programa "logosi"

22. Vaan, M. de, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other
Italic Languages, Leiden, 2008
23. West, M. L., Indo-European Poetry and Myth, New York, 2007
Nikoloz Shamugia
ABOUT THE ESSENCE OF LIBER AND LIBERA IN ROMAN
MYTHOLOGY
The method of approach to the issue of Liber and Libera, which considers
the gods as the Roman equivalents of Greek Bacchus and Kore, leaves
the question of the original essence and meaning of the divinities unsettled.
The identification of Liber with Dionysus may well be expounded by the
contacts between the Greek colonists and the Latin inhabitants in South
Italy, and conceivably by certain literary interests of some Roman poets.
We may take issue with the classicists considering Liber originally as being
non-Italic, inasmuch as the evidence of Cicero about the existence of the
traditional Italic cult of the god seems well-substantiated with the conclusions
obtained from the linguistic approach to Indo-European comparative
mythology, which examines Greek jEleuvqera, Latin Liber and Venetic
Louzera side by side. The names of these divinities mean "free" and, according
to the accepted view offered by Émile Benveniste, derive from the
Common-Indo-European verbal root *h 1 leudh- "grow, increase" with the
following semantic development: *h 1 leudh- "grow, increase" →
*h 1 leudheros "people, freeman" → *h 1 leudheros "free" → Lat. liberi "children"
and Liber. Pursuant to the widespread opinion, *h 1 leudheros, more
particularly, denoted the progeny of the ancestral founders of the tribe
which was granted by birth with the full rights inherent in the community
(e.g., that that person was "free"). This explanation is based on the fact that
in some Indo-European languages we attest derivatives from the verbal root
*h 1 leudh- indicating the increasing stature of plants or of humans (Lat. liberi
"children" [the rising generation], Liber "god of fertility and vegetation",
etc.). Taking into consideration the fact that Liber’s festival, the Liberalia,
which appears in the old calendars on the 17 th of March, was the day when
Roman boys became adults and citizens with full rights, it is sensible to
assume that the essential meaning of the gods’ name, "freedom", should not
be understood simply as a phenomenon opposite to "slavery". The suggestion
of examining on the one hand the words "children" and "plant" (hence:
Lat. Liberi "children", Old Irish lus "plant"), and on the other "people,
freeman" (hence: Lat. Liber, Libera, Liberalia) as the cognates deriving
from the verbal root *h 1 leudh- separately does not seem to be unreasonable:
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