About UsPhobos was the boy-charioteer of his father; the war god Ares. He was the spirit of Fear in Greek Mythology and because of this, the word 'phobia' has come to mean 'irrational fear' and features as a suffix to words like 'radiophobia' which is a fear of radioactivity and 'homophobia' which is a strong dislike of gay people. Because of the sheer number of phobia words, I will only put here the words where the first part also has an origin in Mythology
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Agoraphobia |
The Agora was the market or meeting place in Ancient Greek Cities. Consequentially, Agoraphobia is the fear of open spaces.
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Arachnophobia |
ARACHNE was a woman in Greek Mythology who insulted the goddess ATHENA by claiming to be a better weaver. After a weaving competition (the results vary from story to story) ARACHNA was turned into a Spider by ATHENA. Arachnophobia therefore means 'Fear of Spiders'
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Demonophobia |
Daemons were spirits in Greek Mythology. Later, the Bible made 'Demons' a word only for evil spirits and 'Demonophobia' therefore is the fear of evil demons.
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Heliophobia |
Helios was the sun titan in Greek Mythology. He flew the sun and so 'Heliophobia' came to be the name of a fear of the sun.
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Hypnophobia |
Hypnos was the Greek god of dreams and so Hypnophobia is the fear of sleep.
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Panphobia |