;Posted on 11/24/2015 7:19:28 PM PST by Louis Foxwell
;In order that we might all raise the level of discourse and expand our language abilities, here is the daily post of "Word for the Day".
Stygian [STIJ ee un]
adjective
With an upper case S, describes anything relating to the River Styx, the river, according to classical mythology, over which Charon ferried the souls of the departed on their journey into the underworld. He charged a fee of one obol, a coin which was placed in the mouth of the deceased, for use in payment of that fee. From that dreadful river, the adjective stygian came to mean "dark, gloomy, forbidding," or "infernal." and one may speak of stygian night or a stygian cave or landscape, or a stygian room or hallway, dark, gloomy, forbidding.
Stygian takes on an entirely different meaning in the expression stygian oath: an oath "by the Styx" sworn by a god, a "stygian oath" is inviolable.
The Roman poet Virgil (70-19B.C.) in The Aeneid, writes of "the swamp of the Styx, by which the gods take oath."
The adjective in Latin was Stygias, in Greek Stygios.
The English poet John Milton (1608-1674) starts his poem L'Allegro with the lines:
Hence, loathed McLancholy,
Of Cerberus, and blackest midnight born,
in Stygian cave forlorn,
'Midst horrid shapes, and shrieks, and sights unholy....
It was nothing serious, but he wasn’t going to be hunting for a few weeks. They wanted nothing to do with the local cops. LOL
People spray painted “COW” in orange on their cows in some areas where we hunted in VA...
One of them had just informed us we couldn’t collect a soil sample by hand because the area slated for it might not have been included in a survey for and endangered tuber. This, regardless of the fact the entire area is destined to become an engineered slope with retaining wall, and has been so designated for about 6 years of design and review.
But hey, it’s only taxpayers money...
“might not have been” and “might contain” an (unknown and unseen) underground tuber, eh?
Yeppers. Certainity as an enviro crisis.
Oh that is evil, but funny
LOL
The is bureacratic 2+2=71 or some such nonsense. the best retort is, yes, yes, of course, unless the tubers are indigenous in which case none of the soil is exempt from examination. I cannot allow a violation of my protocols where little or nothing is at stake.
Followed by, “I will need you to sign off on a protocol violation form.”
Oh, you are good. Protocol violation form is brilliant. I bet I can use that line.
New tagline test.
Not sure if this is satirical, but it sure sounds Stygian:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3364965/posts
I saw that. NUTS!
even painting COW on their sides doesn't always stop them
LOL...
Agreed, stygian. We have entered the dark place. Keep the light ever before you.
Agreed. Can’t remember a song I like by them, although there is one by Dennis DeYoung that I like but cannot remember the title. Won’t miss it........
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