Reviews Of Diffeent Books

Author(s): J W De Jong
Publisher: J W De Jong

Page 13

REVIEWS
207
"Thus the twentieth-century lessons of ritualism, psychoanalysis, sociology, and structural anthropology alike deserve to be heeded by the historical and comparative student of myth and religion, but only to the extent that they offer viable insights into a study that is by definition historical, and more specifically philological, rooted in the minute and sensitive probing and comparison of primary written records” (p. 20). In this connection Puhvel cites the names of Emile Benveniste, Georges Dumézil, Stig Wikander, Jan de Vries and Jacques Duchesne-Guillemin as those who over the past halfcentury have been active in this direction. However, it is above all Georges Dumézil who is Puhvel's guide and mentor.
The main part of Puhvel's book is a systematic study of the mythology of the Indo-European peoples: Vedic India, Epic India, Ancient Iran, Epic Iran, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Celtic Myth, Germanic Myth, Baltic and Slavic Myth. In an introductory chapter Puhvel examines the creation myth in the Ancient Near East and argues against Stig Wikander who maintained that the Kingship in Heaven myth is an Indo-European theme independently preserved in Greece, Anatolia, and Iran. According to him "this myth is a textbook case of ancient Near Eastern diffusionism and entails a methodological lesson about proper procedure in comparative mythology." In another introductory chapter Puhvel studies the concepts "Indo-European" and "Indo-Iranian”. He points out the importance of agreements between Indic and Iranian on the one hand and Italic and Celtic on the other for the reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European lore and IndoEuropean myth. To India and Rome he adds as a third anchor the Germanic peoples, especially Scandinavia and its colonial cranny of Iceland. Puhvel briefly draws attention to the transposition of myth to heroic saga in India, Iran, Scandinavia and Ireland
The third part of Puhvel's book takes up a number of special themes: god and warrior, king and virgin, horse and ruler, fire and water, twin and brother. As can be expected, in these chapters comparative mythology plays a greater role than in the preceding chapters on the Indo-European traditions.
According to the preface Puhvel's book is not so much a research treatise as a compendium born of pedagogy. However, the author of the Hittite Etymological Dictionary does not spare the reader many etymologies which will probably be beyond the reach of the wider educated public to which this book is addressed. The specialists will regret that they have not been registered in the detailed index which mainly comprises proper names. Puhvel has abstained from notes but has added recommendations for further reading at the end of chapters.
Georges Dumézil and his followers have developed an impressive structure