--- In cybalist@..., "Glen Gordon" <glengordon01@...> wrote:
> > >Certain mythological references point to them(Villanovans)*
being pretty IE,
>
> Be careful. Etruscan mythology may have common motifs with other IE
peoples
> (as well as Sumerians, Akkadians and Egyptians) not because of a
genetic
> relationship but because of later ties with the dominant Middle-
East and
> contact with a million-and-one peoples before arriving in Italy.
Etruscan
> mythology also has some querky features as well (eg: the 16
divisions of the
> sky) and it's fun to think about how they might have arose when
sipping a
> nice tall glass of Iced Capp at a local cafe. (As you can see, I'm
a
> caffeine junky.)
*=My addition for clarification
I know I am on shaky ground with my mythological argument, but I
have a good feeling about it. Veles, Volos, Vala are all 'horned god"
types, related to the forest, the serpent, death. Veltha/Voltumna is
so similar in both name and spheres of influence that I have to draw
the connection. Veles and Volos are Slavic(and Baltic)and Vala
appears to be old Indo-Iranian. While a Mid-East origin is possible,
I haven't been able to find any similar names for comparison in the
region yet.
The sky division thing is intriguing. I am right now contemplating
it after recently consuming an obscene quantity of Mountain Dew:) I
think I have read about Anatolian/Mid-East connections- There have
been other model livers for haruspicy found with the Hittites and
Babylonians(Unsure which incarnation)I am not sure if these livers
represented the same microcosm of the universe that the Etruscams
used.
-Mr. Caws
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