threads / religion #91

13 newly added in the last 14 days mark read

1. c. 700 BCE new

   'Ocean' comes from the Titan Oceanus

   The Greeks imagined a great river encircling the world, personified as the Titan Oceanus. His name became the word for the seas, 'ocean'.

2. c. 500 BCE new

   'Panic' comes from the god Pan

   The Greeks blamed sudden, causeless terror, especially in lonely places, on the goat-god Pan, and called it 'panic'. A modern word for fear is the shadow of a woodland god.

3. c. 500 BCE new

   'Volcano' comes from the god Vulcan

   Vulcan, the Roman god of fire and the forge, was said to work beneath the earth; his name gives us 'volcano'. A term of modern geology is a Roman smith-god.

4. c. 496 BCE new

   'Cereal' comes from the goddess Ceres

   Ceres, the Roman goddess of grain and the harvest, gives her name to 'cereal'. Every breakfast box carries the name of an ancient corn-goddess.

5. c. 280 BCE new

   'Museum' and 'music' come from the Muses

   The Mouseion of Alexandria was a shrine to the Muses, the goddesses of the arts, and gave us 'museum'; from the same goddesses comes 'music'. Two words for high culture are named for minor deities.

6. c. 269 BCE new

   'Money' comes from the goddess Juno Moneta

   Rome mints its coins at the temple of Juno Moneta, and her title Moneta gives us both 'money' and 'mint'. The most everyday word in finance is the name of a Roman goddess.

7. c. 1300 new

   'Ogre' comes from the god Orcus

   The fairy-tale ogre is thought to descend from Orcus, the Roman god of the underworld and devourer of the dead. A monster of children's stories is a forgotten god of death.

8. c. 1400 new

   The planet-gods name our moods

   Medieval astrology held that the planet-gods shaped character, and their names became words for temperament: jovial from Jupiter (Jove), mercurial from Mercury, martial from Mars, saturnine from Saturn, and venereal from Venus. The old gods still describe our personalities.

9. 1595 new

   'Atlas' comes from the Titan Atlas

   Mercator put a picture of the Titan Atlas, condemned to hold up the sky, on his collection of maps, and 'atlas' became the word for a book of maps. A punished Titan names every map book.

10. 1782 new

    'Ammonia' comes from the Egyptian god Amun

    The salt sal ammoniac was gathered near the temple of Amun (Ammon) in Egypt, and the gas later distilled from it was named ammonia. A common chemical carries the name of an Egyptian god.

11. 1817 new

    'Morphine' comes from the god Morpheus

    When a German chemist isolated the sleep-inducing drug from opium, he named it morphine after Morpheus, the Greek god of dreams. The painkiller is named for a dream-god.

12. c. 1841 new

    'Hypnosis' comes from the god Hypnos

    The trance state was named hypnosis after Hypnos, the Greek god of sleep. Even the science of the mind reached back to the old gods for its words.

13. 1971 new

    'Nike' the goddess becomes the brand

    The sportswear giant Nike is named for Nike, the Greek goddess of victory, and its swoosh evokes her wing. An ancient goddess is one of the most valuable brands on earth.