Abstract

Dumézil's idea of a trifunctional mentality and maybe even partition of all Indo-European societies between priests, warriors, and producers has not been particularly fruitful. His mature work on Roman Religion confirms that he has not been able to overcome two basic difficulties in his system: the vagueness of what is the Indo-European heritage in Rome and the lack of relation between the Indo-European element and the mass of beliefs, ceremonies, and institutions which have nothing to do with castes and three functions. There is little evidence in Rome that priests, warriors, and peasants were three different social classes and even less that they were three different mental categories. There is no region of the IndoEuropean-speaking world where a common mentality -trifunctional or otherwise - is visible