medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
"Chaos is a yawning gap -- " = Old Norse Ginnungagap, before the creation of the world . . .
Meg
Gk verb, chanein, to yawn. For a place named
Chaos or some variant, I would look for a ravine in the vicinity.
Certainly a ravine could have a spring. The early Gk idea of Chaos
implies neither disorder nor emptiness, per se.
DW
http://surprisedbytime.blogspot.com/
John Dillon wrote:
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
> Dear Jim,
>
> This is an interesting question. But I'm not sure that one can get very far with it. If I remember correctly, _Chaos_ as a Greek toponym is paralleled in the vicinity of Agrigento, without there being any particular association there between it and "The Wilderness". It probably just denotes a "topsy-turvy place", e.g. one with a lot of obstacles in the form of great boulders and/or clefts in the ground. But in South Italian and Sicilian contexts, at least, the name seems to be unusual (Diana, is this true elsewhere?) and I have also seen it etymologized (on first blush, less convincingly) as perhaps indicating the presence of a spring (and thus related -- somehow -- to the verb _cheo_).
>
> Best,
> John Dillon
>
>
> On Monday, August 4, 2008, at 5:35 pm, Jim Bugslag wrote:
>
>
>>> 3) Onuphrius of the Chaos (?). Today's less well known saint of the
>>> Regno (also O. of Belforte) is a very poorly attested Italo-Greek
>>> hermit of Calabria. He is said, seemingly legendarily, to have been
>>> born at today's Belforte (CZ) and to have lived ascetically to a great
>>> age in perhaps the tenth century as a recluse at a place called the
>>> Chaos (perhaps because of very rough terrain). This was located by
>>> early modern scholars in the woods of today's Panaia, now a _frazione_
>>> of Spilinga (VV). Others identify it as today's Sant'Onofrio (VV)
>>>
>> Dear John (or anybody else),
>> I'm interested in the idea that "the Chaos" seems to be related to
>> medieval ideas of "the
>> Wilderness" and/or "the Desert" -- essentially places of disorder. I
>> wouldn't be a bit
>> surprised, for example, if he had lived in a cave or grotto, which
>> seems to carry the same
>> sorts of connotations. Do you, or does anyone else, know of written
>> sources for such ideas
>> in the Middle Ages (or earlier)?
>> Cheers,
>> Jim
>>
>
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