Superman: Names of Angels

 Gabriel, Raphael, Michael are all said to be the names of archangels. Their rol in the Judeo-Christian-Islamic beliefs is always to act as messengers of God (it was Gabriel who revealed the Qu´ran to Muhammad) or as enforcers of his law. The suffix El (deity) in their names reveals their divine origin (Michael for example means "Who is like God") though it is not exclusive to only them since some prophets´names such as Daniel or Samuel also have it. In the Old Testament the Saviour's name is revealed to be Emmanuel (God with us).
    It is interesting that Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster,the creators of the archetype of all superheroes (Superman) chose El to create their character´s real name: Kal-El and his father´s, Jor-El. The explanation behind this fact was that in Krypton (Superman´s homeworld) everyone belonged to a "house" (family) so in their case El was actually a family name. But this explanation was devised later on, and not by Shuster or Siegel. So the question is: was the word El chose on purpose or was it a mere coincidence?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How do you say MIRADOR in English?

Image
"Hmm, why do I have this nagging feeling that someone is watching me watching?" In Spanish, a MIRADOR is any place that allows a privileged view of the surroundings. In English, a MIRADOR is a VIEWPOINT or a LOOKOUT. Another possible translation is VANTAGE POINT, though in a tourist context this term is a bit less common.
Read more

The Maps of Ship-Trap Island

Image
Once I had my high school students read The Most Dangerous Game, a short story by Richard Connell. Rainsford, the main character, is a professional hunter traveling by ship to his next hunting area, accidentally ends up in an island called Ship- Trap island. When he goes into the island he finds there are two men living in a palace in the island. One of them is a Cossack general and the other, his brutish servant.  The Cossack is called general Zaroff who is also  a game hunter but has become bored of hunting regular game and now uses the island's unique position to capture sailors from shipwrecks. He lets them go first and next after some time he hunts them down. Rainford's arrival who is worldwide famous presents Zaroff with a rare opportunity to find excitement in hunting again by hunting another hunter. Little does Zaroff know that Rainsford is The Most Dangerous Game in the World and hunting him will not be easy at all. My students enjoyed themselves at reading
Read more

How do you say EXAMEN SUPLETORIO in English?

Image
Darn! I wonder if there's a Make Up exam for this Make up exam! I remember that long ago I asked my distinguished and knowledgeable colleagues of that time to enlighten me and tell me the right English word for what we know in Ecuador as EXAMEN SUPLETORIO or EXAMEN DE RECUPERACION.  After hearing Recovery exam or Supplemenary test and even Supletory exam, I was not convinced so I decided to go to a higher authority and looked up one of those encyclopedic dictionaries from Oxford or Cambridge university (these were the pre-browser times) and found the right expression is MAKE UP EXAM which is taken when an exam has been missed or when a student needs to change one score with a more favorable one. The British say RECUPERATION EXAM which is perhaps more practical since to some people the term Make Up is confusing. Make-up is the word for the wearing of cosmetics. There are Make-up tests which are oriented to future Make-up artists.
Read more