So, the next mythological figure waiting in line to have a planet named after him/herself was…Sedna? Not, by any means. that it had to be a Roman god, like the other planets, but couldn’t they come up with something better than Sedna? Seriously, the GQ here is: who or what is Sedna? Whence the name?
Sedna is the Inuit goddess of the sea.
Scary Inuit sea goddess. Hadn’t thought about her in years, but a good choice for something strange, way out in the cold and dark.
Hey “Sedna” is not so bad when you consider the planet … “Uranus”.
I remember Isaac Asimov wrote an essay about that planet but first he had to write a few paragraphs about how badly-named it was.
For one thing, it was named after a god almost no one even knew.
Second the pronunciation of it was embarassing. As he said most people pronounce it as if they were saying “your anus”. Others he said try the nicer-sounding pronunciation with the stress on the first syllable. Then, he said it sounds like “urinous” which means having the characteristics of … urine.
I think Isacc Asimov made a good point.
Mr Asimov also thought that elements (especially the Rare Earths) were poorly named. Names such as Dysprosium, Yttrium, Ytterbium, etc were derived form the locations in which they were discovered (mostly Scandinavia).
His point being that elements and planets are extremely limited in number and should be given much more thought when it comes tme to give them names.
That is my cats name - inuit goddess/demon.
Hasn’t anyone read “The Barsoom Project”?
Asimov was obsessed with badly named things. In the somewhat out-of-date Atom, he spends about ten pages bitching about how positron should really be positon, without the ‘r’.
All I know is that the planets are named after Roman gods, aside from the earth. I’m all for Inuit sea-godesses, don’t get me wrong, but why the heck can’t people just follow the durn tradition and scrape up some insignificant Roman god for the purpose? It’s not like we’re gonna run out. Cheez-it! Inuits are probably perfectly nice people, but must we apply affirmative action to heavenly bodies? Shoot, I’m a pretty politically correct liberal. This is friggin’ irritating.
Friedo
Thanks for that information. I didn’t know Isaac Azimov had such an obsession concerning the naming of everything.
I happen to think Sedna is a brilliant choice. The story is so delightfully nighmarish and gory. It’s a damned good god origin tale, pretty unique (thought not unlike some other deification myths of the Native Americans).
As a mythology buff, I want to ask what people’s suggestions are for a Greco-Roman deity as an alternative to Sedna. As far as Asimov and the Greek-Roman supporters go, I vote for “Nemesis.”
Or, nominate some other figure from a different mythological tradition. I nominate “Hel”, the Norse ruler of the icy underworld. (And we still keep the gender “affirmative naming action,” since Hel is a she.)
I think Arthur C. Clarke proposed “Persephone” as the name for the next planet out from Pluto, since she was Pluto’s wife.
I’d have pushed for Vulcan, both because he’s a Roman god, and I’m originally from Birmingham, Alabama, where he (usually) looks upon, and, well, you know…Spock.
Why stick with the classical mythology? Let’s go with some contemporary mythology and name it Yoda or Xena or Wolverine.
I still like Rupert…
teehee
Sedna? Isn’t that Andes spelled backwards?
[Devo]
Whip me, beat me, call me Sedna
[/Devo]
Greek, Norse, Hindu pantheons … OK. But this one? I dunno, I just can’t get inuit.
You’re going to pay for that one.
I think they should call it “Martha”.
it should be ‘nox’ roman god of the night. its perfect, a planet in eternal night.