An Etymologist's look at Greek Mythology.

After recently completing a course on ancient languages, I thought it would be interesting to examine a selection of Greek mythological figures and examine the etymologies for their names.

Ares does not come across as Mr Nice Guy in the Wonder Woman story, and neither does he get a good review from the etymologist for this name comes from the Greek are, the Ionic form of the Doric ara meaning 'bare, ruin, curse'.

Hades, while the origin is not completely certain, it is generally though this comes from the Proto-Greek awides and thus 'the unseen one'.

Hera has several explanations, with 'mistress', 'air', 'beloved', and even 'cow-eyed' being offered. Perhaps 'uncertain' would be the best offering.

Hermes is thought to come from the Greek herma and thus means 'stone heap'.

Zeus is seen in the Proto-Indo-European culture as Djeus 'the sky father'.

Hyperion quite simply means 'he who walks on high', although often given as simply 'the god above'.

Helios is from the word for 'the sun' in Proto-Indo-European seh u-el.

Perses isfrom the Ancient Greek pertho meaning 'to sack, to ravage, to destroy'.

Uranus, and I have saved the best until last, for this rather unpleasant fellow, correctly known as Ouranos, who ended up being seen as so awful he gave his name to the metal uranium which, as we all know, is a source of radiation, is linked with words such as Sanskrit varsa 'rain'; Hittite yarsa 'fog, mist' and Greek oureo 'to urinate'.