Why are planets named after god's?

Answer 1

In the night sky of the ancients, the planets stuck out as moving against the normal rotation because they changed their position nightly. To them, surely, it must have seemed as if some being were moving in the sky. So, they made the planets sacred to different gods. The fast moving was made sacred to Hermes and later named Mercury. The most beautiful and most fleeting (since it's only seen for a short while each day) was made sacred to Aphrodite and later named Venus. The one with the red tinge was made sacred to Ares and later named Mars. The bright one that dominated the night was made sacred to Zeus and later named Jupiter and the slow plodding dim planet that seemed to shy away from the power of the others was made sacred to Kronos and later named Saturn.

As later planets were discovered with the advent of the telescope, the moons of the planets were named after figures related to the planetary host. Mars' moons were named Phobos and Deimos (fear and dread - sons of Ares), Jupiter's original 4 moons were named Ganymede, Callisto, Io and Europa, and Saturn's only originally visible moon was named Titan (the others were later named after other Titans). Astronomers, keeping with traditions, named later discoveries after mythological figures. Next was Uranus, then Neptune and finally Pluto.

By the way, the names are Roman because Latin was prevalent throughout Europe well into the age of enlightenment. Because of that, Latin names were given to the planets and constellations, not the Greek ones.

Answer 2

It wasn't. Like most of the other planets, it was named after a Roman god. Even in ancient times, they knew Saturn was the farthest planet that could be seen, and the Greeks made it sacred to Kronos (with whom Saturnus is equated). The Romans followed suit.

Answer 3

Because the Ancient Greeks named them.

But the Chinese had different names for them, as did many other cultures. Western science inherited the Greek traditions.

Answer 4

All of them except Earth. Most are named after Roman Gods with exception of a few.