Re: Goliath and Uriah the Hittite as IE -follow up

Sabine Said:

There is a gigantic hero of the Anatolian coast even, called 'Anax' (a
word
supposedly going back to an original 'wanax', documented in Mycenaean
Greek/Lin.B as wa-na-ka). He was the son of Uranos and Ge (heaven and
earth)
and autochthonic (inborn) king and eponymos (name-giving person) of
Anaktoria, later Miletus (Caria, today western Turkey), father of (one
of
the kings by the name of) Asterios, also king in Miletus, who was
killed by
Miletos (son of Apollo with a Cretan goddess) and fled to Caria to
conquer
the town that then got his name. Asterios was buried on a small island
near
Lade (that's just outside Miletus, then in the sea, now silted up and a
hill). His skeleton was supposed to have been at least ells long (when
it
was found in antiquity). Cf. Robert Graves, Greek myths, 88/b and /3,
where
he also makes the connection with the Anakim of Genesis).
This is interesting when seen in an archaeological light. In the past
few
years the parts of Miletus dating before Greek and Mycenaean times have
been
systematically excavated by the German Prof. W.D. Niemeier (cf. his
article
on the sea peoples and on Tell Kabri I mentioned in the sea people mail,
there is also a newer one on 'Minoan Frescoes in the Eastern
Mediterranean'
in Aegeum 18, 1998). Niemeier found a clearly Minoan layer below the
Mycenaean one, including pottery (local, Minoan style, e.g. conical
cups),
bits of frescoes (Minoan style: white lily on red ground) and a sherd
of a
large local vase inscribed with Linear A signs (as I said). Not far
from the
ancient island- nowaydays hill - of Lade is another hill where in the
beginning of the century typical Mycenaean graves were found (as near
Ephesos, Aphrodisias and other places near the Anatolian coast lately).
Miletus is quite certainly the Millawanda of the Hittites.
As for the etymology of 'wanax' (usually translated as king but still
under
debate, see the discussion of specialists on AEGEANET, summer 1999)
there is
an interesting hypothesis by E. Brown in the article I mentioned in my
earlier mail on Luvian in Troy (Linear A on Trojan Spindlewhorls etc.).
I
cite:
"the pre-forms of Greek γυνή ('gynH') and Luvian 'wana-' with its
extended
form 'wanatti-' (syncopated 'unatti-'), whose meaning is 'woman' or
'lady',
have a common Indo-European root." the he continues in a footnote: "For
the
Luvian preforms, PIE and Proto-Anatolian (*gwnéh2-, *gweneh2-,
*gwóná-), see
Melchert 1994 (Anatolian Historical Phonology, Amsterdam and Atlanta),
264
and 1993(Cuneiform Luvian Lexicon. Chapel Hill) 36-37 with bibliography
there. /.../ The very notion that we might one day succeed in showing
Linear
A to have been created at a stage in the evolution of Luvian when the
initial voiced labiovelar of Proto-Anatolian *gwona- had become /w/ but
before /o/ had become /a:/ in 'wana-' must be relegated to a footnote.
Yet
the idea that the Mycenaeans must have borrowed their signary at a
substantially earlier date than their first preserved writings is not
new
and helps explain the still unschematized form in which some of the
Linear B
signs became fixed, forms more archaic in fact than their Linear A
counterparts."

So (w-)Anax 'Lord' (in a sacral context!) probably goes back to
Anatolian
'wana-' Lady!
And people using this name (theonym?)once may have been those who lived
e.g.
in Miletus where myth still tells us about them, in this case
historically
referring either to Mycenaean or Minoan times (hardly any other traces
there), if the latter, then clearly using an Anatolian-based language
similar to Luvian but written with Linear A signs (Minoan?).
Very interesting indeed.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sabine

Thank you for your detailed response.

What you related, may be a source. The name Anax is not a close fit in
Semitic languages. The three letter root constonants N-(Ph or P)-L
sould be fairly resistent to transformation if the Hebrews had carried
the name directly over. But since I speculated that it was a borrowed
myth, the Jews could have tried to find a name that had the same sound
structure, as close as the could mimic it, or a name with the same
meaning "fallen ones". Most frequently, the Jews tried to mimic the
sounds of other peoples, from what we know. And while a single persons
name can stand-in for a group of people, and often did in the bible -
here I got the sense that the reference was tribal or even
nationalistic (ie a regional group of people)because it refered to much
of humanity, before the mythical flood. I guess I was secretly hoping
that someone would come up with a comment like "Oh yes, the Naphali (or
even Nefiru etc.) were the Hittites equivalents to the Titans". Oh
well, it was worth a shot.

Thanks

Brent