Persóphatta
Last fall Rudolf Wachter offered a new etymology of Persephone's name. It is available in full here, along with comments by other scholars. It is usually agreed, according to Wachter, that the most authentic version of P.'s name was that used in Attica, where the archaic sanctuary was located. He points out that the most numerous version is not P(h)errephatta, but rather P(h)errophatta, and explains that we should therefore look for a word *perso-, which, in fact, he finds in the hapax legomenon Skt parsha-, m., "sheaf," occuring at Rig Veda 10.48.7. Furthermore, it is used in this context of beating sheaves, or threshing, where the word for "I beat" is hanmi, which comes from a well-attested Indo-European root: Skt hanti : ghnanti = Hittite kuenzi : kunanzi, and also Grk theino, phonos, etc. Wachter postulates that it was this root, *gwhen : *gwhon, that the Greek poets correctly understood as the second part of P.'s name, -phatta, when they adopted a newer form -phoneia or -phone in order to suit the hexameter. Based on historical linguistics, and the fact that no other trace of *perso- exists, Wachter thinks it very likely that the name Persóphatta, sheaf-beater, was formed in the second millennium, and that we now understand what function Persephone (or Kore) originally performed.
posted by Nicholas at 2:27 PM
1 Comments:
Why can it not be P(h)err”e”phatta as instead of P(h)err”o”phatta, when Greek & Latin have a male connotation with “o” word endings, and an “e” or “a” word ending for female connotation. We are looking at a Female Myth, from ancient Attica & Greece. And Persephone’s mother was Demeter, (De Meter, De Mater, or The Mother, or The Earth Mother…of all Life.) We only hear about her Father, much later, as Zeus, when the Male God paradigm arises. (Zeus, derived from Jupiter (Male God) derived from more ancient Greek Juno (Female Goddess). Another example is Athena, (Female Goddess) is an older myth than Zeus. The “Zeus Myth” of Athena springing ‘full grown’ out of the head of Zeus, who had a headache, shows not only the Male God paradigm, needing to have a Male God as the origin of a more ancient Female Goddess. But it is an interesting metaphor, that Athena & prior Greek Female Goddess, are a headache to the later Male God paradigm, of Male God Supremacy. What is the PIE origin of P(h)erre•phatta?
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