Irene

The story of the word

Eirḗnē was the goddess of peace, one of the Horae, and after a treaty in 375 BC Athens set up a statue of her holding the infant Wealth, the point being that prosperity is a child of peace. Early Christians took the name, and so did Byzantium, where the Empress Irene ruled outright from 797 to 802 and restored the icons. English use starts in the seventeenth century. Irenic, the adjective, is what theologians call an argument meant to reconcile rather than win.

How it travelled

Ancient Greek → Latin → English

First recorded

17th century