Hepom_Nepōts
*H₂epom Nepōts
Proto-Indo-European water fire deity
*H₂epom Nepōts ('Descendant of the Waters') is a reconstructed Proto-Indo-European deity who dwells in waters, and whose powers must be ritually gained or controlled by a hero who is the only one able to approach it.[1][2] The motif may come from swamp gas rising from swamps and igniting.[3] It may come from the high levels of natural gas in Ukraine, the possible Proto-Indo-European homeland.
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A wide range of linguistic and cultural evidence attest the holy status of the terrestrial (potable) waters *h₂ep-, venerated collectively as "the Waters" or divided into "Rivers and Springs".[4] The cults of fountains and rivers, which may have preceded Proto-Indo-European beliefs by tens of thousands of years, was also prevalent in their tradition.[5] Some authors have proposed *Neptonos or *H₂epom Nepōts as the Proto-Indo-European god of the waters. The name literally means "Grandson [or Nephew] of the Waters".[6][7] Linguists reconstruct his name from that of the Vedic god Apám Nápát, the Roman god Neptūnus, and the Old Irish god Nechtain. Although such a god has been solidly reconstructed in Proto-Indo-Iranian religion, Mallory and Adams nonetheless still reject him as a Proto-Indo-European deity on linguistic grounds.[7]
In the Rigveda, the god Apám Nápát is envisioned as a form of fire residing in the waters.[8][9] In Celtic mythology, a well belonging to the god Nechtain is said to blind all those who gaze into it.[10][11] In an old Armenian poem, a small reed in the middle of the sea spontaneously catches fire and the hero Vahagn springs forth from it with fiery hair and a fiery beard and eyes that blaze as suns.[12] In a ninth-century Norwegian poem by the poet Thiodolf, the name sǣvar niþr, meaning "grandson of the sea", is used as a kenning for fire.[13] Even the Greek tradition contains possible allusions to the myth of a fire-god dwelling deep beneath the sea.[12] The phrase "νέποδες καλῆς Ἁλοσύδνης", meaning "descendants of the beautiful seas", is used in The Odyssey 4.404 as an epithet for the seals of Proteus, which is directly analogous to the phrase *H₂epom Nepōts literally "Descendant of the waters".[12]