Biblical Hebrew Forum

[TedBro AT aol.com]

Helios from El / Eloah / Elohim... Interesting! 
 
What was the earliest date that this transmittal could have taken place?  
What extant Greek texts are there from before that date and what term do they 
 use for "sun"? 
 
The alphabet (Aleph-Bet) was adopted by the Greeks, when? This adaptation  
is itself a fascinating topic. Gutterals, he, ayin, unused in Greek, became  
vowels. For whatever reason, most of the forms were rotated 90 degrees. 
Lots of  other connections. 
 
I'd assume that Homer wrote alphabetically, not in the earlier syllabic  
scripts, right?
 
Thanks,
Ted Brownstein
 
 
In a message dated 9/25/2009 8:34:46 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
jc.bhebrew AT googlemail.com writes:

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