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sdiWhat’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name;
And for that name, which is no part of thee,
Take all myself.
(Juliet speaking. William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet II ii.)
"Why do you need a new name to get well?"
"Only the right name gives beings and things their reality," she said. "A wrong name makes everything unreal. That's what lies do."
(Atreyu interrogating the Childlike Empress. Michael Ende, The Neverending Story XI, as translated by Ralph Manheim. "Atreyu," incidentally, means "the Son of All," as he was an orphan raised by the whole village.)
It is a bit odd that the convention in English is to translate American Indian names (e.g. we call the famous Lakota "Crazy Horse" and not "Tȟašúŋke Witkó") but that we transliterate Ancient Greek names (e.g. we call the famous Athenian "Plato" and not "Broad-Shoulders"). This is usually said to be "racist," as if we are looking down on American Indians, but I think the opposite, that we should rather translate the names of other languages so that their meaning isn't veiled: the more I study Greek, and the more I study the Mysteries, the more clear it is to me that names are everything and are worth the closest study.
(Indeed, while I am estranged from my family, I am grateful for the name they gave me: Ἰάσων Jason "of Iaso," that is, a dedication to the goddess of recuperation from disease, which has been the purpose of this life—and, indeed, is the meaning behind the myth of my heroic namesake.)
Here's a few miscellaneous name-notes I've run across recently as I struggle my way through Homer.
νεφεληγερέτα Ζεύς nephelegereta Zeus is usually translated "Zeus Cloud-Gatherer," with the epithet traditionally derived from νεφελη-ἀγείρετα nephele-ageireta "who gathers clouds to himself;" but I wonder if it is, in fact, the simpler νεφελη-γερέτα nephele-gereta "who was given the clouds as his king's prerogative" (cf. Homer, Iliad XV 187–93).
Humans are often called μερόπων ἀνθρώπων meropon anthropon "humans of divided voice (e.g. speak in words);" e.g. treating language as a differentiator between men and beasts. It occurs to me that the first men didn't speak, though; speech was the gift of Hermeias to Πανδώρα Pandora "all-gifted" (cf. Hesiod, Works and Days 77–80), and it is only her and presumably her descendants that have the ability to speak. (This is all of present humankind, of course, via Pandora's daughter Purrha, who survived the flood alongside Deukalion.) So the gift was a curse, but the curse was also a gift—but then, I suppose μηχανεύς Ζεύς mekhaneus Zeus "Zeus Contriver" never does anything for merely one reason...
I find it interesting that Homer calls the constellations τείρεα teirea "signs," since the famous prophet Τειρεσίας Teiresias "sign-reader" is the quintessential Master of the Mysteries (being the savior of Thebai, the initiator of Odusseus, and the only mortal who retained hits wits beyond death); this reinforces, I think, my theory that the constellations are (or, perhaps, were) meant to be the hieroglyphs on the walls of the Great Temple which Plotinos so often refers to (cf. Enneads II iii "Are the Stars Causes?" §7, Enneads V viii "On the Intellectual Beauty" §6; Enneads VI ix "On the Good, or the One" §11). That is, I think we are being exhorted to be like Teiresias and learn to "read the signs" for ourselves!
many uses for names
Date: 2025-06-28 12:21 am (UTC)While a being in Classical literature and practice many have many epithets referring to multiple aspects of their person (cumulatively), here's an approach which seems to aim to fragment the notion of an individual for pragmatic reasons: James C. Scott's chronicling of resistance to the State in South East Asia, particularly Burma, "The Art of Not Being Governed". People would use multiple names in order to avoid being pinned down by unwelcome attempts at sovereignty.
That has a great appeal to me. I never felt my birth name was *right* but likewise now I have changed it to one I like it is extremely irksome that it must be tainted with use by official bodies. I had rather it be mine to choose who knows it. But in current society we are forced to have only one name mapping to one identity.
Further, this may be a function of synaesthesia, but I must disagree with Juliet's opinion. Romeo is not equivalent to Neil or Bert to me. There are more and less pleasing letters, sounds and spellings. Names are more like music than one might expect.
Re: many uses for names
Date: 2025-06-28 12:37 am (UTC)I spend a lot of time thinking of angels, and angels don't use names: as I understand it, they don't have language, but communicate directly, soul-to-soul, and so are self-identified rather than identified by a label. So one cannot claim power over a pure soul, and perhaps this is why I spend so much effort working to purify my own...
I didn't know you were synesthetic! I have the opposite perception: rather than a hyper-sensitive imagination-body, mine is blind—that is, I am aphantasic, so hearing of such things is quite interesting to me...
Re: many uses for names
Date: 2025-06-28 01:33 am (UTC)It's funny and complex: what I have I don't think mirrors classic descriptions of synaesthesia - I don't hear a piece of music, or a particular key, as blue or whatever.
But words, letters and numbers have very strong characters to me, of various values between awful and pleasing. You could say I am hyper-sensitive to them. And my subjective reaction to colours, even images, is intense.
I'd also say I'm aphantasic. Visualising images - nope, only rarely, by accident.
But my dreams are visually very detailed and colourful. Also I can experience that effect of seeing patterns with closed eyes the name of which I can't remember. Do you have either of those?
Re angels, do you think we are invoking a function rather than an individual being when we pray to them as Saint Raphael, Michael, whomever?
Re: many uses for names
Date: 2025-06-28 02:45 am (UTC)With regard to the names of divinities, that's a tricky one! I have three categories of experience, there, but take it with salt since they're just my experiences and I can't really be certain of the reality:
- When I call to my own angel, I get a response from the same, individual being. I suppose this one isn't surprising!
- When I call to mundane gods, for example the Sun, I get a response from one of the angels that serves or works with or is otherwise somehow related to that god. Further, they have told me that I am always communicating with the same individual angel which "is assigned to" me by that god. I do not know the nature or details of how such "assignment" works or if it's generally the case; I can say that I am fond of several of the mundane gods and pray to them often, so possibly the "assignment" is related to that frequent repetition.
- When I have communicated with celestial gods (whether I have initiated the communication or not), I frankly have no idea what the mechanism is. Plato says that all communication with such beings is via intermediaries, and this wouldn't surprise me, but these communications have not been of a sort where I was in a position to question freely or converse at length, so I simply don't know.
So perhaps that's to say it's at least an individual sometimes, but I don't know if it always is, and it may not be the same individual for everyone...Re: many uses for names
Date: 2025-06-29 01:36 am (UTC)Then I imagine your dreams must resemble being blind.
Your observations re angels maybe reinforce that claim made on JMG's pages that multiple spirit beings may answer to the one name. And we aren't ever going to know the fact.
Re: many uses for names
Date: 2025-06-29 04:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-07-02 02:47 am (UTC)Anyway, the only sticking point here is that when it comes to linguistics/etymology, Kvilhaug seems to be an enthusiastic, and perhaps knowledgeable/talented amateur. Sometimes talented amateurs are exactly the thing you need, so no disrespect meant! But when her interpretations differ wildly from accepted linguistic interpretations, it makes me wonder if she's looking for meanings that suit her interpretations, rather than basing interpretations on the meanings of the names. Maybe impossible to fully resolve, but if nothing else, Kvilhaug's ideas make for fantastic meditation-fodder for the myths she covers. I wish she had a full translation of the whole Prose Edda and Poetic Edda (as opposed to a selection of the most significant poems in the Poetic Edda and some excerpts from the Prose Edda in other works) with her name translations published - that would be remarkably valuable.
Cheers,
Jeff
no subject
Date: 2025-07-02 07:46 pm (UTC)I have come to the unfortunate conclusion that one must bear the burden of the Work alone; this is not merely because cannot trust other humans to be honest with each other (or, in fact, even with themselves), but also because, in fact, what you are searching for is for you and you alone. (I will grant that my Bayesian prior is to trust an enthusiastic amateur far, far more than whatever comes out of the Academy, but alas, that is not a high enough standard for the Work!)
So unless you're willing to become an amateur scholar yourself (or, indeed, even if you are), I think considering her material to be fantastic meditation-fodder is the best you can do: it is well to consider and absorb all the different viewpoints you are able, but you must always work to understand and do all the verification for yourself, and never trust others to do any of the heavy lifting for you.
no subject
Date: 2025-07-02 10:05 pm (UTC)Life is short, but the work is long.
(P.S. Thank you for the book recommendation! My older daughter is 6 and starting to enjoy longer form stories. We're currently going through the D'Aulaires' book of Greek Myth a second time after she enjoyed the Norse one so much.)