Dan:
> Puhvel just gives "Earth-Mother" with no further explanation.
> 11th Enc. Brit (1910), however, gives:
> "DEMETER Her name has been explained as (1) grain-mother,
>from 'zeiai', the Cretan form of eat, barley, or (2) earth-mother,
>or rather mother earth, 'da:' being regarded as the Doric form
>of 'ge:'."
> A quick look through Palmer's "Greek Language" doesn't shed any
>light on d-g in Doric dialects.
Just as I figured. It's always some half-assed etymology that doesn't
go into thorough detail. It's driving me nuts.
The reason why I mention it is because of a crazy idea I just had
regarding the Minoan inscriptions. I'm completely convinced that
the Minoan language is a related but seperate language to that
of the "Etrusco-Cypriot" languages. I also suspect that while
references to "Tyrrhenoi" seem to refer to Etruscans, "Pelasgoi"
seems to refer to Etruscoid people who never left Greece and
Asia Minor, both those that existed at the time in question, like
the Lemnians, and former peoples, such as the Minoans. Of
course, eventually Pelasgoi would apply to all non-Greek
populations in Greece. Anyways, that idea gives a whole new
spin on the Egyptian references to /prst/.
Now, it seems that half of /de:-me:te:r/ is certainly Greek,
meaning "mother". We infer that *de: means "earth" because
of the chthonic function of the goddess, but if so, it doesn't
seem very Greek. We can't just switch "g" with "d" and say
"Voila!". Too presto change-o for my liking. So what does
this have to do with Minoans then?
There is a libation formula common to most inscriptions on
Cretan libation tables. According to John Younger's fabulous
site (
http://www.people.ku.edu/~jyounger/LinearA/), it often
starts off as:
A-TA-I-301-WA-YA
Because of alternations between 301-U-TI-NU and TE-U-TI-NU, it's
clear that 301 is for TE. So we should read it as:
A-TA-I-TE-WA-YA
Now, if we analyse Minoan, for a speculative moment, along Etruscoid
terms, the subsequent phrase that forms the following part of this
recurring libation formula becomes clear:
YA-SA-SA-RA-ME U-NA-KA-NA-SI
It is to be read as /Assaram-e una kanasi/ "giving a libation to Assaram".
Assaram is the West Semitic derived goddess Asherah. We see that
/-e/ marks the dative and we even sometimes find /una/ in a very
Etruscanesque plural /una-r/ (PK Za 11,PK Za 12). Nifty!
So if the entire phrase /una kanasi/ is written undivided, it doesn't
seem unreasonable to analyse /ataitewaya/ as two words /atai/
"mother" (Etruscan /ati/) and /tewaya/. Interestingly, the latter
word is written in other forms, sometimes /tewae/ (PK Za 11),
sometimes /teuya/ (AP Za 1). I've long had an inkling to relate
/tewaya/ above to /tan-i teu tinu/ (IO Za 6) or /tan-ar teu tinu/
(IO Za 2.2). So there seems to be a word *tewa with unknown
meaning. Up to now, I thought that it might be a loan from an
IE language meaning "god". Hence /atai tewaya/ "mother of
the gods". However, I just had a better idea. I think it means
"to mother earth" (analysable as "mother earth-DAT").
The whole libation formula would follow this idea with
Etruscan correlations in parentheses and the intended Minoan
pronunciation as follows:
Atai tewa-ye, Assaram-e, una kanasi.
To mother (ati) earth, to Assaram, a libation (un) given (cena),
Ipinam-na sirute.
For the holy one (fanum), [it] is done (Uni-as s'ela-ce).
In apa-kHa.
[And] it (in) has been offered (alpan "gift" + -cHe [passive]).
I now suspect that *tewa means "earth" and that this is the
origin of /De:-me:te:r/, a name partially translated from Minoan
/Atai-tewa/ "Mother Earth". So I assume that the earlier form
of /de:-me:te:r/ was /dewa-me:te:r/. Thus, *de: is a fossilized
Pelasgian term for "earth".
Am I crazy? :) Anybody have a better etymology of Demeter?
= gLeN
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