Dan:
> 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.
Excellent stuff. Well, I have to admit that I haven't before paid
attention to the idea that /mundus/ is a calque of Greek /kósmos/.
On reflection, I think I'm going to have to accept that. But...
We do seem to have a bona-fide Etruscan word /muni/. It's translated
as "tomb" normally but I have a funny suspicion that it more accurately
means "a blessed plot of land" where a tomb, temple or whatever else
might be built. On the tablet of Pyrgi, /munistas/ then can be "of this
holy land" (muni-s=ta-s), referring perhaps to the piece of land that
the mentioned statue was placed on. It looks like we also see the word
in EteoCypriot in the phrase /TA-NA MU-NO-TI/ "at this holy place".
So, it would be possible if this is the case that this wordplay of
'world' and 'adornment', while a Hellenic concept, was influenced further
in Latin by the specifically chthonic nuance of Etruscan /muni/ as its
association with tombs, which afterall is a kind of opening to the
underworld.
Cool stuff.
= gLeN