Achilles and the Caucasus - Université de Montréal

Achilles and the Caucasus (K. Tuite) — août 17, 2007 — pg. 2
comparative mythology (1984, 1985, 1987) and historical
linguistics (1981, 1989, 1992). Building upon Dumézil’s research
into IE and Caucasian symbolic systems, Charachidzé (1986,
1987a) has unearthed what appear to be extremely ancient variants
of IE motifs associated with the initiation of warriors which have
been preserved, like insects in amber, in Georgian folklore.
In this paper I will present a symbolic cluster shared by the
peoples of the western Caucasus — the Abkhazians and Georgians
in particular — and two IE speech communities: the Ossetes, who
have lived in the central Caucasus for over two millenia, and the
Greeks. Evidence of prehistoric links between the ancestors of the
Greeks and Caucasians has been presented from time to time by
comparative mythologists (Abaev 1963; Chikovani 1966, 1971;
Charachidzé 1986) and linguists (Gamkrelidze & Ivanov 1984:
904-909); the linguistic innovations shared by Greek and
Armenian may betoken a distinct Greco-Armenian (“Pontic”)
dialect of early IE spoken somewhere to the east or southeast of the
Black Sea (Hamp 1995; cp. Sergent 1995: 115). In the opinion of
Charachidzé, “des groupes indo-européens proches des futurs
Grecs, ou encore les précurseurs mêmes de ces derniers, se sont
trouvés en contact durable quelque part entre les Balkans et l’Asie
centrale avec des peuples d’une autre origine, et dont les
descendants occupent encore aujourd’hui le Caucase du Sud,
notamment le territoire de l’antique Colchide [most probably
corresponding to western Georgia and Abkhazia — KT]” (1986:
336). Before one rushes to formulate overly precise hypotheses
concerning the nature of Greek-Caucasian links, however, one
must take into consideration the mounting evidence of Near
Eastern influence on ancient Greek mythology and religion
(Burkert 1963, 1979, 1992; West 1967; Duchemin 1974).
Surrounding the more or less well-documented cultures of ancient
Anatolia and Mesopotamia are their shadowy neighbors of
uncertain or unknown linguistic affiliation. Some of these — the
Hattians, Hurrians and Urarteans — wrote in languages which
scholars have linked with the indigenous Caucasian families
(D´jakonov 1967), though not all specialists consider the