*H₁n̥gʷnis

*H₂n̥gʷʰis*H₂n̥gʷʰis July 2025 Indo-European Agni Enji Albanian Ungnis BalticFire-god in the Proto-Indo-European mythology *H₁n̥gʷnis is the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European name of the fire god in Proto-Indo-European mythology. Name thumb|An 18th-century depiction of Agni, a descendant deity The archaic Proto-Indo-European language (ca. 4500–4000 BC) had a two-gender system which originally divided words between animate and inanimate, a system used to distinguish a common term from its deified synonym. Therefore, fire as an animate entity and active force was known as *h₁n̥gʷnis, while the inanimate entity and natural substance was named *péh₂ur (cf. el πυρ, pyr; en fire).Mallory Adams 2006 122West 2007 135–136 In some traditions, as the sacral name of the dangerous fire may have become a word taboo,West 2007 266 the stem *h₁n̥gʷnis served as an ordinary term for fire, as in the Latin la ignis.Mallory Adams 2006 122 Reconstruction Although the linguistic evidence is restricted to the Vedic and Balto-Slavic traditions, scholars have proposed that Proto-Indo-Europeans conceived the fire as a divine entity called ine-x-proto h₁n̥gʷnis.West 2007 266Mallory Adams 1997 203 "Seen from afar" and "untiring", the Indic deity Agni is pictured in the Rigveda as the god of both terrestrial and celestial fires. He embodied the flames of the sun and the lightning, as well as the forest fire, the domestic hearth fire and the sacrificial altar, linking heaven and earth in a ritual dimension.West 2007 266 Another group of cognates deriving from the Balto-Slavic *ungnis ("fire") is also attested.Derksen 2008 364 Early modern sources report that Lithuanian priests worshipped a "holy Fire" named Ugnis (szwenta), which they tried to maintain in perpetual life, while Uguns (māte) was revered as the "Mother of Fire" by the Latvians. Tenth-century Persian sources give evidence of the veneration of fire among the Slavs, and later sources in Old Church Slavonic attest the worship of fire (ogonĭ), occurring under the divine name Svarožič, who has been interpreted as the son of Svarog.Jakobson 1985 26West 2007 269 right 400 border:none; Stele daunienne mariemont.JPG Albanian tattoo patterns – Sun and Fire symbols.png 610-550 BC Daunian stelae from Apulia (left); Sun (Dielli) and Fire (Zjarri) symbols in Albanian traditional tattoo patterns (19th century).Murray-Aynsley 1891 29, 31 The cross (also swastika in some tattoos) is the Albanian traditional way to represent the deified Fire, evidently also called with the theonym Enji.Treimer 1971 32; Murray-Aynsley 1891 29, 31. The name of the fire god in the Albanian pagan mythology – Enji, from PIE ine-x-proto h₁n̥gʷnis – is evidently contained in the week day name that was dedicated to him – sq e enjte – the Albanian word for Thursday. He is thought to have been worshiped by the Illyrians in antiquity, being the most prominent god of the pantheon when week day names were formed in the Albanian language.Treimer 1971 32 In Albanian tradition, the fire – zjarri – is deified, with the power to ward off evil and darkness, give strength to the Sun (Dielli, who is worshiped as the god of light and giver of life), sustain the continuity between life and afterlife and between the generations. The divine power of fire is used by Albanians for the hearth and the rituals, including calendar fires, sacrificial offerings, divination, purification, and protection from big storms and other potentially harmful events. The Albanian fire worship and rituals are associated with the cult of the Sun, the cult of the hearth (vatër) and the ancestor, and the cult of fertility in agriculture and animal husbandry.Tirta 2004 68–69, 135, 176–181, 249–261, 274–282, 327 Scholars generally agree that the cult of the hearth dates back to Proto-Indo-European times.West 2007 269 The domestic fire had to be tended with care and given offerings, and if one moved house, one carried fire from the old to the new home.West 2007 269 The Avestan Ātar was the sacral and hearth fire, often personified and honored as a god.West 2007 266 In Albanian beliefs, Nëna e Vatrës ("the Hearth Mother") is the goddess protector of the domestic hearth (vatër).Tirta 2004 410Mallory Adams 1997 263 Herodotus reported a Scythian goddess of hearth named Tabiti, a term likely given under a slightly distorted guise, as she might represent a feminine participial form corresponding to an Indo-Iranian god named *Tapatī, "the Burning one". The sacral or domestic hearth can likewise be found in the Greek and Roman hearth goddesses Hestia and Vesta, two names that may derive from the PIE root ine-x-proto h₁w-es- ("burning").West 2007 266Mallory Adams 1997 203 Both the ritual fires set in the temples of Vesta and the domestic fires of ancient India were circular, rather than the square form reserved for public worship in India and for the other gods in Roman antiquity.Fortson 2004 24 Additionally, the custom that the bride circles the hearth three times is common to Indian, Ossetian, Slavic, Baltic, and German traditions, while a newly born child was welcomed into a Greek household when the father circled the hearth carrying it in the Amphidromia ceremony.West 2007 269 Evidence PIE: *h₁n̥gʷnis, the fire as an active force,Mallory Adams 2006 122 Indo-Iranian: Hagni-,Lubotsky 2011, s.v. agni-. Vedic: Agni (अग्नि), a fire deity,West 2007 266 Young Avestan: Dāšt-āɣni, Balto-Slavic: *ungnis,Derksen 2008 364 lt Ugnis šventa, 'Holy Fire',West 2007 269 lv Uguns māte, 'Mother of Fire',West 2007 269 Proto-Albanian: *agni-,Orel 1998 88 sq Enji, fire deity, contained in the Albanian name for Thursday – sq e enjte.Orel 1998 88 See also Ognyena Maria References 25em Bibliography 30em Etymological Dictionary of the Slavic Inherited Lexicon Derksen Rick Rick Derksen 2008 Brill 9789004155046 Fortson Benjamin W. Indo-European Language and Culture Blackwell Publishing 2004 1-4051-0316-7 Benjamin W. Fortson IV Jakobson Roman Roman Jakobson Stephen Rudy Roman Jakobson: Selected Writings VII: Contributions to Comparative Mythology: Studies in Linguistics and Philology, 1972-1982 Linguistic Evidence in Comparative Mythology 1985 Walter de Gruyter 978-3-11-085546-3 https://books.google.com/books?id=gsucH7YYr7kC Lubotsky Alexander 2011 Brill Indo-Aryan Inherited Lexicon Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Project Alexander Lubotsky Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture https://books.google.com/books?id=tzU3RIV2BWIC 1997 Mallory James P. London Routledge 978-1-884964-98-5 Adams Douglas Q. J. P. Mallory Douglas Q. Adams Mallory James P. The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World 2006 Oxford, UK Oxford University Press 978-0-19-929668-2 Adams Douglas Q. Murray-Aynsley J. C. Swastika Ars Quatuor Coronatorum IV 1891 Orel Vladimir Vladimir Orel Albanian etymological dictionary 1998 Brill 978-90-04-11024-3 Tirta Mark Mitologjia ndër shqiptarë sq Petrit Bezhani Mësonjëtorja 2004 Tirana 99927-938-9-9 Treimer Karl Henrik Barić Arhiv za Arbanasku starinu, jezik i etnologiju I Zur Rückerschliessung der illyrischen Götterwelt und ihre Bedeutung für die südslawische Philologie 27–33 R. Trofenik 1971 https://books.google.com/books?id=dTIBAAAAMAAJ West Martin Litchfield Martin Litchfield West Indo-European Poetry and Myth 2007 Oxford University Press Oxford, UK 978-0-19-928075-9 See also Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₁n̥gʷnís *H₁n̥gʷnis Category:Proto-Indo-European gods Category:Reconstructed words Category:Fire gods