Influence of Mythology in our daily lives.

How many of us have given this a thought?
Every day we use something from mythology without realising it.

Let’s start it from the days -
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday -- the day of Tyr, day of Woden, day of Thor, day of Freya, day of Saturn – Gods from Nordic mythology.

Your morning cereal, a grain product is named after Ceres, the goddess of grain. The month of January is named after Janus because he had two faces and could look both forward and backward, just like the named month, can look at the year gone by and the New Year!

The planets are all named after Greek gods. Lots of common popular names today also come from characters of Greek myths e.g. Helen, Alexander, Irene, Phyllis, Melissa, Sibyl, etc.

A number of common words and phrases have mythological references, like
• Odyssey – a long quest, from the story of Odysseus
• Tantalize – from Tantalus in Greek mythology who had food hanging
before him which he could never reach
• Panic – derived from Greek god Pan, who was thought to cause panic
• Syringe – from the syrinx, Pan's hollow reeds that functioned as
his musical instrument
• Nectar – from Greek nektaros which was the food of the gods
• Echo – from the Greek nymph Echo was turned into an echo
• Phobia – from Phobus, the god of fear
• Adonis – a handsome man, after the Greek Adonis
• Flowers like the narcissus, hyacinth, and crocus are named after
the boys Narcissus, Hyacinthus and Crocus of Greek myth who were
turned into these flowers by the gods
• Asia – from Asia the wife of the Titan Prometheus
• Europe – the continent, from Europa, a lover of Zeus

Besides the above, we have phrases like, “open up a Pandora’s box”, "Achilles heel", "cleaning the Augean stables", “a herculean task”, etc. all from Mythology.

Chemistry is replete with references from Greek mythology, elements like Mercury, Titanium, Niobium, Plutonium, etc.

A number of trademarks and brands have Greek influence, Nike, Atlas, Hercules, Amazon, Mercury, etc.

Without realizing, the influence of mythology is all around.