Blood and Tears in Proto-Indo-European Poetics

INDO-EUROPEAN POETICS and THE LATVIAN FOLKSONGS Didier Calin Riga 2008-2012 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Languages: Alb. Albanian Arm. Armenian Blt. Baltic Br. Breton C Cornish Clt. Celtic E English Fr. French Ga. Gaulish Germ. German Gmc. Germanic Got. Gothic Gr. Greek HierLuw. Hieroglyphic Luwian Ht. Hittite IE Indo-European In. Indic Ir. Iranian (Avestan unless indicated otherwise) Khot. Khotanese Lt. Latin Lith. Lithuanian Lv. Latvian Luw. Luwian Lyc. Lycian Lyd. Lydian Mil. Milyan Norw. Norwegian OE Old English OHG Old High German ON Old Norse/Icelandic OIr. Old Irish Os. Ossetian (Iron unless indicated otherwise) Osc. Oscan OSl. Old Slavic Pal. Palaic Pers. (modern) Persian (Fârsi variant) PIE Proto-Indo-European (comprising Anatolian) Pr. Prussian Toch. Tocharian Umb. Umbrian W Welsh Others: A Accusative D Dative G Genitive L Locative Pl. Plural V Vocative NOTE ON TRANSLATIONS Rigveda (RV), Atharvaveda (AV) and White Yajurveda (VS): Ralph T. H. Griffith 18951899; Black Yajurveda (TS): Arthur Berriedale Keith 1914; Mah bh rata: J.A.B. van Buitenen 1973-1975; Avesta: James Darmesteter 1882, except Yasna (Y): L. H. Mills 1887; Homer, Iliad and Odyssey: Samuel Butler 1898-1900; Hesiod (and “Hesiod”): G. W. Most 2006-2007; Epic Fragments, “Homeric” Hymns and Epigrams: M. L. West 2003; Aeschylus: A. H. Sommerstein 2008; Alcaeus, Alcman, Anacreon, Bacchylides, Corinna, Praxilla, Stesichorus, Timotheus, Scolia and Anonymous Fragments: D. A. Campbell 1982-1993; Alexander of Aetolia, Hermesianax: J.L. Lightfoot 2009; Apollonius Rhodius, Pindar: William H. Race 2008 and 1991 resp.; Callimachus, fragments: C. A. Trypanis 1958; Callimachus, Hymns and Epigrams, Aratus, Lycophron: G. R. Mair 1921; Euripides: David Kovacs 1994-2002; Mimnermus, Theognis: D. E. Gerber 1999; Nonnus: W. H. D. Rouse 1940; Ovid, Fasti: James George Frazer 1931; Sophocles: Hugh Lloyd-Jones 1994; When parts of their translations have been modified, changes are indicated between []. Other translations are mine. CONTENTS [...] .II.C Blood .II.C.1 blood and tears [...] .II.C.1 * – blood and tears Hittite shar ‘blood’ and ishahru ‘tear(s)’ are systematically associated in many texts of ritual or religious character, a.o. in KBo XII 8 iv 32; XXX 31, XXXII 33 i 10 and: KBo XV 42 ii 9-11 sumes-a DINGIRMES-as id la[wa]z udd naz linkiyaz hurdiyaz shanaz ishahruwaz QATAMMA parkuwa s stin KUB xliii 58 Vo. i 6ff nu-za DINGIRMEŠ id lawaz uddanaz linkiyaz h rdiyaz shanaz ishahruwaz [h] mandaz-ia parkuwa s sten May Ye likewise be pure, Ye too Gods, of evil words, of perjury, of curse, of blood and tears! And Ye gods, may Ye be pure of evil words, of perjury, of curse, of blood and tears, and of everything else! KUB vii 41 Vo. 18f shar hurtain [kurkurain] ishahru wastain KBo XI 1 Vo. 45 idala]ui hurt i shani ishahrui Blood(shed), curse, mutilation, tears and sin. To the evil curse, the blood and tears. KUB xxxiii 66 Vo. ii 3-13 The palms (gave) it to the fingers, the fingers to the fingernails, the fingernails to the Black Earth (...) but in the sea are kettles of copper, (...) The Sun-goddess shar dais put blood in them, (...) ishahru dais she put tears in them. KUB i 16 + xl 65 iii 7+12+12a ishahru-sm[itt-asta sa]nhun (...) shar-man ekun I sought tears for them (from my daughter) (“if I had given you more (from this land)”) (...) I would have been drinking its blood. The same association of words – asins and asara, etymologically related to Hittite shar and ishahru1 – is found in Latvian in reference to two mythical rivers flowing under a bridge made of the bones of dead warriors (see below and next chapter): 1 PIE * ,G* , coll. * ,G* ,L* ‘blood’: Ht. shar, G ishanas = /ishnas/; Pal. ,G sha (< * )/ shur; Luw. sha(r); HierLuw. / shar/; Lyc. (derivative) esede-; Mil. es ne-?; In. asnás; Gr. éar/e ar; Arm. ariwn; Lt. aser and probably sanguen; Lv. asins/asens; Toch. A/B ys r/yasar. PIE *h / / ‘tear’: Ht. ishahru; In. ; Ir. asru-; Pahlavi ars; Khot. -; Pers. ašk; Gr. dákru; Lt. lacrima < Old Lt. dacruma; Arm. artawsr; OIr. dér; W deigr(yn), Pl. dagrau; Br. dàer, Pl. dàeroù; Gmc. *tagra-/tahra- (Got. tagr; ON tár; OE t ar > E tear; OHG zahar > Germ. Zähre); Blt. *ašara (Lith. ašara; Lv. asara); Toch. A kär, Pl. krunt; Toch. B Pl. akr na. Ltdz 22213-31 (...) Divu upes aš a tek No kalni a leji : Viena tek melna aš a, Otra gaudu asari u. P r ab m up t m No kauliem tiltu taisa. (...) Two blood rivers flow Downwards from the hill: One flows made of black blood, The other of bitter tears. Over both rivers A bridge of bones is built. So does the Netherworld stream of Acheron flow, which in ten thousand streams gushes with tears and pains    (Licymnius fr. 4 (770 Loeb)).  Sometimes only one of both words is found in each of two versions of the same Daina: LD 31928 (...) Kar bija gr ts m ži š T va d li am, Karodzi u nesti, Zobenti u celti, Ienaidnieku pulci Asinti as liet. (...) LD 31928-2 Kar bej gry ta dzeive Munam d e am, Kar dze u çelt, Ar z bynu ç rst, naidn ku pu çe Asare is l t. Father’s son had a hard life in war: Carrying the flag, Lifting his sword, And shedding blood among the foe. My son had a hard life in war: Lifting the flag, Chopping with his sword, And shedding tears among the foe, and this same variation, where BLOOD and TEARS seem interchangeable, is found in Hittite rituals2: KUB xxx 36 ii 14-15 [iyauwa]n shar pangauwas EME-an (= l lan) [anda ishiy]aweni KUB xxx 33 i 18 [iy]auwan i[sha]hru panqauwas EME-an (= l lan) a[nda ishiyaweni] we shall bind the iyawar?, blood(shed), and slander of the multitude. we shall bind the iyawar?, tears, 3 and slander of the multitude. 2 3 see Craig Melchert 2006. note the typical poetic alliteration shar – ishahru – ishiyaweni. The combination of both and -, identical in their PIE origin to Hittite and Latvian ishahru/asaras and shar/asins, is attested only once in all the four Vedas, namely in the V jasaneyi-Samhit : VS 25.9 (I gratify) Hailstones with his tears; Thunderbolts with the rheum of his eyes; Râkshasas with his blood. Comparing the creation myth found in the Edda with the Pahlavi one in the Rivâyat, we !) are paralleled as the origin of sea notice that BLOOD and TEARS (Pahlavi ars < * 4 and water : Vafþrúðnismál 21 himinn ór hausi, (...) en ór sveita sær. Rivâyat 46 4- u-š nazdist asm n az sar be br h n d the sky (was created) from his skull, and from his blood the sea. and he created first the sky from the head, and he created water from the tears. 11- u-š b az ars be br h n d Schematically: sky: asmân = himinn (* water/sea ) < head/skull: sar, hauss < tears: ars (* ) < blood: sveiti A kenning for ‘sea’ in Skaldic poetry is thus Ymis blóð “blood of Ymir”, for example in Ormr Barreyjarskáld, 2.2 the Blood of Ymir is roaring, gnýr Ymis blóð and “earth’s blood” for ‘water’: jarðar dreyri, foldar sveiti, while ‘blood’ can be paraphrased as “sea of pikes”: fleina sær. In the Middle-Persian Bundahišn, TEARS and BLOOD follow each other in a list of the seventeen species of liquid, as the ninth and tenth liquids: Bd 18.43.11f nohom ars g spand n (ud) mard m n, dahom x n g spand n (ud) mard m n, 4 while TEARS ars besides b in b az ars < * upe in asins upe < * see next chapter. parallels Lv. BLOOD asins besides the cognate ninth, the tears of animals and men, tenth, the blood of animals and men. Elsewhere, the formula b az ars of the Rivâyat is reflected by changing TEARS – ars – by BLOOD – x n – and reversing the sequence WATER < TEARS into BLOOD < WATER: Bd 26.6.12 (for at that time one will demand) az b x n blood from the water. Although Lithuanian no longer has the word akin to Lv. asins, Ht. shar, etc., it uses the other IE word for “blood (outside the body)”, * (In. kravís-; Gr. kréas; Lt. cruor, etc.) to describe a similar bloody river and to create a comparable link between BLOOD AND TEARS: Atl k juodas varnas5 (...) Aš buvau didžiam kare: Ten did m š muš , Ten kard tvor tv r , Pu kel mis duob kas , Ten kraujo up b go, Ten gul ne viens s nelis, Ten verkia ne vienas t velis. Ui, ui, tai mano žiedelis! Negr š mano bernelis, Krint mano ašar l s. (...) I was in a big war: There they fought a big battle, There fences of swords were made, And bossed pits dug, There flowed a river of blood, There did many sons lie, And many fathers cry. Alas, there is my wedding ring, My child shall not return, And my tears are falling. The Greek innovation ha ma has supplanted the very rare éar/e ar in its collocation with dákru in Greek poetry: Euripides, Helen 365 5 in Resha 1958, p. 170f.      much blood, many tears. However, (mélan) ha ma and the rare mélan e ar – compare Ltdz 22213-31 melna aš a (< IE * )6 – of black blood are objects of the same verb dáptein ‘to devour’ in the following fragments: “Hesiod”, fr. 305.7-9 (Loeb) Callimachus, fr. 523 (Spartus and Omargus were)     the first to drink the black blood of their master.     These were the first to eat       and he  and to [devour] his blood.     devoured the black blood; (mélan) ha ma and (mélan) e ar are thus semantically, metrically and poetically identical and interchangeable. Had Euripides used the more archaic e ar instead of the common term ha ma, he would have granted us a perfect match *polù e ar, polù dákru To ‘DRINK (BLACK) BLOOD’, (mélan) ha ma pi-, is formulaic in Greek: “Hesiod”, Shield 252   Sophocles, The Women of Trachis 1055f      drink black blood Already it has drunk my fresh blood, Aeschylus, Euminides 980          and may the dust not drink up the dark blood of the citizens, Theognis, 1.349      May I drink their dark blood! and finds equivalents – allowing us to posit a PIE * in epic, post-Vedic Indic: 6 – also in LD 34136 Melni krauk i gais skr ja, /Melnas asnis laist dami (...) (Black ravens flew in the air / Sprinkling black blood); Tdz 55338 melnas asinis; 55338v1 melnas asins; 55338v2 malnuos asins. MBh 1.141.16a when I have drunk your blood, MBh 3.221.44cd And the arrows hitting the Daityas’ bodies drank plenty of blood, MBh 10.7.36a drinkers of blood, 10.7.43a drinking the blood, and with - instead of k and as the subject: MBh 2.68.31d = 3.13.5d = 3.48.35d = 3.232.20d = 6.3.34d = 7.166.27d = 8.49.112b = 8.52.14d the earth shall drink the blood, the earth drinks the blood. 8.69.17d Similarly in Hittite, where the subject is likewise the earth7: KBo X 45 iv 1+4 nu GE6-is KI-as (= dankuis taganzipas) (...) shar (...) GAM (= katta) p su May the Dark Earth swallow down the blood! KUB xliii 38 Ro. 14-16 k -wa (...) sumenzan-wa shar nu-wa-k [mahhan] [tag]anzipas kat[ta] p sta [sumenz]ann[-a shar] taganzipas katt[a QATA]MMA p [s]u this is your blood and like the earth swallowed it down, may the earth likewise swallow down your blood, in Tocharian – with yok- < * - instead of * -: THT 250 a2 (Toch. B) He ate from your brainpan, he drank your blood, H add. 149.88 a38 (Toch. B) 7 NOT with the usual word for ‘drink’, /aku-, but with the cognate p s-! A comparable collocation of p toand sanguen is found in Ovid’s Fasti, VI.(131-)138: There are greedy birds (...) They fly by night and attack nurseless children (...) et plenum poto sanguine guttur habent and their throats are full of the blood they drink. 8 see Schmidt 1997, p. 259. You drank the blood and flesh from the body, and in Khotanese with lexical replacement: Z 24.412 ! " #! The earth drinks their blood with a purpose, KBT 144 !"! They drink the heart’s blood. Ha ma... dákru(a) is attested from the Iliad to the 5th century BCE poetry: Il. 7.425f      they washed the clotted gore off them, shed tears over them, and lifted them upon their wagons. Timotheus, Cyclops fr. 1 (780 Loeb) And into it he [= Odysseus] poured one ivy-wood cup of the dark immortal drops (...) and so he mingled  the blood of the Bacchic god   with the fresh-flowing tears of the Nymphs.  The same way death is omnipresent in the use of the formula by the singers of Baltic Dainas and ancient Greek poems, BLOOD AND TEARS refers to a personified Death in the following verses: “Hesiod”, Shield 264-270 Beside them stood Death-Mist (...) From her nostrils flowed mucus, from her cheeks  blood was dripping down onto the ground. She stood there, grinning dreadfully, and much dust, wet  with tears lay upon her shoulders. BLOOD AND TEARS – in this same order in all the examples above (except Vedic) as in the following ones – is also attested in Khotanese, Latin and Old Irish literature (with dér as the same etymon as ishahru, asara, ašar l and dákru): Z 20.54 (...) (...) ! (...) blood... tears, Virgil, Aeneid 12.29f Uictus amore tui, cognato sanguine uictus, coniugis et maestae lacrumis Vanquished by your love, vanquished by the kindred blood and by the tears of a sorrowful consort. Triad 126 trí bainne cétmuintire: bainne fola, bainne dér, bainne aillse Three drops of a wedded woman: a drop of blood, a tear-drop, a drop of sweat. Lastly, Skaldic kennings for BLOOD are tár varmra benja “TEAR of warm wounds” and Laufa tár “TEAR of Laufi” (Laufi being the name of a legendary hero’s sword).