Skip to content
Curated category

Personifications in Greek mythology

  • Metis (mythology)The Greek word metis meant a quality that combined wisdom and cunning. This quality was considered to be highly admirable, the hero Odysseus being the…
  • ErosHesiod's Theogony, written around 700 BC, lists Eros as the fourth god to emerge from Chaos. He appeared after Gaia and Tartarus, establishing love as a…
  • Uranus (mythology)Most linguists trace the name Uranus to a Proto-Greek form called Worsanós. Originally reconstructed by Johann Baptist Hofmann, this root expands from Worsó-.
  • 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…
  • Eris (mythology)The name Eris derives from the ancient Greek noun eris, which carries the stem erid-. This root means strife or discord.
  • 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…
  • OceanusScholars have struggled for decades to explain the name Oceanus. M. L. West described its etymology as obscure and impossible to derive from Greek itself.
  • MnemosyneIn the ancient Greek creation myth, a Titan named Mnemosyne emerged as one of the children born from Uranus and Gaia. Hesiod wrote in his Theogony around 700…
  • HestiaThe name Hestia means hearth, fireplace, and altar. This word stems from the Proto-Indo-European root meaning to burn. That root ultimately connects to words…