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Re: Missing the sky

From:Matthew Bladen <matthew.bladen@...>
Date:Thursday, March 7, 2002, 21:59
Thursday, March 07, 2002, 6:35:23 PM, Christophe Grandsire wrote:

[snip discussion of origin of 'Jupiter']

CG> In this case, I'm nearly sure the name of the sky god is derived from the name
CG> of the day sky and not the contrary, since the name of the god usually appears
CG> with the suffix -(e/o)s, but not the word for day sky.

A variant form of 'Iuppiter' is 'Diespiter' which to my amateur eye
comes out as 'Day-father' ( -piter is especially interesting,
given what you posted about the Sanskrit version). The Julian clan
were also hereditary priests of a god called 'Vediovis', which
contains the 'Jove' root found in Jupiter and also preserves the initial
_d_. It's either interpreted as 'little-Jove' or 'not-Jove', and was
taken to be the divinized Iulus/Ascanius, son of Aeneas, although
this is very probably a later explanation given to tie in with the
Julian claim to divine ancestry.
So, are 'Day' and 'Deus' related? Intriguing... :)
--
Matthew

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Muke Tever <alrivera@...>