GLOSSARY OF MYTHOLOGICAL
WORDS AND PHRASES IN ENGLISH

Many of us talk the language of myth without even realizing it. Myth encompasses a tradition, a repository of images, themes, motifs, and archetypes that can serve to give human speech resonance beyond its immediate context. When Hamlet says his murdered father was to his uncle as Hyperion to a satyr, he speaks a powerful shorthand; the images conveyed by these two personages do more to express his inner state than if he were simply to speak admiringly of the one and disparagingly of the other. Often we use mythological references in our everyday speech, blissfully unaware that many of our common everyday expressions find their origin in the mythic traditions of Greece and Rome; one can use the word chaotic without knowing its ultimate source. The following list briefly explains the original mythological meaning of some of the more common terms that have entered our language.