Greek Mythology in Everyday Language
Ancient Words We Still Use Today
Dozens of common English words and phrases trace directly back to Greek mythology. We use them so naturally that most people have no idea they are invoking ancient gods and heroes every day.
The word chaos originally described the primordial void from which everything emerged — it only later came to mean disorder. An odyssey means a long, difficult journey, from Odysseus's ten-year struggle to get home. Something Herculean requires enormous strength or effort. A narcissist is obsessed with themselves, like Narcissus and his reflection. Panic comes from Pan, whose unexpected appearances caused terror. An echo repeats sound, like the nymph Echo cursed to repeat others' words. Something Promethean involves bold creativity or defiance of authority, from Prometheus stealing fire. A mentor is a wise guide, from Mentor, the friend Athena impersonated to guide Telemachus. The Achilles heel is a fatal weakness. A siren call is an irresistible but dangerous temptation. Tantalizing means tempting but out of reach, from Tantalus's punishment. A Trojan horse is a deceptive trick. The Midas touch turns everything to gold. Atlas carries the weight of the world. Chronology comes from Chronos, time itself.
More words with mythological roots
Beyond the familiar examples, a surprising number of ordinary English words hide a god, monster or minor character.
- Stentorian — a booming voice. In Iliad Book 5, Hera takes the form of Stentor, a bronze-voiced Greek herald who could shout as loudly as fifty men together.
- Halcyon days — a calm, happy period. Ovid tells how Alcyone and her drowned husband Ceyx were turned into kingfishers (halkyones), and the winds were stilled for days each winter while the birds nested on the sea.
- Procrustean — forcing things to fit a rigid standard. Procrustes was a bandit who stretched or cut his guests to fit his bed, until Theseus gave him the same treatment.
- Sisyphean — endless, futile labour, after Sisyphus, condemned to roll a boulder uphill forever.
- Nemesis — an unbeatable opponent. Originally Nemesis was the goddess of retribution who punished arrogance, not a personal enemy.
- Aegis — "under the aegis of" means under someone's protection. The aegis was the goatskin cloak or shield carried by Zeus and Athena.
- Lethargy — from Lethe, the river of forgetfulness in the Underworld, combined with a Greek word for idleness.
- Chimera — an impossible fantasy, or in biology an organism with cells from two individuals, after the fire-breathing Chimera made of lion, goat and serpent.
- Hector — as a verb, to bully. The Trojan prince was a noble figure in Homer, but in seventeenth-century London swaggering street toughs called themselves "Hectors," and the word soured.
- Python — the serpent Apollo killed at Delphi, later given to a family of snakes and, via Monty Python, to a programming language.
Gods in medicine and science
Scientists have long reached for mythology when naming discoveries. Morphine was named by the German pharmacist Friedrich Sertürner, who isolated it in the early nineteenth century, after Morpheus, the god of dreams. Hypnosis comes from Hypnos, the god of sleep. The chemical elements are full of myth: titanium after the Titans, helium after Helios, the sun, and iridium after Iris, goddess of the rainbow, for its colourful salts. Most neatly, tantalum was named for Tantalus because it does not absorb acid even when immersed in it, much as Tantalus could not drink the water around him. When a closely related element was identified, it was named niobium after Niobe, the daughter of Tantalus.
In anatomy, the Achilles tendon connects the calf to the heel, and the first vertebra of the neck is the atlas, because it holds up the head as Atlas holds up the sky. The book of maps called an atlas owes its name to Gerardus Mercator, whose 1595 collection was named after a legendary King Atlas of Mauretania.
Words that are often wrongly linked to myth
Not every resemblance is real. Chronology and chronic come from the ordinary Greek word chronos, "time," not from the Titan Cronus; ancient writers sometimes confused the two names, and modern ones still do. Hysteria comes from the Greek word for womb, not from any figure. Words such as volcano (Vulcan), cereal (Ceres) and jovial (Jove) are mythological but Roman, not Greek. For a broader list of Greek roots, see Greek words in English.
Ancient sources
- Homer, Iliad 5 — Hera disguised as Stentor of the bronze voice, source of "stentorian."
- Homer, Odyssey 2 and 11 — Athena disguised as Mentor guiding Telemachus; Tantalus reaching for water and fruit, and Sisyphus pushing his stone, seen in the Underworld.
- Ovid, Metamorphoses 11 — the story of Ceyx and Alcyone and the origin of the halcyon days.
- Apollodorus, Library and Epitome — the bandits Theseus killed on the road to Athens, including Procrustes.
- Hesiod, Theogony — Nemesis as a child of Night, and the Chimera as offspring of Echidna.
Frequently asked questions
What English words come from Greek mythology?
Common examples include panic, echo, narcissism, tantalize, mentor, nemesis, stentorian, halcyon, aegis, chimera and odyssey, along with scientific terms such as morphine and helium.
What does "Achilles heel" mean?
A single fatal weakness in someone otherwise strong. It refers to the late story that Achilles could be wounded only in the heel by which his mother held him.
Where does the word "museum" come from?
From the Greek mouseion, a shrine of the Muses. The most famous was the Museum of Alexandria, a centre of scholarship.