ABSTRACT
It is well known that Dyu (or Dyaus or Dyaùs ˙ pítar), the god incarnate in
Bhı¯s ˙ ma, is etymologically cognate with Zeus, Jupiter, Tyr, and other gods,
but the Indo-European dimension of the hero himself is not so widely appreciated. Georges Dumézil’s work is fundamental. Deemphasizing the etymology, he compared Bhı¯s
˙ ma to the gods Janus, Heimdall, and Lug
(Roman, Norse, and Irish respectively), and also, briefly, to Rome’s founderhero Romulus (2000: 151-88; 1979: 73-6). In a similar vein, I have compared Bhı¯s
˙ ma with the Trojan hero Sarpedon (son of Zeus) in the Iliad, with Zeus
and Ouranos in Hesiod’s Theogony, and (more fully than Dumézil did) with Romulus (Allen 2004; 2005a; 2005b).
