Proto-Namuno-Ethian mythology

Proto-Namuno-Ethian mythology is the body of myths and deities associated with the Proto-Namuno-Ethians, the hypothetical speakers of the reconstructed Proto-Namuno-Ethian language spoken from about 3570 to 1200 BNB. Although the mythological motifs are not directly attested–since Proto-Namuno-Ethian speakers lived in preliterate societies–scholars of comparative mythology have reconstructed details from inherited similarities found among Namuno-Ethian languages, based on the assumption that parts of the Proto-Namuno-Ethians' original belief systems survived in the daughter traditions.

The Proto-Namuno-Ethian pantheon includes a number of securely reconstructed deities, most of them cognates in name and associated with similar attributes and body of myths:

• the primordial beings, usually a monster resembling a serpent with the head of a feld, *Sneyn̥t (“the primordial” or “the zeroeth”), the soil itself, *Pánuh₂dunes ("soil-mother" or "pregnant earth"), and the ocean, *Sepʰaylʰos ("he who rolls on himself"),
• twins created from the primordial being as the first, god-like felds, *Seyrkunos and *H₄morkunos (“firstborn” and “secondborn”),
• morning sky and night sky deities born from the ashes of the slain primordial being, *H₄éwtos "morning sky" and *Rowfseǵʰes sometimes referred to with epithets, like *newh₂m̥h₁s "progenitor" or the ethian *soǵʰh₄lor "of adorned heaven,"
• a series of gods born from the primordial entities:
  • the children of the morning sky, a sun god, *Loymam̥h₁s, and the white wandering star, *Wēnoys,
  • the children of the night sky, a moon god, *H₄amam̥h₁s, and the blue wandering star, *Lʰuldyos,
  • the children of the soil, gods representing the fruit and wines, *Logʰr̥nm̥h₁s, the grain and ales, *Kʷʰyonos, the livestock, *Boypʰr̥os, and the harvestable plants, *Yaros (or *Soylpʰr̥os, uncertain),
  • the children of the ocean, therefore the rivers, *Bentʰos, sea, *Ḱolʰtʰos, and lakes, *Seyntʰos,
• two gods born as forces of nature: *Bredʰm̥h₁s, a goddess of fertility, and *H₄sdonyol, a god of the dead,
• the twins’ children, usually two for each, *Kwh₄rartʰōs (“priest, elder”), *Kih₃l̥m̥h₁s (“orator”), *Boym̥h₁s (“herder”) and *Tēwmm̥h₁s (“warrior”).