Re: Armenia, homeland of the Etruscans?


Douglas G. Kilday wrote:
Franz Gnaedinger wrote:
Erika Simon

Sorry for another mistake. The dedication of the kylix from
altar Lamda at Pyrgi to both Suri and Cavatha is proposed
by Giovanni Colonna: An

I have great respect for Giovanni Colonna, but reasonable persons can
disagree. It is problematic to dedicate something to two gods. When a
Roman general wanted to dedicate a temple to Honos and Virtus, it
created a big theological uproar. The only exception to this rule was
the temple of Castor and Pollux. Indeed, Colonna himself proposed a
brilliant analysis of <thuluter>, a peculiar Etruscan epithet of the
Dioscuri, as 'the one-templed ones', plural of a compound adjective
formed from <thu> 'one' and <lut(h)> 'temple'.

even more important inscription from the same deposit
- placed on the foot of an Attic kylix (the rest is lost) -
gives the name of Suri, associating it with that of the
goddess Cav(a)tha, omitting a connection: _mi suris
cavathas_, "I am of Suri (and of) Cavatha." // The names
of the gods Suri and Cav(a)tha, both already noted in other
sanctuaries but up until recently often misunderstood,
reappear separately in numerous inscriptions on vases
found at many points in the South Area. Given the absence,
now well confirmed, of different gods' names, there can be
no doubt that reference here is to the two gods who were
titulars of the cult in that area. Added to the explicit references
are obvious epithets, which for the god are Apa, "Father,"
and perhaps Lapse, given on two small bronze plaques
probably once attached to offerings. For the goddess we
might think of the name Ecile, painted on the bottom of
the foot of a late, local black-glazed cup, through a phonetic
sequence *Eicle>*Ecle>Ecile, to the Greek Aiglae, "The
Shining One," a name borne by, among others, a wife or
daughter of Helios. This name is all the more suitable for
Cavtha, given that a plant with a similar name (kautam, known
as the Millefolia or Achillea), is called _Solis oculus_ ("Eye of
the Sun") in a gloss of Dioskorides.

This plant's name (which D. gives in the Latin acc.) survives as modern
Tuscan <cota>. However, it probably has nothing to do with the deity
Cav(a)tha. Instead, <cauta> was the Tuscan dialectal form of Lat.
<caltha>, from Doric *kaltha:, from *khaltha, from PIE *g^hel- 'to
shine'. Similarly, Ital. <mota> 'mud, mire' comes from Greek <maltha>
'caulk made from wax and pitch'.

Since Suri, whose name
appears at Orvieto in the variant Sur (ET, Vs 0.6) is certainly
identical to the Soranus of the Faliscans, and through him
not only to Apollo but also Dis Pater of the Romans and to
the Greek Hades, his female companion has a great likelihood
of being a hypostasis of Persephone/Proserpina.

One cannot arbitrarily add or remove endings. There is no "certainly"
about connecting "Sur(i)" with (Apollo) Soranus or with Mt. Soracte,
which is not an Etruscan name; these are kling-klang connections. I
say not "certainly", but more "plausibly" than other interpretations,
that <6uri> is an epithet of the deity Cav(a)tha.

A different epithet appears on the bronze handle of San Feliciano (TLE
622, V/IV c.):

eka kauthas' : achuias' : ver6'ie
avle numnas' turke

'This (is) the firepot of Achuia Kautha.
Aule Numnas dedicated (it).'

And on the bronze plate of Sorrina (CIE 10498, IV/III c.) we have:

savcnes . 6uris

This appears to be the genitive of a deity Saucne with the same epithet
as Cavatha (which I guessed as 'Venerable'(??), no matter here). Why
don't these authors claim that this object was dedicated to Saucne
_and_ "Suri"? Why don't they claim that the firepot was dedicated to
Kautha _and_ "Achuia"?

// Dis Pater
and Proserpina were venerated together in Rome near the
Comitium, in relation to a _mundus_ going back to the origins
of the city, and at the Tarentum of the Campus Martius, where
the _Ludi saeculares_ were celebrated throughout Imperial
times, with nocturnal rituals at _arae temporales_, perhaps
at the beginning not unlike those of rubble in the South Area
of Pyrgi. The verification of the identity proposed for Cavtha
comes from the epithet seX, "Daughter" (clearly a calc of the
Greek appellative Kore), given to the goddess in an Orvietan
dedication of the mid fifth century BCE.

I mentioned this one (REE 56n339), the skyphos reading <cavutha
sechis>, and <sechis> is the genitive of 'daughter', so this is
'Cavutha of the daughter' (perhaps elliptical for 'Cavutha received
this gift of the daughter'??). Colonna didn't write this stuff. The
interpretation doesn't fit the actual text.

Also instructive is the
later dedication of a bronze cone to "Espi, mother of Ca(v)atha,"
or, which is equivalent, to "Espi, the mother (and) Ca(v)tha,"
published by Larissa Bonfante. In this inscription Espi can only
be an appellative, up to now unknown, of Vei/Demeter.

"Only", baloney. These two authors of the Etruscan religion book have
only superficial knowledge of all the languages involved (Greek, Latin,
Etruscan) and indulge in groundless speculations as though they were
"certainly" the "only" way to interpret whatever material they have
scavenged out of serious publications by Colonna, Bonfante, and the
like. They don't even know what an "appellative" is in a philological
context. It's pointless to try to base further research on this
coffee-table stuff.

Thank you for the long reply, I'll print it out and study it
at home. The chapter I quoted from is by Colonna himself,
_he_ pays tribute to Larissa Bonfante, _he_ speaks of an
apellative. Must I consider a heavy-weight of Etruscology
such as Giovanni Colonna a kook ??? If so, everybody
is a kook, and I gladly join that army ;-)

.

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