The Danaans, Don, and Danu System
In the Iliad Homer uses the term Achaeans 598 times and the term Danaans 138 times. One might compare the father of the Greek Danaïdes — Danaus — to the Danaans, another name for the Ancient Ukrainian / Proto-Indo-European goddess *Danu. Compare Old Irish Danu whom the Tuatha de Danaan worshipped. Compare also the Indian Danavas descended from the Goddess Danu. Various rivers in Ukraine’s historical territory bear her name even today: The Don, Donets, Don Aper (Dniepr), Don Istris (Dniester), and Danube.
Further D-N- attestations across the Indo-European world strengthen the system:
- DNA — Deoxyribonucleic Acid. The molecule that carries the genetic code of life itself bears the D-N- sound.
- Dan — the second monarch in Norse and Icelandic tradition, the eponym of Denmark (Dan-mark).
- Diana — the Roman goddess of the hunt, the moon, and the wild. The D-N- sound in the name of a lunar deity connects the D-N- system to the M-N- system (Moon/Mana).
- Adonis — the Greek/Phoenician deity of beauty and rebirth. A-D-N-: the dying-and-rising god whose name participates in the D-N- river/death/regeneration system.
- Odin (Wōdan) — the Norse All-Father, god of death, wisdom, and the crossing between worlds. Wednesday (Wōdan’s day) carries the D-N- sound into every English-speaking week. Odin presides over the passage between life and death — the D-N- function at its most numinous.
Source: MN Sound
OxfordReference.com states ‘Danaan’ is ‘a word of unknown origin’ — they haven’t yet made the connection between ancient Greek as an Indo-European language that was born in ancient Ukraine. The D-N- system connects rivers, goddesses, peoples, and death-mythology across the entire IE cultural zone.