Perkwunos

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Perkwunos (Proto-Indo-European: *perkwunos, 'the Striker' or 'the Lord of Oaks') is the reconstructed name of the weather god in Proto-Indo-European mythology. The deity was connected with fructifying rains, and his name probably invoked in times of drought. In a widespread Indo-European myth, the thunder-deity fights a multi-headed water-serpent during an epic battle, in order to release torrents of water that had previously been pent up. The name of his weapon, *meld-n-, which denoted both 'lightning' and 'hammer', can be reconstructed from the attested traditions.

Perkwunos was often associated with oaks, probably because such tall trees are frequently struck by lightning, and his realm located in the wooded mountains, *per-kwun-iyo. A term for the sky, *h₂ekmōn, apparently denoted a 'heavenly vault of stone', but also 'thunderbolt' or 'stone-made weapon', in which case it was sometimes also used to refer to the thunder-god's weapon.

Contrary to other deities of the Proto-Indo-European pantheon, such as *Dyēus (the sky-god), or *H2éwsōs (the dawn-goddess), widely accepted cognates stemming from the theonym *Perkwunos are only attested in Western Indo-European traditions. The linguistic evidence for the worship of a thunder-god under the name Perkwunos as far back as Proto-Indo-European times (4500–2500 BC) is therefore less secured.[1]

Name[]

Etymology[]

The name *Perkwunos is generally regarded as stemming from the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) verbal root *per- ('to strike').[1][2] An alternative etymology is the PIE noun *pérkʷus ('the oak'),[3] attached to the divine nomenclature *-nos ('master of').[4] Various cognates can be found in the Latin oak-nymphs Querquetulanae (from quercus 'oak-tree'),[2][5] the Germanic *ferhwaz ('oak'),[6] the Gaulish erc- ('oak') and Quaquerni (a tribal name),[7][5] the Punjabi pargāi ('sacred oak'),[8] and perhaps in the Greek spring-nymph Herkyna.[9][10]

The theonym *Perkwunos thus either meant 'the Striker' or 'the Lord of Oaks'.[11][12] A theory uniting those two etymologies has been proposed in the mythological association of oaks with thunder, suggested by the frequency with which such tall trees are struck by lightning.[13][3][7]

The noun*perkwunos also gave birth to a group of cognates for the ordinary word 'thunder', such as in Old Prussian percunis, Russian perúny (perunъ), Latvian pērkauns ('thunderbolt'), or Lithuanian perkūnas ('thunder') and perkūnija ('thunderstorm').[3][14]

Epithets[]

Other Indo-European theonyms related to 'thunder', through another root *(s)tenh₂-, are found in the Germanic Þunraz (Thor), the Celtic Taranis (< *Tonaros) and the Latin epithet Tonans (attached to Jupiter).[15][16] According to scholar Peter Jackson, "they may have arisen as the result of fossilization of an original epithet or epiclesis" of Perkwunos, since the Vedic weather-god Parjanya is also called stanayitnú- ('Thunderer').[17]

George E. Dunkel regarded Perkwunos as an original epithet of Dyēus, the Sky-God.[18] It has also been postulated that Perkwunos was referred to as *Diwós Putlós ('son of Dyēus'), although this is based on the Vedic poetic tradition alone.[11]

Depiction[]

Weapon[]

Perkwunos is usually depicted as holding a weapon, named *meld-n- in the Baltic and Old Norse traditions, which personifies the lightnings and is generally conceived as a club, mace, or hammer, made of stone or metal.[19][20] In the Latvian poetic expression Pērkōns met savu milnu ("Pērkōn throws his mace"), the mace (milna), is cognate with the Old Norse mjölnir, the hammer thrown by the thunder god Thor, and also with the word for 'lightning' in the Old Prussian mealde, the Old Church Slavonic *mlъni, or the Welsh mellt.[3][20][21]

Fructifying rains[]

If his thunder and lightning had a destructive connotation, they could also be seen as a regenerative force since they were often accompanied by fructifying rains.[22] Parjanya is depicted as a rain god in the Vedas, Latvian prayers included a call for Pērkōns to bring rain in time of drought,[1][23] and the Balkan Slavs worshipped Perun along his female counterpart Perperuna, the name of a ritual prayer calling for fructifying rains and centred on the dance of a naked virgin who had not yet had her first monthly period.[24] The earth is likewise referred to as "menstruating" in a Vedic hymn to Parjanya, a possible cognate of Perperuna.[25] The alternative name of Perperuna, Dodola, also recalls Perkūnas' pseudonym Dundulis, and Zeus' oak oracle located at Dodona.[24][26]

A mythical multi-headed water-serpent is connected in particular with the thunder-deity in an epic battle. The monstrous foe is generally described as a 'blocker of waters', and his heads are eventually smashed by the thunder-deity to release torrents of water that had previously been pent up.[27] The myth has numerous reflexes in mythical stories of battles between a serpent and a god or mythical hero. The latter is not necessary etymologically related to *Perkwunos, but he is always associated with thunder in some way: the Vedic Indra and Vṛtra (the personification of drought), the Iranian Tištry/Sirius and Apaoša (a demon of drought), the Albanian Drangue and Kulshedra (an amphibious serpent who causes streams to dry up), the Armenian and Vahagn Vishap, the Greek Zeus and Typhoeus, or the Norse Thor and Miðgarðsormr.[27]

Striker and god of oaks[]

The association of Perkwunos with the oak is attested in various formulaic expressions from the Balto-Slavic languages: Lithuanian Perkūno ąžuolas (Perkūnas's oak), Latvian Pērkōna uōzuōls ('Pērkōn's oak'), or Old Russian Perunovŭ dubŭ ('Perun's oak'). The Slavic thunder-god Perūn is said to frequently strike oaks to put fire within them, and the Norse thunder-god Thor to strike his foes the giants when they hide under an oak.[3][28] According to the Belarusian folklore, Piarun made the first fire ever by striking a tree in which the Demon was hiding.[29]

The striking of devils, demons or evildoers by Perkwunos is a motif also encountered in the myths surrounding the Baltic Perkūnas and the Vedic Parjanya.[30][3] In Lithuanian and Latvian folkloric material, Perkunas/Perkons is invoked as a striker against snakes and protector against illness.[31]

Wooded mountains[]

Perkwunos is often portrayed in connection with stone and (wooded) mountains, probably because the mountainous forests were his realm.[32] A cognate relationship has been noted between the Germanic *fergunja ('[mountainous] forest') and the Gaulish (h)ercunia ('[oaks] forests').[33][6][7] The Old Russian chronicles indicate that wooden idols of Perūn were erected on hills overlooking Kiev and Novgorod, and both the Belarusian Piarun and the Lithuanian Perkūnas were said to dwell on lofty mountaintops. Such places are called perkūnkalnis in Lithuanian, meaning the "summit of Perkūnas", while the Slavic word perynja designated the hill over Novgorod where the sanctuary of Perun was located. Prince Vladimir the Great had an idol of Perūn cast down into the Dnepr river.[34]

In Germanic mythology, Fjörgynn was used as a poetic synonym for 'the land' or 'the earth', and she could have originally been the mistress of the wooded mountains, the personification of what appears in Gothic as fairguni ('wooded mountain').[32] Additionally, the Baltic tradition mentions a perpetual sacred fire dedicated to Perkūnas and fuelled by oakwood in the forests or on hilltops. Pagans believed that Perkūnas would freeze if Christians extinguished those fires.[29][35]

Words from a stem *pér-ur- are also attested in the Hittite pēru ('rock, cliff, boulder'),[36] the Avestan pauruuatā ('mountains'),[37] as well as in the Sanskrit goddess Parvati and the epithet Parvateshwara ('lord of mountains'), attached to her father Himavat.[38][39]

Stony skies[]

A term for the sky, *h₂ekmōn, denoted both 'stones' and 'heaven', possibly a 'heavenly vault of stone'.[40][41] The motif of the stony skies can be found in the story of the Greek Akmon ('anvil'), the father of Ouranos and the personified Heaven.[42] The term akmon was also used with the meaning 'thunderbolt' in Homeric and Hesiodic diction.[43] Other cognates appear in the Hittite aku ('stone'), the Vedic áśman ('stone'), the Iranian deity Asman ('stone, heaven'), the Lithuanian god Akmo (mentioned alongside Perkūnas himself), and also in the Germanic *hemina (German: Himmel, English: heaven) and *hamara (cf. Old Norse: hamarr, which could mean 'rock, boulder, cliff' or 'hammer').[43][20][40][44] Akmo is described in a 16th century treatise as a saxum grandius, 'a sizeable stone', which was still worshipped in Samogitia.[45][46]

The mythological association can be explained by the observation (e.g., meteorites) or the belief that thunderstones (polished ones for axes in particular) had fallen from the sky.[47] Indeed, the Vedic word áśman is the name of the weapon thrown by Indra, Thor's weapon is also called hamarr, and the thunder-stone can be named Perkūno akmuõ ('Perkuna's stone') in the Lithuanian tradition.[48][42][49] One can also note that Perkūnas and Piarun are said to strike rocks instead of oaks in some themes of the Lithuanian and Belarusian folklores,[50] and that the Slavic Perūn sends his axe or arrow from a mountain or the sky.[35] The original meaning of *h₂ekmōn could thus have been 'stone-made weapon', then 'sky' or 'lightning'.[51]

Evidence[]

The Hand of Perkūnas by Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, 1909. Note that Perkwunos should be represented with a metal weapon, as the depiction of the hand holding the thunderbolt is of Semitic origin.[52]

The following deities are cognates stemming from the root *Perkwunos or derivatives in Western Indo-European mythologies: