What's in a Name?

[CarolStrick]

The new "Star-Spangled Panties" is up. Enough boring talk about virgins! Let's talk... nouns!

[Eliseu Gouveia]

thankfully, the JLA cartoon told us that “Themyscira” is pronounced, “the mascara.”

LOL!

a Great read,

[artemisboy]

Let's not forget Pythia and Phthia.

- Peter

[CarolStrick]

Stop spitting, Peter!

[vaffrey]

Smart piece.

You're absolutely right. First, Diana should be spending time "fighting evil in a world she never made," not remaining perpetually connected to the island and threats from ancient Greece.

Second -- let's please, please, please do something about the names! Paradise Island -- it works! Or how about meeting people in Man's World whose names aren't Kapatelis, Michaelis, etc.?

We can handle the duplicate names. And for heaven's sake -- we can more than handle the difference between a goddess named Artemis and a mortal named Artemis. But some real thought and care here would work wonders.

Marston was brilliant -- he created a package of concepts that are interesting artistically while also viable commercially. Too bad the post-Crisis creators have preferred to stray really far away from what he gave us, instead of simply updating the concepts to translate them for modern audiences.

[Retro315]

I hadn't quite touched on it in my own broad view of Wonder Woman yet, but I certainly prefer "Paradise Island" to "Themiscyra" (Not that I really mind if that's it's "Old, True Name" or something). And I like more modern, quick names.

Didn't Hippolyta used to go by "Wonder Queen" most of the time? What's wrong with that?

With a lot of the prime Greek Gods, it's no big deal. Ares? Zeus? Hades? Hermes? They're pretty commonly known thanks to one of the longest lasting mythologies in history and a lot of 7th Grade English classes that read The Illiad, The Odyssey, and a few other Greek Myths (Not to mention Shakespeare).

But simplifying the names could definitely be beneficial. I don't care if their real name is some unpronounced Greek word - this is the DCU. After they're introduced, when they get mutated or cursed into a super-villain, they should get a proper super-villain name!

[CarolStrick]

Didn't Hippolyta used to go by "Wonder Queen" most of the time?

Only in a couple of stories during the Wonder Family years, back in the very early 60s.

[Samy]

I haven't had a problem with the proper nouns in Wonder Woman. Frankly, my first gut reaction to complaints about words like "Hiketeia" is a mental picture of Barbie saying, "Math is hard!" While I can agree that Wonder Woman *does* need more to her adventures than constant Greek stuff, when there *is* that Greek stuff it does need to have an exotic ring to it. It'd be incredibly dull if Paradise Island was populated by Mary, Jenny and Kate instead of Phthia, Menalippe and Artemis.

This paragraph in particular:

I’m big on simplifying the WW mythos both to help new readers (and myself) but also to streamline and focus the character. One of the problems the new creative staff should look at could be nomenclature. Keep it simple. Remember that the American school system is turning out kids who can’t even read basic English well, and texting isn’t helping things, u no.

seems to be calling for the "dumbing down" of the Wonder Woman mythos. OMG, kids can't spell these weird Greek names so let's give characters instead some easy American names that are familiar to the kids, no matter whether it makes sense or not!

I see more merit to the second option offered, to have Diana run into non-Greek stuff more frequently. But when she *does* run into the Greek stuff, I think "dumbing down" for the poor widdle kiddies is only going to further propagate the de-evolution of modern generations into the "dumbest generations".

[Wonder39]

Awesome article!!

....and while we're at it, when did Perez's "Hippolyte" change back to "Hippolyta"???

Matt
(Matt *hearts* Carol's avatar ^_^_)

[CarolStrick]

Seems to me that the spelling fluctuates a bit even after a team comes along and settles onto their preferred spelling.

But Phillipus/Philippus should be Philippis, and Menalippe should be Melanippe.

I believe the "ippe" part of so many Amazon names means "horse." (Isn't "hippopotamus" "water horse"?) The Greeks viewed the Amazons only as horsewomen in the distance, so their names relate to the horses they rode, how they handled them, etc., instead of being their true names.

A fun webpage:
http://whoosh.org/issue12/ruffel3.html#listing

[Xeres]

Haha. I enjoyed that article!

[Ceridwen]

A fun webpage:
http://whoosh.org/issue12/ruffel3.html#listing

Hah, I've had this page bookmarked for a while now, for my own project I've been working on. It's fantastic for the quick reference.

[Mart]

Terrific piece, Carol. Or may I call you Carole? Oh, Carolina.

I've often felt thick compared to my fellow Wonderfans cos I can't remember Amazon names - three syllables are about all I can process.

Love the new star-spangled banner!