David:
>This is more of what I referred to in the other
>thread, Mediterranean/Middle-Eastern influence
>on the Indo-Europeans. It would be nice to sift
>the data and see just what originally belonged
>to the former, and what to the latter. Influence
>obviously came in stages, with Christianity being
>the most recent, and of greatest impact.
Back to the ol' *sweks and *septm, showing that
there was indeed Middle-Eastern influence in even
neolithic times. Judging by some common overall
themes (like the typical recurring fertility goddess
associated with Venus, the obsession with bull horns,
and the like), some of these ideas stem from the
neolithic. In fact, some artifacts prove that these
themes are ancient, using the same imagery that is
abundantly used in later religions of the Greeks,
Romans, Egyptians and Sumerian cultures.
The difficulty is that (and I know I'm not gonna
make friends with the Pope by saying this)
Christianity has been heavily influenced by pagan
traditions of yore. So piecing together which is
from later Christianity and what is from older times
becomes that much more blurry, I think.
Or maybe I'm just rambling. Carry on.
= gLeN
= gLeN
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