Volcano. The Roman god Vulcanus (the Greek Hephaistus),
the god of fire and metalworking in Greco-Roman mythology,
was the blacksmith of the gods forging thunderbolts on
volcanic Mount Etna for Zeus, the chief deity. He was married
to Venus (the Greek Aphrodite), the goddess of love,
who apparently developed an attachment for another
god, Mars, (the Greek Ares). While our modern view
of gods are more respectful, the ancients gave them
a more human aspect, subject to human frailties.
These three gods have each contributed to the current
English vocabulary. It is from Vulcanus we get the
word volcano . The name Aphrodite gave rise
to aphrodesiac meaning to excite sexual
desire. Mars was the god of war from whose name
we have the word martial and the month of
March.
Erotic. Eros was the Greek god of sexual
love. In Greek mythology Eros was the son of Venus
and Mars. He was probably conceived when Vulcan
caught both of them in flagrante delicto. In early
classical art and literature Eros was depicted
as a handsome young man of athletic build. He
could tame wild beasts, battle monsters of the sea
and break the thunderbolts of Zeus. The love that
he symbolized was frankly sexual, thus the meaning
of the derived adjective erotic. He was seen
as the model of homosexual love between men and
youths. Statues of Eros were commonly found in
gymnasiums where men and boys exercised naked.
Eros gradually evolved into the figure of a child
sporting wings and equipped with a bow and a
quiver of arrows. The Romans later called him
Cupido (desire). The cherubic incarnation
of the god gave rise to the chubby cherub of a
cupid that now adorn St. Valentine Day
cards.
Hypnosis. In Greek mythology Hypnos was
the god of sleep. He lived in a land of perpetual
darkness and mist. The god's home was a cavern
through which flowed the river of forgetfulness.
He had several sons called the Dreams. Prominent
among them was Morpheus. When Zeus wished to
intervene into mortal affairs, he called upon
Hypnos and Morpheus to exercise their powers.
Hypnos would induce a state of sleep and Morpheus
could make human forms appear to the dreamers.
A Scottish surgeon in the 19th century created the term hypnotism, the science or practice of inducing a sleep-like trance. Hypnosis is the term for the sleep-like trance itself.
Morpheus, the god of dreams gave rise to the word morphine which induces a deep sleep in addition to relieving pain.
May 26, 1996 Michael W. Paparella All Rights Reserved