Pagan Hetanos

[Arpa]

Pagan, pagano, heathen, hetanos.

 

Are there any Armenians with the surname of "hetanos-ian"?

 

I know some people, ostensibly of Italian heritage with the surname of Pagano. My local phone book has about 40 of them listed. How about your's?

 

My Italian dictionary says it means all of the below

 

Maral wrote,

pa·gan    ( P )  Pronunciation Key  (pgn)

n.

One who is not a Christian, Muslim, or Jew, especially a worshiper of a polytheistic religion.

One who has no religion.

A non-Christian.

A hedonist.

A Neo-Pagan.

So a pagan is someone who is not Christian,Muslim or a Jew? that's it?

Maral, what you may not have understood is that neither the Chinese, billion plus and the Indians, a billion fall within the Judeo/Christian(what an oxymoron?) and Moslem definitions of the word.

 

Of course, it is not an etymological dictionary. It only gives an inference of what it means today.

Just as when we look up "hetanos" it will tell us exactly what it says in the above quote. Krapasht=idolator, "krakapasht=fire worshiper" and worse.

Thes are all facetious modern defintions and in the case of "hethanos/heathen" just plain xenophobic.

 

"Pagan" is a variation of the original "paisan", simply- peasant/ country folk.

We all know that the first converts to christianity were the women of the aristocracy. Helen mother of Constantine. And in the Armenian caae Sandukht, sister of Trdat. When the Imperial palace had converted there were millions of peasants and country folk that adhered to their traditional religions. They were the paisanos, paganos, hence the pagans. They were persecuted and, at times massacred. By some miracle, despite the Pope, some Italians still survived and now they have surnames like Pagano.

 

As to "heathen", my hard copy of Websters' says the word is from the Armenian "hetanos". The more recent versions have amended it and they don't refer to Armenian anymore. Did Ankara have something to do with it?

Rgardless. "hethanos" ( I spell it with the "th" , as it is written with the 9th letter of the Ayb Ben Gim "tho" which is the equivalent of the Greek "theta".) is found in the Greek language as "ethnos". Th e reason we write beginning with the letter H is because it came to us via the Assyrian which, just like the Armenian always added a consonant before an initial vowel.

 

"ethnos/hethanos/hetanos" simply means "people/nation", consider; "ethnic". Of course, leave it to the world's most xenophobic people to use and interpret the word to mean "people other than the 'chosen ones' ".

 

That is how the word came to be such a blaspheme, i.e , those others, gentiles, just people, just plain folk, anyone who did not subscribe to Jewhovah.

 

I don't!

 

Proud to be a "hetanos"!!!

 

I can use more graphic language, but there are ladies here. :)

[Vayri7X]

hetanos here, sans the racism and xenophobia and over-adulation of notions of authority . It simply seems more viable with notions of science. I.e. , most folks with polytheistic religion do nto see the incompatibility with science, and are intelligent enough to accept that the goddesses/gods/spirits are archetypical representations ( albeit, with real meaning and response) of the forces of nature, biology and so forth. Kind of like a long poetic version of James Lovelocks "Gaia Hypothesis".

 

then again, I was raised in " Indian Country" ( native american- not south asian indian) , so being exposed to nature-based, polytheistic practices that were not hostile to science was not unusual or even solely the domain of new age tree-huggers. Most of my friends (native) and their families went both to protestant christian churches to maintain face, and also practiced traditional spirituality /religion . So I questioned monotheism quite early. My dad ( 100% hye) did too. I still go to Armenian Apostolic church, and am not " out" with other armenians, save my dad- about my views.

 

BTW, it seems like every major christian practice, one can find Pagan roots. Too many to name here. It seems to me, that us being one of the earliest christian peoples, that the church no doubt holds more veiled pagan practices than others. What do you think?

[Arpa]

This would be funny were it not serious. Look at the surname of the monsignor. (pagano?). No, no it is not a freudian slip.

How would it be if an Armenian bishop had a surname like “hethanosian”?

http://asbarez.com/96840/vatican-to-publish-documents-on-genocide/

 

VATICAN CITY—The Vatican will co-publish a book with documents and information about the Armenian genocide. The papers are from the Vatican Secret Archives, and, to quote Monsignor Sergio Pagano, the clergyman who runs the archives, “they make me feel ashamed to be a man. Without faith, they’d make me see only darkness.”…

 

Even if the origin of the word means “country folk” look how it is used now.

Pagano in English= pagan, heathen, infidel

Idolater= կռապաշտ,poutparast fire worshipper=կրակապաշտ, ateshparast.

Edited July 6, 2011 by Arpa