Curated category
Deities in the Aeneid
- HeraThe name Hera appears on clay tablets from Pylos and Thebes written in the Linear B script, dating to the Mycenaean period.
- Jupiter (god)The Latin name Iuppiter originated as a vocative compound of the Old Latin vocative Iou and pater, meaning father. This form replaced the earlier Old Latin…
- ArtemisScholars have debated the linguistic origin of the name Artemis for centuries. R.S.P. Beekes suggested that the interchange between e and i in her name…
- Juno (mythology)The name Juno once appeared in ancient texts as Diuno and Diove, a form scholars linked to Iove or Jove. This connection suggested a shared root meaning…
- Mercury (mythology)The name Mercury connects to the Latin word merx, meaning merchandise. It also links to the Proto-Indo-European root mergh for boundary or border.
- Venus (mythology)The Latin word Venus stems from a Proto-Italic form reconstructed as wenos, meaning desire. This root traces back to the Proto-Indo-European term wes-, which…
- HadesIn ancient Greek, the name Hades meant "the unseen one," a direct contrast to his brother Zeus who represented the brightness of day.
- Mars (mythology)The Latin word Mars appears in Old Latin texts as Mamart-, a form likely borrowed from foreign tongues. Scholars once linked this name to the Vedic storm…
- EosThe Proto-Greek form of the dawn goddess is reconstructed as auhōs. This linguistic root connects her to the Vedic goddess Ushas, the Lithuanian goddess…
- HeliosThe word helios comes from a Proto-Indo-European root that ancient scholars trace back to the dawn of language itself. Walter Burkert noted in his 1985 book…
- Iris (mythology)The ancient Greek noun for rainbow also meant the halo of the Moon. An inscription from Corinth reveals an original form with a digamma that eventually…