Archaeoastronomy and Ancient Technologies 2019, 7(2), 79-92

DOI: 10.24411/2310-2144-2019-00008

The three skies of the Indo-Europeans

Fournet, A.

Independent researcher, Paris V Rene Descartes, France, fournet.arnaud@wanadoo.fr

Abstract

The paper aims to describe the approach that Indo-Europeans had about cosmogony and the structure of the sky. It especially relies on the Greek, Latin and Hurrian conceptions. It is shown that the Indo-European cosmogony envisions the sky as three layers: the Upper-Sky, the Middle-Sky and the Lower-Sky. The gods and celestial bodies in each sky are different and have specific roles, names, colors and attributes. An appendix at the end lists the words and roots discussed in the paper.

Keywords: Indo-European, Comparative Mythology, Cosmology, Greek, Hurrian

Full Text: Download pdf (English)

References

Laroche, E. Glo-ser de la lon-ge u-ri-te ['The glossary of Hurrian language']. Paris: Klincksiek, 1980.

Richter, T. Bib-li-o-gra-fi-ches glo-sar des hu-ri-ti-chen ['The bibliographical guide to Hurrian language']. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2012.

Fournet, A. Nu-vo glo-ser du-ri-te ['The new glossary of Hurrian language']. Lille: Thebookedition, 2019.

Bomhard, A. The Words for 'star' in Indo-European and Semitic. Archaeoastronomy and Ancient Technologies, 2019, 7(2), 1-4.

Fournet, A. Gelgamis in Hurrian. Lille: Thebookedition, 2015.

George, A. R. The Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.

Haudry, J. Le fe da la tra-di-ci-o i-de-ro-pa-en ['A fire in the Indo-European tradition']. Milano: Arche, 2016.

Hoffner, Jr.; Harry, A. Hittite Myths. Atlanta (Ga): SBL, 1990.

Neu, E. Das hu-ri-ti-che a-pos der fry-la-sun ['The Hurrian epic about manumission']. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1996.