#Origin meaning code#

The Greek term for planets means something like 'wandering ones' or 'wanderer,' according to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (opens in new tab). (This is a very simplified chronology, however, as Roman gods and goddesses had attributes based on their location, celestial timings and other factors, and the same is likely true of other traditions they integrated, historians say.) This allowed for a goddess of love from Babylonia, Ishtar, to become Aphrodite under the Greeks and Venus under the Romans, for example. Then when the Romans came to the fore, they integrated traditions from the regions they touched - including Greece - into their own pantheon of gods.

This is how the Greeks incorporated some of the gods from Persia, Hovell explained. The Persians became the great enemy of the Greeks, but the two empires also shared a lot of intercultural knowledge. the region was then taken over by the Persians (then the Achaemenid Empire).

#Origin meaning code#

Babylonia was a complex state in parts of modern-day Iraq and Syria best remembered for its king, Hammurabi, who today is closely associated with a law code created under his reign.īabylonia persisted from about 1900 through 539 B.C.

The tradition of planet naming used by the Romans dates as far back as the Babylonians at least. (Image credit: MARK GARLICK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY via Getty Images) (opens in new tab) In this illustration, the eight major planets of the solar system are shown orbiting the sun.