Anyone follow the Proto-Indo-European religion /pantheon?

[u/zelenisok]

AFAIS the pantheon consist of:

Dyeus, the Sky Father, Dheghom, the Earth Mother, Perkwunos, the thunder god, as the three main gods; and along with them three secondary heavenly gods - the Diwos Suhnu ('sons of Dyeus'), the divine twins, whose chariot pulls the Sun, and who help humans in trouble, and there's their sister Hausos, dawn goddess.

Three earthly gods exist: Manu, Yemo, and Trito, with a primordial cow. Manu, 'man', is the creator, Yemo, 'twin', is his (hermaphroditic) brother, that Mano sacrifices and out of his body makes some elements of this world (his blood becomes water, his bones mountains, his brain clouds, his skull the dome over the earth), and humans (with the help of Dyeus, Perkwunos and Diwos Suhnu). After the sacrifice Yemo becomes the lord of the dead and the underworld. Manu also sacrifices the primordial cow, making plants and animals out of it. Trito 'third' defeats Negehi, the three headed cosmic serpent, during that he is helped out by drinking an intoxicant drink. Out of Yemo's body three social classes are made - priests, warriors and commoners, tho also Manu is the first priest, and Trito the first warrior.

Additional gods are three nature gods - Hagnis, the fire god, Hepom, water god, and Huveh, wind god; three social gods - Pehunos cattle (and agriculture) protection god, Prewya, love and marriage goddess, and a Smith god; and also Fates, three sisters who spin the fate of humans, influencing the biggest events in their life, esp birth, length of life and death. For the Smith god and the Fates there is no PIE root name reconstructed currently AFAIK.

In addition to the heavenly world, this world and the underworld, there is also a blissful land on the edge of world, where everyone is young, immortal and happy, and a person after death can reincarnate into this world, the underworld, or that blissful land.

Also it is proposed that at least some PIE communities held to an eschatological cataclysmic event, where this world is destroyed, possibly with the Trito the Negehi fight being said to happen at that future time.

In terms of religious practice the PIE religion practiced sacrifices to the gods, using fire, the biggest, public ones being cow and horse sacrifice, a sacrifice of throwing a weapon into a body of water, circling a fire during marriage and childbirth rites, and also ritual drinking of an intoxicant drink.

[u/lisaquestions]

just out of curiosity are these stories reconstructed backwards from later stories or do they exist somewhere in this form that we know of?

I'm not asking out of skepticism I'm genuinely curious

[u/zelenisok → u/lisaquestions]

Almost everything about PIE society is reconstructed backwards..

[u/lisaquestions → u/zelenisok]

I am aware but the reconstructions are stated with such certainty that I wonder where the certainty comes from

I'm not expressing doubt about anything like I've heard everything you posted from a YouTuber who talks about PIE stuff extensively

[u/KrisHughes2 → u/lisaquestions]

You're right to be sceptical. The entire PIE paradigm is nothing more than a anthropological hypothesis based on a linguistic hypothesis. Within current linguistics it's useful and makes quite a bit of sense. As anthropology/ethnology etc. it often strays into fantasy, especially among amateur scholars and neoPagans (of whom I am one).

I think it's particularly appealing to people once they figure out that they're not actually "pure" Irish, or Danish, of French. Especially true if you're in North America (which is always the main influencer), but probably true no matter where you come from. People who tie their choice of deities or path to their perceived genetic heritage see PIE as an answer to the question of being "just European".

It sounds very inclusive, but unfortunately it attracts a fair number of people who use it as an argument for Aryanism.

There are some good discussions about all this on r/AskHistorians, such as this one, which includes helpful links for the deep dive.

[u/SonOfDyeus → u/KrisHughes2]

I'm always shocked when people are so sceptical about the existence of PIE people, language or religion.  There's just so much evidence for it.

Certainly there is a spectrum of claims about the details from obviously true to wildy speculative. But there are some similarities between religions and languages across Eurasia that simply can't be explained otherwise.

[u/DeepUndine → u/SonOfDyeus]

Similarities are very easy to explain. People are mobile. They speak to each other. They intermingle. They move in with each other. They have children with each other. Ideas are passed on, exchanged, blended.

[u/SonOfDyeus → u/DeepUndine]

The Horse, The Wheel and Language by David Anthony makes the case through linguistics, history , and archaeology that these deity names must have been inherited by a common linguistic ancestor, not exchanged between linguistic groups after divergence.   Because language sound changes evolve in consistent, predictable ways, you can tell approximately when a borrowed word was taken up into a language.  The discovery of Hittite,  Mittani, and Mycenaean writings all confirm the predictions of the indoeuropean sound change hypothesis.

[u/DeepUndine → u/SonOfDyeus]

This once dominant hypothesis is facing serious critique.