Mercury - Mercury represents the messenger god, Hermes. He was said to be the fastest god but obvioulsy they forgot about the wind gods, Iris goddess of the rainbow and Nike the actual goddess of speed...
Venus - Venus represents the goddess of love & beauty, Aphrodite. Venus is known as the most beautiful planet in the solar system, thus it's named after the goddess of beauty. But if she was human she'd be a slut anyway, Helen was supposedly the most beautiful mortal woman. Then there's Hera, Calypso,Persephone goddess of springtime and queen of the underworld, Hestia the most forgiving of the gods. And Athena, the wisest of the gods but you really wouldn't want her as an enemy, she'd never stop hunting you....
Earth - Earth represents Terra. She was a land goddess who the romans prayed to if there was an earthquake
Mars - Mars represents the god of war, Ares. Mars of course is red which is also the color of war (symbolic of blood). The two moons of Mars are named after the two sons of Ares, Phobos and Deimos. Basically, he loved killing. End of.
Jupiter - Jupiter represents the ruler of the gods, Zeus. The planet is the largest and most magnificent which is representative of the great Zeus. Jupiter has 16 moons. The 4 largest are named after some of Zeus' affairs, Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. The other 12 moons represent more of Zeus' lovers, a few of his children, and others linked the great god. They are: Adrasta, Amalthea, Ananke, Carme, Elara, Himalia, Leda, Lysithia, Metis, Pasiphae, Thebe, and Sinope.
Saturn - Saturn represents the father of Zeus, Cronus. Why Cronus? I honestly don't know. What I do know is that the 18 moons surrounding Saturn are named after various Titans, Gods, Goddesses, and other important figures in Greek mythology. They are: Atlas, Calypso, Dione, Enceladus, Epimetheus, Helene, Hyperion, Iapetus, Janus, Mimas, Pan, Pandora, Phoebe, Prometheus, Rhea, Telesto, Tethys, and Titan.
Uranus - Uranus represents, yeah you guessed it, Uranus! He was god of the sky and married to Gaia. All religions back then had the god of earth and god of sky married. Even the egyptians but that's a differnt story.
Neptune - Neptune of course represents the god of the sea, Poseidon. I think the reason for this is because it's a blue planet and the sea looks blue under the sky, see the connection? Good, you're getting smarter by the moment :) Neptune's largest moon is named after Poseidon's son, Triton. The rest are named after sea nymphs and others associated with the water. They are: Despina, Galatea, Larissa, Naiad, Neried, Proteus, and Thalassa.
Pluto - Pluto represents the god of the dead and underworld, Hades. It's the coldest and most desolate of the planets. Very appropriate for representing the cold, desolate state of being we call death. It's one moon is named after the ferryman of the dead, Charon. I guess in a way, Charon is still ferrying around Pluto (Hades) to this very day. Charon is not to be confused with Chiron, who trained Achilles. You know, the ankle dude? Chiron was a centaur of great intelligence and was the son of Cronus.
Another useless fact: Athens is only named after Athena cuz all the women voted for her to protect them. Turns out there was one more woman in the population so she got the position....
GO ATHENA :) lol
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