ANTONYM
COMPARE
MOVING AXIS
BUILDING BLOCK
QUOTES
The Colour name Red stems from Old Norse rót (“root”), from Proto-Germanic *wrōts, from Proto-Indo-European *wréh₂ds (“root”); compare with English wort and the Latin rādīx (“root”). Cognate with the Icelandic rót; Old English rōt (whence the Middle English word root (“the underground part of a plant”) came, whence the English root came). (Source: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/r%C3%B3t)
A similarity with the god Ród in Slavic mythology, who means clan, bloodline and family-tree (red-on-black), is striking (Vyncke, 1969). Metaphorically he is a manifestation of the roots (black-0) of the blood (red-7), the bloodline (red-on-black), the pedigree. As such, the name red may have emerged from the colour of blood.
(Michiels, I., red.)
The word Rod denotes the ‘clan’, taken in the broadest sense.
- in space: the meanings ‘bloodline, clan, tribe, relative, tribesman;
- in time: the meanings ‘birth, lineage, generation, descendants, which includes the past (- ancestors, pedigree), the present and the future (‘descendants’).
As a deity, Rod means: ‘he who brings happiness and prosperity to his clan’.
(Vyncke, 1969)
A numen that recurs in the doctrinal scriptures, ecclesiastical statutes, and confessional questions is described as Rod-Rozanica. These data show that Rod-Rozanicy:
- seem to personify fate (they are equated with the terms ‘fatum, fortuna’);
- have some connection with the cult of the dead. (On Boxing Day, a church-prohibited death feast is held in their honour);
- merge with Saint Mary in Christian-pagan syncretism.
Rozanica means: mother, fate, womb, genealogy, family tree.
Rod and Rozanicy form a mythical couple consisting of a parendros and a parendra (cf. Artemid-Artemis). The explicit equation with Osiris-Isis seems to place Rod-Rozanicy in the category of the mythical couple well known in the history of religion: mother-goddess-consort. We may consider the paredra Rozanica as a kind of rudimentary mother goddess, who ensured the fertility of the clan, the land and the cattle, and ruled over the realm of the dead. She was felt as a multiple being, perhaps threefold (three, or a multiple of three).
(Vyncke, 1969)