From: megalith6
Message: 66671
Date: 2010-10-01
--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "stlatos" <stlatos@...> wrote:
[edit]
> The problem w any other explanation is that * Aphrotrí:te: 'foamy sea' makes perfect sense as the name of either (since Aph has an explanatory myth that doesn't fully explain her name dealing w sea foam), and folk et., contamination, dissimilation, or dialect mixing can explain the slight changes in each. The PIE origin < :
>
>
> *
> ter.-xà-t.r.ó+ \ tr.-xà-t.r.ó+ 'crossing/ford'
> ter.-x-t.r.+ \ tr.-x-t.r.+
>
> mix> * tr.-x-t.r.ó+ > * tr.x-t.r.ó+ [r-r>0]> ti:rthá-m 'ford' S
>
>
> *
> ter.-xà-t.r.yó+ \ tr.-xà-t.r.yó+ < +y 'at/in ford/river'
> ter.-x-t.r.i+ \ tr.-x-t.r.i+
>
>
> *
> ter.-xà-t.r.ón.+ \ tr.-xà-t.r.ón.+ < +n. 'a(n) _'
> ter.-x-t.r.n.+ \ tr.-x-t.r.n.+
>
> * ter.-xà-t.r.ón.+ > * ter.-xàn.-t.r.ó+ [r-r>0]> tarantá-s 'sea' S
>
>
> *
> ter.-xà-t.r.yón.+ \ tr.-xà-t.r.yón.+ < +y+n. '... _'
> ter.-x-t.r.in.+ \ tr.-x-t.r.in.+
>
> * tr.-xà-t.r.yón.+ > * tr.-yà-t.xón.+ > trïath 'sea' OI
>
> mix> * tr.-x-t.r.yón.+ > tr.ix-t.r.ón.+ [r-r>0]> Trí:to:n G
>
>
> Any non-IE expl. would mean Amphitrí:te: X: Trí:to:n or trïath (-an-) X: Trí:to:n , etc., which seems very unlikely.
Aphrodite's Near Eastern origins are fairly well established, she is ultimately related to the great erotic goddesses of the Middle East such as Asherah. Possibly these goddesses were broadcast far and wide by the Phoenicians? Asherah was a sun goddess - her 'Asherah poles' are solar trees, golden trees with the sun in their crowns it seems to me. Where these goddesses are not directly associated with the sun they are associated with Venus which I see as a sun surrogate or a planet intmately connected with the sun, as in the case of the Dioscuri. I have found that the moon is generally male and a bull as Teshub in the mythology of the ancient world, before classical Greece. Osiris later took on this bull-lunar aspect, presumably the influence of the fertile crescent upon Egypt, that's a bit of a mystery. Khonsu was of course an abiding moon god in ancient Egypt.