*Manu and *Yemo

Lore & Background

The comparative analysis of different Indo-European tales has led scholars to reconstruct an original Proto-Indo-European creation myth involving twin brothers, *Mónus ('Man') and *YémHos ('Twin'), as the progenitors of the world and mankind, and a hero named *Trito ('Third') who ensured the continuity of the original sacrifice. Following a first paper on the cosmogonical legend of Manu and Yemo, published simultaneously with Jaan Puhvel in 1975, Bruce Lincoln assembled the initial part of the myth with the legend of the third man Trito in a single ancestral motif. However, this reconstruction is not universally accepted; many scholars debate the details, and the claim of general acceptance is overstated.

Reader's Guide

The motif of Manu and Yemo has been influential throughout Eurasia following the Indo-European migrations. Many Indo-European beliefs explain the origin of natural elements as the result of the original dismemberment of Yemo: his flesh usually becomes the earth, his hair grass, his bone yields stone, his blood water, his eyes the sun, his mind the moon, his brain the clouds, his breath the wind, and his head the heavens. The traditions of sacrificing an animal to disperse its parts according to socially established patterns, a custom found in Ancient Rome and India, has been interpreted as an attempt to restore the balance of the cosmos ruled by the original sacrifice. According to Lincoln, Manu and Yemo seem to be the protagonists of 'a myth of the sovereign function, establishing the model for later priests and kings'. The motif recalls the Dumézilian tripartition of the cosmos between the priest, the warrior, and the herder.

Did You Know?

• Cognates of *Yemo include the Indic Yama and Norse Ymir; Latin Remus is a disputed cognate.
• The myth of Manu and Yemo has been reconstructed from Indo-European tales with linguistic correspondences in descendant cognates.
• Yemo is sometimes interpreted as a primordial hermaphrodite rather than a twin brother.
• The reconstructed motif has been influential since the 1970s but is not universally accepted among scholars.