February 08, 2005

• Nike and Olympus come to mind...
• Ajax
• How about Mercury cars? What with his role in travel and speedy delivery...Mercury might be the most used, in fact; he's on the FTD logo, or at least used to be. My alma mater has Athena as a 'mascot,' but they don't hype it, the students do that themselves.
• *waits for Pallas Athena to show up and mention the Citro
• Mr. Clean
• I think Mercury's Roman, cobaltnine. Not sure what the Greek equivalent is. /dork
• Hmmm. Not sure if this is what 'cha mean, but the first time I saw a Toyota Prius, I thought it said Toyota Priapus... is that Greek enough? Also for those old enough to remember, there was the Mac BBS system, Hermes...
• Don't try Mars Candy. The family name is actually Mars.
• Either Greek or Roman is fine, bibliochick. and the Greek quivalant for Mercury is Hermes (I think) /also dork
• On a somewhat tangentially related link, see also Priapism.
• Janus Capital Group comes from the Roman god of gates and doors, Janus. I think their logo is even a representation of him. He doesn't have a Greek counterpart, that I know of.
• Humoreffect: That's because Janus is Etruscan (native Italian). Arg, what about Cupid (Greek)? He's *everywhere* this time of year and I totally forgot about him. Atlas Gyms? He was a (Greek) Titan, so I don't know if that would qualify. /so dorky I have a classical & near eastern archaeology degree
• cobaltine: I had thought that Janus was Roman, and the Etruscan equivalent was Ani. Though it is very likely that I am incorrect.
• hmmm, try here
• Venus is Latin, in Greek she's Aphrodite. Mars is Latin, in Greek he's Ares. Jupiter is Latin, in Greek he's Zeus. Mercury is Latin, in Greek he's Hermes. Juno is Latin, in Greek she's Hera. Janus and Jana are Latin for ancient/indigenous? divinities representing the sun and moon; Janus eventually came to be associated with the inception of things, and was invoked even before Jupiter on ceremonila occasions. Ach, that could be a very long list, but I suggest you find a site by Googling Greek mytholgy, which should give you names of gods and legendary heroes. Then Google each one of those names to see if there's a commercial URL for it. Might also check out Greek place names such as Sparta/n, etc. One I can think of offhand: Atlas.
• nobody's mentioned the Saturn automobile? Juno the ISP, Titan auto insurance. When you know enough about it, they're not hard to find
• Wow, BlueHorse (and everyone else), thanks.
• Nice -- this was a topic in my classical mythology course. We enjoyed finding the *worst* uses of classical roots. Trojan Security. (uh, great name, guys) Trojan condoms. (likewise. think about it) Cerberus Security. Midas Muffler. Mercury/Hermes in the FTD florist logo. Atlas Van Lines.
• (of course, the last three are good examples rather than bad. can't remember all the bad ones right now, but there were a lot!)
• (oops. last four.)
• "From now on, whenever anyone gets wood, they'll think of Trojans" /ned flanders as the King of Troy, in 'Tales from the Public Domain' sorry, couldn't help myself.
• You could also Google up manufacturers of telescopes and astronomical equipment. Orion Telescopes comes to mind. There's a somewhat popular network authentication protocol called Kerberos. I think I've seen it in advertising in some compy magazines. path, if you don't like Mars bars, try a Milky Way. Also, a quick search of the spam in my inbox reveals 15 messages with `nymph' in them.
• Oh, and this probably doesn't count, but Subaru is the Japanese name for the Pleiades (the stars, not the sisters).
• allusion - I love Mars Bars, but the name comes from the Mars family, not the god. And, I find Milky Ways pretty boring in comparison. But, thanks, anyway.
• Aphrodite Chocolates Aphrodite Agency (escort service) Ares Software, Inc. Ares Publishers, Inc. Hera Lighting Systems Hera Cruises Limited Juno Lighting Juno Software Zeus Technology Zeus Industrial Products Wheels of Zeus Jupiter Band Instruments Jupiter Outdoor Center (Okay, stopping now)
• Sorry, I was being rather oblique. The name ``Milky Way'' has origins in Greek mythology. (As a matter of fact, the word galaxy comes (via the Latin) from the Greek prefix galact- meaning milk.)
• Good gods! I can't believe I missed the word "Roman" in this post when I read it last night! Apologies to cobaltnine, who is a dork of a more appropriate historical period than I.
• Roland had a line of synthesizers in the early 80s with Roman god names, e.g. Jupiter 8 and Juno 106
• You're not asking us to do your homework for you, are you, Dr. Robotnik??
• My point was just that Janus *wouldn't* have a Greek counterpart because he has an Etruscan one, namely, Ani. Not all your Roman gods are going to be 'translateable to Greek.' So everyone's right! Yay!
• Koko: Oh no, this was just to help get me started. I still have to write the accompanying essay myself.
• So, kinda HomeworkFilter.
• I am actually shocked you didn't just google any name you can think of - there must be tens of thousands of examples. What is this for? Is this homework? (with respect, sans snark, adds one addition to demonstrate bona fides)
• Oh right. Well you could at least tell us the question/subject, inquiring minds needs to know!
• i hate homework. almost as much as i hate quidnunc.
• How's about couches covered in Herculon?
• Pegasystems Software is clearly derived (check the logo) from Pegasus, the flying horse from Greek mythology (is there a Roman equivalent?), even though it isn't explicitly so. And until recently Mobil used Pegasus as a logo, although they seem to have dropped that since the merger with Exxon.
• Well, as long as we don't see, Curious, George: Essay writing contest! next. I'd rather be doing Dr. Robotnik's homework than my work work.
• old skool antipodean e-mail: pegasus mail and the mercury mail transport system. try a web search on "bacchus wine" for bunches of wine shops and restaurants (not very many named for dionysos, maybe because of the frenzies). morpheus file sharing softare.
• Allow me a brief digression on this theme. It's certain that one of Zeus' most endearing qualities is his prolific fucking. And, while sex with gods is not unique to the Hellenic pantheon - consider the Pandava of the Mahabharata (or even the bible's mention of "giants" in Genesis), it is generally considered that the Olympians were hornier than their foreign cousins - we can compare Jesus's sexless conception with Zeus's golden showers (Danae); bestiality (Europa, Leto) and sodomy (Ganymede). However, that's all in the past - we no longer fuck the gods. Why? Don't they find us attractive anymore? Surely, with our modern advances in hair-care technologies, cosmetic dentistry and nutritional studies - not to mention our iron-free chinos - it's undisputed that we are better looking (and taller) than the ancients. Ergo, it must be our personalities that suck. Or, perhaps, the gods themselves have ceased to be attractive to us - ? After all, they never call.
• Dr. Robotnik, I think quid found your essay theme.
• MEDUSA!!
• (heehee)
• I always wondered about the golden showers thing. I don't care how hot she is, some goddess tries that with me, we're not hooking up.
• Jesus's sexless conception with Zeus's golden showers. Don't forget Zeus had one of 'em sexless conceptions too. One day he had a headache and asked Apollo to split his head open (I can imagine Apollo grinning when he heard that) and out popped Athena (or Artemis).
• There's a lot of 'em out there... Like, say, the Elektra movie (in which Jennifer Gardner finds Daredevil in bed with Clytemnestra and convinces The Flies author Jean-Paul Satre to kill them both), the Aegis missile and Orion Pictures. This is a handy link. Just skim it and see who's name you recognize.
• Would you also want to consider names used in other contexts? "Morphine" from Morpheus; the Oedipus complex; "panic" from Pan; "mnemonic" from Mnemosyne; "titanic" from the Titans; "tantalise" from Tantalus; and so on. Also, many elements' names are derived from myths, such as selenium (from Selene), iridium (from Iris) and Tantalum, Niobium and Pelopium (from Tantulus and his two children). This is a good resource to learn about the etymology of names of elements. Once you start looking, you'll find mythic names everywhere. Got Ajax cleaning products where you are?
• I wish we knew the question/subject!
• Assignment: Find several examples of names from Greek/Roman mythology used in product names and advertising. Write a brief essay about each, explaining why this name was chosen, and if was or was not a fitting name. It's a Collegio (English/History/Religion all rolled into one) project.