|
Ēostre or Ostara (, Northumbrian dialect ''Ēostre''; (reconstructed form)) is a Germanic divinity who, by way of the Germanic month bearing her name (Northumbrian: ''Ēosturmōnaþ''; West Saxon: ''Ēastermōnaþ''; Old High German: ''Ôstarmânoth''), is the namesake of the festival of Easter. Ēostre is attested solely by Bede in his 8th-century work ''The Reckoning of Time'', where Bede states that during ''Ēosturmōnaþ'' (the equivalent of April), pagan Anglo-Saxons had held feasts in Eostre's honor, but that this tradition had died out by his time, replaced by the Christian Paschal month, a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus. By way of linguistic reconstruction, the matter of a goddess called '' *Austrō'' in the Proto-Germanic language has been examined in detail since the foundation of Germanic philology in the 19th century by scholar Jacob Grimm and others. As the Germanic languages descend from Proto-Indo-European (PIE), historical linguists have traced the name to a Proto-Indo-European goddess of the dawn '' *H₂ewsṓs'' (→ '' *Ausṓs''), from which descends the Common Germanic divinity from whom Ēostre and Ostara are held to descend. Additionally, scholars have linked the goddess's name to a variety of Germanic personal names, a series of location names (toponyms) in England, and, discovered in 1958, over 150 2nd century BCE inscriptions referring to the ''matronae Austriahenae''. Theories connecting Ēostre with records of Germanic Easter customs, including hares and eggs, have been proposed. Particularly prior to the discovery of the ''matronae Austriahenea'' and further developments in Indo-European studies, debate has occurred among some scholars about whether or not the goddess was an invention of Bede. Ēostre and Ostara are sometimes referenced in modern popular culture and are venerated in some forms of Germanic neopaganism. ==Etymology== Old English ''Ēostre'' continues into modern English as ''Easter'' and derives from Proto-Germanic *''austrōn'' meaning 'dawn', itself a descendent of the Proto-Indo-European root *''aus-'', meaning 'to shine' (modern English ''east'' also derives from this root).〔Watkins 2006 (): 2021.〕 The goddess name ''Ēostre'' is therefore linguistically cognate with numerous other dawn goddesses attested among Indo-European language-speaking peoples. These cognates lead to the reconstruction of a Proto-Indo-European dawn goddess; the ''Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture'' details that "a Proto-Indo-European goddess of the dawn is supported both by the evidence of cognate names and the similarity of mythic representation of the dawn goddess among various () groups” and that “all of this evidence permits us to posit a () '' *haéusōs'' 'goddess of dawn' who was characterized as a "reluctant" bringer of light for which she is punished. In three of the () stocks, Baltic, Greek and Indo-Iranian, the existence of a () 'goddess of the dawn' is given additional linguistic support in that she is designated the 'daughter of heaven'"〔Mallory & Adams (1997:148–149).〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ēostre」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|