Mr Gwinn on Ouranos:
> Pokorny, IEW, pg 81
> AU-
> 9. AU[E]-, AUED-, AUER- "flowing"
> c) AUER- "water/rain/river"
> 4. UER-S "rain" (Greek ouron)
>
> The "-N-OS" in *UER-S-AN-OS is perhaps the divine suffix.
Ah! Thanx. So we should be saying *?Wers@... then. The ending would be more
likely genitive, wouldn't it? I thought the "divine" prefix is *-o:s with
lengthened vowel. Hence "Of the rain"... Right... Cool.
Joao, I found that quote from Mallory in "In Search of the IndoEuropeans"
concerning colour symbolism:
One of the more obvious symbols of social tripartition
is colour, emphasized by the fact that both ancient
India and Iran expressed the concept of caste with
the word for colour (varna). A survey of the social
significance of different colours is fairly clear cut,
at least for the first two functions. Indo-Iranian,
Hittite, Celtic and Latin ritual all assign white to
priests and red to the warrior. The third function
would appear to have been marked by a darker colour
such as black or blue. [...]
As I've elaborated, the colour signifance would be primarily associated with
the realms and the colours found within them: Overworld (yellow, bright
blue), Middleworld (green) and Underworld (red). These also happened to be
the colours of the three seasons: winter, spring/summer, fall. Since the
priests were associated with the Overworld, the herder-cultivators with the
Middleworld and the warriors with the Underworld, the colour symbolism was
then transfered to these three social functions as well.
Now... the idea of "red" being the Underworld colour is bugging me as of
late. If it stems from the colour of "blood", it would mean that the colour
symbolism was first associated with the castes (rather than the seasons or
the realms) since blood is associated with war. On the other hand, there is
no clear, unabstract reason to associate "white" with priests. It could just
as well be black or grey or tangerine. Further, while green can be easily
associable to the earthly realm (via plantlife), the association of green to
hunter-gatherers doesn't make so much sense. The "cultivator-herder=green"
association would have to have come later than the
"Middleworld=Spring=green" associations. Therefore, one would expect that
the colour symbolism was first associated with the realms and seasons. So,
what's up with "red=Underworld" thing??
Is it possible that the original steppe concept of the realms (pre-5500 BCE)
was such that a bright Heaven god (Tengri, Ilma, etc) lived in the Overworld
and that the Underworld was full of fire? (On a side note, the Sun Goddess
and Moon Lord might also come from this eastern direction, perhaps.)
This mythological structure would be in slight contrast to the Old European
mythos where the Underworld was watery. What's the scoop on this "fire in
the water" story? Could there be something here concerning a blending of two
different mythologies and story traditions, perhaps? Food for thought. Talk
to me.
- gLeN
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