The name "Milky Way" is derived from a Greek myth. The infant Hercules, son of Zeus and one of his mortal lovers, was given to Zeus' wife, Hera, to nurse. But her milk spilled into the sky and created the Milky Way. The Greeks called it Kiklios Galaxios -- meaning the "milky circle" -- from which the word galaxy is derived. Other cultures thought of the Milky Way as a road or river on which the souls of the dead traveled through the heavens.