Re: [tied] Linear A as an early form of Indo-European

----- Original Message -----
From: <jdcroft@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, January 26, 2003 10:35 AM
Subject: Re: [tied] Linear A as an early form of Indo-European



> Luwian *astanus is a cognate of Hittite *Istanu, or *Isten who was
> a "Sun" Hittite sun goddess. In contact with Mesopotamian
> Shamash "she" cahnged gender and was believed to be a creator and
> judge, he is depicted bearing a winged sun on his crown or headdress,
> and a crooked staff. The name is possibly derived from Hattic
> *estan, 'sun' and 'day'.

John, the story is even more complex and the details are still unclear. The bottom line, however, is that Istanus (= UTU-us) is indeed a formalised Hittite version of Hattic Estan (possibly a female deity in the original Hattic pantheon, and perhaps an old name of the Sungoddess of Arinna), identified with Hittite Sius and equivalent to Akkadian Shamash (Summerian Utu). Still, the native Anatolian words for 'sun' were different, and even in parallel texts Hittite Istanus = Luwian Tiwaz (<tiwat->, = Palaic Tijaz). None of the above justifies "explaining" Greek atHa:naia: as 'sun goddess', let alone _transparently_ so. Ms. Hicks ideas are a mishmash of crazy guesses based on the vague phonetic similarity of words collected at random from three languages. In another article she says that Adana/Adaniya, the name of a city in Kizzuwatna (she incorrectly calls it Hittite) "appears to be related" -- she calls it "the city of the sun" as if such an interpretation were self-evident, and she doesn't bother even to suggest in what way <adana-> could be related to <istanu->. No merit in that stuff, believe me.

Piotr