Prometheus

To the ancient Greeks and Romans, Prometheus was a Titan -- one of the pre-Olympian beings -- who allied himself with Zeus and the later gods in their war against the Titans. At the request of Zeus, he created the first humans from clay. Later, he stole fire from the gods and gave it to humans, a divine gift that gave them god-like powers.

To punish him, Zeus decreed that he would be chained to a rock, where every day an eagle would eat out his liver. Each night, the liver would regrow, so that the next day, Prometheus would again be punished by having the eagle eat his liver again.

English word:In English, promethean means "life-giving, daringly original, creative." A reference to Prometheus also occurs in the original title of the novel Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus, by Mary Wollstonecroft Shelley.

Echo

The source of this familiar word was an ancient Greek myth. Echo was a nymph who was so fond of talking, she always had to have the last word. Zeus, the king of the gods (Jupiter to the Romans) was always fooling around with nymphs (as well as women and goddesses), and he persuaded Echo to keep his wife Hera (Juno to the Romans) busy with talking, so Hera wouldn't catch Zeus in the act with a nymph. When Hera found out what Echo had been doing, Hera cursed the nymph, and took away her voice except to repeat the last words she heard. "You'll still have the last word," Hera told her, "but you can never speak first."

Echo fell in love with a beautiful young man. I guess he could be called an Adonis, but that's a different myth. The young man who attracted Echo was named Narcissus, another word you'll probably recognize. Even though he was very handsome, he had never been interested in a romantic relationship. Echo followed him around, and hoped and hoped he would fall in love with her, too. But she could not start a conversation with him. One day, when he was out hunting with some friends, he called out to them, "Where are you?" Echo answered back, "Where are you?" "Come here!" he called out. And "Come here!" she repeated. At the same time, she went to him, expecting him to throw her arms around him.

However, when he saw Echo, Narcissus rejected her. He did not want to return her love for him. Heartsick, Echo continued to follow him around, repeating what he said, until she faded away, with nothing left but her voice.

As for Narcissus, he earned his own entry here as the name for a flower.

English word: This ancient Greek story remains in our language as the word echo, a repeating sound, caused by sound waves bouncing off hard surfaces, and then bouncing off again.

Cynosure

In ancient Greek and Roman myth, Cynosure was one of the nymphs of Mt. Ida, who cared for Zeus when he was in hiding from his father. In gratitude, he set her in the sky as the constellation Little Bear (Ursa Minor), or as the last star in the tail of the Little Bear, the pole star.

English word: Although in modern English, we seldom hear it used for the pole star, Cynosure still has that meaning. It also means "the center of attention," and "that which serves to guide or direct."

Cornucopia

This word combines two Latin words, cornus, meaning "horn," and copia, meaning "plenty." In other words, it means "horn of plenty," the image so often presented of a huge sheep's horn overflowing with fruits and vegetables.

It receives its name from Amalthea, the goat who fed and cared for Zeus, when his mother put him in hiding from his father, Saturn, who feared that his son would kill him and take over his role as king of the gods.

After Amalthea raised him, Zeus broke off one of her horns, which forever after was filled with an unlimited supply of fruits, nuts, and herbs.

English word: Today, cornucopia still means "the horn of plenty," an emblem of abundance.

Centaur

In both Greek and Latin myths, a centaur is a creature that is half man and half horse. They are said to be descended from Ixion, who violated the ancient law of hospitality as both host and guest. As host, he violated it when he murdered his father-in-law, who had come to collect his bride price.

He also violated it as a guest He was wandering in exile, because nobody would perform the ritual to cleanse him of the sin of killing his father-in-law Zeus took pity on him and invited him to Olympus as a guest. Once there, Ixion lusted after Hera, the wife of Zeus, further violating the law of hospitality. To trick him, Zeus created the likeness of Hera from clouds, and watched as Ixion mated with the cloud form, which gave birth to the monster Centaurus, and his twin brother Lapithus. While Lapithus became a noble warrior, Centaurus was deformed, and mated with wild mares, founding the race of Centaurs. Some people speculate that this myth sprang from the sight of the first horse-mounted men.

English word: The word in English refers to the same mythical creature, half man and half horse.

Calypso

In ancient Greece, Calypso was a water nymph, the queen of a "western" island. She kept Odysseus (Roman Ulysses) and his men on her island for seven years after he was shipwrecked. She tried him to persuade him to stay longer, until Zeus commanded her to let him go.

English word: Our word calypso refers to a ballad-like improvisation in African rhythms. It is often a satire on current events, composed and sung by natives of Trinidad. It is also played in the British West Indies at an annual pre-Lenten carnival.

Adonis

In the ancient Greek myth, Adonis was a youth who was so beautiful when he was born that Aphrodite, the goddess of love, put him into a wooden chest and gave him to Persephone, the goddess of the underworld, to keep him safe. When Persephone saw how beautiful he was, she refused to give him back to Aphrodite. This sparked a quarrel between two goddesses. Zeus, the king of the gods, resolved the quarrel when he decided to have Adonis spend four months each year with each of the two, with four months of the year to himself.

The myth goes on that Adonis was killed by the tusks of a boar sent by one of the other gods. In another version of the myth, Adonis was born from a tree when a boar tore up the bark of a tree with its tusks.

In ancient Greece, women practiced the cult of Adonis. At midsummer, they planted "gardens of Adonis," consisting of fast-growing salad greens, on flat rooftops. After the plants withered and died, the women wailed and mourned their beautiful god. However, the next year he returned, for he was a god of vegetation, a god of birth-death-and rebirth.

English word: In English, just as in ancient Greek, Adonis refers to a beautiful youth.

Aegis

In ancient Greek myth, the aegis was a shield that Hephaestus, the god of iron-working, made for Zeus, which he sometimes lent to his daughter Athena. Usually, it is associated with Athena.

English word: The word aegis also means a shield, and is the name given to a class of guided missile cruisers, and to many businesses.

Athena

Athena was the ancient Greek goddess of wisdom -- and weaving, and crafts. She was also the goddess of war, but only when fought for protection. She was also called Pallas Athene, and sometimes Athena Parthenos -- meaning Athena the virgin. Versions of her myths vary, but in the best known version, her father was Zeus, that randy god who often mated with goddesses, nymphs, and mortal women who caught his fancy. One who caught his fancy was Metis, the goddess of crafty thought and wisdom. After he had his way with her, he became frightened because of a prediction that her child would become greater than its father. To prevent the birth of a child, Zeus swallowed Metis. However, she was immortal, and the child she had conceived continued to grow. Finally, Zeus felt a terrible headache. At his command, one of the other gods split his head open with an axe. Out of the gaping wound stepped Athena, full grown, armed and armored.

Athena got into a dispute with Poseidon, the god of the sea, over which of them would be the reigning deity of a Greek city-state. To settle the quarrel, they decided that each of them would create a gift for the people of the city, and let the people choose. Poseidon took his great trident, struck it into the ground, and a spring of water bubbled up. Athena made an olive tree sprout from the ground. The people chose Athena's gift, because it provided food, oil for lamps, and wood to burn. Thus, the city took the name Athens, and built a magnificent temple called the Parthenon -- honoring Athena Parthenos. In addition to the myths about her origins, Athena appears in many other myths of ancient Greece.

English word: From Athena is derived the name of the city of Athens, of course, and Parthenon. From Pallas Athene is derived the word Palladium, which was originally a great statue of the goddess, and later came to mean a safeguard, or a protection. Palladium also refers to a rare metallic element of the platinum family.