Re: Goliath and Uriah the Hittite as IE -

Sabine:

Sabine:
Boy, am I dense. It just occurred to me, -finally - that you were not
referring to the Nephalim, but the Anakites, which are a more obvious
match up. Sorry I didn't get it the first time.

Interesting connection. For it to be true, some descendants would have
had to migrate to the Levant from the Anatolia, but that doesn't seem
to be much of a stretch. If true, gigantism becomes a kind of genetic
marker.

Now I am going to do some really wild speculating. Suppose there was a
group of relatively large peoples (remember, most modern peoples would
seem giants to peoples of that age, and we have not change that much
genetically) or a tendency to actual gigantism (a genetic dysfunction)
among the early inhabitants of Thracian / Peloponnesian Peninsula. I
assume these would be the original inhabitants of the area, and not IE.
That could explain some of the early Greek mythologies about early
descendants of mankind (Titans etc). This was the group of peoples
they found, when they came to the region.

When they were driven out of Greece, they may have migrated to the
Anatolia (and maybe even Mediterranean Islands that I have heard also
have mythical legions of giants). There the tendency to gigantism
shows up in the local population, from time to time hence your
reference to Anax. IE moving south (Hittites?) again drive out this
group and they end up in the Levant, known as descendants of Anax, the
Anakites – where they are eventually destroyed in the invasions of the
Jews.

Pretty wild I admit, almost totally without foundation, .... but lots
of fun. Good thing I am not making my living as a linguist – I would
have just blown my credibility.

Thanks Brent