Biblical Hebrew Forum

[James Christian <jc.bhebrew AT googlemail.com>]

Are you suggesting that Greek Helios is derived from the Semitic el? If so
then the question naturally arises how did the Greeks refer to the Sun
before loaning this word? As we have the Illiad and the Odyssey which date
way back to Homeric times I am at the moment unconvinced.
James Christian

2009/9/25 <berlant AT advanced-studies.org>

> Greetings,
>
> I happened to come across this thread while I was researching a
> related topic, and I was just wondering what people here thought of
> the possibility that El could have come into Gk as Helios or
> de-personified as helios, as all these words referred to the sun,
> light, and day', considering especially the following factors:
>
> (1) The presence of unaspirated variants of Helios, aelios and
> eelios, in Doric, Aolic, Arcadian and Epic Greek
> (3) The practice of referring to El as "The" God using Heb. "Ha,"
> which could easily have led to Ha-el, and the subsequent loss of one
> of the vowels
> (4) ) The ability of this etymology to explain the presence of an
> a-grade variant of Helios, Halios
> (5) The virtually universal tendency to strengthen words beginning
> with vowels by aspirating them, especially in the formation of vocatives
> (6) The presence of a number of monosyllabic Greek articles beginning
> with "*h", which could have led to *Hel or *Hal- through vowel loss
> and/or confusion with Heb. Ha-El
> (7) The evidence that a number of groups (including the Phoenecians,
> The Philistines and the so-called  Sea People) were traveling between
> the Levant and the Greek islands pre- and proto-historically, as well
> as historically.
>
> Comments and criticisms would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
>
> Stephen
>
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