Chapter Horatian Metre to Horns of Moses' Face of H by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

sword and lance to guard the sacred lines ...
Th' instructive handle's at the bottom fixed,
Lest wrangling critics should pervert the text."
Tickell: The Horn Book.

"Their books of stature small they took in hand
Which with pellucid horn securë are,
To save from finger wet the letters fair."
Shenstone: Schoolmistress.

Horn-gate One of the two gates of "Dreams;" the other is of ivory. Visions which issue from the former come true. This whim depends upon two Greek puns; the Greek for horn is keras, and the verb krano or karanoo means "to bring to an issue," "to fulfil; so again elephas is ivory, and the verb elephairo means "to cheat," "to deceive." The verb kraino, however, is derived from kra, "the head," and means "to bring to a head;" and the verb elephairo is akin to elachus, "small."
   Anchises dismisses Æneas through the ivory gate, on quitting the infernal regions, to indicate the unreality of his vision.

"Sunt geminæ somini portæ, quarum altera fertur
Cornea, qua veris facilis datur exitus umbris;
Altera candenti perfecta nitens elephanto;
Sed falsa ad coelum mittunt insomnia Manë."
Virgil: Æneid, vi. 894, etc.

Horn of Fidelity Morgan la Faye sent a horn to King Arthur, which had the following "virtue": - No lady could drink out of it who was not "to her husband true;" all others who attempted to drink were sure to spill what it contained. This horn was carried to King Marke, and "his queene with a hundred ladies more" tried the experiment, but only four managed to "drinke cleane." Ariosto's enchanted cup possessed a similar spell. (See Chastity.)

Horn of Plenty [Cornu-copia ]. Emblem of plenty.
   Ceres is drawn with a ram's horn in her left arm, filled with fruits and flowers. Sometimes they are being poured on the earth from "the full horn," and sometimes they are held in it as in a basket. Diodorus (iii. 68) says the horn is one from the head of the goat by which Jupiter was suckled. He explains the fable thus: "In Libya," he says, "there is a strip of land shaped like a horn, bestowed by King Ammon on his bride Amalthæa, who nursed Jupiter with goat's milk.

"When Amalthe'a's horn
O'er hill and dale the rose-crowned Flora pours.
And scatters corn and wine, and fruits and flowers."
Camocns: Lusiad, book ii.

Horn of Power When Tamugin assumed the title of Ghengis Khan, he commanded that a white horn should be thenceforward the standard of his troops. So the great Mogul "lifted up his horn on high," and was exalted to great power.

Horn of the Son of Oil (The) (Isa. v. 1). The son of oil means Syria, famous for its olives and its olive oil, and the horn of Syria means the strip of land called Syria, which has the sea bounding it on the west and the desert on the east.

Horn with Horn or Horn under Horn. The promiscuous feeding of bulls and cows, or, in fact, all horned beasts that are allowed to run together on the same common.

Horns of a Dilemma A difficulty of such a nature that whatever way you attack it you encounter an equal amount of disagreeables. Macbeth, after the murder of Duncan, was in a strait between two evils. If he allowed Banquo to live, he had reason to believe that Banquo would supplant him; if, on the other hand, he resolved to keep the crown for which "he had 'filed his hands," he must "step further in blood," and cut Banquo off.
   Lemma is something that has been proved, and being so is assumed as an axiom. It is from the Greek word lambano (I assume or take for granted). Di-lemma is a double lemma, or two- edged sword which strikes either way. The horns of a dilemma is a figure of speech taken from a bull, which tosses, with either of his horns.
   "Teach me to plead," said a young rhetorician to a sophist, "and I will pay you when I gain a cause." The master sued for payment at once, and the scholar pleaded, "If I gain my cause you must pay me, and if I lose it I am not bound to pay you by the terms of our contract." The master pleaded, "If you gain you must pay me by the terms of the agreement, and if you lose the court will compel you to pay me."

Horns of Moses' Face This is a mere blunder. The Hebrew karan means "to shoot out beams of light," but has by mistake been translated in some versions "to wear horns." Thus Moses is conventionally represented with horns. "Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone" (Exod. xxxiv. 29); compare 2 Cor. iii. 7- 13: "The children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance."