There was a decent amount of debate over the name for Uranus. There was already a naming tradition present, and some argued it should be broken. I think one suggestion was like “George’s Star”, thank fuck that didn’t stick.
Eventually it was settled on being named after the Greek sky deity Ouranos, which is the father of Kronos (Saturn in Latin), who is the father of Zeus (Jupiter in Latin), who is the father of Ares (Mars), who is the spouse-brother of Aphrodite (Venus), and sibling to Hermes (Mercury).
Old astronomers had big old hardons for Greco-Roman mythology.
Naturally the father-of father-of scheme didn’t stick since Poseidon (Neptune) and Hades (Pluto) are brothers of Zeus.
Eris (Discordia) is named after the deity that sparked the Trojan war. She wasn’t invited to a wedding on account of being a party pooper, and in true party-pooper fashion she sowed discord by throwing in a golden apple “for the fairest”, which Aphrodite, Athena (Minerva), and Hera (Juno) promptly started fighting over.
It’s thus quite appropriate that the planet that caused much debate in the astronomical community, leading to a change in definition of what a planet is, and Pluto being classified a dwarf planet, is named after her.
I know this one.
There was a decent amount of debate over the name for Uranus. There was already a naming tradition present, and some argued it should be broken. I think one suggestion was like “George’s Star”, thank fuck that didn’t stick.
Eventually it was settled on being named after the Greek sky deity Ouranos, which is the father of Kronos (Saturn in Latin), who is the father of Zeus (Jupiter in Latin), who is the father of Ares (Mars), who is the spouse-brother of Aphrodite (Venus), and sibling to Hermes (Mercury).
Old astronomers had big old hardons for Greco-Roman mythology.
Naturally the father-of father-of scheme didn’t stick since Poseidon (Neptune) and Hades (Pluto) are brothers of Zeus.
Eris (Discordia) is named after the deity that sparked the Trojan war. She wasn’t invited to a wedding on account of being a party pooper, and in true party-pooper fashion she sowed discord by throwing in a golden apple “for the fairest”, which Aphrodite, Athena (Minerva), and Hera (Juno) promptly started fighting over.
It’s thus quite appropriate that the planet that caused much debate in the astronomical community, leading to a change in definition of what a planet is, and Pluto being classified a dwarf planet, is named after her.