# The old gods hidden in everyday English

The pagan gods are still in our mouths every day, unnoticed: money from Juno Moneta, cereal from Ceres, panic from Pan, museum and music from the Muses, ocean from Oceanus, volcano from Vulcan, jovial and mercurial and martial and saturnine from the planet-gods, morphine from Morpheus, and the Nike goddess turned into a global brand.

*This story part of: The old gods and their long shadow*
*This story part of: Religion and ideology*
*Zoroastrianism: heaven, hell, and the first cosmic battle parallel this story*
*Masonic words hidden in everyday English parallel this story*

## c. 700 BCE — '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'.

## c. 500 BCE — '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.

## c. 500 BCE — '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.

## c. 496 BCE — '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.

## c. 280 BCE — '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.

## c. 269 BCE — '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.

## c. 1300 — '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.

## c. 1400 — 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.

## 1595 — '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.

## 1782 — '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.

## 1817 — '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.

## c. 1841 — '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.

## 1971 — '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.