Note 43 — Chapter I · OLYMPIAN AND CHTHONIC RITUAL.

Mr P. Giles kindly tells me that a rare Sanskrit word dveshas meaning ‘hate’ and the like exists and phonetically would nearly correspond to the Latin dirus. The corresponding form in Greek would appear as δειος, unless in late Greek. But from the end of the 5th century B.C. onwards the pronunciation would be the same as δῖος, and if the word survived only in ritual terms it would naturally be confused with δῖος. Almost all authorities on Latin however regard the ru in dirus as a suffix containing an original r as in mirus, durus, etc. This view, which would be fatal to the etymology of dirus proposed in the text, seems supported by a statement of Servius (if the statement be accurate) on Aen. III. 235 ‘Sabini et Umbri quae nos mala dira appellant,’ as, though s between vowels passes in Latin and Umbrian into r, it remains an s sound in Sabine.