4.6: “An Etymological Dictionary of Classical Mythology”

Have you ever considered where English words come from? Have you thought about the possibility that English words have developed through stories and mythologies? These stories, which are part of the history (story) and origin of English words, are provided through etymological resources that reveal how words have changed and evolved over time. Because most dictionaries provide brief and concise reference information, such as word meanings and pronunciations, they omit the fascinating stories behind our words.

In Elizabeth Wallis’ (2019) text “An Etymological Dictionary of Classical Mythology”, she reveals the mythological stories behind many common words in the English language, such as python, Achilles heel, and aurora. Through an examination of these words, among many others, Wallis demonstrates the broader relationship between etymology and Greek mythology. As she says, the “narrative of the tales of gods and men” are woven into the present-day tapestry of the English language.

Although mythological narratives and origin stories shape many common English words, those origins might not be noticeable to us. When we encounter words like arachnid, we might not ever think to question where they came from. How did arachnid get its name? What is the etymological evolution of this word? Was it influenced by ancient mythology? In Elizabeth Wallis’ excerpt, she offers insight into the answers to these questions by sharing the mythological story of how arachnids got their name.

Before Reading

Take a moment to preview Wallis’ full text by looking at the textual features and pictures. Pose some questions or make some predictions about the reading. Write those below.

Now, read the excerpt below to seek more insight in regard to your predictions and questions.

“An Etymological Dictionary of Classical Mythology” by Elizabeth Wallis (December 2019)

"Arachne...has no equal as a weaver. People say that she must have been taught by Pallas (Athene) herself, but Arachne denies this, and declares that Pallas can come and compete against her, if she wants. If the goddess should prove the better, Arachne declares, she is prepared to suffer any penalty.

An old woman visits her and advises her to reconsider her words -- there is still time to avert the goddess's wrath. Arachne rudely tells her that she has lived too long.... The old woman stands up, her guise of decrepit old age vanishes, and she is revealed as Pallas herself. The contest follows, and Arachne's work is flawless, but she has chosen as her theme the amours of the gods, and the squalid tricks they resorted to when they wanted their way. Pallas is furious at Arachne's mockery: she tears the work to pieces and destroys the loom. Arachne, in despair, tries to hang herself but Pallas' revenge is not quite complete; she

turns Arachne into a spider, so that she will spin and weave for ever" (Stapleton 32). And so is created the arachnid [NL Arachnida, fr. Gk arachne spider].

"Black spider, Carhart Science building" by ali eminov is marked with CC BY-NC 2.0.x

Etymology is a branch of linguistics in which the origin of a word can be traced through its transmission from one language to another, generally by its cognates in an ancestral language. While it is widely known that the Greek and Latin tongues have contributed many words to the English language, through etymological study it is also clear that there are hundreds of words in our vocabulary derived specifically from myths of gods and heroes like the one above. The weaver's tale, found in both Greek and Roman texts, illustrates just how a word might come into the English language from ancient mythology.

In addition to Arachne's story of transformation, there are numerous tales from which we draw words that tell of humans becoming animals, be this change a punishment by a god or gradual acclimatization to the situation in which that person is put.

Several words pertaining to the wolf are derived from the story of Lycaeon, a boastful mortal man who doubts Zeus' identity and is turned into a wolf for attempting to kill the king of the gods. From Lycaeon's name comes the adjective lupine [L lupinus, fr. lupus, Gk lykos], brought into English in 1660 to mean "wolfish," and the noun lycanthropy [lykos wolf + anthropos man], which is found in folktales and fiction as "the state of being a werewolf."

A final tale explaining the origin of an animal name is not one of transformation, but one of conquest: "When Apollo finds Delphi [future site of his shrine] and wishes to claim the area as his own, his first duty is to slay the guardian she-dragon. Thereafter, the site is called Pytho, from the Greek verb meaning 'to rot,' because the sun's rays caused the body of the snake to rot" (Griffin, "Apollo at Delphi"). Since 1836, when the word was first introduced into English, any large constricting snake has been called a python [L, fr. Gk Python, fr. Pytho Delphi].

Burmese Python Closeup" by MyFWC Florida Fish and Wildlife CC BY-ND 2.0.

Borrowing from mythology is especially notable in names of some plants and animals. For instance, in the tragic story of Hyacinthus, the handsome youth is loved by the god Apollo, who accidentally kills him with a discus. In memorial, the grieving Apollo grows a new flower, a hyacinth [L hyacinthus a flowering plant, fr. Gk hyakinthos] (1553), from the boy's blood.

A third example is found in the story of Narcissus, who is such a handsome lad that when he first sees his face mirrored on the surface of a pond, he pines for his own reflection. He sits so long at the edge of this pond that he begins to take root, changing finally into a flower -- a narcissus [NL, genus name, fr. L, narcissus, fr. Gk. narkissos]. From this story we also take the adjective narcissistic, telling of a person bearing the egotistical qualities of Narcissus.

There are, in fact, many adjectives in English that originated in legends. For instance, the term mercurial is used to describe a person having the qualities of eloquence or ingenuity that the god Mercury, patron of thieves, possessed; atlantean, meaning "strong," comes from the name of the strongest god, Atlas; and jovial describes an individual of markedly good-humor, named after Jove, an alias for the Roman god Jupiter, parallel to the Greeks' Zeus.

Yet another adjective comes from a tale of mankind's creation: "Prometheus championed man.... He stole fire from heaven and brought it back to earth hidden in a fennel stalk where it smoldered long enough to be blown to life again" (Stapleton 183); first seen in 1588, the English adjective promethean means "daringly original or creative." Also meaning "creative," as well as "artistic and skillful," is the term daedal [L daedalus], after Daedalus, the legendary builder of the fantastic Cretan labyrinth.

The Roman goddess of dawn, Aurora, along with Boreas, gives her name to the light show seen often in the northern skies, the aurora borealis [NL, lit., northern dawn]. Similarly, the southern lights are called the aurora australis [NL, lit., southern dawn], for Aurora and Auster.

The Greek goddess of dawn, Eos, also provides a well-known word, east [ME est, fr. OE east, L aurora dawn, Gk eos, heos]. The opposite direction, west [ME, fr. OE, L vesper evening, Gk hesperos], gets its name from the Greek god of evening, Hesperus.

After the Olympians defeat the Titans at the beginning of time for power over creation, Atlas is punished for his part in the revolt by being forced to uphold perpetually both the heavens and the earth (Barthell 16). From this story comes the word atlas [L Atlant-, Atlas, fr. Gk], which is a collection of maps, as well as the clever name for the first vertebra of the neck -- the point of the shoulders upon which Atlas' mythological burden rests.

"When Achilles was born [to] his mother [Thetis], daughter of the sea god Nereus,...she bathed him in the river Styx to make him invulnerable, holding him by the heel..." (Stapleton 8). The Achilles tendon is a strong ligament that joins the calf muscles of the leg to the bone of the heel. Achilles later met his death when he took a blow to that vulnerable portion of his heel where his mother had held onto him, thus giving birth to another phrase, Achilles' heel, meaning "a vulnerable point."

Also bearing names alluding to mythology are two well-loved days of the week, Friday [ME, fr. OE frigedaeg, fr. (assumed) Frig Frigga + daeg day, prehistoric trans. of L dies Veneris Venus' day] and Saturday [ME saterday, fr. OE saeterndaeg, fr. L Saturnus Saturn + daeg day]. Both are named for Roman deities, as are the months of the year January [ME Januarie, fr. L Januarius, 1st month of Roman year, fr. Janus], for the two-faced god of beginnings, Janus; March [ME, fr. OF, fr. L martius of Mars, fr. Mars], after the war god Mars; and May [ME, fr. OE & L; OF mai, fr. L Maius, fr. Maia], named for Maia, mother of Hermes.

Delving into mythology for inspiration is nothing new. In fact, most words in our language derived from these ancient tales, other than those dealing with space and space exploration, were brought into English long before the twentieth century. Mythology's influence is in no threat of dying out, either: it is constantly alluded to in science fiction literature and movies, including such familiar series as Star Trek and Wonder Woman, and many terms in this growing pop-culture are derived from these ancient legends.

The word mythology [F or LL; F mythologie, fr. LL mythologia interpretation of myths, fr. Gk], borrowed from the compound of the Greek words mythos (story) + logos (speech), in itself tells a story of ancient times, as myths were once passed from person to person only through the spoken word. This verbal narrative of the tales of gods and men began the remarkable tapestry of mythology that still remains in the English language today.

After Reading

1. What did you learn from the text? Did you find any answers to your questions or confirm or disprove your predictions?
2. What most surprised you? Identify some examples to support your thoughts.
3. Based on what you read, explain a) your understanding of etymology and b) its relevance to the present-day English language.
4. Based on your own knowledge of mythology, what other English words or phrases might have mythological stories behind them?

Wallis’ etymological dictionary of classical mythology provides insight into words that have mythological origins. However, not all words derive from mythology. All words have origin stories that reveal where they came from, how they were spelled, and how word spelling and meaning has evolved over time. The spelling of present-day English words contains clues to these stories–if we are able to notice and observe the clues, then we can learn a great deal about the background of the word. In this next section, you will discover some of those clues and ways of recognizing and making sense of them.