Posted on 11/24/2015 7:19:28 PM PST by Louis Foxwell
In order that we might all raise the level of discourse and expand our language abilities, here is the daily post of "Word for the Day".
Stygian [STIJ ee un]
adjective
With an upper case S, describes anything relating to the River Styx, the river, according to classical mythology, over which Charon ferried the souls of the departed on their journey into the underworld. He charged a fee of one obol, a coin which was placed in the mouth of the deceased, for use in payment of that fee. From that dreadful river, the adjective stygian came to mean "dark, gloomy, forbidding," or "infernal." and one may speak of stygian night or a stygian cave or landscape, or a stygian room or hallway, dark, gloomy, forbidding.
Stygian takes on an entirely different meaning in the expression stygian oath: an oath "by the Styx" sworn by a god, a "stygian oath" is inviolable.
The Roman poet Virgil (70-19B.C.) in The Aeneid, writes of "the swamp of the Styx, by which the gods take oath."
The adjective in Latin was Stygias, in Greek Stygios.
The English poet John Milton (1608-1674) starts his poem L'Allegro with the lines:
Hence, loathed McLancholy,
Of Cerberus, and blackest midnight born,
in Stygian cave forlorn,
'Midst horrid shapes, and shrieks, and sights unholy....
YES! We rise above the stygian depths of our tormented souls with praise for Christ our Lord.
Every place touched by liberals seems Stygian; cold, dark, and gloomy, devoid of happiness or life.
A most stilted analogy.
The tormented souls are his audience.
The blessing of day ferrets out the dark and pours its radiance upon our furrowed brows.
Lovely. Thank you.
oh, I crashed and went to bed before I came up with some homework.
Yes, indeed, the unicorn habitation of nieve sentimentalists and puritanical ideologues is a fearsome place.
for celebratory blasts, no doubt.
And a genuine torture it is, bringing terrible fear where no danger exists.
You even think like our SD. Scary.
Lotsa venison on those hoofs.
As an EMT, I had a patient once who was up from the city to hunt. He shot himself while unloading the car at a remote hunting cabin. They had no idea where they were, no land line, no cell reception so they loaded him in their vehicle and headed in the direction of civilization. Drunker than skunks, too.
A round of applause upon exiting the throne room would be in order. Or, following the trumpet herald, genuflecting or, at the very least, a simple curtsy or bow before such munificence.
A sorry ending to a sorry outing.
Nope, busy not at work. :=)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.