* 英語的秘密家譜 The Secret Life of Words: How English Became English

如果你不曾讀過英語的歷史，你也就：
　　A) 無從得知英語強盛的祕密
　　B) 錯失了英語蘊含的豐沛意象與歷史記憶

　　翻開英語的家譜，你會驚訝於英語的瓜瓞綿綿。全世界的人民都在依照自己的使用習慣改寫這種語言，因此我們有了Spangish（西班牙英語）、Singlish（新加坡英語）、Inglish（印度英語）、Chinglish（中式英語）……然而真正稱得上琳瑯滿目、多采多姿的，卻是英語的「列祖列宗」：盎格魯薩克遜語、拉丁語、諾曼法語、古挪威語、西班牙語、阿拉伯語、烏爾都語、漢語、梵文，所有你想得到的語種，幾乎都曾為英語「注入」一點什麼。這鍋全球350種語言都湊上一腳的大雜燴，如今正在世上所有角落飄香。

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* -cide: killing

for example,

homicide (n.) the crime of killing someone

insecticide (n.) a chemical for killing insects, especially those that damage plants orcrops

suicide (n.) the action of deliberately killing yourself

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* -cracy: rule, government

for example,

democracy (n.) a system of government in which people vote inelections to choose the people who will govern them

theocracy (n.) a government led by religious leaders

p.s. theocracy: god

bureaucracy (n.) a complicated and annoying system of rules andprocesses

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* Virgin Goddess

Athena(Minerva): the goddess of Wisdom

Artemis(Diana): twin sister of Apollo, goddess of the Hunt, Forests and Hills, the Moon, Archery

Hestia(Vesta): goddess of the Hearth and humble domestic joy.

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* The Immortals x Greek Mythology

Aphrodite(Venus) the golden goddess of Love; born of the blood of Ouranos (the Heavens) and the foam of the sea.

Apollo(Apollo) the son of Zeus and Leto; the brother of Artemis.

Ares(Mars) the god of War; the son of Zeus and Hera.

Artemis(Diana) twin sister of Apollo, goddess of the Hunt, Forests and Hills, the Moon, Archery

Athena(Minerva) the goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, law and justice, strategic war, mathematics, strength, strategy, the arts, crafts, and skill

Eris(Discordia) sister of Ares, the goddess of Discord and Strife.

Hades(Pluto) Lord of the Underworld, the son of Kronos (Cronos) and Rheia (Rhea).

Persephone(Proserpina) the daughter of Demeter and Zeus, the wife of Hades and queen of the Underworld.

Demeter(Ceres) the goddess of the Harvest, the daughter of Kronos (Cronos) and Rheia (Rhea).

Iris the Wind-Footed messenger of the Immortals.

Hermes(Mercury) the wing shod messenger of the Olympians, the son of Zeus and Maia.

Herakles(Hercules) the ultimate hero, the son of Zeus and Alkmene (Alcmene).

Eros(Cupid) the primal god of Love; using arrows of gold and lead, he would wound the hearts of mortals and Immortals alike.

Poseidon(Neptune) the lord the Sea, son of Kronos (Cronos) and Rheia (Rhea).

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* Homeric Epithet

A characteristic of Homer's style is the use of epithets, such as "the rocky Ithaca", "swift-footed" Achilles, "red hair king" Menelaus.

Epithets are used because of the constraints of the dactylic hexameter (i.e., it is convenient to have a stockpile of metrically fitting phrases to add to a name) and because of the oral transmission of the poems; they are mnemonic aids to the poet and the audience alike.

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* Furies 復仇女神

(引申出 furious: extremely angry)

Furies, also known as Einyes, were female chthonic deities of vengeance; they were sometimes referred to as "infernal goddesses" (χθόνιαι θεαί).

A formulaic oath in the Iliad invokes them as "those who beneath the earth punish whosoever has sworn a false oath". Burkert suggests they are "an embodiment of the act of self-cursing contained in the oath". They correspond to the Dirae in Roman mythology, and some suppose that they are called Furies in hell, Harpies on earth, and Dirae in heaven.

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* Patron god = City god

for instance, Athena was the patron goddess of the city of Athens.

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* Vocabulary

pyre (n.) a high pile of wood for burning a dead body in a funeral ceremony

suitor (n.) a man who wants to get married to a particular woman

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* Pygmalion Effect 比馬龍效應

The Pygmalion effect, or Rosenthal effect, is the phenomenon whereby the greater the expectation placed upon people, the better they perform. The effect is named after the Greek myth of Pygmalion, a sculptor who fell in love with a statue he had carved.

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* Pygmalion and Galatea

Pygmalion and Galatea, an Original Mythological Comedy is a blank verse play by W. S. Gilbert in three acts based on the Pygmalion story.

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related movie: Bicentennial Man

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related musical: My Fair Lady

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* Persephone & Pomegranate

Hades indeed complied with the request, but first he tricked her, giving her some pomegranate seeds to eat. Persephone was released by Hermes, who had been sent to retrieve her, but because she had tasted food in the underworld, she was obliged to spend a third of each year (the winter months) there, and the remaining part of the year with the gods above. With the later writers Ovid and Hyginus, Persephone's time in the underworld becomes half the year.

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