Chapter Muzzle to Mysterious Three of M by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Muzzle to Mysterious Three

Muzzle To muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. Not to pay for work done; to expect other persons will work for nothing. The labourer is worthy of his hire, and to withhold that hire is to muzzle the ox that treadeth out your corn.

My Eye (All). (See under All .)

Mynheer Closh A Dutchman. Closh or Claus is an abbreviation of Nicholaus, a common name in Holland. Sandy, a contraction of Alexander, is a similar nickname for a Scotchman.

Mynian Sails The ship Argo; so called because its crew were natives of Mynia.

“When his black whirlwinds o'er the ocean rolled
And rent the Mynian sails.”
Camoens: Lusiad, bk. vi.

Myrmidons of the Law Bailiffs, sheriffs' officers, and other law menials. Any rough fellow employed to annoy another is the employer's myrmidon.
   The Myrmidons were a people of Thessaly who followed Achilles to the siege of Troy, and were distinguished for their savage brutality, rude behaviour, and thirst for rapine.

Myron A Greek statuary and sculptor, born in Boeotia, B.C. 480. A fellow-disciple of Polycletus, and a younger contemporary of Phidias. His great works are in bronze. By far the most celebrated of his statues were his Discobolus and his Cow. The cow is represented lowing. (Discobolus is a quoit or discus player.) It is said that the cow was so true to nature that a bull mistook it for a living animal.
    There are several similar legends. Thus it is said that Apelles painted Alexander's horse so realistically that a living horse mistook it and began to neigh. Velasquez painted a Spanish admiral so true to life, that Felipe IV. mistook the painting for the man and reproved it severely for not being with the fleet. Zeuxis painted some grapes so well that birds flew at them to peck them. Quentin Matsys painted a fly on a man's leg so inimitably that Mandyn, the artist, tried to brush it off with his handkerchief. Parrhasios, of Ephesus, painted a curtain so well that Zeuxis was deceived by it, and told him to draw it aside that he might see the picture behind it.

Myrra An Ionian slave, the beloved concubine of Sardanapalus, the Assyrian king. She roused him from his indolence to oppose Arbaces the Mede, who aspired to his throne, and when she found that his cause was hopeless induced him to place himself on a funeral pile, which she fired with her own hand, and springing into the flames, perished with her beloved lord and master. (Byron: Sardanapalus.)

Myrrophores (3 syl.; the myrrh bearers). The three Marys who went to see the sepulchre, bearing myrrh and spices. In Christian art they are represented as carrying vases of myrrh in their hands.

Myrtle (The). If you look at a leaf of myrtle in a strong light, you will see that it is pierced with innumerable little punctures. According to fable, Phædra, wife of Theseus, fell in love with Hippolotus, her step-son; and when Hippolotus went to the arena to exercise his horses, Phædra repaired to a myrtle-tree in Troezen to await his return, and beguiled the time by piercing the leaves with a hair-pin. The punctures referred to are an abiding memento of this tradition.
   In the Orlando Furioso Astolpho is changed into a myrtle- tree by Acrisia.
   Myrtle. The ancient Jews believed that the eating of myrtle leaves conferred the power of detecting witches; and it was a superstition that if the leaves crackled in the hands the person beloved would prove faithful.
   The myrtle which dropped blood. Æneas (book iii.) is represented as tearing up the Myrtle which dropped blood. Polydorus tells us that the barbarous inhabitants of the country pierced the Myrtle (then a living being) with spears and arrows. The body of the Myrtle took root and grew into the bleeding tree.

Mysteries of Woods and Rivers The art of hunting and fishing.

Mystery A kind of mediæval drama, the characters and events of which were drawn from sacred history.

Mystery or Mysterium. Said to make up the number 666 referred to in Rev. xvii. 5. This would not be worthy notice, except for the fact that the word “mystery” was, till the time of the Reformation, inscribed