26 Mar 2008

What are Etruscans doing with those eggs?


It seems fitting, considering the recent Easter season, that I should start thinking about Easter eggs and by extension, the interesting origins of the symbolism. Long story short, the original meaning behind these eggs involved rebirth and renewal. In the context of Easter, the symbolism pointed to the renewal of the year (i.e. springtime). The egg is the beginning of a bird's life and so by extension, the abstract notions of birth/rebirth and renewal lend themselves well to that biological form.

Etruscans too used the symbolism of the egg for the same intention and often in funerary contexts such as the above frieze of an Etruscan couple. The male holds up an egg in an exaggerated gesture, which should tip us off that he's not merely holding a literal egg but rather that he is comforting the mourning observer of the painting. The message here is that the deceased in question is in effect 'renewed' in the afterlife. "All is well. There's nothing to be sad about," the artist conveys to us. This art was meant to provide the same reassurance to the religiously devout as, say, Christian, Muslim or Hindu art which also seeks to inspire in its beholders a reassurance of faith in the metaphysical beyond. It's important when looking at ancient art to step into the shoes of the people for which this art was intended.

Moving on to linguistic matters, I believe that I might have identified the word for 'egg' in Etruscan, but it's not without controversy. The word appears to be luθ. I've recently decided that my two entries, lut and luθ, are one and the same word and that the two forms should both be given the value of 'egg'. Phonetically, Etruscan appears to have not distinguished word-final aspiration in stops and this explains alternations in the spelling (e.g. hut/huθ 'four'). The loss of contrasts in word-final position is rather common crosslinguistically as we can observe in German where the word Hand is pronounced /hant/ since voicing contrasts are likewise neutralized word-finally. Grammatically, luθ appears to be inanimate since it's attested in the inanimate plural, luθcva, in TLE 131 (Laris Pulena's sarcophagus). The word is also used as the object of verbs (such as tur 'to give') that normally involve religious offerings (LL 6.xviii: ture acil caticaθ luθ celθim), so it really seems that this object is some kind of possible offering to the gods. I'm delighted to learn that Etruscans in fact buried eggs in tombs, as did Greeks.

While this all makes sense phonetically and grammatically, contextually I'm not in the clear quite yet. It's this damned stele, indexed by Rex Wallace as ETP 286. It looks like this:



This almost seems to put a dent in my eggy hypothesis but I have one last hypothesis to pursue. It seems that this stele is meant to mark a boundary and it's presumed that it marked the boundary of a sanctuary. Let's go with that. The question that comes to my mind is: "To whom is this sanctuary devoted?" The use of the genitive in -l is grammatically interesting to me here because it's often used to attribute something to someone. Thus, on the surface, we can at least claim that luθcval canθisal probably means "To the [luθ]s of [canθis]" or alternatively "To the [canθis] of [luθ]s".

If we apply my value of 'egg', we get "To the eggs of [canθis]" or "To the [canθis] of eggs", depending in which order we are to read this. While it sounds absurd at first, the annoying thing is that without knowing for sure what canθis means, we can't rule out the possibility that this is potentially an epithet of a god or goddess. Afterall, there is this swan deity that keeps popping up on mirrors and referred to as Tusna. For all we know, this could mark a sanctuary of Tusna. Or perhaps the 'eggs' in question could refer to a particular myth of the Dioscuri, Castor and Pollux, who were said by some to be born from eggs. The Dioscuri were quite important in Etruscan religion and were known in the Etruscan language as Tinas cliniiaras 'Sons of Tinia' (TLE 156).

These appear to be fruitful possibilities but so far I can't crack what canθis might mean if luθ really is 'egg'. The word canθis in turn is probably related to canθce, a verb inflected in the perfective in TLE 99.

26 comments:

  1. Hello Glen.


    I showed this painting to some of my friends. I told them it was from a Etruscan grave. Then I asked what they thought of it.

    They all were surprised by the very white and blonde woman (Is she a woman? She seems to have no breasts!) compared with the darkness of the male (Is he male?).
    According to my friends, this couple seemed to play a game.
    The very naughty-looking lady tries to tickle the male in such a way, that he will squeeze the egg.
    The male seems to be very frightened.
    (One of my friends mentioned the viagra-like effects eggs are supposed to have.)

    Somewhere I read that some Etruscan deities, like Vanth, are genderless (or switching gender?).
    These white and blonde women must have been very rare in Etruria.

    I wonder: Is she a deity?

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  2. The full text in the LL reads:


    (blank lines, new paragraph)
    eslem.za0rumis'.acale.tins'.in.s'arle
    lu0ti.rax.ture.acil.catica0.lu0.cel0im
    xim.scuxie.acil.hutnis'.painiem
    anc.marti0.sylal.
    (end of paragraph)

    So there is a second lu0 here. It looks like a locative.

    As these are the only lu0s in the LL, they must be important here. (Too early for me to try to translate this text.)

    Have you found more lu0s to support your theory that they may be "eggs"?

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  3. All these speculations are very vacuous without a good understanding of surrounding historical context to go on.

    Blond was in fact more common in the classical world of the Mediterranean than you think. Read Encyclopedia of Hair (2006), pp.153-154: "People living in the ancient societies of Mesopotamia and Persia dyed their hair, which they usually wore long. In Ancient Greece, golden and red-gold shades of hair were admired, and Aphrodite, the goddess of love, was portrayed with golden hair. Light hair also was associated with health and youthfulness, which the Greeks admired. [...] During the fourth century BCE, most Greek women dyed their hair or dusted it with color."

    Since Etruscans were influenced by Greek trends, the same would go for them too. She's just an ordinary women who dyed her hair golden.

    And they are certainly not playing an "egg game". That's ludicrous. There's another funerary mural with another deceased banqueter holding an egg, this time solitary.

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  4. Hans: "So there is a second lu0 here. It looks like a locative."

    Ad hoc. I don't see the need to theorize endingless locatives in Etruscan based on a sole example. Stick to the grammatical model: simple locatives end in -e.

    However, *luθe would mean "before/on/at an egg". Instead we either find the word in the endingless accusative (direct object of the verb) or as luθti "in an egg".

    "As these are the only lu0s in the LL, they must be important here."

    If my idea is correct, very.

    "Have you found more lu0s to support your theory that they may be 'eggs'?"

    This inscription when properly translated may in fact be part of the support! There is an entire lost package of symbolisms and rituals underlying this all.

    I would suggest, oddly enough, investigating childhood stories that you thought nothing of as a little child. There can be endless fascination in the smallest details, I always say. {smug smirk of temporary silence...}

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  5. Ad hoc. I don't see the need to theorize endingless locatives in Etruscan based on a sole example. Stick to the grammatical model: simple locatives end in -e.

    I do my best, Glen.
    You presented a locative ending in 0i, tarxnal0i, yourself. It seemed quite normal to me that a theta following another theta become a tau.

    However, *luθe would mean "before/on/at an egg". Instead we either find the word in the endingless accusative (direct object of the verb) or as luθti "in an egg".

    So you think lu0ti is an inessive?
    The locative and its many brothers, like the inessive, seem to be quite important in the Etruscan language. The Etruscan case system far from clear to me.

    Someday in near future I will probably find good books about Etruscan grammar (and the money to buy them).

    Until then I have not much to go on.

    Please be patient.

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  6. "Someday in near future I will probably find good books about Etruscan grammar (and the money to buy them)."

    Why must you wait for money on books when you clearly have access to the internet which by its nature houses tonnes of valuable information on every topic imaginable!?

    You need to first familiarize yourself with the status quo grammatical model (as in the link I will supply below). Only then do you have a solid grounding to translate and understand inscriptions properly, or even to break away from the status quo after successfully identifying internal contradictions in the common account.

    I believe in the power of both the internet and the human mind (when one chooses to use it). I feel that people are fully responsible for their own education and should be held logically accountable for their claims. I'm very militant about that.

    A decent sketch of Etruscan grammar is found here, derived from Larissa and Giuliano Bonfante's books. Familiarize yourself with it.

    Without grammar, attempting to understand inscriptions will lead you in endless circles. I have no patience, nor will I have, for those who shy away from looking things up for themselves. (This is also why I rejected your recent comments concerning your "egg game" pet theory. If you can't support your own ideas with references or careful deductive/objective reasoning, this is not the blog for such rambles, regardless of good intentions. I side with Logic, not feelings.)

    Hans: "So you think lu0ti is an inessive?"

    Yes. In spelling, we always see an aspirated stop deaspirating following another aspirated stop. Hence also its plural luθcva in TLE 131 with suffix -cva, a variant of the more common form -χva.

    "The Etruscan case system far from clear to me."

    The simple locative case is quite simple: it ends in -e and when alone means "on, at, before". The inessive postclitic -θi is used specifically for the meaning "in" or "inside" and normally attached to the end of an already locative-declined word. Thus *luθe is "before/on the egg" but luθti is "in the egg". It's clear that -θi, and similar postclitics like -tra "through"(?), were free particles at one time. These postclitics aren't really true case suffixes like locative -e or genitive -s since they act in combination with case suffixes.

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  7. I had another thought I should share. It might clarify things about *e-less locatives when a postclitic is applied.

    In the context of the Liber Linteus where the word luθti is found, we also find another curious inessive locative haθrθi. Since its simple locative haθe ~ hanθe is found elsewhere in the same document, the only explanation I have for the unexpected -r- in haθrθi is that it is from earlier *e which has been sandwiched between the two thetas and subsequently shortened to a schwa. It may also have been further retroflexed due to alveolar dental stops.

    So then, if *hanθe-θi has become haθrθi in the late dialect of the mummy text, surely *luθe-θi can be reduced in time to *luθrθi and even luθti under the power of a strong stress accent.

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  8. Sorry, the above should read "alveolar stops", not "alveolar dental stops".

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  9. Hello Glen.


    A decent sketch of Etruscan grammar is found here, derived from Larissa and Giuliano Bonfante's books. Familiarize yourself with it.

    I have seen this, and much more on Etruscan Grammar.
    After weeding out all the nonsense presented on other sites, not much remains. And I found many contradictions (Like rasna being "Etruscan", according to these same Bonfantes).
    That is why I ask you so many questions (too many perhaps). You seem to know very much.


    ...(This is also why I rejected your recent comments concerning your "egg game" pet theory...

    First of all: This is not MY pet theory.
    It is just what my friends saw, These friends were NOT biased by pre-imprinted symbol-of-new-life ideas (like you and me).
    If you ask me: I do think these eggs have something to do with rebirth. Also, many of the Etruscan deities (Van0, Xarun, Tuxulxu) wear wings, birdwings. So I would not be surprised if somewhere, somehow, these were found to be breeding creatures. And as you said:
    There is an entire lost package of symbolisms and rituals underlying this all.
    I have no proof whatsoever, but I try to keep an open mind.


    I side with Logic

    I agree.
    Reasoning by analogy combined with deduction (if this is what you mean by Logic; your use of this word is frowned upon by my methodology teachers) and, above all, induction (finding patterns in larger quantities of data) is often the only way to acquire "knowledge".
    After all, linguistics is not science.



    I have only limited access to the Internet. This too will change in near future.

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  10. Hans: "First of all: This is not MY pet theory. It is just what my friends saw, These friends were NOT biased by pre-imprinted symbol-of-new-life ideas (like you and me)."

    Knowledge is not "bias" in the usual sense of the word. People's feelings though certainly are, and they're neither here nor there logically speaking.

    Hearsay and random opinions from casual conversations with friends remain irrelevant here on Paleoglot where I explore historical *facts* as well as any *plausible* hypotheses based on *known facts* (ie. what you call "bias"). If facts are bias than I'd rather be biased than self-indulgent to my ignorance.

    The silly, factless "egg game" discussion is over. Thanks in advance.

    Hans: "I have seen this, and much more on Etruscan Grammar.
    After weeding out all the nonsense presented on other sites, not much remains."


    This is why I don't understand your reasoning. If it's true that you read this already and true that you "weeded out all the nonsense", then if you are being rational about your choices, your rejection of the locative in -e (as per the Bonfantes themselves) implies that you "weeded" that out too for some *very clear* reason.

    Yet I still haven't heard that reason. To the contrary, there's ample evidence for locatives in -e (or -i after a vowel), including most last names of Etruscan women! Whereas, there are no locatives that are completely endingless as you suggested by identifying luθ as a locative, since an endingless noun is of the default nomino-accusative case (that of the subject or direct object).

    So, forgive me, but your methods for understanding this language don't seem to be carefully methodical, Hans. Just as you indulged in subjectivity when speaking of "egg games" based on a conversation with friends, so to have you indulged in subjectivity when (mis)analysing Etruscan grammar by applying noun cases however one feels.

    "If you ask me: I do think these eggs have something to do with rebirth. Also, many of the Etruscan deities (Van0, Xarun, Tuxulxu) wear wings, birdwings."

    This is a great insight.

    "I have no proof whatsoever, but I try to keep an open mind."

    Never say such a thing again to me. No proof + open mind = fried brains. I'm not interested in crazy propositions whatsoever. Only keep your mind open a smidgeon or it'll fall out one day, as they say. >:P

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  11. Knowledge is not "bias" in the usual sense of the word. People's feelings though certainly are, and they're neither here nor there logically speaking.

    Did I overlook something?
    Is there knowledge about Etruscan egg-rebirth beliefs? I am not talking about Greek deities like Castor and Polydeukes.


    The silly, factless "egg game" discussion is over.
    Thanks in advance.


    To me, the very naughty look on the face of the woman is a fact.
    If you don't recognize it as such, then, indeed, I have nothing further to add.
    Neither you nor I know what Etruscans are doing with those eggs.
    I sincerely hope you are right in your lu0=egg theory.


    -----

    There has been a lot of confusion:

    Whereas, there are no locatives that are completely endingless as you suggested by identifying luθ as a locative,

    Must have been my clumsy English again. I never intended to "identify" lu0 as a locative. I meant the second lu0, the one you did not mention, the one with the ti-ending.
    For that matter, in case I have not made myself clear: I never saw zila0 as a locative. Never.


    So, forgive me, but your methods for understanding this language don't seem to be carefully methodical, Hans.

    In this you are right. This is a matter of time. I am just getting started.
    I still make a lot of mistakes.
    But I am NOT just applying noun cases depending on however I feel.
    If you think the sketch of the Etruscan grammar on the LL site is the best start (there being nothing better), I just believe you. But hu0 is Four! ;)


    Never say such a thing again to me. No proof + open mind = fried brains.

    1) You used the "open mind" expression yourself to me. It prompted me to rather thoroughly study Sinat. Rules, strategy, history.

    2) As I said, I may well have overlooked some evidence of Etruscan egg-rebirth religion.
    As far as I know, there is hardly any evidence, let alone PROOF.

    To me having an "open mind" means: NOT blindly accepting anyone else's theories.

    This is something you seem to be very good at. Great, really!

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  12. Hans: "Did I overlook something? Is there knowledge about Etruscan egg-rebirth beliefs? I am not talking about Greek deities like Castor and Polydeukes."

    Yes, you overlooked the countless pottery artifacts with Greek themes and deities but distinctly Etruscan inscriptions and spelling. This ironically includes pottery representing what you simply call "Greek deities", Etruscan Pultuce 'Polydeuces' (ET Pe S.13) and Castur 'Castor' (ET AH S.7, OI G.29, Pe S.13, Vs S.21). These deities are indeed of Greek origin, both mythically and etymologically, but they were celebrated by Etruscans as much as Greeks without any doubt.

    Castor and Polydeuces were known in Greek as the Dioskouroi (literally the "children of Zeus") and this name was directly translated into Etruscan as Tins clenar "sons of Tin". The name is declined in the genitive as Tinas cliniiaras in inscription TLE 156.

    Sufficed to say, if Castor and Polydeuces made such an impact on Etruscan culture that Etruscans also came to worship the "sons of Tin", then logically Etruscans would likely have adopted the egg-motif associated with these deities as well. (That is, if indeed they didn't already have this egg symbolism already inherent in their mythology from when they were still residing in Anatolia as per Herodotus.)

    It would be virtually impossible given this amount of adoption of Greek myths that Etruscans lacked any conception of this egg symbolism.

    "Must have been my clumsy English again. I never intended to 'identify' lu0 as a locative. I meant the second lu0, the one you did not mention, the one with the ti-ending. For that matter, in case I have not made myself clear: I never saw zila0 as a locative. Never."

    Alright, good. I apologize for the misunderstanding. Then I guess we're in agreement, more or less.

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  13. Then I guess we're in agreement, more or less.

    We are.

    Still I think I did not well explain why castur and puluce do not really interest me. Certainly it is clear they were very important to the Etruscans.
    If there was some egg cult before the Hellenization, it is only natural the sons of Tin became this important. As they did not replace any true Etruscan deities, they filled a gap.


    -----

    Quite early in my search for Etruscan things I found the wonderful LL-site. Little did I know it would take a long time before I found something better.

    I glanced at many nonsense sites (Etruscan is proto Venetic/Dravida/Slavonic/Turkish/Indo-European/Ugric and more) and at sites that were not really always nonsensical (Nostratic, NaDene, North West Caucasian etc). I also looked at some decent descriptions and at dictionaries.
    Finally I tried to translate Faliscan, Oscan, the Novilara Stele and much more.

    The sketch on the LL site seemed outdated and not nearly enough to work with.
    When I read that "the numerals were proof that Etruscan was not Indo-European", I went on.
    Please don't get me wrong: Etruscan is not Indo-European.
    It is the "proof" given, that bothers me.
    Larissa Bonfante doesn't see anything Indo-European in the Etruscan numerals from 4 (hu0) to 9.
    I do see similarities, clearly. So clearly in fact, that for me they are almost proof that hu0 must be Four and sa must be Six (Dangerous reasoning, I know.)

    By the way, the sketch does not even mention locatives in -e

    Much of what I know now about the Etruscan language I learned from you.

    I have not yet started to work methodically.
    I am a beginner, and I have a million questions.

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  14. Hans: "If there was some egg cult before the Hellenization, it is only natural the sons of Tin became this important. As they did not replace any true Etruscan deities, they filled a gap."

    I think you overlooked an important issue. The fact that the Etruscans often used Greek names for deities doesn't necessarily mean that there was a "gap" in the pantheon at all. For example, while the Greek name Aita was used, Calus appears to be the native name to refer to the underworld. You're merely assuming there's a gap.

    "When I read that 'the numerals were proof that Etruscan was not Indo-European', I went on."

    Yes, I agree that this is not proper proof for a linguist since numbers can be borrowed all the time (cf. Japanese and its Chinese set of numbers: ichi, ni, san, etc.).

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  15. I think you overlooked an important issue. The fact that the Etruscans often used Greek names for deities doesn't necessarily mean that there was a "gap" in the pantheon at all. For example, while the Greek name Aita was used, Calus appears to be the native name to refer to the underworld. You're merely assuming there's a gap.

    We know of equivalents for Aita (calus and possibly upl or something derived from that word) and many other deities.
    I did assume a gap, as I never saw anything that may be true Etruscan castur and puluce.
    It seems unlikely to me there were Etruscan equivalents for the sons of Tin. Of course it is not impossible. Also they may have become substitutes for a whole bunch of unknown Etruscan creatures that do not look like them.

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  16. Castor and Pollux were associated with the "morning and evening stars" (aka. the planet Venus). Surely this myth is from the Near East where astrology emanated. If so, then surely the Etruscans, coming themselves from the Near East, brought some similar myth with them in some form.

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  17. Castor and Pollux were associated with the "morning and evening stars" (aka. the planet Venus). Surely this myth is from the Near East where astrology emanated. If so, then surely the Etruscans, coming themselves from the Near East, brought some similar myth with them in some form.

    Exciting.
    Do you mean the Greeks borrowed this myth from the near east before, say 800 BC, and the Etruscans just brought the(ir own version of the) myth with them?
    And later the Greek version substituted the Etruscan one?

    Was Aphrodite/Venus/Turan associated with the planet Venus?

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  18. I know this post is a few years old, but I'm just now encountering it, and it led me to a few pretty cool revelations (more on those if you're interested). I'll say at the outset that I believe you're correct that luθ means 'egg' - though I would expand its meaning to include the less literal 'seed' as well (I'm really tempted to see a connection with Grk lithos [cf. the meaning 'marble'], too – but the 'seed' expansion is the important part here).

    I also think you're right that canθis is an epithet; and I believe the obvious cognate is Latin candidus (candeo, 'to shine').

    Most interesting to me about the stele inscription is the collective, -cva, which if I understand correctly, points more toward a quality shared by a group, rather than a mere plural (and the eggs being... 'egg-like' doesn't seem to qualify :D). If we take the extended meaning 'seed' for luθ, then try this out:

    luθcval canθisal
    '(to) the seed (=offspring) of the Shining One'

    Certainly a lineage/familial relationship is something that can be shared by members of a group. And damn if 'the offspring of the Shining One' isn't in perfect congruence with Tinas cliniiaras, right?

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  19. My views have evolved since last I commented on this artifact and it'll be constructive to brainstorm more on it.

    But first, let's get clear on the grammar. The suffix -cva is an allomorph of -xva and used after aspirated stops. Based on the bilingual Pyrgi correspondence between Punic ḥkkbm 'stars' and pulumxva, we can be certain that it *is* the inanimate plural. Plus, several other inanimates carry this same plural which contrasts with the animate plural in -ar. Labeling it simultaneously a marker of quality is a misanalysis, unproven and unnecessary by Occam's Razor. Such an overcomplicated stance makes it difficult to recognize grammatical quirks like the regular omission specifically of this plural marker when an inanimate noun is modified by numerals. The same rule does *not* apply to animate nouns. I'm 100% certain it's a grammatical plural marker and nothing else.

    I recognize an agentive suffix in -is which we can perceive in canθisal (ie. canθ-is-al = ?-AGENT-GEN) and I've found this in other words such as natis 'haruspex' (lit. 'organ person'; cf. Greek νηδύς 'organ'). Nouns in -is consistently take the type-II case endings (ie. -al rather than -as in the genitive case).

    The only remaining problem, but still quite a large problem, is how to securely assign a value to the roots canθ and luθ. We have very few instances to go on but I'm not giving up just yet.

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  20. Other instances of canθ suggest a verb closely related to the more attested form can 'to carry'. It may very well be that the meanings of the two verbs are identical or near identical. If identical, we'd then have 'of the Bearer of Eggs'. In my online Etruscan dictionary, I currently assign 'of the Layer of Eggs'. However, if I may be my own devil's advocate, there are possible substrate words in Greek like κανθός 'pot, pan' and κάνθαρος 'Naxian boat; type of vessel' which could both be explained by Etruscan canθ if meaning something like 'to hold, to carry, to contain'. This could mean that I may need to revise the meaning of canθis to 'bearer' rather than 'layer'.

    You've reached the same conclusion concerning the semantics of luθ as I have. We are further validated by noting the same semantics in Greek ᾠόν 'egg' which carries a more generalized semantics of the essence 'any seed or egg of a plant, fish or bird' and then of course by further extension 'offspring'. Yet this vagueness creates problems. On the other hand, perhaps this vagueness is deliberate considering Egyptian mythology.

    In Egyptian mythology, Ra is said to emerge from a lotus flower. Yet he's also described at times as coming from an egg: rˁ ỉmy swḥt.f 'Re in his egg' (Coffin Texts, 4.292b-c). We also have interesting Greek words like λωτός 'lotus' and λῶτα 'bloom, blossom' (mentioned by Hesychios in Glossai) which further suggests substrate which I believe to be either Proto-Aegean or Minoan of the form *lota. Is it an egg, a bud or a seed? Everything points to a generalized meaning covering all three at once as I just reasoned. You may have discovered some of these points already.

    Now back to the phrase, I'm left with never being sure whether we should translate this with 'egg' or with 'seed'. Either way, however, I've begun to believe that this refers to an earth or fertility deity. As a goose (represented on some Etruscan mirrors), she could be the Great Cackler (as per Egyptian mythology) that bears or lays eggs. As a goddess of fertility and earthly bounty (= Catha, identifiable with Greek Persephone), she is the "Bearer of Seeds".

    That's as far as I've gotten so far. As for a connection between canθ with candeo, the aspirated stop in Etruscan makes this idea difficult.

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  21. I original wrote my response in a word processor, and used a lot italics for ease of reading - I knew my formatting wouldn't transfer over to this comment, so I actually just went ahead and posted it on a blog that I just created: http://indoeuropa.blogspot.com/. I'll post the original here if you want me to - but I'm too lazy to go back and insert HTML tags (there were a ton of italics, sometimes only on single letters and such). :)

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  22. I understand. Blogger's interface remains problematic and has been at a standstill since Google took over.

    So now responding to your offsite rebuttal, I'll begin by admitting that I've since let go of my previous ideas about a connection to the Dioscouri and a plurality of eggs would make it difficult as you say. This is why I'm favouring an earth-deity solution.

    You should know that TLE 99, a burial inscription, immediately disproves a connection between canθ and Latin candeo 'shine'. The artifact reads Cizi zilaχnce meθlum. Nurφzi canθce. The first sentence says to the effect "Thrice [he] has overseen [the] people. Nine times [he] has [?]ed." We can be certain he didn't shine nine times! However if he "brought forth" nine times, it could be in allusion to children. Nine children is within plausibility in ancient times. The Bonfantes attempted reading it as a position of office but this meaning doesn't jive with ETP 286 above.

    Attempts to etymologize λῶτα with Indo-European roots like *loh₁-, *leh₂ or *leh₁d invite special pleading, further underestimating Minoan substrate in Greek and since Minoan is as yet ununderstood, it should give us pause to be so cavalier in our methods. Plus, how do your roots explain λωτάριον 'lotus flower' with λυταρίς which according to Hesychios is 'like a poppy'? Your roots can't explain the vowel alternation, leading to the succinct possibility of an Aegean (possibly Minoan) substrate. Note also Hebrew לֹט lot 'myrrh', derived from plant resin.

    Now, if we can translate luθ as 'seed', you might ask why I should hold on to a simultaneous meaning of 'egg'? In the Liber Linteus text at LL 6.xviii, we find luθ-ti which means either 'in a seed' or 'in an egg'. The context is: eslem zaθrumiś acale tinś in śarle luθ-ti raχ. Being a list of rituals, what could be relevant, whether realistically or religiously according to known Etruscan rite, about "in the seed"? Eslem zaθrumiś Acale is the date, "on the 18th of [the month] Acale". Next comes tinś which may mean either "for the day" or "for Tin (the sun god)". The action is in śarle, that is, "it was [śaril]-ed". Finally luθ-ti raχ where I take raχ to be an endingless verbal adjective operating on luθ-ti. It's a difficult passage for me but one interpretation is that this is a solar ritual using eggs and this isn't so crazy considering it was a popular eastern Mediterranean symbolism for the sun, eternity and immortality.

    Finally I just realized another interesting interpretation of eggs and their presence in burials. Given the broad semantic range in Greek ᾠόν 'egg, seed, etc.' and the presumed similar range in luθ, such a language would be open to thinking of these eggs as "seeds" being "planted" (ie. buried) in the ground. The deceased are also planted in the ground like seeds. Does the egg represent not only their immortal soul but the deceased themselves in a way?

    So many questions! My head is spinning. But it's a beautiful headache, isn't it?

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  23. Whoops. Pesky errors again. "The first sentence says to the effect 'Thrice [he] has overseen [the] people. Nine times [he] has [?]ed.'" should be ammended to "The first sentence says to the effect 'Thrice [he] has overseen [the] people.' while the second sentence reads 'Nine times [he] has [?]ed.'"

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  24. I appreciate the detailed response; when I get some more time later tonight, I'll try to respond in full as well.

    But for now – and again, I wish there was a more appropriate place to ask this - I had a couple of questions that maybe you can help me out with. I know you wrote a post about it a while back, but did you actually pick up a copy of Rasna's Etruscan language/inscription manual? I'm trying to figure out a few things about orthographic variants in several inscriptions (specifically, the Luynes dice) and, reading a review of Rasna's book, it says there's a chapter on diachronic/regional variations in the alphabet. Was just wondering if this would be one of the better sources for this (that is, if you indeed have it).

    Second, do you have a good Etruscan font that you use? I tried to get the one from the Univ. of Massachusetts Center for Etruscan Studies, but it's no longer hosted.

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  25. There's a lot of data here to sift over. Take your time.

    In the meanwhile, there's no such thing as "Rasna's book" but there is Rex Wallace's Zikh Rasna: A Manual of the Etruscan Language and Inscriptions for a hefty hundred or so smackeroos. No pdf of it appears to be available online.

    By "orthographic variants" I gather you're referring to the opposing orthographic uses of the letters sigma and san between Northern and Southern Etruria. What's confusing is that they map to two spoken sibilants s and ś (pronounced as /∫/ as in "ship") which represented distinct sounds and not just allophones. I suspect that the two sounds can be traced back to Proto-Aegean *s with palatalization predictably caused by former neighbouring *i.

    As for fonts, the whole Unicode mess frustrates me. I'm also more focused on cracking the language than worrying about this font headache. However when I searched for it, I could at least find Dafont's Etruscan font but it's in the TrueType format and doesn't have the full number of variants found in Etruscan writing. The resourceful Wikipedians seem also to be at a loss to find one at the Etruscan language page because the sole link they supply is dead. So much for team effort.

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