[tied] Re: Troy, Rasna and Turan

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

> Mr.Caws:
> >But I do think that Aphrodite's Cyprus birth story might be

referring

> >to Turan as worshipped by Tyrrhenian speaking Eteo-Cypriot writers,
> >and that Troy's special relationship with Aphrodite might be to a
> >Tyrrhenian Turan. Maybe.
>
> Well, I'm not going to fight you on the power of *Xastora. The whole
> reason why I reconstruct the name for Neolithic Proto-Tyrrhenian is
> because the name just pops up everywhere across the Mediterranean.
> Since it's reasonable to presume that Tyrrhenians had a long history
> of sea trade, this goddess must have travelled around at an early
> date to reach languages like Semitic (*`aTtar-... with initial
> ayin!) and possibly also Egyptian (Hathor, natively reanalysed as
> "House of Horus", again suggesting an initial laryngeal). That,
> together with its correlation to IE *xste:r, and its later

attestation

> as Turan in Etruscan, all makes for a totally righteous theory.

> Even if we examine the surrounding mythologies of the area, we
> find oodles of cases showing that there is some matrifocality going
> on underneath these belief systems. Basically, it shows that the
> beliefs of the Mediterranean developed from the simple and logical
> observation that since it is the female who gives birth to life,
> it must be that a woman gave birth to the entire universe (note
> Nyx and the story of creation). This is *Xastora as she was
> originally understood.

Add Pelasgian Eurynome to the list of primordial creation deities.
I like the story where Eurynome's male serpent consort Ophion tries
to usurp her power, so she bruises his head with her heel(That sounds
familiar...) and kicks out his teeth. There's a goddess who doesn't
take any flak!

> At some point, it appears that *Xastora was divided into
> three parts (three parts of the universe: sky, earth, waters) and
> given three split personalities to represent these three realms
> (maiden, mother, crone). She was also given appropriate animal
> symbolisms for each realm (hence the bird/serpent thing). This
> is probably when the whole idea of the upraised arms of goddess
> figurines starting popping up. The curved arms of these figurines
> represented the crescent moon, their eyes represented the sun and,
> in all, the figurines were purposefully posed as if she were the
> World Tree itself in the center of the universe with her
> arms being also suggestive of branches.

I can definetly go along with the world tree angle-Maybe the goddess
holding a serpent in each arm is similar to the twin serpents coiled
around the world tree and caduceus.

> Later, more symbolism became overlayed on top of the existing

scheme.

> So eventually, we find that the goddess has turned into horns and
> a doubleaxe. The horns are the crescent moon (her abstractified
> arms), the doubleaxe (her eyes) represent the sun, and overall, she
> still represents the Great Tree in the centre of the universe.
> However, by this time, patriarchy was moulding these beliefs into
> something new - Enter the "two men".

I'm still struggling with the symbolism of the double axe-I've also
heard it represents a butterfly and/or the female genitalia. Or that
it was always a political/religious item symbolizing the legal
authority to kill, that in itself perhaps coming from its use as a
sacrificial implement.

And we still have the axe as a potent religio-political symbol with
the Etruscans, only surrounded by 12 sticks(and of course borrowed by
the wonderfully syncretic Romans).

> First, we see the goddess with husband and son, and then,
> being courted by two rivalling suitors (lo and behold, one with
> a doubleaxe, the other with bullhorns). Finally, the goddess has
> nothing more than a secondary role to the two rivalling deities
> (eg: El/Baal, *Dye:us/*PerkWnos, etc).

I think this points to the axe as a sacrificial implement, the bull
being its recipient, sacrificed and reborn, son and consort, dying
and resurrected

Husband and son often being one and the same. I don't know about the
rival suitor part-Not saying it isn't there, but where do we have
competition between two gods over the goddess, except maybe Ares and
Hephaestus?

> At any rate, I figure *Xastora would have held on best amongst the
> Tyrrhenians where this goddess cult was likely to have originated.

And the Greeks might especially remember the Tyrrhenian goddess,
whether or not she was the protoype for other similar deities,
because of geographic proximity and shared cultural ties.
And identified her with Aphrodite, then assigning her a creation
story in Cyprus.

Another creation story of Aphrodite: Daugher of Zeus and Dione.
Dione was mentioned extensively by Herodotus and others as an old and
vital Pelasgian cult.

-Cort Williams