Piotr in reply to Glen wrote
> But why does *danu- have to signify the name of a goddess rather
than simply
> "river"? If *danu- is simply "river" then the goddess name just
simply
> derives from the word, and likewise the river names would not be
named after
> the goddess. No? Am I missing something?
>
> - gLeN
>
> I don't say it's a goddess's name. Anyway, read the more recent
postings on *danu- by Chris, John, Sergei and me.
Sounds like we are coming to a consensus on this one. I would
suggest
that from the evidence we have found IE people worshipped the power
that rivers suggest, either at their source (where the river emerges
from the ground) or somewhere else along their course. Perhaps the
use of epithets were used as names (it often happens where the
"naming" of a thing has "power" in animistic cultures, and so other
ways of desribing the divinity are found (Adonai (the Lord), being
used in place of Yahweh etc). So Danu (the swift) became a common
name meaning (sacred) "river". Many cultures have considered that
Rivers are literally the veins and arteries of the Earth, From there
it is only a short step from considering Danu as (the archetypal)
"River" in a cosmological sense and personifying her as the Goddess
that appears in Hindu, Latin, Greek and Celtic mythologies as *Danu.
Are people happy with such a construction?
Regards
John