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On Etruscan and Libyan Names; A Comprative Study.

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On Etruscan and Libyan Names; A Comprative Study.

Berichtdoor Reader » zo 03 feb , 2008 20:21

On Etruscan and Libyan Names; A Comprative Study.
By Daniel G. Brinton, M.D.
(Read before the American Philosophical Society, Febrauray 7, 1890)

I- Introductory: Libyan Epigraphy
In October last (1889) I laid before this Society a series of considerations drawn from the physical traits of the Etruscans, their customs, arts and language, going to show that they were an offshoot or colony of the Libyans or Numidians of North Africa -that stock now represented by the Kabyles of Algeria, the Rifians of Morocco, the Touaregs of the Great Desert and the other so-called Berber tribes.
So far as I was aware, this opinion had never been advanced before, although it wo uld seem a natural and obvious one. Nor have I yet found that any writer ahd clearly stated it previously; though I have discovered that occasional earlier observers have been struck with some of the resemblances which so impressed me, and I am glad to add the weight of their testimony to my own. Thus, M. Louis Rinn, Vice-President of the Historical Society of Algiers, after alluding to what he considers a point of resemblance between the Berber and the Etruscan language, adds, "A comparative study of these two peoples would certainly bring into prominence other similarities, yet more remarkable, in their tongues."* M. Rinn quotes the old travelers, Dr. T. Shaw, as suggesting one or more similarities in Kabyle and Etruscan place names, but he gives no exact reference, and a search through Shaw's Travels has not enabled me to find the passages...

[...]
2- Etruscan Invasions of Egypt
This subject has been brought to the attention of Egyptologists by the supposed reference to the Etruscans in the ancient insctriptions, and to Italian archeologists by the evident Egyptian inspiration in some of the Etruscan art remains. I shall sum up briefly the main points of the question.
From the earliest times of the movement of the Libyan tribes toward the east is recorded in the annals of the Egyptian monarchy.
In the third dynasty -according to the chronology of Mariette some 4200 years B.C.- the incursions of the Temhu (the Touareg?) are mentioned. In the eighteenth dynasty (1703-1462 B.C.) the mother of Amenhotep IV. is represented as a blonde with blue eyes, and bore the name, at once Libyan and Etruscan, of "Taia". She was probably a Libyan by birth.
The most important general migration of the Libyan tribes seems to have taken place about 1300 years B.C. At that time, as we are informed by an inscription of Meneptah II. on the wall of the great temple of Ammon at Api, the king of the land of Libu, by name Mar-ajui, a son of Did, led a great a great army composed of his own troops and mercenaries from other nations into Egypt, entering near the city of Prosopis. He was defeated with heavy loss, and many thousands of his soldiery were salin. Among his allies were the "Tursha," who are considered by some Egyptologists to have been the nation called in classic writings, Turseni or Tyrrheni i.e, the Etruscans. This identification is rejected by Dr. Brugsch Bey, who ventures the yet Wilder theory that they were Taurians. Halévy, on the other hand, is inclined to see in this and the other names given in the list of allies merely various Libyan tribes, neighbors of the Lebu; and this is quite probable when we consider the impracticability of large bodies of soldiery being transported accross the Mediterranean in that early age. It is possible, therefore, that the "Tursha" were the "Turseni" ad that in consequece of this defeat they left their natieve land and founded the Etruscan colonies on teh west coast of Italy -which were commenced about the time.
Dr. Deecke has already pointed out the probability that the Tuirsa who attacked Egypt by sea in the time of Ramses III (twentieth dynasty, 980-810 B.C.) were the Turseni or Etruscans.
They are represented on the paintings with pointed beards and helmets of Etruscan form. They very early signs of Egyptian culture visible in ancient Etruria, on which Deecks lays stress, may be explained by the proximity of the Libyco-Etruscans -The Tuirsa- to the Nile Valley before they founded their Italian colonies. It is quite sure that the main body of the army of Mar-ajui was composed of the blonde type of the Berbers, as the Egyptian name applied to them on the monuments is thuheni, "The light-colored or fair-complexioned people".

3-The Libyan Alphabet:
The ancient Libyan or Numidian alphabet, preserved in the Tifinah and tiddebakin the Touaregs, was composed of twenty three letters, five of which served both as vowels and consonants.
As in the Etruscan alphabet, all letters could act either initial or terminal sounds. Twho letters are in the Libyan which do not appear in the Etruscan -b and o. It is a notable coincidence, however, that not only was the former sound usually rendered by the ancient Roman writers by f, but it is absent or rare in the Ghdames, Rif, Bougie and Mzab dialects of modern Berber.
Evidently The Etruscan in its omission of this phonetic element is brought into closer relations to a large part of the Libyan speech.
Diphthongs, double consonants, guttural and sibilant sounds are of frequent recurrence in Libyan as they were in Etruscan, the former trait being a similarity which separates both from pure Semitic tongues.
The most frequent permutations of the Libyan letters, both in the ancient and modern dialects, are as follows:

b into f
k into x (guttural), or ch
l into d, or r
s into s, or ch, or shv
t into d, or dj, or dh
tch into k
ts into sh
th (0) into t

Names of Divinities:
The religion both of the Libyans and Etruscans resembled tht of most of their neighbors in being a marked polytheism. It is said that more than two hundred Etruscan divinities have been discriminated; but I do not find the names of anything like this number. Otfried Müller and Dr. Deecke give about fifty, of which some are probably Italian or Greek. From among those apparently really Etruscan, I select for comparison the following:
Apulus, or Aplu, was the Etruscan god whose fane was upon Mt. Soracte, and who, according to a tradition recorded by Virgil, was the earliest divinity worshiped by the Tuscans. From the similarity of the names to the Greek Apollo, most writers have no doubt transferred the attributes of the famous Greek divinity to their national god. But an examination of the ancient Numidian inscription discovers a divinty so closely similar that the suspicion is excited that the two are identical, and the resemblance to Apollo a mere coincidence. This divinity bears the name in the Numidian chracter Abru, and is almost certainly identical with the Guanche Abora, showing the wide extension of the cult in the ancient Libyan people. Halvey thinks it reappears in a Latin inscription, Ifru augusto sacrum, found near Constantine. The phonetic change from Abru to Aplu are justified by numerous examples in both Etruscan and Libyan, and that this widely worshipped god of the Libyans should be referred to by the Etruscans as the first they adored is very natural.
Culsu; a member of the Etruscan pantheon, represented with torch and shears, a divinity apparently who decided the day of death. Allowing for the constant permutation of l and r in these dialects, Corippus mentions a Libyan divinity of the same name, of whom the Mauritanian chieftian Ierna was priest:
..
The idol of the god represented a divinity of hoorrid mien, suitable to a god of death.
The derivation fo the Libyan Gurzil is not very clear; but as the god who decided on the day of death, and cut or shortened the thread of life (for which purpose Culzu holds the shears in Etruscan porttriature), I am inclined to connect both names with the modern Berber verbal guezzil, pl. guezlen, to be short, m'gassil,
separation, dismemberment, which Newman compares to the similarity of the English shear, shears, short (Libyan Vocabulary, p. 50). In the ancient Numidian epigraphy this deity is referred to in the literation ghrsl (Halevy, Essai, p. 121) and the final l seems to be retained in the Etruscan from culsl quoted by Corssen.
Lala, goddess of the moon, probably the new moon, and hence or birth and fecundity. The name seems connected with the Libyan lal, to be born, alilal, birth etc. In Numidio-Latin inscriptions, this precise from Lala appears (see Halévy, Essai, p. 83).
Leucothea, the white goddess. This is the Greek translation of the name of a female divinity much honored by the Etruscans, and especially at Pyrgos, the port of Caere, whre a great and beautiful temple was dedicated to her (Müller, Die Etrushker, Bd, ii s, 54-56). The Etruscan form of the name is not given, but in the list of their beneficent goddesses occur the names malavis, and melacu, where the initial radical sems to be the same as in the Libyan amelal, white, mellul, it is white, etc. (Newman, lib. vocab., pp. 61-62). In these, I believe, we may recognize the goddess of Pyrgos. Whether her attribute of whiteness was derived from the sea foam or the morning light, or from some other cause, we have no means of knowing.
Manes, Mania, Mantus. The dii Manes fo the ancient Latins are generally recognized to have been derived in character and name from Etruscan antecedents. The derivations of the ord Manes offered by the later grammarians rare as usual merely fanciful and worthless, nor has any acceptable one been suggested by moder writers. I blieve it is revealed in the name of an ancient Libyan deity, Motmanius. This occurs in a votive inscription found near Constantine - Motmanio et Mercurio sacrum (Halevy, Essai, p. 157). The name seems to be clerly a compound of Libyan emet; aorist, imut, to die, dead, and eman, sould, -a lord fo the souls of the dead.
In the first syllable we recognize the Etr. mut-na, a tomb, a place of the dead (seem my Eth: Aff. of Etruscans, p. 19) and in Manius is the Etr. Manes, the current meaning of which was "the souls of the dead," allied to which was the Etr. name of the god of the underworld, Mantus, the goddess Mania, and perhaps the goddess often portrayed on Etruscan mirrors with the name Munnu, or Mun, believed by Deecke to be one of the auspicious Manes or spirits.
Mars. The old Italic name for this divintiy was Marmer, which appears in the Etr. Mamar-ce, a personal name and Maris, the name of a divinity shown on Etr. mirrors. One of the months in the Etr. calendar was named from him. This name in the form Marmar was quite frequent in Libyan. I need but recall the Libyan general Marmaria? the tribe Marmarida, etc. It also appears in the Libyan inscriptions of Djebel-Thala (Halévy, Essai, p. 68). The identification appears therefore complete.
Menerva, the Etr. forms of which are mnarva and meneruva, is believed to be distinctly a Tuscan goddess whose original vocation was that of the protctress of children;only in later days did she assume the attributes fot eh Greek Athene (Müller, Die Etrusker, Bd. i, s. ). The name has a strong Libay physiognomy.
The prefix mn is common in the dialects of that stem, and in the ramainder of the name, "arua, eruva, we are close to the modern Kabyle arau, pl. arawan, child, a meaning most consonant with her original character.
Sethlans. The Etr. compound Se0re, or Set-ria, is a proper name, the root of which Set (se0) probably reappears in the initial syllable fo Se0-lans, the Etr. Vulcan. This initial syllable set-, sed-, sit-, is a common one on the Libay tombs of the earliest centuries (Inscriptions 77, 105, 128, 216, etc.) One of the Numidian names appears in the Latin from, Sit-ilia, and the Libyan Sit-ila (Inscription 216) is close to Etr. Seo-lans. Halvey suggests its relationsip to the Egytian god Set (Essai, p. 81); but its origin may as well be from the Libyan root s't, now preserved in the Touareg, is-suhet, strong, essahet, violence, etc, Kabyle, set-mara, by force, by might. etc.
Tina, Tinia. This divinity is stated to have corresponded to the Jupiter of the Romans, and his figure often appears on the Etruscan mirrors and coins with the symbols of the lightning, the sceptre and the crown of rays. For these and other reasons (set forth in detail by Müller), he is looked upon as "the chief divinity of the Etruscans and the centre of their celestial world".
It must be regarded as a striking example of the permamence of mythologic conceptions that the same deity with the same name is recoreced by Corippus as the Jupiter fo the Libyans in the sixth century A. D. In his lines referring to the gods they invoked on enterin battle, he writes:
..
The name Mastiman is compounded of the common Libyan (and Etruscan) prefix of grandeur mas, and timan in which the n in Tina has changed into m, a permutaion frequent in the Moroccan (Rifian) dialect of Berber, in which the mim of the Arabic aplphabet is often subsituted for the nun. The terminal n in so many of the Libyan names given by Corppus is thought by Halévy to be often an extraneous addition to the native from.
Turm's, the Etruscan Mercury.
Turan, goddess of love
Tarsu, a mythical Gorgon
T'ruisie, a hero god.

In these and similar Etruscan names we appear to be in the presence of teh exceedingly common ancinet Libyan radical TR, seen in the inscriptions in such names as Toura, Touran Tir-mag, Tor-dak, Tour-sha etc, and in Corippus's poem in Tor, Tur-sus, etc.



Verde lezen in het boek is toegankelijk in google books:
Reader
 
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Geregistreerd: di 10 okt , 2006 17:41

Berichtdoor Reader » zo 03 feb , 2008 20:36

Ik heb zoiets al eerder gelezen, maar ik ben er nooit stil gestaan. Maar toen ik me wou verdiepen in "Bimawn/ Bu ilmawen's praktijken" (Gediscussieerd in dit forum) ben ik zo'n praktijken tegengekomen bij de Grieken en de Romeinen.

De praktijken leken op de zogenaamde "Lupercalia" en "Februalia". Bilmawn leek op de Griekse god Pan en de Romeinse god "Faunuus".

Faunuus leek me in het begin op een Berbers woord "Afunas" wat "Stier" betekent. Zo'n dier is niet vreemd voor Faunuus.

Daarom dacht ik aan zo'n stellingen.

Nog ééns een origin's mythe van Sardinie:

"Aeneid II: 781: In the blazing ruins of Troy, the ghost of his wife Creusa speaks to Aeneas, and prophesies that he will come to the land of Hesperia, where the Lydian Thybris flows. Pausanias X: 17: 6: When Troy fell, some of the Trojans with Aeneas were carried away by storm winds to Sardinia, where they mingled with the Greeks. Many years later the Libyans, who had landed in Sardinia much earlier under Sardos, crossed to the island again and made war on the Greeks. Very few Greeks survived, and the Trojans fled to the hills. They are still called Ilians, but have a Libyan way of life and appearance."
http://www.quantavolution.org/vol_12/ka_18.htm

"[2] The first sailors to cross to the island are said to have been Libyans. Their leader was Sardus, son of Maceris, the Maceris surnamed Heracles by the Egyptians and Libyans. Maceris himself was celebrated chiefly for his journey to Delphi, but Sardus it was who led the Libyans to Ichnussa, and after him the island was renamed. However, the Libyan army did not expel the aboriginals, who received the invaders as settlers through compulsion rather than in goodwill. Neither the Libyans nor the native population knew how to build cities. They dwelt in scattered groups, where chance found them a home in cabins or caves."
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/pt ... s.+10.17.5
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