In a magisterial work, Jaan Puhvel unravels the prehistoric Indo-Euopean origins of the traditions of India and Iran, Greece and Rome, of the Celts, Germans, Balts, and Slavs.Utilizing the methodologies of historical linguistics and archaeology, he reconstructs a shared religious, mytholoigcal, and cultural heritage.Separate chapters on individual traditions as well as on recurrent thees—god and warrior, king and virgin, fire and water—give life to Comparative Mythology as both a general introduction and a detaled reference.