Episode 297: Idol

Hello and welcome to Your Greek Word On A Sunday, a weekly, bite-size podcast for anyone curious on language, etymology and connections. I am your host, Emmanuela Lia and wherever you are in the world, if you want to entertain your brain for a few minutes, this is the podcast for you. Let's Go!

Είδω (aedo) in Ancient Greek meant 'I know' but also 'I see', literally. Now, as if Greek spelling wasn't complicated enough, there are two ways to write this. Today we'll talk about the very first form that is still used today, but only in a handful of words. Ancient Greek philosophers used the noun 'είδωλον' (aedolon) to describe the formation of an image in one's head or an actual representation of that image; like a carving or a statue and more specifically, the image of one of the Gods. So, a statue of Athena, would be an είδωλον (aedolon) of Athena. By the time the word passed into Latin, Christianity had started to rise and the word, in religious texts, was associated with Paganism and the 'false representation of God'. The spelling was simplified in Latin and the word arrived in English the 1300s with religious texts. One last addition was in 1590 where a person worshiped like a God was also called an ΕΙΔΩΛΟ/IDOL

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