Rocinante a standalone word as well as a suffix. One meaning is "before" or "previously". Another is "in front of". As a suffix, "-ante" in Spanish is adverbial; "rocinante" refers to functioning as, or being, a "rocín". "Rocinante", then, follows Cervantes' pattern using ambiguous, multivalent words, which is common throughout the novel. Rocinante's name, then, signifies his change in status from the "old nag" of before to the "foremost" steed. As Cervantes describes Don Quixote's choice of name: "nombre a su parecer alto, sonoro y significativo de lo que había sido cuando fue rocín, antes de lo que ahora era, que
Athos (character) in the genus "Schistura" which are each named after one of the Three Musketeers, "S. aramis" and "S. porthos". Athos (character) Athos, Count de la Fère, is a fictional character in the novels "The Three Musketeers", "Twenty Years After", and "The Vicomte de Bragelonne" by Alexandre Dumas, père. He is a highly fictionalised version of the historical musketeer Armand de Sillègue d'Athos d'Autevielle (1615–1644). In "The Three Musketeers", he and the other two musketeers, Porthos and Aramis, are friends of the novel's protagonist, d'Artagnan. He has a mysterious past connecting him with the villain of the novel, Milady de Winter.