Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-31481772-20180410111013

I am very glad to present the sixth word in the Word of the Week series with Federico. The god for this week is... Phobos! [Bellona was done earlier but I missed putting it up early.] Phobos (Roman form : Timor) is the personification of fear in Greek mythology and one of the offsprings of Aphrodite and Ares. He was known for accompanying Ares into battle along with the ancient war goddess Enyo, the goddess of discord Eris (both sisters of Ares), and Phobos' twin brother Deimos (terror).

From his name derives the Italian, Spanish and Portuguese fobia, the French phobie, English phobia and all the words related to a fear of something. The name was used in Astronomy too, for a satellite of the planet Mars, "Phobos", discovered along with the second Mars satellite, "Deimos", in 1877. Phobos is the larger of the two satellites.

Some trivia:

- The two brothers Deimos and Phobos were particularly worshiped in the city state of Sparta as they were the sons of Ares, the god of war. Phobos in Greek literally means fear (Ancient Greek: Φόβος). Spartan soldiers would idolize Phobos, because he symbolized discipline, and consistency of the armed forces.

- According to Plutarch, Alexander the Great offered sacrifices to Phobos on the eve of the Battle of Gaugamela  making the enemy fleeing.

We hope you liked it, and we encourage you to think of related words in languages you know. The previous Word of the Week can be found here. 