Why is planet Uranus named after a Greek god and not Roman like other planets?
The Romans usually used the name Uranus for the Greek Ouranos. Similarly they called Apollon Apollo, and the god of the underworld Pluto after the Greek Plouton (a common title of Hades), and Bacchus after Bakkhos (a Greek title of Dionysus). There was no Roman equivalent of Uranus. Caelus is the literal translation, “sky” in Latin, but was rarely used for the figure of myth. Caelus was never a true Roman god, just a translation used by Roman prose writers like Cicero and Hyginus. The Roman poets prefer Uranus. In Italian Renaissance and Baroque era European literature and art the Roman names of the gods were always used, and they always name Uranus as the father of Saturn. The planet was named following this convention when discovered in the late 1700’s. Its worth noting that the ancient Greek names for the five visible planets predate the Roman ones. They are aster Aphrodision (=Venus), aster Areios (=Mars), aster Hermaios (=Mercury), aster Dios (=Jupiter), aster Kronios (=Saturn). S
