GLOSSARY OF MYTHOLOGICAL WORDS
AND PHRASES IN ENGLISHMany of us talk the language of myth without even realizing it. Myth encompasses a tradition, a repos-
itory of images, themes, motifs, and archetypes that can serve to give human speech resonance be-
yond its immediate context. When Hamlet compares his murdered father to his uncle as Hyperion to
a satyr, he speaks a powerful shorthand; the images conveyed by these two personages do more to
express his inner state than if he were simply to speak admiringly of the one and disparagingly of the
other. Often we use mythological references in our everyday speech, blissfully unaware that many of
our common everyday expressions find their origin in the mythic traditions of Greece and Rome; one
can use the word chaotic without knowing its ultimate source. The following list briefly explains the
original mythological meaning of some of the more common terms that have entered our language.
Achillean/Achilles' heel/Achilles' tendon Achilles
was the son of the mortal Peleus and the nymph
Thetis. A warrior of legendary prowess in battle and
the hero of Homer's Iliad, he was essential to the
Greek war effort against Troy. To describe someone
as Achillean is to mark that person as invincible or
invulnerable, or nearly so. Achilles himself had one
vulnerable spot. His mother dipped the infant
Achilles in the magical waters of the river Styx in a
vain attempt to render him immortal; she grasped
him by the heel in order to submerge him in the
stream, thereby leaving one spot on his body sus-
ceptible to injury. Paris took advantage of this weak-
ness and with Apollo's help delivered the fatal ar-
row to Achilles' heel. An Achilles' heel refers to the
one assailable feature or weakness a person may
have; in anatomy the Achilles' tendon stretches from
the heel bone to the calf muscle.
Adonis Adonis was such a handsome youth that
Aphrodite herself found him irresistible. A capable
hunter, he disregarded the warnings of the goddess
to retreat in the face of a boar that stood its ground
and sustained a fatal injury from a charging boar's
tusk. A grieving Aphrodite sprinkled nectar on the
blood-soaked ground and the anemone blossomed
forth. To call a man an Adonis is to draw attention
to his beauty.
aegis The aegis is the shield of Zeus (originally
a "goatskin"), which thunders when he shakes it.
Athena also bore the aegis, often tasseled and with
the head of Medusa affixed, its petrifying power still
intact. This divine shield afforded safety and secu-
rity, and so to be under the aegis of an individual or
of an institution is to be favored with protection,
sponsorship, or patronage.
Aeolian harp or lyre Aeolus was put in charge
of the winds by Zeus. He kept watch over his sub-
jects in a cave on the island of Aeolia. An Aeolian
harp is a box-shaped musical instrument across
which strings are strung; the strings vibrate when
wind passes across them.
Amazon The Amazons were a warrior-race of
women from the North who joined battle with a ter-
rifying war-cry. They were the equal of men in the
field. They came to be seen as haters of men, women
who sought foreign husbands, only to kill their sons
and raise their daughters as Amazons. Later tradi-
tion has it that they cut off their right breasts to be-
come better archers. A vigorous and aggressive
woman today might be deemed an amazon, while
also conveying the idea of enormous physical
stature. Often it is a derogatory term. The Amazon
ant is a species of red ant that captures the offspring
of other species and turns them into slaves.ambrosia/ambrosial The Greek gods on Olym-
pus took food and drink as mortals do. But since the
gods are of a different order from mortals, so too is
their sustenance. Ambrosia, culled from the regions
beyond the Wandering Rocks, served variously as
food for the gods, as unguent or perfume, or as fod-
der for horses. It is often coupled with nectar, which
provided drink for the Olympians. Both words de-
rive from roots that indicate their power to bestow
immortality and stave off death. Today ambrosia can
refer to a dessert of fruit and whipped cream or, es-
pecially when joined with nectar, any gourmet mas-
terpiece. Generally, ambrosial has come to indicate
anything fit for the gods or of divine provenance, or
anything delicious or fragrant. See nectar.aphrodisiac According to Hesiod, Aphrodite
was born of the foam around the severed genitals of
Uranus, a fitting beginning for a divinity whose con-
cern is the sexual. From her name comes the noun
aphrodisiac, denoting anything that has the power
to excite the sexual passions.764