Sheila the link ya gave explained the -anus part of that concept, the 1st bein' old woman, hag. If used in that context when that place originated why do folk insist on only 1 take. Most words have multiple meanings, yes?
No buddy is around today who can state with dogmatic certainty what those ancient pagan-heathens did on a hill full of olde wimmen. They may have been the wiccans of their time, yes?
It was a swamp if ya recall with a hill in the midst of it, don't necessarily mean they were offered up as sacrifices to whatever city god was in vogue at that time. The Mithra bit came later on.
Now, back to why Sion in Switzerland got its handle. If ya listen to spoken Yiddish, spoken Swiss German, spoken Dutch they sound nearly the same, tells me this Germanic dialect that came from the east along with the rest of the migratory waves were influenced by surrounding folk groups.
The French were supposedly Germanic Franks, yet today sound like a lo-Turkic, lo-Greek, lo-Latin mishmash. The Franks may have won politically, but the lo-life origins of French as spoken and obviously absorbed by the keltic remnants after Attila decimated most of them, meant the Teutonic dialects German, Dutch, Alemannic Swiss German, Yiddish were not contaminated in the same fashion as a bastardized lingo like French.
Who were relegated as bein' the money traders as a group?, certainly not Geneva gnomes, chargin' interest was usury and was frowned on, yet, 1 Germanic speakin' group thrived on that biz. Switzerland mountains gave them a secure base to expand their ops, yes?
Sion was definitely a very appropriate choice of a name. The fact spoken Yiddish and spoken Swiss German are so similar tells me Swiss German was directly influenced by Yiddish, regardless of what kind of debunkin' fairy tale Roger offers in defense. He ain't got no proof, all he sez is do research, all I say is listen to these folks speak.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cdHFvpl ... re=relatedhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DomcdiIkQuYhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0agMAxUZqDohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyN5bz1x ... re=relatedEver wonder how anglo-saxon became english, here's how...its called the hard way... it didn't come easy, thanks to the French.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUT-wEpQ ... re=relatedhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-t2xvjkNpYhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xJkSIFq ... re=relatedHere a sample of how French got in the act...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTDKZ5rHrvQhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPkJANZ3 ... re=relatedHere is a sample of Sion...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKDqevqkeiYThe point I make is guttural languages, associated with Teutonic, Hebraic, Arabic, don't sound any way near like nasal French. The French have their own mish-mash of blended guttural sounds, but its predominantly irritatingly nasal just like most oriental languages it imitates.