Saint Silas is celebrated in the Calendar of Saints of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and that of the Episcopal Church (United States) with a Lesser Feast[8] on January 26 with Timothy and Titus, and separately on July 13 by the Roman Catholic Church and February 10 by the Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod. It is cognate with the Latin words silvester ('wild, not cultivated'), silvicola ('inhabiting woodlands') or silvaticus ('of woodlands or scrub'). The Greeks had mixed feelings about Ares, approving of his bravery and courage but wary of his brutality. Tatyana Tomsickova Photography / Getty Images. To great Alcides, that when as he dyde Meaning & History. Following Apollos victory, a temple dedicated to him was set up at the site, which replaced Gaeas earlier sanctuary and appropriated her oracle. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Check theName Day page for more information about other Orthodox Christian name days. [4] According to Iraqi historian, Mahmud Shukri al-Alusi, Arabs refer to si'lats as women who are said to be slim, witty, powerful and accused of being unloyal seductresses. And of course: "A voice is calling, "Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness; Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God" (Isaiah 40:3. [17], In 2014 Graham Waterhouse composed a piano quartet, Skylla and Charybdis, premiered at the Gasteig in Munich. In Acts 16:1624, the apostle Paul meets a slave girl with a spirit of python, who is able to tell the future. Midas was a mythical king of Phrygia in Asia Minor who was famous for his extraordinary ability to change anything he touched into gold. Some may have called her python-girl, since what was important to clients was not her name, but the unusual gift attributed to a spirit of python.. 20They brought them before the magistrates and said, These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar21by advocating customs unlawful for us Romansto accept or practice., 22The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods. These spirits are classified as being one of the most malicious class of jinn. Byron concludes that although we dont know what happened to the python-girl, her story can motivate us to help others who are still being exploited. In classical mythology, Hylas (Ancient Greek: , romanized:Hlas) was a youth who served as Heracles's (Roman Hercules) companion and servant. His wife is recorded as either Anaxibia, daughter of Bias, or Phylomache, daughter of Amphion. Probably a short form of Silvanus. ", Heracles took Hylas with him on the Argo, thus making him one of the Argonauts. The name Silas is commonly accepted to be the shorted version of Silvanus. The first chapter of the final volume is entitled "The Charybdis of the Faubourg Saint Antoine and the Scylla of the Faubourg du Temple". Byron notes that the slave girl in the story is not named; rather, she is known by her ability to tell the future: We are never told the slave-girls name, only that she has a gift for fortune-telling. But as the universe cooled, the strong-electro-weak symmetry breached into (1) the strong force, and (2) the electro-weak force. After Paul casts the spirit of python out of her, we are told that she loses this ability. Forming a native noun from a foreign verb is of course a bit of a no-no but certainly not unheard of. A most obvious discussion of this root and its methods and effects is found in the New Testament, as the various accounts of the miraculous "feeding of the multitude.". His abduction by water nymphs was a theme of ancient art, and has been an enduring subject for Western art in the classical tradition. Heres more information about Saint David: Silas is one of those Apostles who was around in the early days of the Christian church. Even the lovely nymph Echo could not tempt him from his self-absorption. Photo: Richard Stracke/CC by-NC-SA 3.0. They were in great detail aware of the mammalian reproductive cycle plus nucleic DNA and all that (see our article on Stephen). [1] Several other idioms, such as "on the horns of a dilemma", "between the devil and the deep blue sea", and "between a rock and a hard place" express similar meanings. Peter says he regards Silas as "a faithful brother". "[11], A later Punch caricature by John Tenniel, dated 10 October 1863, pictures the prime minister Lord Palmerston carefully steering the British ship of state between the perils of Scylla, a craggy rock in the form of a grim-visaged Abraham Lincoln, and Charybdis, a whirlpool which foams and froths into a likeness of Jefferson Davis. Paul travelled to Athens, and Silas and Timothy later joined him in Corinth.[5]. In season 8, Sirens are actually featured in our world's greek mythology (The Oddysey). Likewise the command to create a highway for the Lord in the desert has nothing to do with Jeeps and Land Rovers and everything with growing smarter as a natural people and finally bringing forth formal science (or language or technology). Nouns (mesilla) and (maslul) mean highway. Silvanus was also associated with the "eastern" point of a field not so much its geographic easternmost point, but rather its "beginning" as a cultivated plot, as contrasted to the wilderness which Silvanus protected; see (qedem), east or past which makes Silvanus a pagan equivalent of the cherub that guards the garden of Eden (hence our somewhat flippant remark on the four rivers, earlier). Ares, in Greek religion, god of war or, more properly, the spirit of battle. [3], Because of such stories, the bad result of having to navigate between the two hazards eventually entered proverbial use. The son of Hera and Zeus, Ares was one of the twelve Olympians and the Greek god of war and courage. Meaning & History. [12] American satirical magazine Puck also used the myth in a caricature by F. Graetz, dated November 26, 1884, in which the unmarried president-elect Grover Cleveland rows desperately between snarling monsters captioned "Mother-in-law" and "Office Seekers".[13]. Noun (sal) probably derives from (salal) and describes a kind of basket, obviously one used to pile stuff into. They were later localized in the Strait of Messina. Published by Colchester Archaeological Trust (. A shield emblazoned "Neutrality" hangs on the ship's thwarts, referring to how Palmerston tried to maintain a strict impartiality towards both combatants in the American Civil War. And: "Go through, go through the gates, clear the way for the people. [15] He must have been associated with the Italian Mars, for Cato refers to him consistently as Mars Silvanus. That the dilemma had still to be resolved in the aftermath of the revolution is suggested by Percy Bysshe Shelley's returning to the idiom in his 1820 essay A Defence of Poetry: "The rich have become richer, and the poor have become poorer; and the vessel of the state is driven between the Scylla and Charybdis of anarchy and despotism. The name Silas belongs to a prophet (Acts 15:32) and "leading man among the brethren" (15:22), who is introduced right after the Paul and Barnabas cycle, which starts with the rise of Antioch as placental counterpart of Jerusalem, and terminates in the debate on whether the gentiles should adhere to circumcision (and see our article on , peritome, circumcision, for our own two bits on this issue). The scene of Paul and the slave girl from Acts 16 is set in Philippi. He fild with Hylas name; the Nymphes eke "Hylas" cryde. They knew about relativity theory (see our article on the verb , nahar, to shine or flow). [2] They are described as talented shapeshifters often appearing in human form and female. And like a father with a dear son he taught him all the things which had made him a mighty man, and famous. Zeus, in ancient Greek religion, chief deity of the pantheon, a sky and weather god who was identical with the Roman god Jupiter. According to Greek mythology, Apollo killed the massive snake Python at Delphi. While in Jerusalem, he helped establish the Christian Church there and is known as being one of its founding members. a domesticated canine, like Romulus and Remus, initially raised by wolves; Helen of Troy famously referred to herself as a she-dog, see our article on the name Hellas), relates to the verb (kuo), to be pregnant, which in turn relates to Isaiah's famous assertion that the Virgin (, parthenos) would be with Child. Sylvanus was the Roman god of the countryside and his name was originally bestowed on people who lived in wooded areas or who worked with wood. The name has various meanings: it means "sea" in Hawaiian; in Japanese, "forgiveness.". As we discuss more elaborately in our article on the Gospel of Impurity, the phenomenon Israel was never a matter of racial or ideological purity but always a hotchpotch and catch-all of whatever worked and could somehow made to fit in. According to the Latin Argonautica of Valerius Flaccus, they never found Hylas because the latter had fallen in love with the nymphs and remained "to share their power and their love". Akantha f Greek Mythology Greek form of Acantha. [citation needed]. "Hylas" is the name of one of the two characters in George Berkeley's Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous. "A highway will be there, a roadway, and it will be called the Highway of Holiness. The two pillars of the gentile church are Paul and Peter, and both these men obtained their names through a dramatic name-change. That means that the trio Luke, Silas and Paul relate like Fire, Log and Spark (James 3:5), of even more spectacular: like photonic forcefield, atomic nucleus and electron(s). [3] Despite their impressive shapeshifting abilities, they can be discovered by their hybrid appearances of animals. Following these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell and fastened their feet in the stocks. Popularity of the Name Silas. Spenser writes in Stanza 14: Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. A little forest was known as silvula. A third use is in circumstances where a person has gone too far in avoiding one extreme and has tumbled into its opposite. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. The exact date of his death isnt known. The etymology of silva is unclear. Alternatively it may signify that the risks are equally great, whatever one does. (From Acts 16:19-22). If you're looking for an equally cool and strong name for your baby boy, you can't go wrong with Silas. This is the name of a companion of Saint Paul in the New Testament. Scylla was a supernatural female creature, with 12 feet and six heads on long snaky necks, each head having a triple row of sharklike teeth, while her loins were girdled by the heads of baying dogs. By the time of Nicholas Monsarrat's 1951 war novel, The Cruel Sea, however, the upper-class junior officer, Morell, is teased by his middle-class peer, Lockhart, for using such a phrase. Catholicos Patriarch of the Church of the East, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Silas_(name)&oldid=1149019285, Articles containing Ancient Greek (to 1453)-language text, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Silas Adams, the intelligent, laconic henchman of, Silas Dengdamor from season two of the BBC America television series Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, Silas Greaves, bounty hunter and protagonist of, Silas Greenback, primary antagonist in the British TV series, Silas P. Silas, played by Method Man in the stoner comedy, Silas Thatcher, a supporting antagonist in the 2012 video game, Silas Vorez, antagonist in the video game, Silas, portrayed by Nicholas Hoult in the 2015 film, Silas, (A.K.A. His mother was also a follower. Therefore, it is considered to be a great honor to be named after on of these saints. [2] Silas is thus often identified with Silvanus of the Seventy. In the version told by Apollonios Rhodios, the sea-god Glaucus informs the Argonauts that "a nymph has lost her heart to him and made him her husband". Simon was named after Simeon, one of the twelve patriarchs of Israel. Pauls dual roles as a Christian missionary and a Pharisee. He wailed womanlike with many a teare, After a ruffle with Sergius' pet magician Bar-Jesus (means Son of Jesus) at whom Saul growls: "will you not cease (, pauo, to stop; hence the name Paul) to make crooked the straight ways (, hodos, way, mentioned above) of the Lord?" Stanisaw Lem adopted these characters in his 1957 non-fiction, philosophical book, Dialogi (Dialogues). Notably, the name Rhea Silvia belonged to the birth mother of Romulus and Remus (by rapist father Mars), who were set adrift on the Tiber and subsequently saved by an accommodating she-wolf and raised by a shepherd couple. Modern science didn't know these things until Einstein, a Jew, thought of them meaning that these truths were not discovered in a laboratory, but in the unaided mind of a ponderous man who had been brought up to think in patterns and self-similarities (Psalm 78:2, Matthew 13:35). Apollo Temple. Expand Links. They meet up again in Corinth (Acts 18:5), but as Paul declares to definitely want to quit the Jews and go to the gentiles instead (Acts 18:6), Silas too quietly departs the Biblical stage and is heard from no more. [10] This was in the context of the effect of the French Revolution on politics in Britain. Many of the ancient gods, like Zeus, had children as a result of their romantic involvement with mortals. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. While she followed Paul and us, she would cry out, These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation. She kept doing this for many days. Many of these saints have even died as martyrs for their dedication. Jesus of Nazareth embodied the eternal and divine Word of God, but even though this Word itself never changes or is ever incomplete, the embodiment of this Word in human flesh was received and allowed to grow like a single seed into maturity. Origin: Greek, Latin. If you're looking for a baby boy name inspired by woodlands and the uncultivated beauty of nature, Silas is a perfect choice. Silas may mean Highway Making or Highway Heaper and relate to the verb (sala), to heap, the way the noun (niphas), snowstorm, relates to the verb (neipho), to snow, or the noun (lampas), lamp, relates to the verb (lampo), to shine. Silas is the No. Some traditions claim Python to be the child of the goddess Gaea (Earth), who had a sanctuary at Delphi. Scylla was rationalized as a rock shoal (described as a six-headed sea monster) on the Calabrian side of the strait and Charybdis was a whirlpool off the coast of Sicily. For other uses, see. Ala 2 f African Mythology "[7] Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable also treated the English proverb as an established equivalent of the allusion to falling from Scylla into Charybdis. Their first stop is Cyprus (where Barnabas was from), where they meet the Roman proconsul Sergius Paulus, and that's the first time the name Paul(us) occurs in the Bible. 100 most popular boy's name in the U.S., according to2020 Social Security Administration data. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. "Islam, Arabs and the Intelligent World of the Jinn", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sila_(mythology)&oldid=1083044309, This page was last edited on 16 April 2022, at 17:29. The other Barsabbas mentioned in Acts is Joseph Barsabbas, who rivaled Matthias as candidate to replace Judas Iscariot. Updates? Silas and Judas are mentioned as being leaders among the brothers, prophets and encouraging speakers. But (Silas) is also the Greek version of the Hebrew name Saul (Paul's original name), namely (sh'aul), or, more specific, its Aramaic version, namely (sh'ayla). The verb (sela) is only used in the imperative form, and as a musical term that commands people not simply to rise up but to settle their verbal expressions into a harmonious whole. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). In circumstances where there is no escape without some cost, the correct course is to "choose the lesser of two evils". This means that Silas was around during the early days of the church. The name Luke comes from the Latin verb luceo, to shine and in antiquity, names commonly commemorated attributes of the deity, never suggesting that the bearer embodied this attribute. Idiom deriving from Greek mythology, "to choose the lesser of two evils", "Scylla and Charybdis" redirects here. A well-known Greek and Latin name, Silas means "wood" or "forest." The Bible was not written by a single willful person or counsel acting as one, but is rather a so-called "emergent property", namely an emergent property of society, arising organically (like language, like law, science and art, like a vastly complex old-world Wikipedia page on human reality) from the unbridled interactions of countless participants rather like the ten-thousand widely different estimations of the amount of beans in a jar at a country fair, whose average is nearly always much more accurate than the most accurate single guess (see James Surowiecki's The Wisdom of Crowds, 2004). Scylla and Charybdis, in Greek mythology, two immortal and irresistible monsters who beset the narrow waters traversed by the hero Odysseus in his wanderings described in Homers Odyssey, Book XII. Silas is first mentioned in Acts 15:22, where he and Judas Barsabbas (known often as 'Judas') were selected by the church elders to return with Paul and Barnabas to Antioch following the Jerusalem Council. The name Silvnus (Classical Latin:[swa.ns]) is a derivation from Latin silva ('forest, wood'). Noun (she'la) means request or petition, and noun (mish'ala) means petition or desire. Tutelary god of woods and uncultivated lands, protector of field boundaries and cattle, protector against wolves, Bronze statue of Silvanus, said to be from, Crummy, Philip (1997) City of Victory; the story of Colchester - Britain's first Roman town. As an English name it was not used until after the Protestant Reformation. Silas Was First Mentioned in Acts 15:22. [5], The myth was later given an allegorical interpretation by the French poet Barthlemy Aneau in his emblem book Picta Poesis (1552). No name, no personal identity, no dignity. [5], After Heracles killed Theiodamas in battle, he took on Hylas as his arms-bearer and taught him to be a warrior. Anne Catherine Emmerich recounts in her visions that Silas' original name was Sela, and that he was one of the three "secret disciples," along with Hermas, who had later accompanied Jesus on his trip to the Three Kings' homeland near Ur, and thence to Heliopolis, and whose parents had come with the caravan of the Three Kings.[7]. In modern Greek, this noun means matter (atoms, molecules). They are also said to seduce and marry men or even give birth to a child from a relationship between human and jinn. But when her owners saw that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities. Paul refers to him as Silvanus in his epistles, though it is possible that Silas was in fact a Greek form of the Hebrew name Saul (via Aramaic). Dig into more than 9,000 articles in the Biblical Archaeology Societys vast library plus much morewith an All-Access pass. After relating the Homeric account and reviewing other connected uses, he went on to explain that the proverb could be applied in three different ways. Barker's anti-heroic take on Greek myth highlights the suffering of women. His disappearance greatly upset Heracles, who, along with Polyphemus, searched for him for a great length of time. The adjective silvestris or silvester means wooded or overgrown with forests, or simply denoted anything growing wild and uncultivated; hence the names Silvester, Silvius and Silvia. But even better: with just a little creativity, our name (Silas) may also very well be derived from the cluster (salal), to heap, and specifically of highways. Saint Silas is also venerated by the Eastern Orthodox Church on July 30 along with the Apostles Silvanus, Crescens, Epenetus, and Andronicus and on January 4 where he is venerated with all the apostles. In the words of Luke: "The Child continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom" (Luke 2:40), and "Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men" (Luke 2:52). After Heracles killed Theiodamas in battle, he took on Hylas as his arms-bearer and taught him to be a warrior. The difficult noun (she'ol) refers primarily to the grave and by extension to death and decomposition. It's important to select a name that you feel suits . This story obviously demonstrates how civilization evolved out of the wilderness, which in the Bible is told as the Exodus out of Egypt and subsequent coming home to Canaan. Byron clarifies that although many English translations, including the NRSV quoted above, say that the slave girl had a spirit of divination, the original Greek says she had a spirit of python. This connects her fortune-telling ability to Python from Greek mythology and the oracle at Delphi. [4] This final example was a line from the Alexandreis, a 12th-century Latin epic poem by Walter of Chtillon. Their mother was said to have left her family behind after seeing lightning in the sky, interpreting this as a sign to return to her clan. There is some disagreement over the original or "proper" form of his name: "Silas", "Silvanus", "Seila", and "Saul" seem to be treated at the time as equivalent versions of the same name in different languages, and it is not clear which is the original name of "Silas", and which is a translation or equivalent nickname, or whether some references are to different persons with equivalent names. Sa'aali adj: su'luwwa) is a supernatural creature assigned to the jinn or ghouls in Arabian [1] folklore. It is a cognate of Silvanus. The poet Theocritus (about 300 BC) wrote about the love between Heracles and . Paul, Silas, and Timothy are listed as co-authors of the two New Testament letters to the Thessalonians, though the authorship is disputed. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. When they had brought them before the magistrates, they said, These men are disturbing our city; they are Jews and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to adopt or observe. The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates had them stripped of their clothing and ordered them to be beaten with rods. [citation needed], In pre-Islamic Arab countries, there was said to be one man who fell in love with a si'lat and had children who are known as "Banu Si'lat"[4] It was rumored that the Arab population was conceived from descendants of 'Amr ibn Yarbu's' children who were half-si'lat. Hylas is referred to in Chapter 18 of Charles Kingsley's novel Hypatia, when the Prefect Orontes, rescued by the Goths, is taken for safety into a house largely populated by women, and fancies himself as "A second Hylas". Luke again switches to a first person narration in Acts 20:5 to 21:18 and again from 27:1 to 28:16, but the point is made that Luke inserts his own character ostensibly at the start of the Paul & Silas cycle. Build up, build up the highway, remove the stones, lift up a standard over the peoples" (Isaiah 62:10). Check out these related baby name lists for even more options: Encyclopedia Britannica. Narcissus' name lives on as the flower into which he was transformed and as a synonym for those obsessed with their own appearance. Christine is a lifestyle journalist with 17 years of professional experience and the author of the parenting book, Rattled! Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. In his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul mentions Silas (as Silvanus) as fellow preacher, and in both his letters to the Thessalonians as his co-author (or editor and scribe). The Second Epistle to the Corinthians mentions Silas as having preached with Paul and Timothy to the church in Corinth (1:19), and the First Epistle of Peter describes Silas as a "faithful brother" (5:12). This article relating to a myth or legend from the ancient Middle East is a stub. Required fields are marked *, COPYRIGHT 2023 BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGY SOCIETY 5614 Connecticut Ave NW #343, Washington DC 20015-2604. Sign up to receive our email newsletter and never miss an update. In particular the initiation rituals of the evocati appear to have referenced Silvanus as a protective god of raiding for women and cattle, perhaps preserving elements of earlier Etruscan worship. Verywell Family's content is for informational and educational purposes only. [4] Acts 16:25-37. [1][2][3] The Latin name "Silvanus" may be derived from pre-Roman Italian languages. By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Rich Scherr is a seasoned journalist who has covered technology, finance, sports, and lifestyle. Luke is a master of the fine art of painting pictures with names, and the structures he depicts are baffling (and almost certainly represent structures in physics, chemistry and biology).
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