772 GLOSSARY OF MYTHOLOGICAL WORDS AND PHRASES IN ENGLISHMidas'/ass's ears/Midas touch/the golden
touch Apollo and Pan entered into a musical con-
test. When Apollo was judged victorious by the
mountain-god Tmolus, Midas, the king of Phrygia,
disagreed. For his lack of perception Apollo trans-
formed Midas' offending ears into those of an ass.
To have ass' ears means that one lacks true musical
judgment and taste. On another occasion, the god
Dionysus granted Midas' wish that whatever he
might touch be turned into gold. To his despair, Mi-
das found that even as he put food and drink to his
mouth it was transmuted into gold. Dionysus
granted him relief by telling him to bathe in the river
Pactolus, whose bed became golden. To have the
golden touch or Midas' touch means to be success-
ful in any endeavor.
money/monetary In the Temple of Juno Moneta
("money," "mint") was housed the Roman mint. The
epithet Moneta means "the warner" and refers to an
important legend regarding her temple. When Rome
was threatened in 390 B.c. by an invasion of Gauls,
the sacred geese in Juno's temple began to squawk,
rousing the Romans to battle. Moneta, through the
Old French moneie, has given us the word money; the
adjective monetary, "pertaining to money," comes
from the stem monet-.
morphine Morpheus was the god of dreams, or
more particularly the shapes (morphai) that come to
one in dreams. Later he became confused with the
god of sleep and it is from this confusion that the
meaning of morphine comes. Morphine, an addictive
compound of the opium plant, is used as an anaes-
thetic or sedative. The compounds that include the
stem morph-, such as metamorphosis (a transforma-
tion into another shape or state of being), are drawn
from the Greek word morphe ("shape" or "form") and
not the god Morpheus.
muse/music/museum/mosaic The nine Muses
were the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne ("mem-
ory"), whose province was inspiration in the arts,
particularly poetry and music; from Muse we derive
the word music. The Greek word mouseion ("place of
the Muses"), in Latin museum, has given us museum,
a place for displaying works of artistic, historical, or
scientific interest. From the adjective mousaicos ("per-
taining to the Muses") comes mosaic, a picture or de-
sign made up of small colored tiles or stones.
narcissism/narcissist/narcissistic/narcissus Nar
cissism refers to a psychological state in which the
person has a pathological attachment to oneself. See
echo.
nectar Nectar is the special drink of the gods,
usually paired with their food, ambrosia. Nectar has
come to mean any refreshing drink, the pure juice of
a fruit, or the liquid gathered by bees from the blos-
soms of flowers, used in making honey. See am-
brosia.
nemesis Nemesis is the goddess of vengeance
who brings retribution to those who have sinned, es-
pecially through hubris ("overweening pride"). A
nemesis denotes the following: the abstract idea of
retributive vengeance; the agent of retribution; an in-
vincible rival in a contest or battle; or a necessary or
inevitable consequence.
nestor Nestor, the oldest and wisest of the Greek
kings at Troy, lived to see three generations of he-
roes. A brave and strong warrior when young, in old
age he was prized for his good counsel and his ora-
tory. Homer tells us that his speech flowed more
sweetly than honey. When a politician or statesman
today is called a nestor, it is these qualities of wis-
dom, good counsel, and oratory that are emphasized.
nymph/nymphomania/nympholepsy Nymphs
are beautiful, idyllic goddesses of wood and stream
and nature, often the objects of love and desire. A
nymph today may simply mean a remarkably at-
tractive young woman, but if she were to suffer from
nymphomania ("nymph-madness"), she would be
suffering from sexual promiscuousness. Nymp-
holepsy (from lepsis, "a seizing"), on the other hand,
refers- to the madness that assails one who has
glimpsed a nymph. It can also denote a strong desire
for what is unattainable (Cf. satyr/satyriasis).
ocean In mythology the world is a disc circled by
a stream of water, the god Oceanus, who is the fa-
ther of the Oceanids, that is, all the lesser rivers,
streams, brooks, and rills that flow over the earth.
Today ocean can refer to the entire body of salt wa-
ter or any of its major divisions covering the globe.
odyssey Homer's Odyssey recounts the return of
Odysseus to Ithaca, his wife, Penelope, and his son,
Telemachus. After ten years of war at Troy, Odysseus
found the day of his return postponed for another ten
years by the god Poseidon. On his extended travels he
overcame many challenges before winning his home-
coming. An odyssey has come to mean a long, tortu-
ous period of wandering, travel, and adventure, often
in search of a quest, both literally and spiritually.
Oedipus/Oedipal complex King Laius of Thebes
was given a prophecy that his wife, Jocasta, would
bear a son who would kill his father and marry his
mother. They did have a son, whose name was Oedi-
pus, and when he grew up he killed his father and
married his mother, despite all that was done to avert
the prophecy and destiny. Sophocles' masterpiece,
Oedipus the King, inspired Sigmund Freud to crystal-