Myth and Law Among the Indo-Europeans: Studies in Indo-European Comparative Mythology

Description

Research activity in Indo-European comparative mythology has been regularly pursued at the University of California, Los Angeles, since the academic year 1959-60, when the Seminar in Indo-European Mythology was held for the first time. Other organizational milestones have been the creation of the Center for the Study of Comparative Folklore and Mythology in 1961 and of the Section of Indo-European Studies as an autonomous part of the Department of Classics in 1964. In a purely historical sense, the activity has centered on discovering and understanding the mythic, religious, social, and legal underpinnings of the ancient Indo-European-speaking continuum in terms of their oldest or most archaic manifestations. In a comparativistic vein, these materials have been used as starting points for prehistoric reconstruction. The theoretical viability of such attempts is enhanced by the renascence of the discipline of Indo-European comparative mythology during the past several decades through the efforts of such scholars as Georges Dumézil, Jan de Vries, Stig Wikander, and others. Thereby the long lacuna that ensued upon the largely abortive theoretical beginnings by F. Max Müller, Adalbert Kuhn, and others in the nineteenth century can securely be declared closed, and a present-day comparative mythology proclaimed as firmly established, fortified by the material gains and theoretical lessons of an entire century. Most of the works gathered into this volume were originally presented at a symposium held under the joint auspices of the Center and of the Section of Indo-European Studies on March 17—18, 1967. Postfixed to their printed versions is a bibliographical inventory of scholarly works that constitute the documentation of the new Indo-European comparative mythology. ABBREVIATIONS viii CALVERT WATKINS / Language of Gods and Language of Men: Remarks on Some Indo-European Metalinguistic Traditions 1 KEES W. BOLLE / In Defense of Euhemerus 19 STEPHEN P. SCHWARTZ / Comparative Legal Reconstruction in Germanic 39 EDGAR POLOMÉ / The Indo-European Component in Germanic Religion 55 C. SCOTT LITTLETON / The "Kingship in Heaven" Theme 83 DONALD J. WARD / The Threefold Death: An Indo-European Trifunctional Sacrifice? 123 JEANNINE E. TALLEY / The Threefold Death in Finnish Lore 143 ROBERT L. FISHER, JR. / Indo-European Elements in Baltic and Slavic Chronicles 147 JAAN PUHVEL / Aspects of Equine Functionality 159 JAMES L. SAUVÉ / The Divine Victim: Aspects of Human Sacrifice in Viking Scandinavia and Vedic India 173 DONALD J. WARD / The Separate Functions of the Indo-European Divine Twins 193 JACQUES DUCHESNE-GUILLEMIN / Reflections on 'yaoždā', with a Digression on 'xvaētvadada' 203 UDO STRUTYNSKI / The Three Functions of Indo-European Tradition in the Eumenides of Aeschylus 211 C. SCOTT LITTLETON / Some Possible Indo-European Themes in the 'Iliad' 229 BIBLIOGRAPHY 247 INDEX 269