*Péh₂usōn

*Péh₂usōn ("Protector") was a proposed Proto-Indo-European pastoral god guarding roads and herds.^[1][2][3]

*Péh₂usōn
Equivalents
Greek equivalent	Hermes (most aspects), Pan (some aspects) see § Pan and Hermes for more info
Hindu equivalent	Pushan
Roman equivalent	Mercury (most aspects), Faunus (some aspects) see § Pan and Hermes for more info

He may have had a bushy beard and keen sight.^[4][3] He was also closely affiliated with goats or bucks: Pan has goat's legs while goats are said to pull the car of Pūshān (the animal was also sacrificed to him on occasion).^[3][5]

History

The deity was first proposed due to association between the Greek god Pan and the Vedic god Pūshān first identified in 1924 by German linguist Hermann Collitz.^[6][7]

The minor discrepancies between the two deities could be explained by the possibility that many of Pan's original attributes were transferred over to Hermes,^[8][5] the two of which were likely originally the same deity.^[9][10]

According to West, the reflex may be at least of Graeco-Aryan origin: "Pūshān and Pan agree well enough in name and nature—especially when Hermes is seen as a hypostasis of Pan—to make it a reasonable conclusion that they are parallel reflexes of a prototypical god of ways and byways, a guide on the journey, a protector of flocks, a watcher of who and what goes where, one who can scamper up any slope with the ease of a goat."^[11]

References

1. Puhvel 1987, p. 63.
2. Mallory & Adams 2006, pp. 415.
3. West 2007, p. 282.
4. Jackson 2002, p. 84.
5. Jackson 2002, p. 85.
6. Beekes 2009, p. 1149.
7. Collitz 1924.
8. Mallory & Adams 2006, pp. 411 and 434.
9. Mallory & Adams 2006, pp. 411, 435.
10. West 2007.
11. West 2007, p. 302–303.

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