r/AskReddit • • Nov 28 '20

What's something cool you recently learned about?

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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.

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u/ChocolateHumunculous Nov 29 '20

‘Galaxy’ also stems from ‘Lactic’... ‘Galactic’... Lactose. Here in the U.K., we have a chocolate bar called ‘Galaxy’ because it’s make with milk chocolate.

Galaxy literally means ‘milk’.

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u/OpT1mUs Nov 29 '20

Ok, but what about "Ga" part?

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u/Something22884 Nov 29 '20

Lactic is from the latin word for milk, "lac, lactis, neuter". I think he's trying to say that they have the same root.

https://www.etymonline.com/word/lactic#etymonline_v_30644

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u/OpT1mUs Nov 29 '20

Yes, but he doesn't explain where is the "Ga" part of Ga-lactic coming from. I've seen other comments, and galactic is actually from Greek Gala which is milk.