Myth & LegendGreek → English
Euphrosyne
/juːˈfrɑzɪni/proper noun
One of the three Graces of Greek myth, the personification of mirth.
The Greek roots
εὖ
eû
well, good
φρήν
phrḗn
mind, seat of feeling
Literally: “well-minded, gladness”
The story of the word
Hesiod names all three Charites in the Theogony: Aglaia, Thalia and Euphrosyne. The second half of her name is φρήν, the midriff, which Greeks treated as the organ where thought and feeling sat, and which survives in frantic, frenzy and schizophrenia. The name never became an English common noun, but it stuck to an asteroid discovered in 1854 and it is still given to Greek daughters, usually shortened to Φρόσω.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → English
Same family
euphoriaeulogyfreneticschizophrenia
In a sentence
The three Graces stand together in Botticelli's Primavera, and Euphrosyne is the one caught mid-step.
She was named Euphrosyne after her grandmother and called Frosso by everyone.