Ogyges - Etymology

Etymology

The name Ogyges is related with the Greek Okeanos (Ὠκεανός, ocean) the great river that it was believed that surrounded the earth disc and the word seems to be derived from a Phoenecian root meaning "to encircle". Strictly speaking, Oceanus was the ocean-stream at the Equator in which floated the habitable hemisphere (oikoumene οἰκουμένη). In Greek mythology, this world-ocean was personified as a Titan.

Later the Greek word Ogygios (Ὠγύγιος), meaning Ogygian, came to be synonymous with "primeval," "primal," or "from earliest ages." Aeschylus is distinguishing the Boeotian-Thebes from the Ogygian-Thebes (Egyptian) indicating the relation with the East.

Read more about this topic:  Ogyges

Famous quotes containing the word etymology:

    Semantically, taste is rich and confusing, its etymology as odd and interesting as that of “style.” But while style—deriving from the stylus or pointed rod which Roman scribes used to make marks on wax tablets—suggests activity, taste is more passive.... Etymologically, the word we use derives from the Old French, meaning touch or feel, a sense that is preserved in the current Italian word for a keyboard, tastiera.
    Stephen Bayley, British historian, art critic. “Taste: The Story of an Idea,” Taste: The Secret Meaning of Things, Random House (1991)

    The universal principle of etymology in all languages: words are carried over from bodies and from the properties of bodies to express the things of the mind and spirit. The order of ideas must follow the order of things.
    Giambattista Vico (1688–1744)