Etiology (alternately aetiology, aitiology) is the study of Greek words aitia = cause and logos = word/speech) is used in philosophy, physics and biology in reference to the causes of various phenomena. It is generally the study of why things occur, or even the reasons behind the way that things act.
In medicine in particular, the term means the occurrences, reasons, and variables of diseases or pathologies.
An aetiological myth is a myth intended to explain a name. E.g., the name Delphoi and its associated deity, Apollon Delphinios are explained in the Homeric Hymn which tells how Apollo carried Cretans over the sea in the shape of a dolphin to make them his priests. While there is an actual etymological connection between Delphoi and delphis (delphus means "womb"), many aetiological myths are based on popular etymology (see e.g. Amazons).
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Etiology (alternately aetiology, aitiology) is the study of causation.
The term (deriving from the Greek words aitia = cause and logos = word/speech) is used in philosophy, physics and biology in reference to the causes of various phenomena.
The present paper is based on an attempt to distinguish tradition from invention in the whole collection of Euripidean aitiologies, on the premise that the cultic evidence should not be outweighed by general notions of what Euripides can or cannot have done.
To my knowledge, the aitiologies have never been subjected to scrutiny as a group, and arguments for Euripidean innovation and invention have therefore been the more readily dismissed for being made piecemeal.
Two or three of these inventions reappear in much later tradition, in Pausanias for example, but I will argue that this is because Euripides was uncritically accorded the status of an authority on religious history by post-classical writers in much the same way as by modern scholars.
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