--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Frater OX <ox160@...> wrote:
> Apologies if this is a beginner's question, but I haven't heard
that
> derivation of Bog before. Could you direct me to a reference?
>
> Thanks,
>
> OX
>
> On Jun 17, 2005, at 5:20 PM, george knysh wrote:
> > Out of curiosity:
> > what about the "god" word? The old IE (and presumably
> > "BaltoSlavic") concept of this, still present in
> > Baltic, has been changed in Slavic to a word linked to
> > a very specific deity, a relatively minor god of
> > wealth. I wonder if this might not be the result of
> > Scythian influence (the way of life of their
> > gold-hungry aristocracies)? ******
**********
Puhvel's "Comparative Mythology" (p.49):
"The 'minor' [Indic] Adityas are Aryama-, Bhaga-, Daksa-, and Amsa-.
They are a motley lot of abstractions. ... Bhaga- is literally
'Portion', thence "Apportioner' ..., epithet of various gods but here
typically on a brahmin level of abstraction as the personification of
the divine handout, thus the determiner of dues, the arbiter of good
fortune ... In part of the Iranian area, spilling over into Slavic,
the cognate word has become the generic term for "god (Old Persian
baga-, Old Slavic bogu."
I think George has got things a bit backwards. I infer that
function implied by the epithet seemed important enough to the
Iranians to yield the general word for "god" and this was borrowed
into Slavic (I believe borrowing is indicated on phonological grounds,
although I can't lay my hands on a reference), while the Indians,
perhaps having a wider view of divine functions, eventually restricted
it to a minor deity.
Dan Milton