The Facts on File Dictionary of Allusions - Green Valley High School

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Hades (haydeez) <strong>The</strong> underworld or abode of
the dead, according to Greek mythology. It took
its name from Hades, the brother of Zeus who
became the lord of the dead and was the equivalent
of the Roman Pluto. Hades was said to be a
sunless void separated from the mortal world by
the waters of fi ve rivers, the chief of these being
the Styx. <strong>The</strong> most guilty souls were consigned to
Tartarus, while those who were less guilty resided
in the asphodel meadows. <strong>The</strong> entrance to Hades
was guarded by the three- headed dog Cerberus.
“I’ll see you in Hades fi rst,” quoth Sir Archibald defi antly.
See also elysian fi elds.
Hagar See ishmael.
halcyon days (halseebn) Happy, prosperous
times of peace and harmony. <strong>The</strong> word halcyon
was the Greek name for the kingfi sher (from hals,
“the sea,” and kuo, “to breed on”), a bird whose
habits were shrouded in mystery in the classical
era. It was believed that kingfi shers nested far out
to sea at the time of the winter solstice, when the
seas remained calm for 14 days so that the birds
could incubate their eggs on the waves. This
notion harked back to the legend of Halcyon, the
daughter of Aeolus, god of the winds, who married
the mortal Ceyx and threw herself into the
sea after her husband died in a shipwreck. Both
were transformed into kingfi shers. “He knew the
world too well to risk the comfort of such halcyon
moments, by prolonging them till they were
disagreeable” (Anthony Trollope, <strong>The</strong> Warden,
1855). Life in today’s universities seems a far cry from
the halcyon days of the 1970s and 1980s when money
seemed no object.
half is more than the whole It is better sometimes
to settle for a share of something rather than
spend a great deal in trying to gain more. This proverbial
expression is supposed to have been fi rst
uttered by the ninth- century b.c. Greek poet
Hesiod as advice to his brother Perseus when the
latter was considering fi ghting a legal battle over
an estate, thereby risking most of it being frittered
away on lawyers’ fees. <strong>The</strong> lawyers conferred, then
decided to settle on the grounds that half is sometimes
more than the whole.
Halicarnassus See eighth wonder of the
world.
halt and the blind See maimed, the halt, the
blind, the.
hamadryad See nymph.
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