Thursday, November 29, 2012

M. E. XVIII

Aegipan [L., fr. Gr. Aigipan, fr. aix, aigios, goat + Pan Pan.] Pan, whose horns, ears, and legs were goatlike.

Metabus A chief of the Volsci, father of Camilla (q. v.).

Destinies In classical mythology, the Fates.

chthonian adj. In ancient mythology, pertaining to the gods and spirits of the underworld. Also chthonic.  [< Gk. chthōn the earth ]

lares and penates 1. The household gods. 2. The cherished belongings of one's household.

Phosphoros, Phosphorus [Gr. phōsphoros light bringer. See PHOSPHORUS.] Gr. Relig. An epithet of various deities associated with celestial luminaries, sometimes of the morning star; also, an epithet of Artemis or Hecate as a lunar deity.

Marsyas Greek mythology a satyr who challenged Apollo to contest in flute playing and was flayed alive when he lost.

Gyges Gk. Myth. 1. Also, Gyes. one of the Hecatonchires. 2. a shepherd who found a ring making its wearer invisible. Invited by the king of Lydia secretly to view his beautiful wife naked, Gyges was incited by her to kill the king and seize the throne. During his reign, allegedly, coinage was invented.

Amphithemis Class. Myth. a son of Apollo and Acacallis.

Euterpe The Muse of lyric song and music.

Pythian adj.1. Pertaining to Delphi, to Apollo's temple there, its oracle, or its priestess. 2. Relating to the Pythian games n.1. A native or inhabitant of Delphi. 2. The priestess of Apollo. 3. An epithet of the Delphic Apollo.  [< L Pythius < Gk. Pythios ]

sea horse 1. A marine fish ( genus Hippocampus ), having a prehensile tail and a head resembling that of a horse. 2. A walrus. 3. A fabulous animal, half horse and half fish, driven by Neptune. 4. A large, white-crested wave.

Pityocamptes ( " pine-bender " ). A name applied to the robber Sinis ( q. v.), who killed travelers by tying them between two pine-trees bent down so as nearly to meet, and then allowed to spring apart ( Pausan. ii. 1, 3 ).

Lua One of the early Italian divinities, to whom were dedicated the arms taken in battle ( Gell. xiii. 23, 1 ).

Actoridae Class. Myth. Moliones.

Poliuchus Class. Myth. an epithet of Athena, meaning "city-protecting."

Titanism Defiance of or rebellion against constituted authority or social conventions, a characteristic attributed to the Titans in Greek mythology.

Sciron Class. Myth. a robber, killed by Theseus, who ordered his victims to wash his feetand kicked them off a cliff when they knelt to do so.

Briseis ( in the Iliad ) the beautiful wife of Mynes, captured by Achilles. She was the cause of the quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon which resulted in the temporary withdrawl of Achilles from the fighting at Troy.

ambrosial adj.1. Of or like ambrosia; fragrant; delicious. 2. Worthy of the gods; heavenly. Also ambrosian ambrosially adv.

Telamon Class. Myth. an Argonaut and friend of Hercules, and the father of Ajax and Teucer.

Lilith 2. In Babylonian and Assyrian legend, a female demon who haunted desolate places.   [ < Hebrew Līlīth < Assyrian-Babylonian līlītu of the night]

manes 1. ( used with a plural v. ) Rom. Relig. the souls of the dead; shades. 2. ( used with a singular v. ) the spirit or shade of a particular dead person. Also, Manes.  [1350-1400; ME < L mānēs (pl.); akin to L mānis, mānus good]

satyr 1. In Greek mythology, a woodland deity in human form, having pointed ears, goat's legs, and budding horns, and of wanton nature.

bacchant n. pl. bacchants or bacchantes 1. A votary of Bacchus. 2. A carouser; reveler adj. Given to drunkeness.  [< L baccharis, -antis, ppr. of bacchari to celebrate the festival of Bacchus, carouse < Gk. bacchaien ]

Copia The goddess of plenty among the Romans, represented as bearing a horn filled with fruits, etc. See CORNU COPIAE.

Martian  [ L Martialis, pertaining to Mars, from Martis, god of war. ] relating to Mars, the god of war or to the planet Mars.

Amalthea In Greek mythology, the goat who suckled Zeus. One of her horns ( horn of Amalthea ) became the cornucopia or horn of plenty.

Cebrenis Daughter of Cebren, a river god in the Troad, from whom the town of Cebrené, the river Cebren, and the surrounding district, Cebrenia, took their names.

lycanthropy 1. In folklore, the power of turning one's self or another into a wolf. 2. A form of illness in which the patient imagines himself to be a wolf or other wild animal.  lycanthropic adj.

Pittheus Class. Myth. a son of Pelops and Hippodamia, and father of Aethra. He was considered the wiesest man of his time.

Laodice ( in the Iliad ) a daughter of Priam and Hecuba who chose to be swallowed up by the earth rather than live as a concubine.

Panopeus Class. Myth. a son of Phocus and Asteria who was a lifelong enemy of his twin brother, Crisus.

Meda Class. Myth. the wife of King Idomeneus who took Leucus as her lover when she suspected her husband of planning to bring a concubine back from Troy.

Mamers Rom. Legend. Mars.

Aërope Class. Myth. the wife of Atreus, seduced by her brother-in-law Thyestes.

Haemus Class. Myth. a Thracian king, a son of Boreas and Orithyia: he and his wife, Rhodope, were turned into mountains for irreverently changing their names to Zeus and Hera.

Trophonius Class. Myth. 1. an earth-god. 2. a master builder whom Apollo rewarded with a peaceful death for having built the temple at Delphi.

Cataebates Class. Myth. an epithet of Zeus, meaning "descender."

Midea Class. Myth. the mother, by Electryon, of Licymnius.

Cenchritus A river of Ionia near Ephesus and Mount Solmissus, where the Curetes, according to some, concealed and protected Leto after her delivery, when she was pursued by the power of Heré

Hippocoön The son of Oebalus of Sparta and of the nymph Batea. He drove his brothers Tyndareus and Icarius from home. Afterwords in consequence of his slaying the young Oeonus, a kinsman of Heracles in alliance with King Cepheus of Tegea. Tyndareus was thereby restored to the inheritance of his father's kingdom.

Assarachus ( in the Iliad ) a son of Tros and founder of the royal house to whom Anchises and Aeneas belonged.

Melic Nymphs Class. Myth. Meliae.

Coroebus Class. Myth. 1. a son of Mygdon, slain by Diomedes in the Trojan War. 2. an Argive hero who in penance for having slain the monster Poena built a temple to Apollo.

Polydamas (1) Son of Panthoüs and Phrontis. He was a Trojan hero, a friend of Hector, and brother of Euphorbus ( Il. xvi. 534 ).

Syrinx In Greek mythology, a nymph pursued by Pan and changed into a reed, from which Pan made his pipes.

Thestean banquet A cannibal feast; so called from the feast at which Thyestes was served his own sons. See ATREUS.

Tyndareus In Greek mythology, a king of Sparta and husband of Leda.

Cepheus In Greek legend, a king of Ethiopia, husband of Cassiopeia and father of Andromeda n. A constellation near Draco and Cassiopeia.

a-1964 Standard College Dictionary

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