Imagine having two moons rising! (Cue Creedence Clearwater Revival). The mythological ones were pretty terrifying, for sure. (‘Wonder if Calvin and Hobbes ever saw them?)
From Wikipedia:
In Greek mythology, Deimos (Ancient Greek: Δεῖμος, pronounced [dêːmos], meaning “dread”) was the personification of terror.
He was the son of Ares and Aphrodite. He is the twin brother of Phobos and the goddess Enyo who accompanied Ares into battle, as well as his father’s attendants, Trembling, Fear, Dread and Panic. Deimos is more of a personification and an abstraction of the sheer terror that is brought by war and he never appeared as an actual character in any story in Greek Mythology. His Roman equivalent was Formido or Metus.
Asaph Hall, who discovered the moons of Mars, named one Deimos, and the other Phobos.
On the modern monument to the battle of Thermopylae, Leonidas’ shield has a representation of Deimos.
(Edit (Dec 3, 2012): If you follow the links, you’ll discover (today) that one of the joys of Wikipedia is that the narrative changes continuously…today it cites “the battle of poo“…clearly some editor had had enough…This will, perchance, be altered again by a little more factual version. Poo battles will happen, after all. If I were clever enough I would be a Wikipedia editor. Do support them.)
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Related articles
- Phobos Moon (planets.org.uk)
- Deimos Moon (planets.org.uk)
- Curiosity catches sunspots along with Phobos and Deimos transits (planetary.org)
- the red planet (ireport.cnn.com)
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