Page:Origin and Growth of Religion (Rhys).djvu/236

220 to Perkunos and his two assessors not unfreqiiently consisted of human victims. Now Perkunos was, under slightly modified forms of the name, worshipped by all the Litu-Slavic nations, and it would be interesting to ascertain his exact mythological position, but that is not a very easy matter. Grimm saw in the name Perkunos a form related to the Norse Fjörgynn, genitive Fjörgvins, of the same origin as the Gothic fairguni, 'mountain,' Anglo-Saxon firgen of the same meaning; and he has suggested the possibility that Fjörgynn was an ancient name for Thor, whom it would suit well enough as a thunderer to be designated a god of the mountains or dweller on the heights; or else that the Goths may have preferred it, in the form of Fairguneis, to Thor's more usual designation. But, on the other hand, the Teutonic god corresponding to Zeus had even more right to be called the god of the mountain-tops. May not the right solution be that Perkunos and its congeners represent the Gothic name of Thor, borrowed and given by the Litu-Slaves to a god of their own, who was the counterpart of Zeus rather than of Thor, though resembling the latter in his having the attribute of thunder? That borrowing by somebody took place in the matter of the name is proved by the related word Porguini, cited by Grimm as the name of the Mordvinian thunder-god. There have also been futile attempts to connect the name of Perkunos with that of the Hindu god of rain and thunder, Parjanya, who would seem to have been a form or aspect of Dyaus, whose son he was sometimes called.