protoindoeuropean war of the gods mythology

Various schools of thought exist regarding possible interpretations of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European mythology. Some myths are also securely dated to Proto-Indo-European times, since they feature both linguistic and thematic evidence of an inherited motif: a story portraying a mythical figure associated with thunder and slaying a multi-headed serpent to release torrents of water that had previously been pent up a creation myth involving two brothers, one of whom sacrifices the other in order to create the world and probably the belief that the Otherworld was guarded by a watchdog and could only be reached by crossing a river. Some deities, like the weather god *Perkʷunos or the herding-god *Péh₂usōn, are only attested in a limited number of traditions – Western (European) and Graeco-Aryan, respectively – and could therefore represent late additions that did not spread throughout the various Indo-European dialects. The Proto-Indo-European pantheon includes a number of securely reconstructed deities such as *Dyḗws Ph₂tḗr, the daylight-sky god his consort *Dʰéǵʰōm, the earth mother his daughter *H₂éwsōs, the dawn goddess his sons the Divine Twins and *Seh₂ul, a solar goddess. Although the mythological motifs are not directly attested – since Proto-Indo-European speakers lived in prehistoric societies – scholars of comparative mythology have reconstructed details from inherited similarities found among Indo-European languages, based on the assumption that parts of the Proto-Indo-Europeans' original belief systems survived in the daughter traditions.

Proto-Indo-European mythology (also known as Proto-Indic mythology, Proto-European mythology, Proto-Indo-Iranian mythology, Proto-Eurasian mythology, and Proto-Aryan mythology) is the body of myths and deities associated with the Proto-Indo-Europeans, the hypothetical speakers of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language.

Protoindoeuropean war of the gods mythology