Georges Dumézil

• 1. A Parisian Boy And The Artillery

  ›

  Georges Dumézil was born in Paris on the 4th of March 1898. His father Jean Dumézil served as a highly educated general in the French Army. This family background placed young Georges within an elite circle from his earliest days. He attended several prestigious schools including Lycée Louis-le-Grand and Lycée de Tarbes. By age twelve he had mastered Ancient Greek and Latin. A friend's grandfather Michel Bréal introduced him to Sanskrit at a time when few Westerners studied it. Bréal himself had been a student of Franz Bopp. This early exposure sparked a lifelong fascination with Indo-European mythology.

  World War I interrupted his academic path in 1916. Dumézil joined the French Army as an artillery officer. He earned the Croix de Guerre for his service during the conflict. His father held the rank of inspector-general of the French artillery corps throughout the war. These shared experiences bound them together even as the front lines shifted. After the armistice Dumézil returned to École normale supérieure in 1919. There he met Antoine Meillet who would become his most important teacher. Meillet provided a rigorous introduction to Iranian and Indo-European linguistics. Unlike many other students Dumézil cared more about mythology than pure language mechanics.

  137

• 2. Istanbul And The Ossetian Connection

  ›

  From 1925 until 1931 Dumézil taught history of religions at Istanbul University. This period marked the happiest years of his life according to his own later reflections. While living there he acquired proficiency in Armenian and Ossetian languages. He also learned many non-Indo-European tongues spoken across the Caucasus region. This linguistic mastery allowed him to study the Nart saga which became central to his research. He published influential monographs on these myths while residing in Turkey.

  Dumézil made yearly visits back to Istanbul after returning to France. During these trips he conducted field research among Ossetians living in Turkey. His work on Scythian and Ossetian mythology proved indispensable for future theories. In 1929 he published Le problème des centaures examining similarities between Greek and Indo-Iranian texts. This book along with earlier works formed what he called his Ambrosia cycle. A Scythian comb found at Solokha illustrates the material culture he studied. These artifacts helped ground his abstract ideas in tangible historical evidence. By 1930 he had already written La préhistoire indo-iranienne des castes drawing from Avestan Persian Greek and Arabic sources.

  58

• 3. The Three Functions Of Society

  ›

  In the spring of 1938 Dumézil lectured on Indo-European components within Germanic religion at Uppsala University. It was during this lecture series that he made a major discovery. Early Germanic society displayed social divisions identical to those found among early Indo-Iranians. This observation led directly to his trifunctional hypothesis. The model proposed that ancient Indo-European societies were hierarchically divided into three classes. Priests maintained cosmic and juridical sovereignty while warriors exercised physical prowess. Commoners promoted physical well-being fertility and wealth.

  Norse mythology reflected these functions through specific deities. Týr and Odin represented sovereignty alongside Thor who embodied force. Njörðr and Freyr symbolized the productive third function. Vedic mythology offered parallel examples with Varuna Mitra Indra and the Aśvins. Mythes et dieux des Germains published in 1939 formalized these findings. Later works like Ouranos-Varuna examined Greek and Vedic parallels. Flamen-Brahman explored distinct priestly classes among Proto-Indo-Europeans. These texts revolutionized modern research on ancient civilizations by linking language structure to social organization. Dumézil shifted focus from purely linguistic evidence to data drawn from ancient social structures.

  69

• 4. War Dismissal And Roman Studies

  ›

  Dumézil returned to military service as a captain of reserves before World War II began. He served as a liaison officer with the Belgian Army at Liège. Maxime Weygand helped secure his posting to the French military mission in Ankara Turkey in April 1940. He remained there during the Battle of France until repatriated in September 1940. Upon returning to full-time teaching at EPHE he faced immediate consequences for his past actions.

  Because he had joined Freemasonry as a young man the pro-Nazi Vichy government fired him in early 1941. Colleagues intervened successfully allowing him to regain his position by fall 1943. During this turbulent period he significantly reformulated his theories. Mitra-Varuna published in 1940 suggested that Indo-Iranian gods represented juridical and religious sovereignty. This work applied his trifunctional hypothesis to Roman mythology through books like Jupiter Mars Quirinus published in 1941. Horace et les Curiaces appeared in 1942 followed by Servius et la Fortune in 1943. Naissance de Rome completed the cycle in 1944 applying these ideas to ancient Rome.

  410

• 5. The Chair Of Civilization

  ›

  Dumézil was elected to the Collège de France in 1949 where he served until 1968. The position of Chair of Indo-European Civilization existed specifically for him. His influence grew rapidly among scholars throughout the 1950s and 1960s. He recruited Claude Lévi-Strauss and Mircea Eliade to EPHE during the post-war years. Both men became close friends who would later become major mythographers themselves.

  Notable works from the late 1940s included Tarpeia Loki L'Héritage Indo-Européen à Rome and Le Troisième souverain. These texts examined roles of Aryaman and Norse god Heimdallr within wider mythology. Dumézil modified his theories on social structure regarding ideology versus established systems. In 1955 he spent months as visiting professor at University of Lima studying Quechua language and mythology. Aspects de la fonction guerrière chez les Indo-Européens published in 1956 detailed a hypothesized war between functions culminating in incorporation of third function into first two. His magnum opus Mythe et épopée appeared in three volumes between 1968 and 1973.

• 6. The Shadow Of Fascism

  ›

  In the 1930s Dumézil supported Action Française though never formally joining its ranks. The group was far-right royalist anti-democratic and anti-German. While holding Benito Mussolini in high regard he steadfastly opposed Nazism. He voiced opposition to German nationalism through journalism articles. Critics like Arnaldo Momigliano and Carlo Ginzburg charged him with sympathy for Nazi culture due to writings on Germanic religion. They claimed his trifunctional hypothesis resembled Fascist ideology.

  Dumézil defended himself vigorously against these accusations. He stated clearly that he had never been sympathetic to Fascist ideology nor belonged to any Fascist organization. In an interview with Didier Eribon published posthumously in 1987 he explained his political stance. He preferred constitutional monarchies over generalized elections but noted such formulas did not apply to France. Eribon's book Faut-il brûler Dumézil? published in 1992 permanently debunked claims of crypto-Fascism. Despite this many critics including Bruce Lincoln continued leveling charges inspired by Marxist perspectives.

  2

• 7. Legacy And Final Years

  ›

  He married Madeleine Legrand in 1925 having one son and one daughter. Throughout his career he published more than seventy-five books and hundreds of articles. His research continues influencing Indo-Europeanists classicists Celticists Germanicists and Indologists. Prominent scholars heavily influenced include Emile Benveniste Stig Wikander Jan de Vries Gabriel Turville-Petre Werner Betz Edgar C. Polomé Jaan Puvhvel Joël Grisward Nicholas Allen Georges Charachidzé François-Xavier Dillmann Jacques Duchesne-Guillemin Lucien Gerschel Emily Lyle Dean A. Miller Alwyn Rees Brinley Rees Robert Schilling Bernard Sergent Udo Strutynski Donald J. Ward and Atsuhiko Yoshida.