In the space there are always some new things to discover but also things that we apparently think we know, but which in reality are in the dark about our thoughts. This is what happens with the Milky Waythe galaxy where we live, but whose history we do not know in depth, especially the history of its name which we will discover is very ancient. Space It is constantly evolving and it continues to reveal new planets to us and thanks to the technologies we possess we have the opportunity to make new discoveries even on elements that we already know.
There are many stories about the origin of the name Milky Way but the most reliable are obviously those deriving from antiquityor rather, from the stories that have been passed down from generation to generation. We start from ancient Greece until you get to the Romani from which the name was then Italianized into Via Lattea with numerous resulting transformations by type of language which was used in times past. Let’s see together the history of the name of our galaxy.
Space, here is the story of the name of the Milky Way
According to Greek mythologyat dea Era she was breastfeeding Eracleson of Zeuswhen she withdrew her breast squirting her milk and leaving a white streak in the night sky. From here the Greeks invented the term galaxies which finds its root in galawhich translated means milk. Over the years this word reached the Romans who decided to use this term creating Via Galactica which means Milky Way. According to the Egyptians Instead, the Milky Way was called by the name of a goddess, Nutwhich protected the Earth; the name Lakota instead, it means Path of the Spiritswhile some Baltic cultures use Birds’ Path because its position recalls the migration path of birds. In Quechua the galaxy is called Maya sacred river, while its Chinese term means Silver River.
Words are always the result of a long reasoning derived from all the populations that inhabited the planet before us and for this reason we always have words that seem to have been invented from nothing but which instead have a very deep history.
