From: Nick Brooke (100270.337@CompuServe.COM)
Date: Fri 24 Sep 1993 - 21:17:19 EEST
A short while ago, Graeme asked:
(Re: the Cult of Dyaus-Pitar, Cults of the Indo-Europeans, and Dumezil)
>> I don't suppose you could explain these references for those of us >> with less mythology? Is Dumezil an author?
I explained Dumezil, then said:
> I could try writing something more general, but this would take time.
> Go to a library, and I'll go to work.
That was dashed off under some time pressure (tho' I just managed to catch the train). Now, I've a breathing space to give the story to you in brief; while this isn't Gloranthan, it is very relevant to my own approach to Glorantha, which some of you folk seem to enjoy.
Many thousands of years ago, they say, the proto-Indo-Europeans emerged from somewhere 'round the Caucasus and went their separate ways. So loads of different European and Indian cultures have fundamental similarities at one level or another. The simplest ones to see are linguistic -- Indian 'raja' is cognate with Latin 'rex' and Irish 'rig' (Gloranthan equivalent: Old High Mantongue?) -- but the religious ones are more fun.
Investigation suggests that there was an original "proto-Indo-European" Sky God, Dyaus-Pitar (or "Sky Father"). In two different descendent cultures he changed to become "Zeus / Dios" of the Greeks and "Jupiter" of the Romans. These both have strong cultic and mythological similarities with other sky/sovereign gods; more than can reasonably be explained by "parallel evolution of ideas" (IMHO & that of learned others). So we have a "root cult" and "root myth", and can try to deduce (by summing similarities and rejecting differences) what these must have included.
Now, the Gloranthan application of this is to assume that "Orlanth" under- went the same kind of shifts from culture to culture in Glorantha, then look at real-world examples of such shifts to work out how different the various "Orlanth-cults" can be. Or to look at it another way, if you were writing up "Cults of the Mediterranean", would you be happy saying that "Dyaus-Pitar has Great Temples at Rome and Olympia"? Many Gloranthan sources are this abbreviated and genericised (sorry for my bad language!). Adding the texture, via culturally-specific ritual and mythological details and name-changes, makes the world more interesting and varied than the current God Learnerish overview -- as well as less playable <g>.
Slaine is back in the pages of 2000 AD, nobbling the Romans for Boudicca! And with Glenn Fabry's art, too! What joy! This is a *vital* artistic and cultural source for Sartar campaigns, almost as good as the Asterix books.
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