mjj (flemmings) wrote,
mjj
flemmings
Someone cruelly got my hopes up by declaring that the Etruscan god of wine was called Flufluns. Sadly, the rest of the internet seems to think it's Fufluns, which is still pretty cool. "Little godling Fufluns running through the vineyards, picking up the wine jars and bopping them on his head." A further list of Etruscan gods'n'heroes makes fascinating reading. Not Indo-European no, not by a long shot. Achvizr, Achuvesr, Achuvizr, Achviztr, 'or something that sounds like that.'

"Thetlvmth-- Unknown deity of the Piacenza Liver, which is not a picture bilingual." Fantasy writers never give us people with names like Thetlvmth, Culsans, Malavisch, Tuntle, Veiove, or Mlacuch. I wonder why not?

Oh, and did you know that the word catamite is Ganymede run through the Babelfish of Etruscan? Me neither. The Etruscan version is Catmite, which is something else these days, usually involving mineral oil and cotton balls.
Tags: history, humour, language, religion
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