The One-eyed and One-handed Mythologem according to Georges Dumézil

This article tackles the topic of comparative Indo-European studies, for which the starting point is the work of Georges Dumézil. In his book Mithra-Varuna – Essai sur deux Representations indoeuropéennes de la Souveraineté (1940, FAC), the French historian compared the eponymous Vedic dvandva to numerous structures present in the myths of other peoples – for example, the Scandinavian pair Tyr-Odin and Baldur-Hodur, the Roman pair Mucius Scaevola and Horatius Cocles, the Celtic pair Nuada and Lugh, and many others. A signifi cant detail is the attribution of the gods – the first is often lacking a hand (or both hands), and the other is one-eyed (or blind).

This article tackles the topic of comparative Indo-European studies, for which the starting point is the work of Georges Dumézil. In his book Mithra-Varuna – Essai sur deux Representations indoeuropéennes de la Souveraineté (1940, FAC), the French historian compared the eponymous Vedic dvandva to numerous structures present in the myths of other peoples – for example, the Scandinavian pair Tyr-Odin and Baldur-Hodur, the Roman pair Mucius Scaevola and Horatius Cocles, the Celtic pair Nuada and Lugh, and many others. A signifi cant detail is the attribution of the gods – the first is often lacking a hand (or both hands), and the other is one-eyed (or blind).