Re: [tied] The Scythians of Dobrudja

From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 12464
Date: 2002-02-24

One cannot do much with such scanty data. Coin legends are typically abbreviated and often corrupt, so there may be a syllable or compound element missing in each case. If the names do not recur on a greater number of coins or supported by other evidence, no safe linguistic conclusions can be drawn from them. All I can offer are tentative and, let's face it, fanciful guesses:
 
KANIT. This must be the otherwise attested Scythian name <kanite:s> (Greek spelling, cf. RV kani:ta-), which I think derives from Iranian *kan- 'desire, choose'.
 
KHORAPS. The <kHor-> part is a common spelling of *xWar-, so the name may be of the "sun-something" type. <-(a)ps> could be one of many things: an abbreviation of anything beginning with p-, ap- (plus Greek -s) or even (a)sp- (metathesised). Any number of plausible names could be reduced to such a form. It's sort of habitual to see evidence of a sun cult in Scythian names, so that e.g. <kHoroapHadios> (attested) is automatically interpreted as 'sun-footed', but perhaps a more down-to-earth analysis involving *xWara- 'wound', i.e. *xWara-padya- 'sore-footed', makes more sense.
 
APROS. No good idea, frankly.
 
SARIA. Possibly something involving *sara- 'head, authority, leader'.
 
ELI. It could be *a(:)rya- once again, giving *airyah > *e:rye with *-ry- > -l- (lambdacism), perhaps an abbreviated compound name with *airya- as the first element.
 
TANOUS. Perhaps something like *tanu-vahu- 'body-goodness' or 'worldly goodness', or a derivative of adjectival *tanu- 'thin, slender'.
 
Piotr
 
 
 
----- Original Message -----
From: george knysh
To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Saturday, February 23, 2002 10:49 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] The Scythians of Dobrudja


*****GK: These names are known exclusively from surviving coins, all dated to the 3rd-2nd c. BC. I haven't seen the coins, and have transcribed the names from a book. I am reasonably sure that the transcription of 4 of them is correct. But ELI could be ELIAS, and SARIA could be SARI or SARIAS. The coins were of the same type as that of ATEAS. Greek of course.******

>
>
> Six royal names are known:
>
> KANIT
>
> KHORAPS
>
> APROS
>
> SARIA
>
> ELI
>
> TANOUS
>