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 (Frsi 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 1895-
1899;
Black Yajurveda (TS): Arthur Berriedale Keith 1914;
Mahbhrata: 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 *sh ... hkru- 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 KUB xliii 58 Vo. i 6ff
sumes-a DINGIR
MES
-as nu-za DINGIR
ME

idla[wa]z uddnaz idlawaz uddanaz
linkiyaz hurdiyaz linkiyaz hrdiyaz
shanaz ishahruwaz shanaz ishahruwaz
QATAMMA parkuwa` s ` stin [h]mandaz-ia parkuwa` s ` sten

May Ye likewise be pure, Ye too Gods, And Ye gods, may Ye be pure
of evil words, of evil words,
of perjury, of perjury,
of curse, of curse,
of blood and tears! of blood and tears,
and of everything else!

KUB vii 41 Vo. 18f KBo XI 1 Vo. 45
shar hurtain idala]ui hurti shani ishahrui
[kurkurain] ishahru wastain

Blood(shed), curse, mutilation, To the evil curse, the blood and tears.
tears and sin.

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 (...) I sought tears for them (from my daughter)
(if I had given you more (from this land))
shar-man ekun (...) I would have been drinking its blood.

The same association of words asins and asara, etymologically related to Hittite shar
and ishahru
1
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 *shj, G *shps, coll. *shoi, G *()shns, L *oshn blood: Ht. shar, G ishanas = /ishnas/; Pal.
sha (< *shoi)/shur; Luw. sha(r); HierLuw. /shar/; Lyc. (derivative) esede-; Mil. esne-
?
; In. asrk, G
asns; Gr. ar/ear; Arm. ariwn; Lt. aser and probably sanguen; Lv. asins/asens; Toch. A/B ysr/yasar.
PIE *hiu/diu/shiu tear: Ht. ishahru; In. asru; Ir. asru-; Pahlavi ars; Khot. ska-; Pers. ak; Gr.
dkru; Lt. lacrima < Old Lt. dacruma; Arm. artawsr; OIr. dr; W deigr(yn), Pl. dagrau; Br. der, Pl.
dero; Gmc. *tagra-/tahra- (Got. tagr; ON tr; OE tar > E tear; OHG zahar > Germ. Zhre); Blt. *aara
(Lith. aara; Lv. asara); Toch. A kr, Pl. krunt; Toch. B Pl. akrna.

Ltdz 22213-31
(...) Divu upes aa tek
No kalnina lejin:
Viena tek melna aa,
Otra gaudu asariu.
Pr abm upt` 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
uoi tooi ookev ookev ookev ookev o_rev tc |ci (Licymnius fr. 4 (770 Loeb)).

Sometimes only one of both words is found in each of two versions of the same Daina:

LD 31928 LD 31928-2
(...) Kar bija grts min Kar bej gryta dzeive
T` va d` linam, Munam d` enam,
Karodzinu nesti, Kardzenu elt,
Zobentinu celti, Ar zbynu ` rst,
Ienaidnieku pulcin naidnku puen
Asintias liet. (...) Asareis lt.

Fathers son had a hard life in war: My son had a hard life in war:
Carrying the flag, Lifting the flag,
Lifting his sword, Chopping with his sword,
And shedding blood among the foe. And shedding tears among the foe,

and this same variation, where BLOOD and TEARS seem interchangeable, is found in
Hittite rituals
2
:

KUB xxx 36 ii 14-15 KUB xxx 33 i 18
[iyauwa]n shar pangauwas [iy]auwan i[sha]hru panqauwas
EME-an (= llan) [anda ishiy]aweni EME-an (= llan) a[nda ishiyaweni]

we shall bind we shall bind
the iyawar
?
, blood(shed), the iyawar
?
, tears,
and slander of the multitude. and slander of the multitude.
3


2
see Craig Melchert 2006.
3
note the typical poetic alliteration ` shar ishahru ishiyaweni.

The combination of both asru and asn-, 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
Vjasaneyi-Samhit:

VS 25.9
asrubhir hradunir dusikabhir asna raksamsi

(I gratify)
Hailstones with his tears; Thunderbolts with the rheum of his eyes; Rkshasas with his blood.

Comparing the creation myth found in the Edda with the Pahlavi one in the Rivyat, we
notice that BLOOD and TEARS (Pahlavi ars < *hiu-!) are paralleled as the origin of sea
and water
4
:

Vafrnisml 21 Rivyat 46
himinn r hausi, 4- u- nazdist asm n az sar be br` h` nd
(...)
en r sveita sr. 11- u- b az ars be br` h` nd

the sky (was created) from his skull, and he created first the sky from the head,
and from his blood the sea. and he created water from the tears.

Schematically:

sky: asmn = himinn (*mon) < head/skull: sar, hauss
water/sea < tears: ars (*hiu) < blood:
sveiti

A kenning for sea in Skaldic poetry is thus Ymis bl blood of Ymir, for example in
Ormr Barreyjarskld, 2.2
gnr Ymis bl the Blood of Ymir is roaring,

and earths blood for water: jarar dreyri, foldar sveiti,

while blood can be paraphrased as sea of pikes: fleina sr.

In the Middle-Persian Bundahin, 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 gspandn (ud) mardmn,
dahom xn gspandn (ud) mardmn,

4
while TEARS ars besides b in b az ars < *hp- hiu- parallels Lv. BLOOD asins besides the cognate
upe in asins upe < *shps hp-, see next chapter.

ninth, the tears of animals and men,
tenth, the blood of animals and men.

Elsewhere, the formula b az ars of the Rivyat is reflected by changing TEARS ars by
BLOOD xn and reversing the sequence
WATER < TEARS
into
BLOOD < WATER:

Bd 26.6.12
(for at that time one will demand)
az b xn 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), *kiqhs- (In. kravs-; Gr. kras; Lt. cruor,
etc.) to describe a similar bloody river and to create a comparable link between BLOOD
AND TEARS:

Atleke juodas varnas
5

(...) A buvau didiam kare:
Ten did[ m[ mue,
Ten kard tvora tvere,
Puckelemis duob kase,
Ten kraujo upe bego,
Ten gul ne viens snelis,
Ten verkia ne vienas tevelis.
Ui, ui, tai mano iedelis!
Negr[ mano bernelis,
Krint mano aarls. (...)

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 hama has supplanted the very rare ar/ear in its collocation with
dkru in Greek poetry:

Euripides, Helen 365

5
in Resha 1958, p. 170f.
too cv o oo o\ \\ \o o o o, too oc o0ku o0ku o0ku o0ku

much blood, many tears.

However, (mlan) hama and the rare mlan ear

compare Ltdz 22213-31 melna aa of black blood
(< IE *mlp/melinom shj)
6


are objects of the same verb dptein to devour in the following fragments:

Hesiod, fr. 305.7-9 (Loeb) Callimachus, fr. 523
(Spartus and Omargus were)
tctoi 0 rov rov rov rov o oo o\ \\ \o tov o tov o tov o tov
the first to drink the black blood
of their master.
otoi o' 'Aktoou tctoi 0ov t o' ck
These were the first to eat and he
o oo o\ \\ \o t o t o t o t' '' ' c cc coo oo oo oo ov ov ov ov rov c rov c rov c rov c o o o o c cc coottcv oottcv oottcv oottcv
and to [devour] his blood. devoured the black blood;

(mlan) hama and (mlan) ear are thus semantically, metrically and poetically identical
and interchangeable. Had Euripides used the more archaic ear instead of the common
term hama, he would have granted us a perfect match *pol ear, pol dkru.

To DRINK (BLACK) BLOOD, (mlan) hama pi-, is formulaic in Greek:

Hesiod, Shield 252 Sophocles, The Women of Trachis 1055f
o oo o\ \\ \o rov o rov o rov o rov tirciv tirciv tirciv tirciv ck oc _ev o oo o\ \\ \o o o o ou
trtekcv trtekcv trtekcv trtekcv |oq

drink black blood Already it has drunk my fresh blood,

Aeschylus, Euminides 980
qoc tio tio tio tio6 66 6oo oo oo oo kvi rov o rov o rov o rov o\ \\ \o o o o toit0v

and may the dust not drink up the dark blood of the citizens,

Theognis, 1.349
tcv cq rov o rov o rov o rov o\ \\ \o o o o tic tic tic tici ii iv vv v May I drink their dark blood!

and finds equivalents allowing us to posit a PIE *poh(i/s)- shj
in epic, post-Vedic Indic:


6
also in LD 34136 Melni krauki gais skrja, /Melnas asnis laistdami (...) (Black ravens flew in the air /
Sprinkling black blood); Tdz 55338 melnas asinis; 55338v1 melnas asins; 55338v2 malnuos asins.
MBh 1.141.16a
pitva tavasrg when I have drunk your blood,

MBh 3.221.44cd
saras ca daitya kayesu pibanti smasrg ulbanam

And the arrows hitting the Daityas bodies drank plenty of blood,

MBh 10.7.36a pataro 'srg drinkers of blood,
10.7.43a pibanto 'srg drinking the blood,

and with scntta- instead of asrk and bbuntb 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
bhumih pasyati sonitam the earth shall drink the blood,
8.69.17d bhumih pibati sonitam the earth drinks the blood.

Similarly in Hittite, where the subject is likewise the earth
7
:

KBo X 45 iv 1+4
nu GE
6
-is KI-as (= dankuis taganzipas) (...) May the Dark Earth
shar (...) GAM (= katta) psu swallow down the blood!

KUB xliii 38 Ro. 14-16
k-wa (...) sumenzan-wa shar this is your blood
nu-wa-k [mahhan] and like the earth
[tag]anzipas kat[ta] psta swallowed it down,
[sumenz]ann[-a shar] may the earth likewise
taganzipas katt[a QATA]MMA p[s]u swallow down your blood,

in Tocharian with yok- < *g
hq
- instead of *poh(i/s)-:

THT 250 a2 (Toch. B)
He ate from your brainpan,
yasac ya[sar] he drank your blood,

H add. 149.88 a3
8
(Toch. B)

7
NOT with the usual word for drink,

/
a
ku-, but with the cognate ps-! A comparable collocation of pto-
and sanguen is found in Ovids 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.
sa yas yasar misa kektsenmem You drank the blood and flesh from the body,

and in Khotanese with lexical replacement:

Z 24.412
ssanda na khaste hamjsastana huu

The earth drinks their blood with a purpose,

KBT 144
ysiraja hu khasid

They drink the hearts blood.

Hama... dkru(a) is attested from the Iliad to the 5
th
century BCE poetry:

Il. 7.425f
o' iooti v,ovtc ot |tov o oo oi ii iotcvto otcvto otcvto otcvto
o0kuo o0kuo o0kuo o0kuo uc0 _rovtc oo0ev ct0ciov.

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
o oo o\ \\ \o o o o Bok_ou vcotoioiv the blood of the Bacchic god
ookoioi ookoioi ookoioi ookoioi Nu0v 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
o oo o\ \\ \o o o o blood
was dripping down onto the ground. She stood there, grinning dreadfully, and much dust, wet
o0kuoi o0kuoi o0kuoi o0kuoi 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 dr as
the same etymon as ishahru, asara, aarl and dkru):

Z 20.54
(...) hun (...) aske (...) 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
tr bainne ctmuintire: bainne fola, bainne dr, 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
tr varmra benja TEAR of warm wounds
and
Laufa tr TEAR of Laufi
(Laufi being the name of a legendary heros sword).