Early Goths as Drinkers

[X99Lynx at aol.com]

In a message dated 1/3/2001 7:43:25 PM, dlwhite at texas.net writes:
<< But since the "pour" word and the "god" word seem to be different
extensions of the same root, it is difficult to tell. >>

As I mentioned earlier, there is the Gothic verb <us-gutan> 'pour out' that
is at the prime basis of seeing "Goth" as stemming from a flooded area or a
different kind of pouring (in the works of such as the Swedish scholar
Thorsten Andersson > "both Goetar, Proto-Germanic *gautoz, and Goths, Gutar,
Proto-Germanic *gutaniz, are nomina agentis based on different ablaut grades
of the verb Sw. gjuta, Germ. gießen 'to pour', in the sense of 'to pour out
semen'....")

Because I have, perhaps for only personal reasons, problems with the Goths
naming themselves either the "flood people" or the "semen people,"  I've
tried to look again at the notion that the Gothic name is not a self-name and
therefore perhaps not Germanic in origin.   I have no idea how to judge how
much the name itself is younger than PIE or some intermediate European
proto-language.  But there are some paths that might make some sense in terms
of the historical and archaeological evidence.  As early as there is anything
involving the name or anything like it (Gotones, Gythones or even Getae), the
Greeks are the primary source, of course.

Looking at this "pour" idea as an origin brings up a number of different
possibilities.  The early Goths -- as they are understood now in the
Cernjachov culture-- are associated with a good deal of metalcraft and
religious practices.  So perhaps there's something to "pouring" metal or
burial mounds that works a little better than the ideas mentioned above.

But one of the paths that's interesting are Greek words that circle around
one or the other forms of the Goth name and that refer to making and drinking
alcohol.

<Che:o> was a main Greek verb for pour, taking many forms and meanings. In
the passive and aorist, it actually took the form <chut->, and we also have
the rather common participle, <chutos>, poured.

<ekchutos> meant 'poured forth, unconfined', but was also used as
'immoderate' and as the title of a classical treatise on wine making.
<oinochutos> was poured wine.   <oinodochutos>, a cupbearer.  <choe:>
specifically meant a pouring out of liquid, drink-offering, "especially made
to the dead or over their graves."

Much more specific about drinking is a string of fairly early words more
related to the shape and contents of the vessel than to its pour:

<ko:tho:n, -o:nos> was a Spartan drinking cup used by soldiers and made of
earthenware or metal.
<ko:tho:n> is defined in L&S as "a deep potation", but not of wine.
<ko:tho:nizo:> is defined as "make drunken" and, in the passive, as "drink
hard".
<keko:tho:nismenos>, inebriated.
<ko:tha> as a <pote:ria>, a drinking-cup.
<kuttoi> as "receptacles."
There is also the difficult-to-explain drinking and betting game of
<kottabus>.

Another group of words (most from at least the 3d century BC) that were
apparently unrelated are also interesting:
<zuthos> defined as "an Egyptian kind of beer, brewed with barley," but also
as "the beer of northern nations."
<zutas> was a brewer (cf., <zumoo:> leaven, ferment)
<zutopo:lis> a woman who sells beer
<zutopo:lion> a beer-shop
<zute:ra> a tax on beer

Is there any possibility that some of these Greek words made their way
northward or northeastward or vice versa or back and forth in the centuries
before the "Goths" appear on the scene?  Could any of this go back to an
ancestor language?  Were these people, later called the Goths, remembered
most in the Greek consciousness or their own as notable brewers or consumers
of such beverages?  On the theory that the exceptional product of a land
precedes knowledge of the people themselves?  Who showed up to brew this
"beer of the northern nations" in Greece at least by the 3d century BC?

And, of course, could any of this make linguistic sense?

Regards,
Steve Long