*Ḱérberos
Equivalents
Greek equivalentCerberus
Norse equivalentGarmr (debated)
Hinduism equivalentŚárvara

*Ḱérberos (Proto-Indo-European for "spotted") is the reconstructed name of the canine creature guarding the entrance to the Otherworld in Proto-Indo-European mythology.[1][2][3] In a recurrent motif, the Otherworld contains a gate, generally guarded by a dog who could also serve as a guide and ensured that the ones who entered could not get out.[2][3]

Name

The Greek Cerberus and the Hindu Śárvara likely derive from the common Proto-Indo-European noun *Ḱérberos ("spotted").[1][3] Historian Bruce Lincoln has proposed a third cognate in the Norse Garmr,[4] although this has been debated as linguistically untenable.[5][note 1]

Overview

The motif of a canine guardian of the entrance to the Otherworld is attested in Persian mythology, where two four-eyed dogs guard the Chinvat Bridge, a bridge that marks the threshold between the world of the living and the world of the dead.[7][8] The Videvdat (Vendidad) 13,9 describes them as 'spâna pəšu.pâna' ("two bridge-guarding dogs").[9][10] A parallel imagery is found in Historical Vedic religion: Yama, ruler of the underworld realm, is said to own two four-eyed dogs who also act as his messengers[11] and fulfill the role of protectors of the soul in the path to heaven. These hounds, named Shyama (Śyāma) and Sabala, are described as the brood of Sarama, a divine female dog: one is black[note 2] and the other spotted.[12][13][14]

Slovene deity and hero Kresnik is also associated with a four-eyed dog, and a similar figure in folk belief (a canine with white or brown spots above its eyes - thus, "four-eyed") is said to be able to sense the approach of death.[15]

In Nordic mythology, a dog stands on the road to Hel; it is often assumed to be identical with Garmr, the howling hound bound at the entrance to Gnipahellir. In Albanian folklore, a never-sleeping three-headed dog is also said to live in the world of the dead.[2] Another parallel may be found in the Cŵn Annwn ("Hounds of Annwn"), creatures of Welsh mythology said to live in Annwn, a name for the Welsh Otherworld.[7] They are described as hell hounds or spectral dogs that take part in the Wild Hunt, chasing after the dead and pursuing the souls of men.[16][17][18]

Remains of dogs found in grave sites of the Iron Age Wielbark culture,[19] and dog burials of Early Medieval North-Western Slavs (in Pomerania)[20] would suggest the longevity of the belief. Another dog-burial in Góra Chełmska and a Pomeranian legend about a canine figure associated with the otherworld seem to indicate the existence of the motif in Slavic tradition.[21]

In a legend from Lokev, a male creature named Vilež ("fairy man"), who dwells in Vilenica Cave, is guarded by two wolves and is said to take men into the underworld.[22] Belarusian scholar Siarhiej Sanko suggests that characters in a Belarusian ethnogenetic myth, Prince Bai and his two dogs, Staury and Gaury (Haury), are related to Vedic Yama and his two dogs.[23] To him, Gaury is connected to Lithuanian gaurai 'mane, shaggy (of hair)'.[24]

An archeological find by Russian archeologist Alexei Rezepkin at Tsarskaya showed two dogs of different colors (one of bronze, the other of silver), each siding the porthole of a tomb. This imagery seemed to recall the Indo-Aryan myth of Yama and his dogs.[25]

Similarly, Bruce Lincoln also cited a related pair of hounds in Armenian: dogs Spitak ('White') and Siaw ('Black'), which, to Lincoln, corresponded respectively to life and death.[26]

Other mythologies

The mytheme possibly stems from an older Ancient North Eurasian belief, as evidenced by similar motifs in Native American and Siberian mythology, in which case it might be one of the oldest mythemes recoverable through comparative mythology.[27][28] The King of the Otherworld may have been Yemo, the sacrificed twin of the creation myth, as suggested by the Indo-Iranian and, to a lesser extent, by the Germanic, Greek and Celtic traditions.[29][30][1]

Notes

  1. ↑ The name Garm also appears in the compound Managarmr ('Moon-Hound', 'Moon's dog'), another name for Hati Hróðvitnisson, the lupine pursuer of the moon in Scandinavian mythology.[6]
  2. ↑ On a related note, one passage states that King Yama owns a brown horse, using the word "Śyāva". Scholar Sukumari Bhattacharji suggests the word is related to the dog Śyāma.[6]

    References

    1. 1 2 3 Mallory & Adams 2006, p. 439.
    2. 1 2 3 West 2007, p. 391–392.
    3. 1 2 3 Anthony & Brown 2019, p. 104.
    4. ↑ Lincoln 1991, p. 289.
    5. ↑ Ogden, Daniel (2013). Drakon: Dragon Myth and Serpent Cult in the Greek and Roman Worlds. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 105. ISBN 978-0199557325.
    6. 1 2 Bhattacharji, Sukumari. The Indian Theogony: A Comparative Study of Indian Mythology from the Vedas to the Puranas. Cambridge at the University Press. 1970. p. 71. ISBN 978-0-521-05382-2
    7. 1 2 Sherman, Josepha (2008). Storytelling: An Encyclopedia of Mythology and Folklore. Sharpe Reference. pp. 118–121. ISBN 978-0-7656-8047-1
    8. ↑ Foltz, Richard. "Zoroastrian Attitudes toward Animals". In: Society and Animals 18 (2010). Leiden, the Netherlands: Brill. 2010. p. 371.
    9. ↑ Dirven, Lucinda. "My Lord with his Dogs. Continuity and Change in the Cult of Nergal in Parthian Mesopotamia". In: Edessa in hellenistisch-römischer Zeit: Religion, Kultur und Politik zwischen Ost und West. Beiträge des internationalen Edessa-Symposiums in Halle an der Saale, 14–17. Juli 2005, eds. Lutz Greisiger, Claudia Rammelt and Jürgen Tubach. Beiruter Texte und Studien 116. Beirut/Würzburg: Ergon Verlag. 2009. pp. 66-67 (also footnote nr. 95). ISBN 978-3-89913-681-4.
    10. ↑ Moazami, Mahnaz (2006). "The dog in Zoroastrian religion: 'Vidēvdād' Chapter XIII". Indo-Iranian Journal. 49 (1/2): 127–149. doi:10.1007/s10783-007-9006-5. JSTOR 24663597. S2CID 161354751.
    11. ↑ Lurker, Manfred. The Routledge Dictionary Of Gods Goddesses Devils And Demons. Routledge. 2004. p. 205. ISBN 978-04-15340-18-2
    12. ↑ Bloomfield, Maurice (1904). "Cerberus, the Dog of Hades". The Monist. 14 (4): 523–540. doi:10.5840/monist190414439. JSTOR 27899506.
    13. ↑ Bhattacharji, Sukumari. The Indian Theogony: A Comparative Study of Indian Mythology from the Vedas to the Puranas. Cambridge at the University Press. 1970. pp. 70-71. ISBN 978-0-521-05382-2
    14. ↑ Abel, Ernest L. Death Gods: An Encyclopedia of the Rulers, Evil Spirits, and Geographies of the Dead. Greenwood Press. 2009. p. 144. ISBN 978-0-313-35712-1
    15. ↑ Šmitek, Zmago (1998). "Kresnik: An Attempt at Mythological Reconstruction". In: Studia Mythologica Slavica, Vol 1, pp. 106-107.
    16. ↑ Briggs, Katharine M. An Encyclopedia of Fairies: Hobglobins, Brownies, Bogies and Other Supernatural Creatures. New York: Pantheon Books. 1976. p. 85. ISBN 0-394-40918-3
    17. ↑ The Celts: history, life, and culture. John T. Koch, general editor; Antone Minard, editor. ABC-CLIO. 2012. p. 238. ISBN 978-1-59884-964-6
    18. ↑ Abad, Rubén Abad. (2008). "La divinidad celeste/solar en el panteón céltico peninsular". In: Espacio, Tiempo y Forma. Serie II, Historia Antigua, 21: 95.
    19. ↑ Skóra, Kalina (2019). "Liegt da der Hund begraben? An aspect of post-funerary intrusions from the Wielbark culture cemetery in Czarnówko in Pomerania". Sprawozdania Archeologiczne. 71: 125–153. doi:10.23858/SA71.2019.005. S2CID 213002484.
    20. ↑ Kajkowski, Kamil (2015). "The Dog in Pagan Beliefs of Early Medieval North-Western Slavs". In: Analecta Archaeologica Ressoviensia Vol. 10. Rzeszów: 2015. pp. 199–240.
    21. ↑ Kajkowski, Kamil (6 July 2015). "Slavic Journeys to the Otherworld. Remarks on the Eschatology of Early Medieval Pomeranians" [Słowiańskie wędrówki w zaświaty. Kilka uwag na temat eschatologii wczesnośredniowiecznych Pomorzan]. Studia mythologica Slavica. 18: 15. doi:10.3986/sms.v18i0.2828.
    22. ↑ Hrobat Virloget, Katja (6 July 2015). "Caves as Entrances to the World Beyond, from Where Fertility Is Derived. The Case of SW Slovenia" [Jame kot vhod v onstranstvo, od koder izvira plodnost. Primer JZ Slovenije]. Studia mythologica Slavica. 18: 153. doi:10.3986/sms.v18i0.2837.
    23. ↑ Sańko, Siarhiej; Shota, Aliaksej (2012). "Podstawowe składniki białoruskiej narracji sakralnej w perspektywie porównawczej". Politeja (22): 153–182. JSTOR 24920134.
    24. ↑ Piesarskas, Bronius; Svecevičius, Bronius. Lithuanian Dictionary: English-Lithuanian, Lithuanian-English. London, New York: Routledge. 1995. pp. 215 and 326.
    25. ↑ Vasil'kov, Yaroslav V. "Some Indo-Iranian mythological motifs in the art of the Novosvobodnaya ('Majkop') culture". In: South Asian Archeology 1993. Proceedings of the Twelfth International Conference of the European Association of South Asian Archeologists held in Helsinki University 5–9 July 1993. Edited by Asko Parpola & Petteri Koskikalho. Volume II. Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakademia, 1994. p. 778.
    26. ↑ Lincoln, Bruce. Death, War, and Sacrifice: Studies in Ideology & Practice. University of Chicago Press, 1991. pp. 96-97. ISBN 9780226482002.
    27. ↑ Anthony & Brown 2019, pp. 104–105.
    28. ↑ Berezkin, Yuri "'The Black Dog at the River of Tears': Some Amerindian Representations of the Passage to the Land of the Dead and Their Eurasian Roots". Trans. Andy Byford. In: Forum for Anthropology and Culture 2 (2005): 130-170.
    29. ↑ Lincoln 1991, p. 32.
    30. ↑ Jackson 2002, p. 81.

    Bibliography

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