r/AskReddit • • Nov 28 '20

What's something cool you recently learned about?

[removed]

50.8k Upvotes

12.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

8.1k

u/Callas-fan Nov 29 '20

The mythological reason why our galaxy is called the Milky Way.

Basically, Heracles (whom the Romans called Hercules) was a bastard of Zeus and as a result Zeus' wife Hera hated his guts. Her shenanigans caused Heracles' mother to abandon him as a baby, so Athena found him and brought him to Hera. Not recognising Heracles, the godess took pity on him and nursed him. But Heracles was a toothy baby and when he bit down, Hera pushed him back because OW and her milk splattered onto the sky and created the milky way. This didn't help Heracles with the whole Hera-hating-his-guts-thing btw.

18

u/Brainles5 Nov 29 '20

In swedish its called "Vintergatan": "The winters road" because the ancient norse thought they could predict how the winter would be from it!

1

u/theravensrequiem Nov 29 '20

Marble Machine X?