Roman mythology and our Solar system

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Every planet/planetoids and some of their moons in our solar system has been named after a Roman/Greek deity .....

We Start from the closet to the sun.

Mercury
Mercury was the messenger of the Roman gods... We also have an element named after him. The Greek equivalent of Mercury was Hermes.... You Guys must know Hermes from (HMS Hermes aircraft carrier now in the INS as INS VIRAT)

Venus
Our female members of the forum should know more about her.... Yes she was the Roman goddess of Beauty (Husan ki diwi). Her Greek equivalent was Aphrodite.

Then we have earth ... lets skip her for a while....

Next is Mars.....
No this planet was not named after a chocolate bar... It was named after the Roman god of War... He has two sons Phobos and Deimos... The two moons of Mars have been named after them.... His Greek equivalent is Ares ( We have member on this forum with this screen name).

So do you guys recognize these two symbols... one depicts man and the other woman

The first symbol is the shield and spear of Mars and the second is the looking glass used by Venus.... So hence the saying
"Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus"

Moving on we have Jupiter
Jupiter was the king of the gods... hence name given to the largest planet in our solar system... You may have seen people named Jupiter ... they were named after the god not the planet.. His Greek equivalent ... you guessed it was Zeus.

Saturn
Saturn war the god of agriculture, justice and witches (I can't figure the relation between the three)... Yes like we have a minister for everything the Romans had a god for everything... His Greek equivalent was Kronos.

Uranus
Uranus is the only planet named after a Greek deity instead of a Roman deity .... strange huh...
Uranus is named after the Father of all the Greek gods... He and his wife Gaia gave birth to mighty tall Titans (Titanic got her name from them thus meaning a huge ship).... There first Normal prodigy was Zeus (Jupiter if you are a Roman) who defeated the Titans and became king.

Neptune
Named after the Roman god of sea (yes the one who carries a trident).... Greek equivalent Poseidon ( anyone seen the movie Poseidon Adventure)

Pluto
No it was not named after a Disney Character
Yes the planet (I know some you will still like to call it a planet.. who care what the astronomers say) who got demoted...... Named after the god of the underworld (I am sure if Pakistanis or Indians get a chance to rename the Solar system... many colorful names come to mind for Pluto)... The Greek Equivalent is Hades for Pluto.

Now let us shift our attention to Earth ... why was Earth spared a Greek/Roman name.... it was not... Earth was the given the name of wife of Uranus .... Gaia (Greek) or Terra (Roman).. From Terra we get Terrestrial (belonging to Earth/land) or Extra Terrestrial (Not Belonging to Earth)

Remember her spirit of the Earth (Mother Earth) Gaia from Captain Planet ?

That leaves the Sun

The Sun was called Sol by the Romans (thus in Latin).. thus anything relating to the Sun is called Solar...... The Greeks personified the sun as Helios .... so heliosphere means anything relating to the Sun too....

Anyone Remember SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory)
The name of spacecraft launched to study the Sun

Solar and Heliospheric Observatory - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

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The practice of naming the satellites of a Planet is not limited to Greek/Roman mythology

Take the case of Jupiter

The Galilean moons of Jupiter (Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto pictured above) were named by Simon Marius soon after their discovery in 1610. However, until the 20th century these fell out of favor, and instead they were referred to in the astronomical literature simply as "Jupiter I", "Jupiter II", etc., or as "the first satellite of Jupiter", "Jupiter's second satellite", and so on. The names Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto became popular in the 20th century, while the rest of the moons, usually numbered in Roman numerals V (5) through XII (12), remained unnamed. By a popular though unofficial convention, Jupiter V, discovered in 1892, was given the name Amalthea, first used by the French astronomer Camille Flammarion.

The other moons, in the majority of astronomical literature, were simply labeled by their Roman numeral (i.e. Jupiter IX) until the 1970s. In 1975, the International Astronomical Union's (IAU) Task Group for Outer Solar System Nomenclature granted names to satellites V–XIII, and provided for a formal naming process for future satellites to be discovered. The practice was to name newly discovered moons of Jupiter after lovers and favorites of the god Jupiter (Zeus), and since 2004, after their descendants also. All of Jupiter's satellites from XXXIV (Euporie) are named after daughters of Jupiter or Zeus.

Some asteroids share the same names as moons of Jupiter: 9 Metis, 38 Leda, 52 Europa, 85 Io, 113 Amalthea, 239 Adrastea. Two more asteroids previously shared the names of Jovian moons until spelling differences were made permanent by the IAU: Ganymede and asteroid 1036 Ganymed; and Callisto and asteroid 204 Kallisto.

 

[Kambojaric]

If i am not mistaken the word Earth derives from the Arabic "Ardh". Nice read btw

 

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If i am not mistaken the word Earth derives from the Arabic "Ardh". Nice read btw

But Earth is still not the name of any deity.... or is it ?

 

[Burger Boy]

If i am not mistaken the word Earth derives from the Arabic "Ardh". Nice read btw

Could be, or it could be derived from a shortened form of the Latin "terra-"