Re: Greek wanax and basileus: A final solution finally? :P

--- In cybalist@..., "Glen Gordon" <glengordon01@...> wrote:

> ...[snip]...
> Ned joins the debate (Hey Ned):
> >To continue with my speculations- IMHO a word formed from "ruler

of the

> >realm" implies a more complex level of socio-political

organization than is

> >necessarily implied by one >formed from "ruler of the people"
>
> The definition of the name /Wurun-Katti/ as "ruler of the realm"
> is what one site mentioned and so this is what I have on my page.
> However, "realm" can mean lots of things, as I have mentioned
> to Ned. It might mean a vague area, it might mean a specific
> boundary, it might also mean worlds beyond our physical reality
> believed by these people. English definitions of foreign words can
> sometimes be deceptive and its best to keep an open mind of all
> the possibilities before stressing that they must have had a
> complex level of socio-political organization due to _one_
> interpretation of "realm".
>
> For instance, a hypothetical ProtoHattic *wunun-kWati could have
> meant more along the lines of "chief of the (otherworldly) realm"
> for all we know. If the Hattic war god is anything like the war
> gods of other Middle-Eastern religions (and it probably is due to
> influence), then Wurunkatti, like Baal, was doing battles with

malevolent,

> otherworldly creatures. In this sense, Wurunkatti
> could very validly be conceived of as ruler or master of the
> realm (the _otherworldly_ realm).
>
> I think these possibilities undermine the certainty of societal
> complexity based on this single word.

Sorry, didn't mean to sound dogmatic. I'm far from committed to any
one possibility here. I was sort of just assessing greater likelihood
vs. lesser likelihood. But at the least I think my explanation was
one scenario of how the word MIGHT have traveled from central
Anatolia to the west, and from there to Greece.

Ned
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