INDO-EUROPEANS. – These are the peoples speaking Latin, Greek, Germanic, Celtic, Baltic, Slavic, Indian, and Persian languages.
SUMMARY:
I. General observations
II. Religion according to linguistic data
III. Conclusion.I. GENERAL REMARKS
The name I. is of relatively recent date. It was only at the beginning of the nineteenth century that the sensational discovery was made that most of the European languages—namely Latin, Greek, Germanic, Celtic, Baltic, and Slavic—are related to one another, and also to Indian and Persian in Asia. The discoverer of this relationship was the celebrated German scholar Franz Bopp, who in 1816 called I. the peoples to whom these languages belong. They all derive from a common source, which already existed in very remote times and was therefore called the Indo-European primitive language (Ursprache), or their fundamental language. No direct information is available concerning the original Indo-European language, nor has it been possible to establish indisputably the geographical region in which the peoples who spoke it were settled. Indeed, western and southern Europe, Asia Minor, Iran, and India cannot be regarded as the homeland of the I., since these territories were occupied by them after their emigration from their common place of origin. Linguistics, prehistory, and ethnology are more or less agreed in asserting that the formation of the Indo-European linguistic type must have taken place in a broad territory extending, approximately, from the North Sea to the Caspian Sea. This primitive Indo-European language was not unified, but a complex of various elements mixed together, which began to exist toward the end of the Neolithic period. The Indo-European peoples too were formed through mixture with population strata that were pre-Indo-European or of non-Indo-European origin.Several sciences make it possible to learn something about the culture of the primitive Indo-European people (Urvolk), and foremost among them is linguistics. Through the comparative study of words belonging to the individual Indo-European languages, it seeks to reconstruct a body of terms from the common fundamental language, so as to provide an idea of this primitive people. For example, the Greek term sīšōqai, “I feel religious fear,” a term derived from aizdomai, finds correspondences in Old Indian, Italic, Germanic, and perhaps also Illyrian. It may therefore reasonably be assumed that before their migration the I. already possessed the idea of religious fear, since they had a word with which to express it (this is the so-called “linguistic paleontology,” discussed in greater detail in the works of V. Pisani cited in the bibliography).
II. RELIGION ACCORDING TO LINGUISTIC DATA
In most Indo-European languages there are words with the suffix -tu-, present to a greater or lesser extent, whose formation evidently goes back to the pre-diaspora period, that is, to around the third millennium B.C. The suffix -tu- may be regarded as a variant of the so-called sacred element n., to which F. Specht devoted a note in Die Sprache (1 [1949], p. 43 ff.). In no Indo-European language are formations in -tu- as numerous as in Latin, so that, on the basis of the Latin material, several groups of meanings can be distinguished.1. Group 1: divine worship and justice
a) First of all, the preference for the suffix -tu- is clear in expressions referring to the reciprocal relationship between gods and men and to the cult of the dead: the word cultus, deriving from colere, originally meant a ritual action, namely taking possession of the land, which was carried out by solemnly walking around or ploughing around a piece of land; ritus = a religious, ordinarily sacred ceremony; mactatus and sacrificatus = sacrifice; incensus (here -sus instead of -tus, cf. Stolz-Leumann [V. BIBLICA.], p. 341) = incense; amictus = an outer garment; cinctus = sacred girdle; castus = ritual continence; precatus, oratus = prayer, supplication; gestus = the gestures of prayer; saltus, saltatus = the dance of the cult, etc.; also in the name of the gods, e.g. Consus from Cond-tus (the sign * indicates a reconstructed and unattested form) = the god of the harvest.The divinity also speaks to man, that is, through the oracle and through omina, monstra, portenta; here the suffix -tu- is found in monitus, especially in the ablative in expressions such as monitu Fortunae, monitu deorum, etc.; fatus = prophecy; hinnitus = the neighing of horses; defectus = the darkening (of the heavenly bodies); terrae motus = earthquake; fulminis ictus = striking lightning; tonitrus = thunder: according to Brugmann (v. BIBLICA., II, 1, pp. 385, 440), this term derives from a fusion of tonitu, thunder, with tonetro; nutus = the inclination of the head, the granting of a prayer.
b) Planctus = lamentations for the dead refers to the cult of the dead; furthermore pugilatus = boxing at the funeral of a dead person, as also caestus = the (combat) thongs used in boxing. Lusus, risus and ludificatus too may have been connected with the cult of the dead, as H. Fluck (v. BIBLICA., p. 29 ff) and Fr. Dolger (v. BIBLICA., p. 80 ff) maintain.
c) Since the language of the magistrate and of justice, especially in the earliest period, cannot be separated from liturgical language, as E. Norden holds (v. BIBLICA., p. 12), the suffix -tu- in ambitus, arbitratus, census, exercitus, magistratus, scitus, senatus, etc., is readily explained. The term indicating the cry for help = quirittatus also belongs here.
d) Just as, in the cult of the dead, from the earliest times funerals were conducted with contests at the tomb of the deceased, so too a festival could be added to the cult of the gods, also possessing a religious character; consequently, words with the suffix -tu- are represented in great numbers in this sphere as well: conventus = gathering at the festival, and mercatus = market, belong to the same group; cursus = the race in a contest, has a cultic background, and in the performance of the dramatic action = fabellarum actus, particular importance was given to gesticulation = gestus and vultus, in which acclamations and applause = plausus and assensus were not spared. The preparation for the festival, the festive dress, the arrangement of the hair, etc., are expressed by the suffix -tu- in paratus, apparatus, ornatus, comptus, praetectus, etc.
e) Looking beyond Latin, one finds that in Greek formations in -tu- are not as numerous as in Latin; nevertheless – and this is not accidental – among the relatively few formations of this kind there are a number which, just as in Latin, refer to the cultic-legal sphere; ἄγιατός = ritus in Callimachus (Act., I, 1, 3) is a word of sacred language; the Locrian name of the month Ἀράτως presupposes a feminine abstract ἄρατός = cultivation of the fields, and a neuter name for the festival Ἀράτυς (= festival of the fields). With regard to βαλλητός = act of ritual purification, there is excellent information in S. Eitrem (v. BIBLICA., p. 290). For the legal sphere, compare, for example, the compounds with the suffix -tu- (= verbauter tu-Stamm) in Homeric μάρτυρος = witness and the evidence of the Gortyn law ἀμφαντός = adoption and ὄνυστός = marriage. To the festive representations connected with the worship of the gods certainly belongs ξιφαστός = the sword dance; parallel to Latin ritus is γελαστός, which occurs in Callimachus (Hymna, IV, 324).
Parallels to the sacred stems in -tu- of Latin and the other Indo-European languages can also be drawn from Old Indian, such as gātā, which belongs chiefly to the priestly language of the Ḥeveda in the sense of “way of heaven,” “way of immortality,” “way opened for sacrifice and prayer,” etc. There is also ancient ytā = time of sacrifice; then sotu = to press the soma, and vahatā = wedding procession, marriage; this term is of considerable importance from the standpoint of cultural history.
In Germanic, the method employed chiefly by Gerckens is helpful: namely, indirectly to infer the prior existence of the suffixes -tu- in the words anstu = divine grace, slahtu = killing, hence sacrifice, hlauftu = course, whose sacred meaning must be inferred from the compounds brutloufi = marriage (Old High German); Gothic leijus = cider, in relation to the sacred character of the banquets at which the I. ate and drank, as demonstrated by Specht (Zeitschr. f. sergi. Sprachforsch., 64 [1937], p. 15 ff.). For juridical language, compare the -tu- stem rehtu-, Old Norse rétr = right; Old Norse vātr = witness from wah-tus, from the root ueh- = to speak; Gothic hluftus = thief, kustus = examination, test, etc. The cult of the dead is represented by Germanic graftu = burial, interment.
In Celtic, compare Old Irish recht = right, an old -tu- stem, as well as Old Irish mess = judgment from med-tu; and Old Irish écht presupposes an anktu- or yktu or enktu = homicide (Pokorny [V. BIBLICA.], p. 45).
f) Thus, already at the time when the I. lived together, there was a suffix -tu- that was used in the language of worship and law to distinguish it from the rest of the linguistic material. Among the I., therefore, the idea of the distinction between the sacred and the profane already existed, together with a belief in God. The divinity was addressed through prayer and sacrifice, in which particular ceremonies were observed. It is highly interesting to note the close connection between law, the state order and religion, which was already partly established in the period of the common language.
2. Group II: The vicissitudes of nature
a) The vicissitudes of nature, especially the birth, growth and passing away of every living thing: satus = sowing, generation; subartus = slow origin; auctus = growth; eventus = originally the good germination and growth of the fruits of the field; proventus = growth; profectus = increase, progress; conceptus = conception; partus = giving birth; fetus = the fetus; fotus = natural warmth, brooding; incubitus = lying upon, brooding; amplexus, circumplexus, accubitus = conjugal embrace; natus = birth; abortus = abortion; the five senses: aspectus, auditus, tactus, odoratus, gustatus. Death: abitus, exitus, excessus. Inorganic nature: the rising and setting of the heavenly bodies: ortus, occasus; their cyclical movement: matus, meatus, cursus; their eclipses: defectus, etc.Of Greek, compare especially φίτυ = sprout, φίτυς = begetter.
Ancient Indian has the important jivātu- = life, Avestan jyātu-; Ancient Indian jantū = creature, stock, progeny, Avestan zantu; Ancient Indian sūtu = pregnancy; Ancient Indian dhātu- = constituent part, element; edhatū- = growth.
Germanic preserves Gothic wahstus = growth; Gothic daufus = death, and Gothic flōdus = flow, inundation. Celtic: Old Irish iruth = river, a neuter theme in -tu-; drucht = drop of dew, from drup-tu-; tēs = heat, from tepstu-; cruth = figure; guth = voice, from * gutus, etc.
b) In truth, there is no doubt that the suffix -tu- of this second group cannot be separated from that of the first group. These are for the most part vicissitudes and conditions κατ'αὐτοματισμὸν, that is, without human participation (cf. Cicero, Oras., I, 28, 127: « ea quae nobis non possumus fingere, facies, vultus, sonus »). Man finds himself confronted by a mysterious ordering, independent of his intervention, and the cosmogonies of peoples in the state of nature show—as can be seen by consulting the indexes of Fr. W. Schmidt’s monumental work Der Ursprung der Gottesidee under the headings Schöpfung, Schöpfer, etc.—that prehistoric man does not appear here without the idea of a creative Being (cf. Peuckert, in HDA, Nachträge, p. 276). In itself, « nature », as such, has not been the object of religious worship; rather, it has been the supernatural power standing behind the natural process (A. Müller [V. BIBLICA.], p. 269). The linguistic reflection of this mentality is the Indo-European suffix -tu-, which in itself is clearly characterized as an element relating to a supernatural Being. Therefore, the following words of Seeliger may be endorsed in good conscience: « In Indo-European religion, insofar as we can reconstruct it, the God of Heaven, Djéus, the begetter of gods and men and the creator of all life, stands in the foreground » (v. BIBLICA., p. 439). The idea of creation is well manifested in the style of the Greek hymns: God has created everything, all the gods, all men, everything that is on earth (cf. Keyshner [V. BIBLICA.], p. 50 and especially p. 14 against V. Wilamovitz, who wishes to deny « this principle of the world » in archaic times; further material on this point may be found in C. C. Scharbau, Die Idee der Schöpfung, V. BIBLICA., p. 117, and in K. Prüm, An Quellen griechischen Glaubens, in Biblica, 11 (1930), p. 284).
3. Group III: Foods, drinks and clothing
a) Food, drink and clothing: esus = food; eictus = sustenance, the support of life; fructus = fruits; pastus and cibatus = fodder, nourishment; nutricatus = nourishment; potus = drink; haustus = draught; vestitus = clothing; indutus = the putting on of clothes; calceatus = foot-covering, footwear. Of Greek cf. βρατὸς = food; δατὸς = meal, banquet; ἐδητὸς = eating, foodstuffs.Aryan and Celtic are represented by Ancient Indian pitū-f, Avestan pitū-f = nourishment, food; Old Irish ith, Old Cymric it = frumentum, from Old Celtic * (p)itus.
b) The creator God is also God the Father. Foods, drinks and clothing are gifts of the Supreme Being. Compare the Bhil proverb in Koppers (v. BIBLICA., p. 126): « When something falls into the stomach, the remembrance of God comes »; and in the same work Koppers reports the prayer of a pagan Bhil to the « giver of grain », which concludes: « Do not turn us away from grain and clothing ». The Greek hymn, too, knows the prayer for daily bread, as may be seen in K. Keyshner (v. BIBLICA., p. 147). For W. Porzig as well (v. BIBLICA., p. 339), the sacral meaning of the suffix -tu- in pitus* = nourishment, is « perfectly clear ».
4. Group IV: Arts and crafts
a) Arts and crafts: cantus = gift of song; actus = the actor’s movement; gestus = gestures; venatus = hunting; captus = capture, game, the gift of understanding, intelligence; cf. intellectus, intinctus, memoratus; metus = woven fabric; textus = weaving, interlacing; ductus = direction, guidance; testu = earthen vessel.In Greek: ἀγορτῶς = gift of speech, eloquence; φραστῶς = reflection, consideration; ἀφραστῶς = lack of judgment; κιθαριστῶς = playing the cithara, the art of playing the cithara; ὀρχηστῶς = dancing, the art of dance; ἀκοντιστῶς = throwing darts; ἀκοντιστῶς = the art of shooting arrows; τανωστῶς = the stretching of the bow, etc.; ἀρτῶς = conjunction (ἀρτῶ = I fit); Latin artus = articulation, limb; Armenian ard = form, z-ard = ornament (Pedersen, in Zeitschr. f. vergl. Sprachf., 39 [1906], p. 366).
Of Ancient Indian compare tánta; = thread, and óta = the warp of weaving, and also vástu = dwelling. Here too the matter concerns gifts of God; through these God shows himself to be the God of assistance in every situation of life.
b) In various passages of the aforementioned work, Fr. Schmidt reports the information that the Creator lived for a certain time on earth with men and taught them all the arts and crafts; he is regarded as the maker of the most important tools. The use of the spiritual instrument of language, too, is generally attributed directly to the Supreme Being or to some cultural hero commissioned by him. Thus the Greeks also had their bearers of culture: Hephaestus taught men the arts and crafts; Athena introduced the construction of the chariot; Apollo is regarded as the inventor of the medical art, and Hermes taught the use of language (cf. K. Keyshner, V. BIBLICA., p. 161). In the Odyssey, VIII, 167 ff., it is clearly stated that eloquence is a gift of God, which is not bestowed on everyone: « οὐ πάντεσαι θεοί... διδῶσιν ἠνδρασιν... ἀγορτῶν », and in the well-known passage of Cicero (Natur. Deor., II, 167): « nemo... vir magnus sine aliquo adflatu divino umquam fuit »; note the connection—also demonstrated in other ways—between the suffix -tu- in adflatus = breath and the adjective divinus. Here too one may point to an agreement with Porzig (v. BIBLICA), who says on p. 339 of uastu = inhabited and artus = joint, that these are concepts « in which there is always the idea of superior protection and superior assistance ». For this entire group of words, see also L. Bieler (v. BIBLICA., I, p. 141), who observes that the knowledge of a θεῖος ἀνὴρ is « given directly by God ».
5. Group V: Spirits and demons
a) Latin portus = house door, harbor; angiportus = narrow passage, adjoining road; hiatus = chasm, fissure; haesitatus = stammering; musitus = speaking under one’s breath; nictus = winking, peeping; raptus = spasm, convulsion; ructus = belch, the returning to the throat; screatus = clearing the throat, hawking; singultus = sob, sobbing; pruritus = itching; strangulatus = convulsion, suffocation; vomitus = vomiting (cf. Riess and H. Diels, V. BIBLICA.); metus = fear; lucius = mourning; impulsus = impulse, stimulus; etc.In Greek: ἐλεητῶς = compassion; ποθητῶς = desiring; ὀτρυντῶς = stimulus, impulse. Ancient Indian hétu = cause, stimulus.
b) Latin portus presupposes an Indo-European prtus = ford, and one may see in E. Schröder (in Reall. d. germ. Altertumskunde*, I, p. 332) that in Germany the idea of a certain sacredness of fords and harbors can be traced as far as the Middle Ages. See also R. von Scheliha (v. BIBLICA), who has collected a wealth of material, from which it emerges that the crossing of a river was regarded as an offense against the river god, who therefore had to be appeased with a
sacrificio. A colui che volesse ancora dubitare del carattere sacrale (numinoso) del prtus = guado, il Porzig (v. BIBLICA., p. 339) ricorda il guado di Jabbok e il passaggio del Viśvamitra sul Vipás e Sutudri (Rgveda, III, 33). Hiatus = fessura, baratro viene spiegato nella glossa con vorago = voragine, abisso; questo però è una personificazione dell'inghiottire, divorare, cosicché anche nella fessura dell'hiatus si è riguardato fantasiosamente un essere demoniaco. Tutto ciò che avviene nell'uomo, quindi tutti i segni e gli indizi involontari nel proprio corpo, come starnutare, abadigliare, russare, ecc. sono ritenuti come influissi di un demone, onde si spiega la presenza del suffisso -tu- nelle parole latine haesitatus, vomitus. Sembra essere d'importanza il dio Saviior, il dio « eccitatore » o « stimolatore », menzionato da H. Oldenberg (Rel. d. Veda, 2ª ed., Stoccarda 1917, p. 63), un dio a cui si rivolge con la preghiera per avere l'illuminazione e l'ispirazione. Da qui si può gettare luce anche sul latino impulsus, impetus-incitus, hortatus, iussus, ecc. Su queste personificazioni di un'idea astratta si consulti l'Altheim (Röm. Religionsgeschichte*, II, Berlino 1932, p. 125).
6. Gruppo VI: superstizione
a) Ululatus = grido di guerra; crepitus aeris = baccano infernale; vinctus = vincolo, legame; nexus = connessione, intrecciamento; tonsus = il tagliare i capelli, il tosare; nuptus = velamento, il matrimonio; tritus = tritare, il trebbiare le messi; muletus = il mungere, la mungitura; mictus = minctus = orina; ecc. Antico indiano yáta = magia, mago.b) Al grido di guerra si soleva attribuire un influsso magico sul nemico (cf. Cesare, Bell. Hisp., 31 e Bell. civ., III, 92). È noto il baccano infernale « Qualis in defectu lunae... cieri solet » (Livio, XXVI, 5). Sul « legamento magico » (magia della legatura) si consulti, oltre J. Scheffelowitz (v. BIBLICA., p. 17) e E. Norden (v. BIBLICA., pp. 263, 292), anche V. Lübtow, Zeitschr. d. Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte, Rom. Abt., 56 [1936], p. 248. Per le altre parole citate si consulti la bibliografia in HDA nei relativi articoli, e per nuptus A. Ernout-A. Meillet (v. BIBLICA), p. 683 sg.
III. CONCLUSION
On the basis of the material presented here, it may be affirmed that the I. of prehistoric times were certainly not materialists. All six groups of words previously established ultimately refer to the supernatural and the supersensible. Language also provides proof in other ways that among the I., already in the earliest periods of their primordial community, the sense of the distinction between the earthly and the celestial had developed and taken shape. The designation of God, ancient Latin deivus, Old Norse tivar, Lithuanian diévas, Old Indian déva, simply means “the celestial,” and its counterpart homo is “the terrestrial.” Precisely this opposition between the terrestrial here below and the celestial beyond remained, according to K. Brugmann (Indogerman. Forsch., 17 [1904-1905], p. 171), “a favorite idea, common to all the I. from the primordial Indo-European period onward.” The word for “man” as “the terrestrial” is derived from the word for “earth” with the root ghem-, ghom-, ghm-, hence Latin homo and hemo, Gothic guma, Lithuanian žmogus; the Old Irish duine = man, derived from Primitive Celtic donio = from an Indo-European ghdma (= Greek χθόνος), also belongs here. The Greeks and Armenians express the opposition between “man” and “God” by “mortal”: “Immortal” (cf. Specht, Zeitschr. f. vergl. Sprachf., 66 [1939], p. 50 ff.), hence Greek βροτῶς, Armenian mard, and Greek ἄμβροτος, ἀθάνατος. The view of reality held by the I. of prehistoric times did not comprise only what can be seen and touched, and it would have been, for them, as M. Kingsley says, in C. Dawson (v. BIBLICA., p. 71), a truly great effort to think only of pure matter.The history, rich in vicissitudes, of the -tu- stems in Latin is still obscure. There is, however, a fixed point of departure, inasmuch as the origin of these formations must certainly be sought in the sacred-legal sphere, so that these words were in themselves fundamental elements of elevated language. The -tu- formations, despite their manifold profanations, have never wholly repudiated this origin; and if the Latin language, chiefly because of its use as the language of worship in the Roman Catholic Church, may be called a “sacred” language, the formations in -tu- of venerable antiquity share in this character. Already in pagan times the Latin language held a place of honor among the Indo-European languages, since, together with Indo-Iranian, it has preserved with particular fidelity the ancient sacred Indo-European linguistic heritage (cf. I. Vendryès, in Mémoires de la Société de ling. de Paris, 20 [1918], p. 263 ff.). Thus D. Heine, in seeking to characterize the Latin language, was not fair to the populus religiosissimus when he unilaterally defined the activity of the Roman people solely from the military, legal, and political point of view (cf. Stolz-Schmalz, Geschichte der lateinischen Sprache [V. BIBLICA.], p. 137 ff.).