Glossary of Terms
"From the fairest creatures we desire increase": Line from Shakespeare's Sonnet #1
abattoir: a slaughterhouse
assignation: rendezvous; an appointment of time and place for a meeting
balaclava cap: winter headgear shaped like an oversized mitten
Byron: Romantic poet best known for his poem's Don Juan and Childe Harold's Pilgrimage; also noted for his passionate and adulterous personal life
bywoner: agricultural laborer, tenant of a farm
Cronus: Greek god who married his sister, Rhea; and ate all of his children in order to maintain his throne; Rhea managed to save one of their children, Zeus
cul de sac: a street or passage closed at one end, a blind alley
cycads: often mistaken for palms or ferns, plant has large compound leaves and a thick trunk
duiker: small to medium-sized antelopes
Emma Bovary: central character in Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary; a doctor's wife who has affairs to enrich her boring bourgeoise life
Eros: Greek god of love and sexual desire
George Grosz: German expressionst painter; known for his caricature like drawings od Berlin life
Handlanger: German for handyman
historical piquancy: fitting, suitable, or justifiable because of Afrikaaners's history of oppression of Africans; poetic justice
Inferno: one of the three canticas of Dante's Divine Comedy
Kaaps: Cape Malay accent of Afrikaans
kombi: passenger van
Land Affairs grant: government assistance program that made it possible for more people to own land in South Africa
Lethe: river of forgetfulness in Greek mythology
Losung: German for resolution, name Bev and Lurie use for the process of putting the dog's to sleep.
Luxe et volupte: luxury and pleasure
omnis gens quaecumque se in se perficere vult: The meaning of this quotation has been a source of debate among Latin sholars. See http://omega.cohums.ohio-state.edu/mailing_lists/CLA-L/2000/06/0241.php
Origen: Christian theologian and philosopher; an idealist who disregarded material things and castrated himself
Ovral: emergency contraception pill
Petrus: common name in ancient Roman times; from Latin word meaning Rock
Pollux: well-known boxer in Greek mythology, twin brother of Castor (a great horseman)
Rape of the Sabine Women: 1635 painting by Nicholas Poussin, based on classical myth about the founding of Rome: Romans needed women for their city to flourish and raided a nearby town forcing the women to marry them
Schadenfreude: German word meaning to delight in the misfortune of others
Sunt lacrimae rerum, et mentem mortalia tangunt: Latin for "These are the tears of things, and our mortality cuts to the heart;" lines grom Virgil's Aeneid as Aeneas recognizes the cost of war
tessitura: the range of a melody or vocal piece
The Mystery of Edwin Drood: Charles Dickens' final novel whose ending was not finished by the time he died.
vedi l'anime di color cui vinse l'ira: Italian "now see the souls of those whom anger has defeated"
William Blake: Romantic poet of Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience; also illustrated famous works such as Dante's Inferno and Milton's[Paradise Lost]
ClassicNote on Disgrace
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