From: Sergejus Tarasovas
Message: 2193
Date: 2000-04-25
John wrote: > There seems to be an
Indo-European version of this Goddess. Nanna > was
mother of Baldr, and the *Danua found throughout IE people from
> the
> the
Tuatha de Danaans in Ireland to Danu in India (with Diana > Nemorensis the
inspiration of Sir James Frazer's "The Golden Bough"), > as a great
Indo-European fertility goddess (associated with such > rivers as the
Donau, Dneipr and Dneistr etc), seems fairly sound I > think. She
appears in Greek mythology as the minor goddess > Dione. Some have
suggested that she may also be Da-meter (despite > attempts to give this
another different origin). >
shift another of the s-r replacement
> By the way, is the Ausora-Aurora
> we found in Tyrsenoi-Tyrrhenoi I
wonder. >
As far as I'm concerned, Dnepr and Dnestr contain
East-Iranian stem *dVn- 'river'. I'm not sure if we have
Iranists on the list; they could clarify the matter.
Sergei