Vertikale Hierarchie und archaische Sakralität: Zur mythopoësis des Fußes

This article examines aspects of the Indo-European and Ancient Near Eastern mythopoësis of the human body. Utilizing post-Eliadic historical and philological phenomenology, the article argues that the homological hierarchical symbolism of the human body in myth and poetry reflects the archaic religious psychology of verticality. Indo-Iranian cosmogony and sociogony, body metaphors of subjugation and healing and the specific pattern of the mythopoësis of the foot and its implications for Indo-Iranian rites and culture are analyzed. In the concluding case study the close reading of the Purāṇic Diti narrative exemplifies the decisive role vertical hierarchy plays in Indian thought and myth.