In a magisterial work, Jaan Puhvel unravels the prehistoric Indo-European origins of the traditions of India and Iran, Greece and Rome, of the Celts, Germans, Balts, and Slavs. Utilizing the methodologies of historical linguistics and archaeology, he reconstructs a shared religious, mythological, and cultural heritage. Separate chapters on individual traditions as well as on recurrent themes—god and warrior, king and virgin, fire and water—give life to Comparative Mythology as bot...

Myth in Indo-European Antiquity offers a compelling collection of essays that explore the profound narratives and symbolic structures of Indo-European mythology, inspired by the groundbreaking work of Georges Dumézil. Emerging from a 1971 symposium at the University of California, Santa Barbara, the volume brings together scholars from diverse fields such as linguistics, anthropology, and religious studies to address Dumézil's comparative methods and extend his legacy into new areas of myt...