ESL Blogs

There are a lot of English vocabs that actually originate from Greek Mythology; thesis, thesaurus, hypothesis, etc. And don't get me started on the names: Odysseus, Perseus, Theseus. Yeah, yeah, yeah, a lota "yeuseus". Here are some of my faves.

Narcissus

On a scale of 1-10 he was a twenty! He was so obsessed with himself that when he saw his own reflection in the river, he fell in love. Not realizing he was staring at himself, he stared at his reflection until he died. The flower that bloomed where he died is called narcissus today.

Eros

The infamous Cupid. He could make any human fall in love with the first person they saw. The only problem was that he didn’t bother to aim his arrows, preferring random targets. What a jerk! With the invention of online dating and Tinder he spends most of his time relaxing at the archery club.

Hygieia

Tall, dark and handsome, sorry I got distracted. Tall, slim and gentle, Hygieia represented the prevention of sickness. After the first appearance of the plague in Ancient Greece in 430 BCE, in which 25% of the population died, her cult rapidly spread. Worshipped along with her father Asclepius, the god of medicine, she was commonly shown holding a serpent in her arms-hence some of the pharmaceutical companies logos. The more you know, kids.

Lethe

Lethe was one of five rivers that flowed through the underworld. Its mere murmuring was enough to cause drowsiness. Lethe, the spirit of oblivion shared her name with the river. Duh! Those who dared drink from the river would have their memories erased, and the dead of the underworld would drink the water to forget their lives. Spooky...

Hypnos

He was lazy. There, I said it. He preferred to spend most of his time snoozing in the underworld. The entrance to his cave was lined with poppies and other hypnotic herbs, and Lethe (river of forgetfulness) flowed through it. Double trouble, am I right? When he was awake, Hypnos was busy putting Zeus to sleep at the request of Hera, a habit Zeus was not very pleased with. I wonder why. 

Arachne

She was a mortal girl gifted in the art of weaving. She was so confident in her craft that she challenged Athena, the goddess of wisdom, arts and craft, to a weaving contest. I smell trouble. When she lost, that's a no brainer. What was she thinkin'? Athena turned her into the world’s first spider. Ewww!!!

Morpheus

He could intrude into the dreams of mortals. He was the ultimate master of disguise, morphing into human form and perfectly matching not only a person’s body, but also their voice and mannerisms. Through dreams he could communicate messages from the gods and predict people's future.

Psyche

Being a mortal girl, Psyche got the attention of many men but she was interested in none. Frustrated by this, Aphrodite sent her son Eros to make Psyche fall in love with the first man she saw, but Eros accidentally scratched himself with his arrow and fell in love her himself. Total klutz. To hide the mistake from his mother Eros kept his identity a secret, but Psyche found out and Eros fled. After turning to Aphrodite for help and completing a series of difficult tasks, Psyche was reunited with Eros. They got married and she became immortal.

Priapus

While still in Aphrodite’s womb, he was cursed with ugliness and impotence by Hera. As a punishment for his mother’s beauty and promiscuity. Thrown from Mount Olympus down to Earth and raised by shepherds, he wandered the Earth with a permanent hard-on. Ouch!

Echo

Echo was a young mountain nymph who just loved to talk. After helping out Zeus by distracting his wife Hera with never-ending chatter, Hera took revenge by taking away her ability to speak. She could only repeat the last words said to her. She fell in love with Narcissus but being unable to tell him, she waded in sorrow until only her voice was left.

More info: factorialist.com

Well, there you have it. English words with a dab of Greek.

Dunno why, but this blog entry is dedicated to Evangelina.

 Kiddin'. I totally know why. =]