--- In cybalist@..., "Joseph S Crary" <pva@...> wrote:
>
> Assarhaddon provides a single Cimmerian personal name,
> Teuspa, possibly a high chief. Teuspa or Teu-spa is
> possibly similar to the Greek Teuhw-or proto-celt
> Teuga- meaning axe and the root word spa meaning a
> scyth's stroke.
>
> Teuhw-spa
> Teuga-spadh
>
> Teu may also be derived from the root word found in
> Teutates a Celt deity often associated with the war
> gods Aries/Mars.
>
> If so Teu-spa may mean something like the war god Teu's
> scyth stroke or Teu smites
>
Teutates is interpretted as Teut-ates ('people' + 'father, lord,
defender'). Thus he is the lord-protector of the people/nation. As
the god of war, he was also known by many other epithets. This name
seems suspiciously close to Norse/German Tiws/Tiwaz/Tyr as well as
(IMO) the Roman Tutans and possibly the Hittite Tiwaz.
Teuspa may somehow be related to these names as rooted in an ancient
IE war-god but, as we notice, the 'Tues' war-gods are all from the
centum branch. As a Thracian language, Cimmerian would have been
Satem.
Still, cognates of Teuspa seem to be found in the Near East. Perhaps
the most significant is the Hurro-Hittite storm-god Teshup, who
succeeded Taru/Tarhuntas in the late Hittite period when Hurrian
influence was heavy. The Hurrians, of course, were not even IE
peoples. However, this does not preclude the possibility that their
Teshup was adopted from other IE peoples - with the Mitanni possibly
being a suggestion.
Teshup continued to be important in the area (apparently). Teispa was
the capital of Urartu in what would have been the successor state of
the Hurrians in eastern Anatolia.
Probably more importantly, the Zoroastrians had a Yazad (god) names
Tishtyra/Tishtar/Tir who was a storm- and fertility- god in the IE
tradition of the Norse Thor, the Celtic Taranis, and the Hittite
Taru. Bludgeons such as axes are everywhere an attribute of the IE
storm gods.
cas