Re: what is etymology? (linguistics and biology)

Appendix to the glossary of the new Magdalenian words,
part 34, a test (four)

Homer, in the Odyssey, mentions the Pelasgians only
once, XIX 177: dioi te Pelasgoi. Both Rieu and Lattimer
translate dioi as noble, but the correct translation is
divine, godlike: and the divine Pelasgians. This might be
further evidence for my reading PE LAS 'near mountain':
near the mountain of the gods and goddesses, near the
mountain of Zeus. There is a village by the name of Dion
on the river Helikion at the base of Mount Olympos,
mountain of Zeus. Old Dion was probably some eight
kilometers higher up the northeastern slope of Mount
Olympos, very near to Zeus on top of the mountain.

What about Peloponnese? may this be another PE
'near' word? Peloponnese is explained as island
(nesos) of Pelops, and Pelops as pellis ops, dark
face or dark eye. However, this explanation is most
probably ancient folk etymology. Homer does not
use the name Peloponnese, he speaks of Argos.
Yet we find the name Penelopeia in the Odyssey,
which I interpreted as pun on Peloponnese: while
Odysseus symbolizes the seafaring skills and military
power or shrewdness of (southern) Greece in the time
of the Trojan war, his faithful wife would be the symbol
for the Peloponnese. Now I reconsider my explanation.
Penelopeia might conserve a very old name:

PAS --- everywhere in a plain: here, south and north
of me, east and west of me, all in all five places;
ancient Greek pas pan for all, every, penta for five

LOP --- hedge or wall around a dwelling: ancient
Greek lopos for shell, bark, French envelopper,
English envelope

PAS LOP --- wherever you come to (pas) you'll
find well protected dwellings inside of hedges
and walls (lop)

In the Odyssey, Penelopeia is first mentioned in
I 223, Athene speaking to Telemachos: Your family
is not doomed to disappear into namelessness with
Penelopeia for a mother ... I see Telemachos as
Homer's personified hope for Greece in his time,
some five hundred years (one epic generation)
after the Trojan war: May Greece stand up against
new tyrants rising in Anatolia (Homer anticipating
Gyges) and overcome the inner conflicts (Messenian
wars). The well protected settlements in the Argolis
are symbolized by Penelopeia, and, as a cultural
mother, she may bring forth a Telemachos, the
equal of Odysseus, willing to defend Greece against
enemies from the outside, and against moral decay
from the inside ...

Regards Franz Gnaedinger www.seshat.ch

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Appendix to the glossary of the new Magdalenian words,
part 33, a test (three)

PE LAS --- near (pe) mountain (las) - near the mountain
of the gods and goddesses - near the mountain of Zeus
- near Zeus - near - ancient Greek pelas 'near' ...

Pelasgians also lived at Dodona, whose temple was
built in front of a wonderful scenery of mountains.
A king Pelasgos lived in Arcadia, near the mountain
of the Lycaian Zeus. Apollodoros called Zeus the
Pelasgian, for Zeus is always near. And finally pelas
would have become the general word for near.

If the Pelasgians prefered to settle near a Zeus
mountain, we may perhaps find out where they
settled in Crete. Zeus was born in a Cretan cave,
either in a cave of the Ida (Idhi) mountain, or in
the Dicte cave belonging to the Lasithi plateau.
In the former case we may think of the Mesara plain,
Phaistos and Hagia Triada, with a magnificient view
at the Ida mountain, a pair of peaks somewhat
resembling horns of a bull. In the latter case we may
have a closer look at the name Lasithi: if it goes back
to an old name, it may come from LAS ITA (ita ithi as
Ida Idhi) meaning mountain (las) of the young bull (ita),
mountain of the young Zeus bull - the Dictaean cave
was full of small figurines of bronze bulls, apparently
representing Zeus.

Odysseus in Homer's Odyssey, speaking about Crete,
mentions the "noble Pelasgians." He claims to be of
Cretan origin himself, while he was living in Ithaca.
ITA CA --- young bull (ita) sky (ca), under the sky of
the young Zeus bull (a heavenly bull, as the two bulls
that accompanied the supreme god of Hattusa); may
have been the name of southern Greece, including
Crete, the Peloponnese, and the islands around it,
surviving just in the name of the relatively small island
of Ithaca. ATI CA --- mature bull (ati) sky (ca), under
the sky of the mature Zeus bull, possible ancient name
of Attica, center of the classical Greek civilization.

Where did the "noble Pelasgians" dwell in Crete?
I'd propose the Mesara plain, Phaistos and Hagia
Triada, with connections to Arcadia and Elaia's grove
in Phigalia, and Tiryns in the Middle Helladic period
of time, ruled by Eponymus Tiryns from Arcadia,
worshipper of the Lycaiaon Zeus, remembered as
the gardener Lord Laertes in Homer's Odyssey,
father of Odysseus, the latter representing the
seafaring skills and military power of Greece half
a millennium later (one generation in the epic are
roughly five hundred years).

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Appendix to the glossary of the new Magdalenian words,
part 32, a test (two)

Now for my evidence that the name Pelasgians comes
from PE LAS 'near mountain', and pelagos 'sea' from
PE LAC 'near lake'.

The plain of Larisa in Thessaly is called Pelasgiotis.
In the north of the Pelasgiotis we find the mountains
Ossa (nearly 2000 m) and Olympus (nearly 3000 m),
in the south Dimini, probably once on the shore of
the bay. This river plain, I believe, was the forming
place of the Greek spirit some 5,000 years ago
(era of Dimini), with the gods taking seat on Mount
Olympus, and the sea being explored from the bay
of Pegasai. The name PE LAS 'near mountain' would
refer to Mount Olympus as the abode of the Hellenic
gods and goddesses. All Greeks would owe their
civilization to the formation that took place in the
Pelasgian plain, and so they all are Pelasgians.

An area in the north of ancient Macedonia is called
Pelagia. This would come from PE LAC 'near lake'
and refer to the big lakes in Macedonia. Later on,
the word LAC would have been expanded to the sea,
therefore pelagos 'sea', as the river god Poseidon
became the god of the seas.

Now if the Philistines and Pelasgians were the same,
and if the Philistines settling on the shore of Palestine
were called for a mountain, this would have been the
mountain of Judah, only about thousand meters high,
but enemy land, therefore higher (more important) in
a psychological sense. The one-eyed giant Polyphem
who resembled more a wooded mountain top than
a man who eats bread in Homer's Odyssey is, in my
opinion, a symbol of Troy. Now the acropolis of Troy
wasn't especially high, but the fierce enemy therein
made it appear high and fearful as a mountain. We
find the mountains also in the story of the Philistine
Goliath and of David: Goliath stands on a mountain,
David and the whole army of Israel stand on another
mountain ... The same effect of psychological elevation
of mountains is found in old drawings - the mountains
are always too high, as if the physical effort of climbing
a mountain went in the representation (compare an old
drawing of a landscape with a mountain range on the
horizon with a photograph from the same vantage point).
In that sense the animosity between Philistines and the
dwellers of the mountain of Judah could have turned
the mere hills into an actual mountain range, thus
justifying the word Philistines in the sense of PE LAS
'near mountain'. Also, it would have been a reference
to the Pelasgian plain Pelasgiotis, formating area of
the Greek civilization, presumably also the cultural
background of the Philistines who settled in Palestine.

Now there is a test case for my Magdalenian approach.
Tell me a clear example of where Pelasgians can't go
along with mountains ...

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Appendix to the glossary of the new Magdalenian words,
part 31, a test (one)

In the Proceedings of the Fourteenth Annual UCLA
Indo-European Conference (2002) I find a contribution
by Jon Christian Billigmeier, _Crete, the Dorians, and
the Sea Peoples_. Quote:

Several of the Peoples of the Sea ara fairly securely
identified with nations known elsewhere. The Pa-ra-sa-ta
are surley the Philistines, familiar from the Bible and
historical documents of the 1st millennium BC. Christopher
Wilhelm (2000) has assembled a substantial array of
evidence to support Albright's view that the Philistines
and Pa-ra-sa-ta are identical with the Pelasgians of
Greek tradition (Albright 1934).

(Footnote:) One wonders if both these names are
connected with the Greek word pelagos 'sea'. This
could be Greek of a loanword from another Indo-
European language, akin to Lat. _planus_, NE _flat_
and, with the same velar extension as Greek, to NHG
_flach_. For the sense, one can compare Lat. _aequor_
'flat surface', 'plain', 'desert', 'sea'. If so, the Philistines/
Pelasgians are literally the Sea People! This may not
have been originally an ethnic term at all, but a generic
designation for all those dwelling on and living from the
sea. That would explain why one finds Pelasgians
mentioned as having lived all over the Aegean and why
many Greeks are often said to have been Pelasgians.

I found a completely different explanation of Pelasgians
and pelagos. PE LAS --- near (pe) mountains (las),
PE LAC --- near (pe) lake (lac), and I shall present my
evidence in the next message ('cos Google swallows
my posts when I spend to much time on writing them).

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Relevant Pages

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    ... and the sea being explored from the bay ... The name PE LAS 'near mountain' would ... and so they all are Pelasgians. ... and if the Philistines settling on the shore of Palestine ...
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