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

terrible beauty
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pavement, into which the bow windows protruded
like bastions, necessitating a pleasing
chassez- dechassez movement to the time- pressed
pedestrian at every few yards. He was bound also
to evolve other Terpsichorean fi gures in respect
of door- steps, scrapers, cellar- hatches, church
buttresses, and the overhanging angles of walls
which, originally unobtrusive, had become bowlegged
and knock- kneed” (Thomas Hardy, <strong>The</strong>
Mayor of Casterbridge, 1886).
terrible beauty Something that is at once appalling
and yet awe- inspiring. <strong>The</strong> phrase was a coinage
of the Irish poet and playwright W. B. Yeats
(1865–1939), making its fi rst appearance in his
poem “Easter 1916,” about the Easter Rising in
Dublin that year, a violent rebellion that marked a
signifi cant point in the struggle for Irish in de pendence:
“Now and in time to be, / Wherever green
is worn / Are changed, changed utterly: / A terrible
beauty is born.” <strong>The</strong> phrase has remained
strongly associated with the birth of the Irish state,
although it has also been applied in other contexts
in succeeding years. <strong>The</strong> image of the Twin Towers
crashing to the ground remains a terrible beauty.
tertium quid (tersheebm kwid, terteebm kwid)
An unknown, unclassifi able, or nameless thing that
has the features of two other things. <strong>The</strong> phrase is
credited to the Greek phi los o pher and mathematician
Pythagoras (c. 580–c. 500 b.c.), who once
offered the following defi nition of a biped: “A man
is a biped, so is a bird, and a third thing.” According
to Iamblichus (c. a.d. 250–c. 330), another
Greek phi los o pher, the “third thing” Pythagoras
had in mind was himself. “And there is another
mode of dress open to him, which I can assure my
readers is not an unknown costume, a tertium
quid, by which semi- decorum and comfort are
combined. <strong>The</strong> hunting breeches are put on fi rst,
and the black trowsers are drawn over them”
(Anthony Trollope, Hunting Sketches, 1865).
Tethys (teethis) <strong>The</strong> sea; the third satellite of the
planet Saturn. Tethys was one of the Titans of Greek
mythology, a sea goddess who was the daughter of
Uranus and the wife of Oceanus and by him became
the mother of the sea nymphs called the oceanids.
He slipped soundlessly over the side of the boat and into
the welcoming arms of Tethys, goddess of the sea.
Teucer (tyooser) Archetype of a skilled archer.
According to Greek legend Teucer was the son of
Telamon and Hesione and became famous for his
skills in archery with the Greek army during the
Trojan War. On his return from Troy he was sent
into exile by his father for having failed to avenge
the death of his brother, ajax, at the hands of
Odysseus. “ ‘But,’ thought he, ‘I may, like a second
Teucer, discharge my shafts from behind the shield
of my ally; and, admit that he should not prove to
be a fi rst- rate poet, I am in no shape answerable
for his defi ciencies, and the good notes may very
probably help off an indifferent text’ ” (Sir Walter
Scott, <strong>The</strong> Antiquary, 1816).
Thais (thaybs) A woman who uses her beauty to
infl uence her lover. <strong>The</strong> original Thais was an
Athenian courtesan of the fourth century b.c. who
became the mistress of Alexander the Great. She
exercised her infl uence over him to persuade him
to order the burning of the palace of Persepolis.
“ ‘ “<strong>The</strong> lovely Thais sits beside you. Take the goods
the gods provide you.” I often say that to my wife,
till the children have got calling her Thais. <strong>The</strong>
children have it pretty much their own way with
us, Mr. Crawley’ ” (Anthony Trollope, <strong>The</strong> Last
Chronicle of Barset, 1867).