Classic Mythology & Astronomy

“Artemis”- photo source (ggnyc)

Classic mythology is a collection of enriched stories on the trials and triumphs of divine beings that gave order to the universe.  Before the birth of science, the ancient Greeks used mythology to explain the unexplainable events that occurred in nature.  A rough ocean was the wrath of Poseidon, god of the sea.  Lightning was the powerful weapon of Zeus, Chief Olympian and god of the sky.  Winter came every year when Demeter, the goddess of Earth’s fertility, lost her daughter Persephone to the underworld for three months and was grief-stricken.  Classic mythology is the first written account of humans asking why events happen in the world around them.  That fundamental question of “why?” is what science is based on today.  

One of the best examples of classic mythology blended with science can be seen in naming the planets.  The Romans could see 5 planets with the naked-eye and named them after divine beings in their mythology, which they adopted from the Greeks.  The fastest moving planet in the sky was named after Mercury (Hermes), the god of trade, profit and commerce.   The brightest and most beautiful planet was named after Venus (Aphrodite), the goddess of love.  Red in appearance, Mars (Ares) was named after the Roman god of war.  The two large, slowest moving planets in the night sky where named after Jupiter (Zeus), king of the gods, and Saturn (Cronus), his father.

Several centuries later as technology advanced and more planets were discovered, astronomers continued the tradition of naming planets after divine beings in classical mythology.  The next gas giant discovered was named Uranus after the Greek deity of the sky, and father to Cronus.  Blue and windy, astronomers named the next planet Neptune (Poseidon) after the god of the sea.  Now classified as a dwarf planet, the icy rock body that sits on the edge our solar system in the dark was named Pluto (Hades) after the god of the dead and ruler of the underworld.

The field of astronomy-  which pushes our technological knowhow the furthest and makes discoveries of objects and events in the cosmos that defy human comprehension-  still pays tribute to the human culture that over 2800 years ago asked the most fundamental question, “What’s our place in the universe?”