*Seh₂ul and *Meh₁not are the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European goddess of the Sun and god of the Moon. *Seh₂ul is reconstructed based on the solar deities of the attested Indo-European mythologies, although its gender (male or female) is disputed, since there are deities of both genders.[1] Likewise, *Meh₁not- is reconstructed based on the lunar deities of the daughter languages, but they differ in regards to their gender.
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Quick Facts *Seh₂ul, Abode ...
*Seh₂ul
Sun Goddess
Possible depiction of the Hittite Sun goddess holding a child in her arms from between 1400 and 1200 BC.
The daily course of *Seh₂ul across the sky on a horse-driven chariot is a common motif among Indo-European myths.[note 1] While it is probably inherited, the motif certainly appeared after the introduction of the wheel in the Pontic–Caspian steppe about 3500 BC, and is therefore a late addition to Proto-Indo-European culture.[3]
In the mythologies of the daughter languages (namely, Baltic, Greek and Old Indic), the sun deity crosses the sky in a horse-driven chariot or wagon. However, Mallory and Adams caution that the motif is not exclusively Indo-European, and mention evidence of its presence in Mesopotamia.[8]
A character related to the Sun deity is the 'Sun-maiden'.[9] Mallory and Adams cite as examples 'Saules meita', the daughter of Saulé in Baltic tradition, and Sūryā, daughter to Indic Sun god Sūrya.[10] However, both scholars, as well as Martin L. West, also posit Helen of Troy, from Greek mythology, was another example of the 'Sun-maiden'.[7][11]
Although the sun was personified as an independent, female deity,[20] the Proto-Indo-Europeans also visualized the sun as the "lamp of Dyēws" or the "eye of Dyēws", as seen in various reflexes: "the god's lamp" in Medes by Euripides, "heaven's candle" in Beowulf, or "the land of Hatti's torch", as the Sun-goddess of Arinna is called in a Hittite prayer;[21] and Helios as the eye of Zeus,[22][23]Hvare-khshaeta as the eye of Ahura Mazda, and the sun as "God's eye" in Romanian folklore.[24] The names of Celtic sun goddesses like Sulis and Grian may also allude to this association: the words for "eye" and "sun" are switched in these languages, hence the name of the goddesses.[25]
Egyptian mythology is unrelated to Indo-European mythology so there is unlikely any historical link, but the metaphor of Eye of Ra was used in it too.
O'Brien, Steven. "Dioscuric Elements in Celtic and Germanic Mythology". In: Journal of Indo-European Studies 10:1–2 (Spring–Summer, 1982), pp. 117–136.
Keneryi, Karl (1951). The Gods of the Greeks. Thames & Hudson. pp. 196–197; Hammond, N.G.L. and Howard Hayes Scullard (editors), The Oxford Classical Dictionary. Second edition. Oxford University Press, 1992. "SELENE" entry. pp. 970–971. ISBN0-19-869117-3
Gamkrelidze, Thomas V.; Ivanov, Vjaceslav V. (1995). Winter, Werner (ed.). Indo-European and the Indo-Europeans: A Reconstruction and Historical Analysis of a Proto-Language and a Proto-Culture. Trends in Linguistics: Studies and Monographs 80. Berlin: M. De Gruyter.
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