Talk:Andromeda (mythology)/Archive 1

Comments

There seems to be an error as to the origin of this word. The spelling of Andromeda in Greek is Ἀνδρομέδᾰ according to my Wolters Greek-Dutch dictionary, a revered standard dictionary for the classic study of this language. There is no mention of a Latinization.

Furthermore I find that the verbs μήδομαι and μέδομαι both exist, where μέδομαι (!) has the meaning as in the article, but μήδομαι has a slightly different meaning. The dictionary gives the following entry for μήδομαι: (comp. μέδομαι), aor.. med., fut. μήσομαι, - 1. to consider, to contemplate, to deliberate Hom. - 2. to care for, to be anxious about, τινι or τινος. - 3. to make up, to devise, to invent, to plan, to plot, τι, H., Lyr., Tr., K.

Interestingly, τό μήδος has 2 main meanings, of which one is related to the verb discussed (i.e. consideration, plan, decision) and the other one is used in plural form as μήδεα φωτός, meaning privy parts.

I would like to add my personal explanation of the name Andromeda: Enlightenment. As it is the quality that makes of the biological human organism a full participant in his own creation of life. Enlightenment, named Andromeda in this myth, therefore means 'the thought of a man', by which is meant 'the true concept of man'. To save Andromeda from the Kraken means to become enlightened, to overcome the fear of death and to defy and conquer all the internally absorbed influences of (sub)human culture that try to prevent this 'marriage' from taking place during one's lifetime.

The Kraken is therefore the sum of fears caused by a false concept of right and wrong, symbolized by the gods. When this enlightenment occurs, a true marriage of the inner and outer world takes place and one becomes vulnerable and responsive to the challenges that life dishes up unpredictably. Culture imposes standards of conduct on its members, thereby giving the false image of security by enshrining these standards in the minds and hearts of its members without giving them the means to adjust them when the circumstances change. Most importantly, culture gives the false hope of salvation by following its prescribed modes of conduct.

A myth is a time capsule of ancient wisdom, witnessing to the existence of this ultimate victory, which is happiness. The enlightened witness is the true helper of humanity. For those who understand, myths may become a source of study, or at least recognizable recounts of their personal struggles. Generally speaking, mythology regrettably does not give any valuable interpretations of the myths it supposedly studies.

Bcurfs (talk) 23:36, 17 August 2010 (UTC) }}

Ambiguous sentence

"Unlike in most depictions, Andromeda was shown with appearance more appropriate for an African person." I'm not sure about how to interpret this sentence.

ICE77 (talk) 23:52, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

Ancient Greeks never described Andromeda as black, always like an middle eastern descent princess. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A02:A03F:50AA:CB00:AC80:BA62:57CE:DA74 (talk) 16:06, 18 December 2019 (UTC)

Requested move

The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: article not moved Armbrust, B.Ed. ^{WrestleMania XXVIII} _{The Undertaker 20–0} 06:26, 17 July 2012 (UTC)

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• Andromeda (mythology) → Andromeda
• Andromeda → Andromeda (disambiguation)

– WP:PRIMARYTOPIC as nearly all other articles in the dab page stem from Andromeda herself. Brandmeister^talk 17:50, 10 July 2012 (UTC)

• Moved from WP:RM#Technical requests. Needs stats to support claim of primary topic. Favonian (talk) 18:14, 10 July 2012 (UTC)

• Comment. An old, but related, discussion is at Talk:Andromeda (disambiguation)#Proposed move to "Andromeda". Favonian (talk) 18:39, 10 July 2012 (UTC)
• Oppose, the rationale is flawed. Being the earliest usage is not the same as being the primary topic. Mars is the planet, not the Roman god. No argument has been advanced that the mythological figure is the primary topic for Andromeda; the constellation and even the galaxy have equally strong claims. — P.T. Aufrette (talk) 04:08, 11 July 2012 (UTC)
• Oppose the galaxy or the constellation are more likely primary topics than the mythological source. Further, it doesn't matter where the term originated, otherwise Boston would be about Lincolnshire. -- 76.65.131.160 (talk) 04:37, 11 July 2012 (UTC)
• Comment I have informed WP:Astronomy of this request. -- 76.65.131.160 (talk) 04:38, 11 July 2012 (UTC)
• Oppose - I think a decent number of people will be searching for each major topic (constellation, mythological figure, galaxy). I know there's a hatnote at the top of Andromeda (constellation) to disambiguate with the galaxy, but I think that all three topics could make a claim to primary usage. The status quo seems to be working. Keilana|^{Parlez ici} 05:51, 11 July 2012 (UTC)
• Oppose - the two most common meanings are the galaxy and the constellation, with the mythological figure in a distant third. Stick with the current dab setup. Modest Genius ^talk 10:47, 11 July 2012 (UTC)
• Oppose - Whatever the origins of the term, the astronomical meanings are now at least as significant as the mythological ones. And that is enough to rule out WP:PRIMARYTOPIC. -- chris_j_wood (talk) 12:42, 11 July 2012 (UTC)
• Oppose – The mythological figure Andromeda doesn't satisfy either of the major criteria at WP:PRIMARYUSAGE. The current arrangement seems fine. Regards, RJH (talk) 04:16, 12 July 2012 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

wrong etymology

Her name is the Latinized form of the Greek Ἀνδρομέδα (Androméda) or Ἀνδρομέδη (Andromédē): "ruler of men",[2] from ἀνήρ, ἀνδρός (anēr, andrós) "man", and medon, "ruler".

I doubt this, and here is also no reference given. Other sources claim Andromeda means "to think of a man", like in memory of a man. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Slighter82 (talk • contribs) 19:10, 29 August 2013 (UTC)

Ovid

The article says the main source of the story is Ovid's Metamorphoses, but there are some differences. The vengeful god in Ovid is not the obvious Poseidon (who would be expected to have a sea monster) but an obscure "Ammon". Andromeda is not described as being naked. In Ovid her parents, though helpless to disobey the sacrifice order, remain with her the entire time; most depictions show her alone and abandonned. (The failure of her fiance Phinehas to join them is cited as justification for breaking his engagement to Andromeda afterward) Ovid places the story in "Ethiopea", while (as the article points out) many other storytellers put it on the coast of Palestine, in fact the modern Tel Aviv. 50.180.19.238 (talk) 11:09, 3 July 2014 (UTC)

White Aethiopians

The article makes many arguments that Andromeda was originally Nubian since she hailed from North Africa, but fails to mention the existence of White Aethiopians, who hailed from the same country Andromeda lived in. Going by the amount of ancient art and descriptions depicting Andromeda as having lighter skin she could very well have been one of them. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.35.2.250 (talk) 19:56, 14 March 2022 (UTC)

We would need a Reliable Source for that. We are not allowed to write articles based on our own reasoning. Chiswick Chap (talk) 14:09, 29 December 2022 (UTC)

But you're certainly right that the White Aethiopians is in a related area and can be expected to be of interest to many readers of this article. It makes sense as a 'further' link in the 'Ethnicity' section as a topic for further exploration. Chiswick Chap (talk) 10:07, 19 February 2023 (UTC)

Is there an ancient source describing Andromeda as a white Ethiopian? In ancient sources, the term "Ethiopian/Nubian" alone implies "black-skinned". So there was no need to clarify her as "Black Ethiopian", Black and Ethiopian/Nubian were effectively synonyms. But were she a "white Ethiopian", ancient authors would need to clarify it. And she is also described as black-skinned in the myth. So i don't see how she could have been a "white Ethiopian", all the evidence goes against it.Barjimoa (talk) 10:18, 19 February 2023 (UTC)

That's a straw man; nobody has ever asserted that she was.

Let's start from the beginning. There has been a centuries-long confusion about her ethnicity, and as the article richly cites and illustrates, she has been depicted as white despite the obvious fact that she's from Africa. She is, in addition, a character from classical era myth and legend, from Aethiopia; readers interested in such matters can be expected to be interested in reading further about the legend of the White Aethiopians, with precisely no suggestion that she was one. I do hope this is clear. Chiswick Chap (talk) 10:24, 19 February 2023 (UTC)

"That's a strawman. Nobody ever asserted she was". The user who introduced this literally did so by claiming she probably was a white ethiopian. Barjimoa (talk) 10:34, 19 February 2023 (UTC)

Indeed (sigh). So we ward off such uncited enthusiasm by providing reliably-documented articles for them to inform themselves on a little better. Chiswick Chap (talk) 10:42, 19 February 2023 (UTC)

There's no proof she was nubian either. A large chunk of the article is just dedicated to trying to find excuses as to why all the thousands of light-skinned depictions of Andromeda, stretching as far back as 500 BC, are incorrect. 84.216.186.70 (talk) 00:15, 21 April 2023 (UTC)

The article takes no side, and is certainly not being an apologist defending the "white" tradition in art. Our job on Wikipedia is just to document what has been done and said by artists and scholars. Chiswick Chap (talk) 08:55, 21 April 2023 (UTC)