anatomical place names...

May 03, 2007 18:53

or the coupling of Aphrodite and Hermes

Over 3000 years ago place names were generated by configuring the
bodyof a god or goddess over the area to be mapped. The name of each
part of that body became the name of the area under it. This produced
a scale 1:1 map-without-paper on which place names automatically
indicated their approximate location and direction with respect to all
other places that were named in this manner on the same map.

Linguist Dan Moonhawk Alford (deceased) and anthropologist Stan
Knowlton described the Blackfoot Indian body-part maps of Napi (The
Old Man) and his wife (The Old Woman) in Alberta, Canada.

It seems the Phoenicians created a male body-part map in Asia minor (I
call it Hermes) and a female map in north Africa (Aphrodite). The
Phoenician names for these areas sound amazingly Hebraic because
Hebrew is also a Western Semitic language.

You are invited to join the BPMaps Yahoo discussion group on this
topic, a very quiet list that averages about 2 messages per month. The
URL is:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/BPMaps/

The Challenge: To produce computer software that will find additional
body-part maps elsewhere in the world.

Available inputs:
(1) geographic databases with ancient place names (e.g., the Perseus project).
(2) body-part names on Swadesh lists. Unfortunately, the navel is not included.

Attributes of Anthropomorphic Maps

(1) The navel is the center of the body, the center of the map, and
usually the center of the map's language community.

(2) Place names (toponyms) may be reversed, metathesized, misspelled
or euphemized for various reasons:

(a) The same part in the same language exists on another map of a
different body. Cranium > Mo[n]rocco because Ukraine existed?
Aphrodite is looking backwards over her right shoulder.

(b) The left (sinister) part is altered in names for left-right pairs
(arms, legs, eyes, ears). DoFeN = side reversed to Nafud in north
Arabia. SHvK = thigh with a T-sound for the letter shin = TvK reversed
to Kuwait. BeReKH = knee metathesized to Bahrain.

(c) The part and its name are taboo (that is, a sexual part or bodily
function). Semitic PoS = female pudenda => Hebrew yam SooF = the Red
Sea; Sinai = "snatch" is spelled SiNi in Hebrew. The aleph=CHS
isintentionally missing.

(3) Names may be loan-translated due to conquest or language-change.

(a) Roxolania (Semitic Ro[chs]SH = head) => Rus *(Ro@SH) => Ukraine
(Greek kranion)
* Caused by a change in the sound of the aleph from CHS to a glottal stop.

(b) Libya (Semitic LeB = heart) => Cyrenaica (Latin cor = heart,
compare coronary) => Libya

(4) Rivers and bodies of water may be named after bodily excretions:

(a) Milk River in Alberta.
(b) Red Sea (Latin Mare Rubrum) is Aphrodite's menstruation.
(c) Gulf of Aqaba (Semitic QaVaH = digestion/defecation)

(5) Internal body parts may represent subdivisions of external parts.

(a) Arabic Misr / Hebrew Mitzraim (< TSaR = narrow) = waist (Hebrew
MoSNaim). Egypt (< Greek hepato- = liver). Goshen (with a T-sound shin
< Semitic QiTN = bean) = bean-shaped kidney. Goshen exported Arabic
QuTN = cotton => Latin Gossypium (English gossamer = cotton-like)

(b) Atlas mountains < atlas = first cervical vertebra that supports the cranium.

(6) Islands near a body's hands may be named for weapons.

(a) Trinacria = trident (< Gk tri = three + Semitic NaKaR = to pierce)
=> Sicily (< VL *sicila < Latin secula = sickle to harvest wheat;
compare Semitic SaKiN = knife). The trident was in Neptune/Poseidon's
right hand (Italy).

(b) Greece = reversal of Semitic S'RoG = (weighted) net, held in his left hand.

(c) Crete = reversal of targe = small shield (compare English target)
also in his left hand.

Aphrodite as an Anthropomorphic Map

The goddess we call Aphrodite
Is not just an old Grecian deity.
The Phoenicians did make
Her a map. It's not fake.
Her body is cartograffiti.

The Punic war destroyed her face, (1)
The Romans left nary a trace.
But her hair is still there,
In Sahara, that's where. (2)
And her chin's a Tunisian place. (3)

Mt. Atlas is her first verTebra. (4)
Her backbone is now Gulf of Sidra. (5)
Her heart is in Libya, (6)
Her left leg, Somalia. (7)
Her breast is in Chad wearing no bra. (8)

The Greeks called her liver Egypt, an' (9)
Her kidney was Biblical Goshen. (10)
She's bent at her waist,
Now Misr-ably placed. (11)
The Red Sea was her menstruation. (12)

As a kid I did think the Red Sea
Was an English map typo: lost E,
From Reed Sea in Hebrew.
But that could not be true,
Mare Rubrum 'twas Latin, B.C.

Aphrodite with Hermes did sin,
We know this is true 'cause within
Her "snatch" we call Sinai (13)
His "zaiyin" does still lie. (14)
It's known as the desert of Zin.

Footnotes:

(1) The Romans destroyed Carthage during the 3rd Punic War. In Hebrew,
"face" is PaNim.

(2) In Hebrew, "hair" is Sa3aR (using 3 for the letter aiyin).

(3) Tunis is a reversal of SaNTir, the Hebrew word for chin.

(4) The Atlas is the first cervical vertebra that supports the skull.

(5) In Hebrew, SHiDRa is spine, backbone.

(6) The Semitic term for "heart" is LeB.

(7) In Hebrew, "left" is S'MoL.

(8) In Hebrew, "breast" is SHaD.

(9) As in ancient Greek hepato- "liver".

(10) The ancient shin had a T-sound, e.g., SHoR = ox was ToR as in
Taurus. The gimel often has a K-sound in other languages, e.g., GaMaL
= camel. So, GoSHeN sounded like QTN, as in QiTNiot = beans. Goshen
was her bean-shaped kidney. Ashkenazi Jews do not eat beans on
Passover. Cotton was exported from QTN / Goshen. The Latin genus for
cotton is Gossypium. Compare English gossamer.

(11) Both Arabic Misr and Hebrew MiTZRaim are derived from the Semitic
term for "narrow" TZaR. The waist is (or should be) the narrow part of
the body.

(12) In Latin, the Red Sea was called Mare Rubrum. In Hebrew, the Red
Sea is called "Yam SooF" = Sea of Reeds. SooF is a reversal of the
sounds in peh-sof PoS, Hebrew for the female pudenda.

(13) In Hebrew, Sinai is spelled SiNi without an aleph. But it is
pronounced as if had an aleph after the nun. It seems that the ancient
sound of aleph changed from CHS/GHT => T => a glottal stop. Treating
aleph as CHS, Sinai sounded like SNCHs, a reversal of K'NiSah =
entrance (to her body).

(14) Zaiyin means "weapon" in Hebrew. It is also a euphemism for the
male member.

Thanks to Israel "izzy" Cohen, BPMaps moderator
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/BPMaps/

ancient history, maps, place names, article, linguistics, geography, anthropology

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