Mitra-Varuna: An Essay on Two Indo-European Representations of Sovereignty

Dumezil, Georges; Coltman, Derek [Translator]

ISBN 10: 0942299132 / ISBN 13: 9780942299137

Published by Zone Books, 1988

First US Edition, Zone Books, 1988. Very good paperback copy (NOT ex-library). Spine is uncreased, binding tight and sturdy; text also very good. Exterior looks good, shelfwear is very minor. A solid copy. Ships same or next business day from Dinkytown in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Seller Inventory # 328303

Synopsis:

Georges Dumézil, founder of the new comparative mythology, discovered that all Indo-European religions are articulated according to three hierarchical functions: sacred sovereignty, force, and fecundity. In Mitra-Varuna he develops this general theory but concentrates on the most important of these functions: sovereignty. In particular, Dumézil shows that religious and/or political sovereignty - from India to Rome, from Iran to Scandinavia - is conceived as a dual category: on the one hand the magician-king (raj, rex), on the other the jurist-priest (brahman, flamen). Mitra-Varuna, combines extraordinarv scholarship and theoretical discovery with the pleasures of storytelling. A founding work of comparative, mythology, it is today a seminal essay in the archaeology of power.Distributed for Zone Books.

About the Authors:

Georges Dumézil a member of the Academic Française, was Professor of Indo-European Civilization in the College de France. He is the author of numerous books including Camillus, The Gods of the Ancient Northmen, and The Stakes of the Warrior.

Derek Coltman lives in England and is the translator of Dumézil's From Myth to Fiction.

Bibliographic Details

Title: Mitra-Varuna: An Essay on Two Indo-European ...
Publisher: Zone Books
Publication Date: 1988
Binding: Paperback
Condition: Very Good
Edition: First American Edition.