I found this rather amusing. Per Cicero, there is a tale of the Greek poet Simonides having a near-death experience. Or, we should say - a Near Dioscuri experience ! Simonides had been commissioned to eulogize the sporting victory of Scopas at a banquet held by the latter. In the course of doing so, the … Continue reading The Near-Dioscuri Experience Of Simonides The Pious Poet
linguistics
Demeter – An Indo-European Sky Mother Goddess ?
The conventional wisdom is that Demeter is an Earth Mother deific - as attested via both the mythology and also, speculatively, via the linguistics. Now, my contention is that this is not 'inaccurate' per se - just 'incomplete'; and potentially the result of the linguistic analysis only seeing what previous generations of academics thought they … Continue reading Demeter – An Indo-European Sky Mother Goddess ?
THE QUEEN OF SERPENTS – THE SERPENTINE FIGURE OF THE INDO-EUROPEAN EARTH MOTHER
As we have often noted, the prevalent mythic perception of the Serpent amidst the minds of many is that of a demonic antagonist - and a male one, at that. There are solid reasons for this, of course: foremost among these is the Judeo-Christian baseline many of tend to operate under, where a certain serpent … Continue reading THE QUEEN OF SERPENTS – THE SERPENTINE FIGURE OF THE INDO-EUROPEAN EARTH MOTHER
On The Subtle Satemization Of Centum In Modern English
Something I've been meaning to remark upon for awhile, is this rather amusing irony when it comes to the Centum-Satem divide in Indo-European linguistics. Now, for those unaware, you can classify most Indo-European languages into one of two categories - "Centum" languages, wherein an array of "K-" [and some "G-"] sounds and particles in Proto-Indo-European … Continue reading On The Subtle Satemization Of Centum In Modern English
The Indo-European Cosmology – A Brief Guided Tour : Part One – Ritual Space And The Radiating Law
Two areas I have long intended to direct more effort towards extolling - are Indo-European Cosmology and Ritual. Both are fascinating, and as it happens, quite fundamentally coterminous much of the time. However, they're also both huge - and so instead of a series of five-to-fifty-thousand wor(l)d plus megaliths, I thought I'd try something a … Continue reading The Indo-European Cosmology – A Brief Guided Tour : Part One – Ritual Space And The Radiating Law
On The Crown Of Crows And The Regality Of Ravens – A Restoration And Re-Explication Of Their Incredible Indo-European Symbolic Saliency
One of the most misunderstood creatures in the Indo-European mythic conceptual syllabry has to be the Corvid - the Crow , the Raven (and I must admit that I am biased upon this score - for it is an important part of my own name and therefore nature). For if you asked many just what they … Continue reading On The Crown Of Crows And The Regality Of Ravens – A Restoration And Re-Explication Of Their Incredible Indo-European Symbolic Saliency
The Black Avenging Form Of The Earth Mother And The Pursuits Of The Sky Father As Solar Horseman – A Comparative Indo-European Typological Evocation [Part Two: Surya, Saranyu And Chhaya – The Shadowy ‘Second’ Wife Of The Sky Father]
[Author's Note: This piece continues our look at a fundamentally coterminous myth of the Indo-Europeans found reasonably intact in both the Greek and the Hindu canons - wherein the Sky Father engages with a 'Darkened' form of His Consort, often in symbolically resonant animal shape. Part One examined the situation of Poseidon in pursuit of … Continue reading The Black Avenging Form Of The Earth Mother And The Pursuits Of The Sky Father As Solar Horseman – A Comparative Indo-European Typological Evocation [Part Two: Surya, Saranyu And Chhaya – The Shadowy ‘Second’ Wife Of The Sky Father]
The Place Of Worship – The Temple – The Home And Healing Whole Of The Community
Something I love about the Indo-European etymology - is that manner in which the roots of terms resonate with their descendants. And, in so doing, significantly broaden our understanding of just what they actually are - how we are to relate to them. A good example of this is the Ancient Greek ναός - 'Naos' … Continue reading The Place Of Worship – The Temple – The Home And Healing Whole Of The Community
On The Misunderstanding Of Maya As Mere Mirage
An associate earlier this week made a remark about the concept of Maya - and the 'matronly' associations he'd felt for it, coming at it from a Buddhist context. Now, Maya is often misunderstood - in no small part because it's grown so hugely as a term over the millennia … so it seemed as … Continue reading On The Misunderstanding Of Maya As Mere Mirage
“I Bend the Bow for Rudra that His Arrow May Strike and Slay the Hater of Devotion” – On Ugra Manyu And Perhaps Angra Mainyu
[Author's Note: This continues our excerpts series from #MahaShivRatri And The Mytholinguistics Of War - The Mind, The Mania, The Manyu. In this extract, we take a look at what's probably one of the least surprising potential Zoroastrian literal-demonizations of a Vedic Deity - the War God charged with the protection of piety against 'the … Continue reading “I Bend the Bow for Rudra that His Arrow May Strike and Slay the Hater of Devotion” – On Ugra Manyu And Perhaps Angra Mainyu
