Myth & LegendGreek → English
Iapetus
/aɪˈæpɪtəs/noun
A Titan of Greek myth, father of Prometheus and Atlas, and the name of the third-largest moon of Saturn.
The Greek roots
Ἰαπετός
Iapetós
a Titan of myth
Literally: “Iapetos, the Titan”
Follow a root:Ἰαπετός1 word
The story of the word
Hesiod makes Iapetos a son of Earth and Sky and the father of Prometheus, Epimetheus, Atlas and Menoitios, which puts him at the head of the human line in Greek reckoning. The origin of the name inside Greek is unclear, and scholars have long argued about a possible link to Japheth in Genesis without settling it. Cassini found Saturn's moon in 1671 and could see it only on one side of the planet; he reasoned correctly that one hemisphere must be much darker, a guess confirmed three centuries later.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 1847
Same family
HyperionTitanJaphetic
In a sentence
Iapetus has a ridge of mountains running along its equator like a seam on a walnut.