inglés

EXPRESSIONS RELATED TO TROIA'S LEGEND

• stentorian voice or tone, between Scylla and Charibdis, weaving the Penelope´s fabric, siren song, the Cassandra syndrome or complex  

"STENTORIAN VOICE OR TONE" 

ENGLISH WORD: “stentorian voice or tone”.

CURRENT MEANING: this expression is used to refer to a person who speaks in a very loud or powerful tone. Booming, powerful, loud and suitable for giving speeches to large crowds.

ORIGIN: it comes from Stentor, a herald in the Trojan War, whose voice was described by Homer as the voices of fifty men together.

 

"BETWEEN SCYLLA AND CHARIBDIS"

ENGLISH WORD: “between Scylla and Charibdis”.

CURRENT MEANING: being between Scylla and Charibdis is an idiom deriving from Greek mythology used to refer to a situation involving two dangers in which an attempt to avoid one increases the risk from the other. We can also use “dilemma” with the same meaning.

ORIGIN: Scylla and Charibdis are two mythical sea monsters which are noted by Homer in his work Odyssey. These two monsters were located on opposite sides of the coast of Italy and involved for Ulises and his colleagues to overcome a danger to get into another worse.

 

 

Odysseus in front of Scylla and Charybdis. Johann Heinrich Füsli.

 

"WEAVING THE PENELOPE'S FABRIC"

ENGLISH WORD: “weaving the Penelope´s fabric”, “weaving Penelope´s cloth”.

CURRENT MEANING: to do something useless and that is never ending.

ORIGIN: while Ulysses did not return from the Trojan war, Penelope entertained the suitors to the throne of Ithaca promising that she would choose one of them when she finished the cloth that was weaving. However, the cloth never ended because Penelope undid it in the evening.

 

Penelope and the Suitors. John William Waterhouse.

 

"SIREN SONG"

ENGLISH WORD: “siren song”, “siren call”.

CURRENT MEANING: the appealing allure that something has although it is potentially harmful or dangerous.

ORIGIN: in classical mythology the Sirens attracted sailors with their songs, causing them to lose control of their vessels. The only one who could hear and be saved was Ulysses, who, thanks to his inventiveness, was attached to the mast of his ship.

 

 

 Ulysses and the Sirens. Herbert James Draper.

 

"THE CASSANDRA SYNDROME"

ENGLISH WORD: “the Cassandra syndrome or complex”.

CURRENT MEANING: we use this term when valid warnings, suggestions or preditions are dismissed or disbelieved.

ORIGIN: Cassandra was the daughter of Priam, King of Troy. Apollo was in love with her, but Cassandra rejected him and his punishment was to have the gift of prophecy and not be believed by anyone.

 

Ajax the Lesser raping Cassandra. Tondo of an Attic red-figure cup, ca. 440-430 BC.