February 23, 2003
Richard Poe and the Etymology of Europe
Richard Poe proposes an imaginative etymology of the word "Europe" in his book Black Spark, White Fire. Rather than accepting the common rendering of the word as wide-faced, or wide-eyed, he believes that it is a Phoenician word from imaginary Phoenician colonists of Greece.
In fact "Europe" is a perfectly good female Greek name (cf. Antiope, Merope, Kalliope, etc.) Richard Poe can't believe that the Greeks would call an entire continent after a woman. But then again, place-names are not always chosen as rationally as he thinks they should be chosen. For example, America is named after an Italian who had little to do with discovering it. Africa is named after the Afri a North African tribe. The Greeks gave some pretty imaginative names to their colonies, e.g., Pythikoussai in Italy has "monkey" (pithekos) in its name, while Mycenae has "mushroom" (mykes).
Poe's second argument is that Hesychius, a 5th c. AD lexicographer gives Europe as the "land of the West". Using common sense, it would be easy to see why he would do so. Europe is indeed the land of the West (from a Greek, or Eastern Mediterranean perspective) and that is how it would be defined in a dictionary.
Poe also gives as a fact, not only that Europe is from a Semitic root via Phoenician, but that the Greek word erebos (=darkness) is also Semitic from the same root. But in reality, erebos is derived from the PIE noun *h1regw-os meaning "darkness". Such simple facts are not to be found in Poe's work though, for they would ruin the overall suspension of disbelief on which the entire work is based.
Posted by Dienekes at February 23, 2003 03:55 AM | PermaLinkPoe is a psuedo scholar like his idol Martin Bernal who was by education an Asian studies scholar that suddenly became a classical Greek scholar.
The writing of Hesoid and Herodutus clearly place the origin of the Greek people in northern Greece around Mt Olympus.Last I checked Mt Olympus was in Greece not Egypt or the land of the Caanites.The Greek Gods resided on Mt Olympus
for the very simple reason that the Greek speaking people who later became idenified with Greeki diolects such as IONIC or DORIC originated in that area.This proves that Poe a journalist knows very little about Greek history.
Homer's Mount Olympus was certainly not the one you speak of. The Mediterranean mountain is very tall, while Homer's was closer to a hill, perhaps 100m high.
Posted by: Stuart Harris at August 12, 2003 02:49 PMHomer is not ambiguous as to the location of Mt. Olympus. Nor where all the Greeks that came after him. Nor is there any evidence that Mt. Olympus was 100m, of course.
Posted by: Dienekes at August 12, 2003 09:05 PMThe continent Europe is called after a pre-greek goddess of Dodona see www.europesname.com
Posted by: Peter Gommers at September 11, 2003 11:54 PMfunny, but curious naming is also a strong Macedonian tradition
Magarevo (Donkeysville) gets its name from the neighbouring village, Trnovo (Thornsville). The funny thing is that the two villages have merged and now people don’t know where Thornsville ends and Donkeysville begins.
The Lake Prespa district is cradled by Galicia (pronounced Galichitsa) National Park in the west and Pelister National Park to the east. The scenery is simply magic. The best part of visiting the eastern shore of the Lake is the names of the villages :
Podmocani (pronounced Podmochani) meaning wet underpants; Grncari (pronounced Grnchari) translated as large pots ; Rajaca Jaca (pronounced Raytsa Yatsa) translated as Raytsa eggs, colloquially it also means balls.
Vati fati translated as Vati - grab it; Kurbinovo Kur meaning penis; Slivnica (pronounced Slivnitsa) - Silva means plum but colloquially means pussy (as in cat)
Krani rhymes with Kreni meaning lift up or lift it up; Apvati derived from Ah Fati meaning grab it; Strbovo (pronounced Shtrbovo) translated as the toothless one; and Nakolec (pronounced Nakolets) means to sit on a wooden implement.
Ljubovci (pronounced Lyubovchi) romantically known as the great lovers; Brajcin (pronounced Braychin) translated roughly as the wedding makers, derived from the word brak for marriage. This village is situated right underneath Pelister National Park. From here you can try to get a guide by asking at the village shop. Going along the lake shore you will get to the last village before the Greek border. You’re not going to be able to get across the Greek border; only freight is allowed to go across it and people are strictly forbidden.
The last village is Dolno Dupeni, meaning Lower Rooted. There is an Upper Rooted (Gorno Dupeni) and that village is near Resen up inside the Galichitsa National Park. You can try to get a guide there.
The people are proud of where they live so when visiting Lake Prespa remember to laugh with the locals and not at them. Such names are found throughout Macedonia but what is unique is that in the Prespa district, they are so numerous and in such proximity to each other.
Sacha Lethborg & Zoran Zinzovski, Australia (May 99)
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/letters/eur/mac_pc.htm
Posted by: mkont at November 15, 2003 06:47 AM