Re: OT: babel and english

Thomas Wier wrote:
>Andreas Johansson wrote:
>
> > Thomas Wier wrote:
> > >
> > >Right -- they're eponymous, like Romulus was for Rome.
> > >(I wonder if Athena was eponymous for Athens;  it's hard to tell.
> > >She was the patron deity of the city, and was worshipped even
> > >in Minoan times.  If the experience of urbanization of extremely
> > >ancient Mesopotamia is any indicator (ca. 3500 BC), where
> > >cities developed out of prior religious centers, the deity might
> > >well predate the city.)
> >
> > I can't find the source right now, but I distinctly remember reading
> > "Probably, Athens is named after Athena, not vice-versa" somewhere.
>
>Okay, I can buy that.  Either way seems plausible to me.  Do you
>remember how old that source is?  When reading historical theory,
>I typically try not to read something that's older than 50 years or
>so, because so much of the field has been changed since then.  Unless
>you're talking about Hegel or Toynbee or something, I mean, who are
>still peripherally important, especially if you're arguing with Marxists.
As I don't remember where I read it (and won't have the time to search for
it in the immediate future due to having just begun at uni), I don't know
how old the source is, but it's likely not very new (most history books I
get my hands on aren't), but hardly older than the mid 1900s (I usually
don't put much trust in that old works either (except as sources on what
people, rightly or wrongly, thought back then)).

                                                         Andreas

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