Though we may not know their stories a lot of Greek names have managed to become part of our language. Here we look at a few. Click below to see the article in magazine format, keep scrolling for a text only version
Greek names origins – Text only version:
It’s all Greek to me!
There are countless legends and legendary characters that we know from Greek history. We examine just a few on these pages.
Plato
The philosopher and storyteller was also known as the ‘Bee of Athens’. According to legend, when a swarm of bees rested on the mouth of the infant Plato in his cradle, they ensured that the words that came from that mouth would be ‘as sweet as honey’ to all who heard them.
Atlas
Zeus punished Atlas for his part in the War of the Titans by condemning him to bear the heavens on his shoulders from his home in the mountains of North Africa which still bear his name.
Belomancy
When there were arguments about the best course of action to take in any situation, the ancient Greeks would attach labels to a number of arrows and fire them off. They would then adopt the idea that had been fired furthest.
Calchas
Before the siege of Troy, the soothsayer told the Greeks that they needed Achilles to have any chance of victory. When the fleet were stranded prior to the siege, Calchas went on to convince King Agamemnon that he should sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia to secure suitable weather. He predicted that the siege of Troy would last ten years. It is said he died of disappointment, pity he didn’t see that coming.
Minos
The legendary king and law-giver of Crete. When he died he judged all in the lower world upon their death, deciding if their deeds in life entitled them to reward in the afterlife.
Achilles
Legend has it that Achilles mother Thetis, took her son by the heel and dipped him int the waters of the river Styx to make him invulnerable, but the heel that she held remained dry. At the siege of Troy, Achilles was killed when an arrow struck this heel. The phrase Achilles’ Heel refers to a small but potentially fatal weakness.
Aegus
The mythical king sent his son Thesus to Crete to deliver 7 boys and 7 girls as a tribute to appease Minos. On his return, Thesus was to replace his black sails with white sails if the tribute had been accepted. When Thesus forgot to swap the sails, Aegus, thinking his son was lost, threw himself into the sea – giving rise to the sea’s name, Aegean.
Arachne
This young Lydian girl challenged goddess Athene to a weaving contest. Arachne lost when Athene destroyed what she had woven, and was so upset she killed herself in despair. Yet Athene’s revenge was not over, she turned Arachne into a spider, which is why spiders and creatures that spin silk are often described as being Arachnids.
Cassandra
The daughter of Priam, King of Troy, she was admired by the god Apollo. He granted her the gift of prophecy to seduce her, but when she refused his advances he left her with the gift but vowed that nobody would ever believe her. She is said to have seen the fall of Troy but was driven insane as she was powerless to do anything about it.
Prometheus & Pandora
The earliest men spent their days hunting and fighting, followed by night’s feasting, with the fat and bones of their prey being burned as offerings to the gods. The Titan, Prometheus, angered Zeus by cheating him of his portion of meat from sacrifices. Zeus’ punishment was to take back fire from men, but Prometheus sneaked into Olympus and stole it back. Zeus ordered, Hephaestus, his smith, to fashion a creature out of clay. The goddess Athena then draped this creature, the first woman, named Pandora, in flowers and silks, but she gave her a deceitful nature. Zeus’ gift to men was to be both a blessing and curse, the god intended that man would be satisfied neither with her or without her. The final twist was in a box given to Pandora. When she opened it, 10,000 woes were released upon men, with only hope left behind in the box.
Sisyphus
The king Sisyphus raped Anticlea, the eldest daughter of Autolycus. But before he died, King Sisyphus persuaded his wife to forego any funeral honours for him. When he arrived in Hades for his judgement the devious Sisyphus sought leave to return to Earth for vengeance against his disloyal spouse. But rather than return as promised, when he left the underworld, he lived to a great old age. On his eventual death, when he returned to the underworld, special care was taken to prevent another escape. Sisyphus was given what he thought was a simple task – to roll a boulder to the top of a hill. However, every time that he reached the summit, the boulder would roll down the other side. A Sisyphean task is a task that can never be completed.
Castor and Pollux
The twin sons of Jupiter, sailed with Jason to find the Golden Fleece among their many adventures. They were worshipped as Gods and finally ascended into the heavens where they now reside as ’Gemini’.
Charon
The old man who ferried the dead across the river Styx into the afterlife for the fare of an obulus – a small coin of little worth.
Circe
The sorceress that turned Odysseus and his crew into pigs. They only escaped Circe’s island, Aeaea, when Odysseus ate a root given to him by the god, Mercury.
Colossus
The bronze colossus of Rhodes was one of the original 7 wonders of the world. Said to be 100ft tall, this bronze statue of the sun god, Helios, was made from the melted down weapons after the defence of Rhodes from Demetrius. It was said to have been destroyed by an earthquake in 224 BCE.
Cynic
The Cynics were a group of philosophers who loathed the Athenian tendency towards ease, luxury and wealth. The movement was founded by Antisthenes and made famous by his pupil Diogenes.
Sphinx
The Greek Sphinx was a monster with the head and torso of a woman, the body of a dog or lion, the wings of a bird, a serpent’s tail and lion’s paws. She killed herself when Oedipus solved this riddle: “What goes on four feet, on two feet, and three, but the more feet it goes on the weaker it be?”
Oedipus identified that the answer was a man. He crawls on all fours when he is born, learns to walk upright, but needs a walking stick as he gets old.
Oedipus
He was the son of King Laius and Queen Jocasta. His birth coincided with a prophecy that he would murder his father and marry his mother. Fearing this prophecy, his parents abandoned him to die on a mountainside – but he was saved and raised by a shepherd.
When he reached manhood he unwittingly slew his father which left the crown of Thebes vacant. Having slain the king, Oedipus secured the throne when he answered the Sphinx’s riddle. As king, Oedipus won the right to the hand of Jocasta in marriage. But after their wedding night, when the facts finally came to light, Jocasta hanged herself and Oedipus tore out his own eyes.
Narcissus
The son of Cephisus, Narcissus was a beautiful youth. He saw his reflection in a fountain and became convinced that it was the presiding Nymph of that place. He became obsessed with the Nymph and strained repeatedly to reach it, but all his attempts failed. Eventually Narcissus pined away, wasted and died. When the nymphs arose to take his body away for funeral honours all they could find was a flower which they named in his honour. Plutarch says that the plant is called Narcissus from he Greek narke, meaning ’numbness’.
