GLOSSARY OF MYTHOLOGICAL WORDS AND PHRASES IN ENGLISH 767
calliope Calliope was one of the nine Muses,
who gives her name to the musical instrument the
calliope, made up of tuned steam whistles and
played like an organ; it is also the name for the Cal-
ifornia hummingbird. See muse.
Cassandra Trojan Cassandra, daughter of Priam
and Hecuba, was amorously pursued by the god
Apollo. Having at first agreed to succumb to his ad-
vances, she was awarded the gift of prophecy, but
later, when she changed her mind and refused him,
Apollo punished her. She would remain a prophet-
ess, but would never be believed. Cassandra's pre-
dictions were invariably of disaster, foretelling the
murder of Agamemnon by Clytemnestra or the de-
struction of Troy through the ruse of the Trojan
Horse. A Cassandra today is anyone who utters dire
warnings of the future, regardless of their truth.
Calypso/Calypso music Calypso ("she who
hides or conceals") was the daughter of Thetis and
either Atlas, Nereus, or Oceanus. Odysseus was de-
tained on her island home of Ogygia for seven years
with the promise that she would make him immor-
tal. Though he enjoyed her bed, each day he would
weep and look longingly over the sea to his home-
land, Ithaca. Eventually Zeus sent Hermes to inform
Calypso that she must give up Odysseus. Calypso
music, derived from the name of the nymph, origi-
nated on the islands of the West Indies and features
topical or amusing themes.
catamite Zeus was so impressed with the beauty
of the Trojan youth Ganymede that he took the form
of an eagle and brought him to Olympus to become
the cupbearer of the gods. The Latin rendering of
Ganymede's name was Catamitus, and his relation-
ship with Zeus (or Jupiter) was interpreted by some
as overtly homosexual to lend divine authority to an-
cient pédérastie practices; today a catamite is still the
designation for a boy used for pédérastie purposes.
Cerberus Cerberus, the hound of the under-
world, stood guard at the gates of Hades and pre-
vented those not permitted from entering. He is usu-
ally described as a beast with three heads and the tail
of a dragon. When Aeneas journeyed to the lower re-
gions under the guidance of the Sibyl, he brought
along a medicated cake to drug the animal and en-
sure their safe passage. To throw a sop to Cerberus
means to give a bribe and thereby ward off an un-
pleasant situation.
cereal Ceres (the Roman counterpart of Demeter)
was goddess of grain and the fertility of the earth.
From her name is derived the Latin adjective Cere-
alis (having to do with Ceres and the grain), from
which comes our English word cereal.
chaos/chaotic Whether Chaos is to be under-
stood as a void or a primordial, formless, undiffer-
entiated, and seething mass out of which the order
of the universe is created, it is the starting point of
creation. This unformed beginning is contrasted with
later creation, a universe called the cosmos, a desig-
nation meaning, literally, harmony or order. The sky
and the stars, the earth and its creatures, and the laws
and cycles that direct and control creation seem to
exhibit the balance, order, and reason that the mind
discerns in the natural world. For us chaos, together
with its adjective chaotic, simply means a state of
confusion. See cosmos.
Chimera/chimerical/chimeric A wild, hybrid
creature, the Chimera had the head of a lion, the body
of a goat, and the tail of a serpent, and it breathed
fire. It was killed by the Corinthian hero Bellerophon
on one of his journeys. Today a chimera is a fantas-
tic delusion, an illusory creation of the mind. It can
also refer to a hybrid organism, usually a plant.
Chimerical and Chimeric refer to something as un-
real, imaginary, or fantastic. These adjectives can also
signify that one is given to fantasy.
cornucopia The Latin cornucopia means "horn
of plenty." There are two stories about this horn,
which bestows upon the owner an endless bounty.
Zeus, in his secluded infancy on Crete, was nursed
by a goat named Amalthea, which was also the name
of the goddess of plenty. One of the horns of this goat
was broken off and became the first cornucopia. The
horn of plenty is also associated with Hercules. In or-
der to win Deianira as his bride, he had to defeat the
horned river-god Achelous. In the struggle, Hercules
broke off one of the horns of the river-god but after
his victory returned the horn and received as rec-
ompense the horn of Amalthea. Ovid, however, re-
lates that the horn of Acheloùs became a second horn
of plenty. Today the cornucopia is a sign of nature's
abundance, and the word comes to mean a plenteous
bounty.
cosmos/cosmic/cosmology/cosmetic/cosme-
tician Cosmos refers to the universe, and all that
is ordered and harmonious. The study of cosmology
deals with the origin and structure of the universe.
The adjective cosmic may designate the universe be-
yond and apart from the earth itself, or it may in a
generalized sense describe something of vast signif-
icance or implication. Akin to the word cosmos are
various English words derived from the Greek ad-
jective cosmeticos. Cosmos means not only order and
harmony, but also arrangement and decoration; thus
a cosmetic is a substance that adorns or decorates the
body, and a cosmetician the person involved with
cosmetics. See chaos.