Post 2/n
Something of interest to me that doesn't appear to be discussed at all.
The (grammatical) gender for the word sun is argued to derive from the primary Sun deity. Regardless, in what can be called the "IE" languages of the "southern route", the gender for the sun in Sanskrit to Latin is male. In contrast, the gender of the sun in so-called "IE" languages that derived from the northern route, which traces via the steppes, is female, at least originally. The sun is consistently female in Nordic and Germanic languages -- including Gothic and English (which used to be a gendered language too) -- in all Celtic languages, in Baltic languages (Latvian and Lithuanian), and in all Slavic languages (where the sun was originally female and has since become neuter in some Slavic languages; perhaps because of Proto-Slavic having absorbed the Iranian-speaking Sarmatians?)
The difference can perhaps best be explained by the Finno-Ugric factor: in Finnish and Hungarian, the Sun is a female deity and the Moon is male. Finno-Ugric may have been the original identity, language and religion of the steppe populations and may explain why the gender of the solar deity and word were retained by apparently all European populations whose major IE language groups are derived from the steppe route. (But not those derived from the southern route.) Alternatively, Finno-Ugric formatively-influenced the generation of the IE languages and religions of the northern route, but was unable to have any effect on the homeland language of the Indian and Iranian migrants into steppe space. The difference between the gender of the sun among the northern and southern routes of "IE" dispersal appears to be more interesting than the "satem and kentum" divide.
Another point of interest is that the research into solar deities has apparently been deliberately discouraged, in tandem with problematic or even dubious "male" solar deities being forced upon European "IE"-speaking populations that actually only had a (primary) female solar deity. The following excerpt is from p.433 of "The Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology and Folklore" (2014), by Patricia Monaghan:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Da%C5%BEbog
britannica.com/topic/Slavic-religion
From "Nineteenth-Century Science: An Anthology" (2000), edited by A.S. Weber, p.268:
Something of interest to me that doesn't appear to be discussed at all.
The (grammatical) gender for the word sun is argued to derive from the primary Sun deity. Regardless, in what can be called the "IE" languages of the "southern route", the gender for the sun in Sanskrit to Latin is male. In contrast, the gender of the sun in so-called "IE" languages that derived from the northern route, which traces via the steppes, is female, at least originally. The sun is consistently female in Nordic and Germanic languages -- including Gothic and English (which used to be a gendered language too) -- in all Celtic languages, in Baltic languages (Latvian and Lithuanian), and in all Slavic languages (where the sun was originally female and has since become neuter in some Slavic languages; perhaps because of Proto-Slavic having absorbed the Iranian-speaking Sarmatians?)
The difference can perhaps best be explained by the Finno-Ugric factor: in Finnish and Hungarian, the Sun is a female deity and the Moon is male. Finno-Ugric may have been the original identity, language and religion of the steppe populations and may explain why the gender of the solar deity and word were retained by apparently all European populations whose major IE language groups are derived from the steppe route. (But not those derived from the southern route.) Alternatively, Finno-Ugric formatively-influenced the generation of the IE languages and religions of the northern route, but was unable to have any effect on the homeland language of the Indian and Iranian migrants into steppe space. The difference between the gender of the sun among the northern and southern routes of "IE" dispersal appears to be more interesting than the "satem and kentum" divide.
Another point of interest is that the research into solar deities has apparently been deliberately discouraged, in tandem with problematic or even dubious "male" solar deities being forced upon European "IE"-speaking populations that actually only had a (primary) female solar deity. The following excerpt is from p.433 of "The Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology and Folklore" (2014), by Patricia Monaghan:
Quote:Sul's name suggests that she was a SUN goddess, for it is connected to words that mean both "sun" and "eye". Despite this pointed connection, some scholars continue to look for a male sun divinity in the area, even suggesting that all inscriptions to Sul contain a misspelling of the word for "pig". Sul would be connected with such figures as BRIGIT, who in Ireland was associated with holy WELLS (in that case, rarely thermal) that were said to have healing properties. Like Brigit, too, Sul was said to have been served by a college of priestesses who attended an eternal flame. Occasionally Sul appears in the plural (see SULEVIAE); the same name is occasionally given to Brigit.
...
Today, "solar mythology" is disdained, and as a result antiquated attitudes about mythology have remained unexamined for more than a century.
Primary among these attitudes is the presupposition that the sun is invariably a masculine symbol. In fact, dozens of cultures from Japan to South America, from the Arctic to Arabia, have seen the sun as feminine. Yet examination of solar mythology generally halted while the assumption was still made that the Celts saw the sun as a male figure--as a god. Many candidates are proposed as the "Celtic sun god," including LUGH and LANCELOT, yet there is no definitive statement in any Celtic-language text that shows a god being honored as the sun.
There is, however, significant evidence that the Celts saw the sun as a goddess. Indeed the name of one goddess, SUL, means "sun". In the Irish language the word for "sun" has been feminine in gender since the first recorded usage; this word, grian, is occasionally used for a minor goddess figure who may be connected with or the same as the more prominent heroine GRÃÂINNE. A few scholars are hesitantly examining this question, but the general prohibition against solar mythology means that it has not been substantively explained.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Da%C5%BEbog
Quote:... one issue remains problematic: in all Slavic languages, the word for Sun, Sunce, is of neutral or feminine gender, never masculine. Also, in Baltic mythology, which is most akin to Slavic, Sun is a female deity, Saule, while the Moon is a male one. The same pattern can be observed in folklore of many Slavic nations, where the Sun is most often identified with mother or a bride, and Moon with father or husband, their children being the stars. Where exactly this leaves Daà ¾bog as a possible male solar deity of Slavic pantheon remains questionable.
britannica.com/topic/Slavic-religion
Quote:Among the heavenly bodies the primary object of Slavic veneration was the moon. The name of the moon is of masculine gender in Slavic languages (Russian mesyats; compare Latin mensis). The word for sun (Russian solntse), on the other hand, is a neuter diminutive that may derive from an ancient feminine form. In many Russian folk songs a verb having the sun as its subject is put in the feminine form, and the sun is almost always thought of as a bride or a maiden.
From "Nineteenth-Century Science: An Anthology" (2000), edited by A.S. Weber, p.268:
Quote:Moon2 is a very old word. It was mona in Anglo-Saxon, and was used there, not as a feminine, but as a masculine; for the moon was originally a masculine, and the sun a feminine, in all Teutonic languages; and it is only through the influence of classical models that in English moon has been changed into a feminine, and sun into a masculine. It was a most unlucky assertion which Mr. Harris made in his Hermes, that all nations ascribe to the sun a masculine, and to the moon a femnine gender.3 In the mythology of the Edda Mani, the moon, is the son, Sol, the sun, the daughter of Mundilfori. In Gothic, mena, the moon is masculine; sunno, the sun, feminine. In Anglo-Saxon, too, the moon, continues to be used as a masculine; sunne, the sun, as a feminine. In Swedish, mane, the moon, is masculine; sol, the sun, feminine. The Lithuanians also give the masculine gender to the moon, menu; the feminine gender to the sun, saule;...