Early Goths as Drinkers

[X99Lynx at aol.com]

In a message dated 1/12/2001 7:16:16 PM, dlwhite at texas.net writes:
<< It could be an "other-name" (if that is the opposite of "self-name") from
other Germans.>>

That's a possibility, but it could have been a name given by Celts or
Sarmatians or Finns, too.  The idea of looking to Greek is simply based on
the fact that the name first appears in Greek, and there's a fair lists of
tribal names in Greek that seem to or clearly do mean something in Greek, or
at least have a folk or conjectured etymology in Greek.  Add to the heavy
influence that Greek had on the first writing in Gothic (including its
script), and it seems reasonable at least to take a look.

<<If "pour" had in some dialects come to mean 'drink' (perhaps jocularly in
the beginning, and/or end), then I suppose it's conceivable that the name
meant "drunks" or "drinkers", though I wouldn't bet on it. >>

Well, it's a bit more subtle than that.  There were strong religious and
cultural implications in alcohol among certain groups in that place and time,
and one might see them transposed into Christian rituals, for example.  The
notion of pouring libations over the dead was an old one among the Greeks,
mentioned in Homer.  Other rituals at meals and certain times of the year
also involved offering a pour (maybe a <kas/katils>, Gothic, vessels for
liquids) to the dead or to spirits.  A book which I have not seen came out
recently about evidence of feasting in connection with Cernjachov ("Gothic")
burials, perhaps something like an Irish wake.

The notion suggested by some scholars that the Goths were a religious
grouping as much as an ethnic one might suggest that the name might refers to
specific, characteristic rituals (as, e.g., "Baptist").  Some connection may
be made to the practice of pouring libations to the dead or other such
rituals reflected in Greek words like <choe:>, <chutos>, <chutlon> and
<choe:phoros> (offering "choai" to the dead, as in the tragedy Choe:phoroi,
where the Chorus pours choai to the shade of Agamemnon.)  Because our direct
knowledge of Gothic is after Christianization in primarily Christian texts,
perhaps we only see the remnants of these practices in Gothic words like
<us-gutnan>, <gudja>, <guda> and even perhaps a satemized <sa:uths>,
sacrifice, burnt-offering.

But in all there isn't much sense in betting on any of these interpretations,
including the ones about floods and semen, because one appears to be as
likely or unlikely as the other.  Which is to some degree the point I'm
making.

Regards,
Steve Long