Κέρβερος: Difference between revisions

|etymtx=Grammatical information: m.<br />Meaning: [[name of the dog that guarded hell]] (Hes. 311, where he has fifty heads). -<br />Origin: PG [a word of Pre-Greek origin]X [probably]<br />Etymology: No etym. Since long connected with Skt. <b class="b2">karbara-</b>, <b class="b2">śárvara-</b> [[spotted]], as adj. <b class="b2">śabála-</b> of the two dogs of the lower world (RV. 10, 14, 10). Doubted by Mayrhofer KEWA s. <b class="b2">karbaraḥ</b>, where for the Skt. word, after Kuiper, Austro-Asiatic origin is considered (s. also III 297). So it has nothing to do with the Greek word. - After Pisani Riv. degli studi or. 18, 91f. [[Κέρβερος]] and <b class="b2">śabála-</b> are of Mediterranean origin. (Von Wilamowitz Glaube 1, 314 n. considers [[Κέρβερος]] as the creation of a poet; "man hört in ihm das Knurren eines bissigen Köters", which nobody accepted.) The old connection in Pok. 578. Lincoln (JIES 7, 1979, 273-285) follows Schlerath, who showed that there were two hellhounds in the IE conception; this is most clear in Armenian, where Spitak [[white]] is the dog of life, Siaw [[black]] the dog of death. He ends with unfounded speculations. He may come from the East, but we have no evidence. He may as well be Pre-Greek, but I see no indication for it.