Danger

DANGER 8 3

Calypso In Greek myth, Calypso was a nymph who lived on the island of Ogygia. When Odysseus was shipwrecked on the island, Calypso took him for her lover, offering him immortality if he would become her husband. She kept him on her island for seven years until Zeus intervened and ordered her to release him. Like the sirens, Calypso can represent a woman who is dangerously attractive to men. • See special entry u ODYSSEUS on p. 283.

Perhaps he had too fixed an idea of what a siren looked like and the circumstances in which she appeared—long tresses, a chaste alabaster nudity, a mermaid's tail, matched by an Odysseus with a face acceptable in the best clubs. There were no Doric temples in the Undercliff; but here was a Calypso.

JOHN FOWLES The French Lieutenant's Woman, 1969

Cape Horn Cape Horn is the extreme tip of South America. Bad weather and dangerous sea currents mean that it is very difficult to navigate safely round the cape.

'Did the sugar on the raspberry tarts you ate in your mouth taste the worse for being sweetened with the tear of slavery—for it should have tasted salt, but it did not. Did you think of the nigger who cut the cane? You did not. Merely to exist is to be involved in the system others have created to tend your daily needs.' 'Monstrous, Walter, monstrous! 'There is a Cape Horn of the mind, too, which is as difficult to

Circe In Greek mythology, Circe was a sorceress who lived on the island of Aeaea. She turned Odysseus' men into swine but Odysseus managed to protect himself from this fate using the mythical herb moly, and he was able to make her restore his men to their human form. Circe represents a person or place that, though attractive and fascinating, is dangerous. • See special entry

n ODYSSEUS on p. 283.

The dog has not warmed to me. Too much cat-smell. Cat-woman: Circe, j . M. COETZEE Age of Iron, 1990

Daniel in the lions' den Daniel was a Hebrew prophet (6th century BC). The Old Testament Book of Daniel relates how he was cast into the lions' den for continuing to pray to God when it had been forbidden. He survived for a night unharmed by the lions, saying in the morning: 'My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions' mouths, that they have not hurt me' (Dan. 6: 22).

• See special entry • DANIEL on p. 86.

Older than the crew, in their thirties. They were two lost little lamb-i-kins who had wandered into the lions' den.

CHARLES HicsoN Full Whack, 1995

Jurassic Park Jurassic Park is the title of a film (1993) based on a book of the same name by Michael Crichton (1991). The plot features a theme park inhabited by dinosaurs which have been created from DNA taken from ancient mosquitoes preserved in amber. The dinosaurs are not supposed to be able to breed, but it is discovered that one particularly dangerous species, the carnivorous velociraptor, is able to reproduce. At the end of the film the velociraptors are moving out of the confines of the park.

For prison is like Jurassic Park, but infinitely more dangerous: a single-sex society where some specimens, through a freak of genes, can mutate to the opposite sex.

8 4 DANCER

And others, through an excess of libido, willingly lose the ability to differentiate.

PAUL BENNETT False Profits, 1 9 9 8

Lorelei In Germanic folklore, Lorelei is the name of a rock at the edge of the Rhine, held to be the home of a siren with long blonde hair whose song lures boatmen to destruction. The name can also be applied to the siren herself, so a 'Lorelei' is a dangerously fascinating woman.

Scylla and Charybdis In Greek mythology, Scylla was a ferocious sea monster with many heads. She lived in a cave opposite the whirlpool Charybdis. Sailors had to steer very carefully to avoid the two dangers. If they steered too hard to avoid one, they would become victims of the other. Scylla and Charybdis represent two dangers which are to be avoided equally.

Goodenough did not answer immediately but concentrated on finding a spot as equidistant as possible from the Scylla of the roaring fire and the Charybdis of the pulsating radiator.

REGINALD HILL Child's Play 1987

Sirens In Greek mythology, the Sirens were sea creatures, usually portrayed as bird-women, whose singing had the power to lure sailors to their deaths on dangerous rocks. In the Odyssey, when Odysseus had to sail past the island of the Sirens, he ordered his crew to plug their ears with wax so that they would not hear the singing of the Sirens. He had himself lashed to the mast of his ship so that he would not be able to respond to their call. The word is now used to suggest someone or something that lures a person away from a safe course to danger or uncertainty. • See special entry • ODYSSEUS on p. 283.

Charles and his father sometimes disagreed. But they always parted with an increased regard for one another, and each desired no doughtier comrade when it was necessary to voyage for a little past the emotions. So the sailors of Ulysses voyaged past the Sirens, having first stopped one another's ears with wool.

E. M. FORSTER Howards End, 1910

SWOrd of Damocles Damocles was a legendary courtier of Dionysius I of Syracuse, who had talked openly of how lucky Dionysius was. To show him how precarious this happiness was, Dionysius invited Damocles to a sumptuous banquet, and seated him under a sword which was suspended by a single thread. 'The sword of Damocles' thus refers to a danger that is always present and might strike at any moment.

True, in old age we live under the shadow of Death, which, like a sword of Damocles, may descend at any moment.

SAMUEL BUTLER The Way of All Flesh, 1903

A reduction in international armaments is impossible; by virtue of any number of fears and jealousies. The burden grows worse as science advances, for the improvements in the art of destruction will keep pace with its advance and every year more and more will have to be devoted to costly engines of war. It is a vicious circle. There is no escape from it—that Damocles sword of a war on the first day of which all the chartered covenants of princes will be scattered like chaff.

FAY WELDON Darcy's Utopia, 1990

Daphne took another call. I knew even before I had registered her hushed and respectful tone that the sword of Damocles was suspended above me.

BEN ELTON Inconceivable, 1999