Something deep-seated in human nature calls on us to name things. It's almost as if a thing isn't real, or whole, until we name it — and so, X had to have a name.

    Suggestions flooded in: "Zeus," "Cronos," "Lowell," "Minerva." Widow Lowell first liked "Zeus," but later suggested "Percival," then "Lowell," and then, finally, "Constance," her own name.

    Dozens of other well-meaning suggestions came pouring in as well. Then there were hundreds, then thousands. But when all was said and done, the moniker for the newly discovered X that the Lowell staff preferred was the one suggested* by 11-year-old Venetia Burney of Oxford, England: Pluto — Pluto, the Greek god of the Underworld; the brother of Jupiter, Neptune, and Juno; and third son of Saturn, who was able, when he wished, to render himself invisible.

    Both the American Astronomical Society and the UK's Royal Astronomical Society adopted Pluto as the official name and as the official symbol for the new world. was Percival Lowell's monogram.

   *The French astronomer P. Reynaud had suggested Pluto as the natural mythic name for Lowell's putative Planet X in 1919, but this was not remembered until 1930.

Pluto in Classical Mythology?

Pluto chose the position as ruler of the underworld after he and his brothers conquered and divided their father's rule of the world. In the beginning, Pluto was seen as a cruel god because he ignored the prayers and sacrifices made in his honor. His image softened with time and he was viewed by later cults as a kinder, more gentler god. Pluto eventually took a goddess, Proserpine, maiden of spring. He emerged from the underworld and swept her up in his chariot. Proserpine became goddess of the Dead. Although her fate was in the hands of Zeus and she was only obliged to stay with Pluto for half of the year and return to her mother the other half, hence the change from winter to spring.

For further discussion of Pluto in classical mythology visit:

   • http://www.gwydir.demon.co.uk/jo/roman/pluto.htm