Chapter Orelio to ORION of O by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Orelio to ORION

Orelio, the favourite horse of king Roderick the last of the Goths.

’Twas Orelio
On which he rode, Roderick’s own battle-horse,
Who from his master’s hand was wont to feed
And with a glad docility obey
His voice familiar.
   —Southey: Roderick, etc., xxv. (1814).

Orestes , son of Agamemnon, betrothed to He rmionê daughter of Menelaos king of Sparta. At the downfall of Troy, Menelaos promised Hermionê in marriage to Pyrrhos king of Epiros, but Pyrrhos fell in love with Andromachê the widow of Hector, and his captive. An embassy, led by Orestês, was sent to Epiros, to demand that the son of Andromachê should be put to death, lest as he grew up he might seek to avenge his father’s death. Pyrrhos refused to comply. In this embassage, Orestês met Hermionê again, and found her pride and jealousy roused to fury by the slight offered her. She goaded Orestês to avenge her insults, and the ambassadors fell on Pyrrhos and murdered him. Hermionê, when she saw the dead body of the king borne along, stabbed herself, and Orestês went raving mad.—Philips: The Distressed Mother (1712).

All the parts in which I ever saw [W.C. Macready], such as “Orestes,” “Mirandola,” “William Tell,” “Rob Roy,” and “Claude Melnotte,” he certainly had made his own.—Rev. F. Young: Life of C.M. Young.

Orfeo and Heurodis, the tale of Orpheus and Eurydicê, with the Gothic machinery of elves and fairies.

(Glück has an opera called Orfeo; the libretto, by Calzabigi, based on a dramatic piece by Poliziano, 1764.)

Orgarita, “the orphan of the Frozen Sea,” and heroine of the drama. (See Martha, p.680.)—Stirling: The Orphan of the Frozen Sea (1856).

Orgilus, the betrothed lover of Penthea, by the consent of her father; but at the death of her father , her brother Ithoclês compelled her to marry Bassanês, whom she hated. Ithoclês was about to marry the princess of Sparta, but a little before the event was to take place, Penthea starved herself to death, and Orgilus was condemned to death for murdering Ithoclês.—Ford: The Broken Heart (1633).

Orgoglio [Or-golé-yo], a hideous giant, as tall as three men, son of Earth and Wind. Finding the Red Cross Knight at the fountain of Idleness, he beats him with a club, and makes him his slave. Una informs Arthur of it, and Arthur liberates the knight and slays the giant (Rev. xiii. 5, 7, with Dan. vii. 21, 22).—Spenser: Faërie Queene, i. (1590).

Arthur first cut off Orgoglio’s left arm, i.e. Bohemia was cut off first from the Church of Rome; then he cut off the giant’s right leg, i.e. England.

Orgon, brother-in-law of Tartuffe . His credulity and faith in Tartuffe, like that of his mother, can scarcely be shaken even by the evidence of his senses. He hopes against hope, and fights every inch of ground in defence of the religious hypocrite.—Molière: Tartuffe (1664).

ORIANA, daughter of Lisuarte king of England , and spouse of Amadis of Gaul (bk. ii. 6). The general plot of this series of romances bears on this marriage, and tells of the thousand and one obstacles from rivals, giants, sorcerers, and so on, which had to be overcome before the consummation could be effected. It is in this unity of plot that the Amadis series differs from its predecessors—the Arthurian romances, and those of the paladins of Charlemagne, which are detached adventures, each complete in itself, and not bearing to any common focus.—Amadis de Gaul (fourteenth century).

Queen Elizabeth is called “the peerless Oriana,” especially in the madrigals entitled The Triumphs of Oriana (1601). Ben Jonson applies the name to the queen of James I. (Oriens Anna).

Oriana, the nursling of a lioness, with whom Esplandian fell in love, and for whom he underwent all his perils and exploits. She was the gentlest, fairest, and most faithful of her sex.—Lobeira: Amadis of Gaul (fourteenth century).