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ArchivesRe: Meaning of this name?
in reply to a message by Molly
I don't know if this was in the author's mind at the time, but it's a fact that Epona was the ancient Celtic goddess of horses, and therefore of sex and power and freedom and nice things like that! So, Eponine looks like: Belonging to Epona.
Would it work in the context of the story? (I find the music so annoying, I've never read the book! Blush!)
Would it work in the context of the story? (I find the music so annoying, I've never read the book! Blush!)
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I don't know if "sex, power, and freedom" is what Eponine was about, but it's a possibility that it could be the meaning. I've never seen the musical; I do know that she dies at the end, however. I found out about this from my sister; she named one of our cats Eponine, Epy for short. =) Thank you for replying!
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I also go with the theory of the name Eponine relating back to Epona, the Horse Goddess. Eponine as a character was a bit of a "free" girl, although her acting as a sexual being is only really alluded to. I've taken the name to mean "horse-like", the suffix -ine also appearing in words like feline (cat-like), leonine (lion-like),etc. This meaning also goes pretty well with her description in the novel. She's supposed to be tall, and thin, though long-faced and coarse. Not a pretty girl, and sort of coltish in appearance. I believe the author mentions early in the book that her mother read a lot of romance novels, and got the name from one of those, so perhaps from a description of how someone moved, in an "eponine" (horse-like) manner.
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