Archaeoastronomy and Ancient Technologies 2020, 8(2), 12-28

DOI: 10.24411/2310-2144-2020-00007

What to think of Dumezil's tripartite approach of Indo-European cosmologies?

Fournet, A.

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

Abstract

The paper analyzes the tripartite approach of Indo-European cosmologies once proposed by Georges Dumezil (1898-1986). The first part describes what Dumezil proposed, and then the second part tries to assess the relevancy and limitations of the tripartite approach. The Mittani-Aryan gods listed in Hittito-Hurrian treaties provided the prototype for Dumezil's theory in the late 1930s. Then the main figures of North Germanic and Zoroastrian pantheons can be arranged according to the same tripartite mold as Mittani-Aryan. Tripartition applies to neither Greek nor Hittite traditions. A major issue is that the North Germanic pantheon involves Odin (< *wat-), a non-Indo-European shamanistic god of probable Caucasic origin. Another bone of contention is that the Zoroastrian reform downgraded the Indo-European daevas into demons and promoted Ahura Mazda (< *a-nc?w-), of probable Caucasic origin, as its most important god. The North Germanic and Zoroastrian pantheons are much less in support of tripartition than usually claimed. It can therefore be doubted that tripartition really is of Proto-Indo-European dating.
Keywords: Dumezil, Indo-European cosmology, Tripartite ideology, Comparative Mythology

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