Strangers from the waters - serpents, canids, horses and others: Indo-European conceptions of human ecology and the CENTRE-PERIPHERY spatial schema

The study provides a historical-comparative analysis of the linguistic and textual data attested in various Indo-European traditions in connection with beings associated with WATER and described as monstrous creatures, cosmic strangers and/or ontological others. On the basis of these entities’ shared features, a conceptual system is reconstructed, which nicely fits into the set of beliefs that may be referred to as “Indo-European ecologies”.