Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Introduction
We may easily identify the names Diéu and Dious in the name of the PIE-god * Dyaus or *Dyeus,
but it takes some time to understand the correlation between *Dyaus or *Dyeus and the first three
letters “WIT” or “WUT”, respectively “TIW” or “TUW” of the ᚠᚢᚦᚩᚱᚳ (Ϝuthark/Ϝuthorc) alphabet.
The first problem to be solved is to understand ᚠ as a digamma, which not only represents /w/, but
also the phonemes /ou/, /eu/ or /au/ in *Dyaus or *Dyeus. This opens the door to the interpretation
of the initial three runic symbols as divine names ᚦIW and WIᚦ.
The second problem is to accept a reversed interpretation of the written words “WIᚦ” as “ᚦIW”,
respectively “WUᚦ” as “ᚦUW”, which is needed to accept the equivalence of “TIW” and “WIT”.
This paper presents a synthesis of Germanic, Greek and Uralic philosophical concepts, which share
the European names for the sky-gods, the personal pronouns of the 1 st person and the interpretation
of some common philosophical symbols.
The derivation of Tiw/Wit and Diéu/Dious from *Dyaus
The relevant European deities Zeus, Dious, Diéu and Tiw are thought to be derived from one
singular word *Dyaus, which may be illustrated by the following sketch.
The derivation of the names Dious and Diéu from *Dyaus or *Dyeus may be understood as an 1:1
equivalence, but the mapping of the these characters to the corresponding runic symbols turned out
to be more complex. In the standard interpretation the ᚠᚢᚦᚩᚱᚳ (Ϝuthark/Ϝuthorc) alphabet does not
allow an easy access to interpret the letter “W”.
Even if we know the sky-god “Tiw” is related to *Dyaus or *Dyeus there is no easy mapping
method for the letter “W” in “Tiw”. The flexibility to map the symbol “w” in “Tiw” to “aus” in
*Dyaus or *Dyeus requires the interpretation of the “aus”- or “eus”-section as a digamma.
Essentially the digamma (ϝ/ͷ) represents not only the phoneme /w/, but also the phonemes /au/
and /eu/ or /ou/.
The letter originally stood for the sound /w/. Whereas it was originally called waw or
wau, its most common appellation in classical Greek is digamma; as a numeral, it was
called episēmon during the Byzantine era and is now known as stigma after the
Byzantine ligature combining σ-τ as ϛ.
Digamma is the consonantal doublet of the vowel letter upsilon (/u/), which was also
derived from waw but was placed near the end of the Greek alphabet. Digamma or wau
is in turn the ancestor of the Latin letter F. As an alphabetic letter, it is attested in archaic
and dialectal ancient Greek inscriptions until the classical period.
The shape of the digamma symbol went through a development from ϝ through “C”, …including
the stigma "ϛ", but the attributed phonemes represent an even larger spectrum including “V”, “W”,
“F”, “U”, “UU”, “EU”,.....
This is what is needed to transform “*Dyaus” to “ ᚦIW” (“Thiw”) or “ᚦiᚠ” (“Thiϝ”, respectively
“Thiw”).
The “Y” in “*Dyaus” may be interpreted as I or U, which allows us to read the name “TIW” as
“TUW” and the word “WIT” as “WUT”.
In the paper The Art of Designing Languages I interpreted the sets of vowels as a symbol for
eternity, which still may be a valid concept:
In Provencal language four elementary verbs (to say (dire), to be (être/estre), to laugh
(rire) and to see (voir/veire) conjugate according to the pattern *iéu in which the
wildcard * is to be replaced by a letter d, s, r, or v.
The filtered entries vuoi'ŋâ (Spirit) and vuoi'ŋâšeh (Brain) (in Language Inari Sami)
may be correlating to the Inari Sami dual form's “uoi”-core (“we two”) and
simultaneously to the Old-Greek words νόος (nous, → English: mind) and νῶϊ (“we
two”).5
5 Notes to the Dual Form and the Nous-Concept in the Inari Sami language
The communicative links
The communications may have been setup by traders, which for example frequented between
“Pyrene” (~ Heuneburg, near the sources of the Danube) and Athens. Another mayor trading route
may have been the Nile. A few centuries before Christ both rivers represented the main highways
for Greek traders to the north and the south.
4: The Atlas of Ancient and Classical Geography by Samuel Butler, (Orbis Herodoti.jpg )
available freely at Project Gutenberg - The Full Project Gutenberg License in Legalese
6 Cyrene (/saɪˈriːniː/; Ancient Greek: Κυρήνη, romanized: Kyrēnē) was an ancient Greek and later Roman city near
present-day Shahhat, Libya. It was the oldest and most important of the five Greek cities in the region.
Herodot's Historiae
In Herodot's Historiae Pyrene is named a “city” and its name is related to Cyrene. These names are
described as locations at the large rivers which were considered to halve vast territories. In Cyrene
the river Nile cuts the territory Lybia in two sections. In Pyrene the river Danube cuts the territory
Europe in two halves:
33. Of the account given by Etearchos the Ammonian let so much suffice as is here said,
except that, as the men of Kyrene told me, he alleged that the Nasamonians returned
safe home, and that the people to whom they had come were all wizards. Now this river
which ran by the city, Etearchos conjectured to be the Nile, and moreover reason
compels us to think so; for the Nile flows from Libya and cuts Libya through in the
midst, and as I conjecture, judging of what is not known by that which is evident to the
view, it starts at a distance from its mouth equal to that of the Ister: for the river Ister
begins from the Keltoi and the city of Pyrene and so runs that it divides Europe in the
midst (now the Keltoi are outside the Pillars of Heracles and border upon the Kynesians,
who dwell furthest towards the sunset of all those who have their dwelling in Europe);
and the Ister ends, having its course through the whole of Europe, by flowing into the
Euxine Sea at the place where the Milesians have their settlement of Istria. 7 (see the
illustrative map by Samuel Butler → Orbis Herodoti.jpg (1907).
Strife whose wrath is relentless, she is the sister and companion of murderous Ares, she
who is only a little thing at the first, but thereafter grows until she strides on the earth
with her head striking heaven.
Hesiod's wholesomeness
In Hesiod's Works and Days 11–24, two different goddesses named Eris are
distinguished: As for the one, a man would praise her when he came to understand her;
but the other is blameworthy: and they are wholly different in nature. For one fosters
evil war and battle, being cruel: her no man loves; but perforce, through the will of the
deathless gods, men pay harsh Strife her honour due.
But the other is the elder daughter of dark Night (Nyx), and the son of Cronus who sits
above and dwells in the aether, set her in the roots of the earth: and she is far kinder to
men. She stirs up even the shiftless to toil; This Strife is wholesome for men.
In Hesiod's Theogony (226–232), Strife, the daughter of Night, is less kindly spoken of
as she brings forth other personifications as her children...
Heraclitus uses the word δίκη (Latin: dica) for “justice” and the word δίκη is lacking the required
IU-core.
8 DK B80: "Εἰδέναι δὲ χρὴ τὸν πόλεμον ἐόντα ξυνὸν καὶ δίκην ἔριν, καὶ γινόμενα πάντα κατ' ἔριν καὶ χρεών".
Analysis of the bow and lyre metaphor
In the bow metaphor Heraclitus compares the resultant to a strung bow held in shape by an
equilibrium of the string tension and spring action of the bow:[59]9
There is a harmony in the bending back (παλίντροπος palintropos) as in the case of the
bow and the lyre.10
In the bow and lyre model the curved (U-shaped) and the straight (I-shaped) elements behave as
antipodes, but both symbols may be attributed to different flexible and inflexible elements:
• In the bow metaphor the (curved) letter “U” may symbolize the flexible part of the bow and
in the straight letter “I” may represent the (inflexible) arrow.
• In the lyre metaphor the (curved) letter “U” may symbolize the inflexible part of the lyre and
in the straight letter “I” may represent the (flexible) string.
In the bow-model the letter “U” may be the flexible female and “I” the inflexible male symbol. In
the lyre-model the letter “U” may represent the inflexible male and “I” the flexible female symbol.
9 DK B51.
10 Sources in Wikipedia Heraclitus - Dike eris, "strife is justice"
11 Discordianism
The runic symbols for duality
During my studies I incidentally noticed the words in the Futhark runic alphabet.
If the first letter ᚠ of the “Futhark”, respectively “Futhorc” runic alphabet may be interpreted as a
digamma (/w/, /v/, /f/) the first part ᚠᚢᚦ (f,u,þ) of the alphabet may be read as “wit” resp. “wut”
(”we two”). These three symbols ᚠᚢᚦ (f,u,þ) are shared by virtually all runic “Futhark”, respectively
“Futhorc”alphabets.
If we may interpret the first word ᚠᚢᚦ as “wit” resp. “wut” we may also identify all four divine
names “Wit”, “Tiw”, “Thor” and “Rod” in the first 5 or 6 characters of ᚠᚢᚦᚩᚱᚳ (Ϝuthark).
This selection suggests the storage and definition of 4 mayor Germanic divine names in the ᚠᚢᚦᚩᚱᚳ
(Ϝuthark/Ϝuthorc) alphabet:
1. Wodan or “Wut”/”Vut” (Mercury),
2. Tiw (“Mars”),
3. Thor (“Jupiter”) and
4. Rod (Saturn).
In the Gallic Wars Caesar describes the Germanic deities, in which Apollo and Minerva (Greek:
Athena) do not represent a planet.
In fact Woden (“Mercury”) represents the most important Germanic main sky-god, who may have
been encoded in the (forwardly encoded) runic name ᚠᚢᚦ (“Wit” or Wut”):
They worship as their divinity, Mercury in particular, and have many images of him,
and regard him as the inventor of all arts, they consider him, the guide of their journeys
and marches, and believe him to have very great influence over the acquisition of gain
and mercantile transactions.
Next to him they worship Apollo, and Mars, and Jupiter, and Minerva; respecting these
deities they have for the most part the same belief as other nations: that Apollo averts
diseases, that Minerva imparts the invention of manufactures, that Jupiter possesses the
sovereignty of the heavenly powers; that Mars presides over wars. To him when they
have determined to engage in battle, they commonly vow those things they shall take in
war.
All the Gauls assert that they are descended from the god Dis, and say that this tradition
has been handed down by the Druids. 12.
In his work Germania (1876) Tacitus mentions Mercury, Mars, Hercules and Isis, in which both
Mercury and Mars have been encoded as “Wit” or Wut”, respectively “Tiw” or “Tuw” in ᚠᚢᚦ:
Mercury is the deity whom they chiefly worship, and on certain days they deem it right
to sacrifice to him even with human victims.
Hercules and Mars they appease with more lawful offerings. Some of the Suevi also
sacrifice to Isis. Of the occasion and origin of this foreign rite I have discovered
nothing, but that the image, which is fashioned like a light galley, indicates an imported
worship13.
Dis, Tuisco, Hercules and Isis are no planets and deviate from the pantheon which is described by
Julius Caesar. Saturn is a planet, but is not mentioned by Julius Caesar or Tacitus.
In the earliest Slavic religion the supreme God of Heaven was called Deivos,[3] but this
name was soon abandoned[5] to be replaced by the concept of Rod.
In some old writings the name appears as Hrodo, Chrodo, Krodo, or the Latinised form
Crodone.[6] The 15th-century Saxon Chronicle attests that "Krodo" was worshipped
also by Saxon tribes, who inhabited modern-day northern and eastern Germany together
with West Slavic tribes.[7] 14
The set of 4 Germanic gods (“Wut”, “Tiw”, “Thor” and “Rod”) also had been documented in 4
names for the days of the week Wednesday, Tuesday, Thursday, respectively Saturday. The
remaining 3 days (Sunday, Monday, Friday) are devoted to the sun, the moon and the planet Venus.
The seven names for the days of the week represent to the visible planets, which could be observed
without binoculars.
15 Suggested by Wackernagel in Haupts Zeitschrift 9, 261 in the appendix (IX. Zio), Teutonic Mythology by Grimm
16 Detailed in the essay The Evolution of the European Personal Pronouns)
Concept for an overview of a European philosophical system
In this concept the four relevant vocabularies (Old-English, Romance, Old-Greek and Inari Sami)
have been listed in the four mayor categories of words:
1. The dual form of the personal pronoun of the 1st person: wit, noi, νῶϊ , muoi
2. Knowledge: to wit; to know; nous , νόος, νοῦς, vuoi'ŋâšeh (brain)/ vuoi'ŋâ (spirit)
3. The sky-god *Dyaus or *Dyeus, *Tīwaz: Tiw, Ju-Piter, Zeus, Jumala / Immeel17
4. The dual number 2: two, duo, δύο, kyeh'ti
Once widespread in Germanic, the verb “to know” is now retained there only in English18.
According to the correlations between *Dyaus and all singular, dual and plural forms the personal
pronouns of the 1st person the various keywords “wit“ respectively “Tiw“, will all be considered as
philosophical keywords, which belong to the upper class in language.
Most of these words are carrying the vowel “wi“- and “iw”-cores, noi, νῶϊ- and “uoi”-cores, which
in the personal pronouns had been inherited from the yau vowel-core in *Dyaus.
Therefore I also include the dual form “muoi” (“we two”) of Inari Sami with a reference to
vuoi'ŋâšeh (brain), vuoi'ŋâ (spirit) and Jumala (God).
For clarity this overview is reduced to a set of typical samples and may be extended to a much
larger table:
17 Probably Immeel (God) is cognate to Jumala (“GOD”) and eellim (“life ”), eeleev (“living”) and eelliđ (“be alive”)
18 know
Contents
Introduction..........................................................................................................................................1
The derivation of Tiw/Wit and Diéu/Dious from *Dyaus....................................................................2
Correlations of European philosophical keys.......................................................................................3
Correlations between divine names and personal pronouns............................................................3
Correlations between the sky-gods, knowledge and personal pronouns.........................................4
Correlations between Germanic and Greek languages....................................................................4
Correlations between the spirit and personal pronouns...................................................................5
The communicative links.....................................................................................................................6
The communicative centers.............................................................................................................6
Herodot's Historiae .........................................................................................................................7
The documented themes of philosophical activities ............................................................................8
Strife in Homer's Iliad ................................................................................................................8
Hesiod's wholesomeness ............................................................................................................8
Heraclitus: Dike eris, "strife is justice" ......................................................................................8
Analysis of the bow and lyre metaphor..................................................................................9
Modern cultural influences.........................................................................................................9
The themes of philosophical discussions in the symposiums..........................................................9
The runic symbols for duality.............................................................................................................10
Mirrored names in the ᚠᚢᚦᚩᚱᚳ (Ϝuthark/Ϝuthorc) alphabet............................................................11
The three permutations “WIT”, “TIW” and “TWI”..................................................................12
Concept for an overview of a European philosophical system..........................................................13