Ganymede

"Ganymede is the young, beautiful boy that became one of Zeus’ lovers. One source of the myth says that Zeus fell in love with Ganymede when he spotted him herding his flock on Mount Ida. Zeus then came down in the form of an eagle or sent an eagle . . ." [Encyclopedia Mythica].

 

 

 

 

 

 

generation gap

The presumed divide--in lifestyles, values, cultural tastes--between one generation and another. First named in the 1960s.

 

 

 

 

 

 

genetic psychology

That branch of psychology concerned with the origins and nature of mankind's "psychic" functions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

gestalt psychology

A school of psychology which emphasized the constructedness of all perception.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gilgamesh

A middle-eastern epic poem dating from around 2,000 B.C.; one of the oldest books in the world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

gnostics

Heretical early Christians who offered an alternative version of Christian doctrine, accessible only to those possessing the secret knowledge, or "gnosis."

 

 

 

 

 

 

golden apples [Apples of the Hesperides]

"Heracles on his penultimate task was asked to pluck three golden apples from the tree of the Hesperides (nymphs of the evening). Gaia, the earth-mother had given Zeus and Hera golden apples as a wedding gift. Hera planted them in her garden, which was far to the west and close to Mount Atlas. To guard the apples Hera sent Ladon, an immortal monster with one hundred heads" [Encyclopedia Mythica].

 

 

 

 

 

 

Golgotha

The site near Jerusalem at which Christ was crucified.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gordian knot

Gordias was "a Phrygian farmer on whose plough an eagle once landed, a sign that one day he would became king. Later an oracle indeed mentioned him as king and he became the founder of Gordium, since then the residence of Phrygian kings." His chariot was attached by an intricate 'Gordian Knot,' which, according to the oracles, could be unraveled only by a future world leader, a task performer (he cut it in half) by Alexander the Great [Encyclopedia Mythica].

 

 

 

 

 

 

Graeco-Roman

Used to characterize cultural trends and historical developments having their origin in Greek and/or Roman civilization. Roughly synonymous with "classical."

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grant Me a Nature

". . . grant me a nature having two contrary forces, the one of which tends to expand infinitely, while the other strives to apprehend or find itself in this infinity, and I will cause the whole world of intelligences with the whole system of their representations to rise up before you" [from Coleridge's Biographia Literaria, XIII]--used by Barfield as an epigraph to Poetic Diction.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Great Divorce

A book by C. S. Lewis, subtitled "A Dream," published in 1945.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Great Knock

Nickname for William Thompson Kirkpatrick, C. S. Lewis' most influential teacher, described in Chapter IX of Surprised by Joy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Greats

A course of study in the British university system emphasizing mastery of texts from the classical period.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great War

See World War I.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grimm's Law

According to Microsoft Encarta, the "phonetic principle formulated by the German philologist Jacob Grimm in 1822. It describes the pattern of two stages of sound changes, known as the German consonant shift and the High German consonant shift."

 

 

 

 

 

 

gyres

In William Butler Yeats' mystical system (explained in A Vision), the occult trajectories/vectors that govern the unfolding of space and time, subjectivity and objectivity.

Diagram from A VISION by William Butler Yeats.