Comments | chronarchy: Deforestation and Erysichthon

chronarchy

Deforestation and Erysichthon

Jul 03, 2006 09:53

I was startled, when reading an article called "Lucan's Caesar and the Sacred Grove: Deforestation and Enlightenment in Antiquity" that describes the episode of desecration of the sacred grove by Caesar and what it means. Kinda cool article, and some copies will likely be made for a few people. What startled me, though, was that it referenced me to ( Read more... )

deities, dedicant path, history, adf, esus, piety

Comments 6

singingwren July 3 2006, 17:31:16 UTC

Death by cranes... not the cleanest way to go.

Please avoid that.

smithing_chick July 4 2006, 02:43:56 UTC

Suicides get turned into bleeding trees in the 7th Circle of Hell, according to Dante. Just as an added "Bleeding tree" reference there. :)

serendipity_9 July 4 2006, 03:43:20 UTC

Any idea what Erysichthon means? Many names in Greek mythology are constructed of root words. I'd be interested in whether there's a connection between his name and cranes...

On second thought, maybe I wouldn't be interested. I'd rather see you continue living, Michael...

chronarchy July 5 2006, 12:34:50 UTC

"cththon" likely has its root in "from the earth"

Beyond that, no, I've no idea.

serendipity_9 July 5 2006, 16:28:09 UTC

Erys-ichthon. Hmmm. Erys...Eris? Ichthy -- fishy? or (i)chthon -- chthonic?

More seriously, though:

From the Etymology Dictionary:

CRANE: O.E. cran "large wading bird," from PIE *ger- (cf. Gk. geranos, Welsh garan, Lith. garnys "heron, stork"), perhaps echoic of its cry. Metaphoric use for "machine with a long arm" is first attested 1299. Verb meaning "to stretch (the neck)" is from 1799.

So, probably no connection with Cranes.

On the otherhand, the closest English word:

ERYSIPELAS -- 1398, skin disease also known as St. Anthony's Fire, from Gk. erysipelas, perhaps from erythros "red" + pella "skin." Erythros is cognate with L. ruber, rufus, Goth. rauþs, O.E. read from the PIE base for "red" (see red); the initial -e- is because Gk. tends to avoid beginning words with -r-.

And the word "rude" also comes from the root "red" (as in: "redneck"), so Erysichthon probably was a rude, earthy person with no religious manners.

singingwren July 5 2006, 15:33:00 UTC

Whoah whoah whoah, I actually read this story and it is horrible. Horrible punishment for a horrible man...

*shivers*

Glad there are no real connections to Esus in this. :(