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Chimera
[After Chimera, a fire-breathing female monster in Greek mythology who had a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail. (sounds awfully unpleasant)
From Greek khimaira(she-goat,
ultimately from the Indo-European root ghei- (winter) that is the ancestor of words such as chimera (literally a female animal that is one winter, or one year old), hibernate, and the Himalayas, from Sanskrit him (snow) + alaya (abode).]
It's the she-goat who's done it again. (sigh... ) the scapegoat.
(though that word is defined as 'bad or inferior member of any group', so that word is more casual about the sexes))
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Pooh-Bah
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Ahhh, did that comment get your goat?
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Ahhh, did that comment get your goat? I know where 'scapegoat' comes from - the King James translation of Leviticus chapter 16 - but where does the saying "gets my goat" or "gets on my goat" come from I wonder?
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Pooh-Bah
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on? that is a new one to me.
PS Bran, where did you get the def of inferior? A scapegoat is the one blamed for the groups failure or has common usage seft me behind again?
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on? that is a new one to me. "gets on my goat" - perhaps an Aussie variation then? What is the origin of the expression though, with or without the "on"?
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By the beard of Azazel!,I can't remember where I plucked that one from. (I'll add the scource from now on.) This is the more general definition: scapegoat:
1. a person or group made to bear the blame for others or to suffer in their place.
2. Chiefly Biblical.a goat let loose in the wilderness on Yom Kippur after the high priest symbolically laid the sins of the people on its head. Lev. 16:8,10,26.Most from the OneLook list give this one. I just wanted to point out the distinction between the 'neutral' scapegoat and the 'monstruous' chimera , cause I was wondering why the goat part in the animal mixture is specifically distinguished as "she-goat".  What's wrong with those ancient Greeks anyway ? They must have had a very low opinion of women. Today's Argus with his 100 eyes was created or hired by Zeus to spy on Io , I guess 24 hours a day, cause he had no time to do that himself as he was too busy making eyes at the rest of the godesses. After Hermes killed Argus him his eyes went to the peacock's tail. All those eyes in vain...  "Get your goat" maybe is for you to explain, Zed?
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What's wrong with those ancient Greeks anyway ? They must have had a very low opinion of women. The opinions of their ancient writers and myths varies, as it did with all the ancients. There is also cultural disagreement over what constitutes a high or low opinion of women, too, and how that should be expressed. Many muslims argue that the hijab for example is an expression of a high view of women. Other muslims and possibly most non-muslims argue the opposite. You need to take cultural values into consideration when evaluating whether a particular myth elevates or lowers the perception of women. Having said that... I suspect you're right - ancient Greek men were probably even more chauvinistic (yes I know that's an anachronistic tag) than today! And they were the ones who wrote the myths. For most of history in most parts of the world it's been politically correct to be that way! (Oh for the good old days!)
Last edited by The Pook; 04/29/08 11:53 PM.
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to "get your goat" means to seriously annoy someone, e.g. by using a split infinitive near a prescriptivist.
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to "get your goat" means to seriously annoy someone, e.g. by using a split infinitive near a prescriptivist. Yes we know what it means. But where does it come from?
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Ahhh, did that comment get your goat? Yes, it seems a little pointless to emphasize the she- in a goat from the thousands of years' old Greek scource-word; n.b it's only a part of a goat.(though linguists will know to tell why,I s'pose.) where it may come from: get your goat more goat The Pook, you are right and I was not 100% serious; rarely am about anything.
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I was hoping this thread would tell me where to go after Hogwart's. Darn!
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To Howard Johnson's for an ice cream?
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Thanks, either of those makes sense and seems possible. I knew that!  and I was not 100% serious; I knew that too. rarely am about anything. ditto me. 
Last edited by The Pook; 05/01/08 01:47 AM.
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Today's: After Sphinx, a winged monster in Greek mythology who had a woman's head and a lion's body. It killed anyone who was not able to answer its riddle. From
Greek sphinx (literally, strangler), from sphingein (to bind tight), also the source of the word sphincter.]
The definition is rather limited. The word and female head may be from Greek, sphinxes come from older days and with a variety of heads: sphinxesRiddle: "Who took the Sphinx of Gizeh's nose off?". answer
Last edited by BranShea; 05/01/08 12:10 PM.
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"Who took the Sphinx of Gizeh's nose off?"
Wasn't it some of Napoleon's troops practicing their artillery? But I'm sure there's a funnier answer ...
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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 See previous post.
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Even at 640x480 I ca't make it out. Is that Obelix?
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 Better? He's is falling because right here the nose can't hold his weight and breaks off.(oh, this is 640X480, well heavy tremors and from the net you got to be content with what you can get.)
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If we're supposed to answer "Who?", the answer is "indistinct blob". I'm guessing some popular European cartoon character that I wouldn't recognize if the picture was clear.
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Well, indistinct blob Obélix took nose from sphinx then.
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the best sphinx i ever saw were the pair on Woolworht's tomb/mausaleum (with fiberbabe) --they had a pair of knockers on them (complete with pointy nipples!) that any hollywood starlet would happy buy!)
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Yes! tsuwm! That is what I was really looking for, the best! Added to my favorites.
Oh, of Troy, when you Google sphinx-images or centaur-images,you get the whole Walhalla hell of bad taste in countless pages. The barest kitsch from all over the world.
That's funny cartoon as well, twosleepy.
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Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Ok i found a link to an image of Fw woolworths tomb and the well endowed sphinx---you can zoom in on the image to see what i mean..
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Seems it wasn't Obelix's gravitas, Napoleon's archaeologists, or Mameluke artillery practice, but something else: The nose was probably removed in the 8th century AD by a Sufi who considered the Sphinx a blasphemous idol, but all that can be said for certain, based on the tool marks that remain, is that it was deliberately pried off with chisels. The Sphinx's face, which in ancient times was painted dark red, was also decorated with a stone beard and displayed a sculpted cobra on its forehead, both of which have also fallen off. This may explain why for much of the Sphinx's later history, its face was interpreted as a woman's ( link).
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Thanks of Troy, I zoomed in as far as the sphinx's feet and saw a decently stylized pair of sphinxes. Then I did the whole tour of the cemetary. (slide show) And listened to the life of the rich and famous and the brave.
Zmjehzd, that story seems to come as close as it can get to the truth, vandalism.
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Last year i did a real life tour of the cemetary with Fiberbabe (who used to/occationally posts here).
as a child i lived near it.. and learned to drive on one of the public roads around the cemetary (the other side of the road was a park/highway/train) so there was very little pedestrian traffic (and my father figured i could learn to drive with out killing anyone!)
It really is a beautiful park (and we enjoyed our selves so much, we lost track of time and ended up getting locked in!)
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The Sphinx's face, which in ancient times was painted dark red, was also decorated with a stone beard and displayed a sculpted cobra on its forehead, both of which have also fallen off. This may explain why for much of the Sphinx's later history, its face was interpreted as a woman's ( link). Doesn't mean it wasn't a woman's face just because it had a beard. I seem to remember reading somewhere that even women rulers were depicted sometimes with the ceremonial plaited goatee thing - it was kind of like a badge of office.
Last edited by The Pook; 05/03/08 01:37 AM.
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Doesn't mean it wasn't a woman's face just because it had a beard.The Sphinx is supposed to be Hor-em-Akhet (Horus on the Horizon), a male deity. There were three great female Pharaohs (or queens without consorts): i.e., Hatshepsut, Sobeknefru, and Twosret. Hatshepsut (who was in the news recently as an Egyptian archaeologist says he's found her mummy) is portrayed with the traditional false beard (it was false on the male pharaohs, too). Khentykawes, queen of Menkaura, may also have ruled as Pharaoh as she is depicted with a false beard, too. (An interesting page link.)
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Akhenaten may have been "both".
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Well, coming back to the she-goat we started from; the she goat has a goattee too. So why bother not to mix it all up and give the female Pharaohs a luxury (temple at Luxor) goattee? Goatees .
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