Happy New Year! We’re wrapping up three years of “Something Went Horribly Wrong.”
In the last two segments of 2023, we told you about eponyms, words named for people. Here’s a bunch that go back to Greek mythology. Opa!
Achilles’ heel: As a baby, Achilles was dipped by his mother in the river Styx, making him invulnerable – except where she held him by his heel. In the Trojan War, an arrow fatally struck him there.
Aphrodisiac: For Aphrodite, the goddess of sexual pleasure.
Erotic: Eros was a deity of love.
Hypnotize, mesmerize: Hypnos was the god of sleep. In the 1700s, French physician Franz Anton Mesmer theorized disease resulted when the flow of an invisible fluid through the body became blocked, and devised treatments that involved putting his patients in trances.
Kimberly Lin
Narcissist/Echo: These unrelated terms come from the same Greek story. Narcissus, a handsome hunter, was in the woods when he saw his image in a pool of water and fell in love. Echo, a nymph, was stricken with him but could not pull him away from his reflection. In despair, she wilted away, leaving only her echo sound. Narcissus starved to death and his body turned into the flowers that bear his name.
Odyssey: The phrase for a long and difficult journey is an homage to Homer’s epic tale of Greek hero Odysseus (Ulysses) and his decade-long voyage home following victory in the Trojan War.
Platonic love: The great philosopher Plato argued people could share a close bond without a sexual relationship.
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Volcano: Vulcan is the Roman god of fire.
Panacea: The term for a cure-all is named for the Greek goddess of cures.
Pandora’s box: The term comes from the fable of the first woman on earth. Her curiosity leads her to open a locked box containing the world’s ills, and loose them on the world. She finds one thing left in the box: hope.
Watch this on video! https://youtu.be/C-FnP5aE82Q
Next time: Maxims that ring a bell.
Readers: "Something Went Horribly Wrong" features samples of bad writing we see nearly every day. You can participate! Be our duly deputized “grammar police.” Your motto: “To protect and correct.” Send in your photos of store signs, street signs, menus, TV news graphics, newspaper headlines, tweets, and so on. It doesn’t have to be a grammatical error. It can be just what we call “cowardly writing.” Include your name and home town so we can credit you properly. You're free to add a comment, although we reserve the right to edit or omit. Now get out there! Send to Eliot@eliotkleinberg.com
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