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Saturday, August 26, 2017

Goddesses of Peace

Did you, or do you, have trouble keeping the Greek gods and goddesses and their Roman equivalents straight? For instance, the Roman goddess of peace is Pax. I had long known that the word pax was Latin for peace, but had never thought about it being the name of a goddess. If anything it sounded more like a male name.

This is a statue of Pax in the garden of Pavlovsk Palace, Saint Petersburg. She was the daughter of Jupiter and Justice.

Even longer than I have known Pax meant peace, I have known my middle name means peace. I've known since grade school, when, in the back of the Webster's Dictionary, I found the six pages of A Pronouncing Vocabulary of Common English Given Names. There it was, Irene (Gk) peace. (Ramona was also there [via feminine of Ramon (Sp) variation of Raymond (Gmc)] wise protection. Therefore I was a wise protector of the peace.)

So how did I miss that Eirene (Irene) is the Greek goddess of peace? Or is it one of those arcane bits of knowledge I once possessed and then forgot?
And how would I feel if Mom had spelled my name with an Ei instead of just I? A REL not a RIL? Hmm.

The Greek statue of Eirene holds the infant, Plutus. Her parents were Zeus and Themis, the goddess of law and order. Named as I was I should probably have gone into law enforcement or become a lawyer, definitely on the side of justice, wisely protecting the peace.

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