Character Sketches of Romance Volume Iii Part 46

XXI. Penelope is pestered by suitors. To excuse herself, Penelope tells her suitors he only shall be her husband who can bend Odysseus's bow.

None can do so but the stranger, who bends it with ease. Concealment is no longer possible or desirable;

XXII. He falls on the suitors hip and thigh;

XXIII. Is recognized by his wife.

XXIV. Visits his old father, Laertes; and the poem ends.

=a'grian Harpist= (_The_), Orpheus, son of a'gros and Cal'liope.

... can no lesse Tame the fierce walkers of the wilderness, Than that agrian harpist, for whose lay Tigers with hunger pined and left their prey.

Wm. Browne, _Brittania's Pastorals_, v. (1613).

='dipos= (in Latin _dipus_), son of Laus and Jocasta. The most mournful tale of cla.s.sic story.

? This tale has furnished the subject matter of several tragedies. In Greek we have _dipus Tyrannus_ and _dipus at Colonus_, by Sopho'ocles.[TN-45] In French, _dipe_, by Corneille (1659); _dipe_, by Voltaire (1718); _dipe chez Admete_, by J. F. Ducis (1778); _dipe Roi_ and _dipe a Colone_, by Chenier; etc. In English, _dipus_, by Dryden and Lee.

=no'ne= (3 _syl._), a nymph of Mount Ida, who had the gift of prophecy, and told her husband, Paris, that his voyage to Greece would involve him and his country (Troy) in ruin. When the dead body of old Priam's son was laid at her feet, she stabbed herself.

Hither came at noon Mournful none, wandering forlorn Of Paris, once her playmate on the hills [_Ida_]

Tennyson, _none_.

? Kalkbrenner, in 1804, made this the subject of an opera.

=no'pian=, father of Mer'ope, to whom the giant Orion made advances.

nopian, unwilling to give his daughter to him, put out the giant's eyes in a drunken fit.

Orion ...

Reeled as of yore beside the sea, When blinded by nopian.

Longfellow, _The Occultation of Orion_.

=te'an Knight= (_The_). Her'cules is so called, because he burnt himself to death on Mount ta or taea, in Thessaly.

So also did that great tean knight For his love's sake his lion's skin undight.

Spenser, _Faery Queen_, v. 8 (1596).

=Offa=, king of Mercia, was the son of Thingferth, and the eleventh in descent from Woden. Thus: Woden (1) his son Wihtlaeg, (2) his son Waermund, (3) Offa I., (4) Angeltheow, (5) Eomaer, (6) Icel, (7) Pybba, (8) Osmod, (9) Enwulf, (10) Thingferth, (11) Offa, whose son was Egfert, who died within a year of his father. His daughter, Eadburga, married Bertric, king of the West Saxons; and after the death of her husband, she went to the court of King Charlemagne. Offa reigned thirty-nine years (755-794).

=O'Flaherty= (_Dennis_), called "Major O'Flaherty." A soldier, says he, is "no livery for a knave," and Ireland is "not the country of dishonor."

The major pays court to old Lady Rusport, but when he detects her dishonest purposes in bribing her lawyer to make away with Sir Oliver's will, and cheating Charles Dudley of his fortune, he not only abandons his suit, but exposes her dishonesty.--c.u.mberland, _The West Indian_ (1771).

=Og=, king of Basan. Thus saith the rabbis:

The height of his stature was 23,033 cubits [_nearly six miles_].

He used to drink water from the clouds, and toast fish by holding them before the orb of the sun. He asked Noah to take him into the ark, but Noah would not. When the flood was at its deepest, it did not reach to the knees of this giant. Og lived 3000 years, and then he was slain by the hand of Moses.

Moses was himself ten cubits in stature [_fifteen feet_], and he took a spear ten cubits long, and threw it ten cubits high, and yet it only reached the heel of Og.... When dead, his body reached as far as the river Nile, in Egypt.

Og's mother was Enac, a daughter of Adam. Her fingers were two cubits long [_one yard_], and on each finger she had two sharp nails. She was devoured by wild beasts.--Maracci.

In the satire of _Absalom and Achitophel_, by Dryden and Tate, Thomas Shadwell, who was a very large man, is called "Og."

=O'gier, the Dane=, one of the paladins of the Charlemagne epoch. When 100 years old, Morgue, the fay, took him to the island of Av'alon, "hard by the terrestrial paradise;" gave him a ring which restored him to ripe manhood, a crown which made him forget his past life, and introduced him to King Arthur. Two hundred years afterwards, she sent him to defend France from the paynims, who had invaded it; and having routed the invaders, he returned to Avalon again.--_Ogier, le Danois_ (a romance).

In a pack of French cards, Ogier, the Dane, is knave of spades. His exploits are related in the _Chansons de Geste_; he is introduced by Ariosto in _Orlando Furioso_, and by Morris in his _Earthly Paradise_ ("August").

_Ogier's Swords_, Curtana ("the cutter") and Sauvagine.

_Ogier's Horse_, Papillon.

=Ogle= (_Miss_), friend of Mrs. Racket; she is very jealous of young girls, and even of Mrs. Racket, because she was some six years her junior.--Mrs. Cowley, _The Belle's Stratagem_ (1780).

=O'gleby= (_Lord_), an old fop, vain to excess, but good-natured withal, and quite the slave of the fair s.e.x, were they but young and fair. At the age of 70, his lords.h.i.+p fancied himself an Adonis, notwithstanding his qualms and his rheumatism. He required a great deal of "brus.h.i.+ng, oiling, s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g, and winding up before he appeared in public," but when fully made up, was game for the part of "lover, rake, or fine gentleman." Lord Ogleby made his bow to f.a.n.n.y Sterling, and promised to make her a countess; but the young lady had been privately married to Lovewell for four months.--Colman and Garrick, _The Clandestine Marriage_ (1766).

=O'gri=, giants who fed on human flesh.

=O'Groat= (_John_), with his two brothers, Malcolm and Gavin, settled in Caithness in the reign of James IV. The families lived together in harmony for a time, and met once a year at John's house. On one occasion a dispute arose about precedency--who was to take the head of the table, and who was to go out first. The old man said he would settle the question at the next annual muster; accordingly he made as many doors to his house as there were families, and placed his guests at a round table.

=Oig M'Comb.i.+.c.h= (_Robin_), or M'Gregor, a Highland drover, who quarrels with Harry Wakefield, an English drover, about a pasture-field, and stabs him. Being tried at Carlisle for murder, Robin is condemned to death.--Sir W. Scott, _The Two Drovers_ (time, George III.).

=Oina-Morul=, daughter of Mal-Orchol, king of Fuarfed (a Scandinavian Island). Ton-Thormod asked her in marriage, and being refused by the father, made war upon him. Fingal sent his son Ossian to the aid of Mal-Orchol, and he took Ton-Thormod prisoner. The king now offered Ossian his daughter to wife, but the warrior-bard discovered that the lady had given her heart to Ton-Thormod; whereupon he resigned his claim, and brought about a happy reconciliation.--Ossian, _Oina-Morul_.

=Oith'ona=, daughter of Nuath, betrothed to Gaul, son of Morni, and the day of their marriage was fixed; but before the time arrived, Fingal sent for Gaul to aid him in an expedition against the Britons. Gaul promised Oithona, if he survived, to return by a certain day. Lathmon, the brother of Oithona, was called away from home at the same time, to attend his father on an expedition; so the damsel was left alone in Dunlathmon. It was now that Dunrommath, lord of Uthal (one of the Orkneys) came and carried her off by force to Trom'athon, a desert island, where he concealed her in a cave. Gaul returned on the day appointed, heard of the rape, sailed for Trom'athon, and found the lady, who told him her tale of woe; but scarcely had she ended when Dunrommath entered the cave with his followers. Gaul instantly fell on him, and slew him. While the battle was raging, Oithona, arrayed as a warrior, rushed into the thickest of the fight, and was slain. When Gaul had cut off the head of Dunrommath, he saw what he thought a youth dying of a wound, and taking off the helmet, perceived it was Oithona. She died, and Gaul returned disconsolate to Dunlathmon.--Ossian, _Oithona_.

=Okba=, one of the sorcerers in the caves of Dom-Daniel "under the roots of the ocean." It was decreed by fate that one of the race of Hodei'rah (3 _syl._), would be fatal to the sorcerers; so Okba was sent forth to kill the whole race, both root and branch. He succeeded in cutting off eight of them, but Thal'aba contrived to escape. Abdaldar was sent to hunt down the survivor, but was himself killed by a simoom.

"Curse on thee, Okba!" Khawla cried....