--- In cybalist@..., Piotr Gasiorowski <piotr.gasiorowski@...>
wrote:
> What we have got for sure is the reverse compound <taurokentai>
(sg. *taurokente:s), Lat. taurocentae 'picadors' (occurring in
amphitheatre inscription at Pompeii). Mark's idea was that
*kentotauros was originally applied not to bull-killers or
bullfighters, but to some Thracian cowpokes drovin' with cattle and
pokin' away at their bulls, like.
>
> Piotr
Yes, I just reread the relevant postings. Interestingly, ms. Plunkett
proposes that reliefs in Persepolis, where we find a figure (Ahura
Mazda?) stabbing a "creature combining the attributes of Bull, Lion,
Scorpion [just on the other side of the arrow point, in some legends
standing in for the arrow (eg. Mithras)], and Eagle [standing in for
the first-order-star-less Aquarius]" are symbolic of A.M.'s dominance
of the four seasons (corresponding to those constellations at the
time the mythology was fixed), the four corners of the world etc. The
Assyrian god Assur is often depicted with bow and arrow, as well as
holding a ring, as is the Median Ahura Mazda; just beneath the bow
and arrow of Sagittarius we find the ring-shaped Corona Australis
(this is one her reasons why Assur should have been borrowed by the
Assyrians from the Medes' *Asura). In other words, the heavenly poke-
cow is Ahura Mazda himself. Now suddenly the mounted bull-goader from
the steppe makes sense.
The equinoctial axis arrow point of Sagittarius : between horns of
Taurus fixes the construction of the mythology at 4139 BCE (says
AnneW in the backlog).
Torsten