the Wheel and Dating PIE

[Carol F. Justus]

>>Ritualization of the death of an animal, asking its forgiveness when the
>>hunter is about to take its life, it not unusual in traditional cultures,
>>whether that animal be a bear or a rabbit.

>If *that* is the sort of rituals the IE horse rituals were, this would be
>meaningful.  But they do not have the structure of ritualized prayers for
>forgiveness - at least not *from* the horse.  (Some variants may have been
>supplications for forgiveness from Dye:us P'ter - but the horse's
>permission was not asked for).

The earliest attested IE prayers don't usually ask for forgiveness but are
more like Menelaos's prayer to Zeus for guiding his spear so that he will
kill Paris or Chryses' to Apollo to make Agamemnon's army pay for
Agamemnon's insults. Has anyone found when the concept of sin, hence
forgiveness, enters the IE prayer record?

Carol Justus