Crater

Crater, the Cup, is often considered a part of the threefold constellation; Hydra, Corvus and Crater. It relates to the myth [Ovid's Fasti, 2.243-66] that Apollo sent a Raven (Corvus) to fetch water in the god's cup (Crater). The raven got back late because he waited at a fig tree for figs to ripen before returning. He brought back a Water-snake (Hydra), along with the water-filled cup (Crater), and told Apollo that the Hydra had caused the delay. Apollo was not deceived by the lie and placed the Raven (Corvus), the cup (Crater), and the Water-snake (Hydra) among the stars, where the Water-snake guards the water from the thirsty Raven.

The word Crater comes from the Indo-European root *kere-¹ 'To mix, confuse, cook'. Derivatives: uproar (from Middle Low German hror, motion), rare² (cooked just a short time, from Old English hrer), idiosyncrasy, acrasia ('want of power, debility', from akratos, 'unmixed', a- + kerannunai, 'to mix'), dyscrasia (any disease condition, especially in hematology, as in 'blood dyscrasias.' The term 'dyscrasia' was borrowed from the Greek meaning 'a bad mixture' referring to imbalance between the four humors which caused disease [1]), crater (from Greek krater, mixing vessel). [Pokorny kere- 582. Watkins]  

According to Christian legend, the Holy Grail was the dish, plate, or cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper, said to possess miraculous powers [2]. The word grail is believed to be related to Crater, grail is from Old French graal, grael, from Medieval Latin gradalis, 'cup, platter', from Vulgar Latin *cratalis, from *cratus, 'a mixing bowl', from Latin crater, from Greek krater. [Klein, Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary]

"Manilius described Crater as 'gratus Iaccho Crater' (Iaccho is Roman Bacchus, Greek Dionysus), so using the mystic, poetical name often applied to Bacchus" (Allen, Star Names):

"He [those influenced by the Crater in astrology] will join your vines, Bacchus [translator's note; 'grapevines for the production of wine'], in wedlock to your elms; or he will arrange them on props, so that the fronds resemble the figures in a dance or, allowing your vine to rely on its own strength, he will lead it to spread out its branches as arms, and entrusting you to yourself will forever protect you from the bridal bed, seeing how you were cut from your mother (Semele, daughter of Cadmus)"  [Manilius, Astronomica, 1st century AD, book 5, p.318-321].

Manilius identifies this constellation with Bacchus (also a Latin term for wine); "and entrusting you to yourself will forever protect you from the bridal bed"; remain a bachelor:

"Bacchus is Dionysus, the god of wine in Greek mythology. Bacchus is Latin, from Greek Bakhos, 'the god of wine', originally probably 'the god of grapeberries', and cognate with Latin baca, bacca, 'berry'"  [Klein]. Bachelor (from Latin baccalaris, influenced in form by Latin bacca, 'berry'), baccalaureate (Latin bacca, 'berry', + laureus, 'of laurel'), bacci- (combining form meaning 'berry'. — Latin baci-, bacci-, from bacca, 'berry', which probably meant originally 'grape', and is cognate with Greek Bakhos), asarabacca (species of the Birthwort family), bagasse (the dry, fibrous residue remaining after the extraction of juice from the crushed stalks of sugar cane, used as a source of cellulose for some paper products), bagatelle (a trifle), bay ('the laurel' from Latin baca, bacca, 'berry').

A crater is also an aperture of a volcano, sometimes referred to as a basin, from Vulgar Latin bacca. The word back², 'vat, tub' might also relate to this crater, from Vulgar Latin bacca, 'water vessel', whence *baccinum, basin, from *bacca, a water vessel', basinet, bassinet (basketlike bed for an infant).

“The cup called baccea (i.e. bacchia) was first named from Bacchus, that is, wine, and afterwards the usage was transferred to mean a water vessel.” [The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville, 7th century AD, p.400.]

“The walking stick (baculus) is said to have been invented by Bacchus, the discoverer of the grape vine, so that people affected by wine might be supported by it. As baculus is from Bacchus, so a 'rod' (bacillum) is from baculus, as its diminutive” [The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville, 7th century AD, p.404.]

Baculus comes from the Indo-European root *bak- 'Staff used for support'. Derivatives: bacillus, baguette (the form of a cut gem, or a type of bread), bail⁴ (hinged bar from Greek baktron), bailey (the outer wall of a castle), baculiform (rod-shaped, Latin baculum, rod), debacle (a disaster, or a sudden breakup of river ice in the spring thaw, causing a violent rush of flow water and ice), imbecile (possibly from Latin baculum, rod, walking stick), bacterium, bacteria. [Pokorny bak- 93. Watkins] Greek bakteria was a badge of office of judges. Baculum is used of the sceptre, and in the Vulgate a rod of punishment. Some mammals have a bone within the penis called the baculum. Bactria in Persia. Bactrian is a two-humped camel (Camelus bactrianus) Camel Souk, or Camel Market.

"The Bacchic feast of intoxication was, however sensual in later performance, a token of the legitimate and blessed ecstasy of the soul upon partaking of the heavenly wine. The vine and the mixing bowl were constellated as celestial symbols, the latter as the cluster called the Crater (Latin: bowl) or the Goblet, the sacramental cup or grail. The juice of the grape was the blood of Horus or Osiris, in the Egyptian Eucharist" [The Lost Light, Alvin Boyd Kuhn].  

The grail, the Holy Chalice, the Cauldron, according to medieval legend is the platter used by Jesus at the Last Supper, and contained the blood of Jesus Christ turned into wine, from Old French graal, grael, from Medieval Latin gradalis, ultimately from Latin crater.

In Old French, san graal, or san greal, means 'Holy Grail', literally meaning 'sanctified grail'.

"According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, after the cycle of Grail romances was well established, late medieval writers came up with a false etymology for sangreal an alternate name for 'Holy Grail'. In Old French, san graal or san greal means 'Holy Grail' and sang real means 'royal blood' [real means royal]; later writers played on this pun. Since then, 'Sangreal' is sometimes employed to lend a medievalizing air in referring to the Holy Grail" [3].

Blood in Latin is called sanguis. Centuries before the Medieval times Isidore saw a relationship between sanguis, blood and sanctus:

"Holy (sanctus), so called from an ancient custom, because those who wished to be purified would be touched by the blood (sanguis) of a sacrificial victim, and from this they received the name of holy ones (sanctus).” [p.228.] "A sanctum is so called from the blood (sanguis) of sacrificial victims, for among the ancients nothing was called holy (sanctus) except what had been consecrated and sprinkled with the blood of a sacrifice. Again sanctum, what is known to have been sanctified (sancire, ppl. sancitum). Moreover to sanction (sancire) is to confirm, and to defend from wrong by imposing punishment. Thus both laws and city walls are said to be holy (sanctus)” [p.309.] [The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville, 7th century AD]

Sacred and sanctified come from the Indo-European root *sak- 'To sanctify'. Derivatives: sacred, sacrament, sacristan, sexton, consecrate, execrate, (these words from Latin sacer, holy, sacred, dedicated; 'performer of sacred rites'), sacerdotal (the priesthood, from Latin sacerdos, priest), sacrifice, sacrilege (steal holy things), sacrum (Latin, holy bone, a fused triangle at the base of the spine, composed of five vertebrae. The ancient Greeks called it the Hieron Osteon, noting that it was the last bone to be destroyed when the body is burnt), saint (past participle of sancire), sanctum, corposant, sacrosanct, sanctify, to make sacred, consecrate, sanction, sanctuary. [Pokorny sak- 878. Watkins] The saunter, to walk at a leisurely pace might be related to saint.

“Wine (vinum) is so called because a drink of it speedily replenishes the veins (vena) with blood"  [The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville, 7th century AD, p.397.]

Greek krater is a mixing vessel, from kerannunai, 'to mix'. Blood consists of several types of cells suspended in a fluid medium known as plasma (Hydra). [The -globin of hemoglobin may be Argo Navis.]

A certain man named Cerasus mixed wine with the river Achelous in Aetolia, and from this 'to mix' is called kerasai. http://www.theoi.com/Text/HyginusFabulae5.html

Socrates says:

"Dionusos [the word was Latinized to Dionysus] is simply didous oinon (giver of wine), Didoinusos, as he might be called in fun, - and oinos is properly oionous, because wine makes those who drink, think (oiesthai) that they have a mind (noun) when they have none" [Cratylus by Plato, translated by B. Jowett]

"The commonest Latin verb for think is a metaphor from vine-pruning" [4].

Wine and Greek oinos, wine, come from a pre-Indo-European root *win-o, 'Wine'. Derivatives: vinaceous, vine, vini-, wine, vinegar, (these words from Latin vinum), oenology, oenomel (honey wine), (these words from Greek oinos (earlier woin-os), wine. Cities and places such as: Oenofyta, Oenoe, Oenotria, Oeneus ('wine-man' and thus civilized) [5].

Dionysus is responsible for putting two crown constellations in the sky, the Southern Crown is Corona Australis, in honor of his mother. The Northern Crown is Corona Borealis, in honor of his wife Ariadne whom he crowned on the island of Naxos.

“The island of Naxos is named after Dionysius (i.e. Dionysus, the god of wine), as if it were Dionaxos, because it surpasses all others in the fertility of its vines” [The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville, 7th century AD, p.296.]

From Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) on The Holy Grail:

"The meaning of the word [Grail] has also been variously explained. The generally accepted meaning is that is given by the Cistercian chronicler Helinandus (d. about 1230), who, under the date of about 717, mentions of a vision, shown to a hermit concerning the dish used by Our Lord at the Last Supper, and about which the hermit then wrote a Latin book called 'Gradale.' "Now in French," so Helinandus informs us, "Gradalis or Gradale means a dish (scutella), wide and somewhat deep, in which costly viands are wont to be served to the rich in degrees (gradatim), one morsel after another in different rows. In popular speech it is also called 'greal' because it is pleasant (grata) and acceptable to him eating therein" etc. The medieval Latin word 'gradale' because in Old French 'graal,' or 'greal,' or 'greel,' whence the English 'grail.' Others derive the word from 'garalis' or from 'cratalis' (crater, a mixing bowl). It certainly means a dish, the derivation from 'grata' in the latter part of the passage cited above or from 'agréer' (to please) in the French romances is secondary".

Helinandus says "Gradalis or Gradale means a dish, wide and somewhat deep, in which costly viands are wont to be served to the rich in degrees (gradatim), one morsel after another in different rows". Greek krater is translated, 'mixing vessel', with the meaning 'to mix, confuse, cook'. An element in a mixture is called an ingredient. These words come from the Indo-European root *ghredh- 'To walk, go'. Derivatives: gressorial, aggress, congress, degression, digress, egress, ingredient, ingress, introgression, pinnigrade, plantigrade, progress, regress, retrograde, retrogress, tardigrade, transgress, (these words from Latin gradi, past participle gressus, to walk, go), aggression, gradient, grade, gradual, graduate, gree, centigrade, degrade, degree, (these words from Latin gradus, step, stage, degree, rank). [Pokorny ghredh- 456. Watkins] The word 'grail' has another meaning; 'book for use of the choir' which according to Klein is from "Old French grael, from Medieval Latin gradale, a collateral form of graduale. See gradual".

"In popular speech it is also called 'greal' because it is pleasant (grata) and acceptable to him eating therein" [6]. Manilius described the constellation as 'gratus Iaccho Crater'. Latin grata and gratus comes from the Indo-European root *gwere-³ 'To favor'. Derivatives: grace, gracious, grateful, gratify, gratis, gratitude, gratuitous, gratuity, agree, congratulate, disgrace, ingrate, ingratiate, maugre (notwithstanding; in spite of, from Latin gratus), bard¹ ('he who makes praises' from Celtic bardo-, bard), engrail (indented along the edge with small curves in heraldry, en- + gresle, slender, tapered, from Latin gracilis). [Pokorny 4. gwer(e)- 478. Watkins] Gracilis muscle; originates from the lower edge of pubic bone and is inserted into the upper part of the tibia, flexes knee and hip and medially rotates the thigh and tibia (rotates them inwards). The Greek Graces were three sisters who have the power to grant charm, happiness, and beauty.

"The authors of the Vulgate Cycle used the Grail as a symbol of divine grace. ... the Grail is a symbol of God's grace, available to all but only fully realized by those who prepare themselves spiritually, like the saintly Galahad.... [7]

Known in the East as 'kundalini', and in the West as 'grace' [8]

A maar is a volcanic crater lake of explosive origin that is often filled with water. This term comes direct from German for one of the craters or crater-lakes of the Eifel district in Germany where the type occurrence is located. Its generic meaning is any low-relief volcanic crater which does not lie in a cone, was formed by single or multiple explosive events, and is usually occupied by a lake [9].

Whoever derives hence his birth and character [from the constellation Crater] will be attracted by the well-watered meadows of the countryside, the rivers, and the lakes [Manilius, Astronomica 1st century AD, p.318]. [inde trahit quicumque genus moresque, sequetur irriguos ruris campos amnesque lacusque]

The word maar comes from Latin mare (meaning sea), which gives us the words marine, maritime. As no Indo-European root-word exists for sea, except for their word *mori, which is thought to represent a small body of water, it is theorized that the Indo-Europeans originated in a land-locked region. The Indo-European navigated these small bodies of water in ships [10], hence the word maritime, meaning marine shipping or navigation. These words come from the Indo-European root *mori- 'Body of water; lake (?), sea (?)'. Derivatives: mere² (small lake, pond, or marsh), mermaid (from Old English mere, sea, lake, pond), marram (beach grass), meerschaum (sepiolite, or a tobacco pipe with a bowl made of this mineral), meerkat (a small, burrowing mammal, Suricata suricatta, related to the mongoose, from Middle Dutch meer, sea), marsh (from Old English mersc, merisc), morass (from Old French maresc, mareis, marsh, water-logged land), -maar, maar (a volcanic crater that is often filled with water), mare² (the large dark areas on the moon or Mars or on other planets), marinara (a sauce), marine, maritime, cormorant (sea-raven, shag), mariculture (cultivation of marine organisms in their natural habitats), Muriel ('sea bright'). [Pokorny mori- 748. Watkins] Merlin, a wizard in the Arthurian legend, the enchanter, his name is thought to derive from Mori-genos, 'born from the sea'. [Latin mare, meaning 'the sea', is a homophone of English mare, a female horse].

Klein sees the word moor, 'waste ground', as a cognate with *mori-, moor comes from the Indo-European root *ma-³ 'Damp'. Derivatives: moor² (swampy land, from Old English mor, marsh, wilderness, from Germanic *mora-), emanate (ex-manare, from Latin manare, to flow, trickle). [Pokorny 2. ma- 693. Watkins] Crater, the Cup, is often considered a part of the threefold constellation Hydra, Corvus and Crater. Latins had the title Emansor for adjacent Corvus, related to the word emanate, from Latin ex + manare, to flow out, relating to the story of Apollo sending out the raven with a cup to fetch water. Apollo sent out (emanare) the Raven (Corvus) with a cup (Crater) to fetch water (Hydra, from Indo-European root *wed-¹, water).

The remaining astrological influences given by Manilius for Crater:

"He will sow corn among the grapes and will adopt any other of the countless forms of cultivation that exist throughout the world as the conditions of the district will require. "He will drink without stint the wine he has produced and enjoy in person the well earned fruits of his labors; neat wine will incite him to jollity, when he will drown all seriousness in his cups.
Nor only on the soil will he stake his hopes for paying his yearly vows he will also go in pursuit of the grain tax (become a tax collector), and of those wares (papyrus, for example, or sponges) especially which are nourished by moisture or to which water clings. Such are the men to be fashioned by the Bowl, lover of all that is wet". [Manilius, Astronomica, 1st century AD, book 5, p.318-321].

© Anne Wright 2008.