Open AccessMEDICAL EPONYMS OF MYTHOLOGICAL ORIGIN
Author(s) -
Eugene J. Kucharz
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
acta neophilologica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2450-0852
pISSN - 1509-1619
DOI - 10.31648/an.639
Subject(s) - mythology , eponym , creatures , meaning (existential) , the renaissance , terminology , literature , medical terminology , linguistics , history , philosophy , art , art history , epistemology , physics , archaeology , natural (archaeology) , acoustics
Eponyms account for a significant part of medical terminology. Their number isestimated to be a few thousands. Almost all of them are anthroponyms and were coinedfrom names of authors describing a disease, symptom, sign, etc. A small portion of medicaleponyms are mythonyms, coined from names of mythological figures or creatures.Mythonyms are classified into anatomical, physiological, pathological, psychiatricand psychological groups. Two mythonyms describe the name of one medical specialty(hygiene and venereology). Mythonyms were coined from late Renaissance to the 19thcentury. Their relationship to a mythological figure is usually complex. Anatomicalmythonyms are referring shapes of mythological creatures. Other mythonyms referto stories or special features of mythological figures. The paper reviews more than30 mythonyms, and describes their medical meaning, mythological origin and possiblerelation between the mythological figure and eponym.