Fonδaiš Wīštā̊

Pontōis Wītōs encompasses the collection of beliefs, rituals, and mythologies that originated in the Northian culture in the forms of both public religion and cults.

Name

The name Pontōis Wītōs is dissolved from the phrase pontōihwītōs, from the Epic of Samana or Samanēsongos verse 1120 (GNr. 449), where a correct attitude towards sacred things is demanded by a disgruntled, downtrodden traveller speaking to a priest who obviously does not take his position seriously. The traveller, whose home was destroyed by floods, seeks to enter the service of a variety of merchants, herdsmen, and craftsmen, but nowhere is his service enduring. Having learned that the priest would rather catch a fever than hold the annual festival, the traveller seeks to blame the ill of inconstancy or transience in his life on the priest's dereliction of duty: for as I travel from land to land / and land and land turn me away / thou swayest from god to god / denying every his proper due.

The word pontōis is the plural of pontōs "path, way", and wītōs is an adjective meaning "seen, known". Emologically speaking, Pontōis Wītōs is ultimately from Proto-Erani-Eracuran (PEE) *póntoh₁s and *wéydtos; however, because the name is a poetic term of no obvious antiquity, appearing in a younger part of the Epics, it is not generally thought this combination of words had any spiritual significance at the level of PEE culture.

Deities

Wītṓ

From PEE *weh₂t-mṓ, "excitement, madness". Also Wītōnāta, Wītōpiter "Father Wītṓ". Genitive Wītnṓ, Wītnṓpatras. This deity is cognate to the Asuryan god Odin. Wītō is an extremely prominent god in the system of beliefs summarized under the name Pontois Witos, because he is believed to be the divine conduit who transports offerings of goods and songs to the other divinities and who dispenses their blessings and curses.

In the context of cults dedicated to one or more gods, Wītṓ is almost invariably one of the gods venerated at a separate shrine, especially as the belief that the gods resided not on Earth, but in different realms, developed. Invocations to Wītṓ opened many festivals, asking him to honour and awe the assembled community with his divine wonders. Wītṓ is said to possess and entrance the bodies of oracles, so that their spirit may travel to the realm of the gods and there have intercourse with them. Mirroring Wītṓ's observance in ceremonies, he is universally invoked as the first deity to whom a song is dedicated, and as such he is called Wītṓpradēwō "Wītṓ First-of-the-Gods".

Due to the observation of Wītṓ as a god of communication, birds judged capable of intelligence and recognition of a certain home were sacred to Wītṓ, including the raven, crow, and owl. In places sanctified to Wītṓ, his presence was judged by the number of such avians nesting within it.

θyā́

From PEE *dyeū́s, "god". Genitive dewós. The PEE proto-form would give *zēo by regular sound change, so θyā́ must have arisen from a compound word ending in a vowel, triggering the shift from *d > θ, and in an unaccented final position, causing final *ō > ā. Cammen, however, says that θyā́ must originate from *dyoū́s and reflects a different ablaut grade than *dyeū́s. Then, somehow, the compound word lost its first component, leaving the second and placing an accent on its sole syllable.  At any rate, the root of this word is related to the Asuryan and Æþurian god Týr.

See also

• Northern States