"(Ship Harpsong of Nerthus, out of Highsky for David's Landing, is long overdue..."
-Poul Anderson, "The Pirate" IN Anderson, The Complete Psychotechnic League, Volume 3 (Riverdale, NY, 2018), pp. 137-165 AT p. 137.
The deities, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, were regarded as identical with the planets of those names. Subsequently discovered planets were then named after deities:
Uranus
Neptune
Pluto
Proserpine in James Blish's Cities In Flight
Nerthus in Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic History
Woden in Anderson's Technic History
A planetary name becomes completely distinct from its original meaning. We do not think of Odin when we read about Wodenites. In the Psychotechnic History, the planet Mars is referred to with a feminine pronoun:
"...Mars was savage to her lovers, but she gave them of her strange beauty and they would not forget her while they lived."
-Poul Anderson, "Un-Man" IN Anderson, The Complete Psychotechnic League, Volume 1 (Riverdale, NY, 2017), pp. 21-100 AT III, p. 29.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Yes, Anderson plainly thought many planets discovered or colonized by humans would be given names taken from the mythologies of Terra's past. Others, like Sassania, would be given names with historical associations.
Ad astra! Sean
Post a Comment