Do you know why the Milky Way has that name?
If anyone has ever wondered why the Milky Way would have received that name, you are about to get the answer. Emily Upton, one of the columnists for Today I Found It, published this week an interesting analysis of the origin of our galaxy's name and a series of curiosities about the various names the Milky Way would have received in other countries.
Literally translating, the Milky Way is nothing more than a kind of “milk road”. Strange, isn't it? To clarify, the columnist explains that the Romans lent this name to the Greeks, who called our star system "galaxias kyklos", which would be something like the "milk cycle." Interestingly, that same name created by the Greeks would also have given rise to the word "galaxy".
A bit of mythology
It is not possible to know for sure who would have invented the name, but one only has to look at the sky to understand what would have inspired the Greeks to name the galaxy in this way. If viewed from Earth in a distant, dimly lit city, the sky displays an incredible view of a whitish, starlit trail that can be compared to a milk path.
To reinforce the idea, Greek mythology says that Zeus would have brought Heracles to feed on Hera's breast while she slept. Confused by the situation, after all Heracles was not his son, Hera would have woken up while Heracles was breast-fed and pushed, causing a few drops of milk to fall. These drops of milk would be the origin of the galaxy according to the Greeks' worldview.
The Milky Way in other languages
In many languages, the name Milky Way has been retained: “Milky Way” in English, “Milchstrasse” in German and “Melkeveien” in Norwegian would be some examples. But other peoples created their own stories for the emergence of the galaxy, so they chose different names. Check out:
Linnunrata - Finland
"Linnunrata" means "bird path" in Finnish. This name came from a history of Finnish mythology that tells us that the world was formed from the hatching of an egg. In this way, the sky would be the eggshell and the earth would have a flat shape. The boundaries of the earth were called "Lintukoto" and served as a dwelling for the birds. For the Finns, the path of light that the Greeks believed to be formed of milk was actually the path that the birds took to Lintukoto, so the Milky Way was named Linnunrata.
Silver River - China
In much of Asia, the Milky Way is known as the “Silver River”. Chinese legend says that there was a beautiful young woman known as the Goddess Embroiderer, who was the daughter of the Heavenly Queen Mother. One day a young farmer was taking care of his animals when he decided to spy on the Goddess Bordadeira who was bathing in a nearby lake. At that moment, the two fell in love and soon got married and had two children.
But the Heavenly Queen Mother was jealous of the love of the young and kidnapped the Goddess Embroiderer. When the farmer tried to chase after them to redeem his love, the Queen created a silver river between them so that the lovers would remain separated forever. This silver river is what we know as the Milky Way.
Interestingly, in Japan and Korea, the term "silver river" is also used for galaxies in general, not just the Milky Way.
Winter Road - Iceland, Sweden and Norway
Some countries further north have called the Winter Way Milky Way or Winter Way. That is the meaning of “Vetrabrautin” in Iceland, “Vintergatan” in Sweden and “Vinterbrauta”, the alternative name for the galaxy in Norway. These peoples are thought to have named the star system because the Milky Way becomes more visible during winter in the Northern Hemisphere.
Hard Goghi Chanaparh - Armenia
"Hard Goghi Chanaparh" means "the path of the straw thief" in Armenian. The story goes that the god Vahagn would have stolen a huge amount of straw from Barsham, the king of Assyria. His goal was to take all the straw to Armenia during a very cold winter. To do so, he would have crossed the sky and dropped some straw in his path, forming the Milky Way.
Some evidence points out that Armenian history has spread to many countries and inspired other peoples to use the same reference to name our galaxy. In Chechnya, the Milky Way is called “Ça Taxina Cup” or “the scattered straw route”; in Turkey, "Samanyolu" is the "straw road" and in Croatia, "Kumova Slama" means "the straw of God", although Croats also use the term Milky Way.
Compostela Trail - Spain
The names of the Milky Way in Spain are quite varied. In addition to using the same name as us, the Spanish also called the star system the “Camino de Santiago”. The explanation for this name is in the history of pilgrims who used the Milky Way to locate and reach the holy land of Santiago de Compostela.
In addition, "Compostela" is the third nomenclature the galaxy has received and its translation is directly linked to the system since the word means "the star field".
* Originally posted on 28/08/2013 .
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