Glossary of Terms
"Ad manes fratrum": to our brothers' spirits
"Integer vitae scelerisque purus Non egat Mauri iaculis nec arcu": he who is of upright life and free from crime does not need the javelins or bow of the Moor
"Magni dominator poli, Tam lentus audis scelera? tam lentus vides?": ruler of the great heavens, are you so slow to hear crimes? and so slow to see?
"Per Stygia, per manes vehor": Through Stygian realms I am carried (see: Stygian)
"Sit fas aut nefas": be it right or wrong
"Solon's happiness": Solon said, "Call no man happy until he is dead."
"Suum cuique": to each his own
"swart Cimmerian": "swart" means "swarthy", as in dark, and Cimmerians were said to live in darkness
"Terras Astraea reliquit": Astraea (the goddess of justice) has quit the earth
"The wandering prince and Dido": a reference to Dido and Aeneas, characters in Virgil's Aeneid
Acheron: a river in Hades
affy: trust
Ajax: a Greek champion in Homer's Iliad
Alcides: Hercules
bootless: without result
Cerberus: three-headed guard dog of Hades
continence: self-restraint
Coriolanus: an exiled Roman general who led an army against Rome; later the subject of one of Shakespeare's tragedies
Cornelia: mother of the Gracchi, who were famous Roman tribunes
Enceladus: a legendary Titan who fought the Olympians
gloze: speak deceptively
habiliment: clothes
Hector: a champion of Troy
Hymanaeus: the marriage god
Hyperion: the sun god
King Priam: the mythic king of Troy, who is said to have had fifty sons
Laertes' son: Odysseus
Limbo: region just before hell
Lucrece: a chaste Roman maiden who was raped by Tarquin
Nilus: the Nile
palfreys: horses
palliament: robe
Philomel: raped by Terseus in Greek myth; he cut out her tongue to prevent her from identifying him
Phoebe: the moon goddess
Pluto's region: Hades
pretend: claim
Procne: Tereus' wife and Philomel's sister; when Tereus rapes Philomel Procne feeds their son, Itys, to Tereus
Prometheus: a Titan who stole fire from heaven and gave it to humankind
Pyramus: lover of Thisbe, predecessor to Romeo
Queen of Troy: Hecuba, who went mad and avenged the death of her sons
Saturn: god associated with gloomy, sombre temperaments
Semiramis: Assyrian queen noted in legend for her beauty and sensuousness
Sibyl's leaves: the Sibyl's prophecies were written on leaves which were then scattered in the wind
Sinon: a cunning Greek who persuaded the Trojans to let the Trojan Horse through their gates
Stuprum: rape
Stygian: hellish
Styx: the river surrounding Hades
Tereus: a mythic rapist who cut out Philomel's tongue so that she could not say who raped her
Thracian poet: Orpheus, who charmed Cerebus to sleep with his music
Titan: the sun god
Virginius: a Roman general who killed his daughter for shame after she was raped
Vulcan's badge: a cuckold's proverbial horns; Vulcan's wife, Venus, had an affair with Mars
weeds: clothes
ClassicNote on Titus Andronicus
| 
