> [[ginevra]]. "Hermes and Prometheus in Scandinavia: Reconstructing Indo-European Myth and Ritual". Handout for [[uppsala2020]]. > [academia.edu](https://www.academia.edu/44304200) > [Google Scholar](https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=DD__PvkAAAAJ&alert_preview_top_rm=2&citation_for_view=DD__PvkAAAAJ:_FxGoFyzp5QC) > [pdf](ginevra2020-hermes.pdf) ## Abstract > The myth of Hermes’s theft of Apollo’s cows (and butchery of two of them), most extensively attested in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes, holds a special position within the Greek mythological tradition. On the one hand, it has long been compared with another well-known archaic Greek narrative, namely the myth of Prometheus’s (attempted) deception of Zeus during the butchery of a cow at Mekone, occurring in Hesiod’s Theogony (535-557). More precisely, close parallels between the two texts have been noted both in their use of traditional formulaic expressions and narrative structures connected to the theme of “Trickery” (see especially Sowa 1984:198ff) and in their aetiological representation of the division of portions during a ritual meal (cf., e.g., Jeanmaire 1945:81). On the other hand, **the narrative of the Homeric Hymn to Hermes has a number of correspondences in two other Indo-European traditional narratives in which ==the establishment of ritual practice was associated with a mythological incident involving livestock==, namely the Latin myth of Cacus’s theft of Hercules’s cows (cf., e.g., the overview in [[vergados2013]]p284) and the Vedic Sanskrit myth of Vala’s theft of Indra’s cows (on which see most recently [[jackson2014]]). Possible parallels in Germanic traditions, however, have not yet received the attention they deserve; a particularly useful source in this respect is Snorri Sturluson’s Prose Edda, a medieval handbook of Scandinavian mythology. The aim of this paper is twofold. Firstly, a case will be made for the Eddic myth of Thjalfi’s laming of Thor’s goat (chiefly attested in Gylfaginning 44) as an Old Norse counterpart to the myths mentioned above, allowing for ==the reconstruction of an ancient Indo-European tradition in which the aetiology of a ritual was connected with a mythological incident involving livestock==. Secondly, ==an attempt will be made to reconstruct the corresponding ritual== with the aid of insights from prehistoric archaeology.** [Edited]