The Gaia Hypothesis

From: Glen Gordon
Message: 3194
Date: 2000-08-17

Joao, a couple of messages back...
>What are the etymologies of Titans' names? ( I found an interesting >clue
>(coincidence?) - Yoruba (Western Africa) have TITAN "shining" (Titan?),
>GIGAN "guilt, sin" (Gigantes?), IRIN "moisture" (Iris?), >couple of gods
>ORUN & AYE (Ouranos & Gaia? An & Ki?)

While I'll avoid the Yoruba connection for now, I want to know more about
the origin of Gaia. Has this been discussed before? Is there a solution?

Would I be crazy to suggest that it is perhaps from IE? Like maybe
*Gwo:u-aya "Aunt Cow"? I know that the Hindus have Go-Mata "Mother Cow" who
provides plenty of milk on tap for the universe. (Got milk?)

Of course we could go nuts with this title. We got "Aunt Cow", "Mother
Cow"... Why not "Grandmother Cow"? In IndoEuropean, that would be
*Gwo:u-xanos or *Gwo:u-xanax, or maybe just *Gwxnax for short (cf. Sanskrit
gana, Gr. gyno-, etc). Just a thought. Carry on.

- gLeN


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