Re: [tied] Scythian Cognates -- more speculation

A brilliant idea, Sasha! Supposing that Targitaus is a mangled Greek version of, say, *þrika-tavah- 'having threefold strength' (or rather its late variant *þriga-tavah- with the voicing of intervocalic *k), Av. þraetaona- (*þrai-tauna-) 'thrice potent' would be for all intents and purposes the same name despite the trivial suffixal differences (the same roots recur in both parts of the compound). Are we on the trail of the oldest foundation myth of the Iranians? :)

Piotr

----- Original Message -----
From: Alexander Stolbov

To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Friday, December 28, 2001 10:57 AM

Subject: Re: [tied] Scythian Cognates -- more speculation

If so may I return to a unanswered question I asked before:

According to Herodotus Paralatai is a tribe descending from the youngest of 3 sons of Targitaus - Kolaxais, the king who possessed xwarena (if we accept the mentioned etymology).

According to Avesta Aryan is a tribe descending from the youngest of 3 sons of Thraetaona - Arya, the king who possessed xwarena.

Could Targitaus be linguistically compared to Thraetaona?