Chapter 7. Religion and Superstition Abstract Since the Indo-Europeans did not conceive of that omnipresent reality which religion represents as a separate institution, they had no term to designate it. In those languages which do present such a term it is of great interest to trace the process by which it was constituted. In Ionic […]
Chapter 6. The Latin Vocabulary of Signs and Omens Abstract Latin is remarkable for the abundance of terms which in literary usage are employed indifferently to denote the divine sign, the omen. But etymology enables us to restore the preliterary distinctions between omen ‘a veracious presage’. monstrum ‘a creature whose abnormality constitutes a warning’ (moneo […]
Chapter 5. Prayer and Supplication Abstract Apart from *prek-, studied above, several terms meaning “to pray” have limited sets of correspondences within the Indo-European family. One dialect group consisting of Hittite, Slavic, Baltic, Armenian (and perhaps Germanic) present forms related to Hitt. maltāi– ‘to pray’; another group, Iranian-Celtic-Greek, all present terms made from the root […]
Chapter 4. The Vow Abstract The root of Gr. eúkhesthai, Latin voveo, recurs in Indo-Iranian. Latin voveo, votum means specifically “the vow,” while Iran. aog– and Skt. oh– means “to pronounce solemnly or with pride”; but Homeric eúkhesthai is usually translated either as “to pray” or “to boast.” This polysemy becomes less surprising if we […]
Chapter 3. The Sacrifice Abstract The absence of any common term to designate the “sacrifice” is contrasted, in the separate languages and often within one and the same language, by a great diversity of expressions corresponding to the various forms which the sacrificial act may take: libation (Skt. juhoti, Gr. spéndō), a solemn verbal undertaking […]
Chapter 2. The Libation Abstract The liquid offering, such as is denoted in Greek by the verb spéndō, spéndomai and the noun spondḗ, is defined specifically as the “offering of security.” Every enterprise that involves a risk, such as a voyage, a warlike expedition, but also a pact or a peace treaty, is thus preceded […]
Book VI: Religion Chapter 1. The “Sacred” Abstract The study of the designation of the “sacred” confronts us with a strange linguistic situation: the absence of any specific term in common Indo-European on the one hand, and a two-fold designation in many languages (Iranian, Latin, and Greek) on the other. The investigation, by throwing light […]
Chapter 8. The Oath in Greece Abstract The oath, a solemn declaration placed under the guarantee of a superhuman power that is charged with the punishment of perjury, has no Indo-European expression any more than the notion of “swearing” has. Different languages have coined expressions which relate to the particular forms assumed by the ordeal […]
Chapter 7. The Quaestor and the *Prex Abstract Lat. quaero ‘seek, ask’ (whence quaestor, quaestus), a word without an etymology, has close connections with precor, *prex ‘to pray, prayer’ which must be pinned down: in fact it is not only in Latin that the two terms seem to form a redundant combination, as in the […]