Re: Mitanni and Matsya

----- Original Message -----
From: "Francesco Brighenti" <frabrig@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, April 04, 2008 3:50 AM
Subject: [tied] Re: Mitanni and Matsya






--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Patrick Ryan" <proto-language@...>
wrote:

> [Rick McCallister had written:]
>
> > In terms of myth, "reddish" [Sanskrit arun.a -- Francesco] makes
> > plenty of sense for the sun's chariot driver, since the sun is
> > preceded by the red dawn and followed by the red dusk or "born
> > and dies in blood" as the Mesoamericans sometimes put it.
>
> ...color symbolism was also very important to the ancients.
> Mercury is grayish-white to the naked eye, not reddish. And prior
> to the orange glow of morning is the pale forerunner we call
> twilight. Mercury is always so close to the sun in the sky that it
> was natural to associate them together.

You seem to think that the Hindu god Arun.a, the sun's chariot
driver, was identified with the planet Mercury. It was not. It was
identified with the "reddish" dawn, which precedes the sun.

Regards,
Francesco

***

Francesco, in the 'reddish dawn', Mercury could not be seen.


Patrick

***