Castalia: Studies in Indo-European Linguistics, Mythology, and Poetics

Book excerpt: Since the beginning of Indo-European Studies, linguists have attempted to reconstruct aspects of the Indo-European traditions that go beyond the ‘atomic’ dimensions of related languages, such as inherited aspects of Indo-European texts and traits shared by cognate pantheons and narratives. The chapters in this volume address these very aspects of cultural reconstruction. Interdisciplinary case-studies on poetic features, religion and mythology of several ancient Indo-European languages (Ancient Greek, Latin and Italic, Hittite, Phrygian, Sanskrit, Avestan, Old Norse, Old Irish and Old Russian) work at the intersection of linguistic reconstruction and philology. The results of these investigations shed new light on a variety of aspects, ranging from obscure etymologies to the reconstruction of the genetic link among entire Indo-European myths.