VOLUME I - PART V

One feature of Minoan-Hurrian appears to corresponds specifically with the evidence from Nippur, where Hurrian personal names are attested with the theophorous element irmi / ermi as a variant of erwi at Nuzi and ewri / ibri ‘Lord’ and ‘King’ in the Tušratta letter and elsewhere, cf. Ir-me/mi-ta-at-ta and Ir-me-ta-ta at Nippur (Clay PNCP, 93), to be read Erme/i-tatta, i.e. *Erwi-tatta, according to P.M. Purves (NPN, 263). But Linear A erwi also occurs. Several personal names with the element e-mi / i-mi are attested in Linear A. They can be identified with ermi / irmi, since according to Linear A and B orthographic conventions -r- preceding -m- is not expressed in consonant clusters.

Linear A wa-du-ni-mi (HT 6b.1; HT 85b.4-5) at Hagia Triada can be analysed as an Old Hurrian indicative sentence name wad=u=n-irmi or wand=u=n-irmi ‘The Lord has made him/her (the child) good, just’, consisting of the Hurrian verbal root p/wand- or p/wad- ‘to make good, just’ + the marker of the Old Hurrian transitive perfect form -u- + the enclitic personal pronoun 3rd person singular -n(na) marking the object of the transitive verb + the theophorous element irmi / ermi ‘Lord’, indicating the subject of the verb, but Linear A wa-du-ni-mi can also be an Old Hurrian imperative in -u ‘Make him/her (the child) good, just, oh Lord !’. We may compare the -n- in wa-du-ni-mi with Wantin-muša {wand=i=n-muša} ‘Make him [n(na)] (the boy) good, oh Muša !’ and Wantin-Ugur {wand=i=n-Ugur} ‘Make him [n(na)] (the boy) good/just, oh Ugur !’.

Linear A |i-mi-sa-ra (HT 27+HT 48a.3), Hurrian *Irmi/Ermi-šarra, can be analysed as Irmi/Ermi-šarr(=i)=a, ‘The Lord is like the King of Gods’, containing two epithets of the Stormgod Tešub, irmi/ermi/erwi/ewri and šarri (šarr=a is the essive of šarr=i).

Linear A ja-re-mi (HT 87.3) from Hagia Triada is the second sequence in a list of 7 personal names. Context and linguistic analysis show that it is a Hurrian personal name. Linear A ja-re-mi can be compared with the Hurrian personal name ia-ru-ḫé-pa, analysed as a transitive indicative or imperative sentence name i=ar/ij=ar=u-ḫéba ‘Ḫebat made (the child) good’ or ‘Make (the child) good, oh Ḫebat !’. If we assume that iar-/ijar- consists of a root i- or ij- ‘to be good’ or ‘to make good’ + factitive or iterative root-extension -ar-, Linear A ja-re-mi (HT 87.3) can be analysed as i=ar-/ij=ar-Ermi ‘Make (the child) good, oh Lord !’, cf. Th. Richter, BGH, 73.

The Linear A inscription te-we-mi (↓) (PS Zf 1), read from top to bottom, among the repoussé designs on a bronze tablet from the Dictaean Cave of Psykhro (Chapter 11: ‘Religious’ Linear A inscriptions) can be analysed as tew-ermi, ‘speak, oh Lord !’, consisting of ti-/te- / tiw-/tew- ‘to speak, say words’ + ermi = erwi/ewri ‘Lord’. The imperative ‘speak, oh Lord !’ may well reflect the prayer pronounced by the dancing worshipper portrayed on the bronze tablet. Linear A -e-mi/-i-mi = Hurrian ermi / irmi is the form in which the Mycenaean Greeks inherited the theonym Ἑρμῆς < Ἑρμάἁς < Ἐρμάἁς (form with intervocalic -h-), cf. Linear B e-ma-a2  a-re-ja (PY Tn 316 r. 7), singular dative Ἑρμάᾁ Ἀρείᾳ ‘for Ἑρμάἁς Ἀρείᾱς’, ‘for Hermes the Martial’. The intervocalic -h- of Mycenaean Greek moved to the front of the name in later Greek. The etymology of Hermes is Hurrian ermi / irmi = erwi / irwi at Nuzi = ewri / ibri elsewhere ‘Lord’. 

ISBN: 9789083275444

Imprint: Peter G. van Soesbergen

Publisher: Peter G. van Soesbergen

Pub date: 18 Sep 2022

Edition: Third completely revised and extended edition

Language: English

Number of pages: 514

Weight: 1220g

Height: 297 mm

Width: 210 mm