Greek names from "The Oedipus Cycle"

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I just read the book "The Oedipus Cycle" ... and I am wondering,
If the name Oedipus means "wounded foot", who knows what the names Ismene, Iocaste, & Antigone mean?
I thought they were lovely names and would like to know what I might consider naming my future kids. Smile

Haha, no I'm kidding, lol, but Ismene, I wouldn't mind using.. What, it's pretty! And If you change the last E to an A and make it Ismena, the word would mean "Change" in Russian. I think that sounds powerful. I like it. =]

But anyways.. who knows what they mean in Greek?

Thanks!

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@loveislikearose3,

Ismene: Possibly from Greek ισμη (isme) "knowledge".

I/Jocasta: Latinized form of Greek Ιοκαστη (Iokaste), which is of unknown meaning.

Antigone: Means "against birth" from Greek αντι (anti) "against" and γονη (gone) "birth".

Best I could do for you!

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@Borat Sister,

Wow. Thanks! That's strange how there is no known meaning for the name Iocaste! And what kind of name is "against birth?" Hmm. But I definitely love the name Ismene now. Thank you again.

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@loveislikearose3,

You are very welcome.

(Borat Sister was my name when I couldn't get in here under my normal A2k name.)

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@loveislikearose3,

loveislikearose3 wrote:

..... And what kind of name is "against birth?" Hmm. ...

It's not a name at all - whoever translated if for you can't have looked it up in an ancient Greek dictionary. Here's the meaning of Antigone:

Quote:

ἀντι-γόνιον: βοτάνη, καὶ ἄνθος,

The first possible translation, βοτάνη, means "plant" (as in botanical, same word), the second, ἄνθος, means "flower".

Dictionary used: Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/collections

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@High Seas,

P.S. this is a direct link to the dictionary from the same website: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0058

I can find no direct translation for: Ἰοκάστη (Jocasta) but "Ἰο" definitely means "arrow" and the second part of the word, " -κάστη" is probably related to this entry:

Quote:

Κασταλία 1
the famous spring of the Muses on Mt. Parnassus, Hdt., Soph., etc.
Prob. akin to καθαρός, Lat. castus.

1 *kastali/a

Note: "καθαρός" means "clean" so probably (though very tentatively) the name Jocasta means something like "straight arrow"

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Greek names from "The Oedipus Cycle"

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