The Greek & Latin Roots of English (25 page)

The god of love, Cupid, and Psyche, the mortal girl whom he saved from death (British Museum)

ANCIENT PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORY

In the classical world, many playwrights, poets, and even historians found their source material in ancient myths that vividly described the often complex psychological dynamics within the structure of the family. The Oedipus complex, as presented by Freud and based on the fifth-century BCE play
Oedipus Tyrannus
by Sophocles, is perhaps the most well known of such conflicts; but Greek myth provides us with many other examples of the consequences of familial passions, examples that still seem to be psychologically valid 2,500 years later.

Thus, the study of classical myth has provided an illumination of the sources of human behavior for modern students of psychology, many of whom see as a primary aim of Greek myths the exposition and resolution of the desires, needs, and conflicts that continue to drive our actions. Several characters from Greek myth, because of their extreme behavior, have given their names to a variety of psychological syndromes. Here are just a few:

narcissism:
excessive admiration of one's own physical or mental qualifications. The handsome Narcissus was punished by the gods for his pride and self-absorption. Caused by Nemesis, the goddess of retribution, to fall in love with own reflection in a pool, he could not bear to tear himself away, and thus faded into nothingness. All that remained was the flower that carries his name.

Electra complex:
In psychoanalytic theory, those symptoms are said to be caused by the suppressed sexual desire of a daughter for her father. Electra, daughter of King Agamemnon, conspired with her brother Orestes to murder their mother, Clytemnestra, after Clytemnestra had killed the king.

Oedipus complex:
According to Freud, the desire of the child for sexual gratification with the parent of the opposite sex. The child often exhibits an intense dislike of the other parent. Oedipus, as you will recall, unwittingly (perhaps) killed his father and married his mother. But then again, as Jocasta, Oedipus's mother (and wife), says, “In dreams many a man has slept with his mother.”

Be Nice to Your Mother

The Latin expression,
alma mater
, which means nourishing mother, was the phrase used by ancient Romans to describe their country. Today we apply the phrase to the schools we attended because their role is to foster and nourish us intellectually. When you graduate, you can say that, having been nourished by education, you are an
alumnus
(male; plural alumni) or an
alumna
(female; plural alumnae). Both
alma
and
alumnus (alumna)
are derived from
alo-alere
= nourish.

LOVE AND MARRIAGE

In Greek myth, marriage often proves to be dangerous, indeed, even fatal: Clytemnestra killed her husband, Agamemnon, upon his return from the Trojan War, although some argued that it was with good cause. He had sacrificed their daughter Iphigeneia before setting off for Troy, and then brought back a Trojan princess, Cassandra, as part of his booty. Medea had obtained the Golden Fleece for the Greek hero Jason after he promised her marriage, but she murdered their children when Jason divorced her in order to marry another woman.

STATES OF FEELING

Love and Desire

Hatred and Disapproval

Oh What a Tangled Web We Weave …

Perhaps the worst offense against the divine was
hybris
, an expression of insolence so delusional that it might lead one to believe that one's strength or power was equal to that of the gods. Needless to say, it was always punished. According to Greek myth, Arachne was a beautiful young girl who boasted that her spinning was finer than that of Athena. The two had a contest, and indeed, the work of the mortal girl was better. The goddess flew into a rage and began beating poor Arachne, who, in despair, hung herself. But in a final act of revenge for Arachne's
hybris
, Athena turned Arachne into a spider. Arachne's talent survived her transformation, however, and she continues to spin even now.

Arachne (ἀράχνη) = spider

hybris (ὕβρις) = shamelessness; in Greek myth, believing that one is the equal to the gods

I'm Okay. Are You Okay?

Of course, our emotions and behavior may seem to others to be abnormal, and one person's fear may be another's madness or uncontrollable desire.

THE FOUR HUMORS

In antiquity and in the Middle Ages, it was commonly believed by Greek and Roman medical practitioners that the body contained four different fluids, or humors. They were yellow bile, black bile, blood, and phlegm. Doctors said that these four humors, when in proper balance, produced good health; but an excess or deficiency of any one of them could cause both physical and mental illness. Even today, derivatives of these words are not only used to describe moods and personality types, but also have become part of the modern psychiatric vocabulary.

Etruscan sarcophagus lid (Villa Giulia, Rome)

STAR WARS

There were other theories of personality and behavior in antiquity. For example, many people believed (and some still do) that the planets and other heavenly bodies affect human behavior and health, and that individuals born under the signs of particular planets share the temperaments of the gods who ruled over those planets, and who gave the planets their names.

The Planets and Their Roman Gods