Thursday, December 27, 2007

The actual title is ...



Remember that Classic Star Trek episode about the Greek god Apollo?

The title of that episode is not "Who Mourns for Adonis?" -- despite the fact that you see it rendered that way frequently.

No, the title actually is "Who Mourns for Adonais?" It's a line from the poem "Adonaïs: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats" by Percy Bysshe Shelley; you can read the poem here.

"Adonaïs" is Shelley's own coinage, apparently a blending of the Greek "Adonis" (beautiful young man) and the Hebrew "Adonai" (used in place of YHWH as a name of the God of the Hebrews during prayer recitation).

Now you know. :)

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site


1 Comments:

At December 27, 2007 5:47 PM , Blogger Kirstin said...

I knew that was the title and I knew where it was from (another of Shelley's poems, Ozymandias, is one of my favourites, and of course I studied his poetry in school), but I never knew why it was "Adonaïs." So thanks!

 

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