Name meanings: Hagrid

GulPlum hpfgu at plum.cream.org
Tue Sep 17 02:54:55 UTC 2002


No: HPFGUIDX 44082

I'm on a roll...

I didn't plan this to happen, but having written the messages about 
"Voldemortist" and "Arabella Figg", I thought I'd take a look at 
MuggleNet's "name origins" page to see what they've come up with and was 
utterly astonished to see this one:

"Hagrid: Name and tale comes from greek myth. The ancient Hagrid from the 
myth was the god of Jewels. This god was said to be the kindest of the 
gods, but Hades framed him for the death of Piraeus's (the killer of 
Medusa) son. Hagrid was banished from Olympus but Zues allowed him to stay 
as the watcher of the animals. "

Where did they get "Piraeus" from? As far as I'm aware (and I think I know 
my Greek mythology fairly well), Medusa was killed by Perseus. It's his 
main claim to fame. Piraeus, I was always taught, is/was the main port in 
Athens.

Now, I admit that I'd never heard of a "Hagrid" in Greek mythology, so I 
was prepared to assume that I might not know as much as I thought. However, 
no online source about Greek mythology 
(http://www.pantheon.org/areas/mythology/europe/greek/articles.html seems 
like a good place to start) seems to have heard of this character.

I've also been through several books on the subject, and none of them have 
heard of Hades "framing" anyone even vaguely related to Perseus.

Before I go to town on the folks at MuggleNet, does anyone here know 
anything about this?

I noticed that they include the derivations I've already addressed in the 
other two posts, but there's some kind of strange and twisted (if 
incorrect) logic to them. This Hagrid one appears to have absolutely 
nothing even vaguely correct about it, no name similarities or *anything*, 
so assuming this is all baloney, I'm trying to work out how they may have 
reached their conclusions. Any theories?





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