Chapter Iachimo to Iliad of I by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Iblis [“despair”], called Azazil before he was cast out of heaven. He refused to pay homage to Adam, and was rejected by God.—Al Korân.

“We created you, and afterwards formed you, and all worshipped except Eblis.” … And God said unto him, “What hindered you from worshipping Adam, since I commanded it?” He answered, “I am more excellent than he. Thou hast created me of fire, but him of clay.” God said, “Get thee down, therefore, from paradise … thou shalt be one of the contemptible.”—Al Korân, vii.

Ibrahim or LIllustre Bassa, an heroic romance of Mdlle. de Scudéri (1641)

Iceni, the people of Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, and Huntingdonshire. Their metropolis was Venta (Caistor, near Norwich).—Richard of Cirencester: Chronicle, vi. 30.

The Angles, … allured with … the fittness of the place
Where the Iceni lived, did set their kingdom down …
And the East Angles’ kingdom those English did instile.
   —Drayton: Polyolbion, xvi. (1613).

Ida, the name of the princess in Tennyson’s poem called The Princess (1847–1850).

Idalia, Venus; so called from Idalium, a town in Cyprus, where she was worshipped.

Iden (Alexander), a poor squire of Kent, who slew Jack Cade the rebel, and brought the head to king Henry VI., for which service the king said to him—

Iden, kneel down. Rise up a knight. We give thee for reward a thousand marks; And will that thou henceforth attend on us. Shakespeare: 2 Henry VI. act v. sc. I (1591).

Idenstein (Baron), nephew of general Kleiner governor of Prague. He marries Adolpha, who turns out to be the sister of Meeta called “The Maid of Mariendorpt.”—Knowles: The Maid of Mariendorpt (1838).

Identity. (See Mistaken Identity.)

Idiot (The Inspired), Oliver Goldsmith. So called by Horace Walpole (1728–1774).

Idle Lake, the lake on which Phædria (wantonness) cruised in her gondola. One had to cross this lake to get to Wandering Island.—Spenser: Faërie Queene, ii. (1590).

Idleness (The lake of). Whoever drank thereof grew instantly “faint and weary.” The Red Cross Knight drank of it, and was readily made captive by Orgoglio.—Spenser: Faërie Queene, i. (1590).

Idomeneus [I-dom-e-nuce], king of Crete. He made a vow when he left Troy, if the gods would vouchsafe him a safe voyage, to sacrifice to them the first living being that he encountered in his own kingdom. The first living object he met was his own son, and when the father fulfilled his vow, he was banished from his country as a murderer.

(The reader will instantly call to mind Jephthah’s rash vow.—Judg. xi.)

Agamemnon vowed to Diana to offer up in sacrifice to her the most beautiful thing th at came into his possession within the next twelve months. This was an infant daughter; but Agamemnon deferred the offering till Iphigenia (his daughter) was full grown. The fleet, on its way to Troy, being wind-bound at Aulis, the prophet Kalchas told Agamemnon it was because the vow had not been fulfilled; accordingly Iphigenia was laid on the altar for sacrifice, but Diana interposed, carried the victim to Tauris, and substituted a hind in her place. Iphigenia in Tauris became a priestess of Diana.

Abraham, being about to sacrifice his son to Jehovah, was stayed by a voice from heaven, and a ram was substituted for the lad Isaac.—Gen. xxii.