CIMMERIANS, a nomadic people, most likely of Iranian origin, who
flourished in the 8th-7th centuries b.c.e. The name. The English
form is ultimately derived from Gk. Kimmérioi via Lat. Cimmerii.
In Assyrian and Babylonian sources various forms are found: Ga-
mir, Gamir-(r)a, Gi-mir-a-a, Gi-mir-ra-a-a, and so on (see, e.g.
Parpola, 1970a, pp. 122-33; cf. Pinches, p. 611). The Hebrew
Bible (Genesis 10:2, Ezekiel 38:6) has gmr, masoretic Gṓmär
(erroneously assimilated to Gṓmär, name of the wife of Hosea
(Hosea 1:3; D’yakonov, 1981, p. 109 no. 12); in the Septuagint
the forms Gámer (Genesis) and Gómer (Ezekiel) are used (cf.
Josephus, Antiquitates Iudaicae 1.123: Gómaros, and 1.126:
Gomareís), and the Vulgate has Gomer (cf. also Ezekiel 27.17:
gmdym [read gmrym?; cf Lagarde, p. 367], Jeremiah 25.25: zmry
[read gmry?; cf. D’yakonov, 1981, p. 112]). I. M. D’yakonov
attributes the variation a/i in the first syllable of the word
to vowel gradation (see below). It is possible that the name was
preserved in Arm. Garmikʿ