This may help Linas in reaching a clearer understanding 😎
Linguists are wont to think of words as monocellular organisms that can be traced back to single ancestors via mitosis: to every word supposedly corresponds a single etymology. I argue, however, that this traditional model, which can be labeled “monophyletic,” does not always work in the collectively-negotiated and orally-transmitted field of mythology. The polysemic potential of a mythonym can precisely be a decisive factor for its synchronic election and diachronic retention, inasmuch as homonymy and ambiguity, as linguistic and poetic phenomena, facilitate the synoptic convergence of diverse aspects of a mythical figure in a single name. Case in point: Helen. To a certain degree, the ongoing controversy surrounding her etymology is unnecessary: much of it fades away if one posits a ‘polyphyletic’ model for Helen, in which plural etymologies cooperate, rather than compete.