12、WordKnowledge词汇知识：古希腊人的统称命名

Joint Naming of the Ancient Greeks （古希腊人的统称命名）

There was a tradition in ancient Greece that deities（神明） or people of one family, one clan, or one kind would be put together and referred to with one collective name. Often such a collective name was patronymic（源于父名的） in nature, or contained information about the family origin.

古希腊人有一个传统，就是用一个统称来指代同一家、同一族、同一类的神或人，这个统称一般是父系家族的姓氏，或者包含了家族起源的相关信息。

For example, the word “Titan” describes a kind of older gods with great strength and intelligence. “The Titans” is a joint name for male Titans, while “the Titanides”, for the female.

例如：“提坦”指的是一种拥有强大体力和智力的初代神，“提坦们（the Titans）”是男性提坦巨人的统称，而“提坦尼得斯（the Titanides）”则指女性。

The name of “the Oceanides” could easily be associated with “Oceanus”, the father of these ocean nymphs（宁芙，仙女）. Similarly, “the Pierides” were the nine daughters of King Pierus of Macedon.

“俄刻阿尼得斯（the Oceanides）”这个统称很容易联想到这些大洋仙女的父亲“俄刻阿诺斯（Oceanus）”，同样，“皮厄里得斯（the Pierides）”就是马其顿国王庇厄洛斯（Pierus）的九个女儿。

Although there are many other names, such as the Oreades, the Limoniades, or the Nereides, whose meanings are difficult to interpret, keep in mind that they are simply names of a group with similar characteristics.

虽然还有很多诸如“俄瑞阿得斯”“利墨尼阿得斯”“涅瑞伊得斯”这样的名字，意思并不好猜，但是大家只要记住它们就是指拥有类似特征的一组神或人就好了。

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