Tuesday, November 20, 2012

M. E. V

Adeona [L.] Rom. Relig. A goddess whose protection was invoked for children upon their return their first departure from the house. Cf. ABEONA.

Cassiopeia 2. Class. Myth. the wife of Cepheus and mother of Andromeda. Also, Cassiepea, Cassiope, Cassiopea. [<L<Gk. Kassiópeia, var. of Kassiópē; see CASSIOPE ]   Cassiopeian, Cassiepean, Cassiopean, adj.

Tisiphone Class. Myth. one of the Furies.

Anchises In classical legend, the father of Aeneas, rescued from burning Troy on his son's shoulders.

Philius Class. Myth. an epithet of Zeus, meaning "friendly".

Lamprus The husband of Galatea. [See GALATEIA.]

Aphrodisias A town of Caria sacred to Aphrodite. See Tac. Ann. iii. 62.

Erebus In Greek mythology, a region under the earth through which the shades of the dead pass on the way to Hades.

Creteus Class. Myth. a king of Crete, a son of Minos and Pasiphaë. Cf. Althemenes.

Heliades Class. Myth. the daughters of Helius and Clymene who were transformed into poplar trees because of their grief over the death of their brother Phaëthon.

Andromache In Greek legend, the wife of Hector and mother of Astyanax, taken captive to Greece after the fall of Troy.

Seven against Thebes 1. Class. Myth. seven heroes, Amphiaraus, Capaneus, Eteoclus, Hippomedon, Parthenopaeus, Polynices, and Tydeus, who led a expedition against Thebes to depose Eteocles in favor of his brother Polynices: the expedition failed, but the Epigoni, the sons of the Seven against Thebes, conquered the city ten years later.

Andromeda [L., fr. Gr. Andromedē.] 1. Gr. Myth. Daughter of Cepheus and Cassiopeia, king and queen of Ethiopia. Cassiopeia having boasted her own beauty equal to that of the Nereids, Poseidon afflicted the land with floods and a devouring monster. The oracle of Zeus Ammon ( Jupiter Ammon) decreed that relief could be won only by chaining Andromeda to a cliff, for the monster to devour. Perseus, returning from slaying Medusa, kills the monster and marries Andromeda.

Saturnian adj. Of or pertaining to the god Saturn, especially to a fabled golden age in his reign, marked by simplicity, virtue, and happiness.

Perseus [ L., fr. Gr. Perseus.] 1. Gr. Myth. A son of Zeus and Danaë, who slew the Gorgon Medusa. Perseus learned how to proceed against Medusa from the Graeae by stealing and withholding the sole eye and tooth possessed among them until they instructed him. See ANDROMEDA, 1, GRAEAE, MEDUSA, 1.

Priam In Greek legend, the son of Laomedon, husband of Hecuba and father of fifty sons including Hector and Paris. He was the last king of Troy and was killed during its capture at the end of the Trojan War.

Hecuba In the Iliad, the wife of Priam and mother of Hector, Troilus, Paris, Cassandra, and others.

Menelaus In Greek legend, a king of Sparta, who, after the abduction of his wife, Helen by Paris, became one of the Greek leaders of Troy.

Corythus Class. Myth. 1. a king who raised the abandoned Telephus as his own son. 2. the son of Priam and Oenone who was killed by his father for falling in love with Helen. 3. ( in the Aeneid ) birthplace of Dardanus.

Cerberus In classical mytholoygy, the three-headed dog guarding the portals of Hades.  Cerberean adj. & n.

Danaides In Greek mythology, the fifty daughters of Danaus who, except for Hypermnestra, murdered their husbands on their bridal night at their father's command, and who were punished in Hades by having to draw water in a sieve forever.  Danaidean adj. & n.

panic  [< MF panique < Gk. panikos of or for the god Pan, who was believed to cause sudden or groundless fear ]  panicky adj.

Nephele In Greek legend, the wife of Athamas and mother of Phrixus and Helle.

Oenone In Greek mytholoygy, a nymph who married Paris, later deserted by him for Helen of Troy.

Cassandra In Greek mythology, a daughter of Priam whose prophecies were fated by Apollo to be true but never believed.  n. Anyone who utters unheeded prophecies of disaster.

Sarpedon [L., fr. Gr. Sarpēdōn.] Gr. Myth. a A son of Zeus and Europa, who became king of the Lycians and to whom Zeus granted the privelege of living three generations. b A valiant Lycian prince son of Zeus and Laodamia or of Evander and Deidamia, and grandson of the preceding. He was an ally of the Trojans, slain by Patroclus. Zeus sent Apollo to cleanse and anoint his body, which Sleep and Death carried to Lycia. It is probable that the distinction between two Sarpedons was invented by mythologists to reconcile contradictions which had grown up about a single person.

Boreades [ L., fr. Gr. Boreiadai.] Gr. Myth. Zetes and Calais, the son of Boreas and Oreithyia. They took part in the Argonautic expedition, and delivered the blind Phineus from persecution by the Harpies. As wind gods, they are represented in Greek art with wings.

Omphale In Greek mythology, a Lydian queen in whose service Hercules, dressed as a woman, did womanly tasks for three years to expiate a murder.

Diomedes In Greek legend, a king of Argos at the siege of Troy who helped Odysseus steal the Palladium. Also Diomed, Diomede.

Helenus In Greek legend, a son of Priam and Hecuba, endowed with the gift of prophecy.

Medea In Greek legend, a sorceress of Colchis who helped Jason obtain the Golden Fleece and, when deserted by him for Creusa, killed her rival and her own children and fled to Athens.

Pasiphae In Greek mythology, the wife of Minos and mother of the Minotaur.

Dione In Greek mythology, the mother of Aphrodite by Zeus.

Memnon 1. In Greek legend, a king of the Ethiopians killed by Achilles and made immortal by Zeus. 2. A huge statue at Thebes, Egypt, said to emit a musical note when touched by the sun at dawn.  Memnonian adj.

Endeïs Daughter of Chiron and the Naiad Chariclo, wife of Aeacus; mother of Peleus and Telamon( Pind. Nem. v. 21 ).

Alcimedes Class. Myth a son of Jason and Medea.

Idothea ( in the Odyssey ) a nymph who was the daughter of Proetus.

Pegasus In Greek mythology, a winged horse sprung from the blood of Medusa, a blow of whose hoof caused Hippocrene, the fountain of poetic inspiration, to spring from Mount Helicon: also poetic inspiration. See BELLEROPHON n. A constellation, the Winged Horse. See CONSTELLATION.  [< L < Gk. Pēgasos ]

Arethusa In Greek mythology, a nymph who was changed into a fountain to escape her pursuer Alpheus.

Hypermnestra In Greek mythology, the only one of the Danaides who did not kill her husband on her wedding night.

Arachne In Greek mythology, a Lydian girl who challenged Athena to a weaving contest and was changed by the goddess into a spider.

Fenrir In Norse mythology, a monstrous wolf fated to slay Odin and kept chained by the gods. Also Fenris, Fenris∙wolf.

oread In classical mythology, a mountain nymph.  [< L oreas, -adis< Gk. oreias, -ados < oros mountain ]

Palladium In Greek and Roman legend, a statue of Pallas Athena, especially one in Troy, on the preservation of which the safety of the city was believed to depend.  [< L< Gk. palladion, neut. of palladios of Pallas ]

  a-1964 Standard College Dictionary

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