Myth & LegendGreek → English
Thalia
/θəˈlaɪə/proper noun
The Muse of comedy and pastoral poetry, also one of the three Graces, and a common Greek given name.
The Greek roots
Θάλεια
Tháleia
the blooming one
θάλλω
thállō
to bloom, flourish
Literally: “flourishing, in bloom”
The story of the word
Two figures carry the name because the root only means thriving, which suits a Grace as well as a Muse: one Thalia holds the grinning comic mask, the other dances with her sisters. Greek parents still give the name, and it has never been out of use for three thousand years. The same verb produces θαλλός, a green shoot, and the metal thallium, named by William Crookes in 1861 for the vivid green line it threw in his spectroscope.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
Same family
thalliumthallus
In a sentence
The theatre painted Thalia and Melpomene on either side of the proscenium.