If the Planets are names after the most important gods... then why arent they named after ALL of the Olympians

Question

................................. Well not that I think about it most of them are there.... The asteroid Ceres.... And that Pluto-like planet with a really eccentric orbit called Eris. well where I am going is, why where some of them named after Oranos and Kronos (as an example) I mean... I am pretty sure that still people followed him and their reals where important to them (like the harvest) but. Wouldt officially the most important Gods Be the olympians. I mean.... Ok so What I am trying to ask is why wasnt a planet named after Athena T_T I mean.... Aphrodite and Hera are there like Venus and Juno... why not a Minerva? Wasn't Athena and Apollo one of their most productive gods after those of the harvest like Demeter and Dyonisious. We already have Apollo/Helios/Sun but where is Athena? I mean Wouldn't Athena Dererve a planet more than vile Ares?........... :\

Answer 1

Well.... You have to keep in mind that a number of the deities, such as Demeter and Dionysus, were Cthonic deities (Cthonic means "associated with the earth"). Pluto was one of these, but his name was given to the outer planet by latter day non-Greek astronomers. What's important here is that the planets aren't named after the gods on a whim, like we name streets after politicians. The planets were *identified* in some important way. For example, Mercury is identified with Hermes/Thoth/Mercury because of its strange orbit, among other things. Ares/Mars is identified as warlike in part because of its red color.


I'm guessing with some thought you can figure out which astronomical figures were named by the ancients themselves (not Pluto or Eris!), and how their qualities relate to their names.


Note as well that both Mars and Venus were originally identified as gods by the Babylonian/Sumerian astronomers, who identified them as a war-god planet and a fertility-goddess planet. (Nergal and Ishtar) Likewise, Mercury was originally identified by the Egyptians as Thoth. Because of the way ancient syncretism works, planets can change names without changing their basic characteristics, because the gods with which they are associated can be syncretized. (Ishtar is frequently syncretized with Aphrodite/Venus)

Answer 2

I guess that the Romans got to naming the planets first, and thus named them after the roman gods. I noticed that in the Roman mythology, Athena was not as overall worshipped as much as in the Greek mythology. Like, she was worshipped almost as much as Zeus by the greeks, but with the romans, she was worshipped as much as say...Diana (greek Artemis.)


Best of luck with figuring your way through the romans' thought patterns on the subject, and I really hope this answer helped.

Answer 3

There are only a finite amount of Sol planets and astronomers made the picks at their whim. Some leaned to Greek and others to Roman.

Answer 4

Also keep in mind, the roman's put the male gender much higher in their society than woman.. In the greek society it was more equal therefore more ok to worship the female gods...

other than that yup.. the roman's named the planets first.. I would think.

Answer 5

The Roman name for Athena is Minerva, an asteroid http:// en.wikipedia. org /wiki/93Minerva .

Jim, http://www.jimpettis.com/wheel/

Answer 6

like Bruce Jenner?