Hello, in this video we are going to look at some
religious writings from cultures that we believe evolved from the proto-Indo-Europeans,
to see if they can offer any evidence to support this theory of religions and cultures coming from
a single source. So welcome to the finding of the creation myth part 2, and welcome to Crecganford.
In my previous video I discussed the overall genealogy of religion that evolved from the
proto-Indo Europeans, and that, for those who are new to the channel, it is probably worth a watch
before you watch this, and so if that interests you I’ll link to it above now and in the
description below. But for those who have missed it I will do a 30 second synopsis.
And that will go something like this, that we believe the source proto-Indo-European religion
creation myth, which is at least 6,000 years old, went like this. In the beginning of the cosmos
two beings were created, Manus and Yemo, meaning man and twin, and also a giant cow on which they
suckled. Manus wanted to stop wandering through the cosmos, and to have a home,
and so he sacrificed Yemo, and from his body created the Sky god, the Ocean god, and the
earth. He travelled down to the earth, and became a priest, teaching that through ritual sacrifice
he would keep the world in order. Now with this myth, amongst others, the Proto-Indo-European
cultures and their religion spread from around the Black Sea and Turkey, to the east and the west. To
the west the religions of Germania and Scandinavia came to be, with those of Ymir and Odin,
and the Roman creation myth of Romulus and Remus. And to the East, an Indo-Iranian myth developed,
before splitting into separate religions, and from each of these, the myths developed further,
with the Jewish and Greek myths being influenced from the Iranian based arm of the split
with their primordial being of Gayomart. And the Indian Vedic version with their cosmic being of
Purusa, and that influenced Chinese Daoism which is like Taoism. From this genealogy
I’ll take three books, three key books, from the descendants of the proto-Indo-Europeans, to show
proof that this genealogical view developed. The first book I’ll start with is the Rig Veda,
which a collection of Indian Vedic Sanskrit hymns, and the part I will read is a passage from book 10
hymn 90 verses 6 to 16, using my own translation based on Ralph Griffith’s work. In this
text representing the Vedic culture, the primordial being is named Purusa,
just as a point of reference when listening. Sadhyas and Rsis were born from the grass grown
with the holy water. Fat of Purusa’s body was gathered up, forming the creatures of the air,
and animals both wild and tame. From that great general sacrifice the Rig Veda and Sama
Veda hymns were born; Then the Chandas was born from him, and the Yajur Veda was born from him.
From it horses were born, from it all cattle with teeth on both jaws were born: From it cows were
born, and from it the goats and sheep were born. When they divided Purusa, how many portions did
they make? What did they make from his mouth, his arms? What did they make from his thighs and feet?
The Brahmanas was his mouth, of both his arms was the Rajanya made. His thighs became the Vaishyas,
from his feet the Shudras was produced. The Moon was created from his mind, and from his eyes the
sun was born; Indra and Agni from his mouth were born, and Vayu, the wind, from his breath. From
his navel came the air between heaven and earth; the sky was fashioned from his head; Earth from
his feet, and from his ear the regions. Thus they formed the worlds. Seven enclosures had he, with
three times seven layers of fuel were prepared, When the Gods, offering sacrifice, bound, as their
victim, Purusa. Gods, sacrificing, sacrificed the victim; these were the earliest holy meditations.
The gods through this attained the height of heaven, where the Sadhyas, the Gods of old,
now dwell. So in summary Purusa is sacrificed and its body parts are used to make the earth,
heaven, and moon, the animals, and all men. And next, we can look at the Iranian Greater Bundahišn
and use selections from that text as suggested by work from Professor Bruce Lincoln. And to
add context Gayomart was the primordial being of Iranian mythology. And it goes like this. Ahriman,
the Evil Spirit, entered in the month of Fravartin and the day of Ohrmazd, at noon; the Sky
was as afraid of him as a sheep of a wolf; he then came to the Water, arranged underneath this Earth;
he then pierced and entered the middle of this Earth; then he came to the Tree;
then to the Ox and Gayomart; then he came to the Fire; so that, like a fly, he went
to all the creations. This, too, is said in the Avesta: When the sole-created Ox passed away,
it fell to the right hand, and when Gayomart passed away thereafter, he fell to the left
hand. As regards the whereabouts of the five kinds of animals, it says in the Scripture: "When the
sole-created Ox passed away, fifty-five species of corn and twelve species of medicinal herbs grew up
from there where its semen fell." Having carried the semen of the Ox up to the Moon station,
they purified it there and created out of it, the domestic animals of many species;
first two cattle, male and female, and then a pair of every species appeared in the heart of
Iran within the Earth. As it says: "On account of the value of the Ox, I produced it twice,
once as the Ox, and again as the beneficient animals of many species." When illness came to
Gayomart, he fell on his left hand side. There came into manifestation lead out of his head,
tin out of his blood, silver out of his marrow, iron out of his feet, copper out of his bones,
glass out of his fat, steel out of his arms, and gold out of life's departure, which
owing to its value, men now give along with life. When Gayomart ejaculated while passing away, they
filtered the seed by means of the light of the Sun; The Fire, Neryosang guarded two parts of it,
and Spendarmat, the earth, accepted one part; and it remained within the earth for forty years.
The text continues further, after this telling of how the ten species of man were ultimately
produced from the semen of Gayomart, but what was important was the passages I’ve read clearly
show his body being used for the creation of the earth. And finally, in the last of three texts,
we have the The Beguiling of Gylfi from The Prose Edda, here, the primordial being is Ymir,
and the story is presented as a discussion between a King who uses the name Gangleri,
and the gods. Referred to as high ones. Then Gangleri said: "Where was Ymir's home,
and what was it?”. The High One replied: "As soon as the frost thawed, it became Athumla,
and four rivers of milk ran from her uders, and she fed Ymir." Then Gangleri asked:
"How did the cow live?" the High One answered: "She licked the ice-blocks which were salty,
and by the evening of the first day of a man’s hair appeared from the ice block she licked,
on the second day a man's head, and on the third day the whole man was there. He was called Buri.
He was handsome and tall and strong. He had a son called Bor, who married a woman called Bestla,
the daughter of the giant Bolthorn.They had three sons: the first, Odinn; the second, Vili;
the third, Ve; and it is my belief that Odinn with his brothers, is the ruler of the heavens
and the earth. We think that this is his title; it is the name given to the man we know to be the
greatest and most famous, and you can take it that this is his title." Then Gangleri asked:
"How did they get on together? Was one group more powerful than the other?" Then High One answered:
"Bor's sons killed the giant Ymir, and when he fell, so much blood poured from his wounds that
they drowned the whole tribe of frost ogres with it-except for one who escaped with his household;
this one is known as Bergelmir.... Then Gangleri said: "What did the sons of Bor do next,
since you believe they are gods?" High One said: "There is a great deal to be told about this.
They took Ymir and carried him into the middle of Ginnungagap, and made the world from him:
from his blood the sea and the lakes, from his flesh the earth, from his bones the mountains;
rocks and pebbles they made from his teeth and jaws and those bones that were broken."
Just-as-High said: "From the blood which welled freely from his wounds they fashioned the ocean,
when they put together the earth and girdled laying the ocean round about it.
To cross it would strike most men as impossible." Third added:
"They also took his skull and made the sky from it and it over the earth with its four sides...".
From that passage we see that Ymir’s body has been used to create the earth,
which means that there is a common thread is clear, and quite a clear common thread, that in
all three myths representing Vedic, Persian and Old Norse cultures, has a creation myth
with a primordial being killed and dismembered, and from this body, the cosmos, the earth, and
its creatures are created. And whilst there are differences in each account, these are evidently
because cultural changes happen over time that have passed since the original myth was created,
and as that myth spreads and new cultures develop, new technology, and new needs, and new stories,
things such as sailing, or farming, that religious myth changes, and religious myth change rapidly
throughout history. Within a generation changes can occur, just like stories I have mentioned
in previous videos. And this explains why there are such differences in the myths.
But what are the key differences between those three texts I have just read.
Well the dismemberment was performed by gods in two accounts, and by a demon in the third. The
victim has a cow in one, an ox in another, but no companion in the third. And the act is treated as
a sacrifice in one, but a murder in the other two. But what is somewhat strange or really different
is that the victim’s names bear no resemblance to each other. Ymir, Gayōmart, and Puruşa
don’t seem to be linked. So, whilst the myths are structurally similar in plot,
are they actually related to each other in any other way? Can we prove that relationship? Well
here, understanding that the Old Norse version of the text is close to proto-indo euroipean source
as it could be could help us. The Old Norse primordial being is called Ymir,
and is an androgyne, neither a man nor a woman but both, and is derived from the proto-Germannic
“yumῐyaz” which would have derived from Proto-Indo-European “yəmiyós”, a term that is
directly related to “twin”. This word corresponds with the Lettish, a baltic language, of “jumis”
meaning double-fruit, the Middle Irish “emuin” meaning twin, Latin “geminus” also meaning twin,
and the Avestan, the language spoken by those who followed Zoroastrianism, as “yəma” meaning twin.
And this matches the proper name in Avestan of “Yima” which is Sanskrit “Yama”, which signifies
twin as well. Because of this phonological and semantic correlation, then it would be sensible
to assume that all these names of this primordial being are derived from the same character in the
Proto-Indo-European myth, so Ymir should be the same as Gayomart. The Iranian evidence supports
this hypothesis further, as behind the figure of Gayōmart we may discover the older figure of Yima,
who we have shown is directly related to Yemo from the proto-indo European creation myth. Now
the way in which this transformation from Gayōmart to Yima took place is somewhat complex.
First, it must be recognized that in pre-Zoroastrian Persia, Yima was
not merely the king of the golden age but was regarded as first king and first mortal to die.
And being the first thing to die links Yima to the original primordial being Yemo dying. That
correlation in the myth. The tradition of Yima was rejected by Zoroaster, who soundly condemns
Yima in the only time that he mentions him within their book of worship, the Yasna, in section 32.8;
And how we know that there is a line in 32:8 “Among these sinners, we know, Yima was included…”
There is one verse, however, in which Zoroaster does make an oblique reference to the myth of
creation by sacrifice, in Yasna 30.4, and this says; “And when the good and evil
spirits first met, they instituted life and non-life, and how life should be at the end.”
Moreover, these two spirits are said to have "appeared in the beginning as two
twins, and uses the word “yəma”, in a dream. This is from Yasna 30.3.
These verses have been studied by academics who have recognized that Zoroaster attempted to deal
with an earlier myth of creation which he found objectionable, he didn’t want to put forward
as his own, but which he can’t not completely ignore as it was inherent within the culture.
Thus, he philosophized the myth, changing its characters into abstract entities, but retaining
the essential mythologem that the first living man died at the creation of the world. Now ironically,
however, a re-mythologization of Zoroaster’s version took place in later centuries. And in
the verse cited above, the Avestan term translated "life" is “gaya”, which in the Younger Avesta is
often combined with the term “marətan”, "mortal" to form the name given the first mortal man,
and he was created and died at the beginning of the world “gaya marətan”. Now this name comes
into the Pahlavi, or the Middle Persian, version of the Bundahisn text as Gayomart. Thus,
the evolution from Yima to Gayomart is that Middle Persian Gayomart comes from Younger Avestan “Gaya
maratan”, which comes from Gathic Avestan “gaya”, which is from Pre-Zoroaster “Yima”, meaning twin.
So linking the primordial being across those Persian myths, and showing that Gayomart is in
fact a being that evolved from Yemo in the original proto-Indo-European
creation myth. Clearly shows that the creation myth went west into Germania and Scandanavia,
and east into Persia and Iran, and onto India, all from that single source.
In the next video in this series, I will discuss some specific pieces of comparative mythology,
maybe touching on gods and myths gods that are common through the
descendants of the proto-Indo-European sources. So hopefully you found that
by looking at those texts of the descendants of the Proto-Indo-European religion and seeing their
similarities, and I will put the references to the texts in the description so you can look at
them yourselves. It will help you to understand that we do have substantial evidence to show
this decadency and this genealogy of religion. And if you want to ask any questions or leave any
comments about what I said, because the last part for Gayo Mart to Yemo is quite complex,
but it will make sense, perhaps if you listen to it a few times, we have enough
evidence to make our theory stand up well to scrutiny. So I hope you enjoyed this video,
and if you have please like and subscribe to the channel, it means a lot,
so until next time, stay safe, stay well, and this was
Crecganford.