Perkwunos


Perkwunos is the reconstructed name of the weather-god in Proto-Indo-European mythology.
Contrary to other gods of the Proto-Indo-European pantheon such as Dyēus, the sky-god, or Hausōs, the dawn-goddess, widely accepted cognates stemming from the root *Perkwunos are only attested in Western Indo-European traditions. The linguistic evidence for the worship of the thunder-god Perkwunos as far back as Proto-Indo-European times is therefore less secured.

Name

Etymology

The name *Perkwunos is generally regarded as stemming from the Proto-Indo-European verbal root *per-. An alternative etymology is the PIE root *pérkʷus, attached to the divine nomenclature *-nos, with various cognates in the Latin quercus and oak-nymphs Querquetulanae, the Germanic *ferhwa, the Gaulish erc- and Quaquerni, the Punjabi pargāi, and perhaps in the Greek spring-nymph Herkyna.
The theonym thus either meant 'the Striker' or 'the Lord of Oaks'. A theory uniting those two propositions has been suggested in the mythological association of oaks with thunder, suggested by the frequency with which such tall trees are struck by lightning.
The root *perkwunos also gave birth to a group of cognates for the ordinary word 'thunder' in Old Prussian percunis, Russian perúny, Latvian pērkauns, or Lithunian perkūnija.

Epithets

Other cognates related to thunder, through another root *tenh₂, are found in the Germanic Thor, the Celtic Taranis and the Latin Tonans. According to Jackson, "they may have arisen as the result of fossilization of an original epithet or epiclesis" of Perkwunos, since the Vedic weather-god Parjanya is also called stanayitnú-.
George E. Dunkel regarded Perkwunos as an original epithet of Dyēus, the Sky-God. It has also been postulated that Perkwunos was referred to as *Diwós Putlós, although this is based on the Vedic poetic tradition alone.

Role

Weapon and lightnings

Perkwunos is usually depicted as holding a weapon, named *meld- in the Lithuanian and Old Norse traditions, which personifies the lightnings and is generally conceived as a club, mace, or hammer, made of stone or metal. In the Latvian poetic expression Pērkōns met savu milnu, the mace, milna, is cognate with the Old Norse mjölnir, the hammer thrown by the thunder god Thor, and also with the word 'lightning' in the Old Prussian mealde, the Old Church Slavonic *mlъni, or the Welsh mellt.
If his thunder and lightning had a destructive connotation, they could also be seen as a regenerative force since they were often escorted by fructifying rains. Parjanya is depicted as a rain god in the Vedas, Latvian prayers included a call for Pērkōns to bring rain in time of drought, and the Balkan Slavs worshipped Perun along his female counterpart Perperuna, the name of a ritual prayer calling for fructifying rains and centred on the dance of a naked virgin who had not yet had her first monthly period. The earth is likewise referred to as "menstruating" in a Vedic hymn to Parjanya, a possible cognate of Perperuna. The alternative name of Perperuna, Dodola, also recalls Perkūnas' pseudonym Dundulis, and Zeus' oak oracle at Dodona.

Striker and god of oaks

The association of Perkwunos with the oak is attested in various formulaic expressions from the Balto-Slavic languages: Lithuanian Perkūno ąžuolas, Latvian Pērkōna uōzuōls, or Old Russian Perunovŭ dubŭ. The Slavic thunder-god Perūn is said to frequently strike oaks to put fire within them, and the Norse thunder-god Thor to strike his foes the giants when they hide under an oak. The striking of devils, demons or evildoers by Perkwunos is a motif also encountered in the myths surrounding the Baltic Perkūnas and the Vedic Parjanya.
A mythical multi-headed water-serpent is connected in particular with Perkwunos in an epic battle. The monstrous foe is generally described as a 'blocker of waters', and his heads are eventually smashed by the thunder-god to release torrents of water that had previously been pent up. The myth has numerous reflexes in mythical stories of battles between a serpent and a god or mythical hero. The latter is not necessary etymologically related to *Perkwunos, but he is usually associated with thunder in some way: the Vedic Indra and Vṛtra, the Iranian Tištry/Sirius and Apaoša, the Albanian Drangue and Kulshedra, the Armenian Vishap and Vahagn, the Greek Typhoeus and Zeus, or the Norse Thor and Miðgarðsormr.

Stony skies

Perkwunos is often portrayed in connection with stone and mountains, probably because the mountainous forests were his realm. A cognate relationship has been noted between the Germanic *fergunja and the Gaulish ercunia. Words from a root *pér-ur are also attested in the Hittite pēru, the Avestan pauruuatā, as well as in the Sanskrit párvata, the goddess Parvati, and in Parvateshwara, an epithet attached to her father Himavat. In Germanic mythology, Fjörgynn was used as a poetic synonym for 'the land' or 'the earth', and she could have been the mistress of the wooded mountains, the personification of what appears in Gothic as fairguni. Additionally, the Slavic Perūn sends his axe or arrow from a mountain or the sky, and the Baltic tradition mentions a perpetual sacred fire maintained for Perkūnas in the forests or on hilltops.
A term for the sky, *h₂ekmōn, denoted both 'stones' and 'heaven'. The motif of the stony skies can be found in the story of the Greek Akmon, the father of Ouranos and the personified Heaven. Other cognates appear in Hittite aku, Vedic áśman, Iranian asman and deity Asman, Lithuanian akmuõ, and also in Germanic *hemina and *hamara .
The mythological association can be explained by the observation or the belief that thunderstones had fallen from the sky. Indeed, the Vedic word áśman is the name of the weapon thrown by Indra, Thor's weapon is also called hamarr, and the thunderstone can be named Perkūno akmuõ in the Lithuanian tradition. The original meaning of *h₂ekmōn'' could thus have been 'stone-made weapon', then 'sky' or 'lighting'.

Evidence

The following deities are cognates stemming from the root *Perkwunos or derivatives in Western Indo-European mythologies:
Other cognates are less secured:
The name of Perkwunos' weapon *meld-n- is attested by a group of cognates alternatively denoting 'hammer' or 'lightning' in the following traditions:
Some scholars argue that the functions of the Luwian and Hittite weather gods Tarḫunz and Tarḫunna ultimately stem from those of Perkwunos. Anatolians may have dropped the old name in order to adopt the epithet *Tṛḫu-ent-, which sounded closer to the name of the Hattian Storm-god Taru.