Re: Odin again?

--- In cybalist@..., cas111jd@... wrote:

> --- In cybalist@..., "Christopher Gwinn" <sonno3@...> wrote:
> >
> > > The similarities between the Norse and Zoroastrian mythologies
> are
> > > striking......................
> > <snip>
> > > .......There is nothing so plainly similar in Russian, Greek,
> > > Hittite, or any other mythology as far as I have found (yes, I
> know
> > > of the Hindu Yama, etc).
> >
> >
> > This is either due to 1) common Proto Indo European heritage and
> the
> > rather conservative nature of Germanic religion, 2) close contact
> > between Eastern Iranians and early Germans or 3) a little of both.
> >
>
> It seems that the Slavs should have more similarities than they do,
> as well as the Celts.

Who says they didn't? The simple fact is that we know very little
about their respective pre-Christian religions, so we can't say how
many similarities they shared.

> Speculating on the Gundestrap cauldron, it
> appears to me that it includes many images that can relate to the
> Germano-Persian mythology.

Garrett Olmsted has done an admirable job of comparing the cauldron
to episodes from the Irish Tain Bo Cuailgne. There is really no
reason to assume that the cauldron does not represent native Celtic
imagery. In recent years, it has been re-asserted that the cauldron
could have been made in northern Gaul, and not in Eastern Europe, as
some believe.

> Could it be that this mythology was
> brought to the north by the Cimmerians, Celticized as the Cimbri
>who
> in turn diffused this mythology to the early Germans?

Why do you think that it can't be native? The horned god with torque
and ram-headed serpent certainly seems to be native Gaulish.

> > Yes, very superficial. The Irish name Anu is probably the same as
> the
> > Brittonic river name Anauia "Annan" (with an ethnic name based on
> the
> > genitive, Anauiones)
>
> Where was this river and what is it called today?

The Annan is in Scotland.

> I'm still intrigued by this Tanais alternate name for Anahita. I am
> inclined to believe that this Persian cosmic ocean goddess was the
> eponymous goddess of the river Tanais, and that she was synonymous
> with the 'Don' goddesses of the IE peoples. BTW, she was also

called

> Tanata, which seems similar to the Carthaginian goddess Tanit.

But how could PIE *dan-, the root of Danuuius, give Tanais?

> and the genitive form Donand seems to come from
> > a Proto Irish *Danuionas, which may be related to the Latinized
> > Gaulish rivername Danuuius "Danube" and the Welsh rivername Donwy
> > (Danu is a reconstructed form - we don't actually have it

attested

> in
> > Old Irish). I don't think that Anahita is related to Anu/Anauia,
> nor
> > Idun to *Danu/Danuuius
> >
>
> Also, Anahita was called Anaea and had the epithet Ardvi
> (Immaculate), which name is similar to the Gaulish goddess Arduinna
> ('the highest one'?).

I think you need to figure out the PIE etymology of Ardvi. Even if it
is cognate with Celtic ardu- "high", it doesn't necessarily mean that
the goddesses are cognate, since "highness" is a natural description
of a goddess and could be coincidental.

- Chris Gwinn