*H₂epom Nepōts

Wikipedia:AI noticeboard#Immanuelle. July 2026 Proto-Indo-European water fire deity Indo-European Poseidon Neptune Apam Napat Irish Nechtan *H₂epom Nepōts fire in water ine-x-proto *H₂epom Nepōts ('Descendant of the Waters') is a reconstructed Proto-Indo-European deity who dwells in waters, and whose powers must be ritually gained or controlled by a hero who is the only one able to approach it.Mallory Adams 1997 204Puhvel 1987 277–283 The motif may come from swamp gas lights, which are common in Ukraine, the possible Proto-Indo-European homeland. A wide range of linguistic and cultural evidence attest the holy status of the terrestrial (potable) waters ine-x-proto h₂ep-, venerated collectively as "the Waters" or divided into "Rivers and Springs".West 2007 274 The cults of fountains and rivers, which may have preceded Proto-Indo-European beliefs by tens of thousands of years, was also prevalent in their tradition.West 2007 279 Some authors have proposed ine-x-proto Neptonos or ine-x-proto *H₂epom Nepōts as the Proto-Indo-European god of the waters. The name literally means "Grandson [or Nephew] of the Waters".Dumézil 1966Mallory Adams 2006 410 Linguists reconstruct his name from that of the Vedic god Apám Nápát, the Roman god Neptūnus, and the Old Irish god Nechtain. Although such a god has been solidly reconstructed in Proto-Indo-Iranian religion, Mallory and Adams nonetheless still reject him as a Proto-Indo-European deity on linguistic grounds.Mallory Adams 2006 410 In the Rigveda, the god Apám Nápát is envisioned as a form of fire residing in the waters.Puhvel 1987 277–279West 2007 270 In Celtic mythology, a well belonging to the god Nechtain is said to blind all those who gaze into it.Mallory Adams 2006 438Puhvel 1987 279 In an old Armenian poem, a small reed in the middle of the sea spontaneously catches fire and the hero Vahagn springs forth from it with fiery hair and a fiery beard and eyes that blaze as suns.West 2007 271 In a ninth-century Norwegian poem by the poet Thiodolf, the name non sǣvar niþr, meaning "grandson of the sea", is used as a kenning for fire.West 2007 272 Even the Greek tradition contains possible allusions to the myth of a fire-god dwelling deep beneath the sea.West 2007 271 The phrase "grc νέποδες καλῆς Ἁλοσύδνης" ("νέποδες καλῆς Ἁλοσύδνης"), meaning "descendants of the beautiful seas", is used in The Odyssey 4.404 as an epithet for the seals of Proteus, which is directly analogous to the phrase ine-x-proto *H₂epom Nepōts literally "Descendant of the waters".West 2007 271 Indo-Iranian fire and water In one Vedic hymn sa Apām Napāt is described as emerging from the water, golden, and "clothed in lightning", which has been conjectured to be a reference to fire.Rig Veda 1896 2.35.2 Griffith, Ralph T.H. Son of Waters http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv02035.htm sacred-texts.com His regular identification with Agni, who is described a number of times as hiding or residing in water,Satapatha Brahmana 1882 Eggeling, Julius Part 1 (SBE12) 1:2:3:1 http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe12/sbe1209.htm sacred-texts.comRig Veda 7.49.4Rig Veda 3.1 and comparison with other Indo-European texts, has led some to speculate about the existence of a Proto-Indo-European myth featuring a fire deity born from water.West, M.L. https://books.google.com/books?id=ZXrJA_5LKlYC&pg=PA270 Indo-European Poetry and Myth 24 May 2007 Oxford University Press 978-0-19-928075-9 270–272 Other such mentions include the ninth-century Skaldic poem Ynglingatal, which uses the kenning non sǣvar niþr 'kinsman of the sea' to refer to fire,https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=verse&i=4399&x=0&v=t Þjóðólfr ór Hvini, Ynglingatal 4 Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2012 1 14 Marold Edith and an old Armenian poem in which a reed in the middle of the sea spontaneously catches fire, from which springs the hero Vahagn, with fiery hair and eyes that blaze like sun. Conjectured original fireless myth Whether fire was an original part of Apam Napat's nature remains a matter of debate, especially since this connection is absent from the Iranian version. Hermann Oldenberg believed Apam Napat was originally an independent water deity who later came to be associated with Agni, in part because of an ancient Indian belief that water contained fire within itself,Apąm Napāt Encyclopædia Iranica http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/apam-napat fire appearing to "enter into" water when quenched by it.Oldenberg Hermann https://archive.org/details/diereligiondesv00oldegoog Die Religion des Veda W. Hertz 1894 Berlin, DE 100–119 The Religion of the Veda Archive.org de Oldenberg Hermann https://books.google.com/books?id=uKeubCiBOPQC&pg=PA51 The Religion of the Veda Motilal Banarsidass 1988 978-81-208-0392-3 51–68 Shrotri, Shridhar B. Google Books enBoyce Mary https://books.google.com/books?id=F3gfAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA42 A History of Zoroastrianism: The Early Period BRILL 1989 90-04-08847-4 42–43, 45, 47–48 Mary Boyce45 Associations with Savitr could be understood as similarly deriving from an image of the setting sun sinking into the ocean. Another theory explains the connection between fire and water through lightning, "the flash of fire born from the rainbearing clouds".Findly Ellison Banks 1979 The 'Child of the Waters': A Revaluation of Vedic Apāṃ Napāt Numen 26 2 164–184 10.2307/3269717 3269717 'Swamp gas' conjecture Marsh gas Based on the idea that this fire-from-water image was inspired by the flaming seepage of natural gas,Tyrrell Maliheh S. Aesopian Literary Dimensions of Azerbaijani Literature of the Soviet Period, 1920–1990 2000 Lexington Books 34 attempts have been made to connect the name "Apam Napat" to the word "naphtha", which passed into Greek – and thence English – from an Iranian language. However, there is only a modest amount of evidence for a link between the sacred fires of Iranian religion and petroleum or natural gas – although the account of the blowing of the three  sacred fires out to sea from the back of the ox Srishok where, unquenched, they continue to burn on the waterBundahishn chapter 18 verses 8–9 is suggestive – particularly in relation to hydrocarbon deposits in the Southwestern part of the Caspian Sea, exploited currently by the Absheron gas field near Baku in Azerbaijan. The etymology of the word "naphtha" has been claimed likely to relate to the Akkadian akk napṭu, "petroleum".R. J. 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Trofenik 1971 Henrik Barić I 27–33 Zur Rückerschliessung der illyrischen Götterwelt und ihre Bedeutung für die südslawische Philologie Watkins Calvert https://books.google.com/books?id=BoF7PwAACAAJ How to Kill a Dragon: Aspects of Indo-European Poetics Oxford University Press 1995 978-0-19-514413-0 London Calvert Watkins West Martin L. https://books.google.com/books?id=ZXrJA_5LKlYC Indo-European Poetry and Myth 2007 Oxford University Press 978-0-19-928075-9 Oxford, England Martin Litchfield West Winter Werner https://books.google.com/books?id=mox4cw6zY6kC&pg=PA134 Language in Time and Space 2003 Walter de Gruyter 978-3-11-017648-3 Berlin, Germany Witzel Michael https://books.google.com/books?id=UALji7FE-1UC The Origins of the World's Mythologies 2012 Oxford University Press 978-0-19-981285-1 en Michael Witzel York Michael 1988 Romulus and Remus, Mars and Quirinus Journal of Indo-European Studies 16 1–2 153–172 0092-2323 Further reading Epimakhov, Andrey; Lubotsky, Alexander. “Fire and Water: The Bronze Age of the Southern Urals and the Rigveda”. In: The Indo-European Puzzle Revisited: Integrating Archaeology, Genetics, and Linguistics. Edited by Kristian Kristiansen, Guus Kroonen, and Eske Willerslev. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023. pp. 263–74. 10.1017/9781009261753.022 Category:Proto-Indo-European gods Category:Reconstructed words