h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Does anybody know the root of "Milky Way"?

Could it possibly have its origin in this myth as accounted above? It's conceivable (in my admittedly warped mind at least) that "Milky Way" could be a relatively modern corruption of "Milky Whey".

Of course I am ignoring that the original fable would have been in ancient greek, but I'd be fascinated to know the answer.

'Put to the breast of Hera, the child sucked so hard that Hera threw him off and a spurt of milk flew into the air, becoming the Milky Way.' I rather like this origin! Don't know of any other.

The name may have come before the legend. Who knows what ancient man though of the sky before he started writing things down or created legends for it? Did they actually bother with a name for the Milky Way until they put it in legend?

But your case for 'milky whey' would need some seriously hard proof. Dictionaries give the etymology as: Middle English, translation of Latin 'via lactea' : 'via', way + 'lactea', feminine of 'lacteus', milky.

The ancient greeks called it galaxias, which turned into 'our' Galaxy. (And the dictionary says galactic can mean, relating to the galaxy, something huge, or something to do with milk.)

Thanks for the insight. Much appreciated.