Wednesday, November 21, 2012

M. E. VII

penates In the ancient Roman religion, the household gods: associated with the lares.  [< L penus innermost part of a temple of Vesta ]

Augean adj. 1. resembling the Augean stables in filthiness or degradation.

Tiresias In Greek mythology, a Theban soothsayer, blinded by Athena whom he saw bathing and who in recompense gave him power to foretell the future. ─ Tiresian adj.

Heliconiades A name given to the Muses, from their fabled residence on Mount Helicon, which was sacred to them ( Lucret. iii. 1050 ).

Laocoon 1. In Greek legend, a Trojan priest of Apollo who warned against the wooden horse of the Greeks, and was destroyed with his two sons by two large serpents. 2. An antique sculpture in the Vatican, representing the slaughter of Laocoon and his sons.

Eurydamas Class. Myth. 1. One of the Argonauts. 2. ( in the Iliad ) an elderly Trojan diviner.

Laertes 1. In the Odyssey, a king of Ithaca, father of Odysseus. 2. In Shakespeare's Hamlet, brother of Ophelia and son of Polonius.

Pelias In Greek mythology, a son of Poseidon and king of Iolcus, who sent his nephew Jason to get the Golden Fleece.

Acca Larentia [L.] Rom. Myth. A woman of the legendary period who is said to have left her large property to the citizens of Rome. According to one tradition, she was the wife of Faustulus, who reared Romulus and Remus.

Atridae [L., fr. Gr. Atreidai.] Agamemnon and Menelaus, sons of Atreus.

Perieres Class. Myth. a Messinian king, the father, by Gorgophone, of Aphareus and Leucippus. 

Embla Scand. Myth. the first woman, made by the gods from a tree. Cf. Ask.

Faustitas A goddess among the Romans, supposed to preside over cattle and the productions of the seasons generally. Faustitas is probably equivalent to Felicitas Temporum of the Roman medals ( Hor. Carm. iv. 5, 18 ).

Tithonus In Greek mythology, a son of Laomedon who was loved by Eos. He was granted immortality by Zeus, but not eternal youth, so that he grew more and more shriveled with age, and was finally changed into a grasshopper.  [< L< Gk. Tithonōs ]

Calchas In Homer's Iliad, a priest of Apollo who accompanied the Greeks to Troy.

Aius Locutius Rom. Legend. a disembodied voice that warned the Romans of a coming invasion by the Gauls.

Creüsa Class. Myth. 1. the bride of Jason, slain by Medea. 2. a daugher of Priam and the wife of Aeneas who disappeared in the flight from Troy.

Antigone 1. Class. Myth. a daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta who defied her uncle, King Creon, by performing funeral rites over her brother, Polynices, and was condemned to be immured alive in a cave. 2. ( italics ) a tradegy ( c440 B. C.) by Sophocles.

Achilles In the Iliad, the son of Peleus and Thetis; foremost Greek hero of the Trojan War, he killed Hector and was killed by an arrow Paris shot into his right heel, his only vulnerable spot.  Achillean adj.

Oedipus  Gk. legend. a king of Thebes, the son of Laius and Jocasta, and the father of Eteocles, Polynices, Antigone, and Ismene: as was prophesied at his birth, he unwittingly killed his father and married his mother and, in penance, blinded himself and went into exile.

Augeas King of the Epeans in Elis and one of the Argonauts. Cf. Augean stables.

Laomedon Class. Myth. a king of Troy and the father of Priam, for whom the walls of Troy were built by Apollo and Poseidon.

Hector In the Iliad, a Trojan hero, son of Priam and Hecuba: killed by Achilles to avenge Patroclus.

Oeneus Class. Myth. a king of Calydon believed to have been the first man to cultivate grapes.

Cytherea Aphrodite.  [ after the island of Kythera, near which she was fabled to have risen from the sea ]  Cytherean adj.

Bellerophon In Greek mythology, a hero who, on the winged horse, Pegasus, slew the Chimera.

Clytemnestra The wife of Agamemnon, daughter of Leda and Tyndareus. See ORESTES. Also Clytaemnestra.

phoenix 1. a mythical bird of the Arabian desert, said to live for hundreds of years and then burn itself on a funeral pyre, rising from its ashes young and beautiful again to live for another cycle. 2. Phoenix, the capital of Arizona.

Laphria A name given to Artemis as worshipped at a festival called ΑάΦρια, celebrated at Petrae in Achaia ( Pausan. iv. 31, § 6 ).

Sisyphus In Greek mythology, a crafty, greedy king of Corinth, condemned in Hades forever to roll uphill a huge stone that always rolls down again.

Minotaur In Greek mythology, a monster with the body of a man and the head of a bull, conceived through the union of Pasiphae and a bull sent by Poseidon. Minos confined the Minotaur in the Labyrinth, where it was anually fed seven youths and seven maidens from Athens, until it was killed by Theseus.  [< L Minotaurus < Gk. Minōtauros < Minōs Minos + tauros bull ]

Theseus In Greek mythology, the chief hero of Attica, son of Aegeus and king of Athens, celebrated for killing the Minotaur and for unifying Attica with Athens as its capital. See ARIADNE, HIPPOLYTUS, PHAEDRA, PIRITHOUS. ─ Thesean adj.

Calydonian boar In Greek mythology, a great boar sent by Artemis to ravage Calydon. See MELEAGER.

Procrustes In Greek mythology, a giant of Attica, who tied travelers to an iron bed and amputated or stretched their limbs until they fitted it.  [< L< Gk. Prokroustēs < prokrouien to stretch out < pro- thoroughly + krouein to beat ]

Thallo Class. Myth. the goddess of spring flowers. considered by the ancient Athenians as one of the Horae.

Abbretteus A surname of Zeus in Mysia. (Strap. xii. p. 574.)

Melanippé Daughter of Chiron, also called Evippé. Being with child by Aeolus, she fled to Mount Pelion, and was there metamorphosed by Artemis into a mare, and placed among the stars as a constellation ( Hyg. Fab. 86 ).

Iamus The son of Apollo and Evadné. He received the art  of prophecy from his father, and was regarded as the ancestor of the famous family of seers, the Iamidae at Olympia.

Aegletes A surname of Apollo as the god of day and of the lightning, derived from αίγλη, "splendour." See APOLLO.

Gerarae The fountain priestesses who took part in the Anthesteria. See DIONYSIA.

Antaeus In Greek legend, a wrestler, invincible while in contact with the earth; crushed by Hercules, who lifted him into the air. ─ Antaean adj.

Polyphemus Class. Myth. 1. a Cyclops who murdered Acis in jealousy over Galatea, and who was finally blinded by Odysseus. 2. a son of Elatus who joined the Argonauts.

Cyclops 1. In Homeric legend, any of a race of one-eyed giants inhabiting Sicily. 2. In Hesiodic legend, any of the three Titans who forged Zeus's thunderbolts.

 a-1964 Standard College Dictionary

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