Daniel J. Milton wrote:
> I just thought to check Dumezil's "Archaic Roman
> Religion" which I had dug out to answer Alex's inquiry about
> Angerona (btw, Alex, why "Di Indigetes" on the subject line?
> Angerona was no Dea Indiges), and found some discussion of 'mundus'.
> "The term /mundus/, which was called to such a far-reaching
> destiny, was reserved for two things, or types of things. On the one
> hand, the ditch, closed forever, into which, at the time of the
> foundation of the city, Romulus, following a ritual which was said
> to be Etruscan had thrown ' first-fruits of all things the use of
> which was sanctioned by custom as good and by nature as
> necessary. ... On the other hand a trench (or several?) which gave
> access to that subterranean world of which the ancient Romans do not
> seem to have made any coherent representations (p. 351)".
> Dumezil quotes Festus, who cites Cato as
> saying "the /mundus/ owes its name to the /mundus/ (vault of heaven)
> which is above us; actually, as I have been able to learn from those
> who have entered it, it has a shape similar to that of the
> other /mundus/."
> I presume to doubt Cato. The ditch-pit /mundus/ certainly
> looks to be Etruscan. If Dumezil, by his "far-reaching destiny"
> implies he thought all the meanings of /mundus/ have climbed out of
> the pit, I thinks he's wrong too.
> Dan
>
>
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first of all, I have to thank you Dan for the explanation of Angerona, I was
not comming to since just yesterday late in the night I got my system online
ago and I could just shortly ask Abdullah what speaks against Latin
"e:sca"( BTW in my database there is "esca" but I have to check.
For the Angerona, I found its name in a list with Di Indigetes but I was not
aware that was not an "indigete". My connection was made -despite of the
wellknown ecuation latin gelus > Rom. "ger" that the particle "ger" in the
name Angerona, the connection with the winter solstice ( the freezing one )
and Rom. "ger" as well as the old mentions that the "barbarians" use "r"
instead of "l" in many words which have been known to Latins as well.
Now, to the subject here, I cannot help but I make too the connection with
Rom. (p�)m�nt which means "earth", "world", "land" and in an extended
meaning "underworld" too. I know the etynom for Rom. "p�m�nt" is considered
to be Latin "pavimentum" but I never agreed with this semantic change of a
citadin word to its counterpart in Rom. We do know there is "u" > "�" in
Rom. before "nC" as well, thus a change "*munt" > "m�nt" is regular. To
explain should be the first syllable "p�" here and that is what I should
try. For the "underworld" I think too at the word "morm�nt"(grave) which is
supposed to be from Latin "monumentum" ( phoneticaly a lot of changes for
having it from Latin monumentum).We have here the connection with the
underworld since there is "mor" as particle for "dye" and "m�nt" as world,
thus the compositum "mor+munt" = the world of the dead(s)
If I am right, then the Latin "mundus" must derive from a word which
initialy have had an "t" or "th" there since Rom. does not change the "t" to
"d", thus from a kind of "*munt/*munth".
To me it appear very appealing the connection so I follow very interested
the discussion.
Alex
Alex