Re: [tied] Re: Poseidon revisited

On 08/02/2007 14:21, Abdullah Konushevci wrote:

> In Mr. Willem message you will found:
> As an amateur graecologist who enjoys watching real graecologists
> from the sidelines I may be forgiven for asking the following
> question: long ago, Paul Kretschmer identified the -da- part with the
> *da: in De:me:te:r as a pre-Greek word meaning something
> like 'earth', so that _Poseido:n_ means 'Lord of the Earth',
> _Ennosida:s_ means 'Shaker of the Earth' (cf. Enosikhtho:n) and
> De:me:te:r means 'Earth Mother'. The late Cees Ruijgh used to be
> attracted to this idea, witness his early article "Sur le nom de
> Poséidon et sur les noms en -a:won-, -i:won-". What is your opinion
> on this. Is it Flat Earth etymology?
>
> I like to back up such interpretation, especially if we are aware
> for *e:/*o: ablaut, so *de: in De:me:ter and Do:-do:ne are just two
> expected forms. Furthermore, Epirus < Apeiros 'earth, mainland' is
> just a semantic continuation of previous form. Nevertheless, it's up
> to everyone what would like or dislike. I have simply express my
> opinion.

No, I understand that the consensus seems to be that ge: and da: are
thought to go back to a non-IE proto-form *gda-. I was just wondering
if any scholars had attempted an IE etymology; perhaps not ....

I know the Beekes' online Greek etymological dictionary seems suspicious
of interpreting da: as "earth"
<http://www.ieed.nl/cgi-bin/response.cgi?root=leiden&morpho=0&basename=%5Cdata%5Cie%5Cgreek&first=41>
but perhaps that's really just suspicion that da: is IE ....

I did find reference to an article by Volkert Haas in _Altorientalische
Forschungen_ 27 that apparently suggests this *gda- appears in a
Phrygian toponym "Gdanmaa" (though I thought Phrygian was IE, so perhaps
this suggestion is about the appearance of a common non-IE substrate in
various Aegean-area IE languages?). Also an older book by Fritz
Schachermeyr, _Poseidon und die Entstehung des griechischen
Götterglaubens_, that further explores Kretschmer's analysis of "Poseidon".

All fair enough. I can be happy with e a "Pelasgian" ge:/da: :) But
I'm still wondering about the suffixation in -n-, whether in Poseidon or
Dodone ....

Cheers,
Carl

--
Carl Edlund Anderson
mailto:cea@...
http://www.carlaz.com/