Chapter Gamelyn de Guardover to Garagantua of G by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Ganelon was constantly intriguing for its overthrow. No doubt, jealousy of sir Roland made him a traitor, and he basely planned with Marsillus (the Moorish king) the attack of Roncesvallês. The character of sir Ganelon was marked with spite, dissimulation, and intrigue, but he was patient, obstinate, and enduring. He was six feet and a half in height, had large glaring eyes, and fiery red hair. He loved solitude, was very taciturn, disbelieved in the existence of moral good, and has become a by-word for a false and faithless friend. Dantê has placed him in his “Inferno.” (Sometimes called Gan.)

The most faithless spy since the days of Ganelon.—Sir W. Scott: The Abbot, xxiv. (1820).

Ganem, “the Slave of Love.” The hero and title of one of the Arabian Nights tales. Ganem was the son of a rich merchant of Damascus, named Abou Aibou. On the death of his father he went to Bagdad, to dispose of the merchandize left, and accidentally saw three slaves secretly burying a chest in the earth. Curiosity induced him to disinter the chest, when, lo! it contained a beautiful woman, sleeping from the effects of a narcotic drug. He took her to his lodgings, and discovered that the victim was Fetnab, the caliph’s favourite, who had been buried alive by order of the sultana, out of jealousy. When the caliph heard thereof, he was extremely jealous of the young merchant, and ordered him to be put to death; but he made good his escape in the guise of a waiter, and lay concealed till the angry fit of the caliph had subsided. When Haroun-al-Raschid (the caliph) came to himself, and heard the unvarnished facts of the case, he pardoned Ganem, gave to him Fetnab for a wife, and appointed him to a lucrative post about the court.

Ganesa, goddess of wisdom, in Hindu mythology.

Then Camdeo [Love] bright and Ganesa sublime
Shall bless with joy their own propitious clime.
   —Campbell: Pleasures of Hope, i. (1799).

Ganges. Pliny tells us of men living on the odour emitted by the water of this river.—Nat. Hist., xii.

By Ganges’ bank, as wild traditions tell,
Of old the tribes lived healthful by the smell;
No food they knew, such fragrant vapours rose
Rich from the flowery lawn where Ganges flows.
   —Camoëns: Lusiad, vii. (1569).

Ganlesse (Richard), alias Simon Canter, alias Edward Christian, one of the conspirators.—Sir W. Scott: Peveril of the Peak (time, Charles II.).

Ganna, the Celtic prophetess, who succeeded Velleda. She went to Rome, and was received by Domitian with great honour.—Tacitus: Annals, 55.

Ganor, Ganora, Geneura, Ginevra, Ge nievre, Guinevere, Guenever, are different ways of spelling the name of Arthur’s wife; callled by Geoffrey of Monmouth, Guanhumara or Guanhumar; but Tennyson has made Guenevere the popular English form.

Ganymede , a beautiful Phrygean boy, who was carried up to Olympos on the back of an eagle, to become cup-bearer to the gods instead of Hebê. At the time of his capture he was playing a flute while tending his father’s sheep.

There fell a flute when Ganymede went up—
The flute that he was wont to play upon.
   —Jean Ingelow: Honours, ii.

(Jupiter compensated the boy’s father for the loss of his son, by a pair of horses.)

Tennyson, speaking of a great reverse of fortune from the highest glory to the lowest shame, says—

They mounted Ganymede
To tumble Vulcans on the second morn.
   —The Princess, iii.