Ancient Greek names and their name days: Achilleas, Ariadne, Orestis and more

Names from ancient Greece and its myths are often assumed to have no saint. In fact almost every one of them in this calendar has a date: plenty of early Christians bore classical names, and some of them are venerated as saints. Only Electra and Orfeas are listed without a saint and celebrate on All Saints' Sunday; the guide to names without a saint explains why, and when that movable feast falls.

That guide also covers two large groups in detail: the companions of Saint Terence on 10 April, the feast of Periklis, Miltiadis and Sokratis, and the Forty Holy Virgins of 1 September, the feast of Athena, Afroditi and Penelope. This guide gathers the rest.

The saint is not the hero

When a mythological name has a name day, the Church is not honouring the hero but a Christian who bore the same name. The Ariadne of myth, says Behind the Name, was a daughter of King Minos: she helped Theseus escape from the Labyrinth and the Minotaur, he abandoned her, and in the end she married the god Dionysus. Saint Ariadne, commemorated on 18 September, was a slave in Phrygia in the reigns of Hadrian and Antoninus.

According to saint.gr, Ariadne refused to sacrifice to the idols on the birthday of her master's son, was tortured and fled the house. Two traditions describe her end: in one she fell from a cliff while she was being pursued, in the other a rock split open and took her into the cleft. The name, according to saint.gr and Behind the Name, means “most pure, most holy”, from ari-, “very”, and Cretan adnos, “pure”, though some scholars prefer a pre-Greek origin.

Heroes of myth with a Christian saint

Several names of heroes from the Iliad and other myths have a saint in the calendar:

• [Achilleas](name:achilleas), [15 May](date:5-15). The hero of the Iliad was, in Behind the Name's account, the bravest of the Greeks who fought at Troy; the origin of the name is uncertain, perhaps from achos, “pain”. Saint Achillius, a Cappadocian, preached in Rome, became bishop of Larissa and took part in the First Ecumenical Council in 325. saint.gr glosses his name as “brave like Achilles”.
• [Nestor](name:nestoras), [27 October](date:10-27). In the Iliad Nestor is the king of Pylos, famous for wisdom and long life; Behind the Name explains the name as “homecomer”. Saint Nestor, the Synaxarion says, was a young acquaintance of Saint Demetrios; with the saint's blessing he defeated the gladiator Lyaios in the stadium and was then killed with a spear. Hence his day follows Saint Demetrios'.
• [Orestis](name:orestis), [10 November](date:11-10). The Orestes of myth, son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, killed his mother and Aegisthus because they had killed his father. The name means “of the mountains”, from oros and histemi, as saint.gr also explains. Saint Orestes came from Tyana in Cappadocia, and some sources make him a physician; according to tradition, in Diocletian's persecution he was tied to an unbroken horse that dragged him for twenty kilometres. The name is also celebrated on 13 December, with the Five Martyrs, and on 20 August.
• [Ermioni](name:ermioni), [4 September](date:9-4). In myth Hermione was the daughter of Menelaus and Helen; the name comes from the god Hermes. Saint Hermione was one of the four daughters of the Apostle Philip who, according to Acts, had the gift of prophecy. According to the tradition recorded on saint.gr, she foretold to Trajan that Hadrian would succeed him and was tortured, but her executioners came to believe in Christ and set her free; she died peacefully in Ephesus.
• [Jason](name:iasonas), [29 April](date:4-29). The Jason of myth led the Argonauts in search of the Golden Fleece, with the help of Medea. The name means “healer”, from iasis, “healing”. The feast is that of the Apostles Jason and Sosipater: saint.gr says Jason gave Paul lodging in Thessaloniki, and when the apostle's opponents could not find him they dragged Jason before the city's magistrates.
• [Polyxeni](name:polyxeni) and [Xanthippi](name:xanthippi), [23 September](date:9-23). Polyxena in legend was a daughter of Priam and Hecuba, loved by Achilles; the name means “very hospitable”. Xanthippe, Behind the Name notes, was the name of Socrates' wife. Saints Xanthippe and Polyxena were first-century sisters from Spain: Xanthippe was taught the faith by the Apostle Paul, and Polyxena was baptised by the Apostle Andrew.

Andromachi, Phaedra and Ippolytos

For some women's names from myth the calendar has no female saint, only a male saint with the matching name. Andromachi, Hector's wife in legend, from aner, “man”, and mache, “battle”, celebrates with Andromachos on 12 October, the feast of Saints Andromachus and Diodorus; all that saint.gr records of them is that they died a martyr's death by fire.

Phaedra, according to Behind the Name, was the daughter of Minos and the wife of Theseus; Aphrodite made her fall in love with her stepson Hippolytos, and when he rejected her she took her own life. Phaedra celebrates with Phaedrus on 29 November, the feast of a martyr killed, saint.gr says, with hot resin poured over him. Ippolytos has a saint of his own on 10 August: the Roman Christian who, the Synaxarion says, took up the body of the archdeacon Lawrence and for that was dragged through thorns by wild horses.

Names of gods and Muses

Even names of the old gods became Christian names, borne by converts:

• [Hermes](name:ermis), [8 March](date:3-8). The god of speed and good luck and messenger of Zeus. The Apostle Hermes is greeted by Paul in the Epistle to the Romans; by tradition he became bishop of Dalmatia and died in peace.
• [Aris](name:aris), [19 December](date:12-19). Ares was the god of war, a son of Zeus and Hera. Saint Ares came from Egypt and, with Elias and Probus, went from city to city helping persecuted Christians; they were arrested at Ascalon, his two companions were beheaded and he died in the flames. When Aris is short for Aristeidis, he celebrates with him on 13 September.
• [Dionysis](name:dionysis), [3 October](date:10-3). Dionysios was formed from the name of the god Dionysus. Saint Dionysius the Areopagite was an Athenian, a member of the council of the Areopagus, who was baptised after hearing Paul preach and later became bishop of Athens.
• [Foivi](name:foivi), [3 September](date:9-3). Phoibe, “bright, pure”, was a Titan linked with the moon, and the same epithet was given to Artemis. saint.gr thinks the day's commemoration probably refers to the Phoebe of the Epistle to the Romans, deaconess of the church at Cenchreae and the first woman the New Testament calls a deaconess.
• [Kalliopi](name:kalliopi), [8 June](date:6-8). Behind the Name lists Calliope among the Muses and breaks the name into kallos, “beauty”, and ops; saint.gr reads it as “she who has beautiful eyes”. Saint Calliope lived under Decius and turned down every offer of marriage to devote herself to teaching the word of God and caring for the sick; according to tradition, she was beheaded.

Artemis celebrates with Saint Artemius on 20 October; saint.gr explains the saint's name as “virginal and radiant like Artemis”.

Other classical names

• [Leonidas](name:leonidas), [15 April](date:4-15). “Child of the lion”: the name of the Spartan king who fell at Thermopylae in the 5th century BC. The feast belongs to Saint Leonides, bishop of Athens, who according to the Synaxaria died in peace in 250; some manuscripts call him a martyr, which, saint.gr notes, cannot be proven.
• [Plato](name:platonas), [18 November](date:11-18). Saint Plato was a young man from Ancyra, brother of the martyr Antiochus, beheaded in 306; saint.gr explains the name as “broad”.
• [Ploutarchos](name:ploutarchos), [5 June](date:6-5). The Synaxaria say nothing about Saint Plutarch; saint.gr finds him in the Chronicle of Leontios Machairas, among the saints of Cyprus and in the list of the bishops of Salamis.
• [Thessaloniki](name:thessaloniki), [7 November](date:11-7). Saint Thessalonica was the daughter of Kleon, a wealthy pagan priest, and is commemorated with Saints Auctus and Taurion, who were martyred at Amphipolis.
• [Hyacinth](name:yakinthos) and [Yakinthi](name:yakinthi), [3 July](date:7-3). The name comes from the flower. Saint Hyacinth was a chamberlain of the emperor Trajan; according to tradition he died in prison on the forty-first day, having refused to eat food offered to the idols.

When the ancient name was replaced

The reverse happened too, with an ancient name dropped at baptism: according to saint.gr, the great martyr Irene (5 May) was originally called Penelope; see the guide to the great martyrs. Why Greeks now say Nestoras and Platonas rather than Nestor and Platon is explained in the guide to nicknames and formal names.

The dates at a glance

• January: Danae (16, by custom), Xenophon (26).
• March: Hermes (8).
• April: Periklis, Miltiadis, Sokratis (10), Leonidas (15), Jason (29).
• May: Aristotelis (14), Achilleas (15).
• June: Ploutarchos (5), Kalliopi (8).
• July: Hyacinth, Yakinthi (3).
• August: Ippolytos (10).
• September: Athena, Afroditi, Penelope (1), Foivi (3), Ermioni (4), Aristeidis (13), Ariadne (18), Xanthippi, Polyxeni (23).
• October: Dionysis (3), Andromachi (12), Kleopatra (19), Artemis (20), Nestor (27), Nefeli (28, by custom).
• November: Thessaloniki (7), Orestis (10), Plato (18), Phaedra (29).
• December: Aris (19), Themistoklis (21).
• Movable feasts: Daphne (Palm Sunday), Electra and Orfeas (All Saints' Sunday).