Toward a Proto-Indo-European vocabulary of the sacred

Abstract

An hypothetical religious vocabulary belonging to the PIE peoples may be reconstructed through a careful weighing of relevant linguistic roots, comparative mythology and sociological investigation of cult behavior. The dualistic ideology reflected in the PIE nomenclature for sacred matters appears to embrace an existential pantheism as well as a metaphorical conflict between deities and demons. The terminology may be subdivided into categories comprising theonyms, designations for demonic beings, aspects of ritual, recognition of the numinous, and goal orientation. Space limitations have led to a concentration on nominal radicals for both the pantheon of gods and the asurian forces to which the godhead is opposed. The demonic may be understood chiefly in concepts of darkness, decay and emptiness. The deities, by contrast, are found to derive almost exclusively from seven overlapping archetypal paradigms: solar, auroral, lunar, telluric, luminescent, collateral and human. The contended analysis and classification of a possible PIE religious lexicon is suggested here as only a preliminary step toward further investigation and assessment.