Georges Dumézil ( March 4 is the 63rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (64th in leap years). There are 302 days remaining. The United States Constitution originally provided that the President of the United States was to be inaugurated on this date, starting in 1793 and the repeating every four... March 4, 1898 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). Events January January 1 - New York City annexes land from surrounding counties, creating the City of Greater New York. The city is geographically divided into five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx, and Staten Island. January 13 - Emile... 1898 - October 11 is the 284th day of the year (285th in Leap years). There are 81 days remaining. Events 1600-1899 1614 - Adriaen Block and 12 Amsterdam merchants petition the States General for exclusive trading rights in the New Netherland colony. 1776 - American Revolution: Battle of Valcour Island - On Lake... October 11, 1986 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. Events January January 1 - Spain and Portugal enter the European Community January 1 - Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands and is separated from the Netherlands Antilles. January 9 - After losing a patent battle with Polaroid, Kodak leaves... 1986) was a French comparative Philology is the study of ancient texts and languages. The term originally meant a love (Greek philo-) of learning and literature (Greek -logia). In the academic traditions of several nations, a wide sense of the term philology describes the study of a language together with its literature and the historical... philologist best known for his analysis of Sovereignty is the exclusive right to exercise supreme authority over a geographic region or group of people, such as a nation or a tribe. Sovereignty is generally vested in a government or other political agency, though there are cases where it is held by an individual. A monarch who rules... sovereignty and power in Proto-Indo-European Indo-European studies Indo-European is originally a linguistic term, referring to the Indo-European language family. By extension, it became a collective name for cultures and religions associated with these languages. Hypothetically, these cultures arose from the expansion of an ancient people, the Proto-Indo-Europeans... Indo-European religion and society. He is considered one of the major contributors to A mythographer, according to a strict dictionary definition, is a compiler of myths. Mythography is then the rendering of myths in the arts. These are rather restrictive definitions, which can be said to fail to take into account the large body of twentieth century work on myth from many angles... mythography, in particular for his creation of the trifunctional hypothesis of social class.

Dumézil's father was a classicist and so he became interested in ancient languages at a young age - it was been said that he could read the The Aeneid is a Latin epic written by Vergil in the 1st century BC that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who traveled to Italy where he became the ancestor of the Romans. Form and Tradition The Aeneid is an epic poem of twelve books, in conscious imitation... Aeneid in Latin at the age of nine. During his time in secondary school, he was also influenced by Michel Bréal, one of his classmate's grandfathers, who was at the time one of the leading French Philology is the study of ancient texts and languages. The term originally meant a love (Greek philo-) of learning and literature (Greek -logia). In the academic traditions of several nations, a wide sense of the term philology describes the study of a language together with its literature and the historical... philologists. By the time he entered the École Normale Supérieure in 1916, then, he was already on the road to studying Broadly conceived, linguistics is the study of human language, and a linguist is someone who engages in this study. Dichotomies and language The study of linguistics can be thought of along three major axes, the endpoints of which are described below: Synchronic and diachronic - Synchronic study of a language is... linguistics and the classics.

His studies were delayed by Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. Battle aftermath. Remains of the Chateau Wood World War I (also known as the First World War, the Great War, the War of the Nations, and the War to End All Wars) was a world conflict occurring from 1914 to... WWI, however, when Dumézil was drafted and served as an artillery officer. After the war he resumed his studies, where he was particularly influenced by Antoine Meillet (born Paul-Jules-Antoine Meillet, 11 November 1866 - 21 Septembre 1936) was one of the most important French linguists of the early 20th Century. Meillet began his studies at the Sorbonne, where he was influenced by Michel Bréal, Ferdinand de Saussure, and the members of the Annee... Antoine Meillet. He agregated in 1919 in Classics and then received his doctorate in 1924 after writing a thesis comparing the common origins of the Greek For other uses, see Ambrosia (disambiguation). In ancient mythology, Ambrosia (Greek ἀμϐροσία) is sometimes the food, sometimes the drink, of the gods. The word has generally been derived from Greek a- (not) and mbrotos (mortal); hence the food or drink of the immortals... ambrosia and a similarly named Indian drink Amtra which was said to make its imbiber immortal. The dissertation was controversial because some of the examiners, such as Henri Hubert (Paris 23 June 1872 - 25 May 1927) was an archaeologist and sociologist of comparative religions who is best known for his work on the Celts and his collaboration with Marcel Mauss and other members of the Annee Sociologique. Hubert was born and raised in Paris, where he attended... Henri Hubert thought that Dumézil took liberty with the facts in order to generate a more beautiful interpretation (this would come to be a common criticism of Dumézil's work).

Feeling that he had little place in the French academy, Dumézil moved to The Republic of Turkey is a country located in Southwest Asia with a small part of its territory (3%) in southeastern Europe. Until 1922, the country was the center of the Ottoman Empire. The Anatolian peninsula, between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, forms the core of the country... Turkey in 1925 to teach at the The University of Istanbul is one of the oldest universities in Europe (founded in 1453), and the oldest in Turkey. It was modernised by Kemal Atatürk in 1933. It has sixteen faculties on five campuses, the main campus being in Istanbul. It has a teaching staff of 2,000... University of Istanbul, created as part of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881—November 10, 1938), Turkish soldier and statesman, was the founder and first President of the Republic of Turkey. Early career Atatürk was born in the Ottoman city of Selânik (now Thessaloníki, Greece), where his birthplace is within... Ataturk's attempt to create a modern, secular nation. As a result he learned Turkish and developed an interest in the Ubykh is a language of the Northwestern Caucasian group, spoken by the Ubykh people up until the early 1990s. The word is derived from , its name in the Abdzakh Adyghe (Circassian) language. It is known in linguistic literature by many names: variants of Ubykh, such as Ubikh, Ubıh... Ubykh and travelled widely in Russia, Turkey, and the Caucasus. As a result, he became one of the premier experts of Caucasian languages to work in French. In 1931 he took another position, this one in This article is about the modern city of Uppsala. If youre searching for the Uppsala of Norse mythology, see Gamla Uppsala. Uppsala [˘ɵpsɑːla] is a City and a Municipality of Sweden, located about 70 km north of Stockholm. It is the fourth largest city... Uppsala, which allowed him to hone his skills in the Germanic stocks of Indo-European.

The trifunctional hypothesis

In 1937 Dumézil published Flamin-Brahmin, the first full statement of his 'trifunctional hypothesis'. In this as in Mitra-Varuna, his most accessible work, Dumézil analyzed the Indo-European idea of Sovereignty is the exclusive right to exercise supreme authority over a geographic region or group of people, such as a nation or a tribe. Sovereignty is generally vested in a government or other political agency, though there are cases where it is held by an individual. A monarch who rules... sovereignty into two distinct and complementary parts: one formal, priestly, juridical and rooted in this world; the other powerful, unpredictable, and rooted in the "other," supernatural/spiritual world. Finally, there was a third group, the ruled. For instance, this tripartite division resulted in the arrangement of Brahimn, Kshatriya, and commoner castes in India and the distinction between Kings, Priests, and commoners in Europe. He argued that this dual sovereignty was expressed by pairs of gods such as the Sanskrit Mitra is an important deity of Persian and Indic culture; he appears in the Vedas as one of the Adityas, a solar deity and the god of honesty, friendship, and contracts. In Iranian civilization, where his name was rendered as Mithra, he later came into increased prominence as a major... Mitra/ This article is about the god. See 20000 Varuna for the trans-Neptunian object. In Vedic religion, Varuna (he who covers, referring to the sky) is one of the most important gods in the pantheon, and chief of the asuras. In pre-Vedic era, he was probably the most supreme... Varuna, the Roman In Roman mythology, Sancus was the god of loyalty, honesty, and oaths. His cult is one of the most ancient of Romans, probably derived from Etruscan or Oscan influences. He was also the god who protected loyalty in commerce, and contracts in particular. Some forms of swearings were used in... Dius Fidius/ In Roman mythology, Summanus was the god of nocturnal thunder, as opposed to Jupiter, the god of diurnal (daylight) thunder. Sammunas temple stood at the Circus Maximus and on June 20 cakes were offered to him. Summanus is also a deity in H.P. Lovecrafts Cthulhu Mythos. Categories: Mythology... Jupiter Summanus, or the Scandinavian This article is about Tyr, the god. Tyr is also the abbreviation for the amino acid tyrosine. Tyr Sports, Inc. is a brand of swimwear. Tyr sacrifices his arm Tyr (Old Norse: Týr or Tívar) is the god of warfare and battle in Norse mythology, portrayed as a... Tyr/ For other meanings of Odin and Wotan see Odin (disambiguation) Odin (Old Norse Óðinn, Swedish Oden) is usually considered the supreme god of Germanic and Norse mythology. His role, like many of the Norse pantheon, is complex: he is god of both wisdom and war, much like the Greek goddess... Odin; alternatively by quasi-historical hero-figures, such as the Roman Romulus has several meanings: Romulus is a mythical founder of Rome. Romulus is a fictional homeworld of the Romulans in Star Trek. Romulus is a city in Michigan. Romulus is a town in New York. Romulus Augustus was the last Western Roman Emperor. This is a disambiguation page — a... Romulus/ Numa may mean: Numa Pompilius, an early king of Rome The town of Numa, Iowa, USA. The acronym NUMA, in particular Non-Uniform Memory Access This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. If an article link referred... Numa; or by distinct religious confraternities, such as the Roman A flamen was a priest of the Roman religion. The etymology of the word flamen is obscure. Some Indo-Europeanists have attempted to link it to the Sanskrit word brahman; this etymology is controversial. There were fifteen flamines in the Roman republic. The most important three were the flamines maiores... flamens/ The Lupercalia was an annual Roman festival held on February 15 to honour Faunus, god of fertility and forests. Justin Martyr identified Faunus as Lupercus, the one who wards off the wolf, but his identification is not supported by any earlier classical sources. The festival was celebrated near the cave... Luperci or Indic Young Indian brahmachari Brahmin A Brahmin (less often Brahman) is a member of the Hindu priestly caste. The word is related to but not to be confused with Hindu religious conception of the transcendent and immanent super soul, Brahman. Brahminism is a term commonly used to denote a system of... brahmins/ In Hinduism, the Gandharvas are male nature spirits, husbands of the Apsaras. They are part animal, usually a bird or horse. They have superb musical skills. They guarded the Soma and made beautiful music for the gods in their palaces. Their name may be cognate with that of the Greek... Gandharva.

By the mid-1930s Dumézil's star began to rise. In 1935 he left Uppsala to take up a chair in the "Comparative Religion of Indo-European Peoples" at the prestiguous École Pratique des Hautes Études. He was named a professor at the Collège de France in 1949, and was finally elected to the The Académie française, or French Academy, is the pre-eminent French learned body on matters pertaining to the French language. The Académie was officially established in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister to King Louis XIII. Suppressed in 1793 during the French Revolution... Académie Française in 1978 thanks to the patronage of his colleague and fellow student of myth, Claude Lévi-Strauss.

Dumézil's trifunctional hypothesis has weathered a good deal of criticism since his death, and some commentators consider it as much a form of mythology as the myths he studied. Nevertheless, many themes of his work have continued to remain at the center of ancient religious studies: for example, his impulse to comparative study, and his basic insight that polytheistic gods must be studied not simply by themselves, but in the pairs and ensembles in which their worshippers grouped them.

Dumézil is also well known for mentoring many younger French scholars. Michel Foucault (October 15, 1926 – June 26, 1984) was a French philosopher and held a chair at the Collège de France choosing for himself the title Professor of the History of Systems of Thought. His writings have had an enormous impact across the humanities and social sciences including... Michel Foucault, for instance, benefitted from his patronage when Dumézil arranged for him to teach temporarily in Uppsala early on in his career.

External links

• Overview of Dumézil's career (in French) (http://www.adpf.asso.fr/adpf-publi/folio/dumezil/)
• Academic Française biography of Dumézil (in French) (http://www.academie-francaise.fr/immortels/index.html)