English Vocabularies Derived from Greek and Roman Mythology

1. Introduction

1.1 The current situation of Greek and Roman mythology in English study

The backgrounds knowledge of Greek and Roman mythology are so familiar to native English speakers， but so unfamiliar to us Non-English-speaking country English learners. Until now， we are not concentrated on those backgrounds knowledge but on listening， reading， grammar and so on. If we want to have a whole handle of English language， we had to get to know these backgrounds knowledge.

1.2 The influences of Greek and Roman mythology on English vocabulary

The main two origins of Western culture are Hebrew Christian culture and Greek and Roman mythology which have a great influence on western country such as economic， culture and so on. As one of the origin， Greek and Roman mythology has a great influence on the development of English vocabulary. This vocabulary may refer to every thing， astronomy， for example.

2.Words categories

2.1 Proper words

2.1.1 Constellation

Many words concerned to constellation derived from Greek and roman mythology. Some are named from animals， some are from people or god’s name， and some are even from places.

The Alter: People named it from the Alter on which Zeus and the other gods celebrated after Zeus leaded them to defeat his father named Cronus.

The triangle: symbolize the Island of Sicily where Demeter，the goodness of grain， had born.

The Delphinus：Named after Poseidon’s messenger Delphinus who helped Poseidon marry Amphitrite that didn’t like Poseidon after many times try and persuade.

The bull：Zeus want to get close to Europe， so he changed into a bull which is now used in Constellation called the Bull.

2.1.2 Geographical Expressions

A considerate of place name are come from Greek and Roman mythology， and most of them got their name because of the stories of gods.

Europe ：Europa is a stunning beautiful god， who is transformed into a white bull， and hijacked to Crete by Zeus. Venus said to her: \"You were brought here， destined to be my human’s wife. Your name is immortal， so the continent would be named Europe.

Cyprus： In the eastern Mediterranean there is an island called \"Cyprus Island\". Cypriots are called \"Cyprian\" in English， one meaning \"lewd woman\"， and it is the Island of Venus Aphrodite. She also represents passion， named from Cyprus.

Athens: Athens is the goodness from which Athena is named.

2.1.3Time

2.1.3.1 Month

Part of months＇names are come from those mythology which are listed as follows.

January—Janus is the Roman god solely dedicating to observe days of the Secretary for the door. He has two faces， one after the other， which can be indecisive， and he represents the god of beginning and end of January which is the beginning of the year ranking， in previous years， looking back at the old year and looking forward to New Year.

March——March is named according to the god named mars which symbolize

May——May is named from the Mayan goddess，Mayan is the god of the field.

June ——June is the Lord God according to Jupiter's wife， the goddess named Zhu Nottingham.

2.1.3.2 Weekdays

All the weekdays are named from god’s name.

2.2 Non-proper Expressions

Besides those proper words there are also many Non-proper Expressions which are mostly come from the name of the gods or goddesses. These Non-proper Expressions also includes nouns adjectives and also verbs.

Muse: The Muses were nine goddesses of the arts and sciences in Greek and Roman mythology.

Volcano: It is said volcano was the stove that the lame god of fire named Vulcan forged weapons for all gods.

Titanic: The Titans are a group of gods of generation before the Olympian gods. They were gods of enormous size and incredibly strong. So， titanic means very large， important， strong or difficult.

Olympian: Because the most important gods with extraordinary manner in the Greek Mythology who are awe-inspiring. So Olympian means like a god; powerful and impressive.

2.3 Phrases

There are also a lot of English idioms and allusions which are derived from the beautiful Greek and Roman Mythology.

Helen of Troy——It was Helen who caused the war of Troy， so Helen of Troy means something or somebody who will cause disaster. And it can be best expressed using Chinese words “紅顏禍水”

The Achilles’ heel——Every part of Achilles is very strong except his heels which are often hold by his mother and never let water touch them. So The Achilles＇heel means the only deadly weak of something or somebody.

Under the rose——Cupid was son of Venus and Mars who was born secretly. To keep this secret， Cupid give Hippocrates， the god of silence， a bunch of rose and made him keep this secret and he did. So Under the rose implies secretly.

3 .Conclusion

English vocabulary is greatly influenced by ancient Greek and Roman mythology. Knowing about these backgrounds knowledge can not only enlarge our vocabularies， making our composition more attractive but also can inspire our interest in gaining vocabularies and enrich our bank of English language. We must pay the same attention as we paid in English grammar study to these backgrounds knowledge. At the same time， we have just talk about one part of this kind of English backgrounds knowledge， but we believed that there is much more things we can do about English backgrounds， not only about Greek and Roman mythology but also concentrate on Bible， western legends and so on.

Reference：

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