Die Milchstraße bei den alten Römern
Ancient Romans as authors of term “Milky Way”

Summary/Abstract: Ancient Romans, in terms of star images or astronomical terminology, were to a large extent dependent on Greeks. In the case of the Milky Way, although they followed the patterns of their Greek teachers, they showed a certain degree of originality. The Greeks called a bright strap of stars cutting the sky just "milk" or "a milky circle". The Romans added to the adjective "Milky" the word "way", creating the so far used expression of "the Milky Way" ("via lactea"). The expression was used for the first time by Ovid, and later on also by Germanicus and Isidor of Seville. The Romans, describing a bright strap of stars firmament, did not only use the term via, but they also referred to other synonymous lexemes, such as "iter" (Ovid), "trames" (Propertius)," limes" and "semita" (Manilius) so they identified it with the path or steep mountain track. Thus, it is not the Greeks, but Romans that should be considered the authors of the currently used expression of "the Milky Way".

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