Split serpents and bitter blades: Reconstructing details of the PIE dragon-combat

Slade, Benjamin

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/13178 Copy

Description

Title

Split serpents and bitter blades: Reconstructing details of the PIE dragon-combat

Author(s)

Slade, Benjamin

Issue Date

2009

Keyword(s)

PIE, proto-indo-european, historical linguistics

Abstract

In this paper I present evidence for a formula associated with the Indo-European dragon-slaying myth, Proto-Indo-European [PIE] *bheid- {h3 egwhim, kwr mi-} ‘split serpent / worm’. This formula is derived via an examination of the verbal collocations which frequently occur in the context of the Vedic dragon-combat; these involve not only p han- ‘slay’, but also the semantically more specific verbs p bhid- ‘split’, p vra´sc- ‘tear, cut, split’, and p ruj- ‘break’. Not only are these latter three verbs employed in describing the dragon-slaying itself, but they also often appear describing actions linked to the dragon-combat (e.g. the releasing of the wpaters/cows), and in both cases co-occur with forms of han-. Vedic is found to provide robust evidence for the reconstruction of PIE *bheid- {h3 egwhim, kwr mi-}, which is supported by data from Iranian and Germanic. Though not as widely distributed as PIE *gwhen- h3 egwhi- ‘slay serpent’ (attested for instance in Vedic ahann ahim ‘(he) slew the serpent’)—a formula discussed in great detail by Watkins (1987, 1995)—*bheid- {h3 egwhim, kwr mi-} ‘split serpent/worm’ is semantically more specific, and therefore more distinctive, than *gwhen- h3 egwhim, thus lending additional support for Watkins’ thesis that there exists a distinctively Indo-European dragon-slaying myth, and serving to further characterise the nature of that myth.

ISSN

0049-2388

Type of Resource

text

Language

en

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/13178

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