[INDOLOGY] Georges Dumezil's Tripartite Ideology text

Wed Nov 30 09:56:00 UTC 2016

A propos this topic please permit me to quote from a review I published
long years ago on a volume of the collected papers of John Brough (IIJ 42:
188-196):

Despite the astonishingly broad range of his interests and competence,
Brough was not a comparativist, at least in the sense that that term is
frequently used today. In fact, he rather energetically, and sometimes even
rather sarcastically, critiqued a certain type of comparativism, especially
in his comments on Dumezil’s ideas on the “Tripartite Ideology of the
IndoEuropeans.” Having, for example, offered an elaborate complex of
evidence which reduces to ashes Dumezil’s claim that the “Tripartite
Ideology” is exclusively IndoEuropean, and nonBiblical, Brough wrote (p.
199): “We can, of course, dismiss the whole thing [that is, Brough’s
demonstration of the same patterns in Biblical myth] as a mere burlesque, a
caricature of Professor Dumezil’s methods: though I protest that I have
tried not to caricature, and have done my best to deal with the material in
the same manner as he has dealt with the IndoEuropean material. The reader
is free to judge whether or not my treatment is a burlesque.” Despite the
putative freedom Brough has given his reader, he ends his study with these
words: “The experiment [carried out in the paper] also suggests that the
IndoEuropean ‘tripartite ideology’ could be due very largely to bias in the
selection of data combined with ‘la nature des choses’. If it does not
prove this with the certainty of a mathematical demonstration, it does at
least prove that, up to the present, no very strong reason has been given
for thinking otherwise.”

Jonathan Silk

On Wed, Nov 30, 2016 at 9:45 AM, Christophe Vielle <
christophe.vielle at uclouvain.be> wrote:

> *L'idéologie tripartie des Indo-Européens*, Bruxelles : Latomus (*Collection
> Latomus* 31), 1958,
> is currently out of print (the series "Coll. Latomus" is now with Peeters
> publ.: http://www.peeters-leuven.be/search_serie_book.asp?nr=299 ).
> As far as I know, no English translation was made of this book.
>
> Alf Hiltebeitel made a translation of the 1st edition of
> *Heur et malheur du guerrier. Aspects mythiques de la fonction guerrière
> chez les Indo-Européens*, Paris : Flammarion, 19691,  19852 : *The
> Destiny of the Warrior*, Chicago UP, 1970.
> https://archive.org/details/GeorgesDumezilTheDestinyOfTheWarrior1970
>
> and of the 3rd part of the 1st edition of
> *Mythe et épopée II. Types épiques indo-européens : un héros, un sorcier,
> un roi*, Paris : Gallimard (*Bibliothèque des sciences humaines*), 19711,
> 19772, 19864 : *The Destiny of a King*, Chicago UP, 1973.
> https://archive.org/details/GeorgesDumezilTheDestinyOfAKing
> https://archive.org/details/GeorgesDumezilTheDestinyOfAKing1973
>
> The translation of two other parts of the latter have been ed. by J.
> Puhvel, *The Stakes of the Warrior *[https://archive.org/details/
> GeorgesDumezilTheStakesOfTheWarrior], and *The Plight of a Sorcerer *[
> https://archive.org/details/GeorgesDumezilJaanPuhvelDavidW
> eeksThePlightOfASorcererUniversityOfCaliforniaPress1986], Berkeley, UCP,
> 1983 and 1986. There also exists also English translations of Dumézil's
> *Mitra-Varuna *(Paris: Gallimard, 1940/48) by D. Coltman, New York : Zone
> Books, 1988 [https://archive.org/details/georges-dumezil-mitra-varuna -
> https://archive.org/details/GeorgesDumezilMitraVarunaAnEss
> ayOnTwoIndoEuropeanRepresentationsOfSovereignty1990 -
> https://archive.org/details/Mitra-varunaAnEssayOnTwoIndo-
> europeanRepresentationsOfSovereignty]; *Les dieux des Germains *(Paris :
> PUF, 1959) + 4 articles, dir. by E. Haugen, *Gods of the Ancient Northmen*,
> Berkeley, UCP, 1973 [https://archive.org/details/
> GeorgesDumezilGodsOfTheAncientNorthmenUniversityOfCaliforniaPress1973 -
> https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_DZIeNMgZhRwC];  *La religion romaine
> archaïque* (Paris : Payot, 1966) by Philipp Krapp, *Archaic Roman
> Religion*, 2 vols, Chicago UP, 1970 [https://archive.org/details/
> dumezil-archaic-roman-religion-with-an-appendix-on-
> the-religion-of-the-etruscans-part-1 - https://archive.org/details/
> dumezil-archaic-roman-religion-with-an-appendix-on-
> the-religion-of-the-etruscans-part-2 - https://archive.org/details/
> ArchaicRomanReligion]; *Du mythe au roman* (Paris : PUF, 1970) by D.
> Coltman, *From Myth to Fiction*, Chicago UP, 1970; *Mythe et épopée III*
> (Paris : Gallimard, 1973) ed. by U. Strutynski, *Camillus*, Berkeley,
> UCP, 1980 [https://archive.org/details/GeorgesDumezilCamillusAStudyOf
> IndoEuropeanReligionAsRomanHistory1980].
>
>
> Best wishes,
> Christophe Vielle
>
> Le 30 nov. 2016 à 08:32, Tejas Aralere <tsaralere at gmail.com> a écrit :
>
> Dear All,
>
> Does anyone have a PDF of George Dumézil's "L'Idéologie Tripartie des
> Indo-Européens"?  An english translation (if it exists) would be perfect,
> but even a copy in French would be appreciated.  I just can't seem to find
> it anywhere.
>
> Thank you,
> Tejas Aralere
> tsaralere at umail.ucsb.edu
>
>
>
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> –––––––––––––––––––
> Christophe Vielle <http://www.uclouvain.be/christophe.vielle>
> Louvain-la-Neuve
>
>
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-- 
J. Silk
Leiden University
Leiden University Institute for Area Studies, LIAS
Matthias de Vrieshof 3, Room 0.05b
2311 BZ Leiden
The Netherlands

copies of my publications may be found at
http://www.buddhismandsocialjustice.com/silk_publications.html

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