Taliesin's Map

< Part 3 The Case for  Týr  = Mitra: Part 4 of 4         There is also an important case to be made that the fathers of both  Týr  and Lugh are connected, which would further strengthen the argument for the identification of  Týr  (with Baldr) as a Mitraic deity. The scholar Thor Ewing has shown that the story of Lugh's birth, involving the infiltration of Balor's fortress by Cian and his impregnation of Balor's daughter Ethliu, matches in numerous details the infiltration of Óðinn into the mountain fortress to steal the mead of poetry while also sleeping with   Gunnlǫð . Ewing explains in his essay “Óðinn and Loki Among the Celts” the several features shared between the myths of Óðinn and Cian, which are also in part shared by Welsh Gwydion, the likely father of Lleu.          As Óðinn must infiltrate the giant Suttungr's mountain fortress to regain the Mead of Poetry, so Cian must infiltra...

< Part 2 Part 4 > The Case for  Týr  = Mitra: Part 3 of 4   A third pillar of Dumezil's argument must be marked as more speculative; however, in the context of comparative study it is perhaps one of Dumezil's most successful and ingenious comparisons, and is not without its catalog of supports. I am referring to Dumezil's identification of the brothers of  Týr ( as they are recorded by Snorri in the Prose Edda, namely Baldr and Höðr) with the divine attendants of Mitra: Aryaman and Bhaga.          Dumezil shows the way in which Bhaga and Aryaman develop out of the orbit of Mitra-as-god-of-social-cohesion-well-being-and-justice. Bhaga appears as the god of Destiny considered as Apportionment (of boons in particular), while Aryaman appears as the god of the flourishing of the “Aryan” people specifically, of the tribe or noble in-group society. In this constellation of figures, Aryaman takes on the role of the cupbe...

< Part 1           Part 3 >           The Case for  Týr  = Mitra: Part 2 of 4         The second pillar of Dumezil's argument is  Týr 's connection to war, the understanding of him as a “war god,” and, along with this, the connection of war back again to the judicial.   The spearhead of this pillar -- so to speak -- is the possible identification of  Týr  with the cryptic figure known as Mars Thingsus/Thincsus. Two inscriptions are known from Roman Britain naming a god as “Mars Thincsus,” and the votaries are recorded in these inscriptions as saying that they will  “ willingly and deservedly fulfill their vow .” Hence we have a god who definitively, but in a loose way, is associated with both a war god (Mars) and oaths. The piece of evidence tying this further together is the word “Thincsus,” which has been theorized to relate to the great assembly of the Germanic worl...

The Case for  Týr  = Mitra  Part 2 > The Case for  Týr  = Mitra: Part 1 of 4   Georges Dumezil, in his Mitra-Varuna , makes a case in passing for the identification of the Norse god  Týr  with the Vedic god Mitra. This case is brief, but is a central pillar of the overall argument of his book.  Týr , for Dumezil, makes up the “Mitra” half of the paradigmatic duad of Mitra-Varuna. However, though very influential, the argument is controversial and far from universally accepted, primarily due to the scanty actual evidence we have which depicts or describes  Týr  in the primary mythological sources and material archaeology. Specifically, there is a common objection that Dumezil has stretched the evidence too much and has invented a character for  Týr  to fit his structural theory which the evidence does not actually warrant. However, the idea that the case is based on nothing  could be classed as unch...