Element Names from Mythology

Uranium Uranos, the first world ruler according to Greek mythology 

Titanium The Titans, sons of Uranos and the earth goddess Gaia in Greek mythology 

Promethium Prometheus, who in Greek mythology stole fire from the gods and gave it to humankind 

Plutonium Pluto, god of the dead in Roman mythology. A Latin counterpart of the Greek god Hades 

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The German scientist named the element titanium from mythological Titans —the sons of Ge (the goddess of Earth). Pure metallic titanium was obtained only in 1910. 

Other elements that take their names from mythology are vanadium, niobium, and tantalum. 

The names of the various chemical elements come from many sources including mythological concepts or characters places, areas or countries properties of the element or its compounds, such as color, smell or its inability to combine and the names of scientists. There are also some miscellaneous names as well as some obscure names for particular elements. 

There no fixed rule for naming elements. Some names of elements take the names of scientists (Mendelevium, Md Rontgenium, Rg...), places (Americium, Am Europium, Eu...), and the names of planets (Uranium, U Plutonium, Pu...). Some names come from mythology (Titanium, Ti Thorium, Th...) or properties of the element (eg hydrogen means water former, oxygen means acid former). 

During the many centuries over which the elements have been discovered, many different themes have been used to select their names." Just reading a list of the names of elements can conjure up episodes from Greek mythology. Promethium, element 61, takes its name from Prometheus, the god who stole fire from heaven and gave it to human beings only to be punished for this act by Zeus." The connection of this tale to element 61 seems to be the extreme effort that was needed to isolate it, just as the task performed by Prometheus was difiicult and dangerous. Promethium is one of the very few elements that do not occur naturally on the earth. It was obtained as a decay product from the fission of another element, uranium. 

Discovery J. J. Berzelius discovered thorium in Stockholm in 1829. The element name was selected from Norse mythology Thor was the god of thunder. 

In 1815 Berzehus examined a mineral from Falun, in which he thought he had found a new element. He intended to use the element-naming philosophy utilized by Klaproth for uranium and titanium, and of his own former student Ekeberg for tantalum (Chapter 23). But why not use a god from Norse mythology. The name of the Norse god Thor had been used in the naming of numerous places and had also given its name to a day of the week, Thor s day. Why not also an element name However, Berzehus had to change his mind when he found that the new element was not new. The mineral was an yttrium phosphate. But in 1829 it was time for an element discovery, beyond dispute. 

Titanium - the atomic number is 22 and the chemical symbol is Ti. The name derives from the Latin titans, who were the mythological first sons of the earth . It was originally discovered by the English clergyman William Gregor in the mineral ilmenite (FeTiOj) in 1791. He called this iron titanite menachanite for the Menachan parish where it was found and the element menachin. It was rediscovered in 1795 by the German chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth, who called it titanium because it had no characteristic properties to use as a name. Titanium metal was first isolated by the Swedish chemists Sven Otto Pettersson and Lars Fredrik Nilson. 

Uranium - the atomic number is 92 and the chemical symbol is U. The name derives from the planet Uranus, which in Roman mythology was Father Heaven . The German chemist Martin-Heinrich Klaproth discovered the element in 1789, following the German/English astronomer William Hershel s discovery of the planet in 1781. The metal was first isolated by the French chemist Eugene-Melchior Peligot in 1841. 

The element was discovered in 1801 by British chemist Charles Hatchett during analysis of a black mineral sample from the British Museum, originally sent in 1753 from Connecticut. He named the element columbium, after the country of its origin, Columbia (United States). In 1844, Rose announced the discovery of a new element which he named as niobium, in honor of Niobe, the daughter of Tantalus, the mythological Goddess of Tears. Later, it was established that Hatchett s columbium and Roses niobium were the same element. Both names remained in use for more than one hundred years. In 1949 at the Fifteenth International Union of Chemistry Congress held at Amsterdam, the name niobium was officially adopted as the international name. 

The discovery of this element is credited to J.A. Marinsky and L.E. Glendenin who, in 1945, identified its long-lived isotope Pm-147 (ti/2 2.64 years) in the fission products of uranium. They named the element after Prometheus, who according to Greek mythology stole fire from heaven. The element was first isolated from fission product wastes by G.W. Parker and P.M. Lantz in 1948. It first was recovered from natural sources by O. Erametsa in 1965. An amount less than 0.5 g was recovered from 20 tons of rare earths. 

Tantalum was discovered by the Swedish chemist Anders Ekeberg in 1802, although for a long time after his discovery many chemists believed tantalum and niobium were the same element. In 1866, Marignac developed a fractional crystallization method for separation of tantalum from niobium. Ekeberg named the element in honor of Tantalus, who was Niobe s father in Greek mythology. 

Titanium was discovered in 1791 by William Gregor, an English clergyman and amateur chemist. He identified it in a black sand (now known to be ilmenite) sent to him for analysis from the Menacchan Valley in Cornwall. Four years later, the famous German chemist Klaproth rediscovered the element in the ore rutile, one form of titanium dioxide. He gave it the name titanium after the Titans who in Greek mythology were the sons of Earth. 

The element was recognized in 1831, when N. G. Sefstrom was able to isolate and characterize the oxide the name vanadium was derived from Vanadis, a goddess in Scandinavian mythology. The beautiful colours of vanadium compounds had been observed as early as 1801, by A. M. del Rio in his experiments with a new element he called erythronium because of the red colour after treatment with acid.1... 

Mercury is a metallic chemical element identified by the symbol Hg on the periodic table. It is silver in color and, unlike other metals, is liquid at room temperature. The ancient name for mercury was quicksilver, meaning living silver. This name reflected mercury s lustrous silver color and its unusually lively behavior when it is poured onto a smooth surface, it forms beads that roll rapidly around. The element s modem name comes from Mercury (or Mercurius), the fleet-footed messenger of the gods in Roman mythology. 

Not everyone agreed with Hatchett s discovery at first. Some chemists were convinced that columbium was identical to the element tantalum, which had been discovered earlier. The confusion is easy to understand. The two elements have very similar properties and are difficult to separate. Finally, in 1844, German chemist Heinrich Rose (1795—1864) showed that tantalum and columbium really were different from each other. Rose then su ested the name niobium for the new element. The name comes from Greek mythology. Niobe is the daughter of the god Tantalus, from whom the name tantalum comes. 

The name comes from the Greek mythological figure Prometheus, who stole fire from the gods and gave it to man. The existence of element 61 was predicted in 1902 by Bohuslav Brauner, who extended the periodic table downward after lanthanum. He suggested that there would be an element between neodymium and samarium. Attempts to find the element proved to be inconclusive until... 

Many, many years ago there lived in the far North the beautiful and greatly beloved goddess VanadiSy a member of the race of gods from Nordic mythology called the Vanes. The metal vanadium, which is now named after her, was initially called "panchromium by its Mexican discoverer A. M. del Rio (1801) because of the many colors the salts exhibited the exact proof that it was in fact a previously unknown element had to wait until 1830/31 and is due to the Swedish chemists J.J, llerzelius (1779—1848) and N. (.t. Sefstrom (1787-1845), one of his pupils. 

As a result, in 1947, J. A. Marinsky, L. E. Glendenin, and C. D. Coryell at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, finally established the existence of element 61 in the fission products of and at the suggestion of Coryell s wife it was named prometheum (later promethium) after Prometheus who, according to Greek mythology, stole fire from heaven for the use of mankind. Since about 1955, individual lanthanides have been obtainable in increasing amounts in elemental as well as combined forms. 

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