Words from Greek Mythology: People and Place names Still in Use

Feb 13, 2011
Mark Wallace

Titian's painting of Sisyphus, here depicted carrying the stone on his shoulders - Wikipedia Commons

Words based on names in Greek mythology are still common, and can be used to effect in writing and speech. From Sisyphus to Styx, here are some of the best.

Many names from ancient mythology are still used today in adjectival form to describe certain everyday situations. To be able to use these words in context will add weight, sophistication and the appearance of philosophical profundity to your speech and writings. Here are ten of the most useful terms derived from mythology but still in use today, and still relevant to situations we may encounter in modern life. Used with moderation, these terms are sure to impress.

Sisyphus

Sisyphus was a man condemned to spend eternity pushing a big stone up a particularly steep hill. Every time the stone reached the top it would roll down the other side of the hill, so Sisyphus would have to go down and begin again. This has given rise to the adjective Sisyphean, almost always used with the noun task. A Sisyphean task is one that appears endless and is without apparent results. This can apply to much low-grade office paperwork, for example, and office workers may consider that they are re-enacting the Sisyphean predicament.

Albert Camus’s highly influential philosophical essay, The Myth of Sisyphus, (1942) posited life as a sort of Sisyphean scenario, where man strains after meaning and self-validation, but never seems to get closer to any sort of solution.

Bacchus

Bacchus was the Roman god of wine, equivalent to the Greek Dionysius. The adjective bacchic can be teamed with a noun like orgy or feast, and is generally not capitalized in this context. It implies that said orgy or feast involved particularly unbridled behaviour, usually involving alcohol, in keeping with Bacchus’s ancient role. Anyone who is violently or wildly drunk may be said to be in a bacchic frenzy.

The related term bacchanalia has similar connotations, deriving from an ancient festival in certain Roman tribes which involved extreme drunkenness, sexual depravity, and, apparently, human sacrifice. In modern usage, the human sacrifice element is rarely retained, and a bacchanalia may involve simply extreme inebriation.

Procrustes

Procrustes was proprietor of an iron bedstead, into which he placed all travellers who passed his way. If they were shorter than the bed, he stretched them to fit it, and if they were taller he removed their feet. He was eventually killed in combat by Theseus. The adjective Procrustean refers to the use of dubious or unscrupulous methods to force conformity to a preconceived standard, or any rule applied without regard for individual circumstances.

For example, “The education system is positively Procrustean in its insistence that all children, regardless of interests and abilities, should learn to read and write.” The phrase Procrustean bed is also heard. For example, “Society is but a Procrustean bed which attempts to reduce us all to a common level of superficiality and unquestioning obedience.”

Oedipus

You probably all know this one, thanks to the efforts of Sigmund Freud. Freud’s Oedipus complex posited that each child formed an erotic attachment to the mother in infancy, and a consequent jealousy toward the father. It’s named for Oedipus, who in Sophocles’s play murdered his own father and slept with his mother – though it must be remembered that the blood relationship was unknown to him at the time, and that his murder of his father was in self-defence. The adjective Oedipal can refer to an ostensibly romantic relationship which appears to reproduce characteristics of the mother-son relationship, or to a mother-son relationship which appears to share features of a romantic relationship.

Though Freud said both boys and girls demonstrated the Oedipus complex, it is generally associated with the mother-son relationship, or a relationship resembling it. Another Freudian Term, Electra complex, refers to the father-daughter relationship.

Styx

The river Styx was crossed after death to reach the land of the dead. It was “terrible to the gods themselves”, (Bulfinch, 165) and is synonymous with darkness. The adjective stygian is generally followed by blackness or darkness, to suggest that the darkness/ blackness is extremely intense, and often gloomy, foreboding or hellish.

Pyrrhus

Pyrrhus isn’t a mythological figure, but an actual figure from Greek history, King of Epirus, who, in the 3rd century BC, led his army into several battles in which they were, in theory, successful, but in which they suffered such heavy losses that in practical terms their position was weakened. The adjective Pyrrhic is always used in the formula Pyrrhic victory, which is a victory where the losses are actually greater than any gains.

Nepenthe

This strange word is perhaps best known for its appearance in Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “The Raven”: “Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget this lost Lenore!” As may appear from the context, nepenthe is a drink, an “invigorating draft” (Bulfinch, 238) that served to banish care and sorrow, its first recorded mention being in Book IV of The Odyssey. It can be extended to anything that eases pain or brings forgetfulness from troubles. It’s pronounced ne-pen-the (almost rhymes with twenty, but more like twenthy).

“Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe”, is what you might say when you’re handing a drink to someone who’s just had some bad news. Not if it’s really bad news, as it may sound semi-facetious.

Sybaris

This city was a Greek colony in Italy which was synonymous with sensuous pleasure and luxury, with implications of decadence and self-indulgence. The adjective sybaritic now denotes these characteristics, and a sybarite is one whose lifestyle is devoted to the gratification of the senses and the enjoyment of luxury and opulence.

Nemesis

This relatively common word is used as a somewhat stronger synonym for enemy. In Greek mythology, Nemesis was a goddess who meted out punishment to those who had offended the gods, particularly associated with the punishment of pride and insolence. Therefore, nemesis is perhaps more correctly limited to an enemy who is trying to avenge a wrong, an “avenging angel”, if you will.

Scylla and Charybdis

Odysseus and his men had to pass through a strait, one side of which was haunted by a six-headed snaky monster who lived in a cave on a cliff overlooking the water – this monster was Scylla; and the other side of which was patrolled by a great sea monster whose huge mouth created whirlpools when it opened, and engulfed all things that passed by – this was Charybdis. Passing this strait necessitated a terrible choice of which monster to face: Odysseus chose Scylla, and she swallowed six of his men, one with each of her heads, before they had passed.

So to be between Scylla and Charybdis is a phrase, still in use, meaning to be facing an extremely unpleasant choice, with both options appearing equally unacceptable. It is, basically, a more upmarket, or perhaps more pretentious, way of being caught between a rock and a hard place, or between the Devil and the deep blue sea.

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