Deities and people from so long ago still mentioned in the modern day

10 days ago by sbird to c/casualconversation

It's kind of insane how figures like Jesus, Julius Caesar, and the various gods that people believed in are still often used in idioms, slang, and names. Exclaiming "Jesus Christ!" or "Oh my god!" is common in English (and a variety of other languages), even if you aren't Christian, I've heard "by Jove!" (as in Jupiter, the Roman equivalent of Zeus) sometimes used, July and August being named after the Julius and Augustus Caesar, foods like Caesar salads and the Napoleon dessert, the planets being named after Roman deities (or Greek in the case of Uranus), countries and places named after monarchs and explorers, etc.

Being remembered for thousands of years after one dies is kind of insane if you think about it.

JohnnyEnzyme 15 points 10 days ago

Caesar salads

Not to nitpick, but that wasn't named after JC, but for a bloke named Caesar Cardini in Tijuana, 100+yrs ago. The name even sounds different, with the "C" of the salad guy sounding like a smooth "S," whilst JC's name sounded more like "YOO-lee-us KAI-sar" in the Latin of the era.

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scallisto 9 points 10 days ago

Oops! I mean, props to the salad guy then!

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Libb 4 points 10 days ago

Wel,l Jesus is still considered much a reality for close to 2 billion believers. and his father's own name (God) is printed on every single dollar bill printed in the once all-mighty USA... It's quite close to us and our everyday life, for a 'remote past' ;)

As for antique names. Antiquity (arts and philosophers) were at the chore of the Enlightenment (which started in a few (back then very powerful) European countries (including my own, France) when Europe rediscovered Greek and even more so Roman Antiquity. Discovery that shattered all of Europe and then the world, and which itself is at the chore of the scientific, technological and the... educational revolutions that ensued and whose consequences we still benefit to this very instant. To our ancestors, using famous antique names was kind of natural for people that were so admirative of those times. Then it become a cultural heritage.

A bit like to use French words in English (or English words in French) one needs not to be aware of their origin. I mean... Have you ever flirted with someone?

Well, if that wasn't the case already, now you will know that it comes from the very old French expression 'conter fleurette', more or less meaning that one person is talking silly/nice/sweet little things, supposedly to a woman, trying to seduce her (seduce here meaning to get her attention and her interest not to have immediate sex with her... ). BTW, 'fleurette' is the French for 'a small/little flower'. and "conter" is 'to narrate', to 'tell' (like when one tells a story to a child).

edit: slight adjustments.

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TrickDacy 2 points 10 days ago

Huh, I thought "By Jove" referred to Jehovah. In any case your post makes an interesting point that I've thought about many times myself.

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IronBird 2 points 10 days ago

helps that the christians and romans basically genocided all the other cultures/religions aroumd, destroying whatever "heretical" texts/sites they could find.

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ArgumentativeMonotheist 0 points 10 days ago

I wonder what current figures will be historically relevant in the far future. I think most US presidents besides the last ones won't be talked about that much since they basically just mesh together in imperialism and corruption (and the settler colony turned empire seems to be fading out already), but maybe the more devilishly hedonistic will be remembered kinda like Nero and Caligula (idk if Trump fits or if we haven't seen how far the American elite can take it yet). Ideological heads like Marx and Lenin will probably be remembered also. But yeah probably the big Yahu and Ben Gvir will be forgotten as well, to be combined in a single character since they're basically extensions of each other like the Qur'an does with "Pharaoh". 🤔

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Whelks_chance 1 point 10 days ago

Some royalty have eras named after them. The Victorian era, as well as states, regions, lakes etc.

Henry VIII seems to have some staying power, but that's probably heavily biased to my UK upbringing.

Hitler? Pretty memorable.

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ArgumentativeMonotheist 0 points 10 days ago

Hitler is pretty memorable, ngl, it's been almost 100 years since he was in action and he's still the go to for villain. He might be remembered going forward, at least in the West.

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