Rosalie Baker - Say What?: The Real Meaning Behind Everyday Expressions

AN ACHILLES HEEL

According to Greek legend, Achilles, the hero of Homers Iliad (see pages 48), was the son of the sea goddess Thetis and the great-grandson of Zeus. Achilles was renowned for his strength and bravery. His courage was partly due to his knowing that no weapon could kill himor so he thought! When he was an infant, his mother dipped him in the Styx, the river in the ancient Greeks underworld, whose waters made him invulnerable. But Thetis forgot to let the water flow over the one part she held onto as she dipped himhis heel. The sun god Apollo knew this and told the Trojan prince Paris. On the battlefield of Troy, Paris shot Achilles in the heel with an arrow. The wound was fatal. In time, the expression an Achilles heel was first used to represent a persons or a nations weak spot.

AM NOT I CONSANGUINEOUS?

In Twelfth Night (Act 2, Scene 3, lines 7879), the Countess Olivias gentlewoman warns Sir Toby Belch to make less noise, but he is not worried about being thrown out. Am not I consanguineous? he asks. He adds a translation: Am I not of her blood? Consanguineous is actually a combination of two Latin words: cum (with), and sanguis (blood). Other words with Latin roots that Shakespeare introduced into English are: academe, castigate, circumstantial, critic and critical, frugal, impede, negotiate, and vulnerable.

APPLE OF DISCORD

According to Greek and Roman mythology, Eris, the goddess of discord, was so angry that she had not been invited to the wedding of Peleus and Thetis (the future parents of Achilles) that she took a golden apple and threw it among the wedding guests. When Hera (the queen of the gods), Athena (the goddess of war and wisdom), and Aphrodite (the goddess of love and beauty) saw the inscription For the fairest written on the apple, each claimed ownership. Paris, the son of the Trojan king Priam, was asked to decide who was the fairest. Each goddess promised him a gift if he chose her. Hera promised him control of Asia, Athena promised him military victories, and Aphrodite promised him the most beautiful woman on earth. Paris chose Aphrodite. In turn, Aphrodite allowed Paris to claim Helen, wife of Menelaus, king of the Greek city-state of Sparta. Enraged at the insult, the Greeks launched an attack on Troy, starting the Trojan War. Throughout history, the phrase apple of discord has been used to refer to anything that causes a disagreement, especially in explosive situations.