THE ROMAN MYTHOLOGY IN PLANET SYMBOLS IN A SELECTED TEXT ON ASTRONOMY

Abstract

It is believed that Roman mythology has a strong influence in the world of Astronomy. The influence is spotted in many aspects such as name of celestial bodies and their symbol. A text comprising planet symbols and elaborating paragraphs is thought to be the most suitable object in which the concrete form of the influence can be figured out. Therefore, it is chosen as the object of the analysis of this thesis. The analysis of this thesis determines and describes the relations between the planet names and the concepts of the gods and goddesses from Roman mythology and also unveils the intended message hidden beyond the planet symbols. The library research is applied in this thesis to obtain the needed data and information such as books and other kinds of references. The data are in the form of qualitative data since the elements of the text are the written symbols and paragraphs (sentences) and none of them is in the form of numerical data. Interpretative method is taken into account in the data analysis, which means that the data which have been collected and analyzed are interpreted independently. The result of the analysis shows that the planet names are related to the gods and goddesses from Roman mythology, except the name of planet Earth and that planet symbols have an intended message to communicate, both of which are the concrete form of the influence of Roman mythology in Astronomy.