Gaia

Gaia (or Ge) was the great primeval earth goddess, the first creature to be born from Chaos. The name is simply the Greek for 'earth', which usually appears in the form ge (as in 'geography') but also has the poetic form gaia, used for the name of the goddess, and occasionally aia. In Doric Greek, ge is sometimes da, but this does not seem to be the origin of the name Demeter.

Galanthis

Galanthis (also Galanthias and Galen) was the slave girl of Alcmene. Her name means 'weasel' (galen) into which she was turned by Ilithyia when Galanthis tricked her into thinking that Heracles had been born (which Ilithyia had been trying to prevent).

Galatea

Galatea was the daughter of Nereus and Doris, and as Handel's opera reminds us she was loved by Acis. Galatea lived in the sea off Sicily (where the Cyclops Polyphemus became infatuated by her), and doubtless a combination of this and the fact that she was beautiful is intimated in her name, which means 'milk white', from gala, galactos, 'milk'. (The Greek word gave the English 'galaxy', which in turn derived from the original Greek name for the Milky Way, Cyclos galacticos, literally 'milk circle'.)

Ganymede

Ganymede was the son either of Tros, the founder of Troy, or of Laomedon, the father of the Trojan king Priam. He was a beautiful boy, and according to Homer was abducted by the gods to live as a cup-bearer to Zeus.

His name may well not have been Greek originally, but it must have suggested to a Greek ear ganos, 'beauty', 'delight' and medos. The latter word was used only in the plural (medea) as which it could mean either 'plans', 'cunning' or 'genitals' (in which sense it corresponded to Latin virilia).

So his name means either 'delighting in cunning', or 'rejoicing in manhood' (i.e. in his own prospect of marriage), or even 'with delightful genitals'. (One hardly suspects that the gods abducted him for his cunning.)

His name, in a rather perverse form, gave the Latin Catamitus which in turn produced the English 'catamite' as a word for what Chambers Twentieth Century Dictionary somewhat quaintly calls 'a boy kept unnatural purposes'.

Gasterocheires

Gasterocheires was the collective name for the seven Cyclopes who built Argos and Tiryas. It derives from gaster, 'stomach' (as in 'gastric') and cheir, 'hand', presumably referring to their gonk-like appearance, so to speak 'bellies with hands'. They must not be confused with the Hecatoncheires, who were hundred-handed giants.

Geilissa

Geilissa was Orestes' old nurse. According to one story, she sent her own son to bed in the royal nursery so that he would be killed by Aegisthus instead of Orestes (who was then only ten years old). Her name means 'smiler', 'laugher' from gelao, 'to laugh'. This is an attractive name for an old nurse. In other accounts, she is named as Arsinoë or Laodamia.

Gelonus

Gelonus was one of three triplets (with Agathyrsus and Scythes), the sons of Heracles and Echidna. As with Geilissa, his name means 'laughing', from gelao, 'to laugh'. This is an agreeable name for the son of a disagreeable mother!

Geryon

Geryon (also Geryones or Geryoneus) was the son of Chrysaor and Callirrhoë, and he was a three-headed monster with rich flocks of cattle. Robert Graves suggests geranos, 'crane' as a possible origin of his name, but this has no relevance at all to the monster.

Graves also proposes tricephalon, since Geryon was three-headed (tri- and cephale, 'head'), but this also seems too far removed from the name. Perhaps 'speaker', 'shouter', is more realistic, from geryo, 'to speak', 'utter', 'cry'. He would certainly have shouted at anyone trying to make off with his fine oxen, and fighting invariably involved war-cries.

Giants

Giants basically get their name from ge, 'earth', since they were the sons of Gaia. More directly, they were gegenes, 'earthlings', 'sons of the earth', and this word more closely approximates to English 'giant' and 'gigantic'.

If Gaia was their mother, their 'father' was Uranus, since they sprang from the spot where the blood from Uranus' genitals, severed by Cronos, touched the ground. These were the giants 'proper' who fought in the 'Gigantomachia', the battle of the giants against the gods (in which they were all defeated or killed). More 'specialised' giants, also the offspring of Gaia, were the Titans and the Hecatoncheires.

The names and numbers of those who fought the gods vary, but Apollodorus in his account of the battle includes: Alcyoneus, Porphyrion, Ephialtes, Eurytus, Clytius, Mimas, Enceladus, Pallas, Polybotes, Hippolytus, Gration, and Agrius and Thoas. (Another famous giant mentioned by Homer and Virgil is Titus.)

The actual Greek word for 'giant' was gigas, plural gigantes. Attempts have been made to connect this with the root gen-, 'to be born', 'beget' (as in 'generate'), but this is apparently unrelated linguistically, say the experts. A pity, since the link between ge and gigas seems quite likely.

Glauce

Glauce was another name (or perhaps the real name) of Creusa, the daughter of king Creon of Corinth. It was also the name of the daughter of king Cychreus of Salamis, who was the first wife of Telamon.

It appears to derive from glaucos, 'gleaming', 'bright' and thus be a kind of 'green light' name for a propitious future. (As a colour, glaucos did actually mean 'pale green'.) However, glaucos also means 'grey-eyed' and even sometimes 'blue-eyed', so perhaps Glauce was just that.

Glaucia

Glaucia was the daughter of the river Scamander (called Xanthus, 'yellow', by the gods) who conceived a child by Deïmachus but bore it after he had been killed in the Trojan War. She then fled to Heracles for refuge who entrusted her to Cleon, the father of Deïmachus.

Meanwhile she had named her baby son Scamander (after her father), and he grew up to be a king of Boeotia and to name two streams in Boeotia respectively Scamander and Glaucia! Thus do names travel and propagate. Glaucia's name means 'grey-green' {glaucos), which cannot be anything other than the colour of the river. Scamander (father, grandson and stream) has a name that may well be interpreted in a 'rivery' way, too.

Glaucus

Glaucus is the name of several mythological characters, including the son of Anthedon and Alcyone (or Poseidon and Nais), who was a sea god; the son of Sisyphus and Merope; a son of Minos; and a son of Hippolochus.

For the first of these four, the name, meaning 'grey-green', is obviously suitable in view of his maritime nature. For the son of Sisyphus the name will also have connotations of the sea, since this Glaucus (in one story) leaped into the sea in grief for Melicertes (the son of Athamas).

For the son of Minos, however, we must find a different explanation, since his chief claim to fame was that he chased a mouse, as a small child, and fell into a jar of honey and drowned in it. We cannot really see a 'grey-green sea' in this, so the best thing is to change the origin to glaux, glaucos, 'owl', for owls, after all, chase mice!

In general, however, Glaucus is a name that either denotes the sea or else has its primary sense of 'gleaming', 'bright' (as it did for Glauce) to indicate either a 'bright' future or the 'bright' eyes of a healthy and active person.

Glenus

Glenus was the son of Heracles and Dei'anira. His name means just 'wonder', fromglenos, 'a thing to stare at' (from glene, 'eyeball'). Perhaps he was just that - a little wonder. (We are not told much about him.)

Gordius

Gordius was the father of king Midas, and was the king of Gordium in Phrygia. He was the originator of the 'Gordian knot': he dedicated his chariot or ox-cart to Zeus with the yoke tied to the pole in a special knot; anyone who could find out how to untie the knot would rule all Asia. Alexander the Great (a historical character, of course) saw the knot at Gordium and simply solved the problem by cutting the knot with his sword.

Unfortunately it is not quite so easy to solve the problem of Gordius' name. There are no Greek words starting gord- so we must consider some such derivation as gryzo, 'to grunt' (literally 'say "gry"'). Maybe Gordius grunted or muttered when he spoke?

Gorge

Gorge was the daughter of Oeneus and Althaea, and she grew up to be the wife of Andraemon, king of Calydon. As with the Gorgons, her name means 'grim' (gorgos), which seems an unlikely name for an apparently blameless daughter and mother (of Thoas).

But perhaps she was not so blameless after all, since some accounts say that she, not Periboea, was the mother of Tydeus and that she bore him to her own father, Oeneus, since Zeus had willed that Oeneus should fall in love with his own daughter.

Gorgons

Gorgons were the 'grim ones' (gorgos, 'grim', 'fierce'), three female creatures of frightening aspect. They were the daughters of Phorcys and Ceto, that is, the 'Old Man of the Sea' and his monstrous sister. Their names were Stheno, Euryale and (the most famous, and the only mortal) Medusa. The name has its origin where the very word gorgos does, and it seems that it may simply be meaningless - or rather, be intended to suggest something fearful.

It is remarkable, in fact, that many English words starting 'gor-', 'gro-' or 'gr-' generally have unpleasant meanings. Among the best examples are 'gore', 'grime', 'grimace', 'grunt', 'groan', 'grief, 'grisly', 'grumble', 'grave', 'gorge', 'gross', 'gruesome', 'grovel', 'growl', 'gruelling', 'gruff', 'grumpy', and of course 'grim' itself!

Even the Russian name of Ivan the Terrible (Ivan Grozny) has been shown to be related to Greek gorgos. Of course, there are exceptions, but even 'gorgeous', it appears, has links - rather tortuously, via gorgias, an old French word for a kind of neck-scarf- with 'gorge', 'regurgitate' and other grim 'throaty' words.

Gorgophone

Gorgophone was the name of the only daughter of Perseus and Andromeda. She became the wife of Perieres and, later, Oebalus. Her name literally means 'Gorgon-death', from gorgos and phone, 'murder', 'slaughter'. She did not kill any Gorgons, but of course her father did (Perseus slew Medusa), and her name is thus a commemorative one.

Graces

Graces (Latin Gratiae) were goddesses as pleasant as the Gorgons were unpleasant. They were usually said to have been the three daughters of Zeus and Euronyme, and their names, all with agreeable meanings (which see) were Aglaia (called Charis by Homer in the Iliad), Thalia and Euphrosyne. (Homer also introduced another Grace called Pasithea.) Their group name hardly needs interpreting: they were, after all, personifications of beauty and grace. The Greeks called them Charités (which see).

Graiae

Graiae, however, were unpleasant, since they were the Gorgons' three weird sisters, also the daughters of Phorcys and Ceto. Their names were Enyo, Deino and Pemphredo (see the disagreeable meanings of these). If anything, they were even more sinister than the Gorgons since they were born as old women.

Their name, thus, seems to be from the root of grays, 'old woman'. As Hesiod described it in his Theogony, 'They came into the world with white hair; that is why they are called Graiae by both gods and men.' (The English word 'grey' is not related to their name, even though the old women had grey hair.)

Gration

Gration was a giant who in the battle of the giants against the gods (the 'Gigantomachia') was shot by Artemis with her arrows. His name seems to mean 'scratcher', from grapho, 'to scratch' ('grave', in fact), although in what precise sense (with his hands?) is not clear.