How to Kill a Dragon Aspects of Indo-European Poetics

by Watkins, Calvert

• ISBN13: 9780195144130
• ISBN10: 0195144139
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-05-17
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

In How to Kill a Dragon Calvert Watkins follows the continuum of poetic formulae in Indo-European languages, from Old Hittite to medieval Irish. He uses the comparative method to reconstruct traditional poetic formulae of considerable complexity that stretch as far back as the original commonlanguage. Thus, Watkins reveals the antiquity and tenacity of the Indo-European poetic tradition. Watkins begins this study with an introduction to the field of comparative Indo-European poetics; he explores the Saussurian notions of synchrony and diachrony, and locates the various Indo-European traditions and ideologies of the spoken word. Further, his overview presents case studies on theforms of verbal art, with selected texts drawn from Indic, Iranian, Greek, Latin, Hittite, Armenian, Celtic, and Germanic languages. In the remainder of the book, Watkins examines in detail the structure of the dragon/serpent-slaying myths, which recur in various guises throughout the Indo-European poetic tradition. He finds the "signature" formula for the myth--the divine hero who slays the serpent or overcomesadversaries--occurs in the same linguistic form in a wide range of sources and over millennia, including Old and Middle Iranian holy books, Greek epic, Celtic and Germanic sagas, down to Armenian oral folk epic of the last century. Watkins argues that this formula is the vehicle for the centraltheme of a proto-text, and a central part of the symbolic culture of speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language: the relation of humans to their universe, the values and expectations of their society. Therefore, he further argues, poetry was a social necessity for Indo- European society, where thepoet could confer on patrons what they and their culture valued above all else: "imperishable fame."

Table of Contents

ASPECTS OF INDO-EUROPEAN POETICS
I. The Field of Comparative Poetics: Introduction and Background
The comparative method in linguistics and poetics	3	(9)
Sketch for a history of Indo-European poetics	12	(16)
Poetics as grammar: Typology of poetic devices, and some rules of poetic grammar	28	(22)
Poetics as repetory: The poetic traditions of the Indo-European world---sources and texts	50	(18)
The Indo-European poet: His social function and his art	68	(17)
The poet's truth: The power, particularity, and preserveration of the word	85	(12)
II. Case Studies
Greece and the art of the word	97	(12)
Vedic India and the art of the word	109	(8)
Ireland and the art of the syllable	117	(9)
Saxa loquuntur: The first age of poetry in Italy---Faliscan and South Picene	126	(9)
Most ancient Indo-Europeans	135	(17)
The comparison of formulaic sequences	152	(13)
An Indo-European stylistic figure	165	(5)
A late Indo-European traditional epithet	170	(3)
An Indo-European theme and formula: Imperishable fame	173	(6)
The hidden track of the cow: Obscure styles in Indo-European	179	(18)
III. The Strophic Style: An Indo-European Poetic Form
Some Indo-European prayers: Cato's lustration of the fields	197	(17)
Umbria: The Tables of Iguvium	214	(12)
Italy and India: The elliptic offering	226	(3)
Strophic structures as ``rhythmic prose''? Italic	229	(3)
Strophic structures in Iranian	232	(9)
'Truth of Truth', 'most kavi of kavis', 'throng-lord of throngs': An Indo-Iranian stylistic figure	241	(6)
More strophic structures	247	(8)
Early Irish rose	255	(10)
The Asvamedha or Horse Sacrifice: An Indo-European Liturgical form	265	(12)
Orphic gold leaves and the great way of the soul: Strophic style, funerary ritual formula, and eschatology	277	(20)
HOW TO KILL A DRAGON IN INDO-EUROPEAN: A CONTRIBUTION TO THE THEORY OF THE FORMULA
IV. The Basic Formula and Its Variants in the Narration of the Myth
Preliminaries	297	(7)
The root *guhen-: Vedic han-	304	(9)
The root *guhen-: Avestan jan-	313	(8)
The root *guhen-: Hittite kuen- and the Indo-European theme and formula	321	(3)
The slayer slain: A reciprocal formula	324	(6)
First variant: The root *uedh-	330	(5)
`Like a reed': The Indo-European background of a Luvian ritual	335	(8)
Second variant: the root *terh2-	343	(4)
Latin tarentum, the ludi saeculares, and Indo-European eschatology	347	(10)
The myth in Greece: Variations on the formula and theme	357	(13)
Expansion of the formula: A recursive formulaic figure	370	(4)
Herakles, the formulaic hero	374	(9)
Hermes, Enualios, and Lukoworgos: The Serpent-slayer and the Man-slayer	383	(8)
Nektar and the adversary Death	391	(7)
The saga of Iphitos and the hero as monster	398	(10)
The name of Meleager	408	(6)
The Germanic world	414	(15)
Thor's hammer and the mace of Contract	429	(12)
V. Some Indo-European Dragons and Dragon-Slayers
Fergus mac Leti and the muirdris	441	(7)
Typhoeus and the Illuyankas	448	(12)
Python and Ahi Budhnya, the Serpent of the Deep	460	(4)
Azi dahaka, Visvarupa, and Geryon	464	(7)
VI. From Myth to Epic
From God to hero: The formulaic network in Greek	471	(12)
The best of the Achaeans	483	(5)
To be the death of: Transformation of the formula	488	(5)
The formula without the word: A note on Euripides and Lysias	493	(6)
The basic formula and the announcement of death	499	(6)
Further Indo-European comparisons and themes	505	(5)
The song of victory in Greek	510	(9)
VII. From Myth to Charm
From dragon to worm	519	(6)
The charms of Indo-European	525	(12)
Indo-European medical doctrine	537	(3)
The poet as healer	540	(5)
Abbreviations	545	(5)
References	550	(27)
Indexes of names and subjects	577	(9)
Index of passages	586	(15)
Index of words	601