*Trito

Mythological figure *Trito is a significant figure in Proto-Indo-European mythology, representing the first warrior and acting as a culture hero.Lincoln 1976 63–64 He is connected to other prominent characters, such as Manu and Yemo,Lincoln 1976 63–64 and is recognized as the protagonist of the myth of the warrior function,Lincoln 1976 63–64 establishing the model for all later men of arms.Lincoln 1976 63–64 In the legend, Trito is offered cattle as a divine gift by celestial gods,Lincoln 1976 58 which is later stolen by a three-headed serpent named *H₂n̥gʷʰis ('serpent').Lincoln 1976 58Lincoln 1976 51Anthony 2007 134–135 Despite initial defeat, Trito, fortified by an intoxicating drink and aided by the Sky-Father,Lincoln 1976 58Anthony 2007 134–135Mallory Adams 1997 138 or alternatively the Storm-God or *H₂nḗr, 'Man',Anthony 2007 134–135Mallory Adams 2006 437 together they go to a cave or a mountain, and the hero overcomes the monster and returns the recovered cattle to a priest for it to be properly sacrificed.Lincoln 1976 58Anthony 2007 134–135Mallory Adams 1997 138 He is now the first warrior, maintaining through his heroic deeds the cycle of mutual giving between gods and mortals.Lincoln 1976 63–64Anthony 2007 134–135 Scholars have interpreted the story of Trito either as a cosmic conflict between the heavenly hero and the earthly serpent or as an Indo-European victory over non-Indo-European people, with the monster symbolizing the aboriginal thief or usurper.Lincoln 1976 58, 62 Trito's character served as a model for later cattle-raiding epic myths and was seen as providing moral justification for cattle raiding.Lincoln 1976 63–64 The legend of Trito is generally accepted among scholars and is recognized as an essential part of Proto-Indo-European mythology, although not to the level of Manu and Yemo.See: Puhvel 1987 285–287; Mallory Adams 2006 435–436; Anthony 2007 134–135. West 2007 agrees with the reconstructed motif of Manu and Yemo, although he notes that interpretations of the myths of Trita and Thraētona are debated. According to Polomé 1986, "some elements of the [Scandinavian myth of Ymir] are distinctively Indo-Europeans", but the reconstruction of the creation myth of the first Man and his Twin proposed by Lincoln 1975 "makes too unprovable assumptions to account for the fundamental changes implied by the Scandinavian version". History of research Following a first paper on the cosmogonical legend of Manu and Yemo, published simultaneously with Jaan Puhvel in 1975 (who pointed out the Roman reflex of the story), Bruce Lincoln assembled the initial part of the myth with the legend of the third man Trito in a single ancestral motif.Lincoln 1976 42–43Anthony 2007 134–135Mallory Adams 2006 435–436 Since the 1970s, the reconstructed motifs of Manu and Yemo, and to a lesser extent that of Trito, have been generally accepted among scholars. Trifunctional hypothesis According to Lincoln the legend of Trito should be interpreted as "a myth of the warrior function, establishing the model for all later men of arms".Lincoln 1976 63–64 While Manu and Yemo seem to be the protagonists of "a myth of the sovereign function, establishing the model for later priests and kings",Lincoln 1976 63–64 The myth indeed recalls the Dumézilian tripartition of the cosmos between the priest (in both his magical and legal aspects), the warrior (the Third Man), and the herder (the cow).Anthony 2007 134–135 The story of Trito served as a model for later cattle raiding epic myths and most likely as a moral justification for the practice of raiding among Indo-European peoples. In the original legend, Trito is only taking back what rightfully belongs to his people, those who sacrifice properly to the gods.Lincoln 1976 63–64 The myth has been interpreted either as a cosmic conflict between the heavenly hero and the earthly serpent, or as an Indo-European victory over non-Indo-European people, the monster symbolizing the aboriginal thief or usurper.Lincoln 1976 58, 62 Trito and H₂n̥gʷʰis Cognates stemming from the First Warrior *Trito ('Third') include the Vedic Trita, the hero who recovered the stolen cattle from the serpent Vṛtrá; the Avestan Thraētona ('son of Thrita'), who won back the abducted women from the serpent Aži Dahāka; and the Norse þriði ('Third'), one of the names of Óðinn.Lincoln 1976 47–48West 2007 260Mallory Adams 1997 138 Other cognates may appear in the Greek expressions trítos sōtḗr (τρίτος σωτήρ; 'Third Saviour'), an epithet of Zeus, and tritogḗneia (τριτογήνεια; 'Third born' or 'born of Zeus'), an epithet of Athena; and perhaps in the Slavic mythical hero Trojan (mythology) Trojan ru Троян (мифология), found in Russian and Serbian legends alike.West 2007 260Troyan has been tentatively connected to numeral "try" 'three', Ukrainian troian 'father of triplets/three sons', or considered a possible guardian deity of Russia in pre-Christian times.Bilaniuk Petro B. T. The Ultimate Reality and Meaning in the Pre-Christian Religion of the Eastern Slavs Ultimate Reality and Meaning 11 4 December 1988 254, 258–259 10.3138/uram.11.4.247 free H₂n̥gʷʰis is a reconstructed noun meaning 'serpent'.Lincoln 1976 51Anthony 2007 134–135 Descendent cognates can be found in the Iranian Aži, the name of the inimical serpent, and in the Indic áhi ('serpent'), a term used to designate the monstrous serpent Vṛtrá,West 2007 260 both descending from Proto-Indo-Iranian *Háǰʰiš.Witzel Michael In Hot Pursuit of Language in Prehistory, Essays in the Four Fields of Anthropology 2008 John Benjamins Publishing 9789027232526 Bengtson John D. 269 Slaying the Dragon across Eurasia +Indo-European linguistic descendants (in bold) and thematic echoes (in italic) of the myth of the First Warrior.See: Lincoln 1976; Mallory Adams 2006; West 2007; Anthony 2007.TraditionFirst WarriorThree-headed SerpentHelper GodStolen presentProto-Indo-European*Trito ('Third')*H₂n̥gʷʰisThe Storm-god or *H₂nḗr ('Man')CattleIndianTritaVṛtrá ('áhi')IndraCowsIranianThraētona ('son of Thrita')Aži Dahāka*Vr̥traghnaWomenGermanicþriði, HymirThree serpentsÞórrGoats (?)Graeco-RomanHeraklesGeryon, CācusHeliosCattle Serpent-slaying myth One common myth found in nearly all Indo-European mythologies is a battle ending with a hero or god slaying a serpent or dragon of some sort.Watkins 1995 297–301West 2007 255–259Mallory Adams 2006 436–437 Although the details of the story often vary widely, several features remain remarkably the same in all iterations. The protagonist of the story is usually a thunder-god, or a hero somehow associated with thunder.West 2007 255 His enemy the serpent is generally associated with water and depicted as multi-headed, or else "multiple" in some other way.Mallory Adams 2006 436–437 Indo-European myths often describe the creature as a "blocker of waters", and his many heads get eventually smashed up by the thunder-god in an epic battle, releasing torrents of water that had previously been pent up.West 2007 255–257 The original legend may have symbolized the Chaoskampf, a clash between forces of order and chaos.Watkins 1995 299–300 The dragon or serpent loses in every version of the story, although in some mythologies, such as the Norse Ragnarök myth, the hero or the god dies with his enemy during the confrontation.Watkins 1995 324–330 Historian Bruce Lincoln has proposed that the dragon-slaying tale and the creation myth of *Trito killing the serpent *H₂n̥gʷʰis may actually belong to the same original story.Lincoln 1976 76Mallory Adams 2006 437 Reflexes of the Proto-Indo-European dragon-slaying myth appear in most Indo-European poetic traditions, where the myth has left traces of the formulaic sentence *(h₁e) gʷʰent h₁ógʷʰim, meaning "[he] slew the serpent".Fortson 2004 26 thumb|Greek red-figure vase painting depicting Heracles slaying the Lernaean Hydra, c. 375–340 BC.|leftIn Hittite mythology, the storm god Tarhunt slays the giant serpent Illuyanka,Houwink Ten Cate Philo H. J. https://books.google.com/books?id=jNM3AAAAIAAJ The Luwian Population Groups of Lycia and Cilicia Aspera During the Hellenistic Period 1961 Brill 978-9004004696 203–220 en as does the Vedic god Indra the multi-headed serpent Vritra, which has been causing a drought by trapping the waters in his mountain lair.West 2007 255–257 Fortson 2004 26–27 Several variations of the story are also found in Greek mythology.West 2007 460 The original motif appears inherited in the legend of Zeus slaying the hundred-headed Typhon, as related by Hesiod in the Theogony,West 2007 255–259Watkins 1995 448–460 and possibly in the myth of Heracles slaying the nine-headed Lernaean Hydra and in the legend of Apollo slaying the earth-dragon Python.West 2007 255–259Watkins 1995 460–464 The story of Heracles's theft of the cattle of Geryon is probably also related.West 2007 255–259 Although he is not usually thought of as a storm deity in the conventional sense, Heracles bears many attributes held by other Indo-European storm deities, including physical strength and a knack for violence and gluttony.West 2007 255–259Watkins 1995 374–383 The original motif is also reflected in Germanic mythology.Watkins 1995 414–441 The Norse god of thunder Thor slays the giant serpent Jörmungandr, which lived in the waters surrounding the realm of Midgard.West 2007 259Watkins 1995 429–441 In the Völsunga saga, Sigurd slays the dragon Fafnir and, in Beowulf, the eponymous hero slays a different dragon.https://books.google.com/books?id=LfT460lWdWEC&pg=PA108 A Critical Companion to Beowulf Orchard Andy 2003 Boydell & Brewer Ltd 9781843840299 108 en The depiction of dragons hoarding a treasure (symbolizing the wealth of the community) in Germanic legends may also be a reflex of the original myth of the serpent holding waters.Fortson 2004 26 thumb|450px|The Hittite god Tarhunt, followed by his son Sarruma, kills the dragon Illuyanka (Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, Ankara, Turkey).|alt= In Zoroastrianism and in Persian mythology, Fereydun (and later Garshasp) slays the serpent Zahhak. In Albanian mythology, the drangue, semi-human divine figures associated with thunders, slay the kulshedra, huge multi-headed fire-spitting serpents associated with water and storms. The Slavic god of storms Perun slays his enemy the dragon-god Veles, as does the bogatyr hero Dobrynya Nikitich to the three-headed dragon Zmey.West 2007 259 A similar execution is performed by the Armenian god of thunders Vahagn to the dragon Vishap,Kurkjian 1958 by the Romanian knight hero Făt-Frumos to the fire-spitting monster Zmeu, and by the Celtic god of healing Dian Cecht to the serpent Meichi.Watkins 1995 299–300 In Shinto, where Indo-European influences through Vedic religion can be seen in mythology, the storm god Susanoo slays the eight-headed serpent Yamata no Orochi.Witzel 2012 thumb|Bird (Christ) victorious over the Serpent (Satan), Saint-Sever Beatus, 11th C. The Genesis narrative of Judaism and Christianity, as well as the dragon appearing in Revelation 12 can be interpretedJuly 2024 as a retelling of the serpent-slaying myth. The Deep or Abyss from or on top of which God is said to make the world is translated from the Biblical Hebrew Tehom (Hebrew: תְּהוֹם). Tehom is a cognate of the Akkadian word tamtu and Ugaritic t-h-m which have similar meaning. As such it was equated with the earlier Babylonian serpent Tiamat.Heinrich Zimmern, The Ancient East, No. III: The Babylonian and Hebrew Genesis; translated by J. Hutchison; London: David Nutt, 57–59 Long Acre, 1901. Folklorist Andrew Lang suggests that the serpent-slaying myth morphed into a folktale motif of a frog or toad blocking the flow of waters.Lang, Andrew. Myth, Ritual and Religion. Vol. I. London: Longmans, Green. 1906. pp. 42–46. 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