希腊神话对英语词汇影响

Greek Mythology‟s Influence on English V ocabulary

In the long-term historical process, English has absorbed a large amount of foreign words which has many Greek words because of events about culture, trade, diplomacy and invasion. Especially during the period of Renaissance Greek culture was more popular. As the most secularized, most complete and most rich mythology system, Greek mythology has a very important place. V ocabulary came from Greek mythology needs to be paid more attention when people study English.

The vocabulary originated from Greek mythology can be seen everywhere in English-speaking countries. Nike is a well-known brand of sport shoes in America which borrowed the name of goddess of Victory. The names of characters in Greek mythology were also used in science and military. American scientist named the plan of exploring space as Apollo program. In addition, the vocabulary from Greek mythology often appeared in news. For example, “The National Aeronautic and Space Administration had called it a …success- oriented‟ schedule to get the space shuttle flying again, but the odyssey of …Discovery‟ was beset with various problems.”The word “odyssey”was used in this news, and this word originated from a hero named Odysseus in Greek mythology. After the Trojan War Odysseus spent ten years and went through many hardships to get home. The “odyssey” here means the difficulties “Discovery”met in space exploration (Wu, 2006). From above all, Greek mythology presents its great influence on English vocabulary. The name of things, places and some English idioms were all influenced by Greek mythology. In addition, English vocabulary also inherited Greek mythology.

Greek mythology‟s influence on basic vocabulary mainly appeared in the reason why

things get their names. The words fate, echo and iris all came from the names of goddess in Greek mythology. In Greek mythology, Helicon is where Muses lives, and helicon means the inspiration source of poem in modern English. Narcissus also has the meaning of somebody who loves himself. Narcissus is a beautiful young man in Greek mythology. Every goddess saw him was falling in love with him, including Echo. But Narcissus does not love any female. Soon Echo died of this. After Echo‟s death, other goddesses make Narcissus fall in love with his own reflection as punishment. He fell in love with his reflection in the lake and did not want to leave. At last he died beside the lake. After his death, he changed into a flower and the flower were named as narcissus and because he fell in love with his own reflection the word narcissus has the meaning of somebody who loves himself. In addition, some names of months and the names of the nine planets in solar system except the earth were all come from gods‟ names in Greek mythology. (Luo, 2005)

Place names belong to proper nouns in English. It is an important part in English vocabulary. Many place names originated from Greek mythology. The name of Europe came from Europa who was a princess in mundane world. Zeus fell in love with her and she had a son for Zeus on a piece of land. Then this land was named by her name. The name of Athens also came from Greek mythology. Athena and Poseidon both want to be the patron of a land in south of Attica and they asked Zeus as the intercessor of their competition. Poseidon brought a horse and Athena gave an olive tree as gifts. The local people chose Athena as their patron and hence the land was name by Athena‟s name. With the same, the name of Atlas Mountains in Africa was originated from the name of Atlas in Greek mythology. Atlas is Titans‟ offspring who is strong and huge that nobody can match him. After seeing Medusa, he