III - EPISTEMOLOGY OF THE PANNONIAN ONOMASTICS - Part 02

Accompanied by his friends of orgy, Dionysus left Nis (Nish) and headed southward to visit king Lycurgus in Thrace and king Midas in Macedonia. After that he traveled to Egypt, India, Greece and Spain. Wherever he went, his celebrations became known as the “Dionysi”. The main features of his cult were the orgies and falling into ecstasy under the influence of wine, games and music, with nightly binges of drinking and free sex. The hopes of Dionysus’s followers who cherished life were masterfully described by Platonist Plutarch (Plutarchus, Vitae parallelae (prev. Usporedni životopisi), s. 45-125, Zagreb, 1988) and were reflected in many monuments throughout the Balkans. The soul must, in life after death, enjoy its state in paramount bliss and celestial intoxication.

The River “Resava” is a right tributary of the Great Morava River and has a tributary of its own called “Resavitsa”. There is also a village called “Resavitsa” and a cave called “Resavska Peshtera”. This rich geographic topo-onomastic contains many memories and traditions belonging to the peoples of this region. Among the most famous and celebrated leaders that took part in the Trojan War, from 1193-1183 BC, was the king of “Hileia-Shumadia” named “Resos”, who led the Thracian Wars. These fighters fought on the side of the Trojans and were known for their shiny weapons and excellent military equipment, as mentioned in the poem “Song for Dolon” by Homer (Homer, Iliad and Odyssey, I, 1, X, 434, Novi Sad, 1985. (Prev. MN Kjurikj)):

“For as long as you want to join the Trojan camp, Exactly there the newly arrived Thracians stand, With them now reigns king “Res”, an Eionian nephew. With him I saw beautiful large horses, The foals were whiter than snow and ran like the wind. Adorned with gold and silver was his carriage, To carry great weapons made of gold was a true wonder, To see such weapons; not fitting for mortal fighters, To arm mortals does no justice to the immortal gods…”

In the “Deliblatsko Mochirishte” (swamp) in Banat, as mentioned earlier, there is the toponym “Heronia” which is also a theonym of some importance. Also as was mentioned earlier, the etymology of the word “Heronia” was coined from the word “Hera”, which refers to the goddess “Hera”, and the suffix “on” (ön) meaning “I”, “myself”, “me”, ego. In mythology, Hera was “Kron” and “Reina’s” daughter, sister of the god Zeus. During the “Titano-giganto-mahia” Hera was protected by “Okean” (Ocean) for 300 years. After Zeus-Danube became victorious above the other gods, his wedding to Hera was celebrated festively. In addition to the many gifts Hera received from the gods, she also received apple seedlings from Geia that would produce golden apples. As trees of life, with eternal youth and immortality, the gods planted the apple seeds in the “garden of the gods” in “Iabokov Rid” (apple hill) near Panchevo. The apples were protected by the “Hesperdites”, daughters of the god “Forka” (the island Forko-Tumats). According to Diodorus (Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca historica, Fr. Vogel, IV, 26, Leipzig, 1986), the garden of the Hesperidites was located in Hyperborea.

Besides the toponym “Heronia” there is the toponym “Veliki Dos” which personified “Doro” (Dös, Döro), the goddess of gift giving and bribery. Hera used Doro to bribe “Eileita”, the goddess of births, to delay Hercules’s birth by three months.

The Lake “Paliki” and the City “Paliki” also have mythological roots. According to Hesiod (Hesiodus, Fragmenta & Theogonia, p. 376), “Palant” (Pallas) was the son of “Zemia” (Earth) and “Ad” (Hades), a titan, who at the time of the struggle of the gods and the Titans was killed by the goddess Athena, who removed his skin and used it to protect her own body.

The town “Titel” located at the confluence of the “Tisa” River in the Danube also has mythological significance. Titi (Tit-yos), another one of Zeus’s sons, was a terrible giant. As mentioned earlier, he attacked the goddess “Leto”-“Lato” (Letö-Latö) while she was rushing to pass through the Hyperborean territories on her way to Delphi. In his attempt to rape her, he removed the veil from her head. She was saved when Apollo and Artemis came to her rescue and shot the terrible Giant. Because he molested the goddess “Leto”-“Lato”, Titi was severely punished. His enormous body was stretched in Pannonia, in an area of 5-6 hectares, and this territory was repeatedly visited by flying vultures which ripped the dreadful colossus’s belly open and fed on his liver. And since his liver grew back with each full moon, there was no end to his torment. The city “Tit-el” was named after the legendary giant “Titi”. Etymologically “tit-yos” means great, large gigantic, and “el-os” means swamp and together they mean “a giant’s swamp”. In “Begei”, east of “Titel” there are large wetlands, among which the more dominant are “Belo Ezero” and “Tsarska Bara”. Many migratory birds land there to fish and hunt, including cormorants and swans.

The prefix “Ba” was widespread in the Pannonian topo-onomastic and could be found in such words as Balaton, Banat, Bachka, Barania, Bach, Baia, Baimok etc. According to etymologist professor Mpampioniotis (Mpampioniotis, G, Synhroni gramatiki tis koinis neas Elinikis, Athinai, p. 358), the prefix “Ba” in the word “Ba-sileus” is of unknown origin. Senc (Senc, St. Grčko-Hrvatski rječnik, s. 147, 152, Kr. Zemaljska tiskara, Zagreb, 1910) on the other hand, claims that the word “Basileus” means king, ruler, prince, master, commander (voivoda), (hence the word “Voivodina”) which belongs to the paleobalkan glossology. There is a lake in Hungary which has a mythological hydronym, it is called “Lake Balaton”. This lake has a depth of about 11 metres and covers an area of about 591 square kilometres. The word “Balaton” was etymologically coined from the word “Ba”, “Bas” meaning “king” and the word “Leto”-“Lato” (Letö-Latö), the name of the titaness “Lata” or “Leta”. In mythology “Lata”-“Leta” is from Hyperborea. She is the daughter of “Keiov” and “Fibi”. After he married Hera, Zeus fell in love with Lata whom he then impregnated with the divine twins, the god Apollo and the goddess Artemis. Unfortunately the pregnant Leta was left to wander around the world for a long time until she arrived at “Del”, an Aegean Island. There, after a long and laborious labour she gave birth to the twins. Her “midwife” was the Hyperborean goddess Eileitia, daughter of Zeus and Hera.

As mentioned earlier, the “Deliblatsko Mochirishte”, referring to the swamp located in Banat, semantically means “divine mud” or “divine swamp”, which in the mythological system was the primary land of Tartarus. Tartarus was where the souls of heroes, the ones that “Haron” refused to take down the river “Stiga” to Hades, were left to aimlessly wander among many less significant dead.

Included among the Pannonian mountains and hills that have mythological roots are “Frushka”, “Gora”, “Erinsko Brdo” and “Veliko Brdo”.

“Frushka Gora” is a mountain located in Srem south of the Danube River. One of its peaks is named “Strazhilovo” (321 m), and is located above Sremski Karlovats. The oronym “Strazhilovo” (Strazha meaning guard) belongs to the paleo-balkan glossologal word “Frura” which also means “guard”, hence “Strazhilovo”. Located at the foot of “Frushka Gora” is the city “Irig”. Above the city, at an elevation of 444 metres, is the “Irishki Venats”. In mythology “Iris” was the daughter of Tumats (the island “Forko Tumats) and the Okeanida (Oceaness) Electra. Iris was the personification of the goddess of information, the “golden winged messenger” who served the gods of heaven.

Digression: According to Hesiod’s version of cosmogony, in the beginning out of “Haos” (Chaos) came the supreme god “Eros” followed by the “Earth”, “Tartarus” (Gierdap), “Erebus” and “Night”. The name “Erebus” (Erevos) means “abyss”. This topo-onomastic exists in the Danube in “Bachka”, near the city “Bezdan” at the start of the Danube-Tisa-Danube canal. The topo-onomastc “Night” (Nyx-Nok) belongs to the town “Nokiai”/ Noћa” located south of Sremska Mitrovitsa. Its function in theogony was to protect against the damaging power of Chaos. “Erebus”and “Night” were a dual generated layer wrapped around the world to isolate it from Chaos. They were among the first adopted ethnonyms. In Hesiod’s theogony, from which all personified creatures have risen, they ranked as gods and existed in the geographical territory of Pannonia.

“Erinsko Brdo” is located at the end of the Danube River east of Belgrade, adjacent to the “Hesperidini” gardens. It personifies the “Erini” (Erneyes) or “Furi”. According to Hesiod (Hesiodus, Fragmenta & Theogonia, p. 133-187), the “Erini” were older than Zeus and the other Olympic gods and were born from the Earth (Geia) after it was fertilized with drops of blood that dripped from the castrated Uranus. According to Homer (Homer, The Iliad and The Odyssey, I, 1, IX, 454, Novi Sad, 1985. (Prev. MN Gjurigj)), the “Erini” were terrifying and angry goddesses, old women with pale faces who had snakes on their heads in place of their white hair. They punished violators of laws, those who spilled the blood of relatives, those who inflicted insults on relatives and those who violated the rules of hospitality. They were dressed in black tattered clothes and in their hands they held torches or whips. There was no luck without their blessing. One of the three “Erini” sisters was Tisifona” who guarded the “Fortress” i.e. the “Golubachka trvdina” entrance to Tartarus (Gierdap).

“Golemo Brdo” is located to the east of “Stishko Pole”. Located on it is the trigonometric point 324 named “anathema” located between the villages Rachitsa and Klichevats, at the right bank of the Danube River. The word “anathema” (anathma) means “damnation” and refers to the gods. The etymology of the name “Klichevats” is derived from the verb “klizö” meaning to mourn. These toponyms have interesting mythological meanings.

For example, when Hercules stole the “Gerinovi” cattle from “Eritia” (Ada Kale) island on the Danube, king “Gerion” caught up with the thieves at a

stream named “Anathema”. Here, during a ferocious duel, Heracles shot all three of Gerion’s bodies with a single arrow.

The village “Klichevats” is located “where three paths cross. Here the three judges “Minoi”, “Radamant” and “Aiek” continuously and nonstop, judge the newly arrived souls. “Radamant” presides over the Asians, and “Aiak” presides over the Europeans. The more complicated cases are sent to “Minoi”. After a verdict is reached the soul can take one of three paths. The first path leads to the “asfodelska meadow” (Deliblatsko Mochurishte). This is where those who were neither good nor bad go. The second path leads to Tartarus (Gierdap). This is where the criminals are sent. The third path leads to the Elysian fields and orchards (Godomin -Stigina Palace) where the noble are sent, all those who in their lifetime were full of virtue.” (Graves, R., The Greek Myths, Penguin Books, Middlesex, 1972).