Named for Nassau Hall, the oldest building at Princeton University. In 1783, when Princeton became the U.S. provincial capital for four months, Nassau Hall served as its seat of government. Congress met in its library on the second floor. The term Old Nassau refers affectionately to the building and serves as a metonym for the university as a whole.
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Veritas is the name given to the Roman virtue of truthfulness, considered one of the main qualities any good Roman should possess, and the Goddess of Truth, daughter of Saturn. The Greek equivalent is Aletheia.
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Name origin: A region in north-east Italy named Veneto or the Venetia, which has Venice as its capital. Residents mostly speak Venetian as well as Italian, and there is a notable Venetian independence movement (Venetism).
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Name origin: Roman personification of prudence. Prudentia, whose attributes are a mirror and a snake, is frequently depicted as a pair with Justitia, the Roman goddess of Justice. The word “prudence” derives from the Latin prudentia meaning “foresight, sagacity”.
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Name origin: Greek god of love. In the earliest account, Eros is a primordial god, while later he is described as one of the children of Aphrodite and Ares and, with some of his siblings, was one of the Erotes, a group of winged love gods.
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The Pythia was the high priestess and oracle of the temple of Apollo at Delphi. Established by the 8th century BCE (though some sources date the shrine’s beginnings around 600 years farther back), the Pythia became pre-eminent by the 7th century BCE. Widely respected, the priestess continued to be consulted until the late 4th century CE.
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Name origin: Ancient Greek goddess of the underworld. Persephone as a vegetation goddess and her mother Demeter were the central figures of the Eleusinian Mysteries, which promised the initiated a happy afterlife.
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Aiolos was the divine keeper of the winds and king of the mythical, floating island of Aiolia (Aeolia). He kept the violent Storm-Winds locked safely away inside the cavernous interior of his isle, releasing them only at the command of greatest gods to wreak devastation upon the world.
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“Delia” is an epithet for the ancient Greco-Roman Moon goddess Artemis, after her birthplace (and Apollo’s) at Delos.
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Name origin: Greek sea-monster, daughter of Pontos and Gaia. Kharybdis presided over a whirlpool guarding the Strait of Messina and was likely the cause of the tides with her thrice-daily intake and expulsion of large amounts of water.
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