(3 syl.). The spirits of the dead. Good lemures were called Lares, but bad ones Larvae, spectres who wandered about at night-time to terrify the living. (Ovid. Fasti, v.) “The lars and…
[White Goddess]. So Ino was called after she became a seanymph. Her son Palæmon, called by the Romans Portunus, or Portumnus, was the protecting genius of harbours. By Leucothea's lovely…
The east wind is the Levant, and the west wind the Ponent. The former is from levo, to rise (sunrise), and the latter from pono, to set (sunset). “Forth rush the Levant and the Ponent…
The old man eloquent. Isocrates, the Greek orator. When he heard that Grecian liberty was extinguished by the battle of Chærone'a, he died of grief. That dishonest victory At Chæronea,…
Elysian Fields. The Paradise or Happy Land of the Greek poets. Elysian (the adjective) means happy, delightful. “O'er which were shadowy cast Elysian gleams.” Thomson: Castle of Indolence…
(4 syl.) of Sicily. A disciple of Pythagoras According to Lucian, he threw himself into the crater of Etua, that persons might suppose he was returned to the gods, but Etna threw out his…
According to Ptolemy, there are five heavens, the last of which is pure elemental fire and the seat of deity; this fifth heaven is called the empyrean (from the Greek en-pur, in fire). (…
Father of epic poetry. Homer (about 950 B.C.), author of the Iliad and Odyssey. Celebrated epics are the Iliad, Odyssey, Æneid, Paradise Lost. The great Puritan epic. Milton's Paradise…
A malevolent being supposed to live in mines, busying itself with cutting ore, turning the windlass, etc., and yet effecting nothing. (See Gnome.) No goblin, or swart fairy of the mine,…
(The). That is, the Firmament. According to the Ptolemaic System, the earth is surrounded by nine spheres. These spheres are surrounded by the Primum Mobile (or First Moved); and the…
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