The ancient sumerian sign for woman is the downward tilted triangle (Haarmann 1992a: 154, 159).

This sign appears in many variations in the most ancient paleolithic symbolism. (Anati 1991: 51, 91-94, 212-215, 234), (Schulz 1995: 220-221), (Hunger 1990: 518-524). There is quite a large variation of the symbol in the Tantric usage. (Rawson 1973: 16, 19, plate 1, 7, 10, 12). The triangle and the Greek letter delta are the signs of Demeter (Walker 1993: 852). It is a reasonable conjecture that this might be one of the most often used, and most ancient written symbols of humanity.

Driver (1948: 8-39) gives a discussion of the ancient Mesopotamian writing technology and stylus [70] forms. There were probably different types of stylus, and the two most common cuneiform marks used to build a sign were similar to the letters Y and V.

(In the text version, the signs are: Y and )

Now this alone might not be sufficient to support a hypothesis that the form of Mesopotamian cuneiform writing had anything to do with a sexual symbolism. It is always the most direct approach to trace the material and technical requirements for handling an engraving process like the combination of stylus and wet clay presents, to yield an optimally reproducible form of markings. (By Occam's razor: entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem).

I will therefore point to a few onoma-semaiophonic connections between the word cuneiform of the writing technique and some related key terms in Latin and Greek. Unfortunately I don't have the necessary data on the ancient Mesopotamian languages that would be needed to complete this work, but what is presented here gives some "food for thought", as I hope, and may lead into a further inquiry of the matter. I must repeat that the onoma-semaiophonic connections I will present here, are heterodox from the view of classical philology, linguistics, and etymology, and my main supporting references, the works of Martin Bernal (1987), (1991), and Hertha v. Dechend (1977-1997), are hardly accepted as standard text books in classical philology or history. But I wouldn't have gone through the trouble of writing this article if I had wanted to stick to standard academic paradigms. Bernal argues the case that ancient Greek civilization owes much more to the Eqyptians and Mesopotamians, than the Greeks would admit to have inherited from those whom they called barbarians and that much of their language contains loan words and load ideas from those cultures. Consequently, in Bernal's interpretation, much of the Greek thought system has its roots in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. For supporting views, Bernal can count Platon's Timaios as his main witness. He argues that a certain euro-/ aryan-centric attitude of 19th century (and quite possibly, also 20th century) classical researchers has tended to neglect those cross-cultural influences and instead focus on a stand-alone cultural achievement of the ancient Greeks. Let it be noted that Demokritos traveled across the ancient world that was then pacified by the Persian empire, and that Heraklit was supposed to have had a personal connection with the Persian king of kings. Hertha v. Dechend makes a more general assumption of a rather free-wheeling cultural interchange traffic in antiquity, even across the great oceans, with mythologies and epics floating criss-cross through the cultural substratum of the ancient world, travelling like great tidal waves through the Pacific ocean (solitons in chaos theory, Briggs 1990: 173-192). But if there is some measure of scholarly discord on the roots of the Greek civilization, there is no point denying that the Romans were actually very proud of, and told everyone who cared or didn't care to hear it, that they descended from an Anatolian hero race, and their "founding father" (Stammvater) was Aeneas of Troy. Dechend (1993: 177-180, 325-326). The connection of Hesoid's Theogony and a similar {Phoenician / Levant} {Sanchunjaphon / Sanchunjaton / Kumarbi [71] } epos has also been noted. Hölscher (1989: 124-127, 144-150, 162-164).

What concerns the far eastern asian part of this hypothetical ancient transcontinental trade of ideas and mythology, it is quite well established that ancient Sumer and the Harappa / Mohenjo Daro civilizations had close trade connections. So, we find for the ancient Sumerian sign for "woman", in the form of the vulva, an equivalent symbolism of the vulva called Yoni in the Indian Tantric usage (Rawson 1973). The Greek letter Gamma is found in many words connected with women, procreation, and sexuality. There is the mythological connection of the earth goddess Persephone. She is the daughter of Demeter , going to Hades (Chades?) every winter and re-emerging every spring in the month of gamelion. The Hades myth is only the later patrist {re-/de-}formation of the archaic mythologies that portrayed the Persephone as the chthonic, death, and destructrice aspect of the earth goddess, in India, she was the Prisni aspect of Kali. In Rome, her name was Proserpina. She held the keys for heaven or hell in the Orphic hymns. (Walker 1993: 852-853 ).

The word stem gynae- , gynai- forms words connected with "woman". (Rost 1862,I: 220-224). Related to this in sound and meaning are forms with gena- , gina- , gonae- , gono- that are connected to family, descendance, birth, birthday, life-span, generation, genealogy, gonads, genitals. gamos: marriage, gameoo: to marry. The (Sanskrit?) term yoni has a sound connection to the Greek goni- words. Also, there are the similar sounding words with omega (written oo) denoting angular forms, gooni- , goono- .

Of course, conventional philology would categorically deny any connection between the omicron-words and the omega-words. But when we look at the Sumerian picture, this matter (materia, maeter) gains a totally differenct aspect (a different Gestalt).

As to the the materia, the matrix, or the maeter, the mother "substance", that is the supposedly inert carrier substrate of the (male) {in-formation / in-saemination}, we can also find some interesting word connections. In ancient Greek, she was called the maeter , from which we can easily derive the name of the goddess Demeter . Delta Maetaer. (Walker 1993: Demeter: 160, Dreieck: 175). And the ga, ge, gea , and gaia , that was the other name of the the mother earth goddess in Hesiod's Theogony. Hesiodos (1978: p. 34-35, p. 50-53).

Hesiodos says: ex archaes... hoti proton genet auton (from the beginning... what of those arose first), and then he continues: aetoi men protista Chaos [72] genet, autar epeita Gai' eurysternos, (in the very beginning, verily, arose the Chaos, but then the broad-breasted Gaia... (ln. 116-117). And in that first act of primordial creation (out of the Chaos) also arose Eros, "the most beautiful of the eternal gods" (ln. 120). And then, in the next act of creation, arose (out of the Chaos) the dark elements: Tartaros, Erebos, and Nyx (night), and out of the coupling of Nyx and Erebos arose finally the Ether and the Haemer (light of day) (ln. 119-124).

Thus the {ga / ge / gea / gaia } arose directly out of the Chaos and the (underground) connection between these two is the chthon, the black and hidden aspect of the Earth goddess, (Kali in India). If we let the sounds of the words slide into each other, we get the following sequence: chao-, chea- , chthon-, gea- , gaia- , and then we can continue this descendance of female goddesses through Hesiodos' Thea-gonia thusly (ln 135-137): Theia, {Rhea / Hrea}, Themis, Mnaemosynae, Phoibae, Taethys. And only then she gave birth to the wicked Kronos. In the following mythological drama, we witness the first great epochal struggle of gods: the castration of Ouranos by Kronos, and the usurpation of celestial power by Kronos (150-200).

The details of the "birth" of the Goddess of love, and birth, Aphroditae [73], are very significant in this story, because she was "born" from the froth/foam (aphros) of the severed genitals (maedea) of the archaic sky god Ouranos. (188-200). Hesiodos goes into great detail on this "generation out of severed genitalia" (not quite a parthenogenesis):

maedea d'oos to proton apotmaexas adamanti / kabbal ap'aepeiroio polyklystoo [74] eni pontoo (188/198)

And the immortal flesh of the genitals formed a white froth, which developed into a girl (Kourae-> Kore). She first came near the holy island of Kythaera (and didn't land there), but finally set foot to solid ground on the circum-enflowed (peri-rryton) island of Kypros. And she (Aphroditae) is called the genital-loving one, the philommeidea. This short section of the {Theo-/Thea-}gonia contains quite a few more interesting semaiophonic cyphers to decode, for example why she didn't land on Kythaera, and had to wait for Kyphaera, and why Hesiodos found it necessary to mention the detail.

The saemaiophonic structures connected with klys- and kyl- are worth some consideration. Riane Eisler (1987) has shown the chalix (chalice) as characteristic female symbol. chalyx has an alternative form kylix. kyllos, kytos, kyttaros, kyphella: denoting all things hollow and caves / caved, kotyle = cave, kylae = beaker, cup, conch, seashell (-> concha, conchita), kysthos = hollow and caved (lat: concave), and vulgar for: ass and cunt (Rost, 612), kyssaros = ass(-hole), kystis = bladder, kyopheron / kyoo: to be pregnant (613), kytokia birth, -> kyon, dog, also impudence. kyo- / kyeo- / kyetikos: pregnant / -cy / budding, kyma = embryo. -> kyklos: circle, moving in circles, -> kochlos / -aea: snail, spirally wound, -> kolpos pregnant (mother) belly , all outward bulging forms (lat: convex).

Kronos then continues the cycle of generation with Rheia (Kybele [75]), whom he domesticates [76] (ln 453-455) and sires with her the children Histia (Hestia), Demeter, and Hera. We are thus witnessing in this mythological account of Hesiodos the domestication of women as historical process, and the formerly wild earth goddess {Gaia/Chea/Chton/Kali} is now domesticated into the {fruit-/produce-}bearing Demeter. A connection with the neolithic cultural succession to the agrarian lifestyle with the domestication of the plants and animals of formerly wild nature is suggestive. Here we see why a radically gyn-xyz theory cannot be called matrist-, since the word {mater / maeter} itself is a product of the domestication of woman. The underground chthonic aspect of the female goddess of this epoch is the Persephone. (768-777).

And only after this creation of a further generation of female goddesses, then come the reigning gods of the next and latest celestial epoch: Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus (455-457). Again follows another epochal struggle of the gods: the battle of Zeus against his father Kronos (485-507), and his usurpation of celestial power, which he maintains over all creation with his superior weapons [77]: the brontae (the tunder), the keraunos (the thunderbolt [78]), the steropae (the lighting).

With Hera as (domesticated, but not quite resistance-less [79]) consort, Zeus then proceeds to populate the pantheon of gods and demi-gods in the last, and presently reigning world epoch.

If we focus just on the female goddesses, the succession of generations in Hesiodos' Thea-gonia listed by the sound of the names is this:

Generation 0: ex ar-chaes [80]

Generation 1: chaos-

Generation 2: chea- , gea- , gaia- , chthon-,

Generation 3: {Rhea / Hrea}, Mnaemis {-osynae}, {Phoibae / Phoinae-}, Theia, Taethys, Themis

Generation 4: Hera , Hestia, Demeter

We will now commit the ultimate philological sacrilege and re-christen our protagonist Hesiodos as Chaes-Aoidos, the Aoidos of Chaea. While Homeros is the aoidos of the male-dominated warlord world of the bronze age, Chaes-Aoidos is the aoidos of the female side of our pre-history. And continuing this contra-etymological onoma-semaiophonic sliding game of the sound values in the names of the goddesses, we get an interesting pattern:

The creation starts with a guttural throat sound, which is in the semitic languages, the Aleph. The names of the goddesses first revolve around this guttural sound, as ch, and g-, and then the sound rises higher in the vocal apparatus, to: hr, rh- and r- Then we come to the Mn- Ph- and Th- sounds. And only finally, in the last generation, we have the pure consonants, as they are written in our modern alphabets: Hera, Hestia, Demeter, Persephone.

Now let us come to the matter of the {mater / materia}. The Latin word mater from which derives materia , is in Greek (de) maeter. We connect this to matrix which means womb, and the matrix is the source from which all material things are born by the Gaia, or the Physis, or the Natura, the Birth Giving.

(Fig. 6, Text version only)

The greek word for matrix is hystera. Then the female genital is also known in ancient Greek as hyssakos , or hyssax [81] , which is cunnus in latin. The Latin natura , (comes from nasci , giving birth) is the womb that gives birth to all existing things of nature, and this is called physis in Greek, from phyo, phyein , for begetting, procreating, creating, growing. Then there is the field of phyto which covers everything relating to plants, then phyllo which covers all the green and growing, sap-containing leaves, and the grass. Because the universal matrix gives birth to all the existing things, we can call it the hypo-physis. She is the one that is preceding, and underlying the physis.

Let us no follow the word-sounds of the famous Aristotelian term of hyle (substance), which is originally wood, (and also a wide range of related terms: forest, trees, building material, matter). We could tentatively contrast the term hylae, the dead, dry wood, and the phylae, the green sprouting, sap-containing living plant, and perhaps gain some insight into the contrasting views of those approaches that treat the world as living being, and those which treat matter (mater) only as dead thing.

The hylourgos is a different word for the daemiourgos (Plato, Timaios) , or the tekton . From tekton, we can connect to tekmar and teke, giving birth. There are many sound- and meaning related words connecting hylae with the stem xylae, all relating to wood and woodworking. xyale means a carving knife. Also sound- and meaning related is xiphae-, graphe- and gramma- which are the greek terms for letters.

From school, we probably all have a vivid memory of the mathematical branch of tri-gono-metrics, although probably not as our most interesting school subject. I will offer here a hypothesis that certainly would add some juice to this otherwise quite dry scholarly matter. We might re-interpret the hallowed Euclidean trigonometry as having descended from an ancient gyn-xyz cult symbol of holy trinity of goddesses, the tri-gyno-goono-maetria. This is indicated in the most ancient Sumerian symbol for woman, which has three angles. The ancient Greek tri-gyno-goono-maetria was the Kore-Demeter- Persephone, or Hebe-Hera-Hekate, in India, she was Parvati-Durga-{Uma/Kali}. (Walker 1993: Altes Weib: 26, Dreieck: 174-175, Persephone: 852 Trinität: 1104-1107).

Now we come back to the "cuneiform" connection to Latin and modern languages. This modern word derives from the Latin cuneus, the wedge. Interestingly, we also have the term cunnus, for the vulva (hyssax), reappearing as sound similarity analogous to the Greek. Now, conventional philology would of course categorically deny any connection between these words also, and the modern english vulgar cunt derived from cunnus, cannot even be printed in an academic paper, owing to still lingering 19th century puritanism [82]. The Indian Tantric yoni goddess was called Kunti or Kunda, which is again a connection to cunnus and cunt (Walker 1993: 1181). In South American Spanish, the word concha, or conchita, represents again the vulva. The common meaning of the word is conch, or shell, and in German, we have the term "Muschi", (perhaps also Möse) which may be related to "Muschel" or equally to a collquial word for "cat" (french equivalent: les chattes). An interesting side-line observation is that the the Latin cuneus, is also a term for a battle formation, and related to the Greek phalanx, which is again related to the phallos. And returning, to our subject of writing, we have the word for tongue, or the spoken word, in latin as the lingua [83] (Greek: glossa), and as sexual symbol, in the Indian lingam, or phallos. (Walker 1993: 1190-1191).

Literature (Encarta : Textiles / Weaving / Loom / Spinning Wheel), Neuburger (1919: 169-199). Gimbutas (1995: 29, 67-68).

I have mentioned the word polyklystoo above in the account of the birth of Aphroditae. Walker (1993: 48) mentions that her name was Moira in an earlier epoch, and that she also appeared as a trinity. And she was not only the goddess of love, but also of life, death, and fate. Incidentally, she was also the mother of Aeneas, the "founding father" of Rome, and after the fall of the Imperium Romanum, there were three states continuing the heritage: the Byzantine empire, the Roman catholic church, and the city republic of Venice (city of Venus [84]). I will now draw up the connections of the klystae- / klostae- words in ancient Greek. We have: kloothoo spinning , kloothes / Klothoo (-> one of the Moirae). klydon / klydasmos: waves / waving / undulating / circular motion. This connects to -> kyklos: circle, moving in circles, -> kykao to mix, to blend, -> kloneoo: to set in agitated motion. Another word stem for waves is kym-, kymbaton, kymaino. The word kine- is connected to everything moving, agitated motion, kinesis is motion in general. The klooth- and kine- combine in the art of spinning, kinion is a spindle, kloste is the thread, klosma is the web and the thread, and finally we come again to klothoo, the goddess of fate who spins the thread of fate. In Timaios 52d to 53b, Platon talks about the kinetic device to mix and separate everything in the creation of the kosmos.

Spinning and weaving are among the oldest and most important neolithic technologies. If we admit spiders and silkworms to the account, spinning technology is even much older than the neolithic by millions of years. (Encarta : Spider / Silk). Arachne, the lydian mythological heroine of weaving, gave this animal phylum the name. (Encarta : Arachne), Bachofen (1925: 309, 310). The Greek terms for weaving are histo- / -n / -s , hyphant- / ikae / -ria. Spinning and weaving has mostly been woman's work throughout the ages. An example is given in Illias 1, 31: histon epoichomenaen kai emon lechos antiosan - that she may serve me as weaver and consort for my bed. Homer (1994: I, 4). An important point of this line that is glossed over in most translations (as this one) is that epoichomenaen means literally: {approach / walk around / also, to come near temporally}, and the histon is not only the loom but also the birth-chair. This is reflected by many worldwide examples of mythologies of spinning and weaving women. Bachofen (1925: 309-315). The spinning and the weaving are often connected with highly fateful woman magic and sexual symbolism. In German and English we can find an association in the similarity of the word sounds Weben, Weib, wife, and weaving.

One particularly interesting possibility for a hitherto unexplored mode of encoding are the zigzag patterns on spinning whorls depicted in Gimbutas (1995: 67). None of the researchers in the literature [85] makes any reference to the obvious fact that whorls revolve in normal usage, and so it is possible that these patterns indicate encodings of a cyclical characteristic, or the possibility that these patterns could only be "read" when the whorls were spinning.

A prime mythological example are the greek fate goddesses, the Moirae: Klotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, and their nordic pendant, the Nornes: Urda, Verdani, and Skuld.

Platon makes note of the highly mythological connection of the spindle of necessity in his Republic, as related by Marius Schneider:

kinai also means lust, and this connects us directly to the agitated movements at the occasion of the koitos. koi- means everything connected to the nuptial bed. If we switch the -oi sound into -io we come again to: kyo- / kyeo- / kyetikos: pregnant / -cy / budding, kyma: embryo / kyllos, kytos, kyttaros, kyphella.

koitos is the root of the modern word koitus, which is not, as is falsely assumed, derived from the Latin co-ire. Thus we come back to the motto of this presentation:

[70] stylus (Greek: kalamos)

[71] Graves (1988: 39 / 6.6)

[72] Rost (1862,II: 632): chaos, the emptiness, the void, the immense unfathomable open space, the deep cave, the gaping, the yawning, the unstructured formless "substrate" out of which the cosmos is fashioned. The present meaning of disorder is only a subordinate theme in the ancient meaning. The meaning of "immense unfathomable open space" is identical to the core concept of Anaximandros: the apeiron. Rost (1862,I: 123).

A fragment of the work of Anaximandros pertains to the principle of generation and corruption under the law of time, which will need to be dealt with in more depth (Diels 1954,I:12), (Pleger 1991: 61):

. The Beginning and The Origin of all Being Things (of the all-there-is) is the Apeiron

[73] Walker (1993: 48-49) also called Ashara, Astarte in Syria, Venus in Rome, the month of April derives from her name: Aphrilis.

[74] the polyklystoo is a word connecting to: klydon / klydasmos waves / waving / undulating / circular motion. (See also: the kinion connection).

[75] Hesiodos (1978: 81)

[76] dmaesis (Rost I, 263): domestication, enslavement , -> daemos- (235) the (lower) people / the pebble, -> domos / domata (Parmenides 1974, B1, 9) / demoo : house, building, family, gens, -> domeoo to build , -> daemiourgos (Timaios) (house-) builder, artisan. See also: Eisler (1995: 120-125). Another word for house is oikos.

[77] Geheimwaffen.

[78] this is an incorrect translation, see Dechend (1977) for the cross-cultural pattern of the keraunos.

[79] Graves (1988: 53).

[80] ex: out of, out from. archae: the beginnning, the origin, the reign. Interestingly, we can further subdivide this word into ara-: then, now, following; and chae-, which connects us nicely to the next generations.

[81] this connects again to the homoio-saemic word field of: kyssaros, kylae, kyllos, kytos, kyttaros, kysthos (above).

[82] As I have found out to my own dismay, when I once unsuspectingly read a paper on the categorical imperative of Kant to an american audience.

[83] Even though I would be very interested in it, I am not aware of any neo-freudian theory that would hypostasize the cunni-lingus as the origin of all language.

[84] The Venetians took that literally, and prostitution was one of the main profit centers in this pioneering commercial metropolis. Dufour (1898,V: 32). Tannahill (1989): In the Renaissance time, there were 11,654 filles de joie, to a population totalling 300,000.

[85] Barthel, Gimbutas, Haarmann.