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An enigmatic word in the Gathas: auuǝ̄mīrā in Yasna 49.10

Hintze, Almut

An enigmatic word in the Gathas: auuǝ̄mīrā in Yasna 49.10 Thumbnail


Authors



Contributors

Alberto Cantera
Editor

Éric Victor Pirart
Editor

Celine Redard
Editor

Abstract

This article discusses various proposal for analysing the enigmatic form auuǝ̄mīrā, which constitutes the last word of the Gathic stanza Yasna 49.10. It is then proposed that the word is best understood as *a-u̯i-mī-ra- ‘undiminishing’. Being a compound with privative a- and the preverb *u̯i ‘apart’, it is argued that the word provides a further attestation for the root mī ‘to dwindle, diminish’, which is poorly documented in Iranian languages but well attested in Vedic and other Indo-European languages. The phrase mązā.xšaϑrā vazdaŋhā auuǝ̄mīrā, an attribute of īžā- ‘fat-offering, refreshment’, is translated as ‘(the refreshment) which grants dominion through undiminishing nourishment’. The expression ‘through undiminishing nourishment’ is interpreted as referring to the regularly recurring
ritual performances, whose ‘refreshments’ Ahura Mazdā preserves in his ‘house’ and with which the soul of the righteous is welcomed when it arrives there after death.

Citation

Hintze, A. (2024). An enigmatic word in the Gathas: auuǝ̄mīrā in Yasna 49.10. In A. Cantera, É. V. Pirart, & C. Redard (Eds.), at̰ hōi aōjī zaraϑuštrō paōuruuīm ¿Habló Zaraϑuštra? Homenaje a Jean Kellens en su 80º anniversario (125-135). Sociedad de Estudios Iranios y Turanios

Acceptance Date Nov 29, 2023
Publication Date May 6, 2024
Deposit Date May 13, 2024
Publicly Available Date May 13, 2024
Pages 125-135
Series Title Estudios Iranios y Turanios
Series ISSN 2386-7833
Book Title at̰ hōi aōjī zaraϑuštrō paōuruuīm ¿Habló Zaraϑuštra? Homenaje a Jean Kellens en su 80º anniversario
Keywords Zoroastrianism, Gathas, Old Avestan, Hapax legomena, Zoroastrian eschatology
Related Public URLs https://www.biblioiranica.info/estudios-iranios-y-turanios-vol-6/
Additional Information Additional Information : ISSN: 2386-7833

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