PART
6 –
Ch.XXXVIII.6
The
Great Pelasgian empire
(The
memory of Saturn in Romanian historical traditions)
XXXVIII.
6. Saturn under the names Cronos, Carnubutas and Voda.
The Greeks called
Saturn Cronos, and Greek theology
has later tried to identify this name with chronos, showing Saturn as a symbol
of time.
The origin of the
name though is not Greek. The original form of this word belonged to the
barbarian popular language, or from the northern parts of Hellada.
One of the most
ancient kings of the Getae was Carnubutas
(Hyginus, Astron. II. 14), a name
which, with Sophocles (fragm. 339),
appears only in the Genitive form, Charnabontos.
According to
Hyginus, Carnubutas had lived in the times when the first cereal seeds had been
distributed to humankind. Carnubutas was therefore the same as Saturn or Cronos, called in Roman theology: dues frugum Saturnus frugifer
Augustus.
This name
“Carnubutas” is a composed name.
In Romanian
language, carn (adjective) means crooked, bent, Lat. curvus, Greek
choronos,
Germ. krumm, a word which is often
used to indicate physical deformities of the human body.
Saturn, writes the
monk Albericus, was shown in antique paintings as a bent, stooped, old man,
white-haired, with a long beard (De deor. imag. – De Saturno).
Saturn under the
name Novac presents the same
physical traits. In Romanian epic poems he is: tall, bent to his knees, with a hollow chest, and a beard reaching to his
waist.
As we see, the term
Cronos was in the beginning a simple
epithet of Saturn, which indicated his physical deformities, “homo curvus”, (choronos,
hunchback, “carn”); and for the Romans, the name “Saturn” had also been a
simple popular epithet. In antiquity, the writer Olympiodorus was of the same opinion, that the name Kronos
derived from choronos, crooked or “carn” (Henr. Stephanus, Thesaurus, Gr. linguae).
We arrive now at
the second part of this composed name: butas
with Hyginus, bontos with Sophocles, both forms more or less
altered. These words correspond to an ancient popular term, identical with the
Romanian “Voda” (TN – Domn, King).
An Assyrian
divinity Mana-vat is mentioned on a
Roman inscription discovered at Sarmisegetuza, a name which also appears in
Romanian epic songs under the form Manea
Voda.
The origin of the
word “Voda” as a title of
sovereignty, goes back to very remote times.
In the ancient
religion of the Germans, Wod, Wode,
Woda, Weda, Woatan, Wuodan and Wodan
(Grimm, D. Myth. 1854, p. 120
seqq), is the name of the supreme divinity who governs the world. This Wod or
Wodan has in ancient German legends the same qualities and the same physical,
historical and mythological characteristics of Saturn. He is called senex, grandaevus, and has a long
beard. He makes the seeds sown on the fields grow and bear fruit; he founds the
first sanctuaries and temples; he wages wars; he gives heart to man against his
enemies.
In sculptures he
was shown armed, and the German poems speak about his travels through the world
in the same way in which the ancients spoke about the travels of Saturn.
We cannot suppose
in any case that the term “Woda” or “Wuodan” could have passed to the Germans
from the Slavs. The Slavs have no divinity with this name; and in ancient Slav
language, as well as in modern Slavic languages, the word “voda” means “water”.
The Greeks
venerated one Zeus strategos, leader of armies in war, while the Latins,
Etruscans, and Romans, honored since the most ancient times one Vedius, Vediovis or Vejovis (Vedijovis in original form). This Vediovis was a bellicose and
pacifying divinity. His place of honor was in front of Jove (Varro, L. L. V. 74). His strength was
in weapons (thunderbolts and arrows).
His simulacrum was
in the ancient citadel on the Capitolium.
During the second
Punic war, the praetorian L. Furius invoked the help of Vedius in the battle
with the Gauls at
It results therefore that Vedius of the Romans
had all the characteristics of Woda or Wodan of the Germans [1].
[1.The poet Ovid (Fast. III. 445), likens Vejovis
with Jupiter juvenis, and we have
reduced the etymology of this name (see Ch. XIII) to the words vetus deus, as Saturn was called by Virgil (Aen. VII. 203), and in the
Roman inscriptions of
It seems though that the forms Vedius, Vediovis correspond more to the
names Voda, Veda and Vod, given to Saturn in Romanian and
German poems].
In the sacred books
of the Indians, Manu the 7th
bears the patronymic name Vaivaswata,
which means “the son of Vivasvat”,
the Sun (Pauthier, Les livres
sacrees de l’Orient, 1843, p. 337). This Manu Vaivaswata, identical with Manavat from the inscription from
Sarmisegetuza, had lived, according to Vedic legends, in the times of the last
flood, meaning in the epoch of Saturn.
Finally, Saturn
also appears under the name “Voda”,
in another traditional Romanian song (Gazeta
Transilvaniei, 1906, Nr. 284). In other epic songs, Novac (Saturn) is also
called Minea - Voda and Mihnea - Voda (Tocilescu, Mater. Folkl. p. 110, 1236).
We can therefore
establish that the second parts of the names “Carnu-butas” si “Charna-bontos”
appear to be only altered forms of the word “Voda” of the ancient epic songs
referring to Saturn.