Re: [cybalist] Re: Easter

It is not uncommon at all amongst the Celts to have rivers named after
divinities - in fact, there are quite a few rivers (as well as other bodies
of water) in Celtic territories named after divinites - for example, the
river Belisama "brightest one" in Britain (known as a goddess in Gaul) as
well as the river Matrona (Marne) meaning "Mother goddess" known in Welsh
myth as Modron, or St. Madrun.

Rodanus is from PIE *PRO-DAN-U "great flowing" or "very violent/swift."

>From: "Piotr Gasiorowski" <gpiotr@...>
>Reply-To: cybalist@egroups.com
>To: <cybalist@egroups.com>
>Subject: Re: [cybalist] Re: Easter
>Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2000 13:11:13 +0200
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Sergejus Tarasovas
> To: cybalist@egroups.com
> Sent: Thursday, April 27, 2000 11:05 AM
> Subject: RE: [cybalist] Re: Easter
>
>
> I agree with Sergei. While a river spirit may be promoted to
>pantheon-member status as a god or goddess associated with a particular
>river, the reverse is typologically unusual -- rivers are not normally
>named after (autonomous) deities. Most European river names (at least those
>that have accepted etymologies) are just adjectival, with the noun "river"
>implicit but left out: "the Running", "the White", "the Dark", "the
>Strong", "the Narrow", etc.; some are even more straightforward: "the
>River", "the Stream", or "the Water".
>
> But *danu- IS found in continental Celtic rivernames. Apart from
>Danuvius, another well-known example is *Ro-danu- (the Rhone). Any
>etymological suggestions?
>
> Piotr
>
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> John wrote:
> >
> > Sergei, if the waters took their name from an IE goddess of the
> > waters, we have a complete hydronymy going back to PIE based on Danu.
> > The explanation then does not have to be Scythian, although the
> > Scythians, as Indo-Iranians probably worshipped the same goddess as
> > the Hindu Danu (goddess of the Asuras) too.
> >
> > Thus we don't have to try to connect Iranians to Latin Diana,
> > Greek Dione, Welsh Don and Irish Dana. Rather the connection could
> > be
> > Indo European generally.
> >
>
> If I got you right, you mean that tradition of naming rivers after
>(reconstructed? it would be interesting to take a look at the * form) PIE
>goddess is a common PIE legacy of different yet IE ethnolinguistic groups.
>
> That tradition should be proven if not by direct examples (i.e. putative
>cases of naming river after THIS goddess) then at least typologically. For
>instance, the Lithuanian and Slavic hydronymy, the first containing rather
>archaic naming patterns, doesn't contain god's or goddesses names, or at
>least such examples are unknown to me.
>
> Sergei
>
>

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