Apparently there are several deities related to water, but generally the Cult of Fresh Water. Apparently, as they were a pastoral people who lived on the open steppes of Ukraine, they did not have a specific deity for the open sea, as they did not even know large bodies of saltwater. Furthermore, the common Indo-European word for sea originally meant only "swamp," "lagoon," or "still water," as far as I understand. Am I missing something? When the Indo-European tribes migrated to southern Europe and encountered the Mediterranean Sea, they needed to adapt their earthly gods to that vast blue expanse that's where we have Poseidon, for example.
>>18540679No. And not only that, at that point they were matriarchal because for them, water was seen as a collective feminine force, alive, purifying, and fertile. They called it "Mothers" or "Divine Wives." And the fact that the term is a grammatically feminine collective noun means they were the first to create the theorization of the "sacred feminine."
>>18540679How would they not have known the Black and Caspian Seas? They're right there
>>18540684Stop trolling, please.>>18540687Well... this issue is also extremely neglected, it's literally a sea. And especially considering that the core of the PIE was more "Western," it makes even less sense.
>>18540691I'm not trolling, they were very motherly. The reconstructed word H2épōs is purely a feminine plural noun in the grammar of the mother tongue.
>>18540679I'm not sure about a "reconstructed" god, but there's no reason I can think of why they wouldn't have possessed some kind of knowledge about the Black Sea, right? bell beakers had a highly developed maritime culture.
>>18540790>>18540687This
>>18540679Well, Some have also proposed the reconstruction of a sea god named *Trih2tōn based on the Greek god Triton and the Old Irish word trïath "sea"
>>18540843But the tritons weren't really gods, just aquatic creatures there wasn't a triton god
>>18540884>Triton(/ˈtraJtɒn/;Ancient Greek:Τρίτων,romanized:Trítōn) is a Greek god of the sea, the son of Poseidon and Amphitriteliterally son of two aquatic deities
>>18540887No>It would have been much simpler for Poseidon to recognize his own son… the myth belongs to that early stratum of mythology when Poseidon was not yet god of the sea, or, at least, no-wise supreme there—Amphitrite and the Nereids ruled there, with their servants the Tritons
I suspect Poseidon is the best representation we can have of this Proto-Indo-European god. Poseidon seems to have been closely associated with fresh water (i.e., rivers and springs, etc.), as we will see in the myth of Amymone, and Poseidon also ruled fresh water as lord of the waters, in addition to being a maritime deity. The point is that Poseidon seems to have received dominion over the sea relatively late (Il. 15. 190-193), which indicates that his maritime attribute is secondary; the original maritime deities of the Aegean, such as Proteus and Nereus, must have been supplanted by Poseidon
>>18540679There was definitely a Proto-Indo-European god associated with water, perhaps not the sea itself, but lakes, yes. *H2epom Nepōts
>>18540948
>>18540950Although I understand the author's mistake, the correct translation would be "Lord of the Waters," not "Husband."
>>18540952>>18540950>>18540948>>18540931Thanks for the information... so there wasn't a PIE god of the sea per se, right?
>>18540948I have my theory, considering that Varuna and Poseidon share some very similar myths and both are related to water in some way. Perhaps whatever Poseidon's true name or origin was, I think that since the steppes they already had some association and attributes to the sea. I don't see the point in them simply ignoring the Black Sea for no apparent reason, and there aren't any reconstructed words for boats or anything like that?
>>18540964>considering that Varuna and Poseidon share some very similar myths and both are related to water in some way.Which myths are we talking about exactly? I'm not aware. Furthermore, I don't believe Varuna is particularly a "sea" deity; he possesses more cosmic attributes than anything else. But who can correct me on something?In general, I agree that they would eventually reach the Black Sea and see that it clearly wasn't a river or lake, so this lack of a sea god seems strange to me, but let's give them the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps Poseidon or his Proto-Indo-European ancestor already had some attributes related to the sea when they traveled to the Black Sea.
>>18540971>whoYou*
>>18540971Varuna is weird and a connection to the sea isn't straightforward. He is a deity of the celestial ocean. That is, they believed there was an ocean above the sky where the sun, moon, and stars dwelled. varuna as a common noun also came to mean "ocean".
>>18541228Interesting
>>18541228He is associated with all forms of water, seas, rivers and springs, and is also the guardian of the west
>>18541248>>18541228>>18540971This only occurred in the Puranic Era it is not part of the Vedic canon.
>>18541248>>18541250That's not true.... In Vedic religion, Varuna is a god of the sky, water, and the celestial ocean, as well as a god of law and the underworld. Like Poseidon, he superseded several attributes of the Sky Father.>But who can correct me on something?There are some very specific parallels, but the most striking here is a myth that appears in India and Greece about how Saraṇyū flees her husband Vivasvat by turning into a mare and a swan. He turns into a stallion, catches up with her, and the Aśvins, horse-gods of healing, are born, just as Demeter flees from Poseidon by turning into a mare. He turns into a stallion, catches up with her, and the divine horse Arion is born. Too similar to be coincidence
>>18541273Ops Sorry also meant to>>18540971
>>18541273Sources?
>>18540679God of the Sea? No.But The river valley was central to PIE life. Their winter retreat. They likely had a river goddess, Deh2nu. As is often the case, the best evidence for this comes from the IE peripheries (Gaelic: Danu, Indic: Danū). The name also survives in e.g. the Dnieper, Dniester, Donets.>>18540931This.
>>18541284Also Death in the Greek and Indic traditions involves crossing a river. This post-mortem voyage likely underlies Germanic ship burials. Balts and Slavs laid their dead to rest with coins for the boatman. A Gaelic prayer recorded in the 1800s equates death to passing over a black river
White bros? Our answer? No summer for us then?
>>18541273This
>>18541277So... sources?
