Re: The Gaia Hypothesis

From: John Croft
Message: 3207
Date: 2000-08-17

Glen wrote
> 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, try the following. Cyril suggests *aia comes from IE
"Grandmother" and we have already had a great deal of discussion on
this. Ge is the Pelasgian word for the Earth (ultimately derived
from
the Great Goddess's Sumerian name Ki (She was also known as Ninhursag
(Laty Mountain) or Nintu (Lady (Mother) of Life, the origin of the
West Semitic HWH = Mother of Living, also known as Eve. Nintu was
also known (via a Sumerian pun as "Lady Rib")). As Cyril suggests Ge
+ aia = Gaia (QED). Try forgetting about mother cows.

Regards

John