DOWN FROM1 THE GODS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 263, 5 November 1932, Page 15 (Supplement)

DOWN FROM 1 THE GODS.

MODERN" WORDS AND PHRASES.

When a person is in an unhappy predicament —"between the devil aiid the deep sea'—he is sometimes said to be "between Scylla and Charybdis." According to a Green legend, they were two monsters, one of which lurked on each side of a narrow sea passage. Steering his vessel In such a way as to escape one the unlucky mariner usually fell into the clutches of the other, There are two words—panic and hygienic—which we use almost every day. "Panic" is a sudden, unreasoning fear of something. It is derived from Pan; the god of shepherds. His presence, as he lurked invisible amongst the thickets, or reeds, made itself felt by mortals, and suddenly smote them with a fear so acute that they fled from the unseen. "Hygienic" is derived from the name of the goddess of health—Hygeia. When they epeak of committing an animal to a lethal chamber few realise that, the name comes from Lethe, a river on the borders of Hades, whose waters brought forgetfulness to whoever drank of them. And when they describe something as being in a state of "chaofl" they know not that they are naming Chaos, the first of all the old heathen god's, who ruled over confusion before any other gods existed. "tJnder his aegis" is another phrase often used. "Aegis" wa« the name of j the shield of the goddess of wisdom, I Minerva. It is used to indicate what the shield afforded—protection.