Indo-European

INDO-EUROPEAN. - They are the peoples speaking Latin, Greek, Germanic, Celtic, Baltic, Slavic, Indian and Persian.

I. GENERAL OUTLINE

The name of the Indo-Europeans is of relatively recent date. Only at the beginning of the 19th century was the sensational discovery made that most of the European languages, namely Latin, Greek, Germanic, Celtic, Baltic and Slavic, are related to one another and are also related to Indian and Persian in Asia. The discoverer of this affinity was the celebrated German scholar Franz Bopp, who in 1816 called the peoples to whom these languages belong Indo-Europeans. They all derive from a common source, which had already existed from very remote times, and is therefore called the Indo-European primitive language (Ursprache), or their fundamental language. Of the original Indo-European language there is no direct information, nor has it been possible to establish indisputably the geographical region in which the peoples who spoke it were settled. In fact, western and southern Europe, Asia Minor, Iran and India cannot be considered as the homeland of the Indo-Europeans, because these territories were occupied by them after their migration from the common place of origin. Linguistics, prehistory and ethnology are more or less in agreement in affirming that the formation of the Indo-European linguistic type must have taken place in a vast territory which extended, roughly, from the North Sea to the Caspian Sea. This primitive Indo-European language was not unitary, but a complex of various elements mixed together, which began to exist toward the end of the Neolithic. The Indo-European peoples too were formed from a mixture with strata of pre-Indo-European population or of non-Indo-European origin.

There are several sciences that allow us to know something of the culture of the primitive Indo-European people (Urvolk), and the first among them is linguistics. From the comparative study of the words belonging to the individual Indo-European languages it seeks out a body of terms from the common fundamental language, so as to be able to give an idea of this primitive people. For example, the Greek term sīšōqai "I feel a religious fear", a term that derives from aizdomai, finds a counterpart in ancient Indian, in Italic, in Germanic and perhaps also in Illyrian. One may therefore reasonably suppose that the Indo-Europeans, before their migration, already had the idea of religious fear, since they had a word to express it (this is the so-called "linguistic palaeontology", dealt with 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 found, more or less present, words with the suffix -tu-, the formation of which evidently goes back to the time before the diaspora, that is, to around the 3rd millennium B.C. The suffix -tu- can be considered as a variant of the so-called sacral element n, to which F. Specht devoted a note in Die Sprache (1 [1949], p. 43 ff.). In no Indo-European language are the formations of -tu- as numerous as in Latin, so that with the Latin material several groups of meanings can be distinguished.

1. Group 1: divine worship and justice

a) First of all, the preference of the suffix -tu- is clear in expressions that refer to the mutual relation between gods and men and to the cult of the dead: the word cultus, coming from colere, originally meant a ritual action, that is, the taking possession of the land, which was carried out with a solemn circuit or ploughing around a piece of land; ritus = religious ceremony, ordinarily sacred; mactatus and sacrificatus = sacrifice; incensus (here -sus instead of -tus, cf. Stolz-Leumann [v. bibl.], p. 341) = incense; amictus = outer garment; cinctus = sacred belt; castus = sacral continence; precatus, oratus = prayer, supplication; gestus = the gestures of prayer; saltus, saltatus = the dance of worship, etc.; also in the names of the gods, e.g., Consus from Cond-tus (the sign * indicates a reconstructed and not transmitted 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 noted in monitus, especially in the ablative in phrases such as monitu Fortunae, monitu deorum, etc.; fatus = prediction; hinnitus = neighing of horses; defectus = the darkening (of the stars); terrae motus = earthquake; fulminis ictus = kindling lightning; tonitrus = thunder: this term comes, according to Brugmann (v. bibl., II, 1, pp. 385, 440), from a fusion of tonitu, thunder, with tonetro; nutus = the nodding of the head, the granting of a prayer.

b) To the cult of the dead refers planctus = the lamentations for the dead; furthermore pugilatus = boxing at the funeral of a dead man, as well as caestus = the (combat) straps used in boxing. Also lusus, risus and ludificatus may have had a relation to the cult of the dead, as H. Fluck (v. bibl., p. 29 ff.) and Fr. Dölger (v. bibl., p. 80 ff.) hold.

c) Since the language of the magistrate and of justice, especially in the most ancient period of time, cannot be separated from the liturgical language, as E. Norden (v. bibl., p. 12) holds, the suffix -tu- in ambitus, arbitratus, census, exercitus, magistratus, scitus, senatus, etc. is explained without further ado. Here also belongs the term for indicating the cry for help = quirittatus.

d) As in the cult of the dead, from the most ancient times, it was customary to hold funerals with combats on the tomb of the dead man, so too in the cult of the gods a feast could be added, which also had a religious character, so that even in this field words with the suffix -tu-are represented in great number: conventus = gathering of the feast, and mercatus = market, belong to the same group; cursus = the race of competition, has a cultic background, and in the representation of the dramatic action = fabellarum actus special importance was given to gesticulation = gestus and vultus, in which acclamations and applause = plausus and assensus were not spared. The preparation of the feast, the festal garment, the arrangement of the hair, etc. are expressed by the suffix -tu-in paratus, apparatus, ornatus, comptus, praetectus, etc.

e) Looking beyond Latin, one will find that in Greek the formations of -tu-are not as numerous as in Latin, but - and this not by chance - among the formations of this kind, relatively few, there is found a certain number which, just as in Latin, refers to the juridical-cultic sphere; ἄγιατός = ritus in Callimachus (Act., I, 1, 3) is a word of the sacral language; the Locrian name of the month Ἀράτως presupposes a feminine abstract *ἄρατός = cultivation of the fields, and a neuter name of the feast Ἀράτυς (= feast of the fields. Regarding βαλλητός = act of ritual purification, excellent information from S. Eitrem (v. bibl., p. 290). For the juridical field one may compare, e.g., the compounds of the suffix -tu- (= verbauter tu-Stamm) in the Homeric μάρτυρος = witness and the evidences of the law of Gortyn ἀμφαντός = adoption and ὄνυστός = marriage. To the festal representations, connected with the cult of the gods, certainly belongs ξιφαστός = the sword dance; parallel to the Latin ritus is the γελαστός, which is found in Callimachus (Hymna, IV, 324).

Also from ancient Indian one can derive parallels to the sacral themes in -tu-of Latin and of the other Indo-European languages, thus gātā, which belongs principally to the priestly language of the Ḥeveda in the meaning of "way of heaven", "way of immortality", "way opened for sacrifice and prayer", etc. There is, furthermore, the ancient ytā = time of sacrifice; then sotu = to press the soma, and vahatā = nuptial procession, marriage; this term is very important from the historico-cultural aspect.

In Germanic, the method used by Gerckens chiefly helps, that is, of deducing indirectly the prior existence of the suffixes -tu-in the words anstu = divine grace, slahtu = to kill, hence sacrifice, hlauftu = course, whose sacral meaning must be deduced from the compounds brutloufi = marriage (Old High German); the Gothic leijus = cider with respect to the sacral character of the banquets, at which the Indo-Europeans ate and drank, demonstrated by Specht (Zeitschr. f. sergi. Sprachforsch., 64 [1937], p. 15 ff.). Of the juridical language one may compare the theme in -tu- rehtu-, Old Norse; rétr = right; Old Norse vātr = witness from wah-tus, from the root ueh- = to speak; the Gothic hluftus = thief, kustus = examination, proof, etc. The cult of the dead is represented by the Germanic * graftu = burial, sepulture.

Of Celtic one may compare the Old Irish recht = right, an ancient theme in -tu-, as well as the Old Irish mess = judgment from med-tu and the Old Irish écht presupposes an anktu-or yktu or enktu = homicide (Pokorny [v. bibl.], p. 45).

f) Therefore already in the time when the Indo-Europeans lived together, there was a suffix -tu-, which was used in the language of worship and of law to distinguish it from the rest of the linguistic material. Among the Indo-Europeans there existed, therefore, already for a long time the idea of the distinction of the sacred and the profane, together with a belief in God. The divinity was addressed with prayer and sacrifice, in which determined ceremonies were observed. It is very interesting to note the close connection of law, of the state order and of religion, which in part was already affirmed in the time of the common language.

2. Group II: The vicissitudes of nature

a) The vicissitudes of nature, especially the being born, the growing and the passing away of every life: satus = the sowing, the generation; subartus = the slow origin; auctus = the growth; eventus = originally the good germination and growth of the fruits of the field; proventus = the growing; profectus = increase, progress; conceptus = the conception; partus = the giving birth; fetus = the fetus; fotus = the natural heat, the brooding; incubitus = the lying upon, the brooding; amplexus, circumplexus, accubitus = conjugal embrace; natus = the birth; abortus = abortion; the five senses: aspectus, auditus, tactus, odoratus, gustatus. Death: abitus, exitus, excessus. Inorganic nature: the rising and the setting of the stars: ortus, occasus; their cyclic movement: matus, meatus, cursus; their eclipses: defectus, etc.

Of Greek one may compare especially φίτυ = sprout, φίτυς = generator.

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- = growing.

Germanic hands down Gothic wahstus = growth; Gothic daufus = death, and Gothic flōdus = flow, flood. Celtic: Old Irish iruth = river, a neuter theme in -tu-; drucht = dewdrop, 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'αὐτοματισμόν, that is, without the concurrence of man (cf. Cicero, Orat., I, 28, 127: « ea quae nobis non possumus fingere, facies, vultus, sonus »). Man finds himself before a mysterious order, independent of his intervention, and the cosmogonies of primitive peoples show, as one can see by glancing at the indexes of the monumental work of Fr. W. Schmidt Der Ursprung der Gottesidee under the entries Schöpfung, Schöpfer etc., that prehistoric man does not appear here without the idea of a creator Being (cf. Peuckert, in HDA, Nachträge, p. 276). In itself "nature," as such, was not the object of a religious cult, but rather the supernatural power that stands behind the natural process (A. Müller [v. bibl.], p. 269). The linguistic reflection of this mentality is the Indo-European suffix -tu-, which in itself is clearly characterized as an element concerning a supernatural Being. Therefore one can with good conscience subscribe to the following words of Seeliger: « In Indo-European religion, insofar as we can deduce it, there appears in the foreground the God of Heaven, Djéus, the generator of gods and men and the creator of every life » (v. bibl., p. 439). In the style of the Greek hymns the idea of creation is well manifested: God has created everything, all the gods, all men, everything that is on earth (cf. Keyshner [v. bibl.], p. 50 and especially p. 14 against v. Wilamovitz, who wants to deny "this principle of the world" to archaic times; other things on this point can be found in C. C. Scharbau, Die Idee der Schöpfung, v. bibl., 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. βρατός = food; δατός = meal, banquet; ἐδητός = eating, foods.

Aryan and Celtic are represented by ancient Indian pitū-f, Avestan pitū-f = nourishment, food; Old Irish ith, Old Welsh it = frumentum, from ancient Celtic * (p)itus.

b) The creator God is also God the father. Foods, drinks and clothing are gifts of the Supreme Being. Compare the proverb of the Bhil in Koppers (v. bibl., 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," in which finally it is said: « And do not remove us from grain and from clothing ». The Greek hymn too knows the prayer for daily bread, as can be seen in K. Keyshner (v. bibl., p. 147). Also for W. Porzig (v. bibl., p. 339) the sacral meaning of the suffix -tu- in pitus* = nourishment, is « clear without further ado ».

4. Group IV: arts and crafts

a) Arts and crafts: cantus = gift of song; actus = movement of the actor; gestus = gesticulations; venatus = hunting; captus = capture, game, the gift of understanding, intelligence; cf. intellectus, intinctus, memoratus; metus = fabric; textus = weaving, interweaving; ductus = direction, guidance; testu = earthen vessel.

In Greek: ἀγορτῶς = gift of speech, eloquence; φραστῶς = reflecting, considering; ἀφραστῶς = lack of judgment; κιθαριστῶς = playing the cithara, the art of playing the cithara; ὀρχηστῶς = dancing, the art of dance; ἀκοντιστῶς = hurling javelins; ἀκοντιστῶς = the art of shooting arrows; τανωστῶς = the drawing of the bow, etc.; ἀρτῶς = conjunction (ἀρτῶ = I fit); Latin artus = joint, 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 = woof of the weaving, and moreover vástu = dwelling. In this group too we are dealing with gifts of God; God thereby shows himself to be the God of help 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 held to be the producer of the most important tools. Even the use of the spiritual tool of language is for the most part referred directly to the Supreme Being or to some culture hero charged by him. Thus the Greeks too had their bearers of culture: Hephaestus taught men the arts and crafts; Athena introduced the construction of the chariot; Apollo is held to be the inventor of the medical art, and Hermes taught the use of language (cf. K. Keyshner, v. bibl., p. 161). In the Odyssey, VIII, 167 ff. it is clearly stated that eloquence is a gift of God, which is not granted to all: « 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, moreover also otherwise demonstrated, of the suffix -tu- in adflatus = breath with the adjective divinus. Here too one can refer to an agreement with Porzig (v. bibl.) who on p. 339 says of uastu = inhabited and artus = joint, that they are concepts « in which there is always the idea of superior protection and superior help ». For this whole group of words compare also L. Bieler (v. bibl., I, p. 141) who notes that the knowledge of a θεῖος ἀνήρ is « given directly by God ».

5. Group V: spirits and demons

a) Latin portus = door of a house, harbor; angiportus = narrow passage, adjacent street; hiatus = abyss, 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 = vomit (cf. Riess and H. Diels, v. bibl.); 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 can 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 proven up to the Middle Ages. Consult also R. von Scheliha (v. bibl.), who has collected rich material, from which it results that the crossing of a river was considered as an offense to the river god, who therefore had to be placated with a sacrifice. To anyone who might still doubt the sacred (numinous) character of prtus = ford, Porzig (v. bibl., p. 339) recalls the ford of Jabbok and Viśvamitra's crossing of the Vipás and Sutudri (Rgveda, III, 33). Hiatus = fissure, abyss is explained in the gloss by vorago = chasm, abyss; this, however, is a personification of swallowing, devouring, so that even in the fissure of the hiatus a demonic being was fancifully seen. All that happens in man, therefore all involuntary signs and indications in his own body, such as sneezing, yawning, snoring, etc., are regarded as influences of a demon, whence the presence of the suffix -tu- in the Latin words haesitatus, vomitus is explained. The god Saviior seems to be of importance, the god "arouser" or "stimulator," mentioned by H. Oldenberg (Rel. d. Veda, 2nd ed., Stuttgart 1917, p. 63), a god to whom one turns in prayer to obtain illumination and inspiration. From this light can also be thrown on the Latin impulsus, impetus-incitus, hortatus, iussus, etc. On these personifications of an abstract idea, consult Altheim (Röm. Religionsgeschichte, II, Berlin 1932, p. 125).

6. Group VI: superstition

a) Ululatus = war cry; crepitus aeris = infernal din; vinctus = bond, tie; nexus = connection, interweaving; tonsus = the cutting of hair, shearing; nuptus = veiling, marriage; tritus = threshing, the threshing of the harvest; muletus = milking, the milking; mictus = minctus = urine; etc. Old Indian yáta = magic, magician.

b) A magical influence over the enemy was customarily attributed to the war cry (cf. Caesar, Bell. Hisp., 31 and Bell. civ., III, 92). The infernal din "Qualis in defectu lunae... cieri solet" is well known (Livy, XXVI, 5). On the "magical binding" (magic of binding) one may consult, besides J. Scheffelowitz (see bibl., p. 17) and E. Norden (see bibl., pp. 263, 292), also v. Lübtow, Zeitschr. d. Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte, Rom. Abt., 56 [1936], p. 248. For the other words cited, consult the bibliography in HDA in the relevant articles, and for nuptus A. Ernout-A. Meillet (see bibl.), p. 683 ff.

III. CONCLUSION

On the basis of the material reported here it can be stated that the Indo-Europeans of prehistoric times were certainly not materialists. All six groups of words that have been established above refer fundamentally to the supernatural and the suprasensible. Language also provides proof in other ways that among the Indo-Europeans, already in the most ancient times of their primordial community, the sense of the distinction between the earthly and the heavenly had developed and taken shape. The designation of God — Old Latin deivus, Old Norse tivar, Lithuanian diévas, Old Indian déva — means simply "the heavenly one," and its counterpart homo is "the earthly one." Precisely this opposition of the earthly here below and the heavenly beyond remained, according to K. Brugmann (Indogerman. Forsch., 17 [1904-1905], p. 171), "a favorite idea common to all the Indo-Europeans from primordial Indo-European times onward." The word for "man" as "the earthly one" is derived from the word for "earth" with the root ghem-, ghom-, ghm-, hence the Latin homo and hemo, the Gothic guma, the Lithuanian žmogus, and here also belongs the Old Irish duine = man, derived from primitive Celtic donio = from an Indo-European ghdma (= Greek χθόνος). The Greeks and Armenians express the opposition between "man" and "God" with "mortal" : "Immortal" (cf. Specht, Zeitschr. f. vergl. Sprachf., 66 [1939], p. 50 f.), hence the Greek βροτῶς, the Armenian mard, and the Greek ἄμβροτος, ἀθάνατος*. The vision of reality among the Indo-Europeans of prehistory did not comprise only what can be seen and touched, and it would have been, as M. Kingsley says, in C. Dawson (v. bibl., p. 71), a truly great effort for them to think of pure matter alone.

The eventful history of the -tu- stems in Latin is still obscure. There is, however, a fixed point of departure in that the origin of these formations must certainly be sought in the sacral-juridical sphere, so that these words were in themselves fundamental elements of elevated language. The -tu- formations, despite manifold profanations, have never entirely disowned this origin, and if the Latin language, chiefly because of its use as the liturgical language of the Roman Catholic Church, can be called a "sacred" language, the -tu- formations of venerable antiquity participate in this. Already in pagan times the Latin language holds a place of honor among the Indo-European languages in that it, together with Indo-Iranian, has in a special way faithfully preserved the ancient Indo-European sacral linguistic treasure (cf. I. Vendryès, in Mémoires de la Société de ling. de Paris, 20 [1918], p. 263 f.). So that D. Heine, wishing to characterize the Latin language, was not just toward the populus religiosissimus when he one-sidedly fixes the activity of the Roman people solely under the military, juridical and political aspect (cf. Stolz-Schmalz, Geschichte der lateinischen Sprache [v. bibl.], p. 137 f.).

Guglielmo Havers