From jmpfund@bgnet.bgsu.edu Sun Feb 25 12:15:45 2001 Received: from mxu3.u.washington.edu (mxu3.u.washington.edu [140.142.33.7]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW00.05/8.9.3+UW00.12) with ESMTP id MAA145268 for ; Sun, 25 Feb 2001 12:15:44 -0800 Received: from sp07.notesnet.bgsu.edu (sp07.notesnet.bgsu.edu [129.1.7.7]) by mxu3.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW00.02/8.9.3+UW99.09) with ESMTP id MAA26391 for ; Sun, 25 Feb 2001 12:15:43 -0800 Received: from [129.1.190.218] ([129.1.190.129]) by sp07.notesnet.bgsu.edu (Lotus Domino Release 5.0.2b) with ESMTP id 2001022515132517:2511 ; Sun, 25 Feb 2001 15:13:25 -0500 Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Sender: jmpfund@popj.bgsu.edu Message-Id: In-Reply-To: <006b01c09ec5$e0647600$ec3470c2@laptop> References: <000e01c09e96$1f4bfad0$5d509318@ptr> <01022510564002.00299@dhcp10> <006b01c09ec5$e0647600$ec3470c2@laptop> Date: Sun, 25 Feb 2001 15:16:05 -0400 To: classics@u.washington.edu From: James Pfundstein Subject: Re: Yhwh, Jehovah, Ra X-MIMETrack: Itemize by SMTP Server on MAIL03/SERVER/BGSU(Release 5.0.2b |December 16, 1999) at 02/25/2001 03:13:25 PM, Serialize by Router on MAIL03/SERVER/BGSU(Release 5.0.2b |December 16, 1999) at 02/25/2001 03:13:29 PM, Serialize complete at 02/25/2001 03:13:29 PM Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" ; format="flowed" At 12:56 AM +0000 2/25/01, Ralph Hancock wrote: >There is a grotesque and incredible 'solution' in Robert Graves's _The Whit= e >Goddess_. No copy here, so I can't look it up. Perhaps someone else will >oblige. I wanted to oblige, but I find (on rereading the chapter in question, "The Holy Unspeakable Name of God") that I can't summarize Graves' extremely complicated argument. So I'll just sample it (p. 286 from the "amended and enlarged" edition of 1966). The secret of the new Name seems to be connected with the substitution of the sacred numeral 7 by the sacred numeral 8, and with a taboo on the letters F and H in ordinary alphabetic use. Was it that the Name was given 8 letters instead of 7? We know from Hyginus' account that Simonides added Omega (long O) and Eta (long E) to the original seven letters AOUEIFH, invented by the Fates, "or some say by Mercury", and that he also removed H aspirate from the alphabet by allotting its character to Eta. If he did this for religious reasons, the eight-fold Name of God, containing the Digamma F (V) and H aspirate-- the Lofty Name which gave Gwion his sense of power and authority --was perhaps JEHUOVA=D4 but spelt for security reasons, as: JEBUOTA=D4 It certainly has an august ring, lacking to "Iahu" and "Jahweh", and if I have got it right, will be "the eight-fold City of Light" in which the "Word" which was Thoth, Hermes, Mercury and, for the Gnostics, Jesus Christ was said to dwell. But the Fates had first invented F and H; why? Why, indeed. Why, indeed. JMP("Psilocybin") .