Thread: Ancient History ?

Sad indeed.


Better to study history than pass into it.

Interesting subject.

My area of interest extends back to the Indo European peoples who gave rise to my Gael Ancestors along with my Gael Ancestors.

It is interesting to note the linguistic similarities of the Indo European and later Celtic Clans with those of the Indian (Asia sub continent) as well as similarities in deities and Ancestor worship.

Of course both peoples also worshipped the mighty God Land-ee and Goddess Rovah

Something to think about for those interested in the Celtic/Gael tribes is that it may have been as recently as 500 years ago that my Ancestors were still hunting heads as trophies [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.gif[/img] seems like a good idea in the wake of modern history and Bali.

Sláinte (Your Health)

Well funny about all the stuff on this forum, today walked the walls and grounds of Mycenae, yesterday, Olympia, the day before delphi, interesting stuff especially after going through the Greek History museum last week, it put a place to what I saw. The interesting part is how developed they were in 1500 BC and the times after. Makes the romans look modern.



john

I was thinking about the linguistic and religious similarities Antaine mentioned.

Today we have the celebration of Easter - adorned with rabbits & eggs, signs of fertility attributed to the Celtic godess Ester (or similar depending on text) from whom this annual celebration gets its name. She is closely aligned with the Middle Eastern goddesses Astarte and Cybele (also go by similar sounding names depending on country of origin).

Linguistically linked to Ester are such words such as Star and (I'm guessing) aestrogen. How do words associated with outer space and fertility find a common scource?

Well these dieties were godesses of fertility (harvest or nature) and heavens (zodiac). A clue to the liguistic link can be made when we compare Astarte (and her similar sounding counterparts) with Cybele, whose name is totally different, but who shared many similar attributes.

Let's break Cybele down to Cy, (Greek kyklos from which we get cycle / circle) and bele (same as Bel in Babylonian or Baal in Caananite - meaning Lord / Lady). "Lady of the circle / bowl / sphere"

In ancient times it was thought that the stars hung on a firmament, a large bowl spread over the earth. Hence Cy (round). The roundness of this firmament was akin to the roundness of the womb, in fact in Greek "Kylia" means belly and "Kyklos" means circle, the Ky (or "Cy" in its Latinised form) pertaining to the shape.

So the names of the dieties pertained to their domains. So which came first? the diety and it's domain was named after it? or the domain to which the diety pertained? I don't know; today we have days of the week named after dieties not vice versa, so that may be a clue.

Another clue may be deduced from Greek - "Kyclos" means circle, but "Asteri" means star. This would suggest that the Greeks got the words from preceeding languages, as the names of the Godesses which pertain to these domains (Cybele & Astarte) seem to be interchangable in the original application. But as the names got to denote specific things, then the words for these things were adopted into common usage.

Anyway, that's how my mind rambles - 8O

I think the speed of ones imagination is inversely proportional to the speed of ones car. :wink:

I may ramble with other historical & linguistic puzzles in the future, but for now, I think I've been confusing enough.

Originally posted by Antaine
Of course both peoples also worshipped the mighty God Land-ee and Goddess Rovah

[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif[/img] ROFL [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif[/img]


JohnE - I'm jealous !!

The Persians of course chose to worship a Mazda!!!! His worship died out shortly after the warranty period expired.

Then there's an Asian idol in the shape of a Toy Otter, whose pagan rituals have spread to our own land.


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