protoindoeuropean war of the gods mythology

Odin’s skill with poetry and war is linked to the fact that he is a specialist in madness-and poetry was seen as a form of ecstatic intoxication, as we shall see. It would be impossible to solve these problems or simplify Odin in this short chapter, but both aspects of Odin’s persona, dark and light, will be examined here. Odin is a complex god for the Dumézilian, he has associations in the first and second functions, possibly due to functional slippage he is both the beneficent ruling father god and a maleficent Rudraic god (and here we might have first and second function duality again, for Rudra can be located in the dark aspect of the warrior caste). Thus a brief look at the poetic Odin and his consecrations will be valuable. A number of myths cluster around the theme of Odin as poet, consecration myths showing how the god received his poetic wisdom, and the theme of the sacrificed poet is found in these myths (though sometimes the sacrifice is only partial). Odin, like Starkaðr, is closely associated both with war and with poetry. Aggression and the Defensive Topos Archilochus, Callimachus, HoraceĪs was previously shown, Starkaðr is the Odinic hero par excellence he is given his poetic consecration by Odin, as well as his martial consecration he is killed by an Odinic god. Transformations of Myth: The Poet, Society, and the SacredĪppendix B. Seneca, Petronius, and Lucan: Neronian Victims Naevius: Dabunt malum Metelli Naevio poetae “Wounded by Tooth that Drew Blood”: The Beginnings of Satire in Rome Kissing the Leper: The Excluded Poet in Irish Myth Shadows of Hesiod: Divine Protection and Lonely Death Archilochus: Sacred Obscenity and Judgment Aesop: Satirist as Pharmakos in Archaic Greece

Protoindoeuropean war of the gods mythology