Chapter OEagrian Harpist to Oithona of O by Brewer's Readers Handbook

OEagrian Harpist to Oithona

Œagrian Harpist (The), Orpheus son of Œagros and Calliopê.

… can no lesse,
Tame the fierce walkers of the wildernesse,
Than that Œagrian harpist, for whose lay
Tigers with hunger pined and left their prey.
   —Brown: Britannia’s Pastorals, v. (1613).

Œdipos (in Latin Œdipus), son of Laïus and Jocasta. The most mournful tale of classic story.

(This tale has furnished the subject-matter of several tragedies. In Greek we have Œdipus Tyrannus and Œdipus at Colonus, by Sophoclês. In French, Œdipe, by Corneille (1659); Œdipe, by Voltaire (1718); Œdipe chez Admète, by J. F. Ducis (1778); Œdipe Roi and Œdipe à Colone, by Chénier; etc. In English, Œdipus, by Dryden and Lee.)

Œnone , 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 Œnonê, wandering forlorn
Of Paris, once her playmate on the hills [Ida].
   —Tennyson: Œnone (1892).

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

N.B.—Ovid, in his Heroïdes , has an hypothetical letter, in verse, supposed to be written by Œnone to Paris, dissuading him from going to Troy, and upbraiding him for his love of Helen the wife of Menelaos.

Œnopian, father of Meropê, to whom the giant Orion made advances. Œnopian, 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 Œnopion.
   —Longfellow: The Occultation of Orion.

Œtean Knight (The). Herculês is so called, because he burnt himself to death on mount Œta or Œtæa, in Thessaly.

So also did that great Œtean knight
For his love’s sake his lion’s skin undight.
   —Spenser: Faërie Queene, v. 8 (1596).

Offa, king of Mercia, was the son of Thingferth, and the eleventh in descent from Woden. Thus: Woden, (1) his son Wihtlæg, (2) his son Wærmund, (3) Offa I., (4) Angeltheow, (5) Eomær, (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).

Offa’s Dyke, a dyke from Beachley to Flintshire, repaired by Offa king of Mercia, and used as a rough boundary of his territory. Asser, however, says—

There was in Mercia (A.D. 855) a certain valiant king who was feared by all the kings and neighbouring states around. His name was Offa. He it was who had the great rampart made from sea to sea between Britain and Mercia.—Life of Alfred (ninth century).

Offa, … to keep the Britons back,
Cast up that mighty mound of eighty miles in length,
Athwart from sea to sea.
   —Drayton: Polyolbion, ix. (1612).

O’Flaherty (Dennis), called “major O’Flaherty.” A soldier, says he, is “no livery for a knave,” and Ireland is “not the country of dishonour.” 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.—Cumberland: The West Indian (1771).