Anthropomorphic Maps

Area names on anthropomorphic maps were

generated by configuring the gigantic virtual body
of a god or goddess over the area to be mapped.
The name of each body part became the name of
the area under that part.
This produced a mental image and verbal map
whose area names indicated their approximate
location, size and borders.
These toponyms were produced without any
regard for the ethnicity, culture, language or
religion of the inhabitants.
This International
Phonetic Alphabet
chart shows spots
where phenomes
are pronounced.
Graphic courtesy of
Tyler Neyens at
Eaton Corporation.

Ancient toponyms
can indicate the
ancient sound of a
letter.
Rashi script aleph:
 Hermes & Aphrodite
Hermes is holding a caduceus.
Compare CaDuCeus and
Hebrew ‫[ יְדִ יעָה‬K]’Di 3ah =
news, knowledge, information.
 Attributes of these maps
 The navel is an axis mundi that is usually
the center of a map’s language community
 Rivers and bodies of water may be named
after bodily excretions
 Internal body parts are subdivisions of
external parts
 An island near a hand may be a weapon or
other object held in that hand
 Hermes, Loki and Napi are trickster gods
who can change their configuration.
 Why Do Area Names Get Modified ?

 The same part exists nearby on the map of

a different body.
 The left (Latin sinister) part is altered in
left-right pairs.
 The name represents a taboo body part or
function. A foreign word is often used.
 The area may be conquered or its language
may change for some other reason.
 How Are Area Names Modified ?
They may be
 A foreign word or loan-translated (calqued)
 Reversed (Cana3an = reversal of Greek gyneco-)
 Metathesized (2 adjacent sounds get swapped)
 Intentionally misspelled (Hebrew name for Sinai)
 Euphemized (Yisrael = gives delight to God)
 Encoded. Olympus < Greek omphalos = navel
Reversal: There are no reeds in YaM SooF ‫ים סוף‬
the Sea of Reeds. The samekh-peh of SooF
reverses the sounds of peh-sof in PoS ‫= פות‬
female pudenda. Compare English ‘p_ssy’.
 Consequences of these maps
 This ancient GIS can indicate economic or
cultural influence over the mapped areas
 The ruler of an area could claim descent from the
god or goddess whose body constituted the map
to justify the divine rights of a king or queen
 People in an area may feel entitled to control a
nearby area: Syria (waist) over Lebanon (navel)
or Saudi Arabia (stride) over Yemen (right foot)
 Naming a people after the area they inhabited led
to the soil aspect of citizenship by blood or soil
 Hermes’ head: Ukrainia > Roxolania >
Rus > Ukraine
Belarus = White Russia
lamed-bet-nun ‫לבן‬
+ sin-aiyin-resh ‫ׂש ַער‬
ֵ =
white + hair (reversed)
Roxolania > Rus
resh-aleph-shin
Ro@SH ‫ = ר ֹאׁש‬head
(compare Ruthenia) >
Ukraine < Greek κρανίο
= cranium, not Slavic
u kraina = to the border
Pontus Euxinus (Black Sea), Georgia & Caspian Sea
Caspian sea < KaSeF ‫( = ּכָתֵ ף‬left) shoulder
Colchis < QoL + KhiS ‫ ּכִיס‬+ ‫ = קֹול‬voice box, larynx
Iberia < B’Li3a ‫ = ּבֵית ְּבלִיעָה‬pharynx, esophagus
Georgia < GaRGeret ‫ = גַרג ֶֶרת‬throat
Euxinus < @aTZiL ‫ = ַאצִיל‬shoulder, compare axle
Armenia < Sanskrit irmah = arm; L. armus = shoulder
 Anatolia
Anatolia < NaTiLat yad ‫ = נתילת יד‬arm washed (by the sea)
Pontus < Greek ποντίκι pontiki = muscle (biceps)
Cappadocia < KiFooF yaD ‫ = כפוף יד‬elbow
Phrygia < m’FaReK yad ‫פרק י ָד‬ ָ ‫ = ִמ‬wrist
Bithynia < BoHeN ‫ = ּב ֹהֶ ן‬thumb, big toe
Pergamon ~ Gk φάλαγξ PIE penkwe = phalanges,fingers
 Middle East
 Kurdistan < Gr. Καρδιά =
heart; cf Libya, Cyrenaica
 Syria < TZaR ‫ = צַר‬narrow
moSeN ‫ =מֹותֶ ן‬waist cf Misr
 Iraq < YeReKH ‫ = י ֵָרך‬buttock
 Lebanon < Sanskrit nabhila
cf Nepal, Nubia, Mt. Nebo
 Philistia / Palestina < Greek
φαλλός phallos cf pleasure
 Israel gives @oSHeR ‫= אשר‬
delight to @eL ‫ = אֵ ל‬God
when it is YaSHaR ‫= יָׁשָ ר‬
straight, upright. SH-R-@ is cognate with DeLiGHT
 Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Yemen, Zin
 Saudi < TSa3aD tzadi-aiyin-
dalet ‫ = ַצעַד‬pace, step, stride
=> family name of King Saud
 Nafud rev DoFeN ‫ = דֹופֶן‬side
cf Darfur
 Kuwait rev SHoQ ‫ = ׁשֹוק‬thigh
 Bahrain < BeReKH ‫ = ּב ֶֶרך‬knee
+ metathesis > Arabic ReKBah
+ reversal > B kH R ‫בחריין‬
 Oman rev NaMuKH ‫ נָמּוך‬under
 Yemen < YMin ‫= יָמִין‬right (foot)
 Zin & Sin (Sinai deserts) < ‫זיִן‬
ZaYiN = weapon, male member
Map of Aphrodite
Cassiopeia = Ethiopia < kHaBaSH = Abyssinia
Cassiopeia
was a female
body south of
Aphrodite.
It reached the
Ethiopian Sea
now the South
Atlantic
Queen Sheba
< reversal of
kHaBaSH
Djibouti ~
kHaBaSH
 Aphrodite (head to throat)
 Aphrodite < Ophir ‫ אֹופִיר‬+ DaT ‫ = דָ ת‬religion, cf deity
aka Cypris ~Turkic köpür = foam; 3aFRah ‫פרה‬ ָ ‫ = ַע‬maid
 Mo[n]rocco < reverse Latin cranium = skull, has a Fez
 Atlas mountains < Gk Ἄτλας < tlenai = to bear < PIE
*tele- = to lift, support = 1st vertebra supports skull
 Pun < PaNiM ‫ = ּפָ נִים‬face cf Japan Nippon
 Algeria < Arab. hanajra al+GaRoN ‫ = גָרֹון‬throat cf Gaul
 Sahara desert < Sa3aRah ‫ׂשעֲ ָרה‬ ַ = hair cf Belarus
 Aphrodite (chin to breast)
 Tunisia < reversal of SaNTir ‫ = ַסנ ְֵטר‬chin, jaw
 Libya < LeV ‫ = ֵלב‬heart cf Kurdistan
 Cyrenaica < Greek & Latin corona = crown of arteries above the heart
 Gulf of Sidra < amood SHiDRa ‫דרה‬ ִ ‫ = ַעמּוד‬spine
ָ ‫ׁש‬
 Chad < SHaD ‫ = ׁשָ ד‬female breast
 Aphrodite (waist + internal organs)
 MiTZRaim, MiSR < MoSeN ‫ = מֹותֶ ן‬waist < TZaR ‫ = צַר‬narrow
Egypt ~ KaVeD ‫ ָּכבֵד‬, Arabic ‫ ك بد‬kavada , Greek ηπατ-,
Russian гепатит gepatit = hepatitis; PIE kaput- = head
 Goshen < KiTNiot ‫ = קִטנִית‬bean shaped kidney,
exported Latin gossypium & Arabic kutn = cotton
 Nubia < Sanskrit nabhila = navel cf Nepal, Lebanon
 Aphrodite (Sinai to Canaan)
 Sinai ‫ סיני‬with missing ‫< א‬
rev of K’NiSah ‫ = ְּכנִיסָה‬snatch
 El Arish < Greek orros =rump,
Hittite arrash =buttock, cf arse
 Red Sea, Latin Mare Rubrum,
Greek Erythra Thalassa = her
menstruation; Heb yam SooF
rev PoS peh-sof =vulva,pussy
 Bab el Mandeb < ‫באב אל מנדב‬
‫ = באב אל‬gate to + yaM NiDah
‫ = נִדָ ה י ָם‬sea of menstruation
 Negev < NeQeV ‫ = נֶקֶב‬hole, orifice, rev L. vagina cf ‫נְקֵ בָה‬
 Canaan 3 ~ ‫ ְּכנַעַן‬oNeG ‫ = עֹונֶג‬pleasure, reverse of Greek
gyneco- ; compare Latin cunnus = vulva, c_nt
 Aphrodite (Sudan to Somalia)
 Sudan < TZaD ‫ = ַצד‬side
 Thebes < TaBor ‫= ַטּבּור‬
high place, Talmudic
Hebrew = navel
 Darfur < Talmudic Heb
DoFeN ‫ = דֹופֶ ן‬side
 Kordofan < ‫ ּכ ֶַרע‬KeR3a =
kneeling, lower thigh
+ DoFeN
 Somalia < S’MoL ‫ = ׁשְ מ ֹאל‬left (leg) cf Yemen
Psycholinguistic Aspect of Russian-Ukrainian War
Many people (especially those who speak a Slavic language)
think Ukraina is derived from Slavic Krajina => Russian
окраина = borderland (of Russia). This toponym is actually
derived from Greek κρανίο = cranium.
Ukrainia's name became Roxalania, the
head (Western Semitic resh-aleph-
shin) of Hermes at a time when the
aleph still had its CHS = X sound.
When the aleph lost its sound, that
name became Rus (cf. Hebrew RoSH =
head). In 1917 when the area became
independent, it adopted its ancient Gray’s Anatomy: Surgery
(Greek) name. Skull, Lebeční šev
Psycholinguist Aspect of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
• TA'ANUG: Erotic Delights from Kabbalah to Hasidism by Moshe
Idel: in the case of the rabbinic view, Israel, or the righteous,
provide sustenance [mefarnesim] to God, but in Hasidism this
becomes “Israel provides delight to God.”
• I reached the same conclusion independently via etymology. Yod-
shin-resh = gives delight (aleph-shin-resh}. Aleph moved from the
end of nouns to the beginning under the influence of Aramaic
which uses aleph as a suffix for the definite article.
• Giving shin its ancient D/T-sound, letting resh rotate to L, and
giving aleph its ancient GHT-sound makes shin-resh-aleph cognate
with DeLiGHT. Adding aleph-lamed = “to God” forms a euphemism
for the male body part.
 Philistia & Roman Palestina were borrowed < Greek phallos. The
threatened loss of this part produces castration anxiety.
 Summary
These maps:
 conflated human anatomy & geography
 were part of an oral mythological tradition
 influenced naming continents after gods
 show that peoples were named after places
 indicate Phoenicians reached the New World in Tarshish ships
before Columbus
 led to nation states with body part borders and citizenship by place
of birth
 were superseded by portable media maps
 still exert psycholinguistic influence on current events
Izzy Cohen
cohen.izzy@gmail.com