Etymology
Thermopylae means "hot gates" in Greek and the name is related with its hot sulphur springs. This is also the place of cavernous entrances to Hades. The first mentioned Amphictyony centered on the cult of Demeter at the city Anthela in the locality of Thermopylae.The delegates to the Amphictiony were entitled Pylagorai (gate-assemblers), perhaps a reference to the local gates of Hades, since Demeter was a chthonic goddess in many of her older local cults.
In a Greek myth is mentioned that Heracles had jumped into the river in an attempt to wash off the Hydra poison infused in the cloak that he could not take off. The river was said to have become hot and stayed that way ever since.
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Famous quotes containing the word etymology:
“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)
“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)