Archaeoastronomy and Ancient Technologies 2020, 8(1), 12-29

DOI: 10.24411/2310-2144-2020-00003

Shamanism in Indo-European mythologies

Fournet, A.

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

Abstract

The paper analyzes shamanic cosmology. It is un-Indo-European in its principles and rather typical of Siberian people. The first part describes the ecstatic trances and the cosmological World Tree or Axis mundi, the combination of which is typical of true shamanism. The second part shows that some key features of shamanism can be found outside Siberia, among Caucasic, Greek and North Germanic people. It is shown that Prometheus and Odin have clear shamanistic features.
Keywords: Shamanism, Comparative Mythology, Germanic, Greek, Caucasic

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