The Sky Father and Earth Mother: the Basis of All Indo-European Religions, Part Nine, the Greek Sky Father

 The Greek Sky Father, Ζεύς (Zeus, pronounced 'zay-us') is the Greek reflex of the PIE *Dyēus ('sky, daylight, sky-god'), which also gives us the Sanskrit Dyaus Pita, the Latin Iupiter, the Illyrian/Albanian Zojz and the Hittite Šiuš. He is both the supreme deity of the Greeks and their Thunder God. Functionally, He descends from the PIE *Dyēus ph₂tḗr, whose name is closest to the Latin Iupiter, which descends from the PIE directly via the Proto-Italic *Djous patēr/*Diēus patēr and then the Early Latin Diēspiter ('Sky-Father'), finally to the Classical Latin Iūpiter/ Iuppiter. The Sanskrit Dyaus Pita is likewise a very close linguistic reflex of the PIE.

The functions and domains of Zeus:

. Sky and weather.

. Thunder and lightning.

. Law, justice and kingship.

. Oaths and hospitality.

. Protection of cities and households.

The worship of Zeus was pan-Hellenic, but his worship and cult did vary in form from place to place.

Cultic Reflexes of Zeus

Zeus Olympios

This is Zeus in His most sovereign aspect, where He presides over the other Olympian gods at the centre of the Olympic games, and presides also over the games. Under this reflex Zeus is the god of the entire Greek world, not just a single city. His temple here contained a colossal gold and ivory statue of the god seated, measuring 41 ft in height, created by the sculptor Phidias around the year 435 BCE, raking as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The ivory parts of the sculpture required constant maintenance to prevent cracking due to humidity, and this maintenance became part of the cultic life of the temple. The temple was eventually desecrated and closed by order of the Christian Roman Empereror Theodosius II. The abandoned temple was stripped and never maintained afterwards, suffering from earthquakes in 522 and 531 CE. As for the statue itself, according to the Byzantine chronicler, it was dismantled and carried off in the 5th century to Constantinople and stored in the Palace of  Lausas as part of a private collection of pagan art, and possibly destroyed there in a palace fire in 475 CE.

Zeus Naios/Zeus Bouleus

Here at the oracle of Dodona, Zeus was worshipped along with the goddess Dione (Διώνη), a pre-Olympian deity, whose name literally means 'The Goddess', the feminine form of Zeus. Indeed it is the genitive form of Zeus, 'of Zeus'/'belonging to Zeus'. It is derived from the same PIE root, *Dyēus, from which we get Zeus, Dyaus, Iupiter and the Baltic Dievas. From this root we also get Dioskouroi, the 'sons of Zeus'. It would appear that Dione was the original consort of Zeus in the oldest mythological layer, prior to the emergence of Hera and Her displacement of Dione. It would seem that Hera's marriage to Zeus was a later political development, connected to the rise of certain city states.

The pairing of Zeus as Sky Father and Dione, the Sky Mother, who later absorbed Earth Mother traits, may reflect an older Proto-Indo-European pairing. The concept of a Sky Father AND a Sky Mother is not unique to the Greek mythology. It may also be found in the Germanic *Tiwaz and Zisa, as well as the Baltic *Dievas and *Dievaitė ('Sky-Goddess', 'Heavenly One'), and the Vedic Dyaus and Dyaus (female). The concept of the Sky Mother will have to be reserved for detailed discussion in a future post or series of posts as this will take me too far away from the focus of this series, which is the Sky Father and the Earth Mother.

At Dodona both deities are worshipped together; Zeus speaks through the rustling of the sacred oak, the wind and the sky. Dione is associated with the tree, the earth beneath it, the water from the sanctuary springs and the doves, which symbolise the divine presence. It must be stressed at this point that She is not Gaia, Demeter or any other cthonic underworld goddess, but a celestial goddess who touches the earth.

The oracle of Dodona contained the following elements:

. The Sacred Oak of Zeus. Priests interpreted the rustling of its leaves, the creaking of its branches and the sound of the wind passing through it as the literal voice of Zeus or Dione.

. The Bronze Cauldrons and Tripods. These were situated around the Sacred Oak and when struck by the wind they sounded like bells and the sounds were interpreted as messages from Zeus and Dione.

. The Selloi/Helloi. These were the male priests of Zeus at Dodona who slept on the ground, never washed their feet and lived in ritual purity. They interpreted the signs given by Zeus.

. The Paleiades. These were the priestesses of Dione, three in number (according to later tradition). They are a direct link to Dione, whose sacred animal was the dove, and this is the meaning of 'Paleiades'. They interpreted the signs given by Dione, one method being through the movement of the doves. 

. Lead Tablets. Pilgrims would write their questions on thin lead tablets and hand them to the priest or priestess who collected and read them, and with the signs given at the oracle, interpreted them on behalf of the gods. The answer to the question was given orally and loudly to the pilgrim and then the tablet was left behind. Eventually, by Christian imperial decree, the Sacred Oak was cut down and the site abandoned.

Zeus Polieus

As Protector of the City of Athens, Zeus was the guardian of civil order. He is both the political and moral centre of the city, the protector of the polis (the Greek city-state). Emphasis was placed upon justice, civic harmony and law. The annual ritual of the Bouphonia ('oxe slaying') took place in Athens, an exceedingly ancient ritual, so much so that in classical times the Athenians themselves no longer understood it. The Bouphonia had the following steps:

. The ox approaches the altar of Zeus Polieus of its own free will and eats the sacred grain (barley cakes prepared by the priests), again of its own free will.

. A man, designated for this purpose, kills the ox with an axe.

. The killer (bouphonos-'ox-killer') of the ox flees immediately.

. The axe is put on trial for murder. Witnesses are summoned, the axe is found guilty and then cast into the sea.

. The ox is butchered and the community shares the meat and is symbolically absolved of guilt. This is the only type of ox sacrifice permitted on the Acropolis. The Bouphonia is clearly a relic of Bronze Age religion which long predates classical Greek religion and its antiquity can be seen in the following features:

. Animism.

. Object trial (the axe as a substitute for a person).

. The concept that animals can commit sacrilege.

. Taboo logic.

The Bouphonia is a Bronze Age reflection of Indo-European sacrifice myths: in this case it is a scapegoat myth or 'Guilt-Transference-Sacrifice'. Scholars have identified the following three types of sacrifice myths:

. The First Sacrifice Myth. Examples include the Vedic sacrifice of Purusha, the primordial being and cosmic giant, whose body becomes the world, following its sacrifice by the Devas. This is echoed in the Norse myth of Ymir, the primordial giant who is slain by Odin and His brothers, and his body becomes the world. 

A much weaker reflex of this myth is to be found in the story of the sacrifice of Remus by his brother Romulus. This is not a cosmogonic myth but a watered down and highly euhemerised version of the PIE original, which accounts for how Rome was built by his sacrifice. His death was ritually necessary for the foundation of Rome. The death of Remus is also a reflex of the Indo-European twin myth, which I intend to explore in a future essay or series of essays: time does not permit me to expand on this in this current post. 

An Iranian parallel to the Purusha myth is that of the first man, the primordial being, Gayōmart (Avestan: Gaya Maretan, meaning 'Mortal Life'), created by Ahura Mazda and killed by Ahriman, the so-called 'evil spirit' of Zoroastrian dualism. As his body decays on the earth, from his seed grows the first human pair, Mashya (male) and Mashyana (female), As in the Norse myth, other things have their origin in his body as well, such as metals, minerals and plants. He is the origin of all life.

In the Greek myth of Dionysus Zagreus, the former is the mystical and primordial form of Dionysus in the Orphic religion, an underworld form of Dionysus, who is born, dismembered, eaten and reborn, thus a god of death, rebirth and the soul, a Greek expression of the Indo-European dismembered cosmic being.

Fragments of this myth are also found in Baltic mythology. No single mythic narrative survives, only scraps to be found in the Lithuanian dainos, the Latvian dainas, agricultural songs and ritual laments. What we can deduce from the Baltic sources is that a divine or semi‑divine figure is cut, mown, or killed, and from his body comes fertility, crops, or cosmic order.

. The Guilt-Transfer Sacrifice

This is where the Bouphonia fits in. Parallels may be found in Germanic law, where objects such as weapons, tools and even animals could be formally tried, Vedic rituals where the sacrificial knife is ritually purified, and in Celtic rituals where the guilt is transferred to a symbolic object.

The Royal/Horse Sacrifice

Examples may be found in Irish kingship rituals, the Roman October sacrifice of a war-horse, Baltic and Germanic horse burials and royal rites, and most especially the Vedic Aśvamedha, the clearest example of the royal horse sacrifice by the most powerful of kings. The subject of horse sacrifice is something which I wish to explore in a future essay.

Zeus Keraunios

Throughout ancient Greece, Zeus was worshipped as the Storm God, invoked for protection during storms, appeased to prevent lightning strikes and associated with mountain-tops and open-air altars. 'Keraunios' (κεραύνιος) has the meaning 'of the thunderbolt', 'thunder-wielding', 'striking with lightning'. It derives from the PIE root *ker‑, meaning 'to strike, cut, smash', a concept preserved with the following Indo-European Thunder Gods:

. Indra strikes with the vajra.

. Thor strikes with Mjölnir.

. Perkūnas strikes with the stone axe.

. Perun strikes with the axe.

. Donar strikes with the club.

. Taranis strikes with the wheel/thunderbolt.

Zeus along with other Indo-European Thunder Gods is closely associated with the oak tree, which attracts more lightning than any other species of tree. This effectively is a meterological observation which over time has become a religious association. The reason for their attarction of the lightning is due to their height and mositure content.

Zeus Xenios

In this reflex Zeus was the protector of strangers and guests, who enforced the rules of hospitality toward strangers and punished those who broke these laws. The Greek noun xénos has the meaning, 'stranger, guest, foreigner, host, guest-friend'. The Greek form may be traced to the PIE *ǵénh₁os /* ǵénos ('stranger, guest, someone from another clan'). Sacred hospitality was clearly a deeply ingrained concept amoung the Proto-Indo-Europeans.

Zeus Ktesios

This is the domestic form of Zeus, worshipped in homes, the protector of property and the family. The etymology of 'Ktesios' (Κτήσιος) suggests that the word in all its forms is connected to possessions, property, acquisition; thus Zeus is the god who protects the home, its contents, wealth and prosperity.

The Sky Father and Earth Mother, the Basis of All Indo-European Religions, Part Eight, the Slavic Earth Mother

 Proto-Slavic Earth Mother

The Proto-Slavic Earth Mother, *Mati Zemja or *Mati Syra Zemlja, descends from the Proto-Balto-Slavic *Mātē Žemē / *Mātē Zemjā, the Proto-Baltic reflex being *Mātē Zemjā. The Proto-Balto-Slavic in turn descends from the PIE *Dʰéǵʰōm Méh₂tēr. 

*Mati Zemja and *Mati Syra Zemlja have the meanings of 'Mother Earth' and 'Moist Mother Earth' respectively. She is both primordial and non-anthropomorphic. She is the receiver of the dead and the protector of women, childbirth and agriculture. As the second reflex of Her name indicates, She is associated with moisture and soil as well as oath-taking; Her worship is strongly attested in later individual Slavic cultures.

East Slavic Earth Mother

The Russian Reflex

The Russian reflex is the closest continuation of the Proto-Slavic. Mat' Syra Zemlya is invoked in oaths, an example being, 'Let the Earth Swallow me if I lie.' She has this function in common with the Baltic reflexes. Offerings are made to Her in rituals, including ploughing and protection rituals, the earth being eaten or kissed.

The Ukrainian Reflex

This is very similar to the Russian: Mati Zemlia/Syra Zemlia is invoked in wedding rituals and offerings of bread, salt and milk are made to Her in ploughing rituals, funerals and wedding blessings. Like the Russian reflex, She receives the dead in Her embrace and She also acts as a witness in human disputes.

The Belarusian Reflex

Mac Syra Ziamla (modern spelling: Mać Syra Ziamla) has the same shared functions as Her Russian and Ukrainian counterparts. It would be helpful at this stage to clarify these functions:

1. Fertility of crops and soil. Offerings of grain, bread, salt and milk are made to Her to seek Her blessings for the fertility of the land.

2. Receiver of the dead. Burial is regarded as the return to the Mother and the Earth is addressed as the Mother in funeral rites. 

3. Oaths are sworn 'by Mother Earth' and these are considered as inviolable.

4. Healer and purifier. Soil is taken from a sacred spot, such as a crossroads, under a threshold or from a field's first furrow and placed on the affected part of the body, to heal wounds, fevers and swellings. The healer then addresses Mother Earth directly in these words or similar formulae: 'Moist Mother Earth, take the illness into Yourself.' This is strongly attested in Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian charms.

 Another method is for the sick person to lie on the ground in order to transfer the illness to the Earth, appropriate wording being, 'Mother Earth, take my weakness; give me your strength.' This is especially strongly attested in Russian and Belarusian charms.

Symbolic objects which represent the illness can also be buried in the Earth, the sickness then being transferred to it. This is attested in Ukrainian and Belarusian healing magic.

Soil mixed with water or milk may also be used to wash the sick person, with the remaining fluid poured onto the Earth as an offering.

Earth taken from a field sprinkled around a house or barn protects against disease, misfortune, storms and evil spirits. This rite is attested in all three East Slavic cultures. After a new house is constructed, Earth is placed in all four corners, possibly with the addition of bread and salt, and Mother Earth is invoked to protect the household. This is especially attested in the Ukrainian tradition.

Earth carried in a small pouch can offer protection to a soldier, a pregnant woman or a traveller. This is attested in Russian and Belarusian sources. Earth may also be used to protect livestock against disease and witchcraft by rubbing it on the forehead of cattle, scattering it in the barn and placing it under any threshold that animals cross.

5. Protector of women and childbirth. The invocation of the Earth Mother for fertility, childbirth and female well-being is found across all three East Slavic traditions.

The Russian tradition preserves the most archaic form of the Earth Mother, while the Ukrainian tradition has an emphasis on fertility, agriculture and household rites. The Belarusian tradition places a strong emphasis on healing and weather magic.

Belarusian Weather Magic

The following are examples of archaic Slavic rites preserved in the Belarusian tradition:

In order to produce rain, water is poured onto the earth while repeating an appropriate formula such as, 'Mother Moist Earth, drink and give us rain.' Similar to this, a stone may be washed and placed on the earth and as the stone 'sweats' it encorages the sky to do likewise. A young girl (presumably a virgin), as a symbol of purity is dressed in white and led into a field barefoot and pours either water or milk onto the soil, and asks the Earth Mother for rain.

In the case of stopping storms, a woman may take a handful of soil from under the threshold and throw it towards the approaching storm, saying 'Mother Earth, hold your child-calm the wind.' Soil may also be placed on the roof or in the attic in order to 'anchor' the house against lightning. Burying a burning coal in the soil 'cools' the storm. The idea is that the earth is cool while the fire of the lightning is hot.

In order to guard against draught or excessive rain, farmers would draw a protective barrier around their fields by sprinkling soil from a sacred spot. Another means of protection was to bury bread, salt and earth at the edge of the field. The placing of earth from a graveyard on a field was done in order to 'bind' destructive weather.

In Belarusian folklore, wind was treated as a child of the Earth Mother, and so a person kneels and whispers the following into a hole in the ground (representing the Earth Mother's ear), 'Mother Earth, quiet your winds.' The gesture of pressing one's palm to the earth accomplishes the same thing.

For protection against lightning, a person would either touch or lie flat on the ground and ask the Earth Mother for protection. Placing a pinch of soil in the hearth fire would also cool the path of the lightning.

West Slavic Earth Mother

The West Slavic reflex is more fragmented and less strong than the East Slavic version. She appears mainly under the name of Matka Ziemia / Matka Země / Matička Zem. Like the East Slavic Earth Mother, Her functions are recognisably the same:

. Fertility of the soil.

. Protection of the household.

. Receiving the dead.

. Agricultural blessings.

. Moral witness in oath-taking.

The Polish Reflex

Matka Ziemia/Matka Ziema Wilgotna has the meaning of 'Mother Earth'/'Moist Mother Earth'. She has been partly syncretised with the Roman Catholic Virgin Mary. Her functions are:

. Fertility: farmers bless the first furrow with bread or grain, which is a pan-Slavic practice.

. Funerary: earth is placed on the coffin, symbolising the 'return to the mother'.

. Household protection: soil is sprinkled in the corners or a new home.

. Oaths: mediaeval Polish legal texts preserve the formula, 'by the earth'.

The Czech Reflex

Matka Země/Matička Zem has the meaning of 'Mother Earth'/'Little Mother Earth'. Her functions are:

. Household protection: earth is placed under the threshold of the home.

. Healing: the use of soil in charms to alleviate swellings and fevers.

. Agricultural rites: spring authorings and first-furrow blessings.

The Slovakian Reflex

Matička Zem again has the same meaning of the Czech, 'Little Mother Earth' and She has the following functions:

. Fertility: offerings of grain or bread are made at the edges of the field.

. Funerary: the earth is invoked as 'the mother who receives the dead.'

. Weather lore: She is appealed to for protection of crops against storms.

Ziva/Siva/ Živa/ Żiwia

Although She is not identical to Matka Ziemia, nevertheless as a fertility goddess, She is the closest mythological (not linguistic) construct to the East Slavic Mat’ Syra Zemlya. Ziva or using Her Latinised name, Siva, is referred to by the German priest, Helmold of Bosau in the 12th century Chronica Slavorum as a goddess worshipped by the Polabian Slavs, who is associated with fertility, vitality and life, and was honoured with offerings and rituals. Although She is not referred to as an Earth Mother, she does fulfill all those functions. Her name derives from the Proto-Slavic root, *živa which gives us the verb žiti, 'to live', the noun život, 'life' and the adjective živa, 'alive, living'. Thus Her name may be interpreted as 'The Living One', and 'She-Who-Gives-Life'.

The cult of this goddess was especially strong among the Obrodites, the Veleti and the Rani, the westernmost Slavs living in today's Germany. Her cult would have been seasonal with celebrations taking place in Spring and Summer. There may be a connection with the Old High German goddess, Zisa but this is a minority view. Both Ziva and Zisa share the same PIE roots, *gʷih₃w‑/*gʷeyh₃‑, which have the meaning of 'to live, to be alive, life and vitality'. From these PIE roots descend the Proto-Slavic *živa and the Proto-Germanic *kwis‑ /*kʷeis, from which we derive the OHG Zisa. Both goddesses are life-giving deities, and it should be remembered that the Polabian Slavs lived directly next to Germanic tribes, hence the potential for mythological overlap and cultural exchange. 

South Slavic Earth Mother

The Serbian/Montenegrin/Bosnian Reflex

She is invoked in oaths ('By Mother Earth')The earth is called Majka Zemlja Vlažna, meaning 'Moist Mother Earth'. Soil is used in both healing charms, curse-breaking and oath rituals. In thunderstorms, people touch the earth and ask for protection.

The Croatian Reflex

In agricultural blessings, the earth is addressed as Majka Zemlja, meaning 'Mother Earth' and soil is placed in the corners of new houses for protection and the concept of 'returning to the mother' is emphasised in funeral rites.

The Slovenian Reflex

The earth is called Mati Zemlja, 'Mother Earth' and Matička Zemlja, 'Little Mother Earth', and She survives in spring fertility rites and is invoked in healing and weather magic.

The Bulgarian Reflex

The earth is called Zemjata and treated as a living being. The Bulgarian reflex of the goddess preserves earth-touching rituals the strongest; women lie on the ground for fertility and soil is used in healing. The earth is also invoked in rituals to summon the rain.

The Macedonian Reflex

 Majka Zemja is invoked in rain rituals which involve the pouring of water on the earth, and is also invoked in oath-taking and funeral rites.

Živa / Živana

Sharing the same linguistic root as the Polabian  Živa, but not Her functions, the South Slavic Živa / Živana is a supernatural figure who is associated with life, fertility and vegetation, and appears in Serbian and Croation charms, but there is no evidence that she was worshipped as a deity or had a cult dedicated to her. She is thus a folkloric figure, not a mythological one, unlike the Polabian Živa. 

  

The Sky Father and Earth Mother: the Basis of All Indo-European Religions, Part Seven, the Slavic Sky Father

Proto-Slavic Sky Father

*Svarogъ (English, '*Svarog') is the Proto-Slavic Sky Father. This theonym is derived from the Proto-Slavic root *svar‑ ('bright,shining, clear sky, fire, heat, radiance') and is attested in Old Church Slavonic, Russian, Polish and Serbo-Croatian. This in turn is derived from the reconstructed PIE *s(w)er‑ /*swer‑ ('to shine, to glow, to burn'). This PIE root appears in several Indo-European languages:

. Sanskrit svár — 'sky, heaven, sunlight'.

. Vedic Svar / Svarga — 'heaven, the radiant sky'.

. Avestan xvarənah‑ — 'glory, shining divine radiance'.

Thus *Svarog means 'The Bright One', 'The Radiant One', 'The Shining Heavenly Father'. Scholars regard *Svarog as the closest functional (not linguistic) reflex of the PIE Sky Father  *Dyēus ph₂tēr. As in the case of other Indo-European religions there was a shift away from the original, older Sky Father as the chief deity to a younger Thunder God:

. Germanic- Thor overshadows Tyr.

. Greek- Zeus absorbs Dyaus. 

. Baltic- Perkūnas overshadows Dievas.

. Vedic- Indra replaces Dyaus.

Thus in the Slavic world Perun overshadows Svarog. 

Svarog becomes a more distant Sky Father and is no longer active in the running of the world: this function has been transferred to the Thunder God, Perun, who becomes the chief deity in historical Slavic paganism. He becomes the god who is invoked by princes and warriors, and in the agreement of treaties. Svarog remains as a sky-fire deity, the father of Dazhbog, a solar deity who is the giver of wealth, prosperity, and good fortune. The etymology of His name is dažd‑ / dať- 'to give' and bogъ-'god, fortune, wealth'. In other words, 'The Giving God', 'The God Who Gives Wealth/Good Fortune'. Svarog's other son in some traditions is Svarožič, his name meaning 'Son of Svarog' and He is a solar-fire deity. 

While Svarog's significance fades, becoming more distant and mythic, and Perun rises to dominance, Dazhbog becomes the culture-hero and the sole benefactor of Svarog. He is an essential link, middle generation or intermediary stage between the two deities. The Indo-European pattern of the shift of power and dominance from the original Sky Father to a more active, younger and martial deity is a reflection of what was happening in Indo-European society at that time, a move from pastoral  and sky- orientated cultures to warrior, storm-orientated societies. The Thunder God represented power, protection and active kingship.

The shift from the Indo‑European Sky‑Father (*Dyēus ph₂tēr) to the Thunder‑God (*Perkʷunos) occurred over a very long time period from  4,000 BCE to 2,500 BCE (See The Prehistorical Sky Father Who Predated Zeus , Alexander Gale, 1 June 2026), from the Neolithic to the Chalcolithic (Copper Age) on the Pontic-Caspian steppe. The rise of the Thunder God corresponded with the emergence of warrior elites, increased raiding and conflicts, the spread of the domestication of the horse and mobile warfare. These social changes necessitated the emergence of a warrior-protector deity over a more distant and abstract Sky Father. This shift was already underway before the dispersal of the Indo-Europeans and the beginning of the Bronze Age. During this time, before their dispersal, we see the rise in importance of the central myth of the Thunder God myth, the slaying of the dragon. See the excellent book, The Medieval Dragon: The Nature of the Beast in Germanic Literature, 1998 by Joyce Tally Lionarons, published by Hisarlik Pr.

Timeline

Early PIE	before 4000 BCE	Sky‑Father (Dyēus) is chief deity
Late PIE	4000–2500 BCE	Thunder‑god (Perkʷunos) rises in importance
Early Bronze Age	2500–1500 BCE	Thunder‑god becomes dominant in most IE cultures
Historical IE cultures	after 1500 BCE	Zeus, Indra, Thor, Perun, Perkūnas take over

East Slavic Sky Father

The East Slavic (Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian) reflex of the Sky Father is Svarog, as I have already discussed in The Proto-Slavic Sky Father section of this essay. Indeed, it is in the texts of the  East Slavs that His name is preserved best. While not worshipped historically, He survives in the mythic genealogy. His son, Svarožič does not survive independently and His functions appear to have been absorbed into the other son, Dazhbog. Indeed, East Slavs call themselves 'Dazhbog's grandchildren.'

West Slavic Sky Father

Svarog's name does not appear in West Slavic sources, and neither does Dazhbog's. The only reflex of the Sky Father is Svarožič. Among the West Slavs (Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Polabians, Sorbs) He is a fire-god, war-god, oracle-god and the protector of the tribe. His name is attested as Zuarasici among the Sorbs and as Rethra among the Polabians. 

South Slavic Sky Father

Among the South Slavs (Serbs, Croats, Bulgarians, Slovenes) no names (with the exception of Dazhbog in Bulgarian apocrypha) have been preserved, only divine functions. Bulgarian folklore preserves a faint memory of a sky-smith figure. Fire rituals (kres, koleda, oganj) preserve the role of a fire-god. As already stated, the Bulgarian apocrypha is the only place where Dazhbog's name is preserved in the texts of the South Slavs. The Bulgarian Apocryphal Chronicle of 1073 refers to Him as a pre-Christian being and as a sun-related figure ('Dazhbog, the sun‑tsar'). He is demonised as a pagan ruler. His name, having survived well into the 11th century, the Christian scribes could not erase him, so they recast Him as an evil entity, although His solar character still shines through (if you excuse the intended pun!).

The Sky Father and Earth Mother: the Basis of All Indo-European Religions, Part Six, the Baltic Earth Mother

 Proto-Baltic Earth Mother

She is *Žemē‑ /*\Žemynā, derived from the PIE *dʰéǵʰōm, via the intermediary Balto-Slavic reflex of *Žemīnā. The PIE goddess theonym has the meaning 'earth, ground', the Proto-Balto-Slavic reflex: 'earth', and the Proto-Baltic: 'Earth Mother'. 

From the Proto-Baltic reflex we derive the Lithuanian Žemyna, the Latvian Zemes māte and the Lithuanian *semmē.

The Lithuanian Earth Mother, Žemyna

Žemyna has the meaning of 'Earth Mother', 'Earth Woman'. She personifies the earth, the nourishment it brings and the final resting place waiting for man. Her functions therefore are:

. Earth and fertility.

. Birth and life.

. Death and the underworld.

. Agriculture.

Consequently Her symbols are:

. Soil.

. Grain.

. Meadows.

. Flowers.

. Sacred bread.

. Beer used in libations.

Although Žemyna is the Earth Mother, She is not paired with the Sky Father, Dievas, as one would have expected but instead interacts with the Thunder God, Perkūnas, whose rains fertilise the earth, which parallels Thor's fertilisation of Jörð in the Germanic mythology. This pattern is also paralleled in the Slavic, Iranian, Vedic, Greek, Celtic and Hittite mythologies. This may be illustrated as follows:

The storm god brings rain → the earth becomes fertile → life begins.

There is one important difference between the Baltic mythologies and the other Indo-European ones in this regard: Žemyna is not married to Perkūnas, and neither is there any kind of genealogical relationship, which IS the case with Thor and Jörð, who are mother and son. In the mythology which is closest to the Baltic, the Slavic, this relationship is paralleled between Perun and Mat Syra Zemlya ('Mother Moist Earth'). The Slavic relationship is different in one aspect: the Slavic reflex of Mat Syra Zemlya is the earth itself, while the Baltic Žemyna is the goddess. This reminds me of the distinction between Erce (the goddess) and Eorðe (the earth itself) in the Old English Æcerbot. See: Erce, Anglo-Saxon Mother Goddess of the Earth

The Baltic mythology preserves the dual nature of the earth as both physical soil and a divine being as in the Anglo-Saxon mythology. The Slavic mythology however, only semi-personifies the 'Mother Moist Earth' and has a more ritualistic element, id est sworn oaths where the two entities are invoked together: 'Perun strike me, Earth swallow me.'

The Latvian Earth Mother

Zemes māte has the meaning of 'Mother of the Earth' and Her functions are:

. Guardian of fields.

. Guardian of land ownership.

. Guardian of burial grounds.

. Guarantor of agricultural prosperity.

She is both the physical earth and the personified Earth Mother. As in the Lithuanian tradition, the Latvian preserves the same concept of rain fertilising the earth. In this case, it is the Latvian thunder god, Pērkons who does the fertilising. One key difference between the Lithuanian and the Latvian mythologies is that the latter has over 60 variants of the Earth Mother, while the Lithuanian retains a single deity which occupies that function, the former preserving an ancient Indo-European or possibly pre-Indo-European tradition, before mythologies became more centralised and structured. However, these multiple variants are not separate goddesses but simply varied functions or faces of the same deity. 

The Old Prussian Earth Mother

As I have pointed out in my previous post, the Church and its military enforcers, the Teutonic Order, did a thorough job of committing cultural and physical genocide in Prussia, replacing most of the indigenous Prussians with German colonists. Not a great deal of the mythology has survived, and so we are heavily reliant upon comparative linguistics and following the patterns laid down in the Lithuanian and Latvian sources, which are likely to be very close the the Prussian system.

Linguistically, we can conjecture that the Earth Mother is likely to have been called *Semmēnā/*Semmīna. This is a reconstructed form and is based on semmē, the Old Prussian for 'earth' and the feminine suffix ‑in‑ / ‑inā, which is common in Baltic theonyms. This is also supported by the following Indo-European theonyms:

. Thracian Zemelā.

. Greek Semelē ('earth').

. Slavic Mat Syra Zemlya.

. Lithuanian Žemyna.

. Latvian Zemes māte.

The reconstructed Old Prussian theonym has the meaning 'She-of-the-earth' , 'Earth Mother'. We do know from Prussian sources that the earth was treated as a sacred being, 'Swayte Seme' ('Holy Earth'), and oaths were sworn to Her.

The Sky Father and Earth Mother: the Basis of All Indo-European Religions, Part Five, the Baltic Sky Father

 Proto-Baltic Sky Father

The Proto-Baltic Sky Father is *Deivas (meaning 'god, sky deity'), a reflex of the PIE *Dyēus ph₂tēr, from whom the Proto-Germanic *Tiwaz, the Greek Zeus, the Roman Iupiter and the Vedic Dyáuṣ Pitṛ, the father of the 'heavenly twins', the Dieva dēli is derived. It is possible that the Proto-Baltic form of the god derives from the ultimate PIE version via an intermediary step, which can be proved linguistically: the Proto-Balto-Slavic *Deivas‑pats, from which the Slavic *Divъ (Transcribed in English as *Div) also derives, meaning 'god'.  

Lithuanian Sky Father, Dievas

From *Deivas we derive the Lithuanian Dievas, meaning 'shining one, god'. His functions:

. Sky god.

. Cosmic ruler.

. Moral overseer.

. Giver of prosperity and order.

In function, He matches the PIE *Dyēus ph₂tēr more closely than either Zeus or Iupiter, who became storm gods. Like *Tiwaz, He is remote and distant from the petty affairs of man. Unlike the other gods, He is not anthropomorphised and He is not a warrior; He delegates roles to the other gods. His function is cosmic and He rarely intervenes in the affairs of man. I must point out that while He closely resembles *Tiwaz, the latter was pushed aside by both Odin and Thor due to later developments in the Germanic world: this is not the case with Dievas, who was always remote and distant. Thus, unlike *Tiwaz, he naturally preserves the archaic functions of the PIE *Dyēus ph₂tēr.

Latvian Sky Father, Dievs

Dievs has the following functions:

. Sky god.

. Cosmic father.

. Moral overseer.

. Giver of order, prosperity and fate.

. Distant but benevolent.

The Latvian folk songs, known as the Dainas, preserve stories about this deity. From these we can derive further details about the god:

. Rides a white horse.

. Farmer of the sky.

. A giver of blessings.

. A judge of human behaviour.

. Visits the habitations of men to test their hospitality. (This compares well with Odin in the Eddas).

. Father of the heavenly twins, (the Dieva dēli).

In comparison to the Lithuanian Dievas, the Latvian Dievs appears to be a more personal god, who interacts with human beings, while Dievas is more abstract in nature.

The Lithuanian Dainos are the equivalent of the Latvian Dainas, but they appear to be much more archaic in nature and preserve the Indo-European Weltanschauung in a remarkably pure form, while the Dainas preserve more of the folklore.

Old Prussian Sky Father, Deiwas

At this point, it should be noted that the Old Prussian variant of the Sky Father is poorly attested, and the name of the deity has become a generic term for 'god'. Due to the conquest of Lithuania by the Teutonic Order, the native Prussian religion collapsed and the language regrettably became extinct with its unfortunate annex to Germany. Most of the surviving texts are catechisms written by Christian missionaries.The Old Prussian reflex of the deity is still clear from a linguistic point of view, but we lack the same level of mythological information in comparison to the Lithuanian and Latvian reflexes. 

These are the likely functions of Deiwas:

. The bright sky.

. Cosmic order.

. Moral authority.

. Father of the Heavenly Twins.

. Paired with an Earth Mother.

The Baltic language group is the oldest group within the Indo-European family, with lexical items close to Sanskrit and Proto-Indo-European. The same may be said about the mythology of the three Baltic peoples. Due to their very late Christianisation (14th-15th centuries), strong oral tradition, rural continuity, linguistic conservatism, and limited external influence, their languages and mythologies are very close to the source: the Proto-Indo-European. It therefore behooves laymen and pagans like me, along with scholars, to give greater attention to their study. In doing so we may shed more light on our own Celto-Germanic ancient past. This will be one of my aims for this blog.

The Sky Father and Earth Mother: the Basis of All Indo-European Religions, Part Four, the Celtic Earth Mother

 The Proto-Celtic Earth Mother

She has been reconstructed as *Danu, from whom we derive the Irish Reflex Danu and the Welsh Dôn. *Danu ultimately derives from the PIE reconstructed goddess, *Dānu, whose reflex is found in the Vedic Dānu, the mother of a primordial race, the Danavas. She is an extremely ancient water deity, who is indirectly defeated by Indra when He slays Her son, Vṛtra, the serpent/dragon, in order to release the waters. There are no hymns addressed to Her in the Rig Veda, but She is, nonetheless a divine entity, a deva‑matr̥, a 'mother of divine beings'. Her name is also preserved in the Iranian word Dānu, meaning 'river, running water'. Likewise, on the continent, the Celtic reflex of the goddess is preserved in the names of great rivers, such as the Danube (Latin name, Danuvius), the Don, Dnieper, Dniester and the Donets in Russia. The Daugava which runs through Belarus and Latvia from its source in Russia, flowing into the Baltic Sea. A tributary of the Daugava, the Dysna, flows through Lithuania and Belarus. Indeed, the meaning of the root behind the PIE *Dānu, the noun, * dānu‑ means 'river, stream, flowing water.' The underlying verbal root of the noun is *dʰenh₂‑ /*dʰen‑, 'to flow, run, drip.' *dānu‑ is reconstructed from the following reflexes:-

. Sanskrit: dā́nu — 'fluid, drop,' also the primordial mother.

. Avestan: dānu — 'river'.

. Old Irish: Danu — ancestral mother of the gods.

. Welsh: Dôn — same reflex.

. Hittite: dānu‑ — “river”.

Just as the Vedic Dānu is the mother of the Danavas, so the Iranian Dānava are the children of a primordial water deity, whose name was suppressed and consequently not preserved in the Avesta, but the concept is clearly there, and Her name survives in Her offspring. Due to the religious reforms of Zoroaster and the elevation of Ahura Mazda, ancient Indo-European deities were either demonised or erased. We see this pattern time and time again with all monotheistic religions, which are basically intolerant. Fortunately, the same or similar deities survive in the Rig Veda, which gives us insight into the Iranian reflexes. 

It is clear from all these reflexes that the Proto-Celtic *Danu and the PIE *Dānu is strongly associated with water, in particular, rivers. As is evident from the Vedic, Irish and Celtic mythologies, She is also an ancestral deity. This is demonstrated in the Irish mythology where Danu is said to be the mother of the Irish gods, the Tuatha Dé Danann ('the people of the goddess Danu') and in the Welsh mythology as the mother of the Welsh gods, the Plant Dôn ('the Children of Dôn').

My readers may be wondering why the PIE *Dānu and the Proto-Celtic *Danu should be considered to be Earth Mothers when they are so clearly associated with water and rivers? The answer to that question is that the ancestors did not draw such a clear cut distinction between these two domains. The waters that *Dānu and *Danu preside over are the waters beneath the earth, as opposed to the waters which rain down from the heavens. The rivers themselves were important boundary markers for the tribes who occupied the land. It should also be remembered that across Indo-European mythologies, creation begins with the primordial waters, and water is the source of life and fertility. The rivers thus, are the visible representations of the goddess, and it should be noted that hydronyms are the most ancient form of nomenclature that we have, and rarely change with the migrations of peoples.

It is interesting that the PIE and Celtic Earth Mothers do not have a male consort. The absence of such a consort is quite meaningful; *Danu belongs to the oldest ad deepest layer of Indo-European myth, where origin mothers are mothers, but not wives. Examples of such deities include the Vedic Dānu, the Greek Tethys (mother of rivers), the Norse Nótt (the personification of night and mother of Jörð), Jörð, (the personification of the earth), the Greek Gaia (the earth itself), the Vedic Pṛthivī (personification of the earth), and the Baltic Žemyna (the personification of the living earth). Broadly speaking, the various Indo-European Earth Mothers all appear before the Sky Father in the earliest layers of the cosmology; they have roles independent of the Sky Father. Indeed, in the Greek mythology, Gaia produces Uranus, the sky by Herself. In the Celtic mythology, *Danu, no father of Her offspring is mentioned. It is clear that the Earth Mother is older than the Sky Father by at last one cosmological generation. The children of the PIE and Proto-Celtic *Danu appear before the manifestation of the Sky Father. It is only with the appearance of the PIE Sky Father that marriage appears as an institution. The sky is a much later ordering principle.

Riders of the Sidhe, 1911, John Duncan, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Riders_of_th_Sidhe_(big).jpg

The Sky Father and Earth Mother: the Basis of All Indo-European Religions, Part Three, the Celtic Sky Father

 Having explored the Germanic Sky Father and Earth Mother in my previous posts, I wish to take the next logical step in exploring the Celtic mythology, focusing first on the Sky Father.

Unlike the Germanic mythology, there is no single Celtic Sky Father, but the role is shared among a cluster of deities, such as Taranis, Lugh, The Dagda, and Belenos. I will start by examining each of these deities in turn, exploring those characteristics which retain the Sky Father function.

Proto-Celtic Thunder God

*Toranos ('He of the thunder') is the hypothesised Proto-Celtic thunder god, from which we derive the Gaulish Toranis, the Old Irish Torann, and the Welsh Taran. It is likely that thunder and lightning, war, protection, fertility, and oath-keeping were all aspects of His function.

Taranis

Of all the aforementioned gods, it is He who has the closest resemblance to being a literal Sky Father. Like the Proto-Germanic *Þunraz, He is a thunder deity and His name is linked to the Proto-Celtic *toranos, 'thunder', which derives from the PIE *(s)tenh₂, 'to thunder'. *toranos is directly cognate with the Latin 'tonare' , 'to thunder'. Cognates in Celtic languages include the Old Irish torann, Middle Welsh taran and the Old Breton taran.

Taranis was equated by the Romans with Iupiter (Jupiter) in early mediaeval commentaries on Lucan's  work, Pharsalia. Epigraphic evidence also shows this direct equation, primary examples being a first century CE dedication found in Dalmatia to Iovi Tanaro (Iupiter Taranis) and the Roman altar from Chester, dated to 154 CE which also refers to Iovi Tanaro. The iconography associated with Taranis are the lightning bolt and the wheel, the latter being disputed by some scholars. There are of course, inscriptions of Taranis and also images of a god with a wheel, but never the two together. While the wheel is associated by the Romans with the thunder god, we must not assume that this applies to Taranis or that images of the bearded wheel god relate to Him. Some images of Iupiter do contain a wheel and it also appears with images of unnamed Celtic gods, so it is not a symbol specific to a particular deity.

Proto-Celtic God of Sovereignty and Many Skills

*Lugus: from this polymath deity we derive the Gaulish Lugus/Lugoves, the Irish Lugh and the Welsh Lleu. 

Lugh

Pronounced as 'loo', this is the Irish reflex of the Proto-Celtic *Lugus, pronounced as 'lugus'. The Welsh equivalent is Lleu, pronounced as 'hleh-ee' and is also derived from the Proto-Celtic *Lugus. *Lugus may be derived from either the PIE *leuk, meaning 'light, brightness' > 'the shining one' or *leugh, meaning 'to bind, swear an oath' > 'the oath god/binding god'. Which one of these PIE etymologies has the strongest claim? The answer to that question depends on whether you are a linguist or a mythologist. Linguists prefer the second option, *leugh because it fits the sound laws perfectly, it explains the Proto-Celtic *Lugus much better than the first option and it aligns with the sovereignty and oath-bindings of Lugh. Mythologists prefer the first option, *leuk because it fits the image of Lugh being a radiant, shining, solar deity.

The Gaulish reflex of *Lugus is also Lugus. He is not known from any iconography, only attested to in Roman inscriptions and in interpretatio Romana, where He is equated with the Roman Mercury, not Iupiter. Indirectly this equates Him with the Norse Odin. He is the god of skills, crafts, trade, travel, eloquence, trickery, magic, oaths, and contracts. Some of these aspects are also shared with Odin. The Irish Lugh shares many of the aforementioned attributes as evidenced in the Lebor Gabála Érenn ('The Book of the Taking of Ireland') where He is referred to as the 'master of all skills', those skills being smithing, warring, harp-playing, poetry, a knowledge of history, sorcery, healing, being a wright, and a champion.

In the Cath Maige Tuired ('The Battle of Mag Tuired') Lugh becomes both a king on a temporary basis and also a king-maker. This is clear evidence of His sovereign function. Lugh's primary weapon is the Sleá Lugh (the 'Spear of Lugh'), crafted by the smith god, Goibniu. The spear, as I have discussed in the first post in this series, is a weapon of Indo-European sovereignty, wielded first by *Tiwaz and then Odin. When awakened, Lugh's spear bursts into flames, roars like thunder and shines with a supernatural brightness; this is clearly a reflex of the Indo-European solar motif.

In the surviving Welsh mythology as contained in the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi and other Welsh mediaeval sources, Lleu, the Brythonic reflex of *Lugus, is depicted as a ritual-legal hero and an oath-bound sovereign. In the recorded myths, it is clear that Lleu embodies oath-magic, dynamic kingship and sky ascent (notably as an eagle, a solar figure).

Nuada (The Old Sacred King)

The sovereignty function is shared between the older god, Nuada, who represents the Old Sacred King, concerned with ritual kingship, the law, and purity. This is in contrast to Lugh, who represents The Young Victorious King, concerned with skill, charism, and battle-prowess. Split kingship is a pattern in Indo-European mythology, and we can see exactly the same thing in the division between the old Germanic Sky Father *Tiwaz and Odin. However, this shared position by Lugh and Nuada does not appear in Gaul, where Lugus maintains both parts of the role. Thus, in our schema, Lugh = Odin, Tyr = Nuada. This has already been recognised by scholars, and it is something which I will return to in a separate essay in the future. While scholars split the Sky Father function into two in the Germanic mythology with ease, I have stumbled upon this four way division among the Irish Celts. As of yet, I do not know if this has already been identified by scholars. 

In the Welsh mythology, Nudd is the equivalent of the Irish Nuada. He is associated with sovereignty, healing, brightness, and the Otherworld. Lleu Llaw Gyffes is the Welsh counterpart to Lugh. He too is multi-skilled, a heroic king, solar and associated with magic.

Nuada and Nudd derive from the same ancient Proto-Celtic root, *snowdo‑ / *snoudo- , 'mist, cloud, haze, brightness through mist', giving the meaning, 'He of the misty brightness' and 'The clouded one/the mist lord'. There is an alternative reconstruction, *Nowdos, meaning: 'The Possessor/The Acquirer/The Lord of Power'. Both Nuada and Nudd lead back to a hypothesised Proto-Celtic deity: *Nowdonos/*Snowdonos. Interestingly, the English name for Yr Wyddfa, Mount Snowdon, shares the same Proto-Celtic root and the same conceptional idea. I would like to elaborate further on this, but it will have to wait for a future post.

The Proto-Celtic All-Father

From the Proto-Celtic *Dagodagos, we derive the Irish The Dagda, which is the only linguistic reflex of the Proto-Celtic name, but there are other deities who share the same functions of The Dagda, such as the Gaulish Sucellus, the Welsh Brân the Blessed, Beli Mawr, Arawn, the Celticised Silvanus and Dispater. It should be stressed at this point that *Dagodagos is strictly speaking a title, not a personal name.

*Dagodagos ('the Great Good God') is the All-Father, the Cosmic Provider, a functional (but not linguistic) reflex of the PIE Sky Father, *Dyēus Ph₂tḗr. 

The Dagda

The Dagda corresponds to the Proto-Germanic *Tiwaz (greatly diminished to the NorseTýr and the Anglo-Saxon Tiw, the Vedic Dyaus Pitar, the Roman Iupiter and the Greek Zeus Pitar. The Dagda is the centre of the Irish pantheon, sharing aspects of the Sky Father function with Lugus and Torann. He is the chief of the gods, the protector of the tribe, the guarantor of abundance, the master of life, death and fertility, and the ruler of times and seasons.

The symbols of The Dagda include:

. The Club of Life and Death (Lorg Mór, 'great club').

. The Cauldron of Plenty (Coire Anseasc).

. The Harp Uiathne ('The Four-Angled Music').

. The Great Staff (sometimes distinct from the club).

. A large cloak (symbolising the land) and other agricultural symbols such as a bag of seed and a plough.

. The oak tree.

. A wheel (symbolising His solar aspects).

His club is a most interesting weapon, constructed of iron, too heavy for even eight men to lift and so large that it required wheels to transport it. The dragging of the club created deep ditches in the earth that subsequently formed the mythic boundary ditches of Ireland. It was a most lethal weapon; one end of  the club, the 'Death End' could kill nine men with a single blow, while the 'Life End' could restore the dead to life. The deadly aspect of this weapon brings to mind the continental Germanic Thunder God's club (Donarkeule, 'Donar's Club') which was mentioned in Saxo Grammaticus's gesta Danorum ('History of the Danes') as being made of iron, and also the Norse Thor's Hammer, likewise made of iron with deadly and life-giving qualities.

The Proto-Celtic Solar God

*Belenos/*Belinos is the Proto-Celtic solar god, his name meaning 'the Bright One, 'the Shining One', or 'the Radiant God'. The Proto-Celtic root of His name being *belo-/*belo-s-, meaning 'bright', 'shining', 'brilliant' , 'strong light'. This Proto-Celtic root derives from the PIE * bʰel‑ ('to shine', 'flash', 'burn', 'to be bright'). Thus *Belenos/*Belinos is linguistically related to the Slavic god, Belobog ('White/bright god'). His qualifications for the role of Sky Father are thus obvious purely from a linguistic point of view. He has the following attributes:

. Brightness.

. Daylight.

. Celestial radiance.

. Purity and moral order.

. Sovereignty.

Reflexes of *Belenos/*Belinos

. Belenos, the Gaulish and Pan-Celtic god, associated with cosmic order, sovereignty, solar radiance, healing, purification , seasonal renewal (Beltaine), and protection of cities. He was equated by the Romans with the Greek Apollo. 'The Gauls worship Belenus as Apollo'. (Tertullian, ad nationes, 197 CE). Archaeological evidence from Northern Italy, the Alps, and Pannonia in the form of inscriptions such as 'Beleno Apollini', and 'Apollini Beleno' again support this association.

. Belisama, a Gaulish goddess, associated with fire, light, craftsmanship, poetry, learning, sacred skills, intelligence, rivers and healing. She was equated by the Romans with the goddess, Minerva. Her name derives from the Proto-Celtic *Belisamā, meaning 'The Most Radiant Goddess'. It is more than likely that Belisama and the Gaulish Belenos were a divine pair with their origins reaching back to the Bronze Age. Linguistically and functionally they complement each other. She, like Belenos was also worshipped outside of Gaul.

. Beltaine, derived from the Proto-Celtic *belo‑tene ('bright fire'). This festival was, and still is celebrated halfway between the Autumn Equinox and the Summer Solstice, the 1st of May being the customary date. This marks the start of summer in the Celtic calendar.

The symbols associated with Belenos include the following:

. The solar disc. This primary symbol represents radiance, light, purity, and healing. It is often depected behind the head of a deity as a halo.

. The solar horse and chariot. This is imagery which is associated with Belenos through the Romans' equation of Him with Apollo.

. Fire, which is central to His cult.

. Healing plants and sacred springs. Again, this mirrors Apollo's role as a healing god.

. City walls and gateways. This is an expression of His role as a guardian.

. The wheel, which symbolises cosmic order, represents the movement of the sun and connects Him to His role as a sovereign god. This symbol was in common use during the Bronze Age onwards.

. The rooster, which in Romano-Celtic contexts is associated with solar deities, for it heralds the dawn and the overcoming of the darkness with light.

Beli Mawr

A Welsh reflex of *Belenos, the father of Arianrhod, Lludd Llaw Ereint, Llefelys, Afallach, Gwydion, Gwyn al Nudd, Govannon, Amaethon and many Welsh kings and heroes, and the husband of Dôn, the Welsh mother-goddess. His name translates as 'Beli the Great'. He is a pregenitor in many royal Welsh pedigrees, in the same way that Woden is for the Anglo-Saxons.

Bile

An Irish reflex of *Belenos, the Irish father of gods and kings, a divine progenitor in the same sense as Beli Mawr. He is also the father of Míl Espáine, the ancestor of the Gaels. He is associated with ancestry, sacred trees and Otherworld power. The literal meaning of His name is 'sacred tree, great tree, world-tree'. Bile is not described in the Irish narrative myths because He belongs to the mythical pre-history of Ireland, a very ancient deity.

Belatucadros

A deity worshipped in Cumberland, Westmorland and southern Scotland by both native Britons and Roman soldiers. There are approximately 28 altar inscriptions making reference to this deity along Hadrian's Wall. The etymology of His name must be considered in two parts: Belatu-, 'bright one', 'shining one' , and -cadros, 'slayer', 'warrior'.

The Sky Father and Earth Mother: the Basis of All Indo-European Religions, Part Two, the Germanic Earth Mother

 This essay should be read in conjunction with The Sky Father and Earth Mother: the Basis of All Indo-European Religions, Part One, the Germanic Sky Father and Erce, Anglo-Saxon Mother Goddess of the Earth . This will help to save me from going over the same ground that I have covered in my recent posts.

The earliest reference that we have to a Germanic earth goddess is to be found in Tacitus's Germania:

Next come the Reudigni, the Aviones, the Anglii, the Varini, the Eudoses, the Suardones, and Nuithones who are fenced in by rivers or forests. None of these tribes have any noteworthy feature, except their common worship of Ertha, or mother-Earth, and their belief that she interposes in human affairs, and visits the nations in her car. In an island of the ocean there is a sacred grove, and within it a consecrated chariot, covered over with a garment. Only one priest is permitted to touch it. He can perceive the presence of the goddess in this sacred recess, and walks by her side with the utmost reverence as she is drawn along by heifers. It is a season of rejoicing, and festivity reigns wherever she deigns to go and be received. They do not go to battle or wear arms; every weapon is under lock; peace and quiet are known and welcomed only at these times, till the goddess, weary of human intercourse, is at length restored by the same priest to her temple. Afterwards the car, the vestments, and, if you like to believe it, the divinity herself, are purified in a secret lake. Slaves perform the rite, who are instantly swallowed up by its waters. Hence arises a mysterious terror and a pious ignorance concerning the nature of that which is seen only by men doomed to die. This branch indeed of the Suevi stretches into the remoter regions of Germany. (Book 40, translated by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb, 1876).

In this translation, the earth goddess is named Ertha. However, this is a mistranslation of the Latin Nerthus. I have selected this translation as it is out of copyright and to illustrate the following point: the original Latin text that mentions Nerthus is as follows: Nerthus, id est Terra Mater. In other words, 'Nerthus, that is Mother Earth.' 'Ertha' was a Victorian construction, based on the assumption (not without merit) that Erce=Nerthus/Ertha, assumed to be reflexes of the same deity.  'Ertha' also looks suspiciously like the Old High German Erda, which was a personification of the earth but not an actual, named goddess. No doubt, my readers will point to the reference to 'Erda' in Wagner's Das Rheingold and Siegfried but this is merely 'poetic licence' on the part of Wagner and is not based on any surviving mythology or folklore. Wagner's 'Erda' is a synthesis and a mytho-poetic reconstruction of various Germanic earth mother traditions. Wagner based his character on the following sources:

. Old Norse Jörð, a giantess-goddess hybrid who was named as the mother of Thor. She is a cthonic and primordial deity.

. Nerthus of Tacitus's Germania.

.Anglo-Saxon Erce from the Æcerbot charm.

. The Old High German noun Erda, a personification of the earth, which is directly cognate with the Gothic airþa, the Old English eorþe and the Old Norse jörð.

. Frau Holle, the name of a continental Germanic deity which has survived in German folklore, who has cthonic and maternal characteristics.

Thus 'Erda' may be considered a reflex of the Germanic earth mother. The noun is derived ultimately from the Proto-Germanic *erþō and the Proto-Indo-European *h₁er- / *h₁erth₂‑ ('earth/ground').

It may be helpful at this stage for me to construct a Germanic Earth Mother 'family tree' to trace the evolution and development of this divine archetype:

PROTO-INDO-EUROPEAN/PROTO-INDO-GERMANIC

The reconstructed goddess: *Dhéǵhōm.Meaning: Earth, the ground, the soil, the world beneath the sky and the wife of *Dyēus ph₂tēr, the Sky Father. As a primordial being, She was older than the male gods, was cthonic and thus concerned with the dead, maternal and associated with oaths. Being responsible for the fertilility of the earth, She received libations, poured into the ground. Being associated with the concept of fate, She was concerned with the care of the dead and the ancestors.

This root gives us:

• Sanskrit Pṛthvī (Mother Earth)

• Greek Chthōn, Chthonia, Gaia (via related roots)

• Latin humus, homo (earthling)

• Old Irish du (earth)

• Germanic *erþō

PROTO-GERMANIC

Branching off from the PIE we have the Proto-Germanic *erþō. Meaning: earth, soil, land.

GERMANIC

From this we get:

• Old Norse Jörð (a goddess)

• Old English eorþe (noun) and Erce (goddess)

• Old High German erda (noun)

• Gothic airþa

• Tacitus’ Nerthus (likely a cult title)

• German folklore Frau Erde / Holle

Like the reconstructed PIE goddess, the Germanic *erþō is primordial, older than the male gods, cthonic, maternal, a witness of oaths, fertile and the receiver of the dead. Unlike Anglo-Saxon Erce, She is the earth itself, not just a goddess who presides over it. In essence, She combines the functions of both Erce and *erþō. Her divine husband is the Proto-Germanic *Tiwaz. From what we can deduce from the Æcerbot, She brings fertility to the fields, receives offerings of grain, milk, honey and ale, and is associated with ploughing rites and healing of the soil. She also brings peace and prospeity to Her devotees: this is made clear in the passage from Germania Book 40 with reference to Nerthus. She is the goddess of lineage and the ancestors who dwell in Her embrace. The act of inhumation symbolises the return of the dead to the 'womb' of the earth mother. 

As She is the divine witness of all oaths, any breaking of such oaths would 'defile' Her and pollute the earth. The use of 'heofon and eorþe' in Old English legal oaths ('heaven and earth') and 'himil enti erda' in Old High German oaths is an indication of the Germanic tradition, traceable to pre-Christian times, of swearing by the name of the Sky Father and the Earth Mother. Other examples of this custom are evident in the following Old High German legal formulas: 'Erda zi uuizzoni' ('Earth as witness'), 'Daz erda inimo ni scal helfan' (May the earth not help him'). The earth is invoked in Old English boundary charters, homilies and oaths. Examples of such include: 'Ic swerige be heofone and be eorþan.' ('I swear by heaven and by earth.') and 'Se þe þis brice, eorþe hine forswelge.' ('Whoever breaks this oath, may the earth swallow him.'). Some boundary charters also contain curse formulas: 'ne hæbbe he nanne dæl on þære eorþan.' ('May he hath no share in the land').

When invoking the earth as a witness to an oath, the Anglo-Saxons ritually touched the earth, often by lifting some earth with the hand, thus entering into a direct contract with the one who receives the oath and She who witnesses it. Bearing in mind that these are clearly heathen practices, it is astonishing that they were preserved well into post-conversion times. One could define these as 'earth contact rituals'. Wulstan (died 1023), Archbishop of York, wrote several homilies in which he condemned perjury, such as sermo lupi ad Anglos (The Sermon of the Wolf to the English) in 1014, Homily XIX ( be swicolum aðum-Concerning False Oaths) and Institutes of Polity (No Latin title) and viewed it not merely as a personal matter but a collective one, in which the Christian god's vengeance would be visited on the people as a whole and upon the fruits of the earth. Many ecclesiatics at the time viewed the Viking raids and invasions as a judgement upon the English people for their 'sins', perjury being one of them. In the Germanic world of both heathen and post-conversion times, there was the view that society was held together by the swearing and keeping of oaths, by the King, the Church and the People, and perjury would result in the moral collapse of society and the social order as well as material disaster with invasion, plague and famine.

The Norse goddess Jörð is the same as the physical earth, jörð, not merely a symbolic or metaphoric representation of it. She is thus a cosmic substance and a divine personage, which is typical of Indo-European myth. She is one of the jötnar (giantesses) and counted among the ásynjur (goddesses), revealing her primordial origins as part of a much earlier race of gods, who precede the Aesir and Vanir. With the Norse Sky Father, Odin she conceived Thor, the son of a Sky Father and Earth Mother. This relationship in part mirrors the relationship between the Olympian Zeus and Gaia, the latter also belonging to a primordial race of gods. However, there was no union between Zeus and Gaia but they represent the cosmic order. Thor as the son of sky (Odin) and earth (Jörð) is the Norse expression of the Indo-European formula of Sky Father + Earth Mother ->Thunder God. The thunder god fertilises the earth with His rains, brought by the storms produced by the blows of His hammer: Thor is thus the protector of farmers and the guardian of man.

Nerthus (1905) by Emil Doepler, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nerthus_by_Emil_Doepler.jpg

The Sky Father and Earth Mother: the Basis of All Indo-European Religions, Part One, the Germanic Sky Father

 This is a subject which I have been reflecting on for many years, that the basis of all Indo-European religions are these two deities or deified elements, the Sky Father and the Earth Mother. Indeed, I would go much further than this and claim that this is the basis of ALL religions, even the so-called monotheistic ones. For the purpose of this essay and for the sake of brevity, I am going to confine myself to discussing the Indo-European Weltanschauung only. In a future essay, I hope to extend my theory to non-Indo-European religions, both polytheistic and monotheistic.

In order to bring some structure to this discussion, I am going to deal with each major branch of the Indo-European tree separately, starting with the Germanic.

The Germanic Sky Father

Scholars consider the reconstructed Proto-Germanic Sky Father to be *Tiwaz. There is sufficient linguistic evidence to accept this theory but the remarkable thing is that He was displaced as Sky Father by Odin and Thor (using their Norse names). The reason(s) for his displacement are worthy of a separate discussion which I aim to cover in a future essay.

The root of His name survives in the Old Norse Týr, the Old English Tir and the Old High German Ziu. Via Tuesday, His name is fossilised in the third day of the week. 'Tuesday' derives from the Old English, Tīwesdæg, the day of  Tiw. This is cognate with the Old Norse, Týsdagr, from which Tyrsdag/Tysdag (Norwegian), Tisdag (Swedish) and Tirsdag (Danish) are derived, but strangely, not modern Icelandic, although it is more closely related to Old Norse than any other modern North Germanic language. The Frisian Tilsdag also preserves the god's name but not Modern Dutch, which it is closely related to, or Modern German, but it is preserved in Old High German as Ziestag (the day of  Ziu). Despite this, the Modern German, Dienstag and the Modern Dutch Dinsdag preserve an echo of the god as the meaning of both terms is 'day of the Thing', which my readers will know is sacred to *Tiwaz. The Icelandic þriðjudagur ('third day') is a complete outlier, and this is due to the Icelandic Christian reform of the pre-Christian calendar. With the exception of Saturday (laugardagur, 'washing day'), sunnudagur ('day of the sun') and mánudagur ('day of the moon') , the days of the week were numbered. It is curious though, that they left Sunday and Monday intact! This reform was a slow development which occured between the 12th and 16th centuries with the increasing power of the Church. We see a similar development in German where Wodanstag (Wodan's Day) was replaced by Mittwoch ('mid-week'). This whole fascinating issue deserves an essay all of its own!

The Sky-Father is also reflected in names of the runes: the Common Germanic rune name, Tiwaz, the Anglo-Saxon/Anglo-Frisian rune name, Ti/Tir, the Younger Futhark rune name, Týr and the Gothic letter name, teiwa (T). The Gothic name for the Christian 'god' is Guþ, but the generic name for 'a god' is teiwa, which is clearly cognate with the Old Norse týr, a generic term for 'a god' and is used as a suffix in some heiti for Odin in the extant Old Norse sources:

. Hangatýr-the Hanging-God/God of the Hanged.

. Sigtýr-the Victory-God.

. Farmatýr-the Cargo-God.

. Hrafntýr-Raven-God.

. Valtýr-Slain-God/God of the Slain.

The fact that týr/teiwa survived as a common noun for 'a god' in Old Norse and Gothic is highly significant and provides further evidence to support the reconstructed name for the primaeval Proto-Germanic Sky Father being *Tiwaz. However, the surviving Old Norse myths give no indication of His former primacy as Sky Father. His role as father of the gods, law-giver and ruler of the cosmos has been usurped by the later Odin. His role as the thunderer is now the preserve of Thor. His roles as a god of oaths and war, He still retains, but the latter is also shared with the other primary gods. Indeed, His place in the divine hierarchy is now quite minor. The Norse myths do not preserve his original status as Sky Father but the etymology and significance of His name cannot be denied. It should be noted however, that this is not a mistake, but an indication of and evidence for a real historical development. The act of replacing Tyr with Odin and Thor was a deliberate act by the Germanic peoples and occurs nowhere else among the Indo-Europeans. The reasons for this act need to be reserved for a future essay.

*Tiwaz is symbolically portrayed in the rune of that name, which is very clearly intended to represent a spear, a symbol of Germanic authority and kingship. The shape, function and mythic association of this rune stave with the Sky Father is beyond dispute. As I have already mentioned, Tyr preserved His associations with war and oath takings. He is a god of justice and associated with single combat and He is invoked with weapons, His rune being carved on spears, swords and shields to ensure victory in combat. Only later, in the Norse period, did the spear then become associated with Odin.

The spear is seen as a vertical axis which connects the sky and the earth, as depicted by the shape of the rune stave.

Old English Rune Poem 

Tir is a guiding star, shining steadfast above the night; it never wanders from its course, a sure sign for sailors.

This verse refers to Tir as being the North Star, rather than the god, but it still embodies the qualities of guidance, direction, straightness and oath-keeping, all symbolised by the Germanic spear.

Norwegian Rune Poem 

Tyr is the one‑handed god, who trusted the wolf with his pledge.

This rune poem makes it clear that the Tiw referred to in the previous poem is a deity, despite the heavy Christian overtones of the Old English Rune Poem.

Icelandic Rune Poem

Týr is the one‑handed god, and the wolf’s legacy is his loss; yet he remains the bravest in battle.

Linguistic comparison of *Tiwaz with other Indo-European Sky Fathers demonstrates His Proto-Indo-European descent:

Greek

Zeus Pater.

Roman

Iupiter ('Jupiter)

Vedic

Dyaus Pitar

Along with *Tiwaz, all these deities derive from the Proto-Indo-European *Dyēus ph₂tēr. The spear symbolism is also present in the Sky Father of the Irish Celts, Lugus, who shares similar characteristics with Odin, and with the Roman Mars, who likewise wielded a sacred spear. The Vedic Indra, who shares characteristics with Thor, owns a thunder-spear, the vajra. The pan-Celtic thunder god, Taranis wields a spear along with His wheel. Likewise, the Slavic thunder god, Perun, throws lightning-spears as well as an axe, as does the closely cognate Baltic Perkūnas.

In summary, *Tiwaz demonstrates His status as the primordial Proto-Germanic Sky Father both linguistically and by virtue of His spear, but the mythic evidence, while present, is not as strong, due to his displacement in the divine hierarchy by Odin and Thor.

Erce, Anglo-Saxon Mother Goddess of the Earth

 In this essay, I am going to discuss the much neglected issue of the Anglo-Saxon earth mother goddess, who is referred to only once in the extant Old English literature, namely in the Æcerbot , a metrical charm recorded in the 11th century, which in fact was a day-long ritual, still performed in the centuries following the Christianisation of the English people, underlying its importance to our ancestors.

The only surviving manuscript copy is the British Library Cotton Caligula A.v. It is part of a collection of ecclesiastical homilies, penitentials, pastoral instructions for priests, medical and healing recipes, liturgical material and other Old English Charms, such as the Nine Herbs Charm. Despite the heathen elements of these charms, they were clearly considered by the Church to still be of practical use, especially the former, hence their survival to this day.

(from Cockayne, Leechdoms, Vol. III, pp. 296–302)

Erce, Erce, Erce, eorþan modor, geunne þe se alwalda, ece drihten, æcres wæstmas and eac eorþan tilþ, growende gærst and godes blæd, and halig heofones ræn and eorþan wæstmas.

Beo þu gesund, eorþe, on eorðan fæder, in godes fæder, modor, and suna, and in þæs halgan gastes naman beo þu gebletsod and geboren.

Ic hate þec, eorþe, and eall þin wæstmbærnes, growe and blowe and bringe forth wæstmas to þam folce þe on þe libbað.

Hal wes þu, folde, fira modor, beo þu grene and growe on godes fultume, fodre gefylled, folcum to nytte.

An AI Produced Translation (my Old English is somewhat rusty!)

Erce, Erce, Erce, mother of Earth, may the Almighty, the eternal Lord, grant you fields that flourish and the growing of the land, sprouting plants and the abundance of God, and holy rain from heaven and the fruits of the earth.

Be whole, Earth, mother of men, in the embrace of God the Father, in the arms of the Son, and in the shelter of the Holy Spirit. Be blessed and filled with growth.

I call upon you, Earth, and all your increase: grow and flourish and bring forth fruits for the people who live upon you.

Hail to you, Earth, mother of men! Be green and growing by God’s grace, filled with food, a blessing to all folk.

It should be noted that the full charm is quite long, so I have only reproduced the invocation part, which is relevant to my discussion. The thricefold invocation of 'Erce' is clearly ritualistic and thus the name indicative of a deity being addressed. 'Erce' does not otherwise exist in the surviving Old English corpus, so we should assume that it is a personal name, and furthermore, the name of a deity, because of the invocatory opening of the charm.

'Erce' is nowhere else mentioned in the remainder of the charm, only in the vocative case in the opening stanza. After this She is referred to as 'eorþan modor' ('mother of earth'). 'eorþan' is in the genitive case, the nominative being 'eorþe' so She is the mother of earth, not 'earth mother', an important distinction to make. This distinction indicates that She is not the earth itself, but a deity who is distinct from it and presides over it. Many Indo-European traditions have a cosmic mother deity who is above the earth itself, examples being the Greek Gaia (Earth)/Eurynome (cosmic mother), the Vedic Prithvi (Earth)/Aditi (mother of the gods and cosmos), the Baltic Zemyna (Earth)/Leima (fate-mother) and the Germanic Jörð (Earth)/Nótt (Night)/Audhumla (primaeval cow). Eorþe is thus the land and soil (in its divine aspect), while Erce is a higher maternal deity who is invoked in order to bless the earth. 

Initially, Erce is invoked three times in order to increase the intensity of the ritual act. Thereafter, it is Eorþe who is addressed directly. Erce is the mother of Eorþe but it is Eorþe who is the mother of man, as is made clear in the term 'fira modor', 'mother of men'. 'Folde' is another term for 'earth'.

And what are the origins of Erce's name? It could be a borrowing from the Old High German noun, erchan, meaning 'holy, sacred, genuine, excellent', which could make it a ritual name, rather than a proper name. In this case, Erce would mean 'Oh sacred one', an invocatory name. There are, it should be noted, no Old Norse or Old English cognates, so we can only speculate on this. There is a linguistic connection, albeit a weak one, between Erce and the Old High German, Erda, but Erda relates more to Eorþe in a functional sense. It may be that Erce is an archaic form of the same root as Eorþe, Erda and the Old Norse, jörð. This would indicate that behind these names-jörð, Erda, the Gothic airþa, Eorþe and even Erce is an ancient Proto-Germanic Earth-Mother and Her reconstructed name would be *Erþō / *Erþan‑.

The Æcerbot provides us with a window into the ancient pre-Christian Germanic and Indo-European cosmology. One can discern a tripartite structure within the cosmology, which I delineate as follows:

. Level 1. The Primordial Mother above the earth.

In the Anglo-Saxon cosmology this is Erce, the eorþan modor. The Vedic Aditi, the Greek Eurynome and the Norse Nótt, who is mother of  Jörð, fall within this highest category.

. Level 2. The Earth Goddess.

The earth Herself is also a goddess as is made clear in the Æcerbot, and Eorþe is the divine personification of the earth. The Baltic Zemyna, the Slavic Mat Zemlya, the Greek Demeter and the Norse Jörð all function at this level.

. Level 3. The earth as soil and field as the physical manifestation of the earth goddess.

The Donarkeule and the Hercules-Thor Connection

 Many heathens in the English-speaking world and the public at large are unaware of the history of the continental Germanic god, Donar and his mythical associations. They may be vaguely aware of his existence and the equivalency of Thor with Donar but that is usually the extent of their knowledge.

The name, Donar is the Old High German (OHG) for the Germanic thunder deity, also known as Thunar in Old Saxon (OS), Thuner in Old Frisian (OF), Thunor in Old English (OE) and Thor in Old Norse (ON). The reconstructed Proto-Germanic name, from which these names all derive is *Thun(a)raz. Along with the Celtic, Baltic and Slavic god names *Thun(a)raz may be traced back to the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) *Perkwunos, which has the meaning of 'the Striker'/Lord of Oaks'.

The weapon associated with the Germanic thunder god is generally perceived to be the hammer, or to give its personal name in ON, Mjollnir, derived from the Proto-Norse *melluniaR. There are various scholarly theories as to the meaning of this term, but I am not going to examine them in this essay as this would take me 'off the beaten track' of the subject I am discussing, which is the Hercules-Thor connection.

The Hercules' Club amulet began to appear in the archaeological record between the 2nd and 3rd century CE in the Roman Empire. From 2-5cm in length they were initially made from gold but later on from silver, bronze, antler or bone, shaped like a miniature mace or wooden club with small knobs on the surface of the lower part of the pendant. The appearance of the Hercules' Club or to give its German name, Herkuleskeule is contemporary with the migration age which saw large-scale Germanic tribal movements across continental Europe. A gold specimen from the 3rd century CE found in the Nippe district of Koeln bears the inscription, DEO HER [culi], which has the meaning 'to the god Hercules'. This is explicit proof for the association of the club (and its amulet form) with the god Hercules, or to give his original and Greek name, Herakles.

The Herkuleskeule was widely spread throughout the Roman province of Germania Inferior and were  found in late Roman cremations. Once this amulet had become established in the Germanic lands it transitioned into what we now know as the Donarkeule among the pre-Christian Germanic tribes. Donarkeulen have been found in graves from the 5th to the 7th centuries CE, generally made of bone and antler and often placed in the graves of women. 80-90% of the finds come from women's graves. The remainder are found in men's graves and less rarely, those of children (usually girls).

The reasons for the disparity between men's and women's graves may be due to the Germans regarding the amulet as a fertility symbol. The Donarkeule may also have been associated with protection in childbirth and household magic, which are generally preserves of the female in a ritualistic sense. Studies of migration-era cemeteries in Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony) and Schleswig-Holstein indicate that Donarkeulen are often found alongside bead necklaces, broaches and other female associated wares. In Thueringen (Thuringia) Donarkeulen are almost exclusively found in women's graves and usually as part of necklace assemblages. In the Alemannic and Bavarian regions they are predominately found in female graves and sometimes with bundles of other amulets. In the Frankish areas of the Rhineland female graves dominate the finds but a few are found in male graves, which scholars interpret as inherited or symbolic items.

To summarise the reasons for the gender imbalance:

. Donarkeulen functioning as amulets, charms and household magic, the preserve of women.

. Donarkeulen included as part of necklace assemblages, which were rarely worn by men.

In contrast to the Donarkeule, the Herkuleskeule of the Romans was also a protective amulet and in late Roman finds it appears in the graves of both men and women. It is only with the adoption of this amulet form by the Germans that it became heavily gendered.

The Donarkeule differs from the Herkuleskeule in style and construction; the majority of Herkuleskeulen were made from various metals, usually gold, but also silver and bronze. By contrast, most Donarkeulen were carved from antler and bone, and were of a much rougher and less symmetrical design. Herkuleskeulen had tapered handles and bulbous heads with integrated suspension loops. Donerkeulen tended to have short and stubby proportions and a hole drilled for suspension. They also often have ring and dot symbols, indicating an association with the hailstone symbolism found on Thor's Hammer pendants and certain Thor idols. Herkuleskeulen lack that kind of lightning symbolism. From 3-6cm in length the Donarkeulen are slightly longer in length than the Herkuleskeulen. Donarkeulen could be made more cheaply than Herkuleskeulen due to their carving from natural materials such as antler or bone, while the predominately gold or bronze Herkuleskeulen were the preserve of an elite.

While the two types of amulet have both similarities and differences, they relate to two different deities and cultures, so the question arises, why did the Germans adopt the Herkuleskeule form? The Germanic peoples of the Rhine and Danube lived alongside the Romans and inevitably through the process of cultural exchange adopted and adapted some Roman practices. The Herkuleskeule was already a widespread and powerful symbol in Germania Inferior and so the Germans adopted its shape and transformed it into a symbol of their god, Donar and their own religious Weltanschauung. 

We know from the writings of Tacitus that already in the first century CE, there was an association between the Roman Hercules and the Germanic peoples:

'They say that Hercules, too, once visited them; and when going into battle, they sing of him, first of all heroes.' (Germania 3, translation by Church and Brodribb, 1876)

It is clear from the context that the 'Hercules' referred to in Germania 3 is Hercules, the man, rather than the deified Hercules. Further on in Germania there is the following reference:

'Mercury is the deity whom they chiefly worship, and on certain days they deem it right to sacrifice to him even with human victims. Hercules and Mars they appease with more lawful offerings. Some of the Suevi also sacrifice to Isis.' (Germania 9, Church and Brodribb).

The 'Hercules' referred to in the aforementioned quotation, obvious from the context, is the deified Hercules, the god. In the 'interpretatio Romana', Hercules was often equated with the Germanic thunder god due to their shared focus as being defenders of mankind against forces of chaos. In other contexts, the Germanic thunder god would be equated with the Roman 'Iupiter' (anglicised as 'Jupiter' even though the initial 'I' is silent in Latin). 

In gesta Danorum (History of the Danes) by Saxo Grammaticus, there is a reference to the god Thor wielding not a hammer but a club:

'However, Thor was swinging his club with marvellous might, and shattered all interposing shields, calling as loudly on his foes to attack him as upon his friends to back him up. No kind of armour withstood his onset; no man could receive his stroke and live. Whatsoever his blow fended off  it crushed, neither shield nor helm endured the weight of its dint, no greatness of body or of strength could serve.' (Book III, translation by Elton, 1905)

The above quotation is concerned with a naval battle which took place between Thor and Hother. We are informed that Hother cut short Thor's club. This may be compared to the Icelandic sources which also confirm that Thor's other weapon, the hammer was cut short at the handle but the explanation for this is quite different.

'Thus the victory would have passed to the gods, but that Hother, though his line had already fallen back, darted up, hewed off the club at the haft, and made it useless. And the gods, when they had lost this weapon, fled incontinently.'

Moving outside of the world of Germanic mythology but remaining in the Indo-European tradition, we find other examples of thunder gods wielding a club:

. Indra-a club and a thunderbolt.

. Perun-an axe or a club.

. Taranis-a wheel and sometimes a club.

Another example of a club-wielding deity is The Dagda, the chief god of the Irish Tuatha De Danann, but he is not a thunder deity.

In the past, I have explored in my blogs, the antiquity of the axe in relation to the Germanic and other Indo-European thunder gods, but this is the first time that I have discussed in any detail, the club. It may very well be that just as the antiquity of the thunder axe is greater than the hammer, the club may exceed them both, being probably the most ancient hand weapon known to man. The evidence for my speculation is as follows:

. The isolated textual evidence of Saxo Grammaticus.

. The widespead finds of Donarkeulen in continental Germania.

. Stylistic differences between the Herkuleskeule and the Donarkeule. Did the Germans only just copy the idea from the Romans or was their tradition older, despite the lack of archaeological evidence to support this theory? The lack of earlier Germanic club amulets does not prove that they had no oral traditions linking the club to Donar.

. The evidence form other Indo-European cultures suggests an ancient, shared tradition.

However, there are no find of club amulets from Scandinavia. The hammer as an amulet may have developed from the club. Saxo's myth does draw a connection between the shortened haft of the club with the shortened haft of the hammer although the explanation is completely different. The Icelandic sources indicate that Loki was to blame for the hammer's short haft. It is possible that the club marked a transition to the hammer. The earliest hammer finds from Scandinavia (7th-8th century CE) have short handles and broad, flat heads.

The inceasing popularity of the hammer may be due to the strong tradition of iron-smithing in Scandinavia and deities related to this activity, such as Volundr. The hammer is not merely a weapon but a tool for consecration, used at both weddings and funerals, as well as the hallowing of land and for the ritual protection of the community. The popularity of the hammer increased and spread due to the inroads made by Christianity in the North, making it a symbol in opposition to the Christian cross: one culture's magic against another's! The hammer thus became a more recogniseable religious symbol in comparison to the club. By the beginning of the Viking Age in the 8th century, the hammer became the most recogniseable symbol of pre-Christian Germanic heathenry. By 8th century, it had replaced the symbol of the club. However, this statement should be balanced against the fact that heathenry was already beginning to die out in continental Germania by this time.

There is a misconception that the hammer only arose as a heathen symbol with the spread of Christianity, but this is incorrect. There are hammer finds predating the Viking Age from continental Germania and also from Anglo-Saxon England, dating back to the 6th century. The fact that the earliest hammer find are from territories occupied by the Anglo-Saxons, Old Saxons and Frisians demonstrates that the hammer as a heathen symbol did not originate in Scandinavia. In fact, the hammer as a religious symbol can also be considered a development of the axe, finds of which go back to the Bronze Age and continued in use in Germania up to the time of its replacement by the hammer in the 8th century. Indeed, the axe continued as the thunder weapon of choice in the Baltic and Slavic lands.

It is my intention to discuss the club-axe-hammer development and its probable timeline in a future essay. I also intend to discuss the use of the club in Irish and Welsh mythology and in a wider Indo-European perspective; this essay is merely intended to be a short introduction to a subject which I have reflected on for many years.

 

Examples of Donarkeulen from my personal collection.