Re: etymological trivia

Hi Tanya,
Thanks for the article: I find this stuff intriguing.
Hadn't thought about centaurea and centaurs!
I had heard that Achillea had healing properties, though apparently not enough to prevent Achilles' death. 
I'm curious about Asclepias, though: does milkweed have any healing properties that anyone knows of?  To be named after the god of medicine it ought to.
Thanks again,
Ben A-W

On Fri, Jan 21, 2011 at 10:06 AM, tanya <t*@gmail.com> wrote:
Here's a short article...
http://www.horticapublications.com/ART-H-024.htm
THE GREEK MYTHS BEHIND PLANT NAMES


And  here's a book...
http://rutgerspress.rutgers.edu/acatalog/Gods_and_Goddesses_in_the_Garden.html
Gods and Goddesses in the Garden
Subtitle: Greco-Roman Mythology and the Scientific Names of Plants
Author: Peter Bernhardt
2008




On Wed, Jan 19, 2011 at 10:01 PM, Ben Armentrout-Wiswall
<benjamin.r.aw@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi All,
> I don't know if there are any classics scholars out there, but does anyone
> know the relationship between:
> Achillea and Achilles?
> Artemisia and Artemis?
> Asclepias and Asclepius?
> Nemesia and Nemesis?
> I suspect some scientific plant names are strictly derivative, a poetically
> inclined botanist assigning an ancient name to a new discovery, such as
> Arethusa, Calypso, or Endymion.
> Others I suspect are simply the names the ancient Greeks gave to plants,
> such as Iris, Narcissus, or Hyacinthus.
> Anyway, if anyone can shed some light on nomenclature, I'd appreciate it.



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