by Canabirix Sapouađđion
Greatest thanks, as always, to Farwater, with whom conversations always produce the most fascinating ideas.
In attempting to identify autochthonous Celtic cults of the Balkans, one is sure to run into the problem of the disorganized state of academia in the region. Potentially linguistically-Celtic material is often overlooked because it was incorrectly classified by earlier authors. This appears to be the case of the apparently Celtic theonym, *Kyrmilēnos, which has been classified as Thracian for almost a century.¹ The theonym is attested as an epithet of Apollo in an inscription from Ezerovo, Bulgaria which reads:
Θεω̃ Κυρμιλ(ηνω̃) Άπόλλο(νι) εὺχήν.²
On first glance, the theonym appears to almost certainly contain the Gaulish word *curmi, 'beer' or some other descendant of the Proto-Celtic *kormi.³ Beer consumption is widely attested among the Iron Age Celtic peoples, and beer deities seem to also be attested elsewhere in the Keltiké.⁴ This element is also attested onomastically in the personal names Curmillus, Curmilla, Curmisso, and Curmi-sagius as the well as the toponym Curmiliaca.⁵ This alone may justify the identification of *Kyrmilēnos with Apollo, via the likely perceived health benefits of beer and fermented drinks in general in the Ancient World. However, it is also important to identify the correlation between Celtic 'Apollo deities' and natural springs.⁶ This may indicate that the element *curmi- may have been meant to refer to a beer-like quality of the water in a hot spring, perhaps bubbling and tinted brown. Further, this connection becomes even more important when considering the original meaning of the PIE ancestor to the Celtic *kormi, something along the lines of 'boiling'.⁷ Intriguingly, nearby to the town of Ezerovo in Bulgaria, where the *Kyrmilēnos inscription is from, there is in fact a mineral spring.⁸ All of this considered, it seems possible to propose two full etymologies for *Kyrmilēnos: (a) *korm-il-enos,⁹ (with *-il- being a diminutive or hypocoristic suffix) to the effect of 'the Master of the Simmering' or 'the Master of the Small Beer', or (b) *kormi-lēnos,¹⁰ meaning 'the Boiling Wood' or 'the Beer Wood', all likely referring to the mineral spring near Ezerovo. However, it would also be unreasonable to assume that the indigenous Celtic devotees of *Kyrmilēnos did not recognize the possibility for multiple meanings of this theonym through a phenomenon which has already been covered by the present author before.¹¹ As such, in a reconstructionist context, all interpretations of the the theonym *Kyrmilēnos should be treated as valid until more definitive evidence is uncovered.
1. Katsarov 1938, p. 236.
2. Detschew 1957, p. 271.
3. Delamarre 2003, p. 133; Holder 1896, 1202; Matasović 2009, p. 217.
4. Nelson 2005, pp.45-66; de Bernardo Stempel 2013 pp. 87-88; Beck 2009 5.II.A.4.b.
5. Delamarre 2003, p. 133; Holder 1896, 1202;
6. cf. Belenos, see de Bernardo Stempel & Hainzmann 2020, pp. 151-156.
7. Matasović 2009, p. 217; Pokorny 1959, p. 572. This would also make *Kyrmilēnos semantically similar to the theonym Bormo, see Delamarre 2003, p. 83.
8. Wikipedia 2019.
9. Piqueron 2020, p. 73; cf. Belinos Delamarre 2003, p. 72.
10. Delamarre 2003, p. 435.
11. Sapouađđion 2020.
Bibliography
Beck (2009) Noémie, Goddesses in Celtic Religion: a comparative study of ancient Ireland, Britain and Gaul : cult and mythology, Lyon 2009
de Bernardo Stempel (2013) Patrizia, Celtic and Other Indigenous Divine Names Found in the Italian Peninsula, in: A. Hofeneder & P. de Bernardo Stempel (ed.), Théonymie celtique, cultes, interpretatio / Keltische Theonymie, Kulte, interpretatio. X. Workshop F.E.R.C.AN., Paris 24.–26.Mai 2010, Vienna 2013, 73-96
de Bernardo Stempel Patrizia & Hainzmann (2020) Manfred, Fontes epigraphici religionum Celticarum antiquarum-- I. Provincia Noricum, Vienna 2020
Delamarre (2003) Xavier, Dictionaire de la Langue Gauloise, Paris 2003
Detschew (1957) Dimiter, Die thrakische Sprachreste, Vienna 1957
Holder (1896) Alfred, Alt-celtischer Sprachschatz, Leipzig 1896
Katsarov (1938) Gavril, Die Denkmäler des thrakischen Reitergottes in Bulgarien. A thrák lovasisten kultuszának emlékei Bulgáriában., Budapest 1938
Matasović (2009) Ranko, Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic, Leiden 2009
Nelson (2005) Max, The Barbarian's Beverage: A History of Beer in Ancient Europe, London 2005
Piqueron (2020) Olivier, Yextis Keltikā : A Classical Gaulish Handbook, trans. Tegos Skrībbātous, Online 2020
Pokorny (1959) Julius, Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern 1959
Sapouađđion (2020) Canabirix, Reconstructionist Methodology II: Onomastic Assonance and the Linguistic Justification for inter alia., Online 2020.
Wikipedia (2019) contributors, Ezerovo, Plovdiv Province, in: Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia