March 11, 2019

If your birthday is in March, you have two birthstones (gems associated with the month of your birth): aquamarine and bloodstone (a variety of chalcedony). Aquamarine is a light blue or bluish-green gem. It is cut in facets (polished flat surfaces) and used in all types of jewelry. Bloodstone is a dark green gem with red spots. It too is used in jewelry, but it is also associated with Christianity.

Aquamarine is one of two birthstones for the month of March. Credit: © Albert Russ, Shutterstock

Aquamarine is a variety of the mineral beryl. The most popular color is a clear sky-blue. Aquamarine is often treated with heat to improve its color. Almost all aquamarine is transparent. Aquamarines have been known since ancient times, when legends said the gems could help people relax or could act as an antidote to poison. The ancient Romans believed the gem could cure laziness and produce courage. The most important source of aquamarines is Brazil.

Bloodstone is another birthstone of March.
Credit: © Shutterstock

Bloodstone, a variety of the mineral Chalcedony, is related to agate, carnelian, and onyx. Chalcedony was named for the ancient town of Chalcedon, in what is now Turkey, which is near deposits of the mineral. Bloodstone is sometimes called Martyr’s Stone or Christ’s Stone because legend attributed the gem’s red spots to the blood of Jesus Christ. The ancient Greeks called bloodstone heliotrope (also a type of flower) for the way it reflects light. The Babylonians used bloodstone to make amulets, decorative vessels, and seals.

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Birthstones, according to tradition, bring good luck when worn by a person born in the associated month. Credit: WORLD BOOK illustrations by Paul D. Turnbaugh

According to tradition, a birthstone brings good luck to a person born in its month. Each birthstone also corresponds to a sign of the zodiac. The belief in birthstones may have come from a Bible story about Aaron, the first high priest of the Israelites. The story describes Aaron’s breastplate, which was decorated with 12 precious stones. Early writers linked these stones with the 12 months of the year and the 12 signs of the zodiac. The custom of wearing a stone that represented a person’s zodiac sign probably originated in Germany or Poland in the 1700′s.

January 11, 2019

On Jan. 10, 49 B.C., 2,068 years ago yesterday, ancient Roman leader Julius Caesar led 5,000 troops across the Rubicon River in northern Italy. The Rubicon was part of the boundary between Roman Italy and the Roman province of Cisalpine Gaul (the Po Valley), where Caesar was governor. Caesar and other Roman governors were forbidden to cross the boundary with troops. Caesar was commanding an army in Gaul when the Roman Senate, fearing his power, ordered him to give up his command. Caesar refused and led his men across the Rubicon. This action symbolized the start of Caesar’s successful drive for the leadership of Rome. The expression to cross the Rubicon means to make a decision that cannot be changed.

On Jan. 10, 49 B.C., Julius Caesar led an army across the Rubicon River in northern Italy, an act that started a civil war in ancient Rome. To this day, if someone “crosses the Rubicon,” they have made a big decision that cannot be changed. Credit: © Shutterstock

In 60 B.C., Caesar—then an ambitious senator—allied himself with the powerful Romans Marcus Licinius Crassus and Gnaeus Pompey. Their alliance, known as the First Triumvirate, dominated Roman politics. In 59 B.C., Caesar became governor of Cisalpine Gaul, Illyricum, and Transalpine Gaul (an area that is now mainly France), provinces north of Italy. In 58 B.C., he began a lengthy campaign to subdue powerful Gallic rebellions. During Caesar’s time in Gaul, the triumvirate in Rome began to deteriorate. Crassus died in 53 B.C., and Pompey grew steadily more suspicious of Caesar’s desire for more power. By 52 B.C., Pompey and Caesar’s enemies in the senate were plotting against him.

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Before Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon in 49 B.C., he was governor of the vast Roman province of Gaul. The Rubicon River was part of a border that separated Cisalpine Gaul from Roman Italy. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

In 49 B.C., some senators ordered Caesar to give up his army. Caesar had no intention of surrendering his army and instead led them across the Rubicon. After this hostile act, there was no turning back. Caesar had provoked, or been provoked into, a civil war. As Caesar hurried south, he met little opposition. Pompey’s troops surrendered and Pompey fled Italy. 

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In Caesar’s day, the Rubicon River ran near the modern city of Ravenna in northern Italy. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

Within 60 days, Caesar was master of Rome and had himself appointed dictator. But it took him nearly five years to complete the conquest of Pompey and his followers. In 44 B.C., Caesar was made dictator for life and given honors normally given only to gods. Senators and others who feared his power had Caesar murdered on March 15 (the Ides of March), 44 B.C. 

The name Rubicon comes from the Latin word rubeus meaning red. The stream got its name because its waters are colored red by mud deposits.

June 11, 2018

For today’s language—Latin—we move from the living to the dead, so to speak. Until now, Language Mondays have discussed “living” languages. Latin, however, is classified as a “dead” language—that is, one that does not change. Latin is a dead language because it exists almost exclusively as literature written centuries ago. To change, and thus be considered alive, a language must be used by many people in everyday life.

The poet Virgil, seated, wrote of Rome’s creation in his great Latin language epic, the Aeneid. Credit: Mosaic (A.D. 200′s); Bardo Museum, Tunis, Tunisia (Giraudon/Art Resource)

Latin once was alive. In fact, it was the principal language of western Europe for hundreds of years. It was the language of the Roman Empire, and Roman soldiers and traders took it wherever they went. It became especially important in law and government because of its precise expression. It was also the language used in a number of important works of literature and philosophy. Among the classics of Latin literature are the written orations of Cicero, who is sometimes called the greatest master of Latin prose: De rerum natura (On the Nature of Things), a philosophical and scientific poem by Lucretius; the Aeneid, an epic poem by Virgil; the Odes, a collection of poems by Horace; the Metamorphoses, a narrative poem by Ovid with more than 200 tales taken from Greek and Roman legends and myths; and Histories and Annals, descriptions of Roman history by Tacitus.

During the Middle Ages, a form of Latin called Medieval Latin became the language of the Christian church and of education. It was used by scholars in universities and schools throughout Europe. By the early 1500’s, however, Latin had stopped being a spoken language. Today, the Roman Catholic Church still considers Latin its official language, though Mass has been celebrated in the tongue of the local community since the mid-1960’s.

But Latin did not entirely go away. The Latin of the late Roman Empire developed into what are known as the Romance languages, including French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, and Spanish. The word romance comes from a Latin adverb that referred to speakers of Latin who were said to fabulare romanice, which means speak in the Roman way. The Romance languages developed from vernacular Latin, a form of Latin spoken by common people in certain European countries that were conquered by Rome and became Roman provinces.

English, though considered a Germanic language, has many words that have Latin words as their roots. For example, the English words equal, adequate, equable, and equate all have the Latin word aequus (fair) as their root. The word extinct comes from exstinguere (to extinguish). To say someone is in excruciating pain is to indicate that the person is suffering extreme pain. The word excruciating comes from the Latin word excruciare, meaning to torture or to crucify. Excruciare has as one of its own Latin roots, the word crux, meaning cross. Readers of J. K. Rowling’s series of books on the wizard Harry Potter (and the movies based on them) will notice that excruciare would be a root word of cruciatus. In Harry Potter’s world, the Cruciatus Curse is one of the Unforgivable Curses and inflicts severe pain on its victim. Rowling uses a number of other Latinate words for the charms and curses in the Potter books, including Accio (a summoning charm) and Expelliarmus (a charm used to disarm opponents).

A number of Latin terms and expressions continue to be used in their Latin forms. The language of scientific classification has always used Latin and Greek words. Early Western scholars gave organisms Latin and Greek names, and later scientists have kept them because their definitions do not change over time.

Latin terms, or abbreviations of them, are commonly used in bibliographies at the end of nonfiction books. For instance, et al. (for et alii or et alia) means and others. So if the term et al. appears after the name of an author, it means that others were involved in writing the cited book.

Latin expressions and abbreviations occur in a number of other places as well. Have you ever used the initials A.D. when giving a date? They stand for anno Domini—in the year of our Lord. How about i.e. (for id est—that is), e.g. (exempli gratia —for example), circa (about), or etc. (et cetera—and so forth)?

Some Latin expressions have become commonplace. For example, the ancient Roman leader Julius Caesar sent this famous dispatch to the Senate after he defeated King Pharnaces II of Pontus: Veni, vidi, vici (I came, I saw, I conquered). The image of a roaring lion—a symbol of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer motion-picture studios—is accompanied by the Latin motto, Ars Gratia Artis (Art for Art’s Sake). The expression Amor vincit omnia (Love conquers all) is also well known.

So, even though technically Latin is considered a dead language, its legacy lives on. It does not entirely RIP (requiescat in pace, or rest in peace).

August 14, 2017

Nymphs, in ancient Greek and Roman mythology, were minor goddesses or semidivine beings represented as lovely maidens. The word nymph comes from Greek and Latin words describing a young girl of marriageable age, or a young bride. In ancient stories, the nymphs inhabited and guarded the different realms of nature. For example, oreads watched over hills and mountains. Dryads and hamadryads took care of trees and forests. Nereids (daughters of the sea god Nereus) kept watch over the Mediterranean Sea, and the Oceanids (daughters of the Titan Oceanus) protected the oceans. Naiads were nymphs of brooks, rivers, and streams. Some nymphs were associated with a particular hill, tree, or other natural feature, to which their lives were linked. Nymphs lived for a long time but usually were not considered immortal.

Statues of dancing nymphs grace a fountain in the gardens of the Royal Palace of Caserta in southern Italy. Credit: © Antonio Gravante, Shutterstock

Nymphs often figured in stories about love, as the pursuer or the pursued. Some nymphs or groups of nymphs shied away from amorous affairs, but others were passionate—and sometimes vengeful—lovers. They became involved with both gods and humans. Nymphs often were represented as associating with satyrs and fauns, mischievous, playful, goatlike gods of the countryside and forest.

Metamorphoses, a collection of stories in verse by the ancient Roman poet Ovid, includes multiple tales of relentless lovers pursuing nymphs who transform to escape. The work’s title—Metapmorphoses—means transformations. In one story, the god Eros shot the god Apollo with an arrow that made him fall in love with the nymph Daphne. Eros shot Apollo in revenge for insulting his skill as an archer. He also shot Daphne with an arrow that made her flee Apollo. Daphne, pursued by Apollo, prayed for escape and was transformed into a laurel tree. Apollo made the laurel his sacred tree and wore a crown of laurel leaves on his head in her honor. In another tale, the god Pan tried to start an affair with the nymph Syrinx, but she ran away from him in terror and begged the gods to help her. The gods changed Syrinx into a bed of reeds, from which Pan made a musical instrument called a panpipe. He became famous for the beautiful music he played on the panpipe.

In some ancient tales, nymphs pursued young men and would not take “no” for an answer. Some nymphs were downright dangerous. In the story of the Argonauts, a group of heroes on a quest for the golden wool of a flying ram, the ship Argo stopped at a place called Mysia. There, the handsome young hero Hylas left the ship to find fresh water. Nymphs attracted by his beauty lured Hylas away and abducted him. In another story, a young Sicilian herdsman named Daphnis pledged his loyalty to a nymph. But a princess tricked Daphnis into becoming her own lover instead. The betrayed nymph then blinded or killed Daphnis in revenge. The Odyssey, a work by the Greek poet Homer, tells of the Sirens, sea nymphs whose sweet singing lured sailors to destruction on rocky shores. The hero Odysseus (Ulysses in Latin) put wax in his sailors’ ears so they could not hear the Sirens. Then Odysseus was tied to the mast so he could listen to the Sirens safely. The Argonauts also encountered the Sirens. They escaped because the hero Orpheus’s beautiful singing countered the Sirens’ song and saved his comrades. These and many other ancient stories describe the often perilous attraction of the nymphs.

August 7, 2017

The Muses were nine graceful goddesses of art and inspiration in the mythology of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Each goddess ruled over a different art or science. The people they inspired included artists, poets, and musicians—even politicians.

The ancient Roman marble sculpture Sarcophagus of the Muses (at the Louvre Museum in Paris, France) depicts the nine Muses. This photo shows Erato, left, the Muse of love poetry; Urania, center, the Muse of astronomy; and Melpomene, right, the Muse of tragedy. Credit: © G. Dagli Orti, De Agostini Picture Library/Bridgeman Images

In Greek mythology, the Muses were nine beautiful sisters. Their father was Zeus, the king of the gods, and their mother was Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory. The Muses had melodic voices that made people forget their sorrows. The modern word music comes from their name. The sisters often sang as a chorus at Zeus’s royal court. They could see the past, the present, and the future. They could recall the truths of all events throughout all time, and their songs expressed those truths.

Each Muse governed and inspired a particular art or science. Greek and Roman artists often depicted them with symbols reflecting their specialties. They showed Calliope, the Muse of heroic poetry, with a writing tablet. Calliope was also the chief Muse. Clio, the Muse of history, often held a scroll. The Muse of astronomy, Urania, sometimes had a globe. Thalia, who inspired dramatic comedy, held a smiling mask, while Melpomene, who inspired tragedy, held a sad mask. The masks of comedy and tragedy remain symbols of the theater today. Artists often pictured Polyhymnia, the Muse of sacred song, looking thoughtful and meditative. They showed Euterpe (lyric poetry) with a flute, while Terpsichore (dance) and Erato (love poetry) each played a stringed instrument called a lyre. Ancient music and literature were closely interconnected. The Greek and Roman poets usually sang their poetry, and performers also danced and sang poetic verses in plays.

The ancient poets often began a poem or play with an appeal to the Muses for inspiration, hoping for divine help in composing works of timeless truth and beauty. It was said that the Muses, especially Clio, could help kings make eloquent speeches to settle conflicts and persuade people to live in peace. The Muses also helped scientists discover true knowledge. However, prideful people who thought they needed no help risked angering the Muses. Those people might wind up devoid of inspiration, singing untruths, or even mute—unable to speak or sing their songs at all.

Today, artists sometimes call a person who inspires them their “muse.” For a lack of good ideas, one might cry, ”I’ve lost my muse.” Sometimes, people call a new art form or type of writing the “Tenth Muse.”

May 1, 2017

According to ancient Greek and Roman mythology, human destiny is often controlled by the whims of three witchy weavers. Known in English as the Fates (from the Latin word fatum, meaning prophetic declaration, oracle, or destiny), these three powerful goddesses spun and cut the thread of life. They were called Moirai (MOY ry)—”the apportioners”—among the Greeks and Parcae (PAHR see)—”the sparing ones”—among the Romans.

The Fates in Greek mythology were, from left to right, Clotho, Atropos, and Lachesis. They ruled people’s lives and decided how long they would live. Credit: © Shutterstock

In Greek mythology, Clotho (KLOH thoh), called Nona among the Romans, was the spinner of the thread of life, and Lachesis (LAK uh sihs), called Decima by the Romans, decided how long it was to be. Atropos (AT ruh puhs), called Morta by the Romans, cut the thread. They were the daughters of Zeus (Roman Jupiter) and Themis (Roman Justitia).

Ancient artists sometimes represented Clotho as holding a spindle of thread. Lachesis carries rods that she shakes to decide a person’s fate. Atropos holds a tablet on which she records the decision.

The Fates were usually described as stern, gloomy, elderly goddesses. But in ancient Greece, the Moirai were also worshiped sometimes as goddesses who helped with childbirth and a successful harvest.

In northern Europe, the Scandinavians had their own version of the Fates. They were three sisters called the Norns: Urd (Past), Verdandi (Present), and Skuld (Future). They lived around the base of a giant ash tree that supported all creation. Urd was old and looked toward the past. Verdandi faced straight ahead into the present. Skuld represented the future, and looked in a direction opposite from that of Urd. The fate of people and gods was decided by the Norns. The early Scandinavians believed that there were many lesser Norns, and one for each person.

April 10, 2017

What do wine lovers, farmers, and thespians have in common? All owe a debt of gratitude to this week’s star of Mythic Monday, the Greek god Dionysus. Dionysus was the god of wine and farmers, and the art form of drama was first performed in his honor.

This statue of Dionysus, the god of wine, stands at Holy Trinity Bridge (Ponte Santa Trinita) in Florence, Italy. Credit: © Shutterstock

In Greek mythology, Dionysus’s parents were Zeus, king of the gods, and Semele, the mortal daughter of King Cadmus of Thebes. Dionysus married Ariadne, the daughter of King Minos of Crete.

The ancient Greeks associated Dionysus with violent and unpredictable behavior, especially after drinking too much wine. Most stories about Dionysus tell of his leading sessions of drunken merrymaking. Dionysus’s followers included nymphs (maidens), creatures called satyrs that were half man and half horse or goat, and women attendants called maenads.

But not all the stories about Dionysus concern drunkenness or violent behavior. Many Greeks believed that Dionysus taught people farming techniques, especially those related to viticulture (the cultivation of grapes) and making wine.

The Greeks also dedicated the great theater in Athens to Dionysus. Their concept of tragedy in drama grew from a ceremony that honored Dionysus. The word tragedy comes from the Greek words tragos, meaning goat,and oide, meaning song. The goat was sacred to, and symbolic of, Dionysus. Why a goat? One explanation is that at festivals honoring Dionysus, a goat was sacrificed and the satyrs sang a song of lamentation to their hircine (goatlike) “half brother.” Another explanation is that satyr plays—bawdy tragicomedy performed by people dressed as satyrs—were performed at the festivals to honor Dionysus. Yet another explanation is that song contests were held in the god’s honor at these festivals and that a goat was given as a prize to the winner. In fact, in about 534 B.C. in Athens, the Greek actor Thespis, who helped to create drama as we know it, won the prize at the first production of tragedies at the festival honoring Dionysus. Competitions in playwriting were held regularly at the festival after this time. Whichever the explanation, the goat connection stuck to Dionysus, the “good time” god of “tragedy.”

The ancient Romans had their own version of Dionysus. After coming into contact with Greek culture in the 700′s B.C., the Romans adopted Dionysus as their god of wine, but they called him Bacchus. The Romans held an annual festival honoring Bacchus. This festival, called the Bacchanalia, featured drinking and wild behavior. The word bacchanalian means drunken or riotous, and bacchant means merrymaker. Roman artists showed Bacchus as a handsome young man. But many later artists, especially painters of the Renaissance, portrayed Bacchus as a drunken, fat old man.

February 20, 2017

No Greek mythological goddess can match Artemis—or, as her Roman counterpart is known, Diana—when it comes to personal modesty and purity. Artemis fiercely defended her own innocence, but she stood up for romantic love and was the goddess of childbirth and fertility. She was associated with chastity, the hunt, farming, the moon, the natural environment, and wild animals. Always alert, she is often depicted as a beautiful woman carrying a bow and a quiver of arrows. The epic poet Hesiod described her as “delighting in arrows.” She is sometimes accompanied by deer or hunting dogs.

Artemis reaches for an arrow in this statue in Marseille on the southern coast of France. Credit: © Shutterstock

Artemis was the daughter of Zeus, the king of the gods, and the goddess Leto. The god Apollo was Artemis’s younger twin—bursting on the scene, she helped Leto deliver him. A virginal deity, Artemis demanded moral purity from her followers. Young girls about to be married prayed to her, offering her a lock of their hair as a tribute.

Artemis did not take disappointment lightly, and she could be cruel to people who let her down. She punished followers who failed to live up to her standards, and she was often blamed for the sudden deaths of women. She was protective of her own purity, as well. The hunter Actaeon accidentally spotted her bathing in a woodland pond, and for that transgression, he was turned into a stag (a full-grown male deer) and then ripped to pieces by his own dogs. Artemis was initially kinder to the great hunter Orion, but his unwanted advances got him killed. In her sorrow, she placed Orion in the sky as one of the most visible and well-known constellations. Artemis is also sometimes blamed for the death of handsome Adonis, and she forced King Agamemnon to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia.

Artemis defended those who pleased her, however. To save the beautiful nymph Arethusa from the river god Alpheus, Artemis turned her into a spring. She sent a bear to suckle the orphaned infant Atalanta, who lived to become a great runner. She also helped the hero Aeneas survive the Trojan War. To keep Artemis happy, the ancient people of Ephesus (near the modern day Turkish town of İzmir) built the colossal Temple of Artemis, which was considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Artemis was also especially revered in Sparta and the small island of Delos, her mythological birthplace.

The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus was one of the largest temples built by the Greeks. It was famous for its decoration and extensive use of marble. Credit: WORLD BOOK illustration by Birney Lettick

January 9, 2017

When it comes to mythical figures, few have greater literary fame than the pious Trojan and Roman hero, Aeneas. Son of the human prince Anchises and the Greek goddess Aphrodite, Aeneas was a demigod. There was nothing half-god about his exploits, however. Aeneas compiled such a legendary record, in fact, that he is the subject of one of the world’s greatest poems of heroic adventure, the Aeneid.

This painting shows Aeneas carrying his father, Anchises, as they flee the destruction of Troy. Credit: Aeneas Fleeing Troy oil painting by Pompeo Batoni (1708-1787), Galleria Sabauda, Turin, Italy (© Scala/Art Resource)

The powerful goddess Aphrodite (called Venus by the Romans) enjoyed making other gods fall in love with mortals. As punishment for her mischief, Zeus—the top god in Greek mythology—forced the same fate upon Aphrodite, who fell in love with a mere man, Anchises of Troy. The result of their love was Aeneas, who grew up to be a famous and powerful Trojan soldier. Largely through the protection of Aphrodite and other gods, Aeneas survived the tragedy that befell his home during the Trojan War.

According to the Aeneid (written by the Roman poet Virgil), after the fall of Troy, Aeneas fled the ruined city with his father and his son Ascanius. On nearby Mount Ida, Aeneas gathered the few other Trojan survivors and sailed away to found a new home. They stopped at various places and had many adventures. In the city of Carthage in northern Africa, Aeneas met Queen Dido. She fell in love with Aeneas, but his destiny and sense of duty (Aeneas’s descendants—namely Romulus and Remus—would found the great city of Rome) forced him to leave Carthage. Dido was so distraught that she committed suicide.

Aeneas finally arrived in Italy. There, he visited the underworld, where he learned about Rome’s future glory. Aeneas then traveled to the Italian region of Latium (now often called Lazio), where he became friends with King Latinus. Aeneas married the king’s daughter Lavinia and founded the port city of Lavinium. Aeneas later disappeared from the mortal world during a battle with a neighboring people called the Etruscans. According to some versions of the myth, he was taken to heaven and became the god Jupiter Indiges.

Aeneas never disappeared from legend, however, thanks to the great poet Virgil. He wrote the Aeneid between 30 and 19 B.C., a period of national pride for the Romans (and some 1,200 years after the Trojan War). The emperor Augustus had just united the people of the Italian peninsula to defeat Rome’s enemies in the eastern provinces. Virgil chose the myth of Aeneas to express ancient Rome’s moral and religious values and to honor Augustus, who claimed to be descended from Aeneas.