victory

en-noun

victory (countable and uncountable, plural victories)

→ Maori: wikitōriatanga

The noun is derived from Middle English victory, victori, victorie (“supremacy, victory; a defeat or vanquishing, conquest; superior military force; might, power, strength; triumphal celebration or procession; monument commemorating a defeat; superior position, dominance; mastery; moral victory, vindication; success, triumph; redemption, salvation; resurrection of Jesus; means of achieving spiritual victory; reward for or token of perseverance in a spiritual struggle”) [and other forms], borrowed from Anglo-Norman victorie and Old French victorie, a variant of victoire (“victory, win”) (modern French victoire), from Latin victōria (“victory”), from victor (“champion, winner, victor; conqueror, vanquisher”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *weyk- (“to contain, envelop; to overcome”)) + -ia (suffix forming feminine abstract nouns). The English word is analysable as victor + -y (suffix forming abstract nouns denoting a condition, quality, or state), and displaced Middle English siȝe, sye.
The interjection is derived from the noun.
Cognates
* French victoire
* Italian vittoria
* Portuguese vitoria
* Spanish victoria
* Romanian victorie

nb...

victorye, viktori, vitorie, vittori, vittorie, vyctory, vyktorye, (Kent) fictorie, fyctorye, (Northern England) wictori, wictorie, wictorrie

suffix

snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory

All along the Champs Elysées were […] statues of plaster representing nymphs, triumphs, victories, and other female personages painted in oil so as to represent marble; real marble could have had no better effect, and the appearance of the whole was lively and picturesque in the extreme.

1841, M. A. Titmarsh [pseudonym; William Makepeace Thackeray], “Mr. Titmarsh to Miss Smith on the Second Funeral of Napoleon. Letter III. The Funeral Ceremony.”, in The Second Funeral of Napoleon: […] And The Chronicle of the Drum. […], London: Hugh Cunningham, […], →OCLC, page 63:

(Roman mythology) Alternative letter-case form of Victory (“(uncountable) the Roman goddess of victory, the counterpart of the Greek goddess Nike; also (countable), an artistic depiction of her, chiefly as a winged woman”)


Charybdis

From Ancient Greek Χάρυβδις (Khárubdis).

(Greek mythology) A personification of the above whirlpool as a female monster.


chimera

monolith

antonym(s) of “anything composed of very disparate parts”

Variant of Middle English chimere, chymere, & chymera under renewed Latin influence from the 16th century, from French chimère, from Latin Chimaera, from Ancient Greek Χίμαιρα (Khímaira, “fire-breathing mythological monster, fire-spewing Lycian or Cilician mountain”), from χίμαιρα (khímaira, “she-goat”, from χίμαρος (khímaros, “male goat”) + -α (-a)), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰey-. In reference to the fish, directly from Latin Chimaera, used by Linnaeus. In reference to organisms with distinct areas of different genetic makeups, a calque of German Chimäre, used by Hans Winkler in 1907.

af

...beestis clepid chymeres, that han a part of ech beest, and suche ben not, no but oonly in opynyoun...

1382, John Purvey, Bible, Prologue, p. 31

Bellerophon was commanded to destroy this monster, and with the assistance of the flying horse, Pegasus, he slew the chimera.

1860, E. Cust, “The Chimeras: An Attempt to Show that the Compound Animals of the Assyrian Marbles are Representations of those Erected by Solomon and Jeroboam (Read 1st and 8th December, 1859.)”, in Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, volume XII, Liverpool: Adam Holden, →OCLC, page 99:

The game includes a bunch of chimeras, with the lion heads shooting fire and the snake tails whipping around trying to bite the player.

(Greek mythology) Alternative letter-case form of Chimera, a supposed monster in Lycia with the head of a lion, body of a goat, and tail of a dragon or serpent, killed by the hero Bellerophon.


decimation

en-noun

decimation (countable and uncountable, plural decimations)

/ˌdɛsɪˈmeɪʃən/

Borrowed from Latin decimātiō, a punishment where every 10th man in a unit would be stoned to death by the men who were spared. Used by the Romans to keep order in their military. Compare septimation and vicesimation.

desimointi

creation of a new sequence comprising every nth element of the original

By decimation and a tythed death; / If thy Reuenges hunger for that Food, / Which Nature loathes, take thou the deſtin'd tenth, […]

c. 1605–1608, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene v], page 98, column 1:

(Ancient Rome, strictly) The killing or punishment of every tenth person, usually by lot.

desimaatio

selection of every tenth person for death or other punishment


hermetic

en-adj

hermetic (comparative more hermetic, superlative most hermetic)

more hermetic (comparative)
most hermetic (superlative)

From Medieval Latin hermeticus, irregular derivation of Hermes Trismegistus, the god and mythological alchemist, said to possess a magic ability to seal treasure chests so that nothing could access their contents.

(chiefly capitalized, Greek mythology) Pertaining to ancient Greek Olympian God Hermes


patrician

Borrowed from Middle French patricien, from Latin patricius, derived from patrēs cōnscrīptī (“Roman senators”).

Noble Patricians, Patrons of my right, / Defend the iuſtice of my Cauſe with Armes.

c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 31, column 1:

(Ancient Rome) A member of any of the families constituting the populus Romanus, or body of Roman citizens, before the development of the plebeian order; later, one who, by right of birth or by special privilege conferred, belonged to the senior class of Romans, who, with certain property, had by right a seat in the Roman Senate.


patrician

patrician (comparative more patrician, superlative most patrician)

more patrician (comparative)
most patrician (superlative)

It will speed the shrivelling of the patrician “one nation” Tories, who tried to curb the extremes of Thatcherism and ended by providing its veils.

Saint-Simon was certainly a radical, and hostile to inherited privilege, but his bourgeois 'socialism' was of a patrician kind. Science, being a firm and certain kind of knowledge, a 'religion of Newton' or 'cult of Reason' essentially plays the key role in his grand scheme for social engineering.

2013 July 18, Doctor Martin Parker, Valerie Fournier, Patrick Reedy, The Dictionary of Alternatives: Utopianism and Organization, Zed Books Ltd., →ISBN:

Where Ruskin's patrician socialism sought to create better conditions and 'higher' aspirations for the 'Workmen and Labourers of Great Britain', Sickert painted his working- and lower-middle-class subjects as if history, in the advance of mass culture and popular democracy, were on their side.

2022 September 8, Michael Bird, This is Tomorrow: Twentieth-century Britain and its Artists, Thames & Hudson, →ISBN:

Politically active to help people in lower classes, especially in a patronizing or condescending way.


Pegasus

From Late Middle English Pegase, Pegasus, from Latin Pēgasus, from Ancient Greek Πήγασος (Pḗgasos), traditionally associated with πηγή (pēgḗ, “spring, fountain, fountain fed by a spring”), especially used to denote springs of Ocean, where Perseus killed Medusa, from whose blood Pegasus sprang. Some have dismissed this as folk etymology and suggest a pre-Greek origin because of the -ασος suffix. First attested in the 14th century.

Пегас

in Ancient Greek or other European contexts

(Greek mythology) A winged horse fabled to have sprung from the blood of Medusa when she was slain. He is noted for causing, with a blow of his hoof, Hippocrene, the inspiring fountain of the Muses, to spring from Mount Helicon. Bellerophon tamed and rode upon Pegasus when he defeated the Chimaera.

vernal equinoctial
vernal equinox#English

(astronomy) A constellation of the northern sky, near the vernal equinoctial point, representing the winged horse. Its three brightest stars, with the brightest star of Andromeda, form the asterism of the Great Square of Pegasus.


Pegasus

(originally Greek mythology, fantasy, occasionally proscribed) Any winged horse; pterippus.

Confidence in Corinthian Pegasi grew up in the Greek zone of the island in such a way that Pegasi became the accepted coin of the realm.

2007 February 15, R. J. A. Talbert, Timoleon and the Revival of Greek Sicily: 344-317 B.C., Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, →OL, page 167:

(historical) A coin of ancient Corinth with a winged horse depicted on the obverse.


Scylla

From Latin Scylla, from Ancient Greek Σκύλλα (Skúlla).

(Greek mythology) A personification of said rock as a ravenous monster.

Ah cease rash Youth! desist e'er 'tis too late, / Fear the just Gods, and think of Scylla′s Fate!

1714, Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock, Canto III:

(Greek mythology) A princess, daughter of King Nisos of Megara, who fell in love with King Minos and betrayed her city to him.


Sisyphean

From Sisyphus, from Ancient Greek Σίσυφος (Sísuphos). Sisyphus was a Greek mythological figure who was doomed to endlessly roll a boulder up a hill in Tartarus, only to have it roll back down again.


sophist

Learned borrowing from Latin sophista, also sophistes, itself borrowed from Ancient Greek σοφιστής (sophistḗs, “pursuer of wisdom”), from σοφίζομαι (sophízomai, “to become wise”).

der

[T]hey have acted in this Calumny both the injuſtice of the Tyrant, and the forgery of the Sophiſt.

1699, Richard Bentley, “The Preface”, in A Dissertation upon the Epistles of Phalaris. With an Answer to the Objections of the Honourable Charles Boyle, Esquire, London: […] J[ohn] H[umphreys] for Henry Mortlock […], and John Hartley […], →OCLC, page iii:

(figurative, by extension) One who is captious, fallacious, or deceptive in argument.

سَفْسَطِيّ

one who is captious, fallacious, or deceptive in argument


toxotes

From Ancient Greek τοξότης (toxótēs, “bowman, archer”).

uder

(historical) A Greek archer armed with a short Greek bow and a short sword.


triumph

en-noun

triumph (countable and uncountable, plural triumphs)

From Middle English [Term?], borrowed from Old French triumphe, from Latin triumphus (“triumphal procession”), ultimately from Ancient Greek θρίαμβος (thríambos, “thriambus”). Doublet of thriambus and trump.

der

(historical, Ancient Rome) a ceremony held to publicly celebrate and sanctify the military achievement of an army commander.

voitonjuhla

ceremony to celebrate someone’s military achievement


Sterculius

(Roman mythology) The god of manure or fertilizer.


diptych

From Late Latin diptycha, plural, from Ancient Greek, neuter plural of δίπτυχος (díptukhos, “folded, doubled”), from δι- (di-) + πτυχή (ptukhḗ, “fold, layer”).

(historical, Ancient Rome) Artistically-wrought tablets distributed by consuls, etc. of the later Roman Empire to commemorate their tenure of office; hence (transferred sense) a list of magistrates.


gladiator

en-verb

gladiator (third-person singular simple present gladiators, present participle gladiatoring, simple past and past participle gladiatored)

gladiators (present singular third-person)
gladiatoring (participle present)
gladiatored (participle past)
gladiatored (past)

From Latin gladiātor, from gladius (“sword”). See also English gladius.

He did his gladiatoring doubtless without malice, and from a purely sporting instinct — even as Mr. Punch gave the provocation.

1895, Athol Mayhew, A Jorum of "Punch" with Those who Helped to Brew it:

Quoting the accounts in both Time and Newsweek, they note that though the "defense attorney may have outwitted, outsparred, and even "out gladiatored" (another popular image in the trial coverage) his opponent, but he still lost the case.

1988, Bernard S. Jackson, Law, fact and narrative coherence, page 71:

It was all part of the gladiatoring: the true performer would argue each case to the utmost, like a debater or mooter in our own world.

2005, John K. Hale, Milton's Cambridge Latin: Performing in the Genres, 1625-1632:

Och! lave off your gladiatoring; sure it's took up I'd be if I did that!

2010, John O'Mahony, R. L. Praeger, The Sunny Side of Ireland, page 71:


Baal

en-proper noun

Baal (countable and uncountable, plural Baals or Baalim)

From Late Latin Baal (as in the Vulgate) and Ancient Greek Βάαλ (Báal); from Hebrew בַּעַל (bá`al, “lord, husband, owner”), Phoenician 𐤁𐤏𐤋 (bʿl, “lord, master, owner”) and Ugaritic 𐎁𐎓𐎍 (baʿlu, “lord, owner”), all from Proto-Semitic *baʿl- (“owner, lord, husband”).

der

(mythology, biblical, sometimes lowercase) Various other Baalim, understood as distinct patron gods or as local patron aspects the great god Baal.


Babylonian

From Latin Babylōnius (“of Babylon, Babylonian”) (from Ancient Greek Βαβυλώνιος (Babulṓnios)) + -an; corresponding to Babylon + -ian.

A later form of Akkadian language spoken in Babylonia in 1950 BC – 100 AD.


Babylonic

en-adj

Babylonic (comparative more Babylonic, superlative most Babylonic)

more Babylonic (comparative)
most Babylonic (superlative)

Pipes of port, hogsheads of claret, cases of champagne, gallons of spirituous liquors, are unaccountably added up, subtracted, and divided, by the rule of three and the rule of contrary, into Babylonic confusion, such as worse confounds the confusion of the proprietor of all this intolerable quantity of sack.

1846, Catherine Grace Frances Gore, Sketches of English Character - Volumes 1-2, page 199:

From confusion and subsequent descent into Babylonic chaos and alterity , God's spirit — his saving , incarnate Word—prepares to enter man's heart and to transform the utter alienation and otherness of nature and society into blessed unity.

1995, James Joseph Bono, The Word of God and the Languages of Man, page 163:

We'd strain to touch those lang'rous Length of thighs; And hear your short sharp modern Babylonic cries.

2016, Djuna Barnes, Katharine Maller, Vivid and Repulsive as the Truth: The Early Works of Djuna Barnes, page 238:

The neighboring computers also pick up on this disturbance of their collective chant, and as each is associatively connecting the new words to its own knowledge base, we hear the voices enter into a Babylonic confusion—or, as Rokeby calls it, "a party-like chaos of voices,"

2016, Andreas Broeckmann, Machine Art in the Twentieth Century, page 91:

If Evelina had no use for Luke Wavering, still less had she for his daughter, Daphne, brought up by him in this atmosphere of Babylonic miasma.

2021, William J. Locke, The Kingdom of Theophilus:


Bacchanalia

From Latin Bacchānālia (“feast of Bacchus”), plural of Bacchānal (“a place devoted to Bacchus”), from Bacchus (“the god of wine”), from Ancient Greek Βάκχος (Bákkhos).

(Greek mythology) A feast or an orgy in honor of Bacchus.


legion

Attested (in Middle English, as legioun) around 1200, from Old French legion, from Latin legiō, legionem, from legō (“to gather, collect”); akin to legend, lecture. Doublet of León, which was borrowed from Spanish.
Generalized sense of “a large number” is due to an allusive phrase in Mark 5:9, "my name is Legion: for we are many" (KJV).

Meronyms: cohort, maniple, century

(military, Ancient Rome) The major unit or division of the Roman army, usually comprising 3000 to 6000 infantry soldiers and 100 to 200 cavalry troops.

legioen

the major unit or division of the Roman army


addict

en-verb

addict (third-person singular simple present addicts, present participle addicting, simple past and past participle addicted)

addicts (present singular third-person)
addicting (participle present)
addicted (participle past)
addicted (past)

→ Cebuano: adik

→ Tagalog: adik

Borrowed from Latin addictus, past participle of addīcō (“deliver; devote; surrender”), from ad- (“to, towards, at”) + dīcō (“say; declare”)

get hooked

cause someone to become addicted, especially to a harmful drug

(transitive, Ancient Rome) To deliver (someone or something) following a judicial decision.


Tartarus

From Latin Tartarus, from Ancient Greek Τάρταρος (Tártaros).

[…] them with Fire and hoſtile Arms / Fearleſs aſſault, and to the brow of Heav'n / Purſuing, drive them out from God and bliſs, / Into thir place of puniſhment, the Gulf / Of Tartarus, which ready opens wide / His fiery Chaos to receave thir fall.

1667, John Milton, “Book VI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 50–55:

(Greek mythology, Roman mythology) A dark and gloomy part of the realm of Hades, reserved for the damned and the wicked, such as the Titans; an equivalent of hell in Greek and Roman mythology.


Hades

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Hades.wav

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek ᾍδης (Hā́idēs).

lbor

(Greek mythology) The god of the underworld and ruler of the dead, son of Cronus and Rhea, brother of Zeus and Poseidon.

(Greek mythology) The underworld, the domain of Hades, by transference from its god.


Ares

From Latin Arēs, from Ancient Greek Ἄρης (Árēs).

(Greek mythology) The Greek god of war, considered equivalent to the Roman Mars and usually described as a son of Zeus and Hera, companion of Eris and Enyo, and by Aphrodite father of Deimos and Phobos.


Jove

From Middle English Joves, from Latin Iuppiter, Iovis, from Proto-Italic *djowe-, ablative case of *djous, from Proto-Indo-European *dyḗws. Doublet of Dyeus and Zeus.

BEAT on, proud billows; Boreas blow; / Swell, curled waves, high as Jove’s roof; / Your incivility doth ſhow, / That innocence is tempeſt proof; / Though ſurly Nereus frown, my thoughts are calm; / Then ſtrike, Affliction, for thy wounds are balm. [Attributed to Roger L'Estrange (1616–1704).]

1781, [Mostyn John Armstrong], History and Antiquities of the County of Norfolk. Volume IX. Containing the Hundreds of Smithdon, Taverham, Tunstead, Walsham, and Wayland, volume IX, Norwich: Printed by J. Crouse, for M. Booth, bookseller, →OCLC, page 51:

(Roman mythology) Jupiter, god of the sky.


Jason

From the Ancient Greek Ἰάσων (Iásōn), from ἰάομαι (iáomai, “I heal”). The Jason mentioned in the New Testament (Acts 17:5-9, Romans 16:21) is probably a Greek rendering of Joshua.

I know he will be glad of our success: / We are the Jasons, we have won the fleece.

(Greek mythology) The leader of the Argonauts, who retrieved the Golden Fleece from king Aeetes of Colchis, for his uncle Pelias.


Asclepius

Borrowed from Latin Asclēpius, from Ancient Greek Ἀσκληπιός (Asklēpiós).

We found religious medicine in the Homeric poems, and there was no century without healing cults. The cult of Asclepius was by no means the only one, but, for reasons that will be discussed later, it dominated the scene and set a pattern for the cults of other healing deities.

1961, Henry E. Sigerist, “A History of Medicine, Volume II: Early Greek, Hindu, and Persian Medicine”, in Paperback, Oxford University Press, published 1987, page 44:

The temple of Asclepius is located just inside the north wall (Fig. 5) and is referred to by Pausanias (p. 34), who notes that the site was a place of refreshment in summer.

2002, Jerome Murphy-O'Connor, St. Paul's Corinth: Texts and Archaeology, Liturgical Press, page 186:

The story of Tiber Island is similar: in 293 BC, the inhabitants of Rome started to fall sick and die from an unknown disease, and the city fathers sent an expedition to Epidaurus in Greece to retrieve one of the snakes sacred to Asclepius (Greek Asklepiós, Aesculapius in Latin), god of medicine and healing, thus bringing the god to Rome. The story told by Livy was that as the ship carrying this snake came up the Tiber, the snake escaped and swam to the island. The Romans immediately concluded that Asclepius wished to dwell there (it would appear that clever Asclepius had immediately recognised an excellent place of quarantine), and built a temple to the god on the island.

2015, Paula Landart, Finding Ancient Rome: Walks in the City, E-Book, page 16:

(Greek mythology) A Greek mythological deity, the god of doctors, medicine and healing; a son of Apollo and the Thessalian princess Coronis, husband to the goddess Epione and father of the Asclepiades; identified with the Roman god Aesculapius.

阿斯克勒庇俄斯

Āsīkèlēibì'ésī


popular

en-adj

popular (comparative more popular, superlative most popular)

more popular (comparative)
most popular (superlative)

From Middle English populer, from Old French populaire and Latin populāris, from populus (“people”) + -āris (“-ar”).

As a work of popular science it is exemplary: the focus may be the numbers, but most of the mathematical legwork is confined to the appendices and the accompanying commentary is amusing and witty, as well as informed.

2009 April 8, “Meltdown”, in The Economist:

Aimed at ordinary people, as opposed to specialists etc.; intended for general consumption.


ostracize

en-verb

ostracize (third-person singular simple present ostracizes, present participle ostracizing, simple past and past participle ostracized)

term-label

(American spelling, Oxford British English)

ostracizes (present singular third-person)
ostracizing (participle present)
ostracized (participle past)
ostracized (past)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-ostracize.wav

From Ancient Greek ὀστρακίζω (ostrakízō, “to banish from a city by ostracism”), from ὄστρᾰκον (óstrăkon, “earthenware vessel; fragment of such a vessel, potsherd”) (from the fact that when voting was held to decide whether to banish people, their names were inscribed on potsherds) + -ῐ́ζω (-ĭ́zō, suffix forming verbs)). The English word is cognate with French ostraciser.

refn

From the collection of the Goulandris Museum of Cycladic Art in Athens, Greece.

der

Republics have been accused of being ungrateful. Aristides was ostracised for being called the Just, and Themistocles banished, after saving his country from desolation.

1836 December 15, Eleazer Wheelock Ripley, “The President’s Message”, in Register of Debates in Congress, Comprising the Leading Debates and Incidents of the Second Session of the Twenty-fourth Congress: […] (United States House of Representatives), volume XIII, Washington, D.C.: Printed and published by Gales and Seaton, published 1837, →OCLC, column 1097:

[T]he person who was ostracised was obliged to leave Athens within ten days after the sentence, and unless a vote of the people recalled him before the expiration of that time, to stay in exile for ten years.

1840, “OSTRACISM”, in [George Long], editor, The Penny Cyclopædia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, volumes XVII (Organ–Pertinax), London: Charles Knight and Co., […], →OCLC, page 55, column 2:

The Athenian Hyperbolus, who had been ostracized some years before by the coalition of Nikias and Alkibiades, together with their respective partisans—ostracized (as Thucydides tells us) not from any fear of his power and over-transcendent influence, but from his bad character and from his being a disgrace to the city—and thus ostracized by an abuse of the institution—was now resident at Samos.

[1849], George Grote, “Twenty-first Year of the War.—Oligarchy of Four Hundred at Athens.”, in A History of Greece from the Earliest Period to the Close of the Generation Contemporary with Alexander the Great. [...] In Four Volumes, 2nd edition, volume III, New York, N.Y.: W. L. Allison Co., publishers, →OCLC, part II (Continuation of Historical Greece), page 203:

(transitive, Ancient Greece, historical) To ban a person from a city for five or ten years through the procedure of ostracism.

verbannen

to ban a person from a city for five or ten years by the procedure of ostracism


genius

en-noun

genius (countable and uncountable, plural geniuses or genii)

From Latin genius (“inborn nature; a tutelary deity of a person or place; wit, brilliance”), from gignō (“to beget, produce”), Old Latin genō, from the Proto-Indo-European root *ǵenh₁-. Doublet of genio. See also genus.

bor

and the genius of the place: the growing enthusiasm for codified standards in the Army and Navy

1646 (indicated as 1645), John Milton, “the unseen genius of the wood”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], →OCLC:

We talk of genius still, but with thought how changed! The genius of Augustus was a tutelary demon, to be sworn by and to receive offerings on an altar as a deity.

1715, Edward Burnett Tylor, Primitive Culture:

An old sinner, in shape of a khansamah, is the genius of the place, and has rarely aught else to tempt the tired traveller with than a “sudden death”—a fowl caught running in the yard, and dished up forthwith; […]

1866, Frederick F. Wyman, From Calcutta to the Snowy Range, page 330:

(countable, Roman mythology, also figuratively) The tutelary deity or spirit of a place or person.


mage

From Middle English mages (plurale tantum), from Latin magus, from Ancient Greek Μάγος (Mágos), from the hapax Old Persian 𐎶𐎦𐎢𐏁 (m-gu-u-š /maguš/). Doublet of magus.

While the liberality of Gelo and his brother Hiero atracted every stranger who could amuse or instruct the court of Syracuse, a Persian Mage related to the former of those princes that he himself had circumnavigated the whole continent of Africa.

c. 1790, Edward Gibbon, On the Position of the Meridional Line, and the supposed Circumnavigation of Africa by the Ancients; republished as The Miscellaneous Works of Edward Gibbon, Esq. […] , volume 5, 1814, pages 186–87:

(obsolete) Synonym of magus: a Zoroastrian priest.

magic user

practitioner of allegedly supernatural magic


Artemis

From Ancient Greek Ἄρτεμις (Ártemis). Further etymology is uncertain.

(Greek mythology) The Greek goddess of the hunt, wild animals, and wilderness; the daughter of Leto and Zeus; the sister of Apollo. (Compare Diana.)


Athena

From Middle English Athena, from Latin Athēna, from Ancient Greek Ἀθηνᾶ (Athēnâ). Doublet of Athina.

(Greek mythology) The goddess of wisdom, especially strategic warfare, the arts, and especially crafts, in particular, weaving; daughter of Zeus and Metis. Her Roman counterpart is Minerva.


Oedipus

From the Latin Oedipus, from the Ancient Greek Οἰδίπους (Oidípous, “swollen foot”).

der

(Greek mythology) A son of Laius and Jocasta, who unwittingly killed his father and married his mother.


Clio

(Greek mythology) The goddess of history and heroic poetry, and one of the Muses; the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne.


Cronus

Borrowed from Ancient Greek Κρόνος (Krónos), possibly from the Ancient Greek κραίνω (kraínō, “to accomplish or fulfil”).

der

The deal is: You post a photo from 10 years ago and one from now. It’s like viewing a painting of Cronus eating his children, but online.

2019 January 16, Alexis C. Madrigal, “Go Ahead, Post the Stupid Photo of Yourself From 10 Years Ago”, in The Atlantic:

(Greek mythology) The youngest of the twelve Titans, son of Uranus and Gaia; father to the first generation of Olympian gods and goddesses.


Khronos

(Greek mythology) Alternative spelling of Cronus

(Greek mythology) Alternative spelling of Chronos


Chronos

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek Χρόνος (Khrónos), from Ancient Greek χρόνος (khrónos, “time”)

lbor

(Greek mythology) The personification of time.


Dionysus

Via Latin Dionȳsus, from Ancient Greek Διόνῡσος (Diónūsos).

All hail slain and risen God / All hail Dionysus / Come blessed Dionysus, various nam'd, bull-fac'd / Begot from the thunder, Bacchus fam'd

(Greek mythology) The god of wine, ivy and grapes, specifically its intoxication and social influence, but also the patron of agriculture and the theater. Also related to the mystery of religion, as in "spiritual intoxication".


equestrian

Ultimately from Latin equester (“of or pertaining to equestrians/cavalry”) + -ianus (“-ian, related to”, adjective marker), from equus (“horse”).


Perseus

Latin from the Ancient Greek Περσεύς (Perseús).

(Greek mythology) The mythological Greek warrior who slew the Gorgon Medusa by decapitating her. He married Andromeda after rescuing her from Ceto and founded Mycenae. He was the son of Zeus and Danae.


Chaldea

A region in the southern portion of Babylonia, Lower Mesopotamia, lying chiefly on the right bank of the Euphrates, but commonly used to refer to the whole of the Mesopotamian plain.


Classical Greek

The form of the Ancient Greek language used during the classical period of Greek literature: approximately 600 to 300 BCE.


Ancient Greek

Any of the various forms of the Greek language of classical antiquity, particularly the classical Attic dialect used in Athenian literature.


Ancient Greek

A native or inhabitant of Ancient Greece.


Cupid

From Latin Cupīdō, personification of cupīdō (“desire, desire of love”), from cupidus (“eager, greedy, passionate”), from cupere (“to desire”).

The myth of Cupid and Psyche was one of the most influential romances in European culture.

(Roman mythology) The god of love, son of Venus; sometimes depicted as a putto (a naked, winged boy with bow and arrow). The Roman counterpart of Eros.


sarcophagus

en-noun

sarcophagus (plural sarcophagi or sarcophaguses or (rare) sarcophagusses)

sarcophagi (plural)
sarcophaguses (plural)
sarcophagusses (plural rare)

/sɑːˈkɒfəɡəs/

/sɑɹˈkɑfəɡəs/

/sɑːˈkɒfəɡaɪ/

/sɑɹˈkɑfəɡaɪ/

Assos
Chernobyl New Safe Confinement
Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant
Egyptian Museum
Frankfurt Main Cemetery
Franz Adickes

The noun is borrowed from Latin sarcophagus (“grave; sarcophagus; flesh-eating, carnivorous”), from Ancient Greek σᾰρκοφᾰ́γος (sărkophắgos, “sarcophagus; flesh-eating, carnivorous”) (so named from λῐ́θος σᾰρκοφᾰ́γος (lĭ́thos sărkophắgos, literally “flesh-eating stone”) a type of limestone found at Assos in Troas (now Behramkale, Turkey) thought to consume the flesh of corpses, and thus used to make coffins), from σαρκός (sarkós) (the genitive form of σάρξ (sárx, “flesh; body”), from Proto-Indo-European *twerḱ- (“to carve; to cut off, trim”)) + -φάγος (-phágos, suffix meaning ‘eater (of); eating’) (from ἔφαγον (éphagon, “to devour, eat”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂g- (“to allot, distribute; to divide”)).
The plural form sarcophagi is borrowed from Latin sarcophagī.
The verb is derived from the noun.

ref

From the collection of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Egypt.

nb...

Containing Numerous Designs for Dwellings, from the Cottage to the Villa, Including Farm Houses, Farmeries, and Other Agricultural Buildings; Several Designs for Country Inns, Public Houses, and Parochial Schools; with the Requisite Fittings-up, Fixtures, and Furniture; and Appropriate Offices, Gardens, and Garden Scenery; Each Design Accompanied by Analytical and Critical Remarks, Illustrative of the Principles of Architectural Science and Taste of which It is Composed. 􂀿...􂁀 Illustrated by More than Two Thousand Engravings; the Designs by Upwards of Fifty Different Architects, Surveyors, Builders, Upholsterers, Cabinet-makers, Landscape-gardeners, and Others, of whom a List is Given. A New Edition, with Numerous Corrections, and with Many of the Plates Re-engraved.

at the Architectural Library, High Holborn.

ref

From J[ohn] C[laudius] Loudon (1839) “Of the Furniture of Villas”, in An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture; […], new edition, London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longmans, and sold by John Weale, […], →OCLC, book III (Designs for Villas, with Various Degrees of Accommodation, and in Different Styles of Architecture), figure 1873, page 1045.

der

Near unto Aſſos, a citie in Troas, there is found in the quarries a certaine ſtone called Sarcophagus, vvhich runneth in a direct veine, and is apt to be cloven and ſo cut out of the rocke by flakes: The reaſon of the name is this, becauſe that vvithin the ſpace of fortie daies it is knovvne for certain to conſume the bodies of the dead vvhich are beſtovved therein, skin, fleſh, and bone, all ſave the teeth.

1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “[Book XXXVI.] Of Certaine Stones which will Quickly Consume the Bodies that be Laid therein. Of Others Againe that Preserve Them a Long Time. Of the Stone Called Assius, and the Medicinable Properties thereof.”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], 2nd tome, London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC, page 587:

His Entrails are like the Sarcophagus, that devours dead Bodies in a ſmall Space, […]

a. 1681 (date written), Samuel Butler, “A Glutton”, in R[obert] Thyer, editor, The Genuine Remains in Verse and Prose of Mr. Samuel Butler, […], volume II, London: […] J[acob] and R[ichard] Tonson, […], published 1759, →OCLC, page 461:

(obsolete except Ancient Greece, historical) A kind of limestone used by the Ancient Greeks for coffins, so called because it was thought to consume the flesh of corpses.


Selene

From the Ancient Greek Σελήνη (Selḗnē, proper noun), from σέλας (sélas, “light”).

Balancing Arria is the union of Selene and Endymion. In the center of the main panel Selene descends from her chariot, whose horses are held by a nymph, to join Endymion, who lies to the right.

1999, Mark P. O. Morford, Robert J. Lenardon, Classical Mythology, page 43:

In the other, more famous story, the moon goddess Selene fell in love with him^([Endymion]) while he was asleep.

2005, Marshall Cavendish Corporation, Gods, Goddesses, and Mythology, volume 4, page 473:

This fragmentary front panel of a sarcophagus preserves two episodes from the story of Endymion and Selene. Selene, goddess of the moon, fell in love with Endymion, a beautiful young mortal.

2010, J. Paul Getty Trust, Kenneth Lapatin, Karol Wight, editors, The J. Paul Getty Museum Handbook of the Antiquities Collection, 2nd edition, page 169:

(Greek mythology) The goddess of the Moon.


villa

Borrowed from Italian villa, from Latin vīlla (“country house”). Doublet of vill and ville.

(Ancient Rome, plural "villae") A country house, with farm buildings around a courtyard.


prevarication

en-noun

prevarication (countable and uncountable, plural prevarications)

/pɹɪˌvæɹɪˈkeɪʃən/

/pɹɪˌvæɹəˈkeɪʃən/

From Anglo-Norman prevaricassion, Middle French prevarication, and their source, Latin praevāricātiō (“collusion with an opponent; transgression; deceit”), from the stem of praevāricor.

der

(Ancient Rome, law, historical) The collusion of an informer with the defendant, for the purpose of making a sham prosecution.


Thalia

From Ancient Greek Θαλία (Thalía) or Θάλεια (Tháleia); from Ancient Greek θάλλω (thállō, “flourish, to be verdant”).

uder

(Greek mythology) The Muse of comedy and idyllic poetry.

(Greek mythology) One of the three Graces/Charites.


siren

From Middle English siren, from Old French sereine and Latin Sīrēn, Sīrēna, from Ancient Greek Σειρήν (Seirḗn). The mammalian sense was first attested in French in Dominique Bouhours, Les entretiens d'Ariste et d'Eugène, in 1671. The aquatic salamander sense was originally introduced by Linnaeus in 1766, for a genus of his reptiles. Doublet of serin.

Now give ear to what I'm about to say to you , and a god himself will bring it before your mind . First , you will come to the Sirens . These beings enthrall all men who arrive before them . Whoever draws near without knowledge and ...

2008 October 7, Homer, The Odyssey, North Atlantic Books, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 278:

(Greek mythology) One of a group of nymphs who lured mariners to their death on the rocks.


temenos

The three spheres – political, commercial, spiritual – intersected, and at the very centre of their conjunction was, and is, the Meccan temenos.

2019, Tim Mackintosh-Smith, Arabs, Yale University Press, page 123:

(chiefly Ancient Greece) Ground under, surrounding and adjacent to a temple; a sacred enclosure or precinct.


forum

→ Italian: forum

→ Korean: 포럼 (poreom)

From Latin forum (“public market place, forum”). Doublet of fuero and door.

der

Trish was an admin on three forums, and had no trouble at all when it came to moderating them.

(Internet) An Internet message board where users can post messages regarding one or more topics of discussion.


Eris

Borrowed from Ancient Greek Ἔρις (Éris), from ἔρις (éris, “strife”).
See also Eris (mythology) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia and Eris (dwarf planet) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

pedia

According to Homer, the Trojan war is, above all, an affair of the gods. It is about Eris, a sister of the god of war Ares, and about Eros, not directly named by Homer, but who in the figure of Aphrodite, the god of love, plays a central role on the side of the Trojans. Eris is the one who divides gods, mortals, and things from each other; Eros is the one who brings them together.

1992, Samuel Ijsseling, “Eros and Eris: The Trojan War and Heidegger on the Essence of Truth”, in Paul van Tongeren, Paul Sars, Chris Bremmers, Koen Boey, editors, Eros and Eris: Contributions to a Hermeneutical Phenomenology Liber Amicorum for Adriaan Peperzak, Kluwer Academic, page 2:

1993, Herman Parret, The Aesthetics of Communication: Pragmatics and Beyond, Springer, Softcover reprint, page 18,
Eris, "the Strife with the violent heart", one reads in Hesiod's Theogony, is a child of the Night, and "Hateful Struggle gave birth to painful Distress and Distraction and Famine and tearful Sorrow; also Wars and Battles and Murders and Slaughters; also Feuds and Lying Words and Angry Words".

According to Newport, no specific bowling alley can claim to be the site of the birth of the Discordian movement. It evolved at several different bowling alleys. This revelation came as a devastating disappointment to your humble author, who—in the course of writing this book—had planned a grand religious pilgrimage to this envisioned holy site, where I would snap sacred photos of "The Brunswick Shrine," and perhaps even fall to my knees before this fabled Mecca of Discordianism, bowing to the Goddess Eris.

2003, Adam Gorightly, The Prankster and the Conspiracy: The Story of Kerry Thornley and How He Met Oswald and Inspired the Counterculture, Paraview Press, page 58:

And yet Erisianism should not be treated frivolously. Greg Hill told me his experiences with Eris had been quite profound. Although it started as an atheistic joke, his perceptions began to change.

2006, Margot Adler, Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-worshippers, and Other Pagans in America, Penguin, page 351:

(Greek mythology) The goddess of discord and strife, whose apple of discord sparked events that eventually led to the Trojan War; equated by Homer with Enyo (goddess of violent war) and identified with the Roman goddess Discordia;

The goddess of discord and strife, whose apple of discord sparked events that eventually led to the Trojan War; equated by Homer with Enyo (goddess of violent war) and identified with the Roman goddess Discordia;
(religion, Discordianism) the same figure as principal deity of Discordianism, regarded as the goddess of disorder.


Lethe

From Latin Lēthē, from Ancient Greek Λήθη (Lḗthē).

(Greek mythology) The personification of oblivion, daughter of Eris.

No wonder these mortal Folks have so many Complaints, […] if they were dead now, and to be settled here for ever, they'd be damn'd before they'd make such a Rout come over—“But care, I suppose, is thirsty; and till they have drench’d themselves with Lethe, there will be no quiet among ’em” however, I’ll e’en to work; and so, friend Æsop, and brother Mercury, good bye to ye.

1740, David Garrick, Lethe: or Aesop in the Shade, published 1782:

My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains / My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk, / Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains / One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk:

For two-and-twenty years he [Doctor Guillotin], unguillotined, shall hear nothing but guillotine, see nothing but guillotine; then dying, shall through long centuries wander, as it were, a disconsolate ghost, on the wrong side of Styx and Lethe; his name like to outlive Cæsar’s.

1837, Thomas Carlyle, chapter IV, in The French Revolution: A History […], volume I (The Bastille), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, book IV (States-General):

A well-fed man is not driven to drink by the craving that torments the hungry; and the comfortable do not crave for the boon of forgetfulness. Gin is the only Lethe of the miserable.

1890, William Booth, chapter 6, in In Darkest England and the Way Out:

When we have done penance, and are purified, and have drunk of the fountain of Lethe and bathed in the fountain of Eunoe, the mistress of our soul raises us to the Paradise of Heaven.

1891, Oscar Wilde, “The Critic as Artist”, in Intentions:

oblivion n.: Lethe. In Greek mythology, Lethe (pronounced LEEthee) is one of the several rivers of Hades. Those who drink from it experience complete forgetfulness. Today it is used to refer to one in an oblivious or forgetful state.

2015, Peter E. Meltzer, The Thinker's Thesaurus, W. W. Norton & Company, →ISBN:

(Greek mythology) The river which flows through Hades from which the souls of the dead drank so that they would forget their time on Earth.


Metis

From Ancient Greek Μῆτις (Mêtis) from Ancient Greek μῆτις (mêtis, “wisdom”).

(Greek mythology) A Titan who was the personification of wisdom, the first spouse of Zeus, and the mother of Athena


plebeian

From Latin plēbēius (“a commoner; common”) + -an (adjective-forming suffix), from Latin plēbēs + -ius (adjective-forming suffix), possibly under the influence of Middle French plebeyen, plebein, plebien (“a commoner”) and plebeien (“concerning the common people”). Cf. Medieval Latin plēbēiānus (“a commoner”), from plēbēius + -ānus.

cog

Na plebeane will tak þe dochter of ane patriciane but hir consent.

1533, John Bellenden translating Livy, History of Rome, Vol. II, Ch. iv, Sect. ii

(historical, Ancient Rome) A member of the plebs, the common citizens of ancient Rome.

պլեբեյ

one of the common people of ancient Rome


Typhon

(Greek mythology) The most powerful and feared of all Greek monsters, having the head, arms, and torso of a man, and his bottom half consisting of countless dragons or serpents. Some stories also say that his hands ended in serpents and that he bears 100 heads. He is shrouded in giant wings, his eyes blaze a white fire, and his arms reach towards the stars.

Athanasius Kircher
Oedipus Aegyptiacus
Typhon


tyrant

→ Welsh: teirant

From Middle English tyraunt, tiraunt, tyrant, tyrante, from Old French tyrant, from the addition of a terminal -t to tiran (cp. French tyran) via a back-formation related to the development of French present participles out of the Latin -ans form, from Latin tyrannus (“despot”), from Ancient Greek τύραννος (túrannos, “usurper, monarch, despot”), of uncertain origin.

tirà

person who uses violence to treat others unjustly

To proue him Tyrant, this reason may suffice, That Henry liueth still.

c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii], line 71:

The reappearance of tyranny [in the 4th century BC] had many reasons... one of the main causes was the development of antagonism between rich and poor; tyrants came to power exploiting a social and political imbalance within the state.

1980, Michel Austin et al., Economic and Social History of Ancient Greece, section 142:

Ancient Greek tyrannies appeared once more in great numbers with the breakdown of the polis in the period from the fourth to the second centuries [BC]. These later tyrannies tended to rely on a more narrow class base and to use a brutal military rule, and thus writers could use the words tyrant and tyranny, with their modern connotations of evil and cruelty, to describe them accurately.

1996, Roger Boesche, Theories of Tyranny, from Plato to Arendt, section 4:

(historical, Ancient Greece) A usurper; one who gains power and rules extralegally, distinguished from kings elevated by election or succession.


ambrosia

en-noun

ambrosia (countable and uncountable, plural ambrosias)

From Latin ambrosia (“food of the gods”), from Ancient Greek ἀμβροσία (ambrosía, “immortality”), from ἄμβροτος (ámbrotos, “immortal”), from ἀ- (a-, “not”) + βροτός (brotós, “mortal”).

af

He had a most intense admiration of female loveliness, and looked upon woman as a kind of super-angelic being, whose food should be the ambrosiæ and nectar of the gods, and whose garments the spotless white of vestal purity.

1845 November, Caroline Lee Hentz, “The Mysterious Reticule”, in Sarah J[osepha] Hale, Morton M’Michael, Louis A[ntoine] Godey, editors, Godey’s Magazine and Lady’s Book, volume XXXI, number 16, Philadelphia, Pa.: Louis A. Godey, […], page 202, column 1:

(Greek mythology, Roman mythology) The food of the gods, thought to confer immortality.

(Greek mythology, Roman mythology) The anointing-oil of the gods.


Irene

Borrowed from French Irène, from Ancient Greek Εἰρήνη (Eirḗnē, “peace”), name of a goddess of peace, of early Christian saints, and of an 8th-century Byzantine empress. Doublet of Eirini.

(Greek mythology) Eirene, the Greek goddess of peace, one of the Horae/Horæ; equivalent to the Roman goddess Pax.


rhapsody

The noun is derived from Latin rhapsōdia (“part of an epic poem suitable for uninterrupted recitation”), from Koine Greek ῥαψῳδία (rhapsōidía, “part of an epic poem suitable for uninterrupted recitation; rigmarole”), Ancient Greek ῥαψῳδία (rhapsōidía, “composition or recitation of Epic poetry”), from ῥαψῳδός (rhapsōidós, “composer or performer of Epic poetry”) + -ῐ́ᾱ (-ĭ́ā, suffix forming feminine abstract nouns). Ῥαψῳδός (Rhapsōidós) is derived from ῥᾰ́πτω (rhắptō, “to sew”) (possibly from Proto-Indo-European *werb- (“to bend; to turn”)) + ᾠδή (ōidḗ, “ode; song”) (ultimately from Proto-Hellenic *awoidā́ (“song”)) + -ος (-os, suffix forming o-grade action nouns).
Sense 2.2 (“instrumental composition of irregular form”) probably developed from sense 2.1 (“exaggeratedly enthusiastic or exalted expression of feeling in speech or writing”), and both of these senses may have been influenced by rapture (“extreme excitement, happiness, or pleasure”), the latter being a quality associated with the senses. Sense 2.3 (“literary composition consisting of miscellaneous works”) is borrowed from Middle French rhapsodie (modern French rhapsodie), from Latin rhapsōdia: see above.
The verb is derived from the noun.
Cognates
* French rhapsodie (“instrumental composition of irregular form”)
* German Rhapsodie (“instrumental composition of irregular form”)

cog

(Ancient Greece, poetry, historical) An epic poem, or part of one, suitable for uninterrupted recitation.

狂想曲

ancient Greek epic poem, or part of one, suitable for uninterrupted recitation


satyr

From French satyre, from Latin satyrus, from Ancient Greek σάτυρος (sáturos).

Rough Satyrs danced; and Fauns, with cloven heel, / From the glad sound would not be absent long.
male variation of nymphs

(Greek mythology) A sylvan deity or demigod, male companion of Pan or Dionysus, represented as part man and part goat, and characterized by riotous merriment and lasciviousness, sometimes pictured with a perpetual erection.


Roman Empire

/ˈɹəʊmən ˈɛmpaɪə/

/ˈɹoʊmən ˈɛmpaɪɚ/

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Roman Empire.wav

The sense something that one frequently thinks about is a reference to the "How Often Do You Think About the Roman Empire?" meme, popularized on Instagram and TikTok around September 2023.

(historical) The empire which succeeded the Roman Republic and existed between 27 B.C.E. and 476 C.E. in the west (and until 1453 C.E. in the east; see Byzantine Empire), encompassing territories stretching from Britain and Germany to Spain, North Africa and the Persian Gulf.


mina

Borrowed from Latin mina, from Ancient Greek μνᾶ (mnâ, “mna”). Compare maneh, from Biblical Hebrew מָנֶה (māne), as well as maund.

What then of the actual fine of thirty minae Socrates proposes? Thirty minae was a large sum, “the equivalent of approximately eight-and-one-half years′ wages," according to one recent estimate (Brickhouse and Smith 1988, 227); enough to buy a library of three thousand philosophy books, if the price of Anaxogoras′ book is any guide (26d6-e2).

1989, C. D. C Reeve, Socrates in the Apology: An Essay on Plato′s Apology of Socrates, page 174:

(historical) A monetary unit of ancient Greece and the Middle East, originally equivalent to the weight of a mina of silver.


Democritus

From Ancient Greek Δημόκριτος (Dēmókritos).

A Greek philosopher (c.460-c.370 BC). The originator of the atomic theory together with his teacher Leucippus.


Hesiod

Semi-learned borrowing from Latin Hēsiodus, from Ancient Greek Ἡσίοδος (Hēsíodos).

slbor

Ancient Greek poet and rhapsodist of the 8th century BCE, known as the first author of didactic verse.


Seth

From Ancient Greek Σήθ (Sḗth), from Egyptian s-t:X (stẖ).

(Egyptian mythology) An ancient Egyptian god, variously described as the god of chaos, the god of thunder and storms, or the god of destruction.


flamen

(historical, Ancient Rome) A priest devoted to the service of a particular god, from whom he received a distinguishing epithet. The most honored were those of Jupiter, Mars, and Quirinus, called respectively Flamen Dialis, Flamen Martialis, and Flamen Quirinalis.


hexagram

/ˈhɛksəɡɹæm/

A hollow six-pointed star formed by overlapping two equilateral triangles.

Any of the 64 sets of solid and broken lines, formed by pairs of trigrams, used for divination in the I Ching.

A large silver coin minted during the Byzantine Empire.


gens

Bilecik Province
Marcus Aurelius
Roman emperor

Borrowed from Latin gēns (“gens; people, tribe”), from Proto-Italic *gentis, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵénh₁tis (“birth; production”), from *ǵenh₁- (“to beget; to give birth; to produce”) + *-tis (suffix forming abstract or action nouns from verb roots). Doublet of kind, genesis, and jati. See also gender, generate, gentile, genus; also Latin gigno (“I bring forth”).

gentile

of or pertaining to a gens or several gentes

[page 568, column 2] There were certain sacred rites (sacra gentilitia) which belonged to a gens, to the observance of which all the members of a gens, as such, were bound, whether they were members by birth, adoption, or adrogation. A person was freed from the observance of such sacra, and lost the privileges connected with his gentile rites, when he lost his gens, that is, when he was adrogated, adopted, or even emancipated; for adrogation, adoption, and emancipation were accompanied by a diminutio capitis. […] [page 569, column 2] As the gentes were subdivisions of the three ancient tribes, the populus (in the ancient sense) alone had gentes, so that to be a patrician and to have a gens were synonymous; and thus we find the expressions gens and patricii constantly united.

1848, G[eorge] L[ong], “GENS”, in William Smith, editor, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, 2nd improved and enlarged edition, London: Taylor, Walton, and Maberly, Upper Gower Street; and Ivy Lane, Paternoster Row; John Murray, Albemarle Street, →OCLC, pages 568 and 569:

Caius Julius Caesar belonged to the gens Julius, his father's name was Caesar, and his own individual name (praenomen) was Caius. Women were given the clan name as their own; Caesar's sister was called Julia, and a younger sister would have been called Julia Minor.

1987, Frances Gies, Joseph Gies, “Roots: Roman, German, Christian”, in Marriage and Family in the Middle Ages, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Row, →ISBN:

(Ancient Rome, historical) A legally defined unit of Roman society, being a collection of people related through a common ancestor by birth, marriage or adoption, possibly over many generations, and sharing the same nomen gentilicium.


Bacchus

From the Latin Bacchus, from the Ancient Greek Βάκχος (Bákkhos).

(Roman mythology) Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and vivid social gatherings.


Xenophanes

From Ancient Greek Ξενοφάνης (Xenophánēs). The name means “of foreign appearance” and is composed of ξένος (xénos, “foreign”) + φαίνω (phaínō, “appear”).

Lucretius was the Xenophanes of Roman culture, a great theorist (visionary), an ardent disciple of Universal Nature, an enemy of all superstition, false gods, and false fear of death, […]

1931, Hermann Schneider, Margaret Minna Green, The History of World Civilization, volume 2, page 614:

No Xenophanes arose amongst the Jews to rebuke them for ascribing to Jahweh acts which would be accounted a shame and a disgrace amongst men; […]

1970, John Arthur Passmore, The Perfectibility of Man, page 77:

Euthyphro is no Xenophanes but as a religious and thinking man he can turn to great teachers; […]

1985, Michael Despland, The Education of Desire, page 33:

The pre-Socratic philosopher Xenophanes of Colophon; by extension or reference, any profound or transformative religious thinker.


Oceanid

(Greek mythology) Any of the sea nymphs, daughters of Oceanus and Tethys.


Prometheus

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Prometheus.wav

From Ancient Greek Προμηθεύς (Promētheús), from πρό (pró, “before”) + μανθάνω (manthánō, “to think”).

(Greek mythology) The Titan chiefly honored for stealing fire from Zeus in the stalk of a fennel plant and giving it to mortals for their use. The god of fire and craft.


Olympic Games

From Olympic + games, after Middle French ieux olympiques.

The first Olympic Games are traditionally dated to 776 BC.

In the times of the Olimpike games, with chariots exceeding all other in magnificence, he also sent poets and musitians to present his verses, with tents and pavillions gilt and most suinptuously tapistried.

1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 17, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

Olympic Games. — Besides the ordinary confederacies that join independent states together, a singular federal bond is remarkable in the Olympic games, which for many ages cemented the Grecian commonwealths by a joint tie of recreation and religious ritual.

1840, John Dunlop, The Universal Tendency to Association in Mankind. Analyzed and Illustrated, London: Houlston and Stoneman, page 103:

(historical, Ancient Greece) A sporting festival held every four or five years on the Plain of Olympia in southern Greece, in honour of Zeus.

Olympian kisat

sporting festival held every four or five years in southern Greece


pontiff

Borrowed from Middle French pontife m, from Latin pontifex m. Doublet of pontifex.

(historical, Ancient Rome) A member of the most illustrious of the colleges of priests of the Roman religion, the College of Pontiffs; a pontifex.


ovation

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-ovation.wav

/əʉˈvæɪ.ʃn̩/

Triumph, a Solemn Honour done to Generals after great Victories, receiving them into Town with Publick Acclamations; there were two ſorts among the Romans; the Great, that was ſimply called Tr[i]umph; and the Little called, Ovation; […] [I]t was by Special Priviledge that L. Cornelius Lentulus, Proconſul, was admitted to this Honour of an Ovation, in 553. […]

1703, “Triumph”, in An Universal, Historical, Geographical, Chronological and Poetical Dictionary, […], volumes II (M–Z), London: […] J[ohn] Hartley, […]; W. Turner, […]; and Tho[mas] Hodgson, […], →OCLC:

The Dictator [Mamercus Aemilius Mamercinus] was allow'd a Triumph, and [Aulus Cornelius] Coſſus an Ovation, wherein he appear'd with the Spoils of K[ing] Volumnius [i.e., Lars Tolumnius], and fix'd them as a ſolemn Offering in the Temple of Jupiter Feretrius, being the firſt Spolia Opima that had been brought thither ſince the Time of Romulus.

1711, “Italy”, in Atlas Geographicus, or, A Compleat System of Geography, Ancient and Modern. […], volume II, in the Savoy [London]: Printed by John Nutt; and sold by Benjamin Barker and Charles King […], →OCLC, page 1404, column 2:

He who had no more than an Ovation granted him, was not crown'd with Laurel, but Myrtle: The Senate, however, and all the ſeveral Orders of Magiſtrates went to meet him. […] It was the way at firſt in Ovations for the Conqueror to go on Foot, but the Cuſtom of riding on Horſeback was afterwards introduc'd. […] Inſtead of bulls, the Victims us'd in the greater Triumphs, they had Sheep in their Ovations, or rather Rams crown'd, which were led before the Conqueror, in order to be ſacrific'd when the Proceſſion was over.

1722, [Bernard de] Montfaucon, “The Triumph for a Naval Victory. II. What the Ovatio was. III. The Ceremonies of the Ovation.”, in David Humphreys, transl., Antiquity Explained, and Represented in Sculptures, … Translated into English, volume III, London: Printed by J[acob] Tonson and J. Watts, →OCLC, book VI (Of the Marks of Victory, […]), paragraph III, pages 104–105:

How attentive were the Romans to the language of ſigns! They wore garments peculiar to their different ranks and ages; they had their togas, and diſtinguiſhing ornaments of various kinds, their roſtrums, their lictors, their faſces, their crowns, ovations, triumphs, &c. all was parade and ceremony; and all had its effect on the minds of the citizens.

1763 January, [Jean-Jacques] Rousseau, “The Difference between Ancient and Modern Eloquence”, in The London Magazine: Or, Gentleman’s Monthly Intelligencer, volume XXXII, London: Printed for R[ichard] Baldwin, […], →OCLC, page 38:

(Ancient Rome) A victory ceremony of less importance than a triumph.


Damascus

From Latin Dāmascus, from Ancient Greek Δαμασκός (Damaskós), from a Semitic form akin to Hebrew דַּמֶּשֶׂק. Doublet of Dimashq.
The etymology of the ancient name Damascus is uncertain. It is attested as Imerišú (𒀲𒋙) in Akkadian, T-m-ś-q (𓍘𓄟𓊃𓈎𓅱) in Egyptian, Dammaśq (𐡃𐡌𐡔𐡒) in Old Aramaic and Dammeśeq (דַּמֶּשֶׂק) in Biblical Hebrew. A number of Akkadian spellings are found in the Amarna letters, from the 14th century BC: Dimasqa (𒁲𒈦𒋡), Dimàsqì (𒁲𒈦𒀸𒄀), and Dimàsqa (𒁲𒈦𒀸𒋡).

cog

Hebrew דַּמֶּשֶׂק


Beirut

From Ottoman Turkish بیروت (beyrût), from Arabic بَيْرُوت (bayrūt), ultimately from Phoenician 𐤁𐤓𐤕 (brt /bērūt/), from Proto-West Semitic *biʾrāt- (“wells”). Doublet of Berytus and Beeroth.

The capital and largest city of Lebanon.


vestal virgin

From Latin; virgines Vestales referred to the priestesses in charge of the sacred fire in the temple of Vesta in Rome.

(literally) A virgin dedicated to the service of the goddess Vesta.


Constantinople

From Middle English Constantinople, ultimately from Late Latin Constantinopolis, from Ancient Greek Κωνσταντινούπολις (Kōnstantinoúpolis, “City of Constantine”), after Roman emperor Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus (also known as Constantine I, St. Constantine, and/or Constantine the Great).

der

Κωνσταντινούπολις

Name of present-day Istanbul from 330–1930 C.E.. Previously known as Byzantium.

കോണ്സ്റ്റാന്റിനോപ്പിള്

kōṇsṟṟānṟinōppiḷŭ


Terpsichore

From Ancient Greek Τερψιχόρη (Terpsikhórē, from τέρψις (térpsis, “enjoyment, delight”) + χορός (khorós, “chorus”)).

uder

(Greek mythology) The goddess of dance and the dramatic chorus, and one of the Muses; the daughters of Zeus & Mnemosyne.


Thetis

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Thetis.wav

(Greek mythology) One of the Nereids; the mother of Achilles


censor

The noun is borrowed from Latin cēnsor (“magistrate; critic”), from cēnseō (“to give an opinion, judge; to assess, reckon; to decree, determine”) + -sor (variant of -tor (suffix forming masculine agent nouns)). Cēnseō is derived from Proto-Italic *kensēō, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱens- (“to announce, proclaim; to put in order”). The English word is cognate with Late Middle English sensour, Proto-Iranian *cánhati (“to declare; to explain”), Sanskrit शंसति (śaṃsati, “to declare”).
The verb is derived from the noun.

cog

The Ancient Roman censors were part of the cursus honorum, a series of public offices held during a political career, like consuls and praetors.

And Nobly nam'd, ſo twice being Cenſor, / Was his great Anceſtor.

c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii], page 14, column 1:

Neither [the Segetes Lustrantur and the Oves Lustrantur] are in this place, to be underſtood the Luſtra, which were wont to be Celebrated at Rome by the Cenſors, after the Cenſus of Citizens was made by a Sacrifice of the Suovetaurilia; for they had ceaſed long ago, as appeareth by what Cenſorinus writeth in his Book de Die Natali; at which time the Office of Cenſors also ceaſed, which ſome endeavoured, though in vain, to re-eſtabliſh.

1685, William Howel[l], “The History of the Reformation of Religion by Constantine”, in An Institution of General History, or The History of Ecclesiastical Affairs of the World. […], London: […] Miles Flesher, →OCLC, paragraph 17, page 7:

[page 110] [Justus] Lipſius divides the Duty of the Cenſors into two Heads; the Survey of the People, and the Cenſure of Manners. […] With respect to the latter part of their Office, they had the power to puniſh an Immorality in any Perſon, of what Order ſoever. […] [page 111] 'Tis very remarkable, that if one of the Cenſors died, no body was ſubſtituted in his room 'till the next Luſtrum, and his Partner was oblig'd to quit his Office; becauſe the Death of a Cenſor happen'd juſt before the ſacking of Rome by the Gauls, and was ever after accounted highly ominous and unfortunate.

1696, Basil Kennett, “Of the Censors”, in Romæ Antiquæ Notitia: Or, The Antiquities of Rome. […], London: […] A. Swall and T. Child, […], →OCLC, part II, book III (Of the Civil Government of the Romans), pages 110–111:

At the head of his victorious legions, in his reign over the ſea and land, from the Nile and Euphrates to the Atlantic ocean, Auguſtus proclaimed himſelf the ſervant of the ſtate and the equal of his fellow-citizens. The conqueror of Rome and her provinces aſſumed the popular and legal form of a cenſor, a conſul, and a tribune.

1788, Edward Gibbon, chapter XLIX, in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume V, London: […] W[illiam] Strahan; and T[homas] Cadell, […], →OCLC, pages 168–169:

The Censors were always two in number, and were originally chosen from the Patricians exclusively. In B.C. 351, we find for the first time a Plebeian Censor, G[aius] Marcius Rutilus. In B.C. 339, a Lex Publilia was passed by Q[uintus] Publilius Philo when Dictator, enacting that at least one of the Censors must be a Plebeian.

1876, William Ramsay, “Magistrates of the Regal and Republican Periods and under the Early Emperors”, in A Manual of Roman Antiquities, 10th edition, London: Charles Griffin and Company […], →OCLC, page 165:

(Ancient Rome, historical) One of the two magistrates who originally administered the census of citizens, and by Classical times (between the 8th century B.C.E. and the 6th century C.E.) was a high judge of public behaviour and morality.


Poseidon

(Greek mythology) The god of the sea and other waters, earthquakes and horses; corresponds to the Roman god Neptune.


Elysium

From Latin, from Ancient Greek Ἠλῠ́σῐον (Πεδῐ́ον) (Ēlŭ́sĭon (Pedĭ́on)).

der

Ἠλῠ́σῐον (Πεδῐ́ον)

(Greek mythology, Roman mythology) The home of the blessed after death.

至福樂土 /至福乐土

home of the blessed after death in Greek and Roman mythology — see also Elysian Fields


Elysian Fields

Calque of Latin Campī Ēlysiī, from Ancient Greek Ἠλῠ́σῐον Πεδῐ́ον (Ēlŭ́sĭon Pedĭ́on). By surface analysis, Elysian + fields.

Ἠλῠ́σῐον Πεδῐ́ον

Indeed, the Elysian Fields themselves were a part of Hades, though they have since been removed to Paris.

1911, Ambrose Bierce, “Hades”, in The Devil’s Dictionary, New York, N.Y., Washington, D.C.: The Neale Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 127:

(Greek mythology, Roman mythology) Elysium; home of the blessed, after death.

Ելիսեյան մարգագետիններ

home of the blessed after death in Greek and Roman mythology — see also Elysium


Koine

Borrowed from Ancient Greek Κοινή (Koinḗ), from ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος (hē koinḕ diálektos, “the common dialect”), from κοινός (koinós, “shared, common, public, general, ordinary, usual”).

bor+

The “common” Greek language that developed and flourished between 300 B.C.E. and 300 C.E. (the time of the Roman Empire), and from which Modern Greek descended. It was based on the Attic and Ionian dialects of Ancient Greek.


vespillo

Like vespilloes or gravemakers.

1642, [Thomas Browne], “(please specify the page)”, in Religio Medici, London: […] Andrew Crooke, →OCLC:

(Ancient Rome) One who carried out the dead bodies of the poor at night for burial.


Akkadian

Of or pertaining to the Akkadian Empire.


Asiatic

Learned borrowing from Latin āsiāticus; equivalent to Asia + -atic.

(Egyptology) One of the people of ancient Canaan, Syria, or Mesopotamia; a Semite.


Avestan

An ancient Eastern Old Iranian language that was used to compose the sacred hymns and canon of the Zoroastrian Avesta.


prefect

From Middle English prefect and prefecte, from Old French prefect (Mod. French préfet), from Latin praefectus (“one placed in charge, overseer, director, prefect”), from praeficere (“to place in charge”).

prefekt

the head of a prefecture, whether a Japanese prefecture, French department, or Balkan county

the prefect of the aqueducts; the prefect of a camp, of a fleet, of the city guard, or of provisions; the pretorian prefect, who was commander of the troops guarding the emperor's person

Or think of a decent young citizen in a toga - perhaps too much dice, you know - coming out here in the train of some prefect, or tax-gatherer, or trader even, to mend his fortunes.

1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 196:

It seems that in the autumn of 803 he went on leave. His uncle Po Chi-chên, had recently been moved from his post at Hsü-chou and promoted to be Prefect of Hsü-chʻang in Central Honan.

1951, Arthur Waley, The Life and Times of Po Chü-i, London: George Allen & Unwin, →OCLC, page 33:

(historical) An official of Ancient Rome who controlled or superintended a particular command, charge, department, etc.


basileus

Borrowed from Ancient Greek βασιλεύς (basileús, “chief, king”).

bor

For two centuries its towers and domes were to rise in the heavens, drawing the attention of Emperors and Basilei, of Popes and Patriarchs.

Although portrayals of basileis of the eleventh century wearing the loros in the traditional manner are not lacking, I cannot cite a Byzantine example of metropolitan origin later than 1100.

1990, Ernst Kitzinger, The Mosaics of St. Mary’s of the Admiral in Palermo, Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, →ISBN, page 192:

The revitalization of the Byzantine Empire during the reigns of the energetic and capable basilei of the Comnens dynasty: Alexios I (1081-1118), John II (1118-1143) and Manuel (1143-1180), and the wars with a Rum Sultanate troubled by dynastic fights drastically diminished its possessions in Anatolia.

2003, Victor Spinei, The Great Migrations in the East and South East of Europe from the Ninth to the Thirteenth Century, Romanian Cultural Institute, →ISBN, page 193:

It is quite easy to establish the identity of these “Roman princes” who reoccupied Pannonia after Attila’s death: they were the basilei from Constantinople who, after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, claimed to be the only successors of the Caesars (around the turn of the 9ᵗʰ century they began to call themselves “basilei of the Romans”—“basileis ton Romanon” or “Romaion”).

2007, Transylvanian Review, volume 16, Romanian Cultural Foundation, page 16:

In our third example, the tyrant Nabis usurped power from the traditional, dual basileis of Sparta, then had them executed.

2017, Michael Martin, City of the Sun: Development and Popular Resistance in the Pre-Modern West, New York, N.Y.: Algora Publishing, →ISBN, page 64:

The basileis of the Iron Age were now replaced with various appointed and elected magistrates.

2020, David B. Small, “Institutional Evolution of Ancient Greece”, in Dmitri M[ikhailovich] Bondarenko, Stephen A. Kowalewski, David B. Small, editors, The Evolution of Social Institutions: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (World-Systems Evolution and Global Futures), Springer Nature, →ISBN, page 274:

It would probably be worth seeking a possible connection-and-overlay between the name of one of the Byzantine basilei of the 9th century and the godfather of Boris I, Michael III, and that of the Bulgarian ruler Boris-Michael himself, who also lived in that age.

2020, Tsvetelin Stepanov, translated by Daria Manova, Waiting for the End of the World: European Dimensions, 950–1200 (East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 450–1450; 57), Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 251:

“Peter and Maria basilei of Bugaria,” “Peter and Maria in Christ autocrats of the Bulgarians,” and “Peter and Maria in Christ august autocrats and basilei.”

2023, Christian Raffensperger, Rulers and Rulership in the Arc of Medieval Europe, 1000-1200, Abingdon, Oxon, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN:


urna

A wine vessel, probably the Roman urna, which contained half the quantity of the amphora.

1810, A Description of the Collection of Ancient Terracottas of the British Museum, British Museum, No. XXXIX, page 22:

The congius was the 8th part of the amphora, and the 4th of the urna: it contained 6 sextarii.

1847, Francis Adams, The Seven Books of Paulus Ægeineta, volume 3, The Sydenham Society, page 623:

It follows that the seah must equal the urna, and the hin equal 2 Attic choes.

1903, Sir Charles Warren, The Ancient Cubit and Our Weights and Measures, page 89:

(historical) A Roman unit of liquid measure reckoned as the volume of 40 Roman pounds of wine and equivalent to about 13 L although differing slightly over time.


symposium

en-noun

symposium (plural symposiums or symposia)

Borrowed from Latin symposium, from Ancient Greek συμπόσιον (sumpósion, “drinking party”) from συμπίνω (sumpínō, “drink together”) συν- (sun-, “together-”) + πίνω (pínō, “drink”).

der

Symposium in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Alternative form: symposion

A drinking party in Ancient Greece, especially one with intellectual discussion.

пиршество

a drinking party in Ancient Greece, especially one with intellectual discussion


Urartian

The extinct language spoken by the inhabitants of Urartu. Related to Hurrian.


Urartu

A modern (19th century) rendition of Akkadian 𒆳𒌵 (Urarṭu). Corresponds to Biblical Hebrew אֲרָרָט (ʾărɔrɔṭ) (see Ararat). See also Old Armenian Վան (Van) for the self-designation of Urartians.

An Iron Age kingdom flourishing 9th-6th century BC, located in the Armenian Highland and centred in the mountainous region around Lake Van.


Janus

From Latin Iānus (“the Roman god Janus”).

In the ages of victory, as often as the senate decreed some distant conquest, the consul denounced hostilities, by unbarring, in solemn pomp, the gates of the temple of Janus. Domestic war now rendered the admonition superfluous, and the ceremony was superseded by the establishment of a new religion. But the brazen temple of Janus was left standing in the forum; of a size sufficient only to contain the statue of the god, five cubits in height, of a human form, but with two faces, directed to the east and west.

1789, Edward Gibbon, chapter XLI, in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume V, London: Printed for A[ndrew] Strahan, and T[homas] Cadell, in the Strand, OCLC 30106274; republished Philadelphia, Pa.: Published by William Y. Birch & Abraham Small, No. 37, South Second Street; printed by Robert Carr, 1805, OCLC 15453273, page 166

[K]nowing that the minds of the people, rendered ferocious by a military life, would never accommodate themſelves to the practice of theſe [principles of justice, laws, and morals], during the continuance of war, he [Numa Pompilius] reſolved, by a diſuſe of arms, to mollify the fierceneſs of their temper: with this view, he built a temple to Janus, near the foot of the hill Argiletum, which was to notify a ſtate either of war or of peace: when open, it denoted that the ſtate was engaged in war; when ſhut, that there was peace with all the ſurrounding nations.

1797, Titus Livius [Livy], translated by George Baker, The History of Rome, [...] In Six Volumes, volume I, London: Printed for A[ndrew] Strahan, and T[homas] Cadell Jun. and W. Davies (successor to Mr. Cadell) in the Strand, →OCLC, book I, page 35:

"I'll tell you what we can do," cried her persevering patroness; "we can go as masks, and Lady Juliana shall know nothing about it. That will save the scandal of an open revolt or a tiresome dispute. Half the company will be masked; so, if you keep your own secret, nobody will find it out. Come, what characters shall we choose?" / "That of Janus, I think, would be the most suitable for me," said Mary.

1810, anonymous [Susan Edmonstone Ferrier], “chapter XVI”, in Marriage, a Novel. In Three Volumes, volume II, Edinburgh: William Blackwood, Prince's-Street: and John Murray, Albemarle-Street, London, published 1818, →OCLC, page 218:

We find ourselves once again sitting in Committee of the Whole House to vote a war subsidy. The present occupants of the Treasury Bench are determined that so long as they retain their places the Temple of Janus shall not be closed.

1879 February 27, A[lexander] M[artin] Sullivan, “On the Zulu War” (speech before the House of Commons of the United Kingdom); quoted in William Jennings Bryan, editor, Irish Orations (The World's Famous Orations), volume VI, New York, N.Y.: Funk & Wagnalls, 1906, OCLC 23127203, and republished on Bartleby.com, 2002, archived from the original on 4 October 2015

Janus, with his two heads, his mystery, his depiction as both laughing and serious, and the obvious parallel this forms with the masks of attic tragedy and comedy would make him a double of the two-headed man, the conjurer, and an associate of the trickster in folk comedy as well.

2008, John Lowe, “Laughin’ up a World: Their Eyes Were Watching God and the (Wo)Man of Words”, in Harold Bloom, editor, Interpretations: Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God (Bloom’s Modern Critical Interpretations), new edition, New York, N.Y.: Bloom's Literary Criticism, Infobase Publishing, →ISBN, page 75:

Good reviews look both backward and forward; an argument could even be made that one must look backward in order to discern the way forward, that backward and forward are two sides of the same research coin. Nowhere is such a Janus-like perspective more apparent than in the current set of reviews.

2011, Robert M. Hodapp, “Preface”, in Robert M. Hodapp, editor, International Review of Research in Developmental Disabilities, volume 41, San Diego, Calif.: Academic Press, →ISBN, →ISSN, page xi:

(Roman mythology) The god of doorways, gates and transitions, and of beginnings and endings, having two faces looking in opposite directions.

Janus

Roman god of doorways, gates and transitions


Promethean

The adjective is derived from Prometheus (“demigod in Greek mythology”) + -an (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives; and forming agent nouns). Prometheus is a learned borrowing from Latin Promētheus, and from its etymon Ancient Greek Προμηθεύς (Promētheús), from προμηθής (promēthḗs, “having forethought”) (from προ- (pro-, prefix meaning ‘before’) + μᾰνθᾰ́νω (mănthắnō, “to learn; to know, understand”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *men- (“to mind; to think”) + *dʰeh₁- (“to do; to place, put”), in the sense of putting one’s mind to something)) + -εύς (-eús, suffix forming a masculine noun of the person concerned with a thing).
The noun is derived from the adjective.

der

I carried with me some promethean matches, which I ignited by biting; it was thought so wonderful that a man should strike fire with his teeth, that it was usual to collect the whole family to see it: I was once offered a dollar for a single one.

1839, Charles Darwin, chapter III, in Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty’s Ships Adventure and Beagle, between the Years 1826 and 1836, […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 47:

(also attributive, historical) A kind of lucifer match consisting of a glass tube containing sulfuric acid coated on the outside with a flammable mixture of potassium chlorate and sugar and wrapped in paper rolls; the match was lit by crushing the tube with pliers, causing the acid to react with and ignite the flammable components. This type of match was superseded by the friction match which was lit by rubbing against a rough surface.


castrum

Borrowed from Latin castrum. Doublet of Caister and Chester.

(historical) Among the Ancient Romans, a building or plot of land used as a military defensive position.


philosopher king

en-noun

philosopher king (plural philosopher kings)

The concept comes from Plato's Republic (circa 375 BCE), which considers the ideal rulers of a city state.

(philosophy) A hypothetical ideal ruler, trained in philosophy, who has a full understanding of the Platonic ideal of the Form of the Good, and uses this for the benefit of the state.


euhemerize

en-verb

euhemerize (third-person singular simple present euhemerizes, present participle euhemerizing, simple past and past participle euhemerized)

euhemerizes (present singular third-person)
euhemerizing (participle present)
euhemerized (participle past)
euhemerized (past)

From euhemerism + -ize, ultimately from Latin Euhēmerus, from Ancient Greek Εὐήμερος (Euḗmeros), an ancient Greek Sicilian Skeptic who proposed most or all mythology derived from historical figures and natural events which received supernatural characteristics only through retelling.

Confucian scholars frequently euhemerized the myths used to explain religious rituals to the public.

He did but extend to the New Testament the Euhemerising principles which Eichhorn had applied to the Old.

1871, Frederic William Farrar, The Witness of History to Christ, page 57:

The legend of Semiramis was a euhemerised version of the story of Istar.

1887 September 3, I. Taylor, The Academy, page 143:

(transitive, intransitive, derogatory) To invent a plausible but fanciful historical origin for something in order to rationalize mythology and legends.

rationalize

fanciful creation of rational explanations for the supernatural

The Yellow Emperor was perhaps euhemerized from a prehistoric tribal leader.

(transitive, intransitive) Synonym of deify: to actually create mythology and legends from ancient historical figures and events.

évhémériser

to explain or interpret something through euhemerism


plebiscite

Sense 1 (“referendum”) is borrowed from French plébiscite, from Latin plēbiscītum, plēbis scītum, plēbī scītum (“law of the common people or plebs”), from plēbis (the genitive singular of plēbs (“common people, plebeians”)) + scītum (“decree, ordinance, statute”).
Sense 3 (“law enacted by the common people”) is a learned borrowing from Latin plēbiscītum: see above. It is attested earlier than English plebiscitum.
Cognates
* Italian plebiscito
* Middle French plebiscite (modern French plébiscite)
* Middle Low German plebiscīt (“ordinance”)
* Spanish plebiscito, plebisçito (obsolete)

cog

(Ancient Rome, historical) Synonym of plebiscitum (“a law enacted by the common people, under the superintendence of a tribune or some subordinate plebeian magistrate, without the intervention of the senate”)


Nemean Lion

(Greek mythology) A mythical lion of ancient Nemea that was invulnerable to attack by weapons and was slain by Hercules as one of his labours.


Dii Majores

From Latin di maiores (literally “greater gods”).

der

(Roman mythology) The twelve great gods of Roman mythology, namely Juno, Vesta, Minerva, Ceres, Diana, Venus, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Neptune, Vulcan, and Apollo.

Di Majores

di and dei are both acceptable forms in Latin for 'gods'. Also Dii majores

and with maiores following current Latin spelling


mysteries

(Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, religion) a number of secret societies or cults


Plato

Via Latin Plato, from Ancient Greek Πλάτων (Plátōn), from πλατύς (platús, “broad, wide”), either because of Plato's robust body, or wide forehead or the breadth of his eloquence.

My name is Plato Jones. Plato Constantine Jones. Plato because my mother is Greek, and Jones because my father is Welsh, and Constantine after his father, my grandfather, who is Constantine Llewellyn Jones.

1993, Nina Bawden, The Real Plato Jones, Houghton Miffin Harcourt, →ISBN, page 1:

The Greek philosopher, 427–347 BC, follower of Socrates.


Apeliotes

From Ancient Greek Ἀπηλιώτης (Apēliṓtēs).

(Greek mythology), the Greek god of the south east winds. Apeliotes is often depicted wearing gumboots and carrying fruit.


Clotho

From Latin Clōthō, from Ancient Greek Κλωθώ (Klōthṓ), from κλώθω (klṓthō, literally “to spin”).

(Greek mythology) The youngest of the three Fates, a daughter of Zeus and Themis; the spinner of the thread of life. Her Roman equivalent is Nona.


Atropos

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Atropos.wav

From Ancient Greek Ἄτροπος (Átropos, “inflexible, not turning”), from ᾰ̓- (ă-, “not”) + -τροπος (-tropos, “turned”).

bor

(Greek mythology) One of the three Fates, or Moirae; a daughter of Zeus and Themis; the cutter of the thread of life, depicted as an old woman. Her Roman counterpart is Morta.


Lachesis

And if it were asked how it is known that the pocket in which Erskine kept this key was sewn on to the front of his underhose, the answer to that would be this, that one day when Erskine was doing his number one against a bush, Watt, who as Lachesis would have it was doing his number one too against the same bush, but on the other side, caught a glimpse, through the bush, for it was a deciduous bush, of the key, gleaming among the flap buttons.

1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Grove Press, published 1959, →OCLC:

(Greek mythology) One of the three Fates (Moirae), daughter of Zeus and Themis; the measurer of each thread of life. Her Roman equivalent is Decima.


Decima

(Roman mythology) One of the three Fates, or Parcae, daughter of Jupiter and Justitia; the measurer of the thread of life. She is the Roman equivalent of Lachesis.


Nona

From the Latin meaning "the ninth", because she was prayed to in the ninth month of pregnancy.

(Roman mythology) The youngest of the three Fates, or Parcae, daughter of Jupiter and Justitia; the spinner of the thread of life. She is the Roman equivalent of Clotho.


Morta

(Roman mythology) One of the three Fates, or Parcae, daughter of Jupiter and Justitia; the cutter of the thread of life. She is the Roman equivalent of Atropos.


Epimetheus

From Ancient Greek Ἐπιμηθεύς (Epimētheús, “afterthought, hindsight”).

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(Greek mythology) Son of Iapetus and Clymene, brother to Atlas, Menoetius and Prometheus, of whom he ignored warnings to beware of any gifts from Zeus. He accepted Pandora as his wife, thereby bringing sorrow to the world; father to Pyrrha.


Erato

(Greek mythology) The goddess of lyric poetry, particularly erotic poetry, eroticism, and mimic imitation, and one of the Muses; the daughters of Zeus & Mnemosyne. Usually depicted with a crown/wreath of myrtle and roses, holding a lyre and a golden arrow and doves. Often accompanies Eros/Cupid.


Erinys

Borrowed from Ancient Greek Ἐρῑνῡ́ς (Erīnū́s). Possibly "the angry spirits" from ὀρῑ́νω (orī́nō, “to raise, stir, excite [towards anger]”).

(Greek mythology) One of the female personifications of vengeance, particularly wrong or immoral deeds on behalf of the victims.


Euterpe

(Greek mythology) The Muse of music and lyric poetry.


Gaia

Borrowed from Ancient Greek Γαῖᾰ (Gaîă, “Gaea, the Earth personified as a goddess”), from γαῖᾰ (gaîă, “the Earth”), probably related to γῆ (gê, “earth, land; country”).
Sense 1 was coined by the British scientist, environmentalist, and futurist James Lovelock (born 1919) in his book Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth (1979), at the suggestion of the British novelist, playwright, and poet William Golding (1911–1993): see the quotation.

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While investigating the Greek mythology, we have found reason to suppose that Juno, Ceres, and Gaia are but three different forms of the same original tradition of a divine feminine: of whom Ceres is the Pelasgian copy, Juno the vivid and powerful Hellenic development, and Gaia the original skeleton, retaining nothing of the old character, but having acquired the function of gaol-keeper for perjurors when sent to the other world.

1858, W[illiam] E[wart] Gladstone, “Ilios. The Trojans Compared and Contrasted with the Greeks.”, in Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age. … In Three Volumes, volume III, Oxford: At the University Press, →OCLC, page 153:

(Greek mythology) A Greek goddess, the personification of the earth, and one of the primordial deities from whom all the others descend.


Ganymede

From French Ganymède, from Latin Ganymēdēs, from Ancient Greek Γανυμήδης (Ganumḗdēs, “meant to please”), from γάνυμαι (gánumai, “I rejoice, I am glad”) + μήδεα (mḗdea, “thought, intention”). Doublet of catamite.

(Greek mythology) A Trojan boy who was abducted (either by Zeus or Eos), and ultimately became immortal in order to be Zeus' cupbearer.


Orpheus

From Ancient Greek Ὀρφεύς (Orpheús), built from an uncertain root with the -εύς (-eús) suffix. Perhaps root-cognate to Ancient Greek ὀρφανός (orphanós, “orphan”).

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(Greek mythology) A Thracian musician and poet, who failed to retrieve his wife Eurydice from Hades.


Hecate

Via Latin Hecatē from Ancient Greek Ἑκάτη (Hekátē), possibly the feminine equivalent of Ἑκατός (Hekatós) or ἑκάεργος (hekáergos), an obscure epithet of Apollo, variously interpreted as "one who works/operates from afar", "one who drives off", "the far reaching one" or "the far-darter". Some rather suggest that the name derives from Ancient Greek ἑκών (hekṓn, “will”).

(Greek mythology) A powerful goddess of magic, crossroads, fire, light, the moon, and the underworld. Her Roman counterpart is Trivia.

(astronomy) 100 Hekate, a main belt asteroid.


Helios

From Ancient Greek Ἥλιος (Hḗlios), from ἥλιος (hḗlios, “sun”).

(Greek mythology) The god of the Sun; son of Hyperion and Theia, brother of Selene and Eos, father of Phaeton amongst others. His Roman counterpart is Sol.


Hephaestus

From Ancient Greek Ἥφαιστος (Hḗphaistos), a pre-Greek word of unknown origin.

(Greek mythology) The god of fire, smithwork, metallurgy, volcanoes, and artisans, who served as blacksmith of the gods. His Roman counterpart is Vulcan.


Hercules

head

Hercules (plural Herculeses or Hercules or (obsolete) Herculesses or (obsolete) Hercules's)

Herculeses (plural)
Hercules (plural)
Herculesses (obsolete plural)
Hercules's (obsolete plural)

From Latin Herculēs, from Etruscan 𐌇𐌄𐌓𐌂𐌋𐌄 (hercle), from Ancient Greek Ἡρακλῆς (Hēraklês), apparently cognate of Ἥρα (Hḗra, “Hera”) and, according to Haudry, from Proto-Indo-European *yóh₁r̥ (“year, season”) + κλέος (kléos, “glory”).

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THere were many Hercules'''’s, but (as Tully ſays, de Nat. Deor. lib. 3.) the famous Actions of them all are aſcrib’d to him who was the Son of Jupiter, by Alcmena, the Wife of Amphitryo King of Thebes.

1698, The Pantheon, Representing the Fabulous Histories of the Heathen Gods and Most Illustrious Heroes, in a Short, Plain and Familiar Method by Way of Dialogue, 2nd edition, London: […] Charles Harper, […], page 332:

THere were many Hercules'''’s amongſt the Antients; Varro enumerates Forty four. The moſt famous were, Hercules Marguſanus, Hercules Ogmius, who was the Symbol of Eloquence amongſt the Gauls; Hercules Pollens, Hercules Thebanus, firſt called Alcides, Hercules' Tyrius, or Egyptian; and there were two of them; the Elder called Melicarthus, or Eſau, the Founder of the City of Tyre; and the Younger, who Subdu’d Geryon, and was Worſhipped in Sidon in Spain.

1705, The Antient Religion of the Gentiles, and Causes of Their Errors Consider’d: […], London: […] John Nutt, […], page 166:

Mr. Sympſon would read Theban, the Story of Omphale being, as he thinks, only applicable to him: But as there were many Hercules'''’s, and among the reſt a Libyan, the Son of Jupiter Ammon; if it is inaccurate, it ſeems the Inaccuracy of a Scholar, and not an Error of the Preſs.

1750, The Works of Mr. Francis Beaumont, and Mr. John Fletcher, volume the third, London: […] J. and R. Tonson and S. Draper […], page 70:

Supporters.] Two Herculeſſes, with clubs over their ſhoulders, proper, crined and habited about the middle, or.

1769, The New Peerage; or Present State of the Nobility of England: […], volume III, London: […] R. Davis, […]; L. Davis, […]; and W. Owen, […], page 227:

There were so many Hercules in the Grecian mythology and history, that it was necessary to specify when the principal Hercules, the son of Jupiter and Alcmena, was meant.

1795, Paradise Regained, a Poem, in Four Books, by John Milton. A New Edition, with Notes of Various Authors, by Charles Dunster, M.A., London: […] T[homas] Cadell, Jun. and W[illiam] Davies, […], page 258:

Thus he enumerates many Hercules’s, and many Mercury’s; but one part of the history of each is so much the same, that I know not how he could avoid perceiving that they were only two names of one person.

1838, L[eveson] Vernon Harcourt, The Doctrine of the Deluge; Vindicating the Scriptural Account from the Doubts Which Have Recently Been Cast upon It by Geological Speculations, volume I, London: […] Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longmans, […], page 453:

[…]—Hercules—Was Nimrod, the grand-son of Noah, and the origin of all the fabled Herculesses of all the early nations—[…]

1843, [Josiah Priest], Slavery, as It Relates to the Negro, or African Race, Examined in the Light of Circumstances, History and the Holy Scriptures; […], Albany, N.Y.: C. Van Benthuysen and Co., page VII:

Our great cities have become so many Augean stables, for the removal of whose filth as many Hercules are required.

1848, Richard B[oxall] Grantham, A Treatise on Public Slaughter-Houses, Considered in Connection with the Sanitary Question. […], London: […] J[ohn] Weale, […]; and […] Henry Renshaw, […], page 25:

“[…] Diogenes turned Hercules into ridicule; and the Roman Cynic Varro introduces three hundred Joves without heads.” From the stage abuser the sarcastic African father selects, partly from his own former observation, those of Diana being flogged, the reading of Jupiter’s will after his decease, and the three half-starved Herculesses!

1884, Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, […], page 112:

[…] and now was Hercules famous at Tyre: not he that we spoke of before: (for the more secret histories say there were many Hercules, and many father Libers) and this Hercules they make famous for twelve sundry rare exploits […]

The two Hercules are positioned on the same convex, bulging frame of the lower stern gallery as David, but furthest to the port (No. 397) and to the starboard (No. 1279) respectively of the centre line.

1986, Hans Soop, The Power and the Glory: The Sculptures of the Warship Wasa, Almqvist & Wiksell, →ISBN, page 43:

By this time, however, Maciste had lost his individuality and had become indistinguishable from the many Herculeses, Atlases, and other assorted neomythological strongmen, all played by a host of American bodybuilders.

2008, Gino Moliterno, Historical Dictionary of Italian Cinema (Historical Dictionaries of Literature and the Arts; 28), The Scarecrow Press, Inc., →ISBN, page 188:

(Roman mythology) The Roman name for the Greek divine hero Heracles, who was the son of Jupiter and Alcmene, a celebrated hero who possessed exceptional strength. Most famous for his 12 labours performed to redeem himself after killing his family.

هِرَقْل

The Roman name of Heracles — see also Heracles


Heracles

From Ancient Greek Ἡρακλῆς (Hēraklês), from Ἥρα (Hḗra, “Hera”) + κλέος (kléos, “glory”).

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(Greek mythology): Son of Zeus and Alcmene, a celebrated hero who possessed exceptional strength. Most famous for his 12 labours performed to redeem himself after killing his family.


Hermes

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From the Ancient Greek Ἑρμῆς (Hermês), itself of disputed meaning and origin, possibly of non-Indo-European substrate origin or from Proto-Indo-European *ser- (“to bind, put together”).

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(Greek mythology) The herald and messenger of the gods, and the god of roads, commerce, invention, cunning, and theft.


Hestia

From Ancient Greek Ἑστία (Hestía), from ἑστία (hestía, “hearth”).

(Greek mythology) The virgin goddess of the hearth, and the household, and therefore of domestic life.


Vesta

From Middle English Vesta, from Latin Vesta, related to Ancient Greek ἑστία (hestía, “to dwell”) and Ἑστία (Hestía, “Hestia”), all from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wes-; see also Old High German and Old English wesan (“to be”), Gothic wisan, Sanskrit वसति (vasati, “abide dwell”).
Vesta itself came to mean chaste, pure, or virgin, based from this goddess.

cog

(Roman mythology) The virgin goddess of the hearth, fire, and the household, and therefore a deity of domestic life. The Roman counterpart of Hestia.


Melpomene

Borrowed from Ancient Greek Μελπομένη (Melpoménē), from μέλπω (mélpō, “to sing”).


Menoetius

From Ancient Greek Μενοίτιος (Menoítios). The name "Menoetius" literally means "defying fate" or "ruined strength".

(Greek mythology) A Titan, son of Iapetus and Clymene, he had three brothers: Atlas, Prometheus and Epimetheus. He joined Cronus and the Titans in their unsuccessful war against the Olympian gods. Zeus killed him with a thunderbolt and sent him down to Tartarus.

(Greek mythology) One of Hades' shepherds on Erythea. He told Geryon when Heracles stole Geryon's herd.

(Greek mythology) Father of Patroclus and son of Actor. (Iliad, XI, 765)


Moirae

From Ancient Greek Μοῖραι (Moîrai, “Moirae”), from μοῖρᾰ (moîră, “lot, destiny”).

(Greek mythology) The Fates, Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, the goddesses, who controlled every person's destiny by weaving the thread of life.


Moira

(Greek mythology) The personification of fate, especially as Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos.


Nyx

(Greek mythology) The primordial goddess of night.


Oceanus

From Ancient Greek Ὠκεανός (Ōkeanós). Doublet of ocean.

(Greek mythology) Personification of vast waters or the world ocean. He was the first-born of the Titans, son of Uranus and Gaia, the god Ωκεανός Ποταμός (Ōkeanós Potamós, “River Ocean”) that encircled the earth. With his sister-wife, Tethys, he fathered all rivers and the Oceanids.


Polyhymnia

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek Πολυύμνια (Poluúmnia), Πολύμνια (Polúmnia)

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(Greek mythology) The Muse of sacred music.


Tethys

(Greek mythology) Personification of fertile waters, she was a Titan daughter of Uranus and Gaia, and with her brother Oceanus gave birth to all rivers and the Oceanids.


Odysseus

From Ancient Greek Ὀδυσσεύς (Odusseús). Doublet of Ulysses.

(Greek mythology) The son of Laertes and Anticlea and father of Telemachus. A Greek leader during the Trojan War, he was responsible for the Trojan horse. He was also king of Ithaca, hero of the Iliad and protagonist of the Odyssey.

Odusseus

son of Laertes; Greek leader during the Trojan War


Urania

(Greek mythology) The Muse of astronomy.

(Greek mythology) One of the epithets of Aphrodite.


Diana

→ Hawaiian: Kiana
→ English: Kiana

→ Serbo-Croatian: Дајана, Dajana

→ Spanish: Dayana

Borrowed from Late Latin Diāna, short form of Latin Dīāna, derived by syncope from Old Latin Dīvāna, equivalent to dīvus + -āna; roughly akin to Proto-Italic *deiwā (“goddess”) + Proto-Indo-European *-néh₂.
Originally an Old Italic divinity of light and the moon; later identified as the Roman counterpart to Greek goddess Artemis. Cognate of Attic Greek Διώνη (Diṓnē), similarly syncopated from older Ancient Greek Διϝωνη (Diwōnē), whence via Latin Diōne is derived English Dione used in various ways across astronomy, chemistry, biology, and as a given name. From the same root Proto-Indo-European *dyúh₃onh₂- also potentially cognate to English June via Latin Jūnō.

So that not only this our craft is in danger to be set at nought; but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised, and her magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia and all the world worshippeth.

(Roman mythology) The daughter of Latona and Jupiter, and twin sister of Apollo; the goddess of the hunt, associated wild animals and the forest or wilderness, and an emblem of chastity; the Roman counterpart of Artemis.


Minerva

From Latin Minerva, from Proto-Italic *menezwā, from Proto-Indo-European *menesweh₂, extended from *ménos (“mind”), from *men- (“to think”).

مِينِيرْفَا

In many works of this ſpecies, the hero is allowed to be mortal, and to become wiſe and virtuous as well as happy, by a train of events and circumſtances. The heroines, on the contrary, are to be born immaculate; and to act like goddeſſes of wiſdom, juſt come forth highly finiſhed Minervas from the head of Jove.

1798, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, “Author’s Preface”, in W[illiam] Godwin, editor, Posthumous Works of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. […], volume I, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […]; and G[eorge,] G[eorge] and J[ohn] Robinson, […], →OCLC:

(Roman mythology) The goddess of wisdom, especially strategic warfare, and the arts, especially crafts and in particular weaving. She is the Roman counterpart of Athena.


Andromeda

/ænˈdɹɒmɪdə/

/ænˈdɹɑmɪdə/

Borrowed from Latin Andromeda, itself a borrowing from Ancient Greek Ἀνδρομέδα (Androméda), Ἀνδρομέδη (Andromédē).

(Greek mythology) The daughter of Cepheus and Cassiopeia, king and queen of Eritrea, rescued from her sacrifice to the sea monster Cetus by Perseus, who married her; mother of Perses, ancient king of Persia.