766 GLOSSARY OF MYTHOLOGICAL WORDS AND PHRASES IN ENGLISHspectacular streaks of light that appear in the sky at
night are a result of the effect of the particles of the
sun's rays on the upper atmosphere. Seen especially
at the poles, in the Northern Hemisphere they are
called the northern lights or the aurora borealis, and
in the South, the aurora australis, Auster being the
Roman name of the southwest wind.
bacchanal/baccanalia/bacchanalian/bacchant/
bacchante/bacchic Dionysus, the Roman Bacchus,
was the god of wine, frenzied music and dance, and
the irrational. He presided over ecstatic, sometimes or-
giastic rites, which involved initiation and drove the
participants into another plane of perception as they
became possessed by the deity. He is usually repre-
sented in the midst of a retinue of female worshipers,
known as maenads, bacchae, or bacchantes (the fem-
inine singular is bacchante; a male follower is a bac-
chant, plural bacchants); he is also attended by male
satyrs, mischievous and lecherous creatures, half-hu-
man and half-animal. Wine proved a powerful con-
duit to the ineffable, amidst rituals that included the
rending of a sacrificial victim and the eating of its raw
flesh. Dionysiac rites among the Romans became
known as Bacchanalia, and the sometime extreme be-
havior of the initiates provoked the Roman Senate to
outlaw them in 186 B.c. Thus we derive the words bac-
chanal and bacchanalia to refer to any debauched
party or celebration. Bacchanal, bacchant, bacchante,
and bacchae can be used to characterize an overzeal-
ous partygoer. The adjectives bacchanalian and bac-
chic describe any exuberant, drunken revelry. See
dionysian and apollonian.
Beware of Greeks bearing gifts/I fear Greeks even
when they bear gifts The fall of Troy was finally
accomplished by a ruse of the Greeks. They con-
structed an enormous, hollow, wooden horse, into
which they hid some of their best fighters. The horse
was left behind as the rest of the Greek host sailed off
to the nearby island of Tenedos and waited. The
treacherous Sinon convinced the Trojans to drag the
gift into the city, despite the warnings of Laocoôn, a
priest of Poseidon. In Vergil's account, Laocoôn im-
plored his countrymen not to bring the treacherous
horse into Troy, crying, "I fear Greeks even when they
bear gifts" (Timeo Danaos et dona ferentis). Two serpents
emerged from the sea to strangle Laocoôn and his two
sons. The Trojans were convinced that they should ac-
cept the horse and thus wrought their own destruc-
tion. Laocoôn's utterance has become a warning to be-
ware of treachery and look for the hidden motives
behind even the most fair-seeming generosity.
boreal Boreas, the north wind, has given us this
adjective, which refers to the region of the world
from which his blasts come. See aurora.
by Jupiter/by Jove/jovian/jovial Jupiter was the
Roman counterpart of Zeus, the supreme god and fa-
ther. He was a god of the sky and his name is de-
rived from Indo-European roots dyaus/pitr, which lit-
erally mean god/father. In Latin the common oath
"by Jupiter" would be rendered "pro Jove" (Jove be-
ing a different form of his name). In the Christian tra-
dition there is no religious significance to this excla-
mation, but English writers, by using it as an
expression of surprise or pleasure, avoided taking
God's name in vain; thus "by Jupiter" or "by Jove"
was used to replace the offensive "by God." To de-
scribe someone or something as jovian means that
one partakes of that awe-inspiring majesty that is
particular to a supreme god. Many mythological
names also found a new existence in the field of as-
trology. Since it was felt that the heavenly bodies in-
fluence the life of humans on earth, celestial bodies
were given appellations drawn from mythology, for
example Jupiter became the name not only of a god
but also of a planet. Those who were born under the
influence of the planet Jupiter were said to be of a
cheerful disposition, hence the meaning of the ad-
jective jovial.Cadmean Victory Cadmus was informed by the
oracle at Delphi that he would establish a great city.
When he eventually found the site of the future
Thebes, he prepared to sacrifice to the gods in thanks-
giving. He soon discovered that the local spring from
which he needed to draw water for a proper sacrifice
was guarded by a serpent. He sent his men to dispatch
the monster and bring back the ritual water. All of his
men failed in the attempt and Cadmus eventually took
it upon himself to kill the serpent. Though Cadmus
was ultimately victorious, he now found himself
bereft of his comrades and despaired of establishing
his realm. A Cadmean Victory has come to mean a
victory won at great loss to the victor.caduceus In Latin the herald's staff was known
as the caduceum, derived from the Greek word keryx,
or herald, and his staff the kerykeion. Hermes, as di-
vine messenger, was invariably depicted with the
caduceus, which was represented as a staff with
white ribbons or intertwined snakes. The white rib-
bons may have indicated the inviolability of his of-
fice. The image of intertwined snakes may have been
drawn from the Near Eastern use of copulating
snakes as a symbol of fertility, for Hermes was a fer-
tility god. The staff of Hermes became confused with
the staff of Asclepius, the renowned mythic physi-
cian and son of Apollo, because some stories about
Asclepius involved snakes and the reptile has the
ability to slough its old skin and seemingly be "re-
born," and so had associations with healing.