On gynoids

[Sergio Nova]

I found this in Wikipedia, Portuguese language edition:

From 600 BC, native legends of statues made of bronze or clay, which come to life, began to appear regularly in works of classical authors like Homer, Plato, Pindar, Tacitus and Pliny. In Book 18 of the Iliad, Hephaestus, the god of all mechanical arts, was assisted by two goldmade moving female statues - living young damsels, filled with minds and wisdoms. Another legend has Hephaestus being commanded by Zeus to create the first woman (Pandora) from the clay. The myth of Pygmalion, king of Cyprus, tells of a lonely man who sculpted his ideal woman from ivory, Galatea, and promptly falls for her after the goddess Aphrodite brings her to life. Variations on this theme of love and artificial creation appear in a gothic tale by ETA Hoffmann, The Sandman (1817), in which the object of love is the automaton Olympia; the ballet Coppélia (1870) by Léo Delibes, where it is the eponymous dancing doll, and in countless movies and science fiction novels.

So, the gynoid's name has also a especial meaning. Kishiro is always surprising us.

[Gallygun]

Nice find. I had no idea anyone put so much research into a manga. Make that an uber-manga. =D

[Cailon]

Nice find indeed! I'm convinced her name really came from this E.T.A. Hoffmann story (btw, I'm still a little sad that no one of the Venusian seed team really made on the cover, except for a barely visible Gargantua...)
However the name Olympe as well as Olympia just have to refer to Mount Olympus. Maybe because it's a thing only Gods can do, creating life out of gearwheels and screws - or clay (it always is the material, society pays most respect on in their everyday life ).

The term "Olympus" though seems to have no meaning that we could use for Olympe. I only found something in the german wiki edition (YES for intercultural research!):
There are different interpretations towards the meaning of "Olympus" (e.g. "Heaven", "The Luminous One", The High One", "The Rock"). According to the Lexicon of Modern Greek Language by Professor in Linguistics Georg Babinioti, the term is a pre-greek "word" * of unknown origin. It's old meaning was probably just "Mountain". In the Turkish language, the mountain is called Semavatevi, this can be translated as "Heavenly [thus divine] Domicile".

* I can't translate it, its a typical german non-canon construction, because one real word + another real word not always makes a third real word. So "Platzwort" most likely means "a word that was put there because a real appellation was missing". Like you call the Mountain just "Rock", then later people forget the meaning of "Rock" and think of it as a proper name, like "Mount Rock".

[Sergio Nova]

Great, Cailon! It seems that Wikipedia's vernacular editions, at least in this point, are richer than the English language one.

Well, let's remember that we are able to search other languages (our ones), not just English.

[Cailon]

Just realized that on Mars we have the Olympus Mons. Height 26.4 km(!!), tallest known mountain in the solar system. Mount Everest has 8.8 km for all yer didn't know. The space port is located there as it reaches out of the glass-roof that covers most of Mars' surface.

I'm thinking if I can somehow connect this fact with the topic of this thread but I suppose I can't ;D
Uhm, maybe we'll get more references to the old gods or ancient culture, like in attack-names or something. I mean, not like "Zeus-thunder-bolt-lightning-charge-attack", but maybe a fighter using pankration?

[Sergio Nova]

I wonder if Kishiro is going to tell much about areography and Martian society.

[Cailon]

Great, you just reminded me that Kishiro has a round red friend in his office.
Let me introduce Mr. Globe of the Mars to you!
So he has to tell us a bit at least!

[Sergio Nova]

Let me introduce Mr. Globe of the Mars to you!

I had never thought about that. Now I want one as well.