Words From Ancient Legends

WORDS FROM ANCIENT LEGENDS

ANTAEAN — having superhuman strength; ANTAEUS was a giant athlete overcome by Hercules

ARGONAUTS — engaged in dangerous but rewarding adventure; in Greek mythology, the Argonauts were a band of heroes who accompanied Jason to Colchis in his quest for the Golden Fleece

ARGUS-EYED — having very keen vision; careful, watchful; in Greek mythology, Argus was a giant with a 100 eyes

ASTRONAUT — trained for travelling in spacecraft (one from Russia is called a cosmonaut); the Greek expression means star sailor

ATLAS — from Atlas who was made to uphold the pillars of heaven as punishment for leading the Titans in the war against the Olympian gods; a collection of maps in a volume -- the first by Flemish geographer Gerhardus Mercator had a picture of Atlas holding up the world on the front

BACCHANALIAN — marked by excessive drinking and frenzy; bacchanalia is an ancient Greek festival in celebration of Bacchus, the god of wine

CALLIOPE — a keyboard musical instrument consisting of a series of whistles sounded by steam or compressed air; Calliope is the Greek Muse of epic poetry

CHIMERICAL — from Greek chimaira, a fabulous monster with a lion's head, goat's body and serpent's tail, the name means wild fantasy; pertaining to a liope or dream unlikely to ever come true; wildly fanciful imagination

CORNUCOPIA — a large amount or great supply of something; from the Latin "horn of plenty"

CYCLOPEAN - Huge, massive; Cyclops are a race of giants in Greek mythology with a single eye in the middle of the forehead

EROTIC — sexually arousing; Eros is the Greek god of love

GORDIAN KNOT — from King Gordius of Phrygia who tied a complicated knot which no one could make loose, until Alexander the Great cut it with his sword; a very tough problem; intricate

GORGON — a woman whose appearance and behaviour causes fear; one of three sisters in ancient Greek stories who had snakes on their heads instead of hair, and who turned anyone who looked at them into stone

HARPY — a cruel, unpleasant Woman who shouts a lot; in Greek mythology, a creature with the head of a woman and the body of a bird

HECTOR — from the provocative Trojan hero Hector, in Greek mythology; to talk and behave in a loud and unpleasantly forceful way, to get someone to act or think as you want; be bossy

HERCULEAN — from Roman mythological hero, Hercules, noted for his courage and great strength; with superhuman strength or power; task of extreme difficulty

JANUS-FACED — Two-faced, having two contrasting aspects;

Janus is the Roman god of doorways and passages

JOVIAL — Merry, joyous, happy; from the Latin Jovius, meaning Jupiter, the Roman god of the sky

MENTOR -- a teacher or a wise counsellor; coach; in Greek mythology, the friend whom Odysseus left in charge of the household while he was at Troy and who was the teacher and protector of Telemachus, son of Odysseus

MERCURIAL - liable to sudden unpredictable change; lively and quick; in Roman mythology, the god of commerce and rhetoric, who also acted as a messenger between humans and gods; those born under the planet Mercury are supposed to be sprightly, volatile and quick

NARCISSISM — self-love and admiration; in Greek mythology, Narcissus "as a beautiful young man who fell in love with his own reflection

NEMESIS — something that causes misery or death; the goddess of divine retribution and vengeance in Greek mythology

ODYSSEY — a long, exciting and eventful journey; a Greek epic poem describing the 10-year journey of Odysseus after the fall of Troy

OLYMPIAN -- majestic, awe-inspiring; far beyond the usual; Olympus is a mountain in Thessaly that in Greek mythology is the abode of the gods

PAEAN — a song or work of praise; Paean was the Greek physician of the gods; a hymn of praise, especially one sung in ancient Greece to invoke or thank a deity

PALLADIUM — a safeguard; a statue of Pallas whose preservation was believed to ensure the safety of Troy

PHOENIX — a symbol of immortality, rebirth; an imaginary bird which set fire to itself every 500 years and was born again, rising from its ashes

PROCRUSTEAN - from Procrustes, a robber in Greek mythology, who abducted strangers and forced them to fit perfectly into a bed by either cutting off or stretching their limbs; trying to establish conformity by using any means, including violence; ruthless disregard of individual differences and special circumstances

PROTEAN — easily and continually changing; Proteus was a Greek sea god who could change his form

SATURNINE — bitter, scornful; heavy, dull, gloomy, serious, morose; once these qualities were attributed to being born under the influence of the planet Saturn, considered the coldest and the slowest

STENTORIAN — using a very loud voice; Stentor was a legendary Greek herald in the Trojan War, whose voice was as loud as that of 50 men

STYGIAN — gloomy, dark, infernal; relating to the Styx, the river in Greek mythology that the souls of the dead were ferried across into Hades