Editing Neptune (mythology) (section)

==Etymology==
[[File:Villa Carmiano Triclinio 1 (cropped).jpg|thumb|Neptune and [[Amymone]], fresco in [[Stabiae]], Italy, 1st century]]
The etymology of the Latin ''Neptunus'' is unclear and disputed.<ref>Michiel de Vaan, ''Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages'', Leiden/Boston 2004, p. 406.</ref> The ancient grammarian [[Varro]] derived the name from ''nuptus'' ("covering", ''opertio''), alluding to ''nuptiae'' ("the marriage of Heaven and Earth").<ref>Varro ''Lingua Latina'' V 72: ''Neptunus, quod mare terras obnubuit ut nubes caelum, ab nuptu, id est opertione, ut antiqui, a quo nuptiae, nuptus dictus.'': "N., because the sea covered the lands as the clouds the sky, from ''nuptus'' i.e. "covering", as the ancients (used to say), whence ''nuptiae'' marriage, was named ''nuptus''".</ref>

Among modern scholars, [[Paul Kretschmer]] proposed a derivation from the [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] ''*neptu-'' ("moist substance").<ref>P. Kretschmer ''Einleitung in der Geschichte der Griechischen Sprache'' Göttingen, 1896, p. 33.</ref> Raymond Bloch similarly theorised that it might be an adjectival form (''-no'') of ''*nuptu-'' ("he who is moist").<ref>R. Bloch "Quelques remarques sur Poseidon, Neptunus et Nethuns" in ''Revue de l' Histoire des Religions'' (1981), p. 347.</ref>

[[Georges Dumézil]] said that words deriving from the root ''*nep-'' are not attested in Indo-European languages other than [[Vedic Sanskrit]] and [[Avestan]]. He proposed an etymology which joins ''Neptunus'' with the Indian and Iranian theonyms [[Apam Napat]] and Apam Napá and the Old Irish theonym [[Nechtan (mythology)|Nechtan]], all meaning "descendant of the waters". Using a [[Comparative linguistics|comparative]] approach, the Indo-Iranian, Avestan and Irish figures have common features with the Roman legends about Neptune. Dumézil proposed to derive the nouns from the Indo-European root ''népōts-'' ("descendant, sister's son").<ref>Y. Bonnefoy, W. Doniger ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=Uf2_kHAs22sC&pg=PA138 Roman and Indoeuropean Mythologies]'' Chicago, 1992, p. 138-139, s.v. Neptune, citing G. Dumezil ''Myth et Epopée'' vol. III, p. 41 and Alfred Ernout- Atoine Meillet ''Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue latine'' Paris, 1985 4th, s.v. Neptunus.</ref><ref>G. Dumézil ''Fêtes romaines d' étè et d' automne, suivi par dix questions romaines'', p. 25, Paris 1975.</ref> His former student, [[Indo-Europeanist]] [[Jaan Puhvel]], theorises that the name might have meant "child (''neve'', nephew) of the water" as part of an [[Proto-Indo-European mythology#Fire in water|Indo-European fire-in-water myth]].<ref>Jaan Puhvel, ''Comparative Mythology'', Baltimore 1987, p. 277-283.</ref>

A different etymology, grounded in the legendary history of Latium and Etruria, was proposed by the 19th-century scholars [[Ludwig Preller]], [[Karl Otfried Müller]] and [[Wilhelm Deeke]]. The name of the Etruscan deity [[Nethuns]] or Nethunus (''NÈDVNVZ'') would be an adjectival form of the toponym Nepe(t) or Nepete (present-day [[Nepi]]), near [[Falerii]]. The district was traditionally connected to the cult of Neptune, and [[Messapus]] and [[Halaesus|Halesus]] (the eponymous hero of Falerii) were believed to be his sons. Messapus led the Falisci (and others) to war in the ''[[Aeneid]]''.<ref>Vergil ''Aeneis'', VII, p. 691: L. Preller ''Römische Mythologie'', vol. 2, Berlin, 1858; Müller-Deeke ''Etrusker'' II 54 n. 1 b; Deeke ''Falisker'' p. 103, as quoted by William Warde Fowler ''The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic'' London, 1899, p. 185 and n. 3.</ref> Nepi and Falerii have been known since antiquity for the quality of their meadow springwater. ''Nepet'' might be considered a hydronymic toponym of pre-Indo-European origin from a noun meaning "damp wide valley, plain", a cognate of the [[Proto-Greek language|proto-Greek]] ''νάπη'' ("wooded vale, chasm").<ref>Robert S.P. Beekes, ''Etymological Dictionary of Greek'', Leiden/Boston 2010, p. 996.</ref>

===Fertility deity and divine ancestor===

In lectures delivered during the 1990s, German scholar Hubert Petersmann proposed an etymology from the Indo-European root ''*nebh-'' ("damp, wet") with the suffix ''-tu'' (for an abstract verbal noun) and the adjectival suffix ''-no'' (domain of activity). The root ''*nebh-'' gives the Sanskrit ''nābhah'', Hittite ''nepis'', Latin ''nubs'', ''nebula'', German ''Nebel'', and the Slavic ''nebo''. The concept would be close to that expressed in the name of the Greek god ''Όυράνος'' (''[[Uranus (mythology)|Uranus]]''), derived from the root ''*h<sub>2</sub>wórso-'' ("to water or irrigate") and ''*h<sub>2</sub>worsó-'' ("the irrigator").<ref>H. Petersmann below, Göttingen 2002.</ref><ref>M. Peters "Untersuchungen zur Vertratung der indogermanischen Laryngeale in Griechisch" in ''Österreicher Akademie der Wissenschaften, philosophische historische Klasse'', vol. 372, Vienna 1980, p. 180.</ref> 

Petersmann proposes a different interpretation of Neptune's theology.<ref>Hubert Petersmann ''Lingua et Religio: ausgewählte kleine Schriften zur antiken Religionsgeschichte auf sprachwissenschaftlicher Grundlage'' herausgegeben von Bernd Heßen. Hypomnemata: Supplement-Reihe 1.   Göttingen:  Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 2002.  Pp. 304.  {{ISBN|3-525-25231-5}}.</ref>  Developing his understanding of the theonym as rooted in the Indo-European ''*nebh'', he writes that the god would be an ancient deity of the cloudy, rainy sky in company with (and in opposition to) [[Zeus]]/[[Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter]], the god of clear skies. Similar to [[Caelus]], he would be the father of all earthly things through the fertilising power of rain. The ''[[hieros gamos]]'' of Neptune and Earth is reflected in Virgil's ''[[Aeneid]]'' V 14 (''pater Neptunus''). Neptune's power would be reflected by [[Salacia]], one of his ''paredrae'', who also denotes the overcast sky. His other ''paredra'', [[Venilia]], is associated with the wind as well as the sea. The [[theonym]] Venilia may be rooted in ''*venilis'', a postulated adjective deriving from the IE root ''*ven(h)'' ("to love or desire") in the Sanskrit ''vánati, vanóti'' ("he loves"), German ''Wonne'', and the Latin [[Venus (mythology)|Venus]], ''venia''. Neptune's dual nature is found in [[Catullus]] 31. 3: "''uterque Neptunus''".<ref>Catullus 31. 3: "Paene insularum, Sirmio, insularumque/ ocelle, quascumque in liquentibus stagnis/ marique vasto fert uterque Neptunus/...": the quoted words belong to a passage in which the poet seems to be hinting to the double nature of Neptune as god both of the freshwaters and of the sea.</ref>

According to Petersmann, the ancient Indo-Europeans also venerated a god of wetness as the generator of life; this is indicated by the [[Hittite mythology and religion|Hittite theonyms]] ''nepišaš (D)IŠKURaš'' or ''nepišaš (D)Tarhunnaš'' ("lord of sky wet"), the sovereign of Earth and humanity.<ref>Eric Neun ''Die Anitta-Text'' Wiesbaden, 1974, p. 118.</ref> Although this function was transferred to Zeus/Jupiter (the sovereigns of weather), the old function survived in literature: the ''Aeneid'' V 13-14 reads, "''Heu, quianam tanti cinxerunt aethera nimbi?/ quidve, pater Neptune, paras?''" ("What, why have so many clouds enringed the sky? What are you preparing, father Neptune?")<ref>H. Petersmann "Neptuns ürsprugliche Rolle im römischen Pantheon. Ein etymologisch-religiongeschichtlicher Erklärungsversuch" in ''Lingua et religio. Augewählte kleine Beiträge zur antike religiogeschichtlicher und sprachwissenschaftlicher Grundlage'' Göttingen, 2002, pp. 226-235.</ref> The indispensability of water and its connection to reproduction are universally known.<ref>cf. Festus s. v. ''aqua'': "a qua iuvamur", whence we get life, p 2 L.; s. v. ''aqua et igni'' : "...quam accipiuntur nuptae, videlicet quia hae duae res...vitam continent", p.2-3 L; s.v. ''facem'': "facem in nuptiis in honore Cereris praeferebant, aqua aspergebatur nova nupta...ut ignem et aquam cum viro communicaret", p.87 L.</ref>

Müller and Deeke interpreted Neptune's theology as a divine ancestor of the Latin Faliscans: the father of [[Messapus]] and Halesus, their heroic founders. [[William Warde Fowler]] considered Salacia the personification of the virile potency which generated a Latin people, parallel with Mars, Saturn, Janus and Jupiter.<ref>William Warde Fowler ''The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic'' London, 1899, p. 126</ref>