The lovely and scholarly museAmuse has returned to our board. In celebration, we devote this week to words from characters from Greek mythology.

protean – exceedingly variable; readily assuming different shapes or forms.
[The Greek sea god Proteus could change his shape at will.]

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What accounts for al Qaeda's ongoing effectiveness in the face of an unprecedented onslaught? The answer lies in the organization's remarkably protean nature. Over its life span, al Qaeda has constantly evolved and shown a surprising willingness to adapt its mission.
- Jessica Stern, The Protean Enemy, Foreign Affairs, July/August 2003

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OK. How about Procrustean, as in Procrustean bed?

"Producing or designed to produce strict conformity by ruthless or arbitrary means." [A-H]

From the name of a Greek legendary brigand, Prokroustes, who had an iron bed on which he made his victims spend the night. If they were too short, he stretched them and if too long he chopped off their feet to make them fit. They all expired.

Ahh, sweet bliss of a "target rich environment."

Is it too obvious to leap immediately to all the adjectives -- titanic, herculean, olympian, promethean? Or the darker "stygian" and its relative, chthonian?

(The latter is not strictly a character, but it is a lovely if menacing term I last saw used by the late Edward Gorey.)

Then of course there is the plutocracy, a class to which so many aspire...

RJA

Dear wordcrafter,

I am deeply honored.

Great words, Richard! I love 'chthonian'! It looks so strange in English.

Btw are you Greek? Your last name is Greek to me.

My heritage is indeed Greek.

And if you permit just a little stretching of language, I would translate "Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes" as "Beware the gifted Greek."

Reverting to theme, we must include "tantalize."

RJA

Also: sisyphean.

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Originally posted by various folks:
Or the darker "stygian" and its relative, chthonian
Procrustean
plutocracy
tantalize
sisyphean

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Excellent, lady and gentlemen! Indeed, I'd considered a theme of such darker greek-myth words (antaean, cyclopean, sop to cerebus, gorgon, harpy, hydra, medusa, lamia, nemesis, sphinx, sthenia, tartarean) -- which of course do not pertain to our dear thalian Muse. Keep those contributions coming, and in a future month we may make that a 2-week theme.

Could someone check plutocrat, which perhaps has a different origin?

On plutocrat -- Random House unabridged (1967)cites "Plutus, god personifying wealth, sometimes comfused with Pluto. A comedy (388 B.C.) by Aristophanes.

And to encourage the full fortnight, we can include "odyssey."

RJA

A plutocracy comprises a government system where wealth is the principal basis of power (from the Greek ploutos meaning wealth).

Plutus was the son of Jason and Ceres, and the Greek god of wealth. He was represented as bearing a cornucopia, and as blind, because his gifts were bestowed without discrimination of merit. See Dictionary.com.

There is a connection with the Roman god Pluto, who was the son of Saturn and Rhea, brother of Jupiter and Neptune, and the dark and gloomy god of the Lower World. His name comes from ploutos -- the idea is that the Lower World is the source of wealth from the ground -- gold, silver, etc.

Hades was the Greek equivalent god, and also the name for the Lower World itself.

[This message was edited by arnie on Tue Mar 2nd, 2004 at 7:21.]

For our dear museamuse we have musical and mosaic.

An interesting link to round out the gloss on "Plutus" at http://homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/Plutus.html

Also, that site reminds me to offer the anodyne to the darker side, the more tranquil "irenic."

RJA

promethean (usually capitalized) - so boldly creative as to have a life-giving quality; inspiring.

[The titan Prometheus made man out of clay and gave mankind fire. He was subjected to gruesome punishment for stealing that fire from Olympus. His punishment was gruesome. His name means "forethought", from pro forward + perhaps a derivative from menos mind.]

The word sometimes has a dark connotation, somewhat akin to a Faustian bargain. We'll look into this in a few days.

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[Architect Frank Lloyd] Wright was Promethean in his ambition and imagination. He attempted to relate his buildings to time as well as space. He incorporated earth, fire, water and air symbolically into his conceptions.
- George Gurley, Kansas City Star, July 28, 1996 (Acknowledgement: quotation taken from Webs. Dict. of Allusions)

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Looking up "Thalia" on Dictionary.com I discovered that she was not only one of the nine Muses, but she was also one of the three Graces and one of the Nereids as well!

Arnie's post triggers a memory about early forms of "goddess groups," in this case, proto-sets of "Charites."

The Spartans' earliest duo were Cleta and Phaeane, meaning sound and light. The Athenians likewise had a charitable (!) pair, Auxon and Hegemone, meaning increase and queen.

From the first Athenian we get the name of the chemical that makes plants bend towards the light - auxon. From the second we get hegemony.

(Note that auxon in fact operates by retaining water on the side AWAY from the light. Plants are thus not truly helio-philic, but rather scoto-phobic...)

RJA

Orphean - hauntingly beautiful or enchanting (literary)
[most dictionaries, if they list this word at all, give only "Of or pertaining to Orpheus, the mythic poet and musician". AHD notes that his "music had the power to move even inanimate objects," and by it he "almost succeeded in rescuing his wife Eurydice from Hades."]

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Something was expected of me, some Orphean performance that would gain me access to the underworld where she was hidden.
- The Magus by John Fowles

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Do we consider the oracle at Delphi a character? If so, perhaps we may admit "delphic," which the OED describes as enigmatic, obscure, and which modern observers might call "politic " No fool, she who sat on the stool...

RJA

syphilis - we all know this word, but what are its origins? Perhaps Greek mythology.

The 1530 poem Syphilis, sive Morbus Gallicus" ("Syphilis, or the French Disease"), by Veronese doctor Girolamo Fracastoro (1483-1553), tells of the shepherd Syphilus, supposed to be the first sufferer. Sixteen years later Fracastoro's treatise De Contagione originated the use of the word as a name for the disease.

It's unclear why Fracastoro chose this name. Perhaps he took it from Greek sys + philos¹ loving. Or it may come from the tale in Ovid of Siphylus or Sipylus (the manuscripts vary), Niobe's impious son, whom Apollo was turned to stone.


¹The sources don't mention this, but I trepidate that the source might be phallos rather than philos.

I've wanted to write a short story for some time now. The two main characters are Mister Quark from Finnegans Wake and Syphilis the Shephard from Syphilis sive Morbus Gallicus, who may or may not be lovers. The first bit of dialog would be: "Phyllis had syphilis." Einstein and Goedel are minor characters, a la Pozzo and Lucky in Waiting for Godot. These two spend most of the play gambling on nuclear events. There's a chorus of Ideological Green Furies who opine on everything. Meanwhile ...

Similarly, I have always wanted to write a pornographic western just so I could title it "Meanwhile, Back on the Raunch."

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Originally posted by jheem:
a short story ... two main characters are ... Syphilis the Shephard ... The first bit of dialog would be: "Phyllis had syphilis."

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In what sense do you mean the word "had"?

We recently saw the word "promethean". That concept somewhat relates to today's pair of words – one for last week's theme (words of logic), and one for this week's theme.


pandora's box – a source of many unforeseen troubles
[Greek mythology: Zeus gave Pandora a box with instructions that she not open it. But she was overcome by curiosity and opened it, and all the miseries and evils flew out to afflict mankind.]

slippery slope – a dangerous and irreversible course: the slippery slope from narcotics to prison. [Wordcrafter note: I do not think this definition is entirely accurate, but can find no better. Comments?]
In logic, the argument, "If we do A as proposed, it will lead to B, and then to C …. [etc. to disaster]." For example, " If we forbid partial-birth abortion, soon all abortion will become illegal."

Today's words each have the concept of "opening the door to disaster". "Promethean" can also can have this overtone, as in today's quotation.

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[concerning the implications and dangers of cloning] There is, of course, the slippery slope argument, and it is certainly true that there have been many such slopes down which we have slipped, or joyously skied, in the past few decades. But unless we believe that we are not masters of our fate, that the Promethean bargain is completely uncontrollable, this is not a slope we need slip down, at least with proper regulation.
– Theodore Dalrymple, Cloning human cells is not the beginning of the slippery slope, Telegraph, Feb. 13, 2004

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rhadamanthine – rigorously and uncompromisingly just
[In myth Rhadamanthus, because of his inflexible integrity, was made one of the three judges of the dead in the lower world, together with Aeacus and Minos.]

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You can hear the heavy newspaper reviewers, the wits of the glossy mag- azines, and the deep voices of the academic quarterlies - those Rhadamanthine judges of the quick and the dead in the world of literature - searching their hearts for condemnation bitter enough to reflect the greatest possible credit upon themselves.
- Robertson Davies, The Merry Heart: Reflections on Reading, Writing, and the World of Books

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psaphonic – related to outrageous self-promotion

But a caution: today's "word" is an interesting borderline case. One can seriously question whether it is a word at all and, if it is, what that word means.

The story of Psaphon, perhaps one of the most obscure figures of Greek myth, is told only by Aelianus [Aelian] (2nd/3rd c.), himself rather obscure. Psaphon, in novel self-promotion, released birds that he had trained to call out his name, "Psaphon! Psaphon!" [Some net-sources say they cried out "Psaphon is a god!"]

Interesting, but has his name become a word? You won't find it in OED or in any of the other major published dictionaries (nor in Bailey's, by the way), and Ciardi says he "proposes" that word – thus indicating that no such word exists. On the other hand, you will find psaphonic listed in several of the more "personalized" dictionaries. (e.g., Novovatzky & Shea; Mrs. Bryne; Berent & Evans [all published in paper; I have personally checked the first two); on-line sources listed in one-look.) None give back-up; they may well be quoting each other.

If it's a word, what does it mean? Those dictionaries that list it say "____ one's rise to fame" – the blank being either "seeking" or "planning" "preoccupied with plotting". Unfortunately, definition this doesn't seem faithful to the myth. It misses the myth's concept of outrageous self-promotion. It is so broad that it would include, for example, even a diligent and virtuous aspirant, a self-aware Horatio Alger.

Ciardi however says, "Nor can I resist this opportunity to propose to the language the word psaphonic Of advertising (implying that it is for the birds)." This definition seems more true to the myth and more is in accord with the few usages I can find (quoted below) other than people playing displaying a word they have learned.

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BREWER DICTIONARY OF PHRASE AND FABLE (1894):
Psaphon's Birds: Puffers, flatterers. [citing Moore, "Rhymes on the Road: "To what far region have his songs not flown, / Like Psaphon's birds, speaking their master's name."]

What do writers hope for from those who comment on their work in public? ... [In] book reviews, ... "Praise is what we want, praise is what we want, praise is what we want." Martin Walser, one of the most intelligent essayists of contemporary German literature, ... Germany's cleverest chatterbox, knew very well what he was talking about when he bluntly declared that the prototype of the author was the Egyptian shepherd Psaphon who had taught the birds to sing his praises.
– Marcel Reich-Ranicki, The Author of Himself

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Scanning the list, one sees our administrator has given us an elevated tone. At the risk of puncturing that, I offer "augean." From Webster (1913):

(Class. Myth.) Of or pertaining to Augeus, king of Elis, whose stable contained 3000 oxen, and had not been cleaned for 30 years. Hercules cleansed it in a single day.

RJA