From: João S. Lopes Filho
Message: 9848
Date: 2001-09-28
----- Original Message -----
From: <tgpedersen@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, September 28, 2001 10:32 AM
Subject: [tied] Re: Gk. Lyssa
> --- In cybalist@..., Miryam y César Libran Moreno <libran@...>
> wrote:
> >
> > Dear all,
> > I hope I might be allowed to avail myself of the collective wisdom
> of
> > the list to try to find a solution to my puzzlement. I have been
> trying
> > to compile all possible classical references about the goddess
> Lyssa,
> > the personification of madness or even rabies. The word lyssa and
> its
> > derivatives (lussaw,lusswn, lusswdhs, lusshthr) are common enough in
> > Homer (ex. gr. Il. 9.239. 305, 21.542) with the meaning "raging
> > madness", but we don´t find a mention of a goddess called Lyssa
> until
> > two lost plays by Aeschylus, Toxotides (attested in a vase painting
> > illustrating a scene from this tragedy) and Xantriae fr. 169 R.,
> both
> > dated between 499/8-456 a.C. Later we find her in the cast of
> characters
> > in Euripides´ Heracles and possibly in a number of later tragedies
> > (Pollux 4.142 says the mask of Lyssa was one of the abnormal masks
> in
> > tragedy, which might imply the stage appearance of the goddess might
> > have been some sort of fixture in post-classical plays). I have
> always
> > thought that Lyssa as a personification of Rabies or Madness was an
> > invention of Aeschylus´ and as such she had no impact at all in the
> > Greek cult or pantheon; I am no indoeuropeanist, but given her name
> > (*luk-yH2) and her obvious connections with wolves and rabid dogs,
> I was
> > wondering whether she might, after all, be a part of the
> indoeuropean
> > pantheon, some sort of pre-existing wolf spirit or demon, discarded
> by
> > the more rational Homer (and the ionian tradition) and taken up
> again by
> > Aeschylus as some sort of "theatrical prop" to signify stage
> madness,
> > like he did (in part) with the Erinyes and the Alastores? Do we
> have an
> > analogous figure in the rest of the indoeuropean pantheon, some
> sort of
> > wolf-spirit which drives men and dogs mad or rabid, or are there any
> > linguistic traces that such a figure could have existed?
> > My most expressive thanks in advance.
> > Best, Miryam
>
> The Lejre Chronicle has a story of an evil, mad king Snjó who died of
> being bitten by a horde of lice. Assuming the writer was, as Saxo,
> trying to make sense of traditional song/stories, something like
> Lyssa/madness might be behind. But I must admit getting an -s- out of
> *luk-yH2 in Germanic would be difficult.
>
> Torsten
>
>
>
>
>
>
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