Board Thread:The Last Sovereign Discussion/@comment-27713488-20170707041037/@comment-31763506-20170819203334

@The Fulminato

"Philo" the Jewish philosopher was also named "Philon" in Greek, the terminal "n" is usually dropped in English language discussions of him, the same way "Platon" is called "Plato". I didn't know about the architect. "Dog Greek" is something I may have just made up, matching "Pig Latin" and "Pidgin English" for poor use of the language. I may be wrong about this, but I don't think "Philon" could be a place name instead of a personal name in classical Greek, the form should probably be "Philia" if it's the name of a city or country.

FWIW, Alexandros predates Alexander the Great by quite a ways, there having been two kings of Macedon named Alexander prior to him, the first one an unwilling ally of Xerxes, and the name was originally supposed to have belonged to the Trojan prince Paris. This is one of the few bits of Trojan lore for which there is actual contemporary written evidence, there being a letter from a Hittite king to a Alaksandu of Wilusa.

My own headcannon for Vinario is that it's the place Bob Dylan is singing about in Pretty Peggy-o, but that's obviously wrong.

@LordCyberForte

Anak/Anax/Wanax is attested in archaic and classical Greek. In fact, "Anakes" was an alternate name for the Dioscuri (why did I think you said that instead of Diadochi ???). Robert Graves apparently suggested that the Bibilical Anak was derived from the same source, since the Philistines were closely related to the Greeks and the term has a clear Indo-European root.

I'm not 100% sure Storge <-> Storgan is intentional, I only noticed it because I remembered the word "Agape" existed because my Catholic religious teachers drilled the idea of three Greek words for love into me decades ago, but had to look it up  and consequently learned there was a fourth. I had a discussion with SL about the source of Reval's name, and it being the old German name for a place in Estonia actually is coincidental, so it isn't impossible that Storgan and Storge are just another coincidence.

I wouldn't read too much into the various character names either, and I'd note that SL could easily have intended both classical and the biblical meanings of Anak as allusions. She clearly does her homework on that sort of thing. There's no indication that Simon is interested in buying religious offices in the Church of Ivala or encouraging religious war against the Incubus King in a peppy musical number.

Another side note. It occurred to me that Esthera's name very likely derives from the Biblical Esther, supposedly a wife of (a) Xerxes. But Esther was probably also named after the Babylonian goddess Ishtar, and it's safe to say our Esthera is more like the Goddess than the Queen. It's quite possible SL intended both allusions here too.