mcdonald serpent bovine myth indoeuropean.pdf

8/14/2019 MCDONALD Serpent Bovine myth Indoeuropean.pdf

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INHERITED BOVINE ASPECTS IN GREEK REFLEXES OF THE INDO-EUROPEAN

SERPENT-SLAYING MYTH

by

JOHN ANDREW MCDONALD

(Under the Direction of Jared Klein)

ABSTRACTNumerous Greek reflexes of the Indo-European serpent-slaying myth retain an inherited theme inwhich cows are liberated from the serpent. In some reflexes, the cows are replaced by a goddessor woman, but even in these instances, vestiges of the goddess or womans erstwhile bovineidentity persist. The release of the cattle is marked by a reference to COW and CALF, for whichthere are comparable expressions in Sanskrit, Anatolian and medieval Irish and Scandinavianreflexes of the serpent-slaying myth, indicating that the dyad COW and CALF is also inheritedfrom the Indo-European proto-myth. The polysemy exhibited by the cows, which alternatelysignify the dawn, water and poetic inspiration in Greek reflexes of the serpent-slaying myth, alsoderives from the proto-myth. The same bovine polysemy surfaces in Rigvedic, Irish andIcelandic reflexes of the serpent-slaying myth.

INDEX WORDS: Calf, Cow, Comparative Mythology, Dawn,Edda, Formulaic Syntagm,Greek Mythology, Indo-European, Milk, Poetic Inspiration,Rig Veda,Semiotics, Serpent, Tin B Calnge


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B.A., University of Toronto, Canada, 2003

A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree

MASTER OF ARTS

ATHENS, GEORGIA

2006


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2006

John McDonald

All Rights Reserved


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Major Professor: Jared Klein

Committee: Nancy FelsonCharles Platter

Electronic Version Approved:

Maureen GrassoDean of the Graduate SchoolThe University of GeorgiaMay 2006


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DEDICATION

For Moo-Moo the Cow-Cow


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS... v

INTRODUCTION.................................. 1

CHAPTER

1 AURORAL COWS..... 6Rigvedic Dawn Cows and their Hellenic Congeners

1. Polyphemus Auroral Flocks in Odyssey9. 62. Circes Auroral Pigs in Odyssey10 83. Apollos Dawn Cows in theHomeric Hymn to Hermes......................... 94. Geryon and the Solar Cattle of Erytheia... 10

Dawn Cows in Medieval Irish Epic and Legal Literature 111. Tin B Calnge... 112. Senchus Mr.. 13

Opening Doors and Milking the Dawn Cows: Two Inherited AuroralMotifs 14

1. Opening Doors.. 142. Milking the Dawn Cows... 17

Summation 18

2 AQUATIC COWS 19

Rigvedic Aquatic Cows and their Hellenic Congeners. 19

Irish Aquatic Cows and their Tripartite Mutilation: Tin B Calnge andthe Band dindsenchas..... 21

Summation 23

3 COW AS SYMBOL FOR POETIC INSPIRATION... 25

The Vedic dki Cow and its Hellenic Congeners... 25


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Inherited Bovine Metaphors for Poetic Inspiration in Vedic andGreek..... 271. Greek i1xnhand Sanskritpadm: the Track of the Cow................... 272. Minos Mulberry Cow and a Rigvedic Formulaic Syntagm:BovineNomenclature........ 29

Expectorating Inspiration: Another Inherited Motif..... 32

Cow as Symbol for Poetic Inspiration in Irish.. 331. A dki Cow in Tin B Regamna.. 332. Band and imbas... 33

Orpheus bougoni/ain Georgic 4: Cow Slaughter as a Source of PoeticInspiration..... 34

Milk as Metonymy for Cow in Norse Myth and Greek Religion. 39

1. Mmirs Spring and OIce. aurr: Milk of the Dawn Cows in theEdda.. 402. Mnemosynes Spring and a Lactic Initiation: Indo-European

Mythopoeia in the Orphic Gold Leaves........ 443. Milk as Symbol for Sacral Inspiration in Greek Religion 464. Milk and Memory: an Inherited Collocation.... 48

Summation 49

4 COWS, WOMEN AND GODDESSES... 51

Woman and Goddess as Substitutes for Cow in Greek Reflexes of theSerpent-Slaying Myth............................................................................... 511. Deianeira as Maverick Calf...... 512. Persephone Meli/boia... 523. Klytaimnestras Lactating Breast and the Milk of the Dawn Cows. 53

Collocation of Cows and Women in Irish and Anatolian. 561. Cattle Rustling and the Abduction of Women inAided Con Ri andTin B Calnge .......... 562. Maternal Instincts in the Telipinu Myth .. 58

Summation 60

5 REUNION OF COW AND CALF: AN INHERITED TOPOS... 61

Separation of COW and CALF: Functional Reevaluation of the InheritedTopos......................................................................................................... 631. COW and Maverick CALF in Sophocles Trachiniae..... 632. FROM MOTHER: A Greek Lyric Formulaic Syntagm and Its


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Zoomorphic Context. 643. COW, CALF and a Bovine Funerary Rite inAided nfir ifi..... 69

Mother and Offspring: Theomorphic and Anthropomorphic Variations onthe Inherited Topos... 71

1. Demeter and Persephone... 712. Klytaimnestra and Orestes.... 723. MaternalManiain Dionysian Cult... 73

Summation 74

CONCLUSION. 75

REFERENCES..... 80


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INTRODUCTION

Mythological traditions of Indo-European (IE) origin, including that of ancient Greece, exhibit

reflexes of an inherited narrative referred to as the serpent-slaying myth. The proto-myth is

thus called because of the event at its climax, at which the hero slays his opponent. As Calvert

Watkins has capaciously demonstrated, the proto-myth expressed this climactic act by means of

the syntagm SLAY SERPENT, for which precise etyma can be reconstructed. SLAY is

expressed by means of the marked root IE *g

w

hen-, and the SERPENT is identified by means thelexeme IE *h3og

whi-/ *angwo-.

The syntagm SLAY SERPENT is perfectly reflected in Rigvedic Sanskrit hann (

mcdonald serpent bovine myth indoeuropean.pdf

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