High-flying Internet

A little opinion piece written by a twelve-year-old appeared in the local paper recently. The student believes that drones will serve many purposes and reported on a Facebook drone, called Aquila, designed to bring the internet to remote places. The Latin word aquila meaning “eagle,” is a nice name because the drone was being designed to fly high in the sky from where it could have an eagle’s eye view of the world below. Aquila is also a constellation, representing the bird of Zeus/Jupiter.

Google also was investing in an internet-access drone company called Titan, also rooted in classical mythology, as the twelve Titans were the race of gods that preceded and then produced the Olympian gods.

A little more research yielded information that both programs were being discontinued, as of a few months ago, but it is always fun to discover ancient classical names for cutting-edge technology.

Ancient Teacher, Modern Heroes

Reading obituaries in the local weekly paper, I came upon an organization called the Equus Effect in Sharon, Connecticut. The Equus Effect is an organization whose mission is “To help returning veterans build healthy, authentic relationships at home, work and school through meaningful engagement with horses.” Equus is Latin for “horse” and gives English the words equine meaning “like a horse” and equitation meaning “horseback riding.”  

The logo at the top of the organization’s website is a sketch of Chiron, the wise centaur who was the teacher of ancient Greek heroes like Jason and Achilles. Chiron is also the constellation Sagittarius, the archer, from the Latin sagitta meaning “arrow.” From where did Chiron obtain his wisdom? Taught by Greek goddess of the hunt Artemis (Roman Diana) and god of the sun, music, and prophecy Apollo, Chiron in turn taught his students the arts of hunting, medicine, music, and prophecy, among others. Chiron is a fitting representative for the Equus Effect, and he is still helping heroes.

Mythological Games

Here I am in beautiful Rose Bay, Nova Scotia, flipping through post-Christmas sale flyers. In the BestBuy flyer I find a large ad for logitech gaming accessories, and I am amused and provoked by the names of three components: the G810 Orion Spectrum RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard, the G502 Proteus Core Tunable Gaming Mouse, and the G933 Artemis Spectrum Wireless 7.1 Gaming Headset. A visit to the logitech website yields much technical information about these components, but I could find no reason for the mythological designations. You may know Orion as a constellation easily visible in the northeastern United States all winter; a mythological giant, Orion was also a famous hunter. A user of an Orion gaming keyboard would feel like a giant, able to control as if with a giant’s eye-view. Proteus was a mythological sea-being, able to prophesy the future to anyone who could catch and hold him. We still use the adjective protean in English to describe something that changes its shape or is difficult to hold. A Proteus mouse changes its configuration shape "to help gamers maximize their victory potential." Artemis, known in Latin as Diana, was the Greek goddess of the hunt, the twin sister of Apollo. She remained unmarried, and she was a powerful huntress, exacting terrible punishments with her bow. A user of an Artemis headset would feel powerful indeed. 

Also on the logitech website was a link to PAX, an acronym standing for Penny Arcade (E)xpo(sition), an annual gaming show that attracts tens of thousands of participants. If you’re a gamer, the next PAX East is approaching in Boston, March 10-12, 2017! I am not a gamer, but I appreciate gaming culture, much of which involves the ancient world. Games are built around ancient civilizations like Rome, and many game and technology developers, like logitech, seek product names from mythology, Greek, and Latin. I am secretly delighted that video games, many of which involve vicarious danger and war, have a conference whose name is the same as the Latin word pax meaning “peace.” 

The Power of Latin

In my local Sunday newspaper on the World and Nation page, I found a story titled “Navy’s new destroyer rides like ‘souped-up SUV.’” The new destroyer is the USS Zumwalt, and it is to be commissioned in Baltimore on Saturday, 22 October 2016.  Here’s a paragraph from the story via the Associated Press:

Kirk says it [USS Zumwalt] generates 78 megawatts of power, 

“enough power to power a medium- to small-sized city.” With 

a motto of Pax Proctor Vim (Peace Through Power), it’s unique 

capability to generate power could be used in ways perhaps not 

even envisioned yet, such as in the testing and use of laser and 

directed-energy weapon systems.

First, in this fiftieth anniversary year of Star Trek, how amazing is it that the commander of this futuristic new destroyer is named Captain James Kirk?

Second, alas, Pax Proctor Vim is in error; the Latin is Pax Propter Vim, literally translated as Peace On Account Of Force, Violence, Power. Pax Propter Vim is an excellent motto for the USS Zumwalt, a marvel of naval technology. The coat of armshttp://www.tioh.hqda.pentagon.mil/Catalog/Heraldry.aspx?HeraldryId=15754&CategoryId=9191&grp=5&menu=Uniformed%20Services of the USS Zumwalt clearly shows the Latin motto.

The U.S. Navy just celebrated its 241st birthday, having been founded on 13 October 1775. Power on, U.S.N.!

P. S. Did you also catch the pronoun error in the AP paragraph? It’s is the contraction standing for it is--no apostrophe needed to show possession. 

Enter Here For Fun

I’ve had a soft spot for Pokemon characters ever since I learned years ago that many of their names come from Latin (filtered through Japanese). Even the word Pokemon comes from a Latin root; it comes from the phrase “pocket monster,” and monster is from the Latin mōnstrum, mōnstrī n. portent, omen, miracle, monster, from a verb mōnstrō, mōnstrāre meaning “I point out, show, appoint.” Reading about the new game Pokemon Go in the Halifax newspaper, I learned that the game was developed by Niantic Labs, a company whose name comes from a whaling ship, the Niantic, built in Connecticut. Connecticut also has a town named Niantic that takes its name from a tribe of native people.

While this background is interesting, what caught my Latin eye was an earlier game developed by Niantic Labs called Ingress, an English word meaning “means of entering” taken directly from a Latin noun ingressus, ingressūs m. entrance, way of entering, beginning, derived from the Latin verb ingredior, ingredī, ingressus sum meaning “I step in, I go in, I enter.” I learned that Ingress the game has been downloaded more than twelve million times, but I think Pokemon Go has far surpassed this number, even here in sparsely populated Canada.

Another wonderful English word from ingredior is ingredient, a thing "going in" a recipe. Surely one ingredient for fun is a mobile video game with Latin roots.

I Am Here

I’ve been reading the obituary pages more attentively in the Halifax Chronicle-Herald, because I am always interested in learning about Canadians. In several obituaries I have read that memorial donations can be made to an organization called Adsum House, and I finally got around to investigating this Latin-named shelter. 

The organization takes its name from the Latin verb adsum, adesse, adfuī meaning “I am here, I am present.” The name may also be a reference to a quotation associated with Swiss psychiatrist C. G. Jung, because the founders of Adsum House were religious institutions. The quotation uses aderit, the third-person future form of the verb, meaning "[God] will be present, here." But then the internet leads me on to yet more background information, ultimately to one of my favorite poets, Quintus Horatius Flaccus. You can read about the Delphic oracle, Thucydides and the Peloponnesian war, Horace, and Erasmus in this article from the Harvard Review.

All from one little Latin verb—how powerful one word is, especially in a poem. How impenetrable Latin can be, especially in a quotation. How wonderful to read of writers and poets reacting to the same words in Greek, Latin, English, and Japanese over millennia. And, as always in this world, how astonishing of the internet to put all these connections at our fingertips, as I am here, as I write and think, in Nova Scotia, Canada in 2016.

Ancient Grains

A photograph in today’s Chronicle-Herald newspaper (Halifax) mentioned the Ceres Terminal in the port of Halifax, Nova Scotia.  The port of Halifax is still very busy, but I do not remember encountering this name before.  From a little research I was delighted to find on the company website a history of the name that does, indeed, go back to the Roman goddess of agriculture, Ceres. Even more interesting: if you click on the YTI flag on the upper right of the history page, you will see a list of working vessels, among which are names from mythology like Argus, Romulus, Aphrodite, and Atlas!

Grain has been on my brain lately, as I get to know some unfamiliar grains. I am happy to report that spelt, an ancient form of wheat, is delicious; this fact delights me, because spelt was the ingredient of much bread consumed by Roman soldiers! From Ceres we get the word cereal; the best cereal I have eaten recently is Spelt Flakes produced by Arrowhead Mills.