Chapter Guynteline to Gyptian of G by Brewer's Readers Handbook

N.B.—The real name of Nell (Eleanor) Gwynne was Margaret Lymcott. The dukes of St. Albans are the descendants of this mistress of Charles II.

Gyas and Cloanthus, two companions of Æneas, generally mentioned together as “fortis Gyas fortisque Cloan-thus.” The phrase has become proverbial for two very similar characters.— Virgil: Æneid.

The “strong Gyas” and the “strong Cloanthus” are less distinguished by the poet than the strong Percival and the strong Osbaldistones were by outward appearance. —Sir W. Scott.

Gyges, one of the Titans. He had fifty heads and a hundred hands.

Gyges, a king of Lydia, of whom Apollo said he deemed the poor Arcadian Aglaos more happy than the king Gyges, who was proverbial for his wealth.

Gyges, who dethroned Candaulês king of Lydia, and married Nyssia the young widow. Herodotos says that Candaulês showed Gyges the queen in her bath, and the queen, indignant at this impropriety, induced Gyges to kill the king and marry her (bk.i.8). He reigned B.C. 716-678.

Gyges’s Ring rendered the wearer invisible. Plato says that Gyges found the ring in the flanks of a brazen horse, and was enabled by this talisman to enter the king’s chamber unseen, and murder him.

Why did you think you had Gygesring,
Or the herb [fern seed] that gives invisibility?
   —Fletcher: Fair Maid of the Inn, i. I (1647).

Gynecium, the apartment in which the Anglo-Saxon women lived.—Fosbroke: Antiquities, ii. 570 (1824).

Gyneth, natural daughter of Guendolen and king Arthur. The king promised to give her in marriage to the bravest knight in a tournament in which the warder was given to her to drop when she pleased. The haughty beauty saw twenty knights fall, among whom was Vanoc, son of Merlin. Immediately Vanoc fell, Merlin rose, put an end to the jousts, and caused Gyneth to fall into a trance, from which she was never to wake till her hand was claimed in marriage by some knight as brave as those who had fallen in the tournament. After the lapse of 500 years, De Vaux undertook to break the spell, and had to overcome four temptations, viz. fear, avarice, pleasure, and ambition. Having succeeded in these encounters, Gyneth awoke and became his bride.—Sir W. Scott: Bridal of Triermain (1813).

Gyp, the college servant of Blushington, who stole his tea and sugar, candles, and so on. After Blushington came into his fortune, he made Gyp his chief domestic and private secretary.—Moncrieff: The Bashful Man.

Gyptian (Saint), a vagrant.

Percase [perchance] sometimes St. Gyptian’s pilgrymage
Did carie me a month (yea, sometimes more)
To brake the bowres [to reject the food provided],
Bicause they had no better cheere in store.
   —Gascoigne: The Fruites of Warre, 100 (died 1557).