Eggheads want YOU to name Jupiter's five newly found moons ‒ and yeah, not so fast with Moony McMoonface The Carnegie Institution for Science, a research hub headquartered in America's capital, is asking for the public’s help to name five of Jupiter’s newly discovered moons. A team of astronomers discovered twelve satellites orbiting the gas giant last year. As the most massive planet in the Solar System, Jupiter has the largest …
"Alass none of them end in either an "a", or an, "e" though..."
If one of the criteria is 'related to Jupiter / Zeus' and another is 'ends in e or a', surely that is a pretty definite list to choose from. I mean, I know Roman / Greek gods were legendarily promiscous, but that list is anyway not going to be more than a few dozen names is it?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeus#Consorts_and_offspring is a good place to start and lists more than 300. -a and -e endings reduce that to about 130, of which you need to remove those already taken as moons of Jupiter or other celestial bodies (found several asteroids).
From those that don't appear to be taken, I would like to see that one Dike:
Dike left Earth for the sky, from which, as the constellation [Virgo], she watched the despicable human race. After her departure, the human race declined into the Bronze Age, when diseases arose and they learned how to sail.
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She's a Greek Goddess and she and her pals are companions of Zeus. Goddess of Victory, hence portrayed in relief on an Olympus pocket watch.
The overpriced trainers weren't the the first people to use her name. Certainly Nike Inc. should only have exclusive use for Trainers.
And Styx the daughter of Ocean was joined to Pallas and bore Zelus (Emulation) and trim-ankled Nike (Victory) in the house. Also she brought forth Cratos (Strength) and Bia (Force), wonderful children.
I suppose the name might be considered too commercial. Companions of Zeus might have been occasional lovers?
Paris, because he was a prince of Troy in Greek mythology and we know what the Greek gods and goddesses are most famous for.
Pallas is already an asteroid - I guess many useful names could have been given to asteroids in the past, when they didn't though they would have discovered so many asteroids and moons....
Anyway as Latin names were used, it would be Minerva - but it's being already used as well.
Anyway, I would call Minerva the hypothetical large planet lurking in the Kuiper belt - it has to be really clever and wise to be able to hide itself for a so long time from humankind...
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Here we have one of these ridiculous and unenforceable rules. How exactly is anyone going to determine that the name they come up with isn't offensive in any language or culture? I can't begin to imagine how anyone on earth could be sufficiently multi-lingual to know this. How do we even know that there isn't some remote Amazonian tribe who find the word "Jupiter" tremendously offensive?
I was thinking the same thing re this "offensive" condition. Surely by definition, naming something after a god from one or two specific (or two versions of one specific) religion is going to be offensive to the adherents of many other religions since by definition they are honouring false gods. Not to mention those who don't believe in any gods.
I was going to suggest naming them after the pilots of the Angels in Captain Scarlet:
Rhapsody, Harmony, Melody, Symphony and Destiny.
Yes, I know that Destiny doesn't really fit with the others, but I guess Gerry and Sylvia also had problems trying to get a group of five names to fit into some contrived rules-based namespace.
Adrestia (Ancient Greek: Ἀδρήστεια) in Greek mythology "she who cannot be escaped".
She should have been the name of the squad leader. Destiny (in terms of retribution) is a slightly related name. Though retribution is more Nemises. Nemesis also called Rhamnousia or Rhamnusia, she's not a goddess to annoy either. The the Moirai or Moerae (the Fates, a little like the Norse Norns) are the representation of destiny. You'd only want them for three moons linked in some way that you didn't want named separately, Moira Alpha, Beta & Gamma. The Moirai were among Zeus's children. Seems Zeus might have had a lot of lovers.
Um… Adrestia ends in "a". Zeus might have um, liked her occasionally?
No, and while many of them came from a common cultural substratum - probably the Indo-European one - which made easier to map them (as you can even map gods from other cultures as well) , there were some more specific ones.
Janus is a good example of a god which had no Greek counterpart.
Julius believed there were so many gods you could even add a new one - himself...
I thought he was against being made a living god, and turned it down ? As Augustus would have (except Livia persuaded him it was "good for Rome").
After that, of course it was no holds barred ... Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero ...
If you like your history with debate you could argue that it was the insistence of the Romans on treating their living emperors as Gods which made the Jewish problem intractable. Generally Romans didn't give a fig what god(s) anyone bothered with. But they insisted on worshipping the emperor as a God .....
If you like your history with debate you could argue that it was the insistence of the Romans on treating their living emperors as Gods which made the Jewish problem intractable.
Ahhh. I now understand why Jeremy Corbyn and his party have a not dissimilar problem.
I suppose they could try nailing a rebellious millennial Labour MP (and defector) to a wooden cross as a short term fix. But longer term that might beget even bigger problems.
Prove me wrong!
Seriously, how is anyone supposed to know for sure how many lovers Jupiter/Zeus did have, and what their names were. Nobody knows who MY lovers were. Even I can't remember them all.
No seriously, really, there are a finite and predictable series of names which can follow those very restrictive rules so what is the point of a "competition"?
so what is the point of a "competition"?
Somebody thought it was a cool way to engage the public and persuade young people to take an interest. Then, being risk averse dullards, and looking at the Boaty McBoatface saga, they concluded that they were NOT sufficiently interested in engaging the public and yoof to take any risks of some tiny, remote rock being given a silly name. So they came up with the monumentally dull rules that we now see.
It's more complicated than that. The general rule is that the discoverer gets to propose the name, but the scientific community imposes rules (and the chemists, at least, aren't above a bit of horse-trading). So the rules about having a connection with Zeus and ending in the right letter are due to the International Astronomical Union, not the Carnegie Institution.
When myth is the subject, Paris is the name of the naughty (male) Trojan who abducted Helen. And Zeus wasn't into boys.
So it's said.
This is what when you get parents who give their kids names without having a clue about languages. She should have been Parisa Hilton. Or perhaps Parasite.
"He was an ancient Greek (god) and you're telling me he wasn't into boys?"
At different times and in different places, just as in today's world, the view of homosexuality (and the status of women) could be very different. Democratic Athens was nearly as backward as Saudi Arabia where women were concerned, whereas in Sparta equality was much greater - provided you were a member of the aristocracy and not a helot. In some societies ephebeophilia was tolerated, especially by teachers; in others it wasn't. Persian influence was important later on. "Persicos odi", says Horace, and makes it clear it's their rather ambisexual culture he doesn't like.
Zeus is a male fertility god, the father of a lot of the pantheon. He has a wife and an awful lot of lady friends or one night stands. He's the archetype of the successful heterosexual male, a kind of cosmic Boris Johnson.
Ugh, please do not compare Zeus to the despicable BoJit, his ego (BoJ, although it probably applies to both) is far too big already.
(Not that I’m claiming Zeus was entirely sweetness and light, either. Well, I’m not saying anything, I’ll get zapped by a thunderbolt or turned into an insect or something for my troubles…)
What's all this pro-grade/retro-grade nonsense? Why can't we just accept that some moons "go the other way" without labelling them with culturally loaded terms like Pro and Retro? What if a moon decides to reverse after some cosmic encounter with an astronomical body - does it have to change its name? Do Retro moons have to dress in old clothes from charity shops? Are Pro moons paid more in the Lunar League?
Anyway Jupiter/Zeus liked wine so I propose Chardonne, Lambrine, Spumante, and Prosecca and Cava respectively.
> What's all this pro-grade/retro-grade nonsense? Why can't we just accept that some moons "go the other way" without labelling them with culturally loaded terms like Pro and Retro?
Would it help if we were to introduce more labels, e.g. pro-grade, prosumer, consumer, vintage and retro?
To present the public with a list of all of Jupiter's or Zeus' lovers or spawn that are not already taken are long enough and end with an e for us to choose from?
I'm guessing that there are possibly 3 left, so some of those rules need bending or breaking.
Moony McNikey Face is my curveball suggestion.
If anyone could send me a pair of air max trainers that wouldnt look too stupid on a 40 something that would be nice
They are dwarf moons I'm guessing since they were just found
I suggest Sneezy, Bashful, Happy, Grumpy, and Sleepy.
Sneezy - it's cold out there
Bashful - it's been reluctant to draw attention to itself
Happy - because someone noticed it
Grumpy - because no-one did for a gazillion years
Sleepy - what else is there to do out there
Doc was eliminated - unless it is a space doc
Dopey - also eliminated - didn't pay attention in the naming contest so also lost out
I seem to recall some of Sir Pterry's that fit the bill. I remember there was a Vomita (the Oh Goddess of throwing up - not to be confused with Bilious, the Oh God of Hangovers), and I'm fairly sure there was an Anoia (Goddess of kitchen implements, whose name must be invoked when trying to open stuck drawers).
I have an idea there was an Impedimenta somewhere....
There wasn't a Vomita but there was a Bilious. There was also a sock eater, a hair puller and a verruca gnome. Annoia was handled part time by a part time priest until Moist attributed his millions in stolen cash to being a gift from her, which made her into a first line diety with temples all over.
I just reread the series recently...
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