What Is The Milky Way?

The huge semester that is right upon us is still full of mystery with many secrets behind it. Based on what we actually know and understand, if we were to compare the size of Earth with the whole universe - Earth is merely one little grain of sand.

Things get more interesting when we find out that our solar system is only one of more than 3,200 systems that are alike in which we have no clue of its story. The galaxy that we are in currently is yet to be fully explored.

It is known as the "Milky Way" and some of us might be wondering why is it called such in English and why the word 'milk' was chosen as the name of the element.

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Origin of Milky Way

Aside from being used to name the home of our galaxy, the word "Milky Way" is also used in various ways such as the chocolate brand which is among the favorites of many.

But if we were to tell you the story about its origin and history, there is a high chance that most of you will stop using it today. Why you might ask?

Well, this is because the milky way is highly related to Greek mythology. There are many different versions of these myths that are constantly being shared as a reference. But one particular story from the collection called 'Geoponica' was mostly being referred to.

The story tells about the god Zeus that took his small son, Heracles/Hercules to the throne. It was the son of Zeus' relationship with a mere mortal named Alcmene. Realizing Hercules needs milk, Zeus placed his son beside the goddess Hera who was in a deep sleep.

Heracles who was hungry at the time starts to drink milk from Hera causing Hera to become awake. Hera, who despised Heracles due to the adultery act of Zeus quickly pulled Heracles away from her causing him to spray the milk all over.

The droplets of milk finally formed a spiral of a galaxy that we now call the Milky Way.

But, What the?

The story above might have left you in confusion as it fails to explain the relationship between the Milky Way and what truly happens.

In ancient Greek mythology, the term galaxy formed from the sprayed milk from goddess Hera was referred to as galaxies kyklos which means milky circle.

The green term was translated to Latin as 'via lactea' which was then borrowed into the English word through several changes. In the beginning, the milky way was written as 'milken-way' and also 'milky cercle' referring to the shape of the galaxy that looks as if milk was dripping from the sky.

It was in the 14th century that the term 'milky way' with such spelling was used officially to refer to the galaxy of our home today.

If you've noticed the term galaxy also comes from Greek, taken from 'galaxias' which means circle.

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Not All Parties Used Milky Way

Despite the use of English that has popularized the term Milky Way worldwide, it is not used by all groups of people around the world.

In Indonesia, it is known as 'bimasakti', the Spanish named it 'compostela' or field of stars. The people of Thailand named our galaxy the path of the white elephant.

The Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, and Chinese named our galaxy 'Ginga' or silver river.

Despite all of that, the majority of the world still chooses to name our galaxy with various names referring to the Milky Way and is suitable with their current norms. Some of them retain the element use of milk in their words such as 'Melkeveien' in Norway or 'Milchstrasse' in Germany.

It is highly possible that not many realized the word milk was referring to the milk coming from the goddess Hera since most of us were used to using it without knowing the myth behind its origin.

Source:

• Iluminasi

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