The Alicanto is a mythological nocturnal bird of the desert of Atacama, from Chilean folklore. Its wings shine at night with beautiful, metallic colours, possibly indicating the type of ore it eats. A miner that follows an alicanto without being noticed by the bird can find rich mineral outcrops or entierros (buried treasure).
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Name origin: Make Make is considered the supreme divinity of Easter Island and the most important mythological being in the Rapanui worldview. Make Make was the creator of all things, the first man and the first woman, and he had the power to reward the good people and punish the bad ones. The most important ritual in honour of Make Make was the bird man (Tangata Manu) competition in which prominent contestants sent helpers to obtain the first manutara (sooty tern) egg.
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Name origin: Greek king of Lydia, son of Zeus and the nymph Plouto. Through his son Pelops, Tantalos was the founder of the house of Atreus. By offering Pelops as a sacrifice to test the gods, he incurred their wrath and was sent to Tartarus.
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Name origin: Greek goddess of love, beauty, pleasure and procreation. As one of the principal Olympian gods, there are multiple myths about her.
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Australian-British professor Gilbert Murray (1866-1957) helped Austria recover from World War I in 1920. He was an outstanding scholar of Ancient Greek literature, language and culture. Involved in the League of Nations from 1916, he was also president of the Ethical Union (now Humanists UK) in 1929 and 1930, and a founder of Oxfam.
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Auravictrix is Latin for ‘victory against the wind’ (named for the first Schütte-Lanz zeppelin flights in 1911). The Schütte-Lanz company was an early competitor of the more famous airships built by Ferdinand von Zeppelin.
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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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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: Unknown. May refer to the Biblical Eve, but this has been doubted due to the usual naming practices of the discoverers.
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One of a pair of Roman childhood goddesses, the other being Abeōna. Adeōna is goddess of returning from somewhere, homecomings, safe return and bringing children home safely.
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