#proto-greek

[yvanspijk]

Basis, komst, -kunft

The word basis, a borrowing from Ancient Greek, shares its origin with Dutch komst and German -kunft, which mean 'arrival'. They have the same distant Proto-Indo-European ancestor, but Ancient Greek underwent sound changes that were very different from those that occurred the Germanic languages. This reminds us that related words don't have to look alike at all. Click the graphic to learn more.

If you're subscribed to tier 2 of my Patreon, you can download an audio file - 0:52, 26 forms - of the reconstructed pronunciation of all historical Greek and Germanic words featured in the infographic - also the ones in the small information boxes, as well as Proto-Indo-European *gʷm̥tis. Link in bio.

[alpaca-clouds]

About the Development of Myths

Okay, I will talk about more of the specific gods tomorrow again (starting first with the other gods from Stray Gods and then just looking over a variety of gods - I might start just with the greeks and then... venture into other mythologies). But first let me talk about the entire basis of what I have been talking about so far with the origins of Pan and Persephone: Their mythology is not a fixed thing.

Something that I would say education in general really fails on is properly expressing the amount of changes that cultures go through. I wrote about this before just in terms of history: There is not THE middle ages, not THE ancient Egypt, not THE ancient Greece and so on. All of those historical periods lasted for at least a thousand years. Now imagine that in like 500 years someone goes and looks at the 20th and 21st century as: "The World War and Globalisation period". Which I think there is a good chance this will at some point be known at (assuming we do not manage to eradicate our species before that, that is). Yet, you and I both know that if we were talking to someone from 1923 there would be very little we had in common.

Sure, this effect got massively accelerated thanks to the internet. But... You gotta have to assume that the Roman dude from 100 BC would also live in a very different world from the Roman dude of 200 BC. Because a hundred years is always going to involve a lot of change.

The reason we look at those old cultures as unchanging is, that they do not change anymore. And everyone who is neither working with that kinda stuff, nor is a complete geek, will just look at that culture as ONE FIRM THING rather than something fluent.

This is also true in terms of religion and related traditions, though we in the west are even more prone to it than other cultures. Because we do assume Christianity as this one thing. And the bible as this one unchanging thing. Hence the core believe is the same and, so the reasoning goes, was always the same. In fact, if you went to a religious school it is kinda how you were taught. The bible is one thing and always was the same thing. Only... It wasn't and even the basic we hve now does not matter.

Just look at the many Christian subreligions. They all in some way or form believe in Jesus, the one big God and all of that - but what they take from that widely differs. And the bible really does not have a big impact onto what ideals they hold and how they hold mass and how they pray and what not. If you think about it, you will easily see that, right? And if you just look a bit into what you might have learned about history in relation to Christianity, you will also know that this has changed. The role of Jesus has changed. How much the Holy Spirit is looked upon as an active actor. Which saints get venerated. All of that has changed a lot in just the last 50 years. And has changed a ton between the different countries.

And what I now need you to keep in mind that this was the exact same with the Ancient Gods and the religion attached to them. That holds true for the Greek Gods, the Roman Gods, the Egyptian Gods, the Norse Gods... all of them. The way they were worshipped changed over those thousand(s of) years they were worshipped.

So, let me once again talk about the Proto-Indo-European culture. Which is always a doosy and I love it.

The Proto-Indo-Europeans originates probably in the areas of modern day Ukraine and/or Romania and/or southern Russia some time around 5000 BC (scholars argue a bit about the exact temporal placement, just that it was somewhere between 7000 BC and 4000 BC). We do not really know a lot about them, because they did not write stuff down. But we do know that they had horses, were patriarchal, and that they worshipped a polytheistic pantheon that at least involved a Sky Father as one of the highest gods, who controlled the weather and was especially associated with storms and lightning.

These Proto-Indo-Europeans started breaking apart and travelling. Some into Asia, some into Europe and the Arabian/Persian areas. They brought with them their language and religion.

Now, it should be noted that they were not the "original humans" or anything. And that whereever they went... in most areas there were already other people living there, with whom they intermingled. Also whatever land they ended up settling was different, had different environments and this was included into their religious practice. Which made their religion over the years differ bit by bit. So from their pantheon sprang a lot of the pantheons we know today.

But... again, a lot of places they settled had already people living there. Who had their own worship. And that stuff often was also included and merged. Sometimes those other worships were very far reaching, sometimes very local. But some of those deities were picked up and either made part of whatever pantheon was there to come or was merged with an already existing god. And this happened again and again during the time that whatever pantheon was prayed to.

How do we know that, if it was not written down?

Well, mostly due to some archeology, but mostly due to comparative mythology and comparative linguistics. Two fields of science that basically involve people going over a lot of languages or mythologies (which, by the way, at times also includes fairytales and other oral narratives that are not necessarily held as "true", but still told) and basically finding things the reoccur. As well as going back over whatever written stuff we do have and noticing the shifts happening between a text written in 600 BC and a text written in 200 BC.

Now, for all the stuff we have two things that help a lot: a) The old Hindi writings and b) the written stuff from Egypt. Because both go really far back and were very well documented in writing. So basically we always can compare stuff to that and see shifts more clearly.

But, yeah... Technically all the pantheons are very much related. At some point Zeus, Jupiter, Diespiter, Thor, Tinia and Tian originated from the same character. You can even kinda see it in how similar the names are. Susanoo in Shinto-Mythology probably came from this, too, at least in the iteration we actually know about. (There can be some arguments made that a lot of the Shinto gods were shifted through the Buddhist contact, as the original indigenous Japanese cultures were very likely not Indo-European in origin. But given that the Ainu are the only culture whose oral tradition managed to survive this long, while the others either vanished or merged in a way influenced by Buddhism, which comes from Indo-European culture... yeah, it is there now.)

So, what I am saying: Mythology is shifting and always has been shifting. Same goes with religion. Hence the evolution of the Greek Pantheon.

Fun fact: Through comparative mythology we can also find the origins of YHW, the Abrahamitic god. Or God, as you might know him. He is a fascinating one, as he probably started out as a local god associated with harvest and weather in Southern Egypt and was then picked up by the Semitic cultures. He got a more pronounced role in the Canaanite pantheon, where at some point he merged with Baal, the war god. And through some trials and tribulations he finally ended up merging with El(hoim), the top god of the pantheon, with a part of the Canaanites splitting from the culture and developing into what would become the Jewish culture.

Super fascinating stuff. I love it.

[archaeology-findings]

Daily Etymology #157

Dilemma

Dilemma is a loanword from Late Latin, from the Ancient Greek dílēmma, meaning a double proposition. This was a technical term in rhetoric. It came from di-, meaning two, and lemma, meaning premise. Lemma is derived from the verb lambánō, meaning I take.

[prolibytherium]

This little bit of the Iliad is so interesting like. Briseis mourning her own situation and describing her attachment to Patroclus for trying to ‘better’ her situation in attempting to give her the security of a marriage. Like it's horrible that being married to your family’s killer is the 'best' possible option (and likely that her feelings towards one of her captors would be much, MUCH more complicated than depicted), but also believable as being a relief to someone in her position in this uber-patriarchal cultural context where this sort of thing is a fact of life.

And describing these other unnamed women (who are also captured in war and enslaved as wives/sexual partners for the men who have sacked their cities and killed their husbands/fathers/brothers/etc) going about the display of mourning for Patroclus and using it as a way to vent their grief about their situations. The POV fully understands that their grief isn't really about this Greek guy who's been sacking their cities being dead.

Like most of the Iliad doesn’t really concern itself with the women that the story revolves around (and is of course completely and utterly of its time and context) but these very humanizing moments show an awareness of these people as full human beings who Do Not Like Their Situations (even as it effusively honors the people who have enslaved them). It’s small in the grand scheme of things but very compelling and frankly a lot more nuanced than a lot of Feminist Greek Mythology Retellings tend to be without even trying.

[noosphe-re]

*gno-

*gnō-, Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to know."

It forms all or part of: acknowledge; acquaint; agnostic; anagnorisis; astrognosy; can (v.1) "have power to, be able;" cognition; cognizance; con (n.2) "study;" connoisseur; could; couth; cunning; diagnosis; ennoble; gnome; (n.2) "short, pithy statement of general truth;" gnomic; gnomon; gnosis; gnostic; Gnostic; ignoble; ignorant; ignore; incognito; ken (n.1) "cognizance, intellectual view;" kenning; kith; know; knowledge; narrate; narration; nobility; noble; notice; notify; notion; notorious; physiognomy; prognosis; quaint; recognize; reconnaissance; reconnoiter; uncouth; Zend.

It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Sanskrit jna- "know;" Avestan zainti- "knowledge," Old Persian xšnasatiy "he shall know;" Old Church Slavonic znati "recognizes," Russian znat "to know;" Latin gnoscere "get to know," nobilis "known, famous, noble;" Greek gignōskein "to know," gnōtos "known," gnōsis "knowledge, inquiry;" Old Irish gnath "known;" German kennen "to know," Gothic kannjan "to make known."

—Etymonline

[linguisticdiscovery]

Words you didn’t know are related: gold, yellow, cholera, arsenic, yolk, and more!

The Proto-Indo-European language (the hypothesized original ancestor language of most modern languages in Europe and South Asia, hereafter abbreviated “PIE”) had a root *ǵʰelh₃- ‘yellow, green’. Aside: How can this word refer to both ‘yellow’ and ‘green’? Historically, color terms in the world’s languages referred to a broader range of colors than they do today, and focused more on the texture…

[rastronomicals]

8:30 AM EDT October 27, 2024:

Proto-Kaw - "Greek Structure Sunbeam" From the album   Early Recordings From Kansas 1971-73 (September 17, 2002)

Last song scrobbled from iTunes at Last.fm

[ancient-scripts]

Mycenaean Greek:

a-ko-so-ne (𐀀𐀒𐀰𐀚): substantive (Nom. plur.; Nom. dual): cf. Ancient Greek ἄξων, ονος (ὁ): 'an axle, axis' < IE : *h₂eḱs- : 'axle'

Examples:

PY Va(1) 1323

a-ko-so-ne , ka-zo-e 32

PY Va(1) 1324

.1 e-ke-i-ja 30

.2 pe-di-je-wi-ja 20 a-ko-so-ne 2

PY Vn(-) 10

.1 o-di-do-si , du-ru-to-mo ,

.2 a-mo-te-jo-na-de , e-pi-[•]-ta 50

.3 a-ko-so-ne-q̣ẹ 50

.4 to-sa-de , ro-u-si-jo , a-ko-ro , a-ko-so-ne

.5 100 , to-sa-de , e-pi-[•]-ta 100

[molkolsdal]

[yvanspijk]

Homo & hetero: same

Homosexual and heterosexual aren't as different as they look. The parts hom- and he- stem from the same Proto-Indo-European root. It meant 'one'. From this root we've also got the word same. Click my new infographic to learn all about these words and their histories. The box on the right features additional derivatives of this root in Latin, Ancient Greek and Germanic.

[alpaca-clouds]

Some more mythology geekery

Or: Let me talk Pan. (Or the other god I know a lot about.)

Folks found the stuff about old mythology and Persephone interesting... so let me do Pan. So, as I said: Persephone is a very old goddess who might well be one of the first in the Greek pantheon. But... She is not as old as Pan. Because within Europe Pan might in fact be the oldest god that we know about. In fact he very probably predates the ancient Greek religion and was just so popular, that the Greeks just decided to keep him in the pantheon.

How do we know that?

This is the moment, where this geeky twink squeals with excitement, because he gets to talk about proto-indo-european stuff. So, allow me for a moment: SQUEEEEEEEEE! 🥳

Okay. That needed out.

So, what you need to understand is that most mythologies from Europe, Asia and Northern Africa you know about are actually decendents of the same mythology. Talked about this in regards of the Roman Gods not being the Greek Gods. But... yeah. So, there was once this culture, who we call the Proto-Indo-Europeans and they had the great idea of putting wheels on things and the things behind horses and then got around a lot. And wherever they went, they brought their language and mythology with them, which is why the Indo-European language family is so fucking giant.

We can see some of their stuff shimmer through in common themes in mythology. Like, almost all the mythologies in Europe and Asia have a "sky daddy", aka a godly father figure who is associated with the sky. He is not always the big guy of the pantheon, but he is important in all the cases.

And while when we talk Greek, Egyptian, Roman or even Chinese and Hindu mythology we have a surprising amount of writing going on that dates back at times more than 3000 years... the earlier we go, the less writing there is.

Now, with Pan we have some stuff in Mycenean art and what not, that hints that he was around at least as early as 1700 BC, though - obviously - we do not really have written sources going back to this time.

But there is also the fact that... One of the earliest mythologies to split from the Proto-Indo-European one is the Hindu mythology. An the Hindu mythology has Pushan, who is not only associated with the same stuff (pasture, roads, travel, the wild and so on), but also has some goat imagery in older versions. Just like Pan. And if you look at the names P(ush)an you can see there is a parallel. Which makes those geeks who study stuff like that for a living fairly certain that those two once were the same god. A god they call *Péh₂usōn. And no, I will not go into Proto-Indo-European language right now.

The word "pasture" in English comes from the same Proto-Indo-European word, by the way.

Current theory goes, that Pan was actually worshiped by the pastoral people living in Greece before the advanced Greek civilization spread. And given that Pan was associated with so many aspects the folks were not giving him up. So, as it goes with pantheons... He just got integrated into the pantheon as was........ though he got split into two pieces. But... Gotta talk about his other piece tomorrow.

Maybe due to the age of Pan, but maybe due to him turning into mostly a god of wilderness, he tends to be a much more openly manecing deity compared to other gods. While most polytheistic cultures absolutely feature an aspect of: "Our thing is that we bribe gods into being nice with us, because those gods are so freaking dangerous," most of the pantheon gods are actually mostly cultured. Even if they are horndogs like Zeus.

Pan meanwhile is a god of the wild. He has this animal imagery (that probably all early gods had) still very present, he gets associated with all sort of wild behavior in humans, and of course the word "panic" comes from Pan. Because it is said that his scream could create panic in the humans.

Enough geekery, lets get back to Stray Gods. Because other than with Persephone's situation I am fairly certain that at least some of this was known to the creators, given the role Pan plays as someone who is not quite inside of the Chorus and acts more as an outsider to it.

[archaeology-findings]

Daily French Etymology #56

Autochtone (native)

Autochtone came from the Ancient Greek autókhthōn, meaning indigenous or native. It was derived from auto-, meaning self, and khthṓn, meaning earth or soil, thus it literally translates to 'spring from the earth'. Khthṓn came from the Proto-Hellenic *kʰtʰṓn, from the PIE root *dʰéǵʰōm, meaning earth or human.

Derived from this same root is the English word chthonic, which means living under or inside the earth, especially deities from ancient mythologies, such as Hades and the Furies in Greek mythology.

[wtfearth123]

The Evolution of the Alphabet: A Story of Human Ingenuity and Innovation 🤯

How the Alphabet Changed the World: A 3,800-Year Journey

The evolution of the alphabet over 3,800 years is a long and complex story. It begins with the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, which were a complex system of pictograms and ideograms that could be used to represent words, sounds, or concepts. Over time, the hieroglyphs were simplified and adapted to represent only sounds, resulting in the first true alphabets.

The first alphabets were developed in the Middle East, and the Phoenician alphabet is considered to be the direct ancestor of the Latin alphabet. The Phoenician alphabet had 22 letters, each of which represented a single consonant sound. This was a major breakthrough, as it made it much easier to write and read.

The Phoenician alphabet was adopted by the Greeks, who added vowels to the system. The Greek alphabet was then adopted by the Romans, who made some further changes to the letters. The Latin alphabet, as we know it today, is essentially the same as the Roman alphabet, with a few minor modifications.

The English alphabet is derived from the Latin alphabet, but it has undergone some further changes over the centuries. For example, the letters "J" and "U" were added to the English alphabet in the Middle Ages, and the letter "W" was added in the 16th century.

The evolution of the alphabet has had a profound impact on human history. It has made it possible to record and transmit knowledge, ideas, and stories from one generation to the next. It has also helped to facilitate communication and trade between different cultures.

The alphabets are a fascinating invention that have revolutionized the way humans communicate and record information. The history of the alphabets spans over 3,800 years, tracing its origins from the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs to the modern English letters.

Here is a brief overview of how the alphabets have evolved over time:

Egyptian hieroglyphs (c. 3200 BC): The earliest form of writing was the pictographic system, which used symbols to represent objects or concepts. The ancient Egyptians developed a complex system of hieroglyphs, which combined pictograms, ideograms, and phonograms to write their language. Hieroglyphs were mainly used for religious and monumental purposes, and were carved on stone, wood, or metal.

Proto-Sinaitic script (c. 1750 BC): Around 2000 BCE, a group of Semitic workers in Egypt adapted some of the hieroglyphs to create a simpler and more flexible writing system that could represent the sounds of their language. This was the first consonantal alphabet, or abjad, which used symbols to write only consonants, leaving the vowels to be inferred by the reader. This alphabet is also known as the Proto-Sinaitic script, because it was discovered in the Sinai Peninsula.

Phoenician alphabet (c. 1000 BC): A consonantal alphabet with 22 letters, each of which represented a single consonant sound. The Proto-Sinaitic script spread to other regions through trade and migration, and gave rise to several variants, such as the Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew, and South Arabian alphabets. These alphabets were used by various Semitic peoples to write their languages, and were also adopted and modified by other cultures, such as the Greeks, Etruscans, and Romans.

Greek alphabet (c. 750 BC): The Greek alphabet was the first to introduce symbols for vowels, making it a true alphabet that could represent any sound in the language. The Greek alphabet was derived from the Phoenician alphabet around the 8th century BCE, and added new letters for vowel sounds that were not present in Phoenician. The Greek alphabet also introduced different forms of writing, such as uppercase and lowercase letters, and various styles, such as cursive and uncial.

Latin alphabet (c. 500 BC): The Latin alphabet was derived from the Etruscan alphabet, which was itself derived from the Greek alphabet. 

Roman alphabet (c. 1 CE): The Roman alphabet is essentially the same as the Latin alphabet, as we know it today. The Latin alphabet was used by the Romans to write their language, Latin, and became the dominant writing system in Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire. The Latin alphabet was also adapted to write many other languages, such as Germanic, Celtic, Slavic, and Romance languages.

English alphabet (c. 500 AD): The English alphabet is derived from the Latin alphabet, but it has undergone some further changes over the centuries. For example, the letters "J" and "U" were added to the English alphabet in the Middle Ages, and the letter "W" was added in the 16th century. The English alphabet consists of 26 letters, but can represent more than 40 sounds with various combinations and diacritics. The English alphabet has also undergone many changes in spelling, pronunciation, and usage throughout its history.

The evolution of the alphabet is a remarkable example of human creativity and innovation that have enabled us to express ourselves in diverse and powerful ways. It is also a testament to our cultural diversity and interconnectedness, as it reflects the influences and interactions of different peoples and languages across time and space.

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed the post about the evolution of the alphabet. If you did, please share it with your friends and family. 😊🙏

[primordialness]

I am *certain* that this has been discussed by people better qualified than myself; I've barely started this research. If anyone knows of articles or essays that talk about this better, please share them with me! But I wanted to talk a bit about the Proto Indo European Dawn Goddess [1]:

PIE H₂éwsōs, Goddess of the Dawn

Vedic Ushas, Goddess of the Dawn

Greek Eos, Goddess and Personification of the Dawn

Roman Aurōra, Goddess of the Dawn

Slavic Zorya, Personification of the Dawn

Lithuanian Aušrinė, Goddess of the Dawn or the Morning Star (Venus): "goddess of beauty, love and youth, linked with health, re-birth and new beginnings" [2]

Albanian Prende/Premte, "goddess of dawn, love, beauty, fertility, health and protector of women" [3]

But then also...

West Germanic Ēostre, Goddess of Spring and namesake of Easter [4]

And maybe even the Greek Persephone, Goddess of Spring and the Underworld, whose name might relate to the Albanian Prende [3]

The key to tying together the Goddesses of Dawn and the Goddesses of Spring lies, I think, in that Lithuanian definition: "linked with health, re-birth and new beginnings." We can think of Dawn, Day, Twilight, Night as equivalent to Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter... and even the Waxing, Full, Waning, and New Moon. These are all cycles of beginnings and endings--arguably all a way for us to cope with our understanding of life and death.

In a journal entry several months ago, I noted that I'm not that fond of the dawn; I'm not a morning person (sorry, H₂éwsōs). But I *am* a fond of fresh starts, rebirth, and new beginnings. I know all the best albums for breaking up and moving on. I have endless Playlists for it. I know how to restart far better than I know how to stay. I know the Waxing Spring Dawn, Waning Fall Twilight, and New Winter Night far better than I know the Full Summer Day.

I've joked recently that Persephone is mad at me because the weather hasn't been good to me since I've moved. But perhaps I simply haven't been honoring her enough--recognizing that as I have been experiencing a rebirth these past two years, she's been the one in charge of that. Maybe she's been my intuition giving me warnings that I've ignored.

In any case... though it's a full moon tonight (and a supermoon at that!), I would like to take a moment to toast to the power and energy of a fresh start--a new day, a new month, a new season, a new love. I am becoming brand new, and if there is a higher power behind that, I thank them.

[linguisticdiscovery]

azure

During classical antiquity the semi-precious stone lapis lazuli was mined in a place called Lāžvard around modern Afghanistan. That’s also the name of the stone in Classical Persian (لاجورد‎). It comes from the Proto-Indo-European root *ǵʰelh₃- ‘to gleam, to shine’ + Proto-Iranian *varta- ‘stone’. Other words that come from *ǵʰelh₃- include gold, yellow, felon, glow, and cholera! Medieval Greek…

[druidicentropy]

*Deh₂nu

*Deh₂nu- is a hypothetical goddess of water in Proto-Indo-European mythology, with connections to the names of rivers like the Danube, Don, Dnieper, and Dniester, as well as the Vedic deity Dānu, the Irish Danu, and the Welsh Dôn. Despite acknowledging a possible lexical connection, Mallory and Adams contend that there is not enough evidence to support the idea that a distinct river goddess existed in Proto-Indo-European beliefs. They primarily highlight the Indic tradition's understanding of river deification. Furthermore, Mallory and Adams suggest that a theory for a sea god called *Trih₂tōn—whose name is derived from the Greek Triton and the Old Irish word for sea, trïath—is unsupported by the lack of a corresponding sea god in Irish mythology and only minor lexical similarities. The Ossetian god Donbettyr is also mentioned in the story. Who is placated by gifts to keep the waterwheel turning, and who Donnán of Eigg proposes as a Christian equivilent of this figure.

Moreover, this deity and the Dan river in Centeral Asia may have similar etymologies.

She is frequently seen as the mother of a mythical tribe, the *Deh₂newyóes, in many Indo-European cultures; these tribes are deduced from the Vedic Danavas, the Irish Tuatha Dé Danann, the Greek Danaoi, and the Norse Danes. Under Bel's leadership, this tribe is said to have fought a hero called *H₂nḗrtos, which could connect them to characters like the Norse god Njord, the Nart from the Nart saga, and Indra's epithet nrtama.