "bricht, that means eight words, or rather bricht means that eight syllables are shown in it". The idea that the name of a % The supposition that vacam ... akrata is an ancient formula in the RV is confirmed by the lines 8. 65. 12c and 10. 62. 7d where we find sravo ... akrata, in a context where sravas does not mean simply 'fame', but 'praise poem, eulogy'. ?5 If L flamen were derivable from *b'lag men, the expected reflex would be *flammen

(cp. flamma « *b'lagma). A proto-form *b"lag"smen, on the other hand, could hardly have been PIE. McCone's

140

etymology, on the other hand, is semantically not well motivated.

PIE meter is preserved

in Olr. bricht and Olnd.

bshat7 seems

too fantastic

to be taken seriously into consideration. 8216

In contrast to vak- ‘word, poetic word’ and brahman

‘shaped word,

formula’, saman is ‘sung word, song’ in Vedic. Mayrhofer (s. v.) conditionally relates this word with the verb sä- ‘to bind’, and Av. ha'ti ‘chapter’. Personally, | find the comparison with Hitt. ishamai- ‘to sing’ most convincing. The PIE root is *seh,m-/sh,em-, with a prothetic i- before *sC- in Hitt., as in ispand- vs. G on&vöo; this i- might have been a spelling convention, as Ivanov thinks (1963: 65). If this etymology is correct, Ved. säman- preserves an old PIE word for ‘song, incantation’. 8217 There are several words meaning ‘poet’ and ‘seer’ in Olnd. Firstly, we have kdru- ‘poet’, which Mayrhofer (5. v.) relates to κῆρυξ ‘messenger’. The difference in meaning can be overcome if one supposes that PIE *keh;ru-,

from which

both words

can

be derived,

referred to a travel-

ling minstrel, who might have also played the role of a messenger (cp. Schmitt 1967: 8610). Such a hypothesis is confirmed by the fact that Olnd. käru- usually denotes a court poet who sings eulogies, and also from the analysis of the social role of a κῆρυξ in ancient Greece. We can also adduce a text (Pindar's Fr. 70b, Sn.) in which a poet calls himself a keryx: ἐμὲ ... κάρυκα σοφῶν ἐπέων "me ... a messenger of wise words". 8218 From there it can easily be seen that the etymological equation of G ἄγγελος ‘messenger’ and Ved. angiras ‘a member of a band of singen, an Angiras' is very probably true (see Schmidt 1968: 51). However, it hun not been proved that Ved. angiras ever had the meaning of a common noun ‘singer, poet’, as Schmidt suggests (loc. cit.). Another problem lays in the fact that ἄγγελος is morphologically isolated in Greek, so thu it in often considered to be a loan-word (see Frisk, s. v.). On the oth Inu Pindar again testifies that a poet could call himself an ἄγγελοι, (Nem 6i 57-8): ἑκόντι δ᾽ ἐγὼ νώτῳ μεθέπων δίδυμον ἄχθος ἄγγελος ἔβαν “| gladly took on my shoulders a double burden and came as a messenger" In the Homeric epics, kerykes are not simple servants, (hay nile 41} an important role in courts of the nobles (cp., e. g., Il. 3. VON) ml tore a messenger Talthybios is said to be θεῖος, ‘divine’, and Hie inn κα Ἢ ἃ is very often attributed to poets (the aeds). Furthormoure, IH te ns

ger—a keryx—who brings the travelling poet Demodocus in the 7th book of the Odyssey. In the post-Homeric period, it is recorded that a sacerdotal fraternity named Κήρυκες existed. Thus, it appears that a keryx also had sacral functions in the (pre-)Greek society. A further analysis of words related to PIE *keh,ru- reveals that this word must have denoted a poet that used to sing eulogies. From the zero-grade *kh,ri-, we can derive (by ‘laryngeal metathesis”) Olnd. Καὶ ‘praiser, poet’, and kirti- ‘praise, eulogy’ (from

PIE *kh,r-ti-), as well as the verb carkarti ‘praises, glorifies’. Outside

of the Graeco-Indo-Iranian dialectal area, we have Olcel. hróór ‘fame’, OEng. hrddor ‘victory’, hroed ‘fame’. These are all words belonging to a warriors vocabulary, and it is not easy to relate them formally to PIE *keh,r-/kh;er- (one would have to suppose a metathesis *keh,r- > *kreh,-, etc.), but the semantic connection is plausible. In Olr. we have caur ‘hero’

(a dental stem), which could be derived, perhaps, from PIE *kh,eru-t-*. To conclude,

then, there are no certain etymological

cognates of Olnd. karu-,

except in Greek. Thus we can only suppose that *keh,ru- ‘eulogist, travelling poet’ was at best a dialectal, not

a Common

PIE word.

§219 Furthermore, in Olnd., there is the word kavi-, which in Classical Sanskrit simply means ‘poet’. From the same root, we also have kavya‘poetry’. In RV, on the other hand, kavi- is a seer, a poet inspired by a deity, whose insight enables him to understand the divine essence of things. Thus, a kavi- is not simply a poet, but a kind of prophet or wise man. The same word, kavi-, occurs as an epithet of various gods; it is attributed,

in the first place,

to Agni,

‘Fire’ (RV

10. 91. 3; 3. 19.

1; 2. 23.1),

but also to Püsan, a god of cattle, who may be related to Pan” (RV 6. 53. 5), to Varuna ‘True Word’ (RV 8. 41. 5), etc. (cp. Gonda 1959). A kavi- is therefore a being—mortal or divine—who by his supranatural insight (dhr) acquires the knowledge of the sacred, cp. RV 3. 19. 1: Agním hötäram prä vrne miyédhe g/tsam kavím visvavidam ämüram “Fire, the wise, all-knowing kavi- full of insight | choose for a hotar at the libation". Therefore, it appears that function or occupation in the dom by his insight. It is also other sacrifices properly, like

kavi- does not refer to any particular social RV, but rather to anyone who attained wisthe one who is able to perform libations and Agni, who is usually represented as the sac-

36 Kalygin (1986) suggests that caur is related to Olnd. süra- ‘hero’. This etymology is difficult, because the vowels of the two words do not correspond. 9 If the etymology of G Πᾶν < *pawhsön is correct, cp. Haudry 1987.

142

rificer among the gods (cp. RV 1. 1. 2), and who is able to take care that the sacrifice is performed according to the prescribed rules. Thence, it is possible to relate the meanings of Olnd. kavi- and L caved < “coves (Ernout-Meillet,

s. v.). The

basic

meaning

of caveö

is precisely

‘to take

care of, to provide for by taking care of (cp. cautum est). If this etymology is correct, then it is possible to relate both kavi- and caved to G ἀκούω < *h,-kows-y6 (7), and to OCS Cuti < *(h,)kew-tey (cp. Bader 1989: 27). In Mycenaean Greek (Chantraine, s. v. κοέω), there is a specific social function e-pi-ko-wo-i ‘the overseers’. There are also words like coins, κο(ι)ακτήρ that denote various priests that participated in mysteries. It appears that both words can be related to κοέω ‘to perceive’ (Frisk, s. v.), but the precise relationships of these words are unclear. The same applies to the possibility that they are related to Lydian kaves ‘priest’. On the formal side, it is possible to connect the PIE root *(h,)kew- from which all these words can be derived, to OCS kovati ‘to forge’, Lith. kauti, Germ. hauen, etc. However, such a comparison is weak on the semantic side. One would

have to suppose that “forging” was another metaphor for poetic composition. Such a metaphor is attested, indeed, in Olcel. jodasmidr ‘the forger of words’, which is a kenning for a poet (cp. also OEng. wroht-smiö ‘the forger of insults’, Andreas, 86). Although the two possibilities do not necessarily exclude each other, it is more probable that kavi- is originally ‘one who takes care of the sacrifice' rather than 'smith'. PIE *kew- is therefore probably a Common PIE root belonging to magical terminology, and preserved in L, G and Olnd. Its meaning was probably 'to take care of something by insight'. 8220 Ved. ssi- (Av. aras) semantically very close to kavi-. Rishis were also inspired poets who—according to a late tradition—first heard the Vedic hymns. Various priestly families that orally transmitted the RV got their names

from the ancient rishis, e. g., the Kutsas, the Vasishthas,

and

the Agastyas. As with the Greek seven sages, there were also seven rishis (sapta rsayas) according to tradition. On the other hand, in contrast to the word kavi-, gods never get the epithet /3i-. It appears, then, that rishis were originally a social institution, perhaps the class of poets that composed

and

transmitted

sacred,

ritual texts,

in contrast to karu-s,

who

represented poets of profane, earthly eulogies in praise of rulers. In Olnq., fsi- is a rather isolated word.

It might be related to the verb 2. /- ‘to move’,

which can mean 'to kill' in AV (9. 4. 17). Thus, a semantic and formal connection with the meaning of Lith. arsus « *h,ersu- ‘crazy, frenetic’ could be established, and /si- could be derived from PIE *h,rsi-. Perhaps Arm. her and Germ. rasen could also be related. A rishi could thon be conceived as a poet who receives his inspiration in a state of frenzy, or holy madness, |

143

cannot say | am completely convinced by such etymologizing, but in any case, it is certain that ssi- is not a reflex of

a Common

PIE word for ‘poet’.

8221 In Olnd. stoty- 'praiser we have a reflex of an Indo-Iranian word that denoted a singer of eulogies. This word is etymologically identical to Av.

staotar-

‘eulogist’.

Both

words

are

from

PIE

*stew-,

from

which

the

verbs stauti ‘praises’, viz. Av. staomi ‘| praise’ are also derived, as well as nouns meaning ‘praise, eulogy’ (Olnd. stuti-, Av. stu'ti). In contrast to the root *g"erh- (see below), which seems to have denoted a praise directed to gods, it appears that “stew- referred to a praise of rulers, patrons of poets. The noun stoty- occurs in the RV often in contexts where patrons are blessed (cp. Macdonnel & Keith, s. v. stotr-). However, these words are probably also dialectal, because their only cognates are found in G στεῦμαι 'to boast, to promise, to make an oath' (Mayrhofer, s. v. stauti). Besides that, the fact that στεῦμαι has such a wide range of meanings, especially in Homer (cp. Il. 3. 82, 2. 597) makes it uncertain whether PIE *stew- originally meant 'to praise', or simply 'to utter solemnly, to promise'. In the latter case,

that PIE root does

not necessarily

belong

to the poetic

terminology. 8222 With respect to meaning, Olnd. rébhati 'praise, shout' is close to stáuti. The noun rebha- ‘praise poet’ is closely related. However, the etymology is difficult. Mayrhofer (s. v.) suggests a connection with Latv. ribét ‘to resound, make noise’, which does not seem particularly convincing. 8223 Finally, Rig-Vedic poets also call themselves vipra- 'trembler', probably because of an ecstatic state, caused by Soma, in which hymns were

recited.

This

word

is

related

to

the

Olnd.

verb

vepati

'trembles,

quivers’, and perhaps to L vibrare. This is also a metaphorical term, one among many such terms in Olnd. poetic terminology. Ecstatic techniques caused by intoxicating drinks are well-known in many shamanistic cultures of Europe and Asia (see Eliade 1964). The Vedic poetic terminology was mostly taken over into Sanskrit, and, as Sanskrit played the role of the cultural medium in India, just as Latin did in Europe, many modern Indian languages have preserved the Sanskrit poetic terminology. Thus the word for ‘poet’ in Hindi is kavi, whereas ‘poetry’ is kavya. §224 In the Celtic tradition, there is an impressive number of words for “poets”. The Olr. poetic terminology is particularly rich, and contains many words with interesting etymologies. Thus, one not very common word, oibid ‘great poet’ is simply the hibernicized name of Ovid. The most com-

144

mon word for ‘poet’, Olr. fil, has been the subject of many etymological studies. In the Classical Olr. period (8th-9th centuries) this word denoted the

learned

poets,

who

used

to

be

educated

in

monasteries,

and

who

were often members of the clergy themselves (McCone 1991). However, the social function of the filid is certainly older than the emergence of Christianity in Ireland. There is an inscription in the Ogam script in which VELITAS > Olr. filed (g. sg. of fili 'poet') is read. The social standing of the filid was very great, if one is to judge by what is said about them in the legal codices and in the Olr. sagas. In the Irish brehonic law, the social position of the filid is codified, and they appear to be equal in “nobility” with kings and bishops: tri nemid uaisli ... .i. espoc 7 flaith 7 file "there are three noble classes: bishop, ruler, and poet”. Kings were poets themselves, to judge by the compound rigfili ‘poet-king’, or ‘king among the poets’, which is formed similarly to Olnd. Rdassi-, the name of a mythical rishi-king in the RV (Macdonell & Keith, s. v.). According to tradition, the first Irish poet was Amorgein, who was also a kind of a sorcerer. In the saga “The Intoxication of the Ulaid” (§1) he is a son of Mil, the mythical ancestor of the Goidels. Many scholars (cp. Mac Cana 1971) have thought that the filid were only a class of druids that was incorporated into the early Medieval

Christian culture of Ireland”. Etymology confirms that fili must have been a kind of druid; perhaps the word could be translated as ‘seer’, because it is related to the Celtic root *wel- which means ‘to see’ (cp. W gwél ‘sees’, Olr. fil, 3. sg. relative form of the copula, literally ‘behold!’, Bret. guelet ‘look’, etc.). However, some linguists, following Roman Jakobson, would like to relate this word with a series of mythological conceptions in other IE languages (see Kalygin 1986: 17). Thus, Olr. fili is related to the name of the Vedic god Varuna (Toporov 1981) and the Slavic Velesz/Voloss. It has been said that Velest was related to poetry by the fact that in the ORuss. “Igor’s Epic" the singer Boyan is addressed as "the grandson of Velest”. Moreover, it appears that Velest was also the god of the Otherworld, so that some scholars attributed the meaning ‘death, relating to the Otherworld’ to the PIE root *wel- from which all these words are said to be derived. Thus, from

the

same

root

many

scholars

derive

Toch.

‘death’, Olr. fuil ‘blood’ and the Elysian fields as the name of the followers of the Nordic Odinn, the Walkyries. Finally, OEng. wael ‘the fallen in battle’ and L vulnus have also been (cp. Bader 1989: 29).

A

wälk

‘to

die’,

walu

(Ε) Ἠλύσιον πεδίον, as well god of magic and poetry, body of a warrior who has derived from the same root

% It has been stated that Veleda, a Germanic priestess mentioned by Tacitus (Germania 8. 3) is also etymologically related to Olr. fili.

145

8225 It appears, however, that this is taking us too far. How could a single PIE root have such different meanings? In my opinion, the first to be rejected is the etymological connection of the name Varuna and Olr. fili. It usually does not pay to look for etymologies of theonyms, and the etymology of Ved. Varuna is notoriously difficult (Mayrhofer). Furthermore, | think that the root *wel- ‘to see’ should be distinguished from *welh,- ‘to die (by wounding)’. This is compared by Hitt. walh-mi ‘| die’ < *wolh,-, which is probably related to Toch. A walu, OEng. weel, etc. All these words presuppose a root whose original meaning was ‘to die’. Another root, PIE *wel-, is the origin of Olr. fili and the related Celtic words. That this root did

not contain a laryngeal is confirmed by Latin, where reflexes of both PIE roots are preserved. In Latin, vo/nus is from *wolhnos, because **wolnos would yield **vollus (*-In- yields -//-, cp. collis from *kolnis, Lith. kalnas). Therefore we assume that PIE *wolh,nos yielded Proto-Latin *wolanos, and that *-a- was syncopated after the change of *-In- into -//-. On the other hand,

voltus is probably

from

PIE

*wl-tus,

as *Ih, would

have

been

vocalized as /à in Latin. OEng. wuldor 'glory' and the name of Ullr, a Norse god, are probably also closely related to voltus (cp. Holthausen, s. v. wuldor). 8226 Strabo says that the Celts had three classes of priests; his terms βάρδοι, οὐάτεις Kai δρυίδαι clearly correspond to Olr. baird, faith and druí. If the filid were actually the “seers” in the early Irish society, then what was their relation to these priestly classes? 8227 The bards were, as it appears, a class bearing less importance than the druids. The lrish sources testify that in the Early Middle Ages bards usually just recited poems composed by other poets (the filid), that they were not as educated nor respected (Kalygin 1986, Carney 1985). Later, in the Late Middle Ages, as the filid disappeared from the historical scene, their place seems to be taken over by the bards, but their social and cultural functions are narrowed; bards are involved only in composing eulogies, not a wide range of poetic forms that can be attributed to the filid. Their eulogistic function is confirmed by the etymology of the word baird (and W bardd). There is a general consent about the etymology of a Proto-Celtic *bardos (cp. Campanile 1978, Meid 1978). This word is interpreted as a compound, consisting of the roots *g"erh- ‘praise’ and *d"eh,to do, make'. A compound that consists of the same elements is also found in Olnd., where giro-dha- means exactly ‘to make a praise, an eulogy’. In the Slavic languages, the root *g"erh- is preserved in the word for a pagan priest, Zsrscs, who performed sacrifices (Proto-Slav. *Zprtva, cp. Lith. girti ‘to praise’). The Baltic and Slavic correspondences allow us to

146

conclude, then, that PIE *g"erh- probably meant something like ‘praise (to gods) performed at sacrifices’. 8228 Strabo's term οὐάτεις is completely correspondent to Olr. faith < *weh.-ti ‘poet, prophet’. Olr. fath ‘prophetic wisdom’ is obviously from the same root, i. e., from *weh,-tu-, which also yielded W gwawd ‘poetry’. It appears that the Olr. faith was a poet to whom the gift of prophecy was attributed; in the glosses, L propheta is usually rendered as faith, and king David,

who

was

the

poet

of the

Psalms

according

to tradition,

is called

rigfaith, i. e., ‘the prophet-king', or ‘the king among the prophets’ (cp. 8224 about the terms rigfili and rajarsi). In any case, faith was soon replaced by a more common term, fili, during the evolution of Olr. It is certain that L vates is etymologically related to Olr. faith, but this Latin word could also be a loan-word from Celtic (cp. Wagner 1971)”. Personally,

| find it difficult to believe that vates is a loan-word.

It occurs

at the very beginnings of Latin literature, in Ennius (Ann. 222), who, being from the South of Italy, does not often use words stemming from the Celtic-speaking Transpadane Valley. For Ennius, väfes has a derogatory meaning, because his generation of Hellenized poets despised the original Roman cultural tradition. However, during the reign of Augustus, the word was revived by Vergil and Horace, so that Ovid was able to say with pride of himself: siquid habent veri vatum praesagia, vivam (Met. 15. 897). It is clear that the original meaning of vätes is ‘prophet’, cp. Plautus, Mil. 3. 3. 37: bonus vates poteras esse: nam quae sunt futura dicis. However, vates was a prophet who composed his prophecies in verse, or in some kind of rhythmical prose; namely, a vätes composed a váticinium < *weh,ti-kan-yom, which is a compound of vätes and cano, canere. This very verb, whose original meaning must have included a magical, or ritualistic, component, is also common to Italic and Celtic. In Olr., we find canid, which (perhaps under the influence of Latin) came to mean ‘sing’, but the original meaning was again ‘to cast a spell, to utter prophecies’, cp. Serglige Conn Culainn §48: ro-chansat-side brechta druidechta “they cast druidic spells”. The confirmation of the hypothesis that the root *kanhad a magical sense in the Italic languages is found in the Iguvine Tables, where kanetu 'canito' is used in describing spells that should be uttered during the performance of a magical ritual. The root *kan- also yielded L carmen < *kan-men-, a word which originally denoted magical formulas such as Carmen Arvale. It follows from what has been said that the roots

99 This is also the opinion of W. Meid (1992: 501). However, | cannot accept Meid's argument that vates is isolated in Latin. It is a part of some very old compounds, such as vaticinium.

147

*weh,t- and *kan- belong to the common magic and ritual.

Italic and Celtic vocabulary of

8229 Outside of the Italic and Celtic languages, *kan- was reflected in OHG hano ‘singer’. Just as in Olr. and L, where the original meaning ‘to utter or sing magical formulas' was broadened to 'to sing', one can assume a similar evolution for Germanic, even more so as there is another Germanic word whose meaning was simply 'to sing' (Germ. *seng"-, cp. Goth. siggwan, Germ. singen, cp. G ὀμφή ‘voice’ « *song""-). It is also possible that hano is a Celtic loan-word; in Olr., the word cano refers to a

class of the filid (see below)'”. 8230 Let us now try to establish whether the root *weh,t- is attested in other IE languages besides Italic and Celtic. Some scholars believe that the name of the supreme Germanic god (ONorse Odinn, Germ. Wotan) can also be derived from PIE *weh,t-; one of Óàinn's most important functions was to bestow the poetic gift upon people, as Snorri's Edda testifies. Besides that, in "Egil's Saga" (878) the hero, who is a gifted poet, addresses a long poem to Odinn, whom he thanks for poetic inspiration. Be this as it may, it is quite probable that Odinn’s name is somehow related to ONorse öör ‘poetry’, which is also derivable from PIE *weh,t-. 8231 Even if all this is correct, the supposed PIE root is still attested only in the Western IE branches. | do not believe that Olnd. vat- 'to blow' is in any way related to the words discussed here. PIE *-eh,- in *weh,tmight

have

been

in alternation

with *-h,t-, but then

we

would

have

**üt-,

not vat-, in Olnd. Even assuming a PIE *wat- would not help, since there is no ablaut of "ἃ and *a in PIE. Toporov (1981: 199) relates Olr. fáith and ONorse óór to OCS véti 'orator, ῥήτωρ᾽, which he derives from PIE *wet-; however, this etymology is certainly false; OCS véfi and the related words (cp. Miklosich, s. v.) should be derived from PIE *woyt- (cp. OPruss. waitiat ‘speak, say’), and there is no formal way of relating them to L vates and Olr. fáith. 8232 These roots—*kan- and *weh,t—confirm the existence of a common Western IE poetico-magical terminology; since there are no clear examples of reflexes of these roots in other IE languages, it is quite possible that the words derived from them were borrowed from some unknown, non-lE source.

100 it is not of great importance whether G kavaxéo, καναχή stem from the same PIE root as the Italic, Celtic, and Germanic words.

148

§233 There are many words for “poetry” in general, and for various poetic forms in particular, in Olr. This is a consequence of the great importance that was attributed to poetic art in Olr. society. One poetic form was a löid (in the later language /aíd, laí). This word also existed in Welsh and Breton, whence it was borrowed into French (fais) and English (lay), where it refers to a lyrical song or ballad. In Olr., on the other hand, /óid is a particular form composed by the special class of the filid, which was called doss. Kalygin (1986: 24) supposes that the lóid were some kind of a poetic invitation to battle, because in the sagas, such a poem is often composed by warriors before a duel. This interpretation, however, is not certain, because other uses of /óid are also attested, and some of them have nothing to do with the world of the warri-

ors. Cp. for example, the line fom-chain lóid loin "He sings to me a /did of a blackbird" (Thesaurus Paleohibernicus 2. 290. 7). The etymology of Olr. lóid is still unclear. Stokes (s. v. laudo) relates it to L /aus, laudis and to Germanic "*leuóa- ‘poem, eulogy’ (cp. OEng. /eod, Germ. Lied, Goth. awiliuö). However, the Germanic words presuppose a PIE “lewt-, which is not easy to reconcile with the proto-forms of the Latin (PIE *lawt-) and Olr. (PIE *lawdi- or *lewdi-) words. | am inclined to suppose that only L and Olr. words are etymologically identical, and that they should be derived from PIE *lawd- 'poem, eulogy'. Even if the Germanic forms are related, we can conclude that these words are attested only in the Western IE dialect area. 8234 In the preceding paragraph, | have mentioned that the Irish poets were divided into different classes. There are various sources that confirm this claim. They were mostly composed during the Middle Irish period, and published by Rudolf Thurneysen (Mittelirische Verselehren). The criterion by which different classes were distinguished was the skill of the poets. The filid acquired different titles during their long years of study, and these titles certified that a fili had attained a particular grade in poetic skill. The education of the filid lasted from twelve up to twenty years, if the tradition can be trusted. It was confined to special schools of poetry, where the students used to memorize poems and stories in darkness (cp. Bergin

1984). The tradition mentions seven classes of the filid'?'. Starting with the lower

grades,

these

classes

are

fochloc,

mac

furmid,

doss,

cano,

ansruth, ollam. Each class was allowed to compose only poems with cisely defined forms; thus, members of the "lowest" class of the poets, fochlocs (< *wok"-lo-?) were allowed to compose only the poems of type called dian 'swift), whereas the highest class, the o/lams, were

cli,

prethe the en-

101. There is an interesting correspondence with the seven sages in Greece and the seven rishis in India.

149

gaged in the composition of the most refined forms called anamain. Many terms mentioned in these classifications have very dubious etymologies. For example, Watkins (1963: 217) derives anamain from PCelt. *anamoni, and relates it to the noun anall ‘breath’ (cp. Olnd. aniti ‘breathes’, G ἄνεμος ‘wind’). He claims that both words are from PIE “h,enh,- ‘breathe, inspire’. According to this view, anamain would be the “inspired” poetic form. However, | am not completely convinced that the etymology suggested by Watkins is correct. One has to suspect that anamain is somehow related to sénamain, which is the name of another poetic form. Sénamain,

on the other hand,

seems

to contain sén ‘sign, feature’, which

is a Latin loan-word (signum). Thus, anamain could also be derived from the noun an (more often an) ‘brilliance, beauty’. §235 Similar problems arise with the other terms for the classes of poets and their poetic forms. Thus, c/i usually means ‘pillar’, but ‘pillar’ is often a metaphor for a hero, just like doss, which originally meant ‘tree’. Mac furmid is completely unclear to me. Literally, it seems to mean ‘son of an attack’, because the verbal noun furmiud means ‘placing’ but also ‘attacking’. Ὁ. 1. A. (5. v. fuirmiud) supposes that the term could be a compound, i. e. maccfurmid, but this does not elucidate the original meaning. Finally, ánsruth is a compound of an ‘brilliance, beauty’ and sruth ‘stream,

current''%. In any case, these technical terms represent the result of a specifically Celtic development of poetic terminology; in Medieval Ireland the poetic terminology developed more than in any other country where IE languages are, or were, spoken. §236 There are two more Olr. poetic forms of interest to etymology: snaithe sénamna and nath. The first of them is attributed to the class of poets called mac furmid, and the other to the class of ansruth. It appears that both terms are metaphorical; the first means literally ‘the thread of sénamain', whereby sénamain is the poetic form we have already dealt with. We have seen that the poetic art, understood as “sewing”, was present in the etymology of G ῥαψῳδός (see 8211), and perhaps also in the etymologies of G ὕμνος and οἴμη (see 8212). This metaphor is, therefore, well attested, and could be Proto-Indo-European. Moreover, Olr. nath has no etymology (Vendryes, s. v.). | suggest that this word be also derived from PIE *(s)neh,-/(s)noh,- (cp. L neo, OHG nau '| sew’, Arm. niwf ‘material,

cause’),

but without

an

s-mobile.

This

PIE

root

also

occurs

in Olr.

snáth « *snoh,-to- ‘thread’, as well as in W nyddu ‘to sew’ (with the regular

102 See further below about "poetry" conceived as a stream, or as a flow.

150

development *sn- > hn- > n-). It is certain that Olr. nath is identical to W nawd ‘poetry’, so that the metaphor is probably Proto-Celtic. Both words

(nath and nawd) can be derived from PIE *nh,-tu- ‘sewing’. §237 Another problem is posed by Olr. drécht, which seems to denote a merry song performed at feasts, as well as a magical incantation. Perhaps the word is expressive, or it was borrowed from some unknown source. §238 According to the Irish tradition, each class of poets would receive a precisely defined pay for their compositions. A poet used to offer his poems

to a ruler,

in order to praise

him

and

his ancestors,

and

the ruler

was obliged to repay the poet in cattle or other goods. A "price-list" (usually quoted as Preisverzeichnis) of poems has also been preserved (cp. Kalygin 1986: 25). It says that a filij used to receive a chariot, or a female slave for each anamain, while the author of a dían had to be satisfied with a single calf. The terms referring to the poet's composition offered to a patron,

duan,

and

the poet's prize, duas,

are derived

from

the same

PIE

root, *dap- (cp. L daps, G δαπάνη, ONorse fafn ‘sacrificial animal’), that used to denote the sacrifice, conceived as a gift to the gods. With this in mind, it is easier to understand how Olr. dán ‘gift’ (= L donum) came to mean 'poem' as well: a poem is a gift to the gods, but also a gift from the gods, to whom a poet owes his inspiration. Finally, a poem is included in the system of obligatory exchange of gifts between members of a society; just like a poet gives his verses (duan « *dapnom) to a lord, so the ruler is obliged to bestow the poet with a prize (duas « *dapseh,). Although a similar custom of bestowing poets with prizes is recorded in India, as daksina,

which

is given to the Brahmins,

| think we

tributing this whole complex of social relations Campanile (1978) and Watkins (1989) did.

are not justified

to the

PIE

in at-

society,

as

8239 Besides the words that we have already analyzed, there are several words in Olr. that refer to "poetry" in general. Olr. cerd means ‘art, trade’, but often also ‘poetry’ (cp. D. I. A., s. v.). From the etymological point of view, a connection with G κέρδος 'gain, prize' is most probable. The semantic connection of these words becomes clear if one bears in mind the specific development of poets and patrons in Early Irish society. Just like PIE *deh,nom ‘gift’, PIE *kerdeh, also changed its original mean-

103 The regular outcome of PIE *nhC- in Olr. is na-, but there are many other still unexplained cases where the reflex is na- (Kim McCone, personal communication). Thus, there are no formal obstacles to the proposed etymology of Olr. nath.

151

ing ‘prize, reward for a work of art’ into ‘work of art, art in general (and poetry in particular)’. 8240 Olr. ai ‘learned poetry, poetic wisdom’ does not have an established etymology. Its older form, aui (Thurneysen 1990) was a dental stem (cp. gen. sg. dad). Watkins (1963: 216) relates it to W awen ‘poetic inspiration’, and adduces the following passage in support of this etymology: a hainm i ccaoimthecht fria hanail "her name [sc. of poetry, δ΄, together with a breath] anail". | am not sure whether this is convincing enough, but there does not seem to be a better etymology. If the PIE form was *h,wid-s, one is tempted to connect this word to G ἀείδω and the related words (cp. 8208). 8241 We can conclude that, in spite of the blossoming of poetic terminology in Olr., there is NOT A SINGLE Olr. word for "poetry", or “poet” that has an irreproachable PIE etymology. The nearest equivalent to such a word

is Proto-Celtic

*bardos,

derived

from

PIE

*g"erh-,

which

referred

to

praises addressed to gods. The majority of other Olr. words have their etymological parallels only in other Western Indo-European languages (Italic and Germanic). 8242 The Germanic terminology relating to the poetic art has already been dealt with, at least partially. The etymologies of such words, as Olcel. bragr and óór, Germ Lied or OHG hano, have already been discussed above. The etymology of most of the remaining words is difficult to establish.

In ONorse,

the most common

word

for a poet is skáld,

and the

term "Skaldic poetry" is well-known to historians of literature. However, this word is a problem for etymologists. | think that the most plausible is the view that relates it to PIE *sek"- 'speak' (Bader 1989: 19). OEng. secgan ‘speak’, L in-sequi etc. are also from that PIE root. Perhaps a connection with Olr. scé/ 'story' is also possible (de Vries, s. v. skáld). 8243 Other Old Norse words for poets and poetic forms also have difficult etymologies. Thus ONorse pula ‘word order’, bulr ‘poet’, do not have a generally accepted etymology (de Vries). They might be related to OCS tlzk» ‘interpreting’. ONorse kvida ‘poem’ is connected with the verb kveda, OHG quedan ‘say’. ONorse mai ‘gathering, language, speech, song’ appears not to have an IE etymology (de Vries, s. v.). §244 The most common word for a poet in OEng. is scop. It refers to a courtly poet, subject to a warrior chieftain. Such a scop was Deor, who says of himself:

152

deet ic hwile waes Heodeninga scop "that | was once the poet of the Heodenings" (Deor, |. 36) The received etymology (see Holthausen, s. v.) implies that this word broadened its meaning, and that it had originally referred only to a poetsatyrist. Thus a semantic relation to Olcel. skopa 'blame' can be established (cp. OHG scopf ‘poem’ and ‘blame’, scoffizzen ‘to mock’). OEng. scieppan 'to from, create' is also probably related by ablaut. It does not pay much to seek an IE etymology of these Germanic words, because they must be derived from PIE *sköb-, and *-b- was a very rare sound in PIE. Formally, Lith. kabinti ‘to hang’, kablys ‘hook’ and Russ. cxo6a ‘hook’ could be compared, but it is hard to explain the semantic connection. Perhaps one could start with an original meaning ‘crooked, deformed’ (cp. PIE *kambos, Pokorny, s. v.), from which the meaning ‘to deform by mocking, to blame’ is derivable as a starting point of the semantic evolution of the Germanic words. §245 The OHG word for ‘poet’, dichter is probably a loan-word from Vulgar Latin (Kluge), and it is related to the verb dictäre. It is difficult to relate it to PIE *d"eyg"- ‘to form, shape’ (cp. L fingö, G τείχος etc.), as F. Bader suggests (1989: 24). The form tich-ter, which occurs in early German texts is a spelling variant, not the regular reflex of PIE *d"eyg’-. §246 The words for “poetic art” in the Germanic languages are neither numerous, nor particularly relevant from the etymological point of view. In OEng. there are two verbs meaning ‘to sing praises’: /ofian (related to lof ‘fame’ < PIE *leub"-, cp. Proto-Slavic "l'ubiti ‘to love’) and herian, which is much more common (cp. Buck, 5. v. ‘praise’). This last word has a certain PIE etymology. Moreover, its reflex in Olnd. (sa/ms-) is attested in the very same sense ‘to praise, glorify’. §247

OEng.

herian

and

Olnd.

samsa-

are

both

from

the

PIE

root

*kemsh-'*, whose meaning had to be ‘to solemnly declare the fame or value’ (cp. L censeo, OPers. Yatiy 'speaks’’”). The Vedic formula naram samsa- (RV 2. 34. 6) is the functional equivalent of G κλέα ἀνδρῶν (Schmitt 1967), and the meaning of both expressions is ‘the fame of heroes’. However, L censeo implies that the meaning of PIE *kemsh- must

04 The Olnd. infinitive samsitum confirms that it was a sef verb, whose stem ended in a laryngeal. "5 Durante (1976) derives G κῶμος ‘solemn procession’ from the same root, but this etymology is not generally accepted.

153

have been rather broad and by no means limited to the domain of heroic poetry.

§248 The Balto-Slavic poetic terminology is not very rich. It was built mostly by borrowing from the “languages of civilization”, above all from Greek and Latin. As Christianity sought to remove all traces of original, pagan cultures of the Balts and the Slavs, it is difficult to uncover the sacral, pagan meanings that some words might have had. Thus péfi ts attested in all Slavic languages, but its meaning is simply ‘to sing’, with no additional connotations. With respect to word-formation, Croat. pjesma ‘song’ and pjesnik ‘poet’ are parallel to Croat. basma ‘incantation’ and basnik, and these words have a clear etymology; they are certainly from

PIE *b"eh.- ‘to speak’ (6 φημί, datos, L fari)'95. 8249 If basma and basnik are derived from PIE *b"eh,-, it is more difficult to see whence peti and the related words came. There are several possibilities, PIE *peh-, *poy-, and *pay-. Trubatev takes the first course, and derives Slav. peti from PIE *peh,-/poh,- ‘to drink/make to drink’ (6 πίνω, L bibo, Slav. pojiti). He explains this by assuming that the singing of holy poems was accompanied by libations (for references see Holzer 1989: 158f.). This is difficult to accept for as long as there is no reason to believe that péti is a word belonging to the sacral vocabulary. Besides that, it would be difficult to see the connection between Proto-Slav. *péti and *pétls ‘rooster’. A PIE *poytlos > *pétls is likely to have meant ‘a bird that sings', not 'a bird that drinks or that is made to drink' (Gluhak, s. v. pjevati). Skok's relating of Croat. pjevati and G. παιάν does not make much sense either. It is very interesting that these Slavic words have no cognates in the Baltic languages. Therefore, Holzer's suggestion (1989: 157ff.) that they could be loan-words from some unknown source should be taken very seriously. 8250 Russ. ckowopox, which used to refer to poets of vulgar satyres, is considered by most authors to be a loan-word (cp. Vasmer, s. v.). The problem is, it is quite unclear from which source the word was borrowed. ! think that the question of origin of this word is still open. If itis a compound of some sort, its first element reminds one of the Germanic word for 'satyrist', OEng. scop (see above, 8244).

6 | think that this root should be distinguished from the homonymous *b"eh,- ‘to shine’, cp. Olnd. bha-, and not suppose a metaphorical transfer of meaning, as Mayrhofer does.

154

8251 In Polish, there is dati ‘to compose’, which is etc.). These words have ebnen’, klodas 'layer), and nology.

skfadacz ‘poet’, which is related to Croat. sklaitself derived from the verb klasti (pres. kladem, cognates in Baltic (cp. Lith. kloti ‘ausbreiten, appear not to belong originally to poetic termi-

§252 Finally, we shall end this overview of the Slavic poetic terminology with an obsolete Croatian word, attested, e. g., in the works of Marulic (1516th century): zacinjavac ‘poet’ is a noun derived from the verb zacinjati, which means 'to sing' (cp. the Introduction to Judith, 25: po obicaju zacinjavac "as is the custom of poets"). These words contain the same root as Cin ‘act’, Ciniti make, do’, which must have had a magical meaning in Proto-Slavic (thence Cini ‘magical spells). The PIE root from which these words are derived is *k"ey- (with the present suffix *-no-). This root is not attested

in Baltic. However,

in a different ablaut grade,

it yielded

G noı&o,

which is of course related to ποίησις, ποίημα, which served as a

starting

point in our discussion of the poetic terminology of the IE peoples?" 8253

In Lithuanian,

besides

the numerous

loan-words,

there are some

inherited words that denote various aspects of poetic art. The basic opposition is between daina, which refers to a non-sacral, lay song, and giesmé, which means 'solemn, sacral song or hymn'. The latter word has a more obvious etymology: it is related to gaida 'melody, tune' and the verb giedoti ‘to sing’. In Latv. we find dzejnieks ‘singer, poet’. These words are derived from PIE *geh,;i-, cp. ORuss. raatu ‘to make a noise’, Olnd. gáti ‘sings’, Av. ga6a ‘hymns’. This root, whose reflexes are attested only in Eastern Indo-European, seems to have had the basic meaning ‘to sing’. 8254 Lith. daina does not have a generally accepted etymology. It is certainly correspondent to Latv. daipa, daina 'folk-song'; the most appealing is the etymology that relates these words to Av. daéna 'the teachings of Zarathustra, religion', Olnd. dhena- 'speech, voice'. If that is correct, we could reconstruct a PIE sacral term *doyneh,-, but Fraenkel (s. v.) rejects this etymology for semantic reasons. However, | do not find his own suggestion more convincing; he wants to relate this word to G δίεμαι 'scare, run' via Latv. diét 'sing, dance'. The meaning ot the original PIE *deyhwould have to be 'move', and the meaning 'song' would have been developed through the meaning ‘dance’, attested in Latvian. On the other 107 Katicié (1990c: 75) points out that Proto-Slav. *zakon> ‘law’ is apparently related to *zaCeti, *zacinjati, which implies that the Proto-Slavic legal maxims were composed in verse. It is interesting that zacinjati means ‘to sing’ only in Croatian of all the Slavic languages.

155

hand, | think that Lith. dainius ‘rooster’ shows that the basic meaning of the root from which these Baltic words are derived is ‘to sing’. Moreover, Lith. daina could also have been borrowed from some substrate;

in Roma-

nian, there is daina ‘lamentation’, which directly from any Baltic language.

borrowed

could not have been

8255 In conclusion, we can say that the Balto-Slavic poetic terminology does not have much in common either with the Western Indo-European, or with Graeco-Indo-Iranian dialect areas. It appears that even the few terms that had not been borrowed from Greek or Latin do not belong to a common Balto-Slavic vocabulary, but are either exclusively Baltic, or exclusively Slavic (cp., e. g., peti, daina, basnikz, etc.).

PROTO-INDO-EUROPEAN

METAPHORS

8256 The analysis of the poetic terminology in the IE languages has shown that two dialect areas can be distinguished: the Western IndoEuropean area, to which the Italic, Celtic and Germanic languages belong, and the Graeco-Indo-Iranian area. The Balto-Slavic languages cannot be attributed to either of these two areas, and their poetic terminology is not well preserved. Thus, we have reached a rather negative result: there does not appear to be a Common PIE word for “poet” and "poetry", and we cannot agree with Schmitt (1967: 8618) that *keh,ru- was such a word; we have seen that reflexes of that word were limited to Greek and IndoIranian. 8257 However, if there is no common term for "poetry" or "poets", this does not mean that there are no common conceptions and poetic images, inherited from

PIE, concerning

these two notions.

In this chapter, we shall

try to discover various metaphors for poets and their art in different IE traditions, and to see if any such metaphors could be inherited from the proto-language. If this is the case, we can hope to discover key words, or even textual fragments, in which these metaphors were expressed. 8258 The metaphor for poet which has received the most attention from IE scholars is the metaphor which identifies poets as "carpenters of words" (PIE *tekson wek"esom). This metaphor was discovered already by James Darmesteter in the last century, and it has been studied thoroughly in Schmitt's monograph (Schmitt 1967: 8610). It is preserved in Pindar (τέκτονες ... ἐπέων, Pyth. 3. 113-14). In Nem. 3. 4-5 Pindar also uses the term τέκτονες κώμων, and Sophocles calls the Muse τεκτόναρχος ‘the

156

lady of the carpenters (= poets)’. All this confirms that the formula is traditional in Greek. Schmitt adduces parallels from Olnd. (RV 6. 32. 1d: vacamsy ... taksam ‘| would carpenter words’) and Av., where vacastastimeans ‘verse’, literally ‘carved out words’. However, Schmitt believes that the expression sermones ... texier, which is used by Plautus (Trinummus, 797), does not have great importance as a parallel. A similar semantic parallel, which

Schmitt does

not mention,

song’, which occurs in a poem Arinbjorn, stanza 13).

by

is the expression

Egill

Skallagrimsson

“to hew

out a

(A Hymn

for

8259 It must be settled whether these metaphors are really a trace of a fragment of PIE poetry, or rather a typologically correspondent poetic expressions, i. e., a set of chance correspondences. Namely, the etymological correspondence is not complete: we cannot be sure whether to reconstruct

*teksön

wek”esöm,

on

the

basis

of Greek,

*"wek"os

teks-,

on

the

basis of Vedic, or rather *wek"es-teksti-, on the basis of Avestan. Besides that, although the root “teks- is well attested in other IE languages (cp. L texere, OCS tesati, Lith. tasyti, Olr. tal ‘axe’ = OCS tesla, Hitt. taks-, etc.)'9? in none of them do we find similar expressions or metaphors relating poets and carpentering. Thus, it is possible that the formula reconstruct *teksön wek”esöm is not Common-Indo-European, but rather GraecoIndo-Iranian. However, there are other problems with this reconstruction. In G,

ἔπος

is an

s-stem,

correspondent

ot Av.

vacah-

in

vacastasti-;

in

Vedic, on the other hand, we have an s-stem vacas-, but there is also a root-noun vak- which also occurs in metaphorical expressions that mean ‘to carve out words": imam te väcam ... ataksisuh “this word ... they carved out for you” (RV 1. 130. 6a-b). The problem of the proto-form of the formula, therefore, remains unresolved. Thus it is difficult to agree with Schmitt's claim that the formula “wek”os teks- is “ein DIREKTES ZEUGNIS fur die Existenz einer gemein-indogermanischen Poesie” (1967: 8603). | fear that there is direct evidence only for the existence of a Graeco-Indo-Iranian formula, which,

possibly, reflects a PIE

metaphor which identified poets as “carpenters of words”"”’. To substantiate this claim, we

shall have

to see how this metaphor fits into

a SYSTEM

OF METAPHORS concerning poets and poetry in various IE traditions.

108. The correct reconstruction of this root is still not generally agreed upon. Schmitt (1967) reconstructs *teks-, whereas Pokorny and, recently, Nunez (1993), believe that the PIE form of that root was “tekb-, viz. *tekt-. | think that Schmitt is right in reconstructing *teks-, because *-kt- would probably yield -s- in Latin, and it would be preserved in Hittite (cp. L ursus, Hitt. hartagga ‘bear’, G ἄρκτος < PIE *h;rktos or *h;rtkos). 109 Cp. also the Middle Welsh term for poets, seiri gwawd ‘the carpenters of poetry’.

157

8260 poetry. 608): in Lord, !

Carpentry is not the only trade which is metaphorically applied to Schmitt also adduces the following correspondences (1967: §604Avestan, there is the phrase à θννᾶ mazda staomi ufiiaca “Thee, o praise and sing" (Y 43. 8. 3), where the verb ufiia literally means

‘weave’. It is derived from PIE *web"-/ub"- ‘weave’. Verbs derived from this root also occur in Greek, in the same metaphorical sense, cp. Pindar (Nem. 4. 44-5): ἐξύφαινε, ... μέλος "weave ... a tune", Homer (Il. 3. 212), etc. (for other attestations, see Schmitt, loc. cit.). In Vedic, the same metaphor occurs in RV 1. 61. 8d índrayarkám ... uvuh “they wove a verse (arkam) for Indra", whereby the verb (üvuf)) is probably not cognate to PIE *woeb^-'!0.

Again, we could claim that the metaphor is Graeco-Indo-Iranian,

were

it

not for the fact that there is a similar metaphor in the OEng. religious poem Elene (l. 1238), where we read wordcraeft waef "| wove poetry". Schmitt (loc. cit.) believes that this OEng. example proves the PIE origin of the metaphor. However, | think that this isolated phrase can hardly be an argument for anything, because the phrase wordcraeft waef could easily have been invented ad hoc to preserve the alliterative pattern of the Germanic verse. Something similar could be said of the following example from one of the earliest Olr. poems, Amra Coluimb Chille (52): fáig ferb fithir "the master wove the word", whereby the verb (figid, preterite fáig) is in no way related to PIE *web"-. Although the alliterative verse could also easily

explain this phrase as well''*, | must point out that figid is attested in one other, non-alliterative text with the meaning ‘to compose’, cp. ro figh Benen in saithe so sis "the following text was woven by Benen” (see D. I. A., S. V. figid). The alliteration could not have played any role in this passage, and likewise in the expression fithe cerda "the veawing of poetry" which occurs in "Imacallam in da thüarad" (quoted in Kalygin 1986: 72). Finally, the metaphor that identifies the poetic art and weaving is by no means limited to IE languages. In Arabic, e. g., the verb Hak means ‘to weave’,

but also ‘to tell, recite’ (Durante

1976,

Il).

§261 Therefore, one cannot prove that the metaphor “TO WEAVE = TO COMPOSE” has a PIE origin. It could have originated independently in the particular IE languages, just as the Latin word textum, whose original

110 Olnd. va-/a- point rather to PIE *weh-/uh-. 11 Thus, | disagree with Campanile (1978: 37) who insists that this example proves the PIE origin of the metaphor.

158

meaning was ‘weave’, in Quintilian came to mean 'text'?, whence it came into almost all European languages. §262 However, there is another word of times appears as a metaphor for poetry. In likened to sewing. We have already noted this mology of G ῥάψῳδός, which originally meant confirmed by Hesiod's Fr. 265. 2 (Rzach):

similar meaning that somemany languages, poetry is in our discussion of the ety‘the sewer of songs’. This is

ἐν νεαροῖς ὕμνοις ῥάψαντες ἀοιδήν

“who sewed a poem in new hymns”. Yet this Greek “etymological metaphor" seems isolated. G panto is from the same root as Lith. verpti ‘to turn, weave’, virpeti, virpti ‘to quiver’. However, the Lithuanian verbs have not been attested in the metaphorical meaning ‘to compose poems’. §263 On the other hand, there are other such metaphors in Greek. The most conservative of all Greek lyric poets, Pindar, calls poets σοφοί, and their art σοφία, cp. Paean 7b 20, (Snell): βαθεῖαν ... σοφίας ὁδόν “the deep path of wisdom” (poetry). Originally, σοφία did not mean ‘wisdom’, but ‘artistic skill, artistry’ (Frisk, 5. v. σοφός).

However,

this word

does

not have

an established etymology, and it could easily be pre-Greek. 8264 Simonides’ well-known definition of poetry (as painting that speaks, whereas painting is mute poetry) also confirms that poetry was seen as a kind of trade (cp. Plutarch, Mor. 346f.). §265 Sometimes, poets are compared to smiths. In Olcel. smida means ‘to forge’, but also ‘to compose poems’. There are also kennings, such as ljodasmidr ‘the forger of words’ and galdrasmiör ‘the forger of magical formulas'. Egill Skallagrimsson calls himself an ödasmiör 'forger of poetry’. In the Slavic languages, above all in poetry, it is quite usual to say “to forge words" (Croat. kovati rijeci) rather than “to speak” (Ivanov ἃ Toporov 1974). In OHG, there is the metaphorical term for ‘poet’ /eodslakkeo, whose second part is related to slahan ‘to forge’ (cp. Durante 1976: Il, 173).

"2 Cp. Lewis-Short, s. v. textum. The word does not appear in the sense of "text" before Quintilian.

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8266 A verb of very general meaning, PIE *d"eh,- ‘to work, do’ (Lith. deti, G τίθημι, L facio, etc.) is also attested in expressions related to poetic art. In RV 10. 98. 2 we read: dadhami te dyumätim vacam äsan “| put into your mouth a heavenly word" The beginning of the next stanza confirms that the expression dh2- is formulaic:

vacam

asmé dhehi dyumatim väcam asan bfhaspate anamivám isiram “Put into our mouths a heavenly Word,

O Lord of Prayer, healthy and strong” A parallel to this use of *d"eh,- is found in Greek, cp. Od. 4. 163, 4 τι ἔπος ὑποθήσεαι, ἠέ τι ἔργον “Will you make a word or a deed?” In Pindar, who uses ἔπη to refer to his own poetry (Koller 1972: 20), we find the etymologically related expression ἐπέων θέσις < *wek”esom dh, ti-): ἐπεὶ χαίταισι μὲν ζευχθέντες Ext στέφανοι πράσσοντί με τοῦτο θεόδματον χρέος, φόρμιγγά τε ποικιλόγαρυν καὶ βοὰν αὐλῶν ἐπέων τε θέσιν Αἰνησιδάμου παιδὶ συμμεῖξαι πρεπόντως “The garlands woven into the hair prompt me to pay this sacred debt, to mix a varied voice of the formynx, the sound of the flutes and the composition of words for the son of Ainesidamus" (Ol. 3. 6-9). 8267 If a poet is conceived as an artisan, then his art can be compared to the work of smiths, carpenters and other artisans. Thus,

a hymn

can be

referred to as äpas- ‘(manual) work’, whereas the poet himself is apas ‘worker’ (e. g., RV 1. 71. 3). Ovid’s verses at the end of the Metamorphoses (15. 871-2) offer an interesting, if probably accidental, parallel: lamque opus exegi, quod nec lovis ira nec ignis nec poterit ferrum nec edax abolere vetustas. L opus is the exact etymological counterpart to Olnd. apas-. Both are derived from PIE *h,epos.

160

In many texts, One of the most with a chariot. In Campanile 1978:

poems are compared with other works of craftmanship. common such comparisons is the comparison of a song RV such a metaphor is attested in several places (cp. 35), e. g. RV 10. 39. 14:

etám vam stómam asvinav akarmataksama bh/gavo na rátham “This praise we made for you, O Asvins, we carpentered it just as te Bhrgus carpentered a car" The formulaic character of this metaphor is assured by many parallel places in the RV (e. g., 1. 130. 6, 5. 2. 11, 5. 73. 10) where it is also attested. Usually, poets are compared with the divine artisans, Rbhus, who are said to have made a chariot just as a poet makes a hymn. The verbs Κα and taks- are often used to express both actions: constructing a chariot and composing a poem. A similar metaphor is found in Greek poetry as well, especially in Pindar, e. g., in Fr. 124a (Snell): ἐρατᾶν ὄχεμ' ἀοιδᾶν τοῦτο toi πέμπω "I am sending this chariot of lovely songs"'?. We find a similar metaphor in Empedocles (Fr. 8. 3-5, Mansfeld), who prays to the Muse to send him a chariot (ἅρμα), by which he obviously means a poem, or poetic inspiration: πέμπε παρ' Εὐσεβίης ἐλάουσ' εὐήνιον ἅρμα (5) “Send me, for the sake of Piety, a chariot with good bridles” In many instances Pindar speaks about the chariot of the Muses, and himself as a charioteer (cp. Ol. 9. 80-83, Pyth. 10. 65, also Bacchylides, Fr. 5). Such poetic images become easier to understand if one assumes

that poems could have been metaphorically identified with chariots’. §268 However, it is difficult to compare formally these G and Olnd. metaphors, as in these two languages neither the PIE term for ‘chariot’, nor the term for ‘poem’ are preserved (see above). The most common G words for ‘chariot’ (ἅρμα, ὄχεμα, δίφρος) are unrelated to Olnd. ratha-, which is the Vedic word for '(war-)chariot. Olnd. ratha- is from PIE *(h)roth,o-, which meant both ‘wheel’ (Lith. ratas, L rota), and ‘the wheeled vehicle’ = ‘chariot’ (cp. Lith. ratai 'chariot). Thus, it is possible that PIE 113 Cp. also Fr. 176 (Snell) where the Muses’ chariots are mentioned. 114 Durante (1976, Il: 131) unfortunately does not distinguish this original metaphor in Greek poetry from the parable about the poet's journey on the path of wisdom (see 8272).

161

*(h)roth,o- was a key word in a poetic metaphor, the reflex of which is also found in Olr.: At the beginning of Amra Coluimb Chille we find the expression roth creth ‘the wheel of poetry’ (D. |. A., s. v. roth). This archaic expression is explained by the scribe of Lebor na hUidre (11" century) as filidecht ‘poetic art'"'^. Roth creth could be an old tatpurusha-compound (because we would otherwise expect creth in the genitive, *roth cretho), and thus an archaism of the poetic language. Therefore, its use in Olr. could perhaps be understood in the light of the metaphorical use of rathain Rig-Vedic poetry 116 ^. 8269 The metaphor "POEM - CHARIOT" is very well integrated into the system of poetic metaphors in Greek and Vedic poetry. Thus, in several G and Olnd. texts, we find the expression "to yoke a poem”, which is understandable only in terms of this metaphor. For example, Pindar says (Nem. 1. 7-8): ἅρμα δ' ὀτρύνει Xponiov Νεμέα τ' ἔργμασιν νικαφόροις ἐγκώμιον ζεῦξαι μέλος “Chromius’ chariot and Nemea impel me to yoke a song of praise to the deeds that bring victory” This particular instance could be determined by the context, because this hymn is dedicated to the winner of chariot-races; however, the same metaphor occurs in the odes that have nothing to do with chariot-racing, e. g. Pyth. 10. 64-65: Oopaxog ...

τοδ' ἔζευξεν ἅρμα Πιερίδων τετράορον “Thorakos ... yoked this four-horsed chariot of the Pierides” Similarly, in a rather obscure passage from Isthm. 7(16-19): ἀλλὰ παλαιὰ γάρ εὕδιε χάρις, ἀμνάμονες δὲ βροτοί ὅ τι μὴ σοφίας ἄωτον ἄκρων κλυταῖς ἐπέων ῥοαῖσιν ἐξίκηται ζυγέν 115 There is also the expression roth soithe, which seems to have referred to a poetic meter (D. |. A., s. v. roth). 116 Perhaps it is worth mentioning that the highest of all prizes a poet could attain in Old Irish society was a chariot: carpat cumaile cachae anamna "the prize for each anamain is a chariot, worthy as a female slave" (quoted in Kalygin 1986: 25).

162

“But the old gratitude sleeps, and men do not remember, save that which reaches, tied by famous word-streams, the peak of the best poetry”. §270 Although the context is somewhat different, we are dealing with the same metaphor: the poem ties, yokes the famous deeds of the heroes, because the poem itself is the chariot that carries the fame. The same verb, ζεύγνυμι ‘to yoke, tie’ is used in all the quoted passages, which is especially important in light of the fact that its etymological cognates (from PIE *yewg-/yug-) are found in similar metaphors in Vedic and Avestan. Let us first adduce a passage from the Rig-Veda (10. 13. 1): yujé vam brahma pürvyam namobhir vi slóka etu pathyeva süréh "| yoke for you the old poetic formula with praise; let the fame rise as on the path of heroes" In one of the most archaic Brahmanas, the Satapatha-Brahmana, there is a variant of this formula: yunje vacam satapadım “| yoke a word with a hundred feet (for myself)". Similar variants occur also elsewhere in the Olnd. literature (cp., e. g., Manava-Srauta-Satra, 3. 1. 12). As with Pindar, not only is the poem yoked, but the poem is also used to yoke the chariot of the gods (Pindar's Muses). In a hymn to Indra (RV 1. 82. 6) it is said: yunajmi te brahmana kesinä hari. "| yoke for you the two tawny horses with a poetic formula". Also, cp. RV 1. 84. 3: yukta te brahmanä hari "your tawny horses are yoked with a poetic formula"'". The traditional character of the formula is supported by the existence of the adjective brahmayuj“yoked by a (poetic) formula” (see Monier-Williams, 5. v.). We can now adduce a parallel from Avestan: at v9 yaojà zouulstiong auruuatö jaiiais pereGus vahmahiia yüsmäkahiiä “| yoke for You the swiftest horses of your fame, the broad ones in victories”

(following Humbach's translation). Besides this, in Y 29. 10, the poet is compared (x'arai8iia).

to a good charioteer

'" Cp. also AV 7. 78. 2: yunajmi tva brahmanä daivyena "| tie thee with a divine formula"; Lüders (1959: 22) points out that the expression brahman often occurs when the magical effects of a poem are emphasized.

163

8271 Finally, in Greek poetry, the metaphor “TO YOKE (*yewg-) WITH A POEM’ is found in Timotheus (Fr. 19, 273-8, Edm.). Terpander is said to have “yoked the Muse with ten poems”, Τέρπανδρος δ' ἐπὶ τῶι δέκα // ζεύξε μοῦαν ἐν ὠιδαῖς. Although one can still doubt whether the metaphor is Proto-Indo-European, the etymological correspondence of Olnd. yujAv. yaoj- and G Cuy- seems to confirm such a hypothesis. If | am right, then, PIE *yewg-/yug- ‘to yoke’ is an important key-word in the complex of poetic expressions discussed here. One should thereby bear in mind that words derived from this root are used to refer to the poet's yoking of the chariot-poem, but also the yoking of the chariots of the gods by means of his poem. This is probably an originally shamanistic conception, according to which the poet-seer can influence gods and nature through his words and formulas (see Renou 1955, Luders 1959 and Oguibenine 1984 for traces of such conceptions in the Rig-Veda). §272 Now we shall discuss another set of correspondences which are related to these shamanistic conceptions about the poetic art. In a number of traditions, a parable about a poet's journey on the bright path of wisdom is preserved. He is accompanied on this journey by a deity, usually a goddess,

who

is the

source

of his

inspiration

and

enlightenment.

It is con-

venient to begin our comparative discussion of this parable with a paragraph from Pindar's sixth Olympian Ode (2. 22 ff.), which was often compared to the proem to the poem On Being by Parmenides (cp. Bowra 1964: 39). Pindar begins by asking Phintis, his charioteer, to yoke “the strength of mules” (σθένος ἡμιόνων) so that they can cross the “clear path” (κελεύθωι t' ἐν καθαρᾶι, I. 23) and reach the “doors of the hymns”. These doors must be opened (πύλας ὕμνων ἀναπιτνάμεν, |. 27) so that the knowledge of the genealogy of men (ἀνθρώπων γένος) can be attained. §273 Parmenides, in the introduction to his poem (Fr. 4, Mansfeld) describes how mares dragged his chariot on a path from the “house of the night” into the light (προλίπουσαι δώματα Νυκτός // εἰς φάος, Is. 9-10). Together with the girls of the Sun (the Heliades, Ἡλιάδες κοῦραι) the philosopher-poet reaches the “doors from which the paths of night and day lead”: ἔνθα πύλαι Νυκτός τε Kai Ἤματός εἰσι κελεύθων, |. 11

164

The goddess of justice, Dike, stands by the doors and holds the keys. Then some goddess, perhaps Dike herself''*, expounds the theory of being to Parmenides (lines 24ff.), and this theory is called “the heart of truth”, ᾿Αληθείης ἦτορ (I. 29). The other path, the path of the opinion of the mortals, is not “the true path” (Fr. 11. 17-18): ob yap ἀληθής ἔστιν ὁδός. §274 Parmenid composed his poem in the second decade of the 5" century B. C., probably immediately after the appearance of the work of Heraclitus

(ca. 490

B. C.), whom

he knows

and

criticizes.

Pindar,

on the

other hand, composed his 6" Olympian Ode in 468 B. C., but it is improbable that Parmenides had any direct influence on him (cp. Durante 1976, Il: 131): there must have been other, independent sources of the parable. In any case, Parmenides' introduction offers many more details for a comparative account of this poetic image. The main textual elements that we shall be concerned with are the motive of the bright path of wisdom (cp. Pindar, Paean 7b 20: βαθεῖαν ... σοφίας ὁδόν), and the doors to which the path leads, guarded by a female deity. These elements of the original Greek myth can now be compared with some similar motives in the Indo-lranian tradition. 8275 "The path of truth", referred to in the Greek tradition, is an expression that occurs in many places in the Rig-Veda as /fasya panthas'?. We find the same formula in Avesta as asahyä pao0 (e. g., Y 51. 13). The RigVedic “path of truth" is the path travelled by both rishis and gods: /tásya pantham anv esi vidvän "you rise up by the path of truth, you Knower!” (AV 1. 16. 4; cp. also RV 7. 44. 5); “the evil-doers do not cross the path of truth" (rtásya pánthàm na taranti dusk/tah, RV 9. 73. 6d). According to Y 51. 14, they remain in the "house of lies" (drajö demane), which reminds one of Parmenides' expression δώματα νυκτός. The motive of the doors of truth (dvärav ;tasya) is also present in the Rig-Veda: in RV 7. 95. 6 it is said that the poet Vasistha opened the doors of truth for the goddess Sarasvati (dvarav rtasya subhage vy avah). It appears,

can be ments Greek a path

then, that traces of

a common

Graeco-Indo-Iranian

tradition

perceived in these elements, but it is difficult to combine the fragof that tradition into a whole. It cannot be accidental that in both and Indo-Iranian the poetic knowledge and insight are imagined as travelled by the poet. In Greek texts, this path is usually expressed

2 K. Bormann (1971: 56-69), and many other philologists, thinks that the δαίμων who expounds the true wisdom to Parmenides is actually—a Muse. This is in accordance with the other things we know about the role of the Muses as sources of inspiration. "9 | follow Lüders, (1959: 13) who translates ;ta- simply as ‘truth’, not as ‘cosmic law’ like some other scholars.

165

by the word ὁδός, occasionally also by κέλευθος. Neither of these words has anything to do, etymologically, with Indo-Iranian *panth-/path- < PIE *ponteh,s/*pnth,os. However, a reflex of this PIE root occurs in Parmenides’ poem, in the passage in which Dike contrasts the path of knowledge (ὁδός) with the usual path of men (πάτος): yaip', ἐπεὶ οὔθι σε μοῖρα κακὴ προὔπεμπε νέεσθαι

τὴνδ' ὁδόν’ f| γὰρ ἀπ' ἀνθρώπων ἐκτὸς πάτου ἐστίν “Hail! Because it is not the evil destiny that sent you to travel by this path; it is namely far from the path of men.” The word πάτος in this passage is that referred to the “path of wisdom” myth. G πάτος is, of course, related derived from PIE *ponteh,- ‘path’.

significant, as it is probably this word in the original Greek version of the to Olnd. pantha&-, as both words are The Greek word is a generalized

thematized stem of the oblique cases (*pnth,-o-)"”°. 8276 Dawn (Usas) is the female character that could be the Rig-Vedic counterpart to Parmenides' Dike. She is the goddess that enlightens poets (Jezi¢ 1987: 105); here is what a Vedic poet says about her (RV 10. 71.4, cp. also 5. 80. 1): devim usásam svar aváhantim prati vipraso matibhir jarante “Light-bringing Goddess Dawn the (quivering) poets call with (their) thoughts” It is interesting, as Jezic himself notes (1987), that some common to Dawn and the (poetic) Word (Vac). For example, compared to a wife who, beautifully adorned, shines to jayeva patya usati suvasah (RV 10. 91. 13, cp. also 4. 3. 2). a chariot (cp. above, usäsam ... ävahantim, cp. also 1. 113. hymn 5. 80. she is said to travel BY THE PATH OF TRUTH:

attributes are they are both her husband: Usas rides on 19), and in the

120 Mislav JeZic (1992: 5277-8), following M. L. West, adduces another Olnd. parallel to Parmenides" "path of knowledge": at the beginning of Kaustak/brahmanopanisad (1-4) two paths are mentioned by which the deceased travel. The wise men, who pass the doors of the celestial world (svargasya lokasya αν ἄγαν), reach the "path of gods" (devayana). JeZic compares this with Parmenides' ὁδὸς δαιμόνιος (Fr. 1. 2). He believes that the ontological theory of Parmenides—not only his poetic proem—has its parallels in the teachings of the Indian sage Uddalaka, and that these parallels can be explained as an inheritance from the PIE tradition.

166

ftásya pantham anv eti sadhu prajanativa na diso minati “She goes regularly by the path of truth, as if knowing, she does not lessen the directions.” Jezié (1987: 193) thinks that Dawn was celebrated by chariot races and by poetic competitions. The charioteers, it is said in one stanza (RV 1. 48. 1), praise the Dawn (tvà grnanti vahnayah). Of course, we already know that the metaphorical reference to poets as charioteers was usual not only in Vedic (see 8269). A common epithet of the Dawn is candraratha- ‘she who has a shiny chariot' (cp., e. g., RV 3. 61. 2). 8277 USas is herself “truthful” (rtavar/, 5. 80. 1), "the guardian of truth" (rtapáh, 1. 113. 12). She is “enlightened by truth" (7. 75. 1); moreover, "the shining Dawns cast light upon the truth", /fám avasrann usáso vibhatih (4. 2. 19). She is also called "the mother of (divine) poets—Angirases" (4. 2. 15), and “the best of the Angirases" (ängirastamä), 7. 75. 1. 8278 One of USas’ epithets, byhat/ ‘the elevated one’ (2x in 5. 80. 1, 5. 80. 2, also 1. 113. 19), is etymologically COMPLETELY IDENTICAL with the name of the Celtic goddess of poetry, Brigid (see 8215). This might mean that PIE *b^rg"ntih; was the epithet of a PIE goddess, patron of poets. 8279 In the Greek myth, as told by Parmenides, an important element was the opening of the doors of knowledge. Parmenid uses the word πύλαι just as Pindar does in the quoted passage from the 6" Olympian Ode. The word for 'doors' that Greek inherited from PIE, θύρα, also figures in the derived form θύρετρα (Parmenides, Fr. 4. 13). | have already discussed the hypothesis that the ‘doors of truth’, dvarav ytásya, represent a cognate element in the Rig-Veda"'. Now we can add a further confirmation of this hypothesis: in RV 1. 113. 4 the motive of the opening of the doors is explicitly related to USas: netrí sanftanam áceti citrá vi duro na avah “The leader of the beautiful (Dawns), the bright one, opened the door for us”

‘21 Olnd. dvar-/dur- ‘door’ is probably related to G θύρα. The deaspiration of PIE *d^ur> Olnd. dur- can be explained by analogy with the number two *d(u)wo(h)-, with which Olnd. dur- probably co-occured often.

167

"We" in this hymn refers to the poets, the rishis. The doors, we can 85sume with much confidence, are precisely the dvarav ;tásya. The symbolism of “the doors of knowledge” appears in other hymns as well, e. g. in 9. 10. 6, where poets (karavah) open the “doors of thought’, dvara

matnaém'?, §280 Another attribute of the Vedic Dawn is especially important. It is the expression duhitd divah "the daughter of the Sky”, cp., e. g., RV 5. 80. 5, 1. 113. 4. This is the exclusive epithet of USas (Schmitt 1967: 8330ff.); it

is etymologically identical to G θυγάτηρ Διός < PIE *d'ugh,ter diwos. However, the Greek expression is not exclusively attributed to a single goddess,

but rather occurs with the names

of several of them.

One would

ex-

pect to find it as an attribute of the Greek Dawn, Ἠώς (Aeol. Abwc), whose name is etymologically identical to Olnd. Usas ( < PIE *h,ewsös); but this is not the case, because Hesiod's Theogony (I. 371) conventionally claims that Hyperion, not Zeus, was the father of the goddess. Besides that, ‘Hac does not play a major role in the Homeric religion or later, nor is she in any way related to poetic inspiration. However, one of her common and most beautiful attributes, ῥοδοδάκτυλος, ‘purple-fingered’, is metrically equivalent to the expression θυγάτηρ Διός, which is, as we have said, never used in conjunction with Hoc. It is thus possible that the former formula simply replaced the latter. However, the most striking parallel in the use of θυγάτηρ Διός and duhita divah is the fact that the Greek formula always denotes those goddesses that are RELATED TO POETIC INSPIRATION in the Greek tradition. Thus, θυγάτηρ Διός is most often attributed to the Muses, particularly to Calliope. Already in the earliest lyric poetry, e. g., in Alcman (Fr. 43. 1, Edm.) we read: Μῶσ' ἄγε Καλλιόπα, θυγάτερ Διός

"Come on, Muse Calliope, daughter of Zeus!"'? For Homer too, Muses are daughters very beginning of the Odyssey (I. 10), 491-2). Except to Muses, θυγάτηρ Διός who is also the goddess who protects

of Zeus. This can be seen at the but also elsewhere (e. g., Od. 2. sometimes also refers to Athene, art and wisdom (for attestations,

122 Durante (1958: 257) notes a possibly parallel Greek expression, (Phaedr. 245a). 123 Cb. also Alcman's Fr. 50 (Edm.), Μῶσα Διὸς Ovy&tep, and Fr. 21. clear which goddess the expression 'daughter of Zeus' refers to. One Alcman's Fr. 48, 1-2 dew (ἔρση) is said to be θυγάτηρ Διός. Is it because brings poetic inspiration and eloquence (see below)?

168

ποιητικὰς θύρας 1, where it is not wonders why in the "honey dew"

see Schmitt 1967: 337). However, the name of that goddess, as well as her cult, are almost certainly non-Indo-European. §281 Moreover, only the Vedic correspondences can help us explain why Pindar calls Truth “daughter of Zeus” (θυγάτηρ ᾿Αλάθαια Διός): in RV Usas, the daughter of Sky, is the “truthful” goddess (μῶν ΓΙ, see above). Thus, we can conclude that we are dealing with a SYSTEM of identical attributes that reveal a single female mythological figure. Such attributes, to the extent that they are etymologically related, represent key words in a PIE mythological text, or complex of texts, whose fragments can be reconstructed. G. Dunkel, who thinks that Aphrodite is the Greek equivalent of USas, argues in the same manner (1990: 7): “Ein haufiger Mechanismus der Götterspaltung ist nun der, daß ein Götterepitheton verabsolutiert wird, d. ἢ. zu seinem Bezugwort in Opposition gerät, anstatt es nur zu modifizieren". We have already seen that there are reasons to believe that some of the textual elements, originally related to Dawn, were transfered to Aphrodite in the Greek tradition (see §36ff.). In Hom. hymn. 5. 60, Aphrodite, before going to seduce the shepherd Anchises, closes the bright doors of her house (θύρας δ' ἐπέθηκε φαεινάς). These θύραι φαει-ναί (« *d"ur- b"eh,-) are perhaps an expression from the same mythological context as the doors (dvàrau) that the bright goddess USas (vi-bhat/ opens in the RV. One could suppose that the “bright doors” had belonged to Dawn in the Greek tradition as well; in Hom. hymn. 5. 236 it is Eos that closes these doors, when she leaves the ever-aging Tithonus in her dwelling. §282 Following the principle stated by Dunkel, we could equally ask ourselves whether the name of the Muse (Dor. Motoa) was originally just an epithet of the goddess Dawn. If Μοῖσα, Μοῦσα are derived from PIE *montyeh,, this name can be interpreted as ‘the one that belongs to the memory or thought’ (PIE *mnti- means ‘thought’, cp. Olnd. mati, Lith. mintis, etc.). The adequacy of this etymology seems to be confirmed by the fact that Hesiod

considers the Muses

to be daughters of Mnemosyne,

“Memory” (Theog. 54). Hesiod is known to have invented ad hoc genealogies in order to explain the etymology of several theonyms (West 1980). Moreover,

Muses

share with the Dawn

some

other characteristic epithets.

For example, κροκόπεπλος ‘with daisy-colored mantle’ is the exclusive epithet of Ἠώς in Homer's works, but Alcman (Fr. 46. 1 P.) calls the Muses κροκόπεπλοι.

Ivanov and Toporov (1965: 181) give reasons to believe that Dawn was represented as a young girl in the Slavic tradition as well. In Russian folklore, it is usual to say that dawn is a “beautiful maiden" (3apa xpacnas

169

nesuna). However, the evidence that they adduce makes it difficult to say whether one is justified in positing a common PIE or just a Graeco-Indolranian mythological figure. But some additional evidence for positing a PIE goddess Dawn can be drawn from the Baltic and Celtic branches of IE. 8283 In the Lithuanian mythology there is a feminine deity named Saulé ‘sun’, who is called dievo dukte ‘daughter of god’ (< *deywod d'ugh,ter) in the folk poems. Schmitt (1967: 341) hesitates to relate this expression to the Greek and Vedic formulas, because he doubts that it might have been coined accidentally “out of the same linguistic material". However, the evidence regarding the character of Saule in Baltic mythology (cp. Biezais 1975: 329ff.) fits very well with our knowledge about the attributes of the Vedic and Greek Dawn. It is particularly important to note that Saule is usually depicted in a chariot drawn by horses, just like USas (Biezais 1975: 331). However, it is unclear whether she can in any way be related to poets and poetic inspiration in the Baltic tradition. §284 Furthermore, the Irish goddess of poetry, Brigid, is the daughter of the supreme Irish god, Dagda. She is also related to the Sun cult’, and her role as a patron of the poets has already been discussed. She is called the woman-poet (ban-file, ban-éces). It could be argued that she is identical with the Gaulish goddess that Caesar refers to as Minerva. He says (De bello Gallico, 6. 17) that she protects artists and artisans. Her Gaulish name was probably Brigant/, or Brigantia in its Romanized form (cp. Mac Cana 1990). The fact that she is the daughter of Dagda is important, as Dagda is the closest functional equivalent to Greek Zeus and

Vedic Dyaus (cp. De Vries 1963)'?. Therefore, Brigid’s attribute ingen in Dagdai "Dagda's daughter”, noted in Cormac's Glossary (ed. Stokes, p. 8), might be a semantic correspondence of the PIE formula *d"ugh,ter diwos. §285 We have already seen that the path that takes the poet to the goddess is usually depicted as bright and shiny. This is understandable, because the goddess Dawn herself is a deity of light. This is perhaps the origin of the SYMBOLISM OF LIGHT that is so often connected with poetic expression. USas is a bright goddess; vibhät/ ‘bright’ is one of her most constant epithets (e. g., RV 5. 80. 1, 4. 2. 19, etc.). In this she reminds one of Eury124 Kim McCone (1991: 165) relates Brigid to Sun, Fire, and the arts. 125 Dagda is the father of the gods, just like Zeus and Dyaus are. His permanent epithet is ollathir ‘the father of all’, which is etymologicaly identical to Óóinn's epithet al/fadur.

170

phaessa, the goddess “of broad brightness”. Euryphaessa was probably originally an epithet of Dawn, which later became the name of an invented goddess, Hyperion’s mother. An expression of correspondent meaning, prthu-pajas- ‘of broad brightness’ is attested in the Rig-Veda (3. 61. 2), where it refers to USas’ horses. The symbolism of light is also connected with the Greek θυγάτηρ Διός, Aphrodite. Her mantle (πέπλος) is “brighter than the light of fire” (φαινότε-pov πυρὸς αὐγῆς (Hom. hymn. 5. 86). Her jewelry is bright as well (κάλυ-κάς τε φαεινάς, ibid. 87). However, the most stunning correspondence is between the original “daughter of Zeus”, Eos, and USas: Pindar's expression daevvac ‘Ados (“of bright Dawn", 6" Nemean, 52) is etymologically correspondent to Ved. Usäs vibhäti. The incomplete PIE formula from which both expressions can be derived would be *h,ewsös b"eh.-. §286 If the path of poetic knowledge is depicted as bright, it is understandable that the poems sometimes also get this attribute. Thus Pindar sings of the “light of the hymns” (φαός ὕμνων, Isthm. 6. 63). A “thread of a poem” can also be bright, cp. Hom. Hymn. Herm. 451, ἀγλαὸς οἶμος ἀοιδῆς). In RV 4, 56, 1 a Vedic stanza (arkä-) is said to be “shiny”, whereas in 10. 138. 2 it is said that “the Sun shone through a poem born in truth" (susóca sürya rtájataya gira). 8287 The Irish tradition also testifies about the intimate relation of poetry and the symbolism of light. In a passage of /macallam in dá thuarad one of the two druids asks:

Ceist,

a gillai forcetail,

cissi chonar dollodsu?

"Tell me, o disciple of poetry, by which way have you arrived?" Respondit Nede: Ni ansa: for clar find fessa ... for soilsi samluain

"It is not difficult (to say): by a bright plane of knowledge ... by the light of (a poetic form named) samluan" (quoted in Campanile 1990: 20). 8288 In the Greek tradition, a poet sometimes depicts himself as a prophet of a deity who bestows his insight upon him. Thus, Pindar calls himself “a prophet of Muses”, ἀοίδιμον Πιερίδων προφάταν (Paean 6. 6). A Muse is the source of the true knowledge that he interprets: μαντεύο, Μοῖσα, προφατεύσω δ' ἐγώ "Make a propecy, o Muse, and | shall interpret" (Fr. 150, Sn.)

171

The same concept is found also in Bacchylides (Fr. 9. 3), who calls himself Movodv θεῖος προφάτας “a divine prophet of the Muses”. Female deities that bestow inspiration upon the poet are regularly invoked at the beginning of a poem. These deities are the Muses in the Greek tradition. The invocation of Muses was a conventional part of an epic poem since the very beginning of Greek poetry. In Rome, this convention was accepted with Livius Andronicus’ translation of the Odyssey (where the invocation of the Muse was replaced with the invocation of a local deity, Camena). In India, in the Vedic period, there is no particular deity to which poetic invocations are addressed (JeZic 1987: 37). It was believed that different gods can help the poet to reach inspiration by his own insight (dh). Thus,

only at the tions, there developed Amorgein, ning of the singer, “the

Savitar, Agni,

USas

and others are invoked for inspiration, but

beginning of hymns dedicated to these gods. In other IE tradiare various examples of invocations, but as such it was never into an obligatory convention. Thus, in the Olr. tradition, the legendary first fili is sometimes invoked, and at the beginORuss. "Igor's Epic" there is an invocation of Boyan, a mythical grandson of Veles” (see above).

8289 In various IE traditions the inspiration that the poet receives from a deity is sometimes represented as “the honey of poetry”. This concept, which probably represents a PIE myth, has been the object of a study by Francoise Bader (1989: 32ff.). However, she approached this issue from another viewpoint and with different methods, without attempting to reconstruct fragments of PIE texts. Therefore, | believe that a new analysis of evidence pertaining to that myth will be useful. §290 The Norse myth about the origin of poetry is best preserved in the Younger Edda (Snorra Edda, Skäldskaparmäl), although traces of that myth

can

be observed

in the Older Edda

Hávamál,

110ff.) as well. Snorri

Sturlusson, the author of the Younger Edda, relates that myth in order to explain a number of kennings: ‘the blood of Kvasir’ (Kvasir dreyja), ‘the mead of Suttungr’, ‘the drink of karls', etc. (cp. Smirnickaja & SteblinKamenskij 1970: 39). Although it is possible that a part of the myth was invented by Snorri ad hoc in order to explain some difficult kennings, the main body of his story is an authentic Norse myth (ibid.: 124-125). Here are its most important elements. Some dwarves brewed a mead from the blood of the all-knowing giant Kvasir mixed with honey. This mead could make anyone who drank it a skald or a sage; thence it was called skáldar mjöd ‘the mead of the skalds’. The dwarves

kept it in two vats, called Són and

Bóón,

and

in one

cauldron, called Odroerir. A giant named Suttungr got the mead from the

172

dwarves as bail for his son who had been killed. Suttungr gave the mead to his daughter Gunnlóó. After a rather complicated plot, Odinn got the mead. He was given three mouthfuls of mead in return for spending three nights with her. However, three mouthfuls were enough for Odinn to empty Son, Böön and Ööroerir; having done that, he flew in the shape of

an eagle to Äsgarör. It was believed that Odinn bestowed that mead as inspiration upon poets, and because of that, Snorri says, poetry is also called ‘the gift of Odinn’. That, as well as other kennings for poetic art adduced in this myth, are well attested in other ON sources, above all in the skaldic poetry. For example, Egil Skallagrimsson (Egilssaga, 212, “Sonatorrek") uses the expression "word-mead" in the sense of "poetry". 8291 Some elements of this myth can be found in an Old lrish text composed at the beginning ot the 8" century, which is usually referred to as "The Cauldron of Poetry" (cp. Breatnach 1984, where the text is also published). The text is commented with many glosses, because its meaning is partly obscure. Most of it is in an archaic meter, and it is partly in prose. At the beginning of this text, the poet, who identifies himself as the legendary Amorgein"5, declares: Moi Coire coir Goiriath gor rond n-ir Dia dam a duile ndemrib; dliucht sóer sóeras broinn bélrae mbil brüchtas dad.

"Mine is the true, hot cauldron Goiriath, that God gave me, from the secrets of the creatures; a noble right, which ennobles the chest from which a good speech flows.” Goiriath is the name of the cauldron from which, according to the anonymous poet's opinion, the poetic inspiration flows. The eventual meaning and etymology of Goiriath are completely unclear (D. I. A., s. v.). However, it is tempting to compare this text with the ON concept of the cauldron of poetry (ödroerir), which is also the source of inspiration bestowed upon the poet by Odinn. In the Olr. tradition, poetry is god's gift (dan), just as in ON

it is “Odinn’s gift" (see above). 8292 However, there are more correspondences. In the rest of the Olr. text we find out that Goiriath is not the only cauldron from which knowledge flows. Just as in the ON myth, there are THREE cauldrons: Goiriath, 126 Cp. |. 5: 6s mé Amargen glüngel "because | am Amorgein with white knees".

173

Coire Sofis and Coire Érmai. Coire Sofis means ‘cauldron of good knowledge’ (< *so-widtu-). Ermae, on the other hand, appears to mean ‘moving, stirring’ (D. |. A., s. v.), so that Coire Ermai would mean ‘caudron of moving’. All three cauldrons are within

a man,

but not within every man.

Coire

Goiriath is the source of good speech, as well as of poetic art, whereas Coire Sofis is the source of every art except poetry (cach däno olchenae cenmo-tha airchetal, |. 32). It is the third cauldron (Coire Ermai) that is the source of the real poetic inspiration. From this cauldron “streams of brightness” flow (sruaim n-ordan, |. 65) whenever divine inspiration turns it within a poet, so that poetry (7) can flow out (53-54). In the talentless poets, Coire Ermai is turned upside-down since their birth, and in the less-gifted poets, the bards, this cauldron is turned obliquely. This cauldron “bestows and is bestowed, broadens and is broadened, feeds and is fed” (Is. 100: 103: ernaid ernair, mrogaith mrogthair, biathaid bíadtair). In this cauldron lies, as the glossator says (ad 49) “the fire of knowledge” (fein fesa). §293 This whole idea about poetry flowing from a cauldron in the soul of inspired poets is, admittedly, rather eccentric. It cannot be explained within the Irish tradition, and so we have to look for parallels in other IE traditions that could offer some explanation. The ON myth that we discussed above seems to show that the motive of the cauldron is less important than the motive of the inspiring liquor that is contained in it. Other JE parallels point to the same conclusion. 8294 In Pindar's poetry, there is a metaphor by which a poem is identified with a honey-drink. In Nem. 3. 76-9 the poet says: ... χαῖρε, φίλος ἐγὼ τόδε τοι πέμπω μεμιγμένον μέλι λευκῶι σὺν γάλακτι, κιρναμένα δ' ἕερσ' ἀμφέπει, πόμ' ἀοίδιμον Αἰολίσσιν ἐν πνοαῖσιν αὐλῶν “Farewell, friend! | am sending you this honey, mixed with white milk; some

added dew will follow, a drink that

is sung with the breeze of Aeolic flutes.” This metaphor is further developed in Ol. 7. 1-10, where the poet compares his song with a glass, foaming with “dew of the vine" (I. 2: ἀμπέλου ... 9601),

and then he adds:

καὶ ἐγὼ νέκταρ χυτόν, Μοισᾶν δόσιν, ἀεθλοφόροις ἀνδράσιν πέμπων, γλυκὺν καρπὸν φρενός,

174

ἱλάσκομαι

Ὀλυμπίαι Πυθοῖ τε νικώντεσσιν “And | am sending a flowing nectar, a gift of the Muses, to men who win the prize, a sweet fruit of the spirit, and | pay homage to the victors at Olympia and Pythios.” Thus,

Pindar also believed that a poem

is a GIFT FROM A DEITY (Μοισᾶν

δόσις) in the form of a drink made of honey. The word used by Pindar, G δόσις « *dh,ti-, is from the same root as the word that means simply ‘poem’ in Olr. (dán < *deh,no, cp. L dönum). Another etymological parallel is found in his use of the word φρήν, ‘spirit’ (γλυκὺν καρπὸν φρενός), Which had originally meant ‘chest’, and which is from the same root as Olr. broinn ‘chest’. The latter word was used in “The Cauldron of Poetry” where it is also said that the site of inspiration is in the poet’s chest. §295 There are other passages in which Pindar compares poems with a divine drink; thus, at the beginning

of Isthm.

6, he twice calls his poem

“a pot of the Muses’ songs” (κρατῆρα Μοισαίων μελέων, |. 2, cp. also |. 7). This pot contains “honey-sounding poems" that the poet pours as a libation (I. 9: σπένδειν μελιφθόγγοις ἀοιδαῖς). It is probably from Pindar that Horace took over his expression poetica mella (Epist. 1. 20. 44-45): Fidis enim manare poetica mella te solum However,

the metaphor must be traditional in Greek.

In Hom.

Hymn.

25. 4-5 it is said that "a sweet voice flows from the mouth of (a poet) loved

by the Muses”: ... ὅν τινα Μοῦσαι

φίλωνται' γλυκερή οἱ ἀπὸ στόματος ῥέει αὐδή This passage might be dependent on Hesiod, who explains in the following manner how Muses bestow inspiration upon people: ὅντινα τιμήσουσι Διὸς κοῦραι μεγάλοιο γεινόμενόν τε ἴδωσι διοτρεφέων βασιλήων, τῷ μὲν ἐπὶ γλώσσῃ γλυκερὴν χείουσιν £éponv, τοῦ δ' ἔπε' ἐκ στόματος ῥεῖ μείλιχα"

175

“Whomsoever the daughters of great Zeus honor, and whomever of kings raised by gods they see at his birth, they pour sweet dew upon his tongue, and honey-sweet words flow from his mouth". (Theog. 81-84). The metaphorical use of the verb ‘to flow’ in this passage is symptomatic (pet < *srew-), which is predicated of poetry. Pindar, in Isthm. 7. 19 calls poetry pod ἐπέων “a stream of words" (< *sroweh, wek*esöm). In Olr. "The Cauldron of Poetry” (see §291) we have seen that poetic inspiration is represented as sruaim n-ordan “stream of brightness", whereby the word sruaim is also from PIE *srew- (*srewmen). Olr. sruth ‘flow’ is a derivation from the same PIE root (*srutu-), and this word is also used to mean ‘a poem’, cp. IT 3. 54. §99: foglaim na dechmaide bliadna: cethri srotha déc “During the tenth year of education (of a fili) fourteen poetic forms (srotha) are learned”, or co findsrothaib aircetail “with white streams of poetry” (O’Mulcroney, 600). Therefore, it appears that PIE *srew- ‘to flow’ is another key word within the complex of texts that we are dealing with. We can summarize our tentative results so far as follows: a complex of texts containing the myth about the origin of poetic inspiration can be postulated for PIE; the inspiration is a gift (*dh;ti-, *deh,nom) of gods to people. Its site is in the chest (*b"ren-/b"ron-) and it has the form of honey (*melit-) or mead (*med"u-). It flows from the chests of the poet as a stream of words (*sroweh, wek”esöm), and makes his tongue sweet as honey (Olnd. madhujihva-, G μελίγλωσσος, Olr. miltenga « PIE ? *melitdng"u-),

and

his voice

sweet

(Ved.

svadmanam

vacah,

RV

2.

21.

6,

G

adjective ἡδυεπής). The last-named etymological correspondences were also noted by Schmitt (1967: 8525-530), who, however, did not note the related contextual correspondences. Namely, G ἡδυεπής 'sweet-voiced' is usually attributed to Muses (Hom. Hymn. 32. 2, Hesiod, Theog. 965) and Apollo (Hom. Hymn. 21. 3-4), i. e., to the deities that are directly responsible for poetic inspiration. 8296 Another often encountered concept is the comparison of poets with birds, especially with the eagle, because of his swiftness and sharpness of his insight, and with the nightingale, because of the beauty of his singing. Thus, Bacchylides compares himself to a nightingale (Fr. 31. 97, Edm.): καὶ μελιγλώσσου τις ὑμνήσει χάριν Κηίας ἀηδόνος "And someone will praise the grace of the Ceian nightingale with honey-sweet tongue". Similar comparisons are found in Alcman (Fr. 25, Edm.) and in the Anthologia Palatina (7. 44). Therefore, this poetic image was probably traditional

176

in Greece. In later poetry, 6. g., in Callimachus (Epigr. 2. 5) a “nightingale” can metonymically refer to a poem. §297 An interesting correspondence to this poetic image is found in the ORuss. "Igor's Epic", where the legendary poet Boyan is called a nightingale: O

Bosne,

CONOBHIO

craparo

BpeMeHu!

“O Boyan, nightingale of the old times” (S/ovo, |. 56). This metaphor is probably traditional in the Slavic tradition as well, because the nightingale is not a bird that a singer of heroic poetry such as Boyan is most naturally compared with. §298 In several traditions it is usual to identify poets with eagles; thus Pindar compares himself with an eagle (G ἀιϊετός, cp. Nem. 3. 80, Nem. 5. 21), and with Zeus' bird (Ol. 2. 88: Διὸς πρὸς ὄρνιχα θεῖον), which is a kenning for eagle, as we know from Greek mythology. Again, verses from “Igor’s Epic" (8-12) are to be compared: bosHd 60 Bbumi, anie KOMy XOTAllIe IIECHb TBODHTH, TO pacTbKallleTCA MBICJIMIO IIO JIpeBy CbpbIMb ΒΈΠΚΟΜ IIO 3EMIIH, UIM3bIMb OpJIOM NHONB OÓJIaKBI "And the artful Boyan,

when he wanted ran as a thought as a grey wolf on as a ruddy eagle Of course, opus is from *h,er- ‘eagle’ of ὄρνις and cidental.

to make a poem for someone, along a tree, the earth, under the clouds".

G ἀιετός and ORuss. opt are etymologically unrelated, but the same root as G ὄρνις ‘bird’. Both words are from PIE (Hitt. haras). Nevertheless, the etymological correspondence opm found in the quoted passages is most likely to be ac-

§299 The comparison of a poet with a bird is also found in Olr.; in "Amorgein's Incantation”, the poet says of himself “| am a falcon above a rock” (am séig for δἰ. Moreover, Olr. én ‘bird’ can also mean ‘poet’ (see D. I. A., s. v. én). Finally, we have already noted that Odinn, the protector

177

of poets in ON mythology, occasionally changed his shape into an eagle, as in the myth about the origin of poetry (see §290). §300 Finally, | am unaware of the existence of a METAPHOR identifying poets as birds in the Olnd. tradition, but there are certainly COMPARISONS of the poet's and the birds’ voices, such as the following: hansd iva krnutha slókam ádribhih

"Like swans, you make rocks" (RV 3. 53. 10a).

a praise with (the Soma-pressing)

Moreover, in RV 10. 67. 3a voices of the Angirases are called "swanlike" (hansaír iva ... vävadadbhir). 8301 Again it is difficult to say to what extent these poetic images are universal, and to what extent they could be inherited from PIE. The idea that a poet-seer turns into a bird, during his ecstatic, creative vision, reminds one of the shamanistic rites of the Siberian peoples (cp. Eliade 1964). Motives connected with shamanism have also appeared in other places in this chapter: ecstatic voyage of the poet-seer, a female divine psychagog, divine inspiration as an intoxicating drink, all these are well attested shamanistic motives, as discussed in Eliade's book (1964). Therefore,

if the reconstructions

that we

have

offered

in this chapter are

correct, then we can hope that our results will lead to new insights about the religion and world-outlook of the Proto-Indo-Europeans and their location within the Eurasian historical and geographic milieu.

178

6. CONCLUSION Mochten

diese

Zeilen

einen

Eindruck

davon

verschaffen,

welch

einen

Zaubergarten man betritt, wenn man den Spuren indogermanischer Dichtung folgt. Wer ihrer einmal ansichtig geworden ist, wird nicht mehr müde werden, ihnen nachzugehen (H. H. Schaeder, Auf den Spuren indogermanischer Dichtung, in: Die Weltliteratur, 18/1943: 85). 8302 At the beginning of this book (84) | said that its task would be to establish the range and trustworthiness of our knowledge about the PIE poetry, viz. about the elements of the PIE poetry that can be attained by the comparative method. My aim was to build upon the results reached by Rüdiger Schmitt (1967), who is probably the most quoted author on the preceding pages. My book is not intended to replace or in any way overcome Schmitt's "Encyclopedia" of the IE poetic language. | believe, nevertheless, that | have been able to supplement it and correct it in a number of respects. §303 In accordance with that, | have tried to emphasize the points in which my approach differs from Schmitt's; above all, | have tried not to neglect IE poetic traditions other than Greek and Indo-Iranian, to which the attention of Schmitt and most of his followers was primarily directed. Throughout this book, | have reaffirmed my belief that reconstructions based on the textual correspondences between Greek and Indo-Iranian traditions cannot be considered Common PIE without further ado. Moreover, | have tried to distinguish between

those elements that can be attrib-

uted to PIE from those that could represent a dialectal development within one of the major IE dialect areas (Western IE, Balto-Slavic, Graeco-IndoIranian, etc.). Thus, it was shown that the poetic terminology of the IE peoples (8207ff.) is dialectally diversified, and that lexemes characteristic of the Graeco-Indo-Iranian area only partly overlap with those characteristic of Italic,

Celtic

and

Germanic

area.

The

reconstruction

of the

formal

features of IE poetry (chap. 4) yielded similar results. We have seen that some metrical features (e. g., the quantitative nature of lines) are characteristic only of some dialects (Greek and Indo-Iranian), whereas other features occur regularly in the Western dialects (e. g., alliteration), and BaltoSlavic is a kind of “intermediary” area. Common PIE metrical forms could not be reconstructed with enough credibility. In the

same

chapter

about

the

formal

elements

of PIE

poetry,

| dis-

cussed a stylistic figure that some noted Indo-Europeanists (de Saussure, Toporov) have considered to be a typical feature of the PIE poetry, namely, the anagram. The assumption that anagrams are a typical PIE poetic

179

figure was shown to be justified; moreover, | was able to show that anagrams are attested in traditions in which they had not been observed before. | tried to explain the importance of anagrams in PIE by the great role that proper names played in the archaic hymnic poetry of many IE peoples. At the end of that chapter (§200ff.) | discussed the fact that some texts having a well-defined function (“charms for healing a horse's leg") also have correspondent structures in several IE traditions. | have adduced new arguments, and some new data from Irish and Latvian, pointing to the conclusion that those texts are genetically related. §304 The history of textual reconstruction after the publication of Schmitt’s book (1967) is discussed in chapter 2. The discussion revealed how dynamic the development of that discipline was over the past thirty years, but it was also shown that there is not enough cooperation between various scholars working in the field, and that some topics—especially the methodological questions—have been rather neglected. Besides offering a simple survey of the history of our discipline, | tried to criticize the theoretical views of some scholars, and to add to their results whenever that was possible. §305 Chapter 3 was dedicated to the methodology of textual reconstruction. It is probably the central chapter of this book, as neither Schmitt, nor any of his followers, have attempted to propose a systematic theory of the subject so far. It should also be noted that, although IE linguistics was my primary concern, the concepts defined in §83ff. should be applicable in textual reconstruction in any linguistic family, that is, if they are applicable at all. The basic idea is that the genetic comparison of texts should be simultaneously done on two levels—material and formal (§83). When both material and formal correspondences of texts in related languages are found, elements of proto-texts can be reconstructed. The smallest possible textual correspondence, which includes both material elements (i. e., etymologically correspondent morphemes) and formal elements (the property of ocurring in similar contexts), is the “key word”, and the greatest textual correspondence observed so far is a “complete formula” (§99). The chapter on method also contains a syntactic typology of various reconstructed textual fragments (§103ff.), whereby it is shown that formulas consisting of a noun and its attribute seem to occur most frequently of all. | also tried to show that textual reconstruction, conceived in the proposed way,

conforms

to all the conditions of scientific rigor, in contrast to, e.

g., Campanile's "cultural reconstruction" or Dumézil's “functional comparative mythology". The main difference between these two disciplines and

180

textual reconstruction is the falsifiability of the hypotheses of the latter, but not of the former two disciplines. | also distinguished between three levels of textual reconstruction (§128); each of these levels contains a number of assumptions that one makes about the nature of the reconstruct. The main idea lies in the distinction between the reconstruction of elements of PIE texts, and the interpretation of those elements, whereby both semantic interpretation (attributing meaning and function to a reconstructed formula) and a spatio-temporal interpretation (attributing the reconstructed elements to a presupposed linguistic and cultural community which existed in time and space) are meant. The method of textual reconstruction is represented as a natural extension of the methods and procedures usual in other fields of linguistic reconstruction. §306 The fifth chapter contains an analysis of a complex of themes and motives, attested in many IE traditions, that seem to preserve traces of numerous formulas and key words of PIE origin. A system of metaphors and poetic images concerning poets and poetic art is discussed, and a number of textual elements are reconstructed. These elements seem to reflect a kind of Proto-Indo-European poetics, which is probably the earliest attainable system of poetics in the world’s history. §307 Some results of this book will probably be of interest to historians of literature. The fact that Indo-European textual correspondences are found

in the works of some

ancient authors,

but not others, must be signi-

ficant. Thus, for example, it cannot be accidental that so many reflexes of PIE formulas and motives are found in Pindar (see, especially, chap. 5), whereas they are almost completely absent in Bacchylides and the Attic tragedians, although their works are larger in size and roughly contemporary to Pindar’s. Also, in the discussion about the origin and authenticity of "Igor's Epic", one will have to take into account the fact that motives and formulas having IE parallels are attested in that epic. Finally, the fact that the Baltic and Slavic folk-songs contain elements that have parallels in the Greek and Indo-Iranian traditions (cp. S20ff.) should dare the folklorists and ethnologists at least to try to refute our theses, unless they can agree with them. 8308 So much can be said about the quantity of our knowledge about PIE poetry. With respect to the reliability of that knowledge, however, a few words must be added. | believe that, although any particular thesis expressed in this book should be critically analyzed, some misunderstandings should be avoided in advance. Comparative linguistics is neither mathematics nor natural science, and although the same criteria of rigor

181

F. Miklosich, Lexicon palaeoslovenico-graeco-latinum, Vindobonae 1862-65. M. Monier-Williams, Sanskrit-English Dicitonary, Delhi 1980. Der Kleine Pauly; Lexikon der Antike, Bd. 1-5. Munchen 1979. J. Pokorny, /ndogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern 1959. O. Schrader ἃ A. Nehring, Reallexikon der indogermanischen Altertumskunde, Bd. I-ll, De Gruyter, Berlin & Leipzig 1917-1929. P. Skok, Etimologijski rjecnik hrvatskoga ili srpskoga jezika, Zagreb 1980. J. Slater, Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin 1969. SMR = Srpski mitoloSki recnik, Beograd 1970. W. Stokes, Urkeltischer Sprachschatz, Gottingen 1896. N. Trubaéev (ur.), Etymologiceskij slovar' slavjanskix jazykov, Moskva 1974- . M. Vasmer, Russisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bd. 1-3 Heidelberg 1959. J. Vendryés, Lexique Etymologique de I'irlandais ancien, Paris ἃ Dublin 1959-. A. Walde ἃ K. Hoffmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg 1960. C. Watkins (ed.), The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots, Boston 1976.

Texts (Only the often quoted texts are adduced): AV. = Atharvavedasamhita, ed. Roth & Whitney, Berlin 1955. Barons = Latviju Daipas, ed. Barons, Riga 1922. Beowulf, ed. C. S. Wrenn, London 1958. Dainos, Jurgio Dovydacio surinktos ir skiriamos mokikloms, Kaunas 1931. Duanaire - An Duanaire, ed. S. Ó Tuama & T. Kinsella, Dolmen Press i gcomhar le Bord na Gaeilge, Mountrath 1981. Edda, Die Lieder des Codex regius, Hg. von G. Neckel, Winter, Heidelberg 1914. Edm. = Lyra Graeca, I-Ill, ed. T. Edmonds, Harvard 1960. Gododdin. The Oldest Scottish Poem, ed. by K. H. Jackson, Edinburgh 1969. Hesiod, Erga = Hesiod: Opere e i giorni, Rizzoli, Milano 1977. Hesiod, Theog. = Hesiod: Theogonie, Hg. von K. Albert, Academia Verlag, Skt. Augustin 1990. Homer, Il., Od., Hymn. = lliad, Odyssey, Hymns, Homeri opera, ed. T. W. Allen, Oxford 1977. Katalogas = Lietuviy liaudies dainy katalogas 1-6, A. Jonynas (red.), Leidykla "Vaga", Vilnius 1972-1986. Mahabharata = The Mahäbhärata, ed. by J. A. B. Van Buitenen, Chicago 1973 Mansfeld = Die Vorsokratiker, Hg. von J. Mansfeld, Stuttgart 1979. Mesca Ulad, ed. J. Carmichael Watson, Dublin 1983. Pindar, Pyth., Nem., Ol., Isthm., = Pindari carmina cum fragmentis, ed. B. Snell ἃ H. Maehler, Leipzig, Teubner 1975. Rhesa = Dainos oder litthauische Volkslieder, hg. von L. J. Rhesa, Berlin 1845.

184

RV = Rgvedasamhita, Hg. von Th. Aufrecht, Leipzig 1877. Scéla mucce Meic Dathó, ed. R. Thurneysen, Dublin 1985. Serglige Con Culainn, ed. M. Dyllon, Dublin 1953. Slovo = Slovo o plsku Igoreve, ed. D. S. Lixacev, Moskva 1985. Snorra Edda - Edda Snorra Sturlusonar, ed. F. Jónsson, Kopenhagen 1931. Tabulae Iguvinae, ed. A. L. Prosdocimi, Istituto di Glottologia, Padova 1978. TBC. = Tain Bo Cuailnge, ed. C. O Rahilly, Dublin 1977. TBF. = Tain Bo Fröech, ed. W. Meid, Dublin 1989. Y. = Yasna in: The Gathas of Zarathushtra, ed. H. Humbach, Winter, Heidelberg 1991.

Other

abbreviations

used

are

explained

in the dictionaries

of Liddell

&

Scott,

Lewis

&

Short, and D. 1. A.

185

BIBLIOGRAPHY This bibliography contains only works dealing with textual reconstruction that have been published since the appearance of Schmitt's monograph (Schmitt 1967). For an excellent bibliography of earlier works, the reader is referred to that book. F. F. E. F. F. F. H. R. R. R. E. O.

Adrados, “The New Image of Indo-European”, /F 97/1992: 1-29. Altheim, Römische Religionsgeschichte, De Gruyter, Berlin 1932. V. Arnold, Vedic Metre, Cambridge 1905. Bader, "Rhapsodies Homériques et irlandaises”, in: Recherches sur les religions del'antiquité 10, Champion, Paris 1980. Bader, La langue des dieux, ou l'hermétisme des poétes indo-européens, Giardini, Pisa 1989. Bader, "Autobiographie et héritage dans la langue des dieux: d'Homére à Hésiode et Pindare", Révue des études grecques, 103/1990 (2): 383-408. Beck et alii (Hg.), Germanische Religionsgeschichte, de Gruyter, Berlin 1992. S. P. Beekes, The Development of the Proto-Indo-European Laryngeals in Greek, Mouton, The Hague 1969. S. P. Beekes "The PIE Word for 'Name' and 'Me", Die Sprache, 33/1987: 1-13. S. P. Beekes, Comparative Indo-European Linguistics, Benjamins, Amsterdam 1995. Benveniste, Le vocabulaire des institutions indo-européennes, P. U. F., Paris 1969. Bergin, /rish Bardic Poetry, D. |. A. S., Dublin 1984.

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H. J. A. W. M. K. C. C.

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Sonderdruck

aus: Stróm/Biezais:

L. Breatnach, "The Cauldron of Poesy”, Eriu 35/1984,

L. T. E. E.

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und balti-

sche Religion, Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1975. Birnbaum, Linguistic Reconstruction: its Potential and Limitations in New Perspectives, JIES, Washington 1977. Blansdorf, "Ein System oraler Gebrauchspoesie: die alt- (und spat-)lateinischen Zaubersprüche und Gebete”, in: Tristram 1991: 33-55. Bloch, review of Schmitt 1967, Die Sprache 14/1968: 77-8. Bloomfield & C. W. Dunn, The Role of the Poet in Early Societies, Brewer, Cambridge 1989. P. Bologna, Ricerca etimologica e ricostruzione culturale. Alle origini della mitologia comparata, Giardini, Pisa 1988. Bormann, Parmenides, Felix Meiner, Hamburg 1971. M. Bowra, Heroic Poetry, Macmillan, London 1962. M. Bowra, Pindar, Clarendon, Oxford 1964. 162ff.

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186

E. Campanile, "Indogermanische Metrik und Altirische Metrik", Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie, 37/1979: 174-202. E. Campanile, "Ant. Irl. Bóann", in: Studi Indoeuropei, a cura di E. Campanile, Giardini, Pisa 1985. E. Campanile, "Indogermanische Dichtersprache", in: Meid 1987: 21-29. E. Campanile, Die Älteste Hofdichtung von Leinster, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien 1988a. E. Campanile, "Per la metodologia della ricostruzione culturale", in: L. Mazzo (ed.): Ricostruzione culturale e ricostruzione linguistica, Palermo 1988b: 197-204. E. Campanile, La ricostruzione della cultura indoeuropea, Giardini, Pisa 1990. E. Campanile, "Réflexions sur la reconstruction de la phraseologie poétique indo-européenne", Diachronica X: 1, 1993: 1-12. E. Campanile et alii, "Funzione e figura del poeta nella cultura celtica e indiana", Studi e saggi linguistici 14/1974. J. Carney, "Early Irish Literature: The State of Research”, in: Proceedings of the 6th International Congress of Celtic Studies, Dublin 1983: 113-13. J. Carney, The Irish Bardic Poet, D. |. A. S. Dublin 1985. N. K. Chadwick ἃ H. M. Chadwick, The Growth of Literature, Vols. | ἃ I| C. U. P. Cambridge 1968. T. V. Civjan (ur.), Tekst: semantika i struktura, Nauka, Moskva 1983. G. Clark, World Prehistory, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1977. T. Gole: "The Saturnian Verse", Yale Classical Studies, 1969: 1-73. J. Corthals (Hg.), Tain bó Regamna, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien 1987. T. Cubelic, Epske narodne pjesme, Skolska knjiga, Zagreb 1970. C. del Grande, "La metrica greca", in: Enciclopedia classica, sezione Il, volume 5, SEI, Torino 1960: 137-513. G. Devoto, Storia della lingua di Roma, Cappelli, Firenze 1970. G. Devoto, Origini indoeuropee, Sansoni, Firenze 1966. J. de Vries, Altnordische Literaturgeschichte, De Gruyter, Berlin 1941. J. de Vries, La religion des Celtes, Payot, Paris 1963. D. Dickmann Boedeker, Aphrodite's Entry into Greek Epic, J. E. Brill, Leiden 1974. |. D'jakonov, “O prarodine nositelej indoevropejskix dialektov", | ἃ Il, Voprosy drevnej istorii 3-4 1982. W. Dressler, Einführung in die Textlinguistik, Tübingen 1972. U. Dronke, "Eddic Poetry as a Source for the History of Germanic Religion", in: Beck 1992: 657-684. Z. Dukat, Homersko pitanje, Globus, Zagreb 1987. G. Dumézil, Le troisiéme souverain, Maisonneuve, Paris 1949. G. Dumézil, ^ 'idéologie tripartie des Indo-européens, Latomus, Bruxelles 1958. G. Dumézil, The Destiny of a King, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1974. G. Dunkel, "Vater Himmels Gattin", Die Sprache 34, 1990: 1-27.

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indogermanische

Gótterfamilie?",

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