The Hoard

An appendix that keeps growing: every word we have dug up, A to Z, with its myth and its modern meaning.

Each entry gives the word, where it came from in Greek myth (or the Roman versions of those myths), and what it means in English now. Words that have a full chapter link to it. Where an etymology is uncertain or disputed, the entry says so — a hoard should be honest about which coins might be counterfeit.

All 53 words shown.

A

aegis noun

FromThe aigis, the fringed goatskin carried by Zeus and Athena in Homer, which struck terror when shaken.

NowProtection or sponsorship: “under the aegis of.”

ambrosia noun

FromThe food of the gods; the Greek word is linked to the idea of immortality.

NowAnything exquisitely delicious; also a fruit-salad dessert.

arachnid noun

FromArachne, the weaver Athena turned into a spider in Ovid’s Metamorphoses.

NowA member of the class Arachnida: spiders, scorpions, mites, ticks.

atlas noun

FromAtlas, the Titan made to hold up the sky. Mercator used the name for his 1595 book of maps, though he said he meant a legendary king of that name.

NowA book of maps; the top vertebra of the neck, which holds up the head.

B

bacchanal noun

FromBacchus, the Roman name for Dionysus, and the Bacchanalia, his Roman rites, which the Senate restricted in 186 BCE.

NowA wild, drunken party.

C

cereal noun

FromCeres, the Roman goddess of grain and harvest, identified with the Greek Demeter; the Latin cerealis means “of Ceres.”

NowA grain crop; a breakfast food made from grain.

chaos noun

FromChaos, the yawning gap that comes into being first of all in Hesiod’s Theogony.

NowComplete disorder and confusion.

Circean adjective

FromCirce, who turned Odysseus’s crew into pigs. Chapter III

NowDangerously bewitching.

cyclopean adjective

FromThe Cyclopes, credited with building the walls of Tiryns. Chapter II

NowMade of huge rough stones; gigantic.

D

Dionysian adjective

FromDionysus, god of wine, theatre and ecstatic release; Nietzsche set the Dionysian against the Apollonian in The Birth of Tragedy (1872).

NowWild, instinctive and uninhibited.

E

echo noun, verb

FromEcho, the nymph whom Hera left able only to repeat the last words she heard.

NowA reflected sound; to repeat.

erotic adjective

FromEros, the god of love and desire, Cupid to the Romans.

NowTo do with romantic or sexual desire.

F

fauna noun

FromFauna, a Roman goddess of the countryside linked with Faunus, the Roman counterpart of Pan; Linnaeus used the name for his Fauna Suecica (1746), a catalogue of Swedish animals.

NowThe animals of a region or period.

fury noun

FromLatin furia, “rage,” personified as the Furies, the Roman name for the Erinyes, the avenging goddesses of Greek myth.

NowWild or violent anger.

G

giant noun

FromThe Gigantes, the earth-born race who fought the Olympian gods; the Greek gigas reached English through Latin and Old French.

NowA person, thing or company of great size.

gorgon noun

FromThe Gorgons, the snake-haired sisters whose gaze turned onlookers to stone; Medusa was the one Perseus beheaded.

NowA fierce or frightening person (an old-fashioned insult).

H

halcyon adjective

FromAlcyone, turned into a kingfisher (alkyōn); the gods were said to calm the winter sea while kingfishers nested.

NowCalm and happy, usually of days remembered: “halcyon days.”

herculean adjective

FromHeracles, Hercules in Latin, and his twelve labours.

NowNeeding enormous strength or effort.

hermetic adjective

FromHermes Trismegistus, a late-antique figure blending Hermes with the Egyptian Thoth, credited with alchemical writings.

NowAirtight, as in “hermetically sealed”; also obscure or esoteric.

hygiene noun

FromGreek hygiēs, “healthy,” the word personified as Hygieia, goddess of health.

NowPractices that keep people well.

hypnosis noun

FromHypnos, the god of sleep; the term was coined by the Scottish surgeon James Braid in the 1840s.

NowA trance-like state of focused attention.

I

iridescent adjective

FromIris, messenger of the gods and goddess of the rainbow.

NowShimmering with shifting colours. Her name also gave us the iris of the eye, the iris flower and the element iridium.

J

jovial adjective

FromJove, another name for Jupiter, the Roman Zeus; astrologers held that people born under the planet Jupiter were cheerful.

NowGood-humoured and friendly.

L

lethargy noun

FromGreek lēthargia, built on lēthē, “forgetting” — the same word as Lethe, the underworld river of forgetfulness.

NowSluggishness; a lack of energy.

M

mentor noun, verb

FromMentor, Odysseus’s friend, whose shape Athena borrows. Chapter V

NowA trusted adviser; to guide someone.

moly noun

FromThe magic herb Hermes gives Odysseus. Chapter III

NowA golden wild garlic, Allium moly; any protective herb.

morphine noun

FromMorpheus, the shaper of dreams in Ovid’s Metamorphoses; the drug was named in the early 1800s by the German pharmacist Friedrich Sertürner.

NowA powerful pain-relieving medicine.

museum noun

FromThe Mouseion, a seat or shrine of the Muses; music is likewise their art.

NowA building that keeps and displays collections.

N

narcissism noun

FromNarcissus, who fell in love with his reflection in Ovid; the term entered psychology around 1898–99.

NowExcessive self-regard; also a clinical personality disorder.

nectar noun

FromThe drink of the gods, partner to ambrosia.

NowThe sugary fluid in flowers; a thick fruit juice.

nemesis noun

FromNemesis, goddess of retribution against arrogance.

NowAn arch-rival; a downfall that cannot be escaped.

nereid noun

FromThe fifty sea-nymph daughters of Nereus. Chapter VI

NowA sea nymph; a moon of Neptune; in Greek, a fairy.

O

oceanic adjective

FromOceanus, the Titan pictured as a great river encircling the world.

NowOf the ocean; vast.

odyssey noun

FromOdysseus and the ten years of wandering in Homer’s Odyssey.

NowAny long, eventful journey.

P

panic noun, verb

FromPan, the goat-footed god whose sudden shout could scatter flocks and armies.

NowSudden overwhelming fear.

Penelope’s web phrase

FromPenelope’s shroud for Laertes, woven by day and unpicked by night. Chapter V

NowA task kept deliberately unfinished.

pharmacy noun

FromPharmakon, Homer’s word for Circe’s drugs. Chapter III

NowThe preparation and sale of medicines.

phobia noun

FromGreek phobos, “fear,” personified as Phobos, son of Ares; also the name of a moon of Mars.

NowAn intense, irrational fear.

procrustean adjective

FromProcrustes, the bandit who stretched or cut his guests to fit his bed, until Theseus gave him the same treatment.

NowForcing things to fit a rigid standard.

protean adjective

FromProteus, the shape-shifting Old Man of the Sea in Odyssey 4.

NowVersatile; taking many forms.

psyche noun

FromGreek psychē, “breath, soul” and also “butterfly”; Psyche is the heroine of Apuleius’s tale of Cupid and Psyche.

NowThe mind; the root of psychology.

R

rhadamanthine adjective

FromRhadamanthys, son of Zeus and Europa, who became one of the judges of the dead.

NowStrictly, even severely, just.

S

Scylla and Charybdis idiom

FromThe two sea monsters of Odyssey 12. Chapter IV

NowTwo dangers, where avoiding one drives you towards the other.

siren noun

FromThe singers who lure sailors in Odyssey 12. Chapter I

NowAn alarm; a dangerous temptation.

sirenian noun

FromSirens in their mermaid form. Chapter I

NowA manatee or a dugong.

sisyphean adjective

FromSisyphus, condemned to roll a stone uphill forever in Odyssey 11.

NowEndless and futile.

stentorian adjective

FromStentor, the Greek herald at Troy whose voice, says the Iliad, was as loud as fifty men’s.

NowVery loud and powerful.

T

tantalize verb

FromTantalus, punished with fruit and water that always moved out of reach.

NowTo tease with something just out of reach.

titanic adjective

FromThe Titans, the older generation of gods overthrown by Zeus.

NowEnormous; also the name of the liner lost in 1912.

typhoon noun

FromA tangle of sources: Greek typhōn, “whirlwind,” also the name of the storm-monster Typhon, merged with Arabic and Chinese words for great storms.

NowA tropical cyclone in the western Pacific.

U

uranium noun

FromUranus, the planet found by William Herschel in 1781 and named after Ouranos, the sky; Martin Heinrich Klaproth named the element after the new planet in 1789.

NowA heavy radioactive metal used as nuclear fuel.

V

volcano noun

FromVulcan, the Roman god of fire and the forge, by way of the island of Vulcano near Sicily.

NowA mountain or vent that erupts.

Z

zephyr noun

FromZephyrus, god of the west wind.

NowA gentle breeze.