Re: [tied] Neptune, Poseidon, Danu, etc.

----- Original Message -----

From: Eris

To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Monday, July 02, 2001 9:02 PM

Subject: [tied] Neptune, Poseidon, Danu, etc.

> [snip] Now, someone mentioned the possibility of *Potis-Da:nuom.  Is -om on Da:nuom supposed to be the genetive ending in IE?  And, if so, what is the -s ending for on Potis?  (And why wouldn't it be -ei or -e or something of the sort?)  Would it be reasonable to think that the full version of that would have been Nepotisda:nuom?

 

I don't remember exactly who proposed what in the heat of that old discussion, but:

 

(1) *-om is the normal PIE Gen.pl. ending,

 

(2) *potis is the Nom.sg. form,

 

so something like *potis da:nwom was supposed to be a phrase meaning "lord of the waters".

> Nepotisda:nuom > Neptunus
> In Latin, why did the "usda:n" part change to "u:n" and not "a:n", such as Nepta:nus instead of Neptu:nus?  Is that a regualar sound change from IE>L?

 

Certainly not.

> Nepotisda:nuom > Poseidon
> In Greek, is there any reason in particular why the "ne" would have been dropped?

 

No reason at all.

> I can see how t>s is entirely ordinary, so I don't have a question on that part.  It is assumed, though, that the "potis" changed to a "pos*" and lost the "is" (in whatever order), right?  Or is it assumed that the "t" just dropped out to form "po*s"?

 

*poti- > posi- is regular in Greek (with -ti- surviving in the dialects). You'd have to refer to the original postings to see how the details were accounted for (or questioned) by the participants of the debate.

> I think something along the lines of Poseidahon was also suggested.  If someone could remind me again, why the "dahon", "daon", "danuom", or whatever it was?  Is that what was derived from the IE *dan*/*dheu/*dhen word?

 

Archaic versions of Poseidon's name include uncontracted <poseidao:n>, <poteidawo:n>, <poti:dao:n> and the like.

 

My own view, BTW, is that the "PIE word" in question, insofar as it is reconstructable at all, is *d(a)h2nu-s ('[big] river'?) with the adjectival derivative *dah2neu-jo-s. I'm rather sceptical of deriving too much from it.

 

Piotr