Re: Asian Migration to Scandinavia

At 7:30:18 PM on Wednesday, October 15, 2008, raucousd
wrote:

[...]

> There are other pairs beside Devas and Ashuras who show a
> similar pattern of demonization and they usually fall
> across the same language groups. For example Atar is the
> word for sacred fire in Avestan, but it appears as the
> demon Atri in Sanskrit. This is identified with the Old
> Saxon and Anglo Saxon forms of Ostara and Easter, more or
> less.

This seems unlikely: my understanding is that the etymology
of <a:tar> is unknown.

[...]

> Some gods do not appear to be demonized between the
> Avestan and Sanskrit speakers. Sk. Bhaga and Av. baga are
> both positive deities, and Sk. Sarasvati (presumably the
> Sarasvati river which runs into the Indus river) and Av.
> Haurvatat are considered cognates and they are both
> goddesses of knowledge and water. Sarasvati does not seem
> to have direct cognates among other IE languages, though
> rivers are deified everywhere. Bhagas show up as Pax in
> Latin, clearly positive.

<Bhaga> and <pax> are not cognate.

Brian