Tuesday, September 21, 2010

THE NAME MILKY WAY

Where does the name "MILKY WAY" came from? I had research the two reasons first, "The Milky Way" is a translation of the Latin Via Lactea, which in turn is derived from Greek (Galaxias) sometimes referred to simply as "the Galaxy", the second reason is "The Ganga of the sky", is the ancient Hindu name for the galaxy as viewed from the Earth, this was called " Akash Ganga ", it is the Hindi name for Milky way.

On the other hand there is said that the Ancient Greek astronomers thought that the Milky Way looked like a river of milk running through the sky, and that's where both "Milky Way" and "Galaxy" come from. Galaxy comes from the Greek word for milk.

In Greek Story the goddesses Athena and Hera (goddesses of wisdom and married life) were out for a walk and came across what seemed to be an abandoned infant. Actually, it was the just-born Herakles [Hercules in Latin], whose mother Hera hated. Athena had planted the child there."Oh, the poor thing!" said Athena. "Come, Hera, give it your breast!" For Hera, being the Great Mother, was constantly in milk even though she herself was seldom pregnant. Anyway, she did so, and Herakles sucked her nipple so powerfully that she yelped with pain and pulled him away. When she did so a spurt of her milk flew into the sky and that's what caused the Milky Way.

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