50 English Words from Greek Mythology

Words hiding in science and the periodic table

Chemists and astronomers have mined Greek myth for names since the eighteenth century, often with a joke built in.

• Tantalum — named in 1802 by the Swedish chemist Anders Ekeberg because the metal, immersed in acid, could not absorb any, just as Tantalus stands in water he can never drink. The verb tantalize comes from the same myth.
• Niobium — found in the same minerals as tantalum and named in 1844 by Heinrich Rose after Niobe, Tantalus's daughter, because the two elements are so hard to separate.
• Titanium — named by Martin Heinrich Klaproth in 1795 for the Titans, the children of Earth. The same chemist named uranium in 1789, after the newly discovered planet Uranus.
• Helium — from helios, the sun, because it was first detected in the solar spectrum during the eclipse of 1868, before it was found on Earth.
• Promethium — element 61, named for Prometheus, stealer of fire, to reflect both the power and the danger of nuclear energy.
• Iridium and iris — from Iris, the rainbow messenger, because iridium's salts are vividly coloured. The coloured part of the eye and the word iridescent share the source.
• Arachnid — from Arachne, the weaver Athena turned into a spider.
• Hygiene and panacea — from Hygieia and Panacea, daughters of Asclepius, named in the opening of the Hippocratic Oath.

Words with surprising histories

Stentorian. A stentorian voice is very loud after Stentor, a Greek at Troy whom Homer says could shout as loud as fifty men. He appears only once, when Hera takes his form to rouse the army.

Protean. Proteus, the old man of the sea, changes into a lion, a serpent, a leopard, a boar, water and a tree while Menelaus clings to him in the Odyssey. A protean person or idea takes many forms.

Pandora's box. In Hesiod's Works and Days it is not a box but a pithos, a large storage jar. The box appears in the Renaissance, usually traced to Erasmus, who rendered it pyxis, and it stuck. See Pandora's box.

Hector. To hector someone means to bully them, an odd fate for Troy's most decent hero. The verb comes from seventeenth-century London, where swaggering young gangs called themselves "Hectors."

Nestor and Cassandra. A Nestor is a wise elder statesman, after the aged king of Pylos who gives long advice in the Iliad. A Cassandra issues warnings nobody believes, after the Trojan prophetess cursed by Apollo.

Halcyon days. Ovid tells how Alcyone and her drowned husband Ceyx were turned into kingfishers. The calm winter days when the bird was believed to nest on the sea were the "halcyon days," which Aristotle already discusses as a seasonal phenomenon.

Aegis. To act "under the aegis" of someone is to act under their protection, from the goatskin shield of Zeus and Athena.

Lethargy. From Lethe, the underworld river of forgetfulness, combined with argos, "idle."

Achilles tendon. The anatomical name was popularized after the Flemish anatomist Philip Verheyen used it in 1693, long after the phrase "Achilles' heel" had become proverbial.

Words from creatures and lesser figures

Chimerical, meaning fanciful or impossible, comes from the fire-breathing Chimera, part lion, part goat, part serpent. A harpy is a grasping, scolding woman, after the snatching Harpies. Python was the serpent Apollo killed at Delphi, whose name gave the priestess her title, the Pythia; the snake genus was named after it. Ambrosia and nectar, the food and drink of the gods, now describe anything delicious. A phobia comes from Phobos, Fear, son of Ares. Psyche, the soul, is also the name of the girl Eros loves in Apuleius' story, which is why butterflies, also psyche in Greek, appear with her in art.

Ancient sources

• Homer, Iliad 5 — Hera takes the form of "great-hearted Stentor of the brazen voice," who could shout as loud as fifty men.
• Homer, Odyssey 4 and 11 — Proteus's transformations as Menelaus holds him; Tantalus in the underworld, unable to drink or eat.
• Hesiod, Works and Days — Pandora opening the jar (pithos), leaving only Hope inside.
• Ovid, Metamorphoses 6 and 11 — Arachne's weaving contest with Minerva; Ceyx and Alcyone turned into kingfishers.
• Aristotle, History of Animals — the kingfisher (alkyon) and the calm days around the winter solstice when it was thought to breed.

Frequently asked questions

How many English words come from Greek mythology?

There is no fixed count, since it depends on whether scientific names are included. Dozens of everyday words derive directly from mythological names, and thousands of technical terms in biology, chemistry and astronomy use them.

Where does the word "panic" come from?

From Pan. The Greeks attributed sudden groundless fear, especially in armies or herds, to him, and Herodotus links his cult at Athens to his help at the Battle of Marathon.

Does "atlas" really come from the Titan?

Indirectly. Mercator titled his 1595 collection of maps Atlas, explaining that he named it after a legendary King Atlas of Mauretania, a philosopher-astronomer. Later editions showed the Titan holding up a globe, and the two figures merged in popular memory.

Which month names come from mythology?

January (Janus), March (Mars), May (probably Maia, mother of Hermes) and June (Juno) are the usual examples, all from the Roman calendar.

Books to read next

• Edith Hamilton, Mythology
• Stephen Fry, Mythos
• Robert Graves, The Greek Myths

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