Dear Henry
I wonder you omitted in your Genesis <1> to suggest that γυνη γυνηκαιον [sic] γεινομαι γενεσις are all from one root & that you have not noticed the wellknown etymology of Δημητηρ from Γη μη τηρ
In the inscription you quote from Montfaucon you do not say whether it is greek or latin & Sybele in latin may be Spelt for Κυβηλη as well as for Συβηλη
I always thought the Eolic was the nearest Greek to the Latin – probably as being Pelasgic. Attis I suppose is the compound we find in Halyattes, &c & other Lydian names, & derived from Atta, father – as Αταλλων tata, Lada, pater, father. Is Atys the same word – The Goddess of Ephesus was surely always Diana & no other.
What do you know of the Lingua Isaurica about which there is a dissertation I think in Stephanii Thesaurus which I never read. If the Syrian & Assyrians were one people Syria & Assyrian were two very different countries There might have been a popular Ararat <2> in Phrygia as well as in Persia if there are not more of them besides the Armenian
Ancyra <3> in the same part of Asia was named by the Ancients from an anchor αγκϒρα supposed to be left there on the subsidence of I believe Ogyges Deucalions <4> deluge – It must have been that mentioned by Ovid when he speaks of in montibus Anchora summis <5> & is not too far from Apamea to have partaken in the same traditions –
Yr aff
W F S
You missed seeing my fine Pushkinia &c &c &c
Notes:
1. WHFT, The Antiquity of the Book of Genesis, Illustrated by Some New Arguments (London: Longman, Orme, Green, Brown and Longman, 1839).
2. See Doc. No: 03189.
3. The modern Ankara.
4. In Greek legend, Deucalion constructed a boat or ark to survive the flood by which Zeus intended to exterminate mankind. Ogyges was the first king of Thebes; a great flood, the Ogygian deluge, was said to have occurred during his reign.
5. An anchor on the top of the mountains.