Achilles

Achilles was the leading Greek hero of the Iliad, the ancient Greek epic told by Homer, the blind bard. Achilles' father was a mortal man, and his mother was an immortal sea nymph. In an effort to make him immortal, too, his mother dipped him in the River Styx, which separates Earth and the Underworld. However, in order to dip him in the water, she held him by the heel of one foot, which remained vulnerable.

The Iliad starts with Achilles' wrath and withdrawal from the fleet about to sail away to invade Troy. He thinks Agamemnon has insulted him. Agamemnon was the brother of King Menelaus, whose wife Helen had run away with Paris, the prince of Troy. After Achilles and the other Greek kings agreed to invade Troy and retrieve Helen, Achilles thought Agamemnon insulted him because Agamemnon kept for himself a beautiful slave Achilles had claimed for his own, as a spoil of war. When Achilles withdrew from the war, he didn't just go and sulk in his tent by himself. He also withdrew his warriors, the Myrmidons, a powerful troop of soldiers.

Throughout most of the Iliad, Achilles stays out of the fight against Troy. Eventually, he goes out to fight again, seeking vengeance for the death of his dearest friend, Patroclus. In the fighting, Achilles engages in one-on-one combat with the great Trojan hero, Hector. When Hector is dead, Achilles defiles his body, instead of allowing his family to bury it with religious honors. At last, Hector's father, the King of Troy, ransoms Hector's body, and the epic ends with Hector's burial.

Curiously, Achilles' vulnerable heel does not affect the Trojan War. However, later epics describe the death of Achilles, when an arrow strikes him in the heel, and he dies as a result.

English word: In English, Achilles has not contributed a single word, but a phrase, or two phrases: Achilles' heel and Achilles tendon. The first refers to a strong person's one vulnerable point. The second refers to a body part, which connects the muscles of the calf to the bone of the heel. It is essential in order to walk normally.

Gnome

In Germanic myths, a gnome is a small, humanoid creature that lives under ground. Gnomes are thought to be very intelligent. They do work for humans if they like them.

English word: In English, gnome has retained its original meaning. Garden gnomes are small statues placed in gardens. The best-known gnome is the roaming gnome, used in advertising for trevelocity. Gnome is also the name of a free software project, providing a desktop for the Unix operating system.

Gemini

In Roman myth, Castor and Pollux were the sons of Leda and Jupiter, who appeared to her in the guise of a swan. That creates a vivid image, a woman seduced by a swan. Castor was noted for taming and managing horses, which were essential to the Romans. Pollux was noted for boxing. The two of them were among the argonauts. During a storm on the voyage of the Argos, Orpheus played the harp and prayed for relief. The storm abated, and stars appeared over the heads of Castor and Pollux. When Castor was killed in battle, Pollux was so inconsolable, Jupiter set them among the stars as the constellation Gemini, "the twins".

English word: In English, Gemini is the name of the zodiacal constellation described. As a result, it is also used in astrology. It happens to be my own astrological sign.

Genius

The ancient Romans believed that each man is born of a spirit that guides him throughout his life, his genius. For women, the guiding spirit was her juno.

English word: In English, a genius is someone of extraordinary intelligence and creativity. The word "juno," however, was never adopted into English.

Atlas

Atlas was the largest of the Titans, giant gods the ancient Greeks believed preceded the Olympian gods. When Zeus declared himself king of the gods, the Titans would not accept him as such, and thus ensued a long war between the Titans and the Olympians. After the Titans were defeated, most of them were sent to Tartarus, similar to Hell.

Atlas, however, was sent to a place far to the west, where he was condemned to stand bearing the weight of some great pillars, separating earth from the heavens. After eons, bearing the weight of the world, Atlas was so tired and weary that when Perseus approached, carrying the head of Medusa, the loathsome Gorgon whose look turned men to stone, Atlas asked Perseus to let him look at Medusa's head. When Perseus held up the head and showed it to Atlas, Atlas turned to stone, relieving him of his burdensome life. The stones now form Mount Atlas, in the far northwest of Africa.

English word: the word atlas means a powerful man, as in "Charles Atlas." The Atlantic Ocean is also named after Atlas because it is in the far west, where Atlas supposedly stood. Also, atlas means a book of maps, from images of Atlas holding the earth as a globe on his head and shoulders.

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.

Argonaut

A complex myth of ancient Greece is the story of Jason and his crew of heroes, the Argonauts, and their quest for the Golden Fleece. The heroes were called Argonauts because they sailed on the ship Argos.

Jason was the prince of the city of Iolcus. His uncle, Pelias, murdered his father, and seized the throne. To protect him, his mother hid him with a wise centaur. After some time, when Jason returned home, his uncle wanted to kill him. However, it was a special feast day, when the laws of hospitality were required. Still determined to get rid of Jason, the uncle told him that Jason could have the throne if he brought back the Golden Fleece from the island of Colchis, where a dragon that never slept guarded it.

With his ship Argos, Jason gathered 50 heroes to sail with him on his quest. Along the way, they shared many adventures, all recounted in the myth. In Colchis, the king agreed to allow Jason to take the Golden Fleece, if he completed certain tasks. The daughter of the king, Medea, fell in love with Jason. She was a sorceress, who gave him magical ointments that helped him complete the tasks. After Jason succeeded in capturing the Golden Fleece, Medea sailed away with him in the Argos, which took them back to Iolcus.

In Iolcus, Pelias refused to keep his word to step down from the throne. Medea worked her sorcery so that the daughters of Pelias killed him. The people of Iolcus were so angry at the death of Pelias that they forced Jason and Medea to flee the city, which led to their own sad story.

English word: argonaut describes the gold hunters of the California gold rush of 1849, and the Alaska gold rush of the 1890s. Oddly enough, argosy, a large ship, or a large fleet of merchant vessels, is generally thought not to derive from Argos, but from Ragusa, an ancient port city.