Re: [tied] Digest Number 646

I think Mercurius identity was based on the role of Odin (Wo:thnaz) as a
psychopomp, a guide of dead.

----- Original Message -----
From: William P. Reaves <beowulf@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, October 19, 2001 7:02 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] Digest Number 646


> Hej Torsten,
>
> >I still think a god of anger sounds strange. It might have been reshaped
> from something non-Germanic. I mean, the Romans didn't have a god named
Ira,
> did they? ;-)
>
> I think too much emphasis has been placed on the name. You seem fixated on
> etymology. *Dyuas Pater was reconstructed from comparative mythology, of
> which etymology was only one part. The Romans need not have had a god
named
> Ira for Odin to have a Roman cognate, or for that matter an Indo-European
> cognate.
>
> The general taboo against naming a diety directly may explain the name
> change. As I said before, a ritualized epithet or designation repeated
often
> enough could well have become a proper name over time. It's interesting to
> me that Tacitus doesn't give the Germanic name for "Mercury" especially
when
> he elsewhere gives the Germanic names of at least 4 gods: Nerthus, Tustio,
> and the Alcis.
>
> Wassail, William
>
>
> "I think that many confuse 'applicability' with 'allegory';
> but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the
> other in the purposed domination of the author."
>
> J.R.R. Tolkien
>
>
>
>
>
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>