Space and Physics
PUBLISHED
There’s something deliciously creamy about the band of stars that streaks across the night sky. Perhaps that’s why so many chocolate bars are named after celestial objects (I’m thinking Mars, Galaxy and Milky Way), although the story of how our spiraling home got its name actually has nothing to do with confectionery.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.The tale does involve a booby, though. And what a booby it is, belonging to none other than the goddess Hera, wife (and, err… sister) of Zeus, the big boss of the Ancient Greek pantheon.
According to mythology, Hera was breastfeeding Zeus’s half-mortal son Heracles when she abruptly withdrew her nipple, spraying her milk and leaving a spectacular white streak smeared across the night sky. Inspired by this account, the Greeks invented the term galaxias, which has its root in the word ‘gala’, meaning milk.
In later years, the Romans adapted this to ‘Via Galactica’, which translates as Milky Way. The modern English term ‘lactic’ - denoting anything related to milk - is therefore derived from ‘galactic’, implying that the white stuff is in fact heavenly in origin.
Of course, not every culture subscribes to the same mythology, and our galaxy has gone by many different names since humans first began gazing upwards at night. The ancient Egyptians, for instance, envisioned the Milky Way as a goddess named Nut, who shielded the Earth from a watery abyss.
The Lakota name for the Milky Way, meanwhile, is Wanáǧi Thacháŋku, meaning Spirits’ Road, while some Baltic cultures use the term ‘Birds’ Path’ in reference to the fact that the galaxy’s north-south orientation at certain times of year mirrors the route taken by migratory birds.
In Quechua, the galaxy is envisioned as a sacred river called Mayu, while the Chinese name translates as ‘Silver River’. So if you’re in the chocolate-making business and looking for a name for your bar, you may have just found it.
