mint and mentee (13. 073)

Whilst familiar with some of these eponyms and etymologies, like the off-spring of Aphrodite and Adonis, narcissism and tantalising, we didn’t know that the word money was also derived from the Greco-Roman gods—an epithet of the queen of the gods, Iūno Monēta, also the Latin equivalent of the Greek goddess of memory called Mnemosyne, the mother of the Muses that give us music and museum, though in Juno’s case it probably meant singular rather than to remind, the mint (also of the same derivation) and treasury were housed in her temple on Capitoline Hill and she was regarded as the protectress of economic stability and her priests sought fiscal counsel through their prayers. We also did not recall the mythological character of Mentor—an trusted friend of Odysseus whom he entrusted his son, Telemachus’, care and education to during the decades he was absent fighting the Trojan War. Mentor is sometimes suspected to be Athena in disguise. More from Mental Floss at the link above.