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This book examines the figure of the returning warrior as depicted in the myths of several ancient and medieval Indo-European cultures. In these cultures, the returning warrior was often portrayed as a figure rendered dysfunctionally destructive or isolationist by the horrors of combat. This mythic portrayal of the returned warrior is consistent with modern studies of similar behavior among soldiers returning from war. Roger Woodard's research identifies a common origin of these myths in the ancestral proto-Indo-European culture, in which rites were enacted to enable warriors to reintegrate themselves as functional members of society. He also compares the Italic, Indo-Iranian and Celtic mythic traditions surrounding the warrior, paying particular attention to Roman myth and ritual, notably to the etiologies and rites of the July festivals of the Poplifugia and Nonae Caprotinae and to the October rites of the Sororium Tigillum.
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myth, ritual, and the warrior in roman and indo-european antiquity Roger D. Woodard examines the figure of the returning warrior as depicted in the myths of several ancient and medieval Indo-European cultures. In these cultures, the returning warrior was often portrayed as a figure rendered dysfunctionally destructive or isolationist by the horrors of combat. This mythic portrayal of the returned warrior is consistent with modern studies of similar behavior among soldiers returning from war. Woodard’s research identifies a common origin of these myths in the ancestral Proto-Indo-European culture, in which rites were enacted to enable warriors to reintegrate themselves as functional members of society. Woodard also compares the Italic, Indo-Iranian, and Celtic mythic traditions surrounding the warrior, paying particular attention to Roman myth and ritual, notably to the aetiologies and rites of the July festivals of the Poplifugia and Nonae Caprotinae and to the October rites of the Sororium Tigillum. Roger D. Woodard is the Andrew van Vranken Raymond Professor of the Classics and Professor of Linguistics at the University of Buffalo, The State University of New York. His many published books include The Cambridge Companion to Greek Mythology; Indo-European Sacred Space: Vedic and Roman Cult; Indo-European Myth and Religion: A Manual; Ovid: Fasti (with A. J. Boyle); The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World’s Ancient Languages; Greek Writing from Knossos to Homer: A Linguistic Interpretation of the Origin of the Greek Alphabet and the Continuity of Ancient Greek Literacy; and On Interpreting Morphological Change: The Greek Reflexive Pronoun. Myth, Ritual, and the Warrior in Roman and Indo-European Antiquity roger d. woodard University of Buffalo, The State University of New York cambridge university press Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo, Delhi, Mexico City Cambridge University Press 32 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10013 2473, USA www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781107022409 © Roger D. Woodard 2013 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2013 Printed in the United States of America A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication data Woodard, Roger D. Myth, ritual, and the warrior in Roman and Indo European antiquity / Roger Woodard. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978 1 107 02240 9 (hardback) 1. Indo European antiquities. 2. Soldiers in literature. 3. Mythology, Roman, in literature. I. Title. P525.W66 2013 2012007843 9300 .04034 dc23 ISBN 978 1 107 02240 9 Hardback Cambridge University Press ha