A. Andrewes "The Greek Tyrants" 1956 gives some information. The
first surviving occurrence is in the poetry of Archilochus "I do not
care for the wealth of Gyges ... nor do I desire a great tyranny."
Hippias of Elis wrote that the word was first used in Greek in
Archilochus' time, and Euphorion (if I am following Andrewes'
footnotes correctly) "probably with this same passage in mind,
asserts that the term tyrannos was first applied to Gyges....
Probably, then, the poet meant his new word to describe the kingdom
of Gyges, and it is possible that the word itself was Lydian."
Lydian was a descendant of one of the older Hittite languages, so
(if this is correct) there is likely to be an I.-E. etymology.
Dan Milton
--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, george knysh <gknysh@...> wrote:
> There are claims that the Philistine term for "Lord"
> =SEREN is allegedly the same as Hittite TARWANNAS,
> SARAWANAS and Greek TYRANNOS. (1) is this correct? (2)
> is there an IE etymoilogy for it, or is it non-IE?