Terms/Definitions of Aglaonike's Tiger
Thessaly: lies in Central Greece and is one of the country’s largest regions in size and population. Thessaly has some of the biggest mountains in the country, Olympus, Kissavos and Pelion, and several smaller ones all over its region.
Ibis: a group of long-legged wading birds that inhabit wetlands, forests and plains.
Mt. Olympus: In Greek mythology, Mount Olympus was the dwelling of the Olympian Gods and it was created after the battle during which the Olympians defeated their predecessors, the Titans.
Hekate Triformis: Sculptures were devoted to Hekate to favor her, in order that she would offer protection.
Jason: Jason was a hero in Greek mythology, the leader of the Argonautic Expedition in the quest of retrieving the Golden Fleece.
Achilles: The warrior Achilles is one of the great heroes of Greek mythology. According to legend, Achilles was extraordinarily strong, courageous and loyal, but he had one vulnerability–his “Achilles heel.” Homer’s epic poem The Iliad tells the story of his adventures during the last year of the Trojan War.
Hercules: Heracles (or Hercules) is best known as the strongest of all mortals, and even stronger than many gods. He was the deciding factor in the triumphant victory of the Olympians over the giants. He was the last mortal son of Zeus, and the only man born of a mortal woman to become a god upon his death.
Witches of Thessaly: A group/school of women who mastered the art of predicting lunar eclipses.
Siren: Beautiful yet dangerous creatures, who lured nearby sailors with their enchanting music and voices to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island.
Lunation: The mean (average) time from one new moon to the next. The average length of a lunation is 29.530588 days.
Five Cycle Pattern: Different phases of what the moon looks like; the shape of the illuminated portion of the moon as seen by a person on Earth.
Oracle: a person or agency considered to provide wise and insightful counsel or prophetic predictions or precognition of the future, inspired by the gods.
Artemis: She is the goddess of the wilderness, the hunt and wild animals, and fertility. She is the helpers of midwives as a goddess of birth.
Yiayia: The Greek word for grandma.
Hegetor: A surgeon, who probably lived at Alexandria at the end of the second or the beginning of the first century BC, as he is apparently mentioned by Galen as a contemporary of several physicians who lived at Alexandria about that time.
Pleiades: The Pleiades star cluster, also known as the Seven Sisters and Messier 45, is a conspicuous object in the night sky with a prominent place in ancient mythology.
Orion: a giant huntsman whom Zeus placed among the stars as the constellation of Orion.
Erichtho: Legendary Thessalian witch who appears in several literary works. She is noted for her horrifying appearance and her impious ways.
Gumption: shrewd or spirited initiative and resourcefulness.
Copse: a small group of trees.
Impetuous: acting or done quickly and without thought or care.
Indenture: a formal legal agreement, contract, or document, in particular; bind (someone) by an indenture as an apprentice or laborer.
Alexander the Great: Tutored by Aristotle, the prince took charge of the Companion Cavalry at age 18 and aided Philip in defeating the Athenian and Theban armies at Chaeronea. After the death of his father, Alexander garnered the support of the Macedonian Army and eliminated his enemies to become king and leader of the Corinthian League. Alexander went on to conquer Persia and Egypt, his kingdom ranging from the Mediterranean to the border of India. Just 32 when he died from malaria, he is regarded as one of history’s brilliant military leaders and most powerful rulers.
Honey mead: an alcoholic beverage created by fermenting honey with water, sometimes with various fruits, spices, grains, or hops.
Drachma: Silver coin of ancient Greece, dating from about the mid-6th century BC, and the former monetary unit of modern Greece. The drachma was one of the world’s earliest coins. Its name derives from the Greek verb meaning “to grasp,” and its original value was equivalent to that of a handful of arrows.
Selene: The Titan goddess of the moon. She was depicted as a woman riding sidesaddle on a horse or driving a chariot drawn by a pair of winged steeds. She was sometimes said to drive a team of oxen and her lunar crescent was likened to a pair of bull's horns.
River Lethe: A river in Hades whose waters caused forgetfulness.
Carob: A small evergreen Arabian tree that bears long brownish-purple edible pods. The ripe, dried pod is often ground to carob powder, which is used to replace cocoa powder.
Equinox: the time or date (twice each year) at which the sun crosses the celestial equator, when day and night are of equal length (about September 22 and March 20).
Libra Scales: An age-old symbol of divine justice, harmony and balance.
Lyre: A string instrument known for its use in Greek classical antiquity and later periods.
Necropolis: A large ancient cemetery with elaborate tomb monuments. Literally means "city of the dead".
Omniscience: The capacity to know everything that there is to know. Having complete or unlimited knowledge, awareness, or understanding; perceiving all things.
Epoch: A period of time in history or a person's life, typically one marked by notable events or particular characteristics. The beginning of a distinctive period in the history of someone or something.
Piqued: stimulate (interest or curiosity).
Moussaka: an eggplant or potato-based dish, often including ground meat, in the cuisines of the countries of the former Ottoman Empire, with many local and regional variations.
Medea: In Greek mythology, an enchantress who helped Jason, leader of the Argonauts, to obtain the Golden Fleece from her father, King Aeëtes of Colchis. She was of divine descent and had the gift of prophecy. She married Jason and used her magic powers and advice to help him.
Daktylos: In Classical times, a unit of length, the width of a finger.
Inflation: A general increase in prices and fall in the purchasing value of money.
Haughty: arrogantly superior and disdainful.
Narcissus: has conspicuous flowers with six petal-like tepals surmounted by a cup- or trumpet-shaped corona. The flowers are generally white or yellow.
Hyacinth: spring-flowering bulbs with long, narrow leaves that are folded lengthwise. Hyacinths are highly fragrant flowers that bloom in dense clusters.
Mollusk: an invertebrate of a large phylum that includes snails, slugs, mussels, and octopuses. They have a soft, unsegmented body and live in aquatic or damp habitats, and most kinds have an external calcareous shell.
Stamen: the male fertilizing organ of a flower, typically consisting of a pollen-containing anther and a filament.
Wagtail: a slender Eurasian and African songbird with a long tail that is frequently wagged up and down, typically living by water.
Saffron: an orange-yellow flavoring, food coloring, and dye made from the dried stigmas of a crocus.
Elysian Fields: Greek mythology, the final resting places of the souls of the heroic and the virtuous.
Hades: was the ancient Greek god of the underworld, which eventually took his name.
Babylon: was a major city of ancient Mesopotamia in the fertile plain between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
Mesopotamia: was an ancient region in the eastern Mediterranean bounded in the northeast by the Zagros Mountains and in the southeast by the Arabian Plateau.
Macedonia: is a country in the Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe.
Corinth: was a city-state (polis) on the Isthmus of Corinth, the narrow stretch of land that joins the Peloponnese to the mainland of Greece, roughly halfway between Athens and Sparta.
Carthage: was the Phoenician city-state of Carthage and during the 7th to 3rd centuries BC, included its sphere of influence, the Carthaginian Empire. The empire extended over much of the coast of North Africa as well as encompassing substantial parts of coastal Iberia and the islands of the western Mediterranean Sea.
Persia: any of a series of imperial dynasties centered in Persia (modern–day Iran). The first of these was established by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC with the conquest of Media, Lydia and Babylonia. Several later dynasties "claimed to be heirs of the Achaemenids".
House of Atreus: He (Atreus) invited the gods to a banquet and served the flesh of his own son, Pelops, in a stew to test their omniscience. All of the gods recognized what they were served immediately except Demeter. She was too concerned with the disappearance of Persephone to notice and ate Pelops' shoulder. The gods reconstructed the boy and Hephaestus made a new shoulder for Pelops out of ivory.
Agamemnon: Upon Agamemnon's return from Troy, he was murdered (according to the oldest surviving account, Odyssey by Aegisthus, the lover of his wife, Clytemnestra. Agamemnon's family history had been tarnished by rape, murder, incest, and treachery, consequences of the heinous crime perpetrated by his ancestor, Tantalus, and then of a curse placed upon Pelops, son of Tantalus, by Myrtilus, whom he had murdered.
Astrolabe: an instrument formerly used to make astronomical measurements, typically of the altitudes of celestial bodies, and in navigation for calculating latitude, before the development of the sextant.
Hubris: excessive pride or self-confidence.
Bequest: a legacy.
Permutable: to alter; change.
Apogee: the point in the orbit of a heavenly body, especially the moon, or of aman-made satellite at which it is farthest from the earth.
Waning crescent: The Moon appears to be partly but less than one-half illuminated by direct sunlight.
Scythe: a tool used for cutting crops such as grass or wheat, with a long curved blade at the end of a long pole attached to which are one or two short handles.
Vexed: irritated; annoyed
Milky Way: the galaxy that contains our Solar System. Its name "milky" is derived from its appearance as a dim glowing band arching across the night sky whose individual stars cannot be distinguished by the naked eye.
Dale: a valley, especially a broad valley.
Corollary: a proposition that is incidentally proved in proving another proposition; an immediate consequence or easily drawn conclusion.
Schism: division or disunion, especially into mutually opposed parties.
Adulation: excessive devotion to someone; servile flattery.
Agronomy: the science of soil management and the production of field crops.
Baklava: a Near Eastern pastry made of many layers of paper-thin dough with a filling of ground nuts, baked and then drenched in a syrup of honey and sometimes rosewater.
Mounichion: April/May in the Attic calendar
Confer: grant or bestow (a title, degree, benefit, or right).
En plein air: French equivalent meaning "open (in full) air".
Sans: without
Milieu: a person's social environment.
Ocelots: a medium-sized wild cat that has a tawny yellow coat marked with black blotches and spots, and ranges from southern Texas through South America.
Papyrus: a material prepared in ancient Egypt from the pithy stem of a water plant, used in sheets throughout the ancient Mediterranean world for writing or painting on and also for making rope, sandals, and boats.
Ibis: a group of long-legged wading birds that inhabit wetlands, forests and plains.
Mt. Olympus: In Greek mythology, Mount Olympus was the dwelling of the Olympian Gods and it was created after the battle during which the Olympians defeated their predecessors, the Titans.
Hekate Triformis: Sculptures were devoted to Hekate to favor her, in order that she would offer protection.
Jason: Jason was a hero in Greek mythology, the leader of the Argonautic Expedition in the quest of retrieving the Golden Fleece.
Achilles: The warrior Achilles is one of the great heroes of Greek mythology. According to legend, Achilles was extraordinarily strong, courageous and loyal, but he had one vulnerability–his “Achilles heel.” Homer’s epic poem The Iliad tells the story of his adventures during the last year of the Trojan War.
Hercules: Heracles (or Hercules) is best known as the strongest of all mortals, and even stronger than many gods. He was the deciding factor in the triumphant victory of the Olympians over the giants. He was the last mortal son of Zeus, and the only man born of a mortal woman to become a god upon his death.
Witches of Thessaly: A group/school of women who mastered the art of predicting lunar eclipses.
Siren: Beautiful yet dangerous creatures, who lured nearby sailors with their enchanting music and voices to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island.
Lunation: The mean (average) time from one new moon to the next. The average length of a lunation is 29.530588 days.
Five Cycle Pattern: Different phases of what the moon looks like; the shape of the illuminated portion of the moon as seen by a person on Earth.
Oracle: a person or agency considered to provide wise and insightful counsel or prophetic predictions or precognition of the future, inspired by the gods.
Artemis: She is the goddess of the wilderness, the hunt and wild animals, and fertility. She is the helpers of midwives as a goddess of birth.
Yiayia: The Greek word for grandma.
Hegetor: A surgeon, who probably lived at Alexandria at the end of the second or the beginning of the first century BC, as he is apparently mentioned by Galen as a contemporary of several physicians who lived at Alexandria about that time.
Pleiades: The Pleiades star cluster, also known as the Seven Sisters and Messier 45, is a conspicuous object in the night sky with a prominent place in ancient mythology.
Orion: a giant huntsman whom Zeus placed among the stars as the constellation of Orion.
Erichtho: Legendary Thessalian witch who appears in several literary works. She is noted for her horrifying appearance and her impious ways.
Gumption: shrewd or spirited initiative and resourcefulness.
Copse: a small group of trees.
Impetuous: acting or done quickly and without thought or care.
Indenture: a formal legal agreement, contract, or document, in particular; bind (someone) by an indenture as an apprentice or laborer.
Alexander the Great: Tutored by Aristotle, the prince took charge of the Companion Cavalry at age 18 and aided Philip in defeating the Athenian and Theban armies at Chaeronea. After the death of his father, Alexander garnered the support of the Macedonian Army and eliminated his enemies to become king and leader of the Corinthian League. Alexander went on to conquer Persia and Egypt, his kingdom ranging from the Mediterranean to the border of India. Just 32 when he died from malaria, he is regarded as one of history’s brilliant military leaders and most powerful rulers.
Honey mead: an alcoholic beverage created by fermenting honey with water, sometimes with various fruits, spices, grains, or hops.
Drachma: Silver coin of ancient Greece, dating from about the mid-6th century BC, and the former monetary unit of modern Greece. The drachma was one of the world’s earliest coins. Its name derives from the Greek verb meaning “to grasp,” and its original value was equivalent to that of a handful of arrows.
Selene: The Titan goddess of the moon. She was depicted as a woman riding sidesaddle on a horse or driving a chariot drawn by a pair of winged steeds. She was sometimes said to drive a team of oxen and her lunar crescent was likened to a pair of bull's horns.
River Lethe: A river in Hades whose waters caused forgetfulness.
Carob: A small evergreen Arabian tree that bears long brownish-purple edible pods. The ripe, dried pod is often ground to carob powder, which is used to replace cocoa powder.
Equinox: the time or date (twice each year) at which the sun crosses the celestial equator, when day and night are of equal length (about September 22 and March 20).
Libra Scales: An age-old symbol of divine justice, harmony and balance.
Lyre: A string instrument known for its use in Greek classical antiquity and later periods.
Necropolis: A large ancient cemetery with elaborate tomb monuments. Literally means "city of the dead".
Omniscience: The capacity to know everything that there is to know. Having complete or unlimited knowledge, awareness, or understanding; perceiving all things.
Epoch: A period of time in history or a person's life, typically one marked by notable events or particular characteristics. The beginning of a distinctive period in the history of someone or something.
Piqued: stimulate (interest or curiosity).
Moussaka: an eggplant or potato-based dish, often including ground meat, in the cuisines of the countries of the former Ottoman Empire, with many local and regional variations.
Medea: In Greek mythology, an enchantress who helped Jason, leader of the Argonauts, to obtain the Golden Fleece from her father, King Aeëtes of Colchis. She was of divine descent and had the gift of prophecy. She married Jason and used her magic powers and advice to help him.
Daktylos: In Classical times, a unit of length, the width of a finger.
Inflation: A general increase in prices and fall in the purchasing value of money.
Haughty: arrogantly superior and disdainful.
Narcissus: has conspicuous flowers with six petal-like tepals surmounted by a cup- or trumpet-shaped corona. The flowers are generally white or yellow.
Hyacinth: spring-flowering bulbs with long, narrow leaves that are folded lengthwise. Hyacinths are highly fragrant flowers that bloom in dense clusters.
Mollusk: an invertebrate of a large phylum that includes snails, slugs, mussels, and octopuses. They have a soft, unsegmented body and live in aquatic or damp habitats, and most kinds have an external calcareous shell.
Stamen: the male fertilizing organ of a flower, typically consisting of a pollen-containing anther and a filament.
Wagtail: a slender Eurasian and African songbird with a long tail that is frequently wagged up and down, typically living by water.
Saffron: an orange-yellow flavoring, food coloring, and dye made from the dried stigmas of a crocus.
Elysian Fields: Greek mythology, the final resting places of the souls of the heroic and the virtuous.
Hades: was the ancient Greek god of the underworld, which eventually took his name.
Babylon: was a major city of ancient Mesopotamia in the fertile plain between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
Mesopotamia: was an ancient region in the eastern Mediterranean bounded in the northeast by the Zagros Mountains and in the southeast by the Arabian Plateau.
Macedonia: is a country in the Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe.
Corinth: was a city-state (polis) on the Isthmus of Corinth, the narrow stretch of land that joins the Peloponnese to the mainland of Greece, roughly halfway between Athens and Sparta.
Carthage: was the Phoenician city-state of Carthage and during the 7th to 3rd centuries BC, included its sphere of influence, the Carthaginian Empire. The empire extended over much of the coast of North Africa as well as encompassing substantial parts of coastal Iberia and the islands of the western Mediterranean Sea.
Persia: any of a series of imperial dynasties centered in Persia (modern–day Iran). The first of these was established by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC with the conquest of Media, Lydia and Babylonia. Several later dynasties "claimed to be heirs of the Achaemenids".
House of Atreus: He (Atreus) invited the gods to a banquet and served the flesh of his own son, Pelops, in a stew to test their omniscience. All of the gods recognized what they were served immediately except Demeter. She was too concerned with the disappearance of Persephone to notice and ate Pelops' shoulder. The gods reconstructed the boy and Hephaestus made a new shoulder for Pelops out of ivory.
Agamemnon: Upon Agamemnon's return from Troy, he was murdered (according to the oldest surviving account, Odyssey by Aegisthus, the lover of his wife, Clytemnestra. Agamemnon's family history had been tarnished by rape, murder, incest, and treachery, consequences of the heinous crime perpetrated by his ancestor, Tantalus, and then of a curse placed upon Pelops, son of Tantalus, by Myrtilus, whom he had murdered.
Astrolabe: an instrument formerly used to make astronomical measurements, typically of the altitudes of celestial bodies, and in navigation for calculating latitude, before the development of the sextant.
Hubris: excessive pride or self-confidence.
Bequest: a legacy.
Permutable: to alter; change.
Apogee: the point in the orbit of a heavenly body, especially the moon, or of aman-made satellite at which it is farthest from the earth.
Waning crescent: The Moon appears to be partly but less than one-half illuminated by direct sunlight.
Scythe: a tool used for cutting crops such as grass or wheat, with a long curved blade at the end of a long pole attached to which are one or two short handles.
Vexed: irritated; annoyed
Milky Way: the galaxy that contains our Solar System. Its name "milky" is derived from its appearance as a dim glowing band arching across the night sky whose individual stars cannot be distinguished by the naked eye.
Dale: a valley, especially a broad valley.
Corollary: a proposition that is incidentally proved in proving another proposition; an immediate consequence or easily drawn conclusion.
Schism: division or disunion, especially into mutually opposed parties.
Adulation: excessive devotion to someone; servile flattery.
Agronomy: the science of soil management and the production of field crops.
Baklava: a Near Eastern pastry made of many layers of paper-thin dough with a filling of ground nuts, baked and then drenched in a syrup of honey and sometimes rosewater.
Mounichion: April/May in the Attic calendar
Confer: grant or bestow (a title, degree, benefit, or right).
En plein air: French equivalent meaning "open (in full) air".
Sans: without
Milieu: a person's social environment.
Ocelots: a medium-sized wild cat that has a tawny yellow coat marked with black blotches and spots, and ranges from southern Texas through South America.
Papyrus: a material prepared in ancient Egypt from the pithy stem of a water plant, used in sheets throughout the ancient Mediterranean world for writing or painting on and also for making rope, sandals, and boats.