From: Dennis Poulter
Message: 2304
Date: 2000-05-01
Given the uncertainties over the etymology and semantics of Don/Dan, and inspired by John's kite concerning connections with the Dardanelles and Danaid river people (which I don’t agree with, BTW), I offer the following kite.
There is an inscription dated to mid-3rd millennium from Abu Salabikh in Mesopotamia which includes the word /dane-ki/. Its position in the list corresponds to a word /'amni-ki/ found in an otherwise identical list from Ebla, and has been construed by Prof.Pettinato, the translator of Eblaite, as referring to Amnissos, the port of Knossos. Another possibility is to link this to the Semitic (and Egyptian) root /ymn/ which means "right" (direction)" or "west".
It seems probable then that /dane-ki/ refers to an ill-defined geographical "far west", either the Levantine coast or more likely the Aegean.
There is also a Semitic root, still extant in modern Arabic, /dny/ meaning "low, inferior" and the form "dunya" is used in Islamic terms to denote this lower world, as opposed to the higher next world.
It is entirely possible then that /dny/, nominal forms of which would include /da:niyu, da:nu/, refers to the extreme west as the entrance to the underworld, into which the sun sets and the souls of the dead go. This seems a more plausible explanation of Phaeton crashing the chariot of the sun into Eri-danos. "Eri-" could also come from a Semitic root /Hrr/, meaning "burn, scorch", as an image of "dny - the extreme west and entrance to the underworld" turning to fire as the sun sets into it.
Serpents are also heavily involved in Egyptian myths (Apep) concerning the sun's nightly journey through the underworld.
As a hydronym this now connects Dan/Don etc. with the River of Ocean at the edge of the world. The Danube was seen by the Egyptians as a northern extension of the River of Ocean.
So the common theme is of wide rivers, rather than violent or swift ones, with associations with the west and/or access to the underworld. Even dew could be associated, as a product of the borderland between night and day.
How these Semitic terms and images may have been transmitted to Celts and Indo-Iranians is another matter for another day.
Cheers
Dennis