Meaning of "Xerces"
kusimari
I came across this word in "Moby Dick". What does Xerces mean.
-Santhosh
meirman
(kusimari) posted:
>Hi,
>
>I came across this word in "Moby Dick". What does Xerces mean.
It's the way Ahab or Melville spelled Xerxes. Some god or other or
something. The better spelling should help.
>
>-Santhosh
s/ meirman If you are emailing me please
say if you are posting the same response.
Born west of Pittsburgh Pa. 10 years
Indianapolis, 7 years
Chicago, 6 years
Brooklyn NY 12 years
Baltimore 17 years
meirman
<mei...@invalid.com> posted:
>In alt.english.usage on 22 Nov 2002 11:18:40 -0800 kusi...@yahoo.com
>(kusimari) posted:
>
>>Hi,
>>
>>I came across this word in "Moby Dick". What does Xerces mean.
>
>It's the way Ahab or Melville spelled Xerxes. Some god or other or
>something. The better spelling should help.
Xerxes was a Persian king! I don't want to look stupid around here.
Christopher Green
> Hi,
>
> I came across this word in "Moby Dick". What does Xerces mean.
>
> -Santhosh
It's "Xerxes" in the copy I looked through. Xerxes was one of the
kings of ancient Persia; Melville uses his name twice:
"He was the elected Xerxes of vast herds of wild horses", referring to
the legendary White Steed of the Prairies, an awe-inspiring horse well
suited to be likened to a king.
"In that sloping afternoon sunlight, the shadows that the three boats
sent down beneath the surface, must have been long enough and broad
enough to shade half Xerxes' army." Xerxes sent a vast army against
the Greeks; the shadows cast by the boats must have been long indeed.
--
Chris Green
Emery
----------
In article <fr3ttugsqfkkvkj94...@4ax.com>, meirman
<mei...@invalid.com> wrote:
>In alt.english.usage on 22 Nov 2002 11:18:40 -0800 kusi...@yahoo.com
>(kusimari) posted:
>
>>Hi,
>>
>>I came across this word in "Moby Dick". What does Xerces mean.
>
>It's the way Ahab or Melville spelled Xerxes. Some god or other or
>something. The better spelling should help.
And Xerxes is the way the Greeks spelled "Khshayarsha", which
means "ruler of heroes".
He was the emperor of Persia, or the Shah.
Mekon
"meirman" <mei...@invalid.com> wrote in message
news:drjttug53i0hk79lv...@4ax.com...
> In alt.english.usage on Fri, 22 Nov 2002 15:12:18 -0500 meirman
> <mei...@invalid.com> posted:
>
> >In alt.english.usage on 22 Nov 2002 11:18:40 -0800 kusi...@yahoo.com
> >(kusimari) posted:
> >
> >>Hi,
> >>
> >>I came across this word in "Moby Dick". What does Xerces mean.
> >
> >It's the way Ahab or Melville spelled Xerxes. Some god or other or
> >something. The better spelling should help.
>
> Xerxes was a Persian king! I don't want to look stupid around here.
> >>
(snip)
What steps are you taking to avoid this fate?
Mekon
Mason Barge
>In alt.english.usage on Fri, 22 Nov 2002 15:12:18 -0500 meirman
><mei...@invalid.com> posted:
>
>>In alt.english.usage on 22 Nov 2002 11:18:40 -0800 kusi...@yahoo.com
>>(kusimari) posted:
>>
>>>Hi,
>>>
>>>I came across this word in "Moby Dick". What does Xerces mean.
>>
>>It's the way Ahab or Melville spelled Xerxes. Some god or other or
>>something. The better spelling should help.
>
>Xerxes was a Persian king! I don't want to look stupid around here.
Calling Xerxes a "Persian king" doesn't do him justice. Rather like calling
Muhammed Ali "a professional boxer".
The great admiration of Alexander the Great in the west is a bit eurocentric.
The Persian Empire was not quite as extensive as Alexander's, in the most
liberal sense, but it was an actual and fairly stable political entity.
Alexander was a conqueror, not an emperor, and his empire shattered almost
immediately when he died. There was never a Macedonian Empire, really, even
though individual parts (i.e. the Ptolemies in Egypt) continued in power for
extended periods.
Xerxes almost managed to hold together what was perhaps the second greatest
empire of the period (the other contender being the Qin dynasty).
Okay, now I will shut up and maybe we can hear from someone who knows what he is
talking about.
--
"If this is coffee, please bring me some tea. If this is tea, please bring me some coffee."
- Abraham Lincoln
Odysseus
>
> "In that sloping afternoon sunlight, the shadows that the three boats
> sent down beneath the surface, must have been long enough and broad
> enough to shade half Xerxes' army." Xerxes sent a vast army against
> the Greeks; the shadows cast by the boats must have been long indeed.
>
to be whipped and branded as a punishment, after a storm broke up the
first bridge of boats he had built?
--Odysseus
meirman
<n...@this.org> posted:
Good point. Spelled in Hebrew AHashverosh (from there to English,
Ahashuerus), the king in the Book of Esther. Born in 519 BCE,
assasinated in Persepolis in 465 BCE. Son of Darius, grandson of
Cyrus, who defeated the Babylonian Empire in 537 BCE. Babylon, of
course, is roughly today's Iraq.
>He was the emperor of Persia, or the Shah.
It says in the Book of Esther that he reigned from Hodu to Kush, over
127 provinces. It uses melech, which is usually translated king,
which is probably why I used that word. Kush is probably Ethiopia and
Hodu, India.
Christopher Green
The same. Not sure of the factuality of that story, of course. One of
the funniest fictitious portrayals of Xerxes is Handel's opera Serse,
in which he is a spoiled young man.
--
Chris Green
Margaret Mikulska
>
> In alt.english.usage on Fri, 22 Nov 2002 15:12:18 -0500 meirman
> <mei...@invalid.com> posted:
>
> >In alt.english.usage on 22 Nov 2002 11:18:40 -0800 kusi...@yahoo.com
> >(kusimari) posted:
> >
> >
> >It's the way Ahab or Melville spelled Xerxes. Some god or other or
> >something. The better spelling should help.
>
> Xerxes was a Persian king! I don't want to look stupid around here.
Too late.
-Margaret
Margaret Mikulska
> The same. Not sure of the factuality of that story, of course. One of
> the funniest fictitious portrayals of Xerxes is Handel's opera Serse,
> in which he is a spoiled young man.
... who addresses his famous aria to a tree.
-Margaret
Gary Vellenzer
Gary