Re: Floods, IE myths and Hurrian intermediaries

From: John Croft
Message: 1832
Date: 2000-03-10

Yves

> Could you tell me where I can find that Germanic mythos about the
'Black
> Sea-origin' precisely? In which part of the Edda can I find the
maritim
> origin?

When I checked the Voluspa at http://asatru.org/voluspa.html I could
find no reference. I do remember the Weidenfeld & Nicholson History of
Religion series

speaking of

When Ymir lived long ago
Was no sand or sea, no surging waves.
Nowhere was there earth nor heaven above.
Bur a grinning gap and grass nowhere.

The sons of Bur then built up the lands.
Moulded in magnificence middle-Earth:
Sun stared from the south on the stones of their hall,
From the ground there sprouted green leeks.

That the "no sand, or sea or surging wave" was

At the time of Ymir the Ancient One
there was no Earth, Heaven or Sea,
only the vast, formless void, Ginnungagapet,
the dark abyss of Chaos.

Ginnungagapet I understand is "sea-lung", an undifferentiated chaotic
mixture of the elements.

> I heard that the name of the Germanic Gods (Ás) is related to 'Asia'
and the
> lake of 'Azov' in the Ukraine. Is that true?

No. Asia comes from the Assuwa a kingdom west of the Hittites. I
don't know the etymology of Azov. The Germanic Asir seems
etymologically related to the Indic Asvins, and to the Iranian Ahura
Mazda.

> And I heard that the name of Japhet (one of Noah's suns) is related to
> Iapetos (the father of Prometheus) in Greek mythology. Is that true?

The Iapetos-Japeth connection is found in Robert Graves "Greek Myths".
He says

"Such an identification of Atlantis with Pharos would account for Atlas
sometimes being called the son if Iapetus - the Japeth of Genesis, whom
the Hebrews called Noahs son and and made him the ancestor of the
Sea-people's confederacy, and sometimes a son of Poseidon, patron of
Greek Seafarers. Noah is Deucalion and Iapetus appears as Deucalion's
grandfather."

Hope this helps

Regards

John