All 6 Uses of
lithe
in
The Odyssey
- White-armed Nausicaa led their singing, dancing beat ...
as lithe as Artemis with her arrows striding down
from a high peak—Taygetus' towering ridge or Erymanthusthrilled to race with the wild boar or bounding deer,
and nymphs of the hills race with her,
daughters of Zeus whose shield is storm and thunder,
ranging the hills in sport, and Leto's heart exults
as head and shoulders over the rest her daughter rises,
unmistakable—she outshines them all, though all are lovely.†p. 171.8lithe = graceful and flexible (moving and bending with ease)
- If one of the gods
who rule the skies up there, you're Artemis to the life,
the daughter of mighty Zeus—I see her now—just look
at your build, your bearing, your lithe flowing grace ...
But if you're one of the mortals living here on earth,
three times blest are your father, your queenly mother,
three times over your brothers too.†p. 173.3 *
- And next I caught a glimpse of powerful Heracles
his ghost, I mean: the man himself delights
in the grand feasts of the deathless gods on high,
wed to Hebe, famed for her lithe, alluring ankles,
the daughter of mighty Zeus and Hera shod in gold.†p. 269.5
- I will shrivel the supple skin on your lithe limbs,
strip the russet curls from your head and deck you out
in rags you'd hate to see some other mortal wear;
I'll dim the fire in your eyes, so shining once—
until you seem appalling to all those suitors,
even your wife and son you left behind at home.†p. 299.6
- She shriveled the supple skin on his lithe limbs,
stripped the russet curls from his head, covered his body
top to toe with the wrinkled hide of an old man
and dimmed the fire in his eyes, so shining once.†p. 300.7
- First they washed and pulled fresh tunics on,
the women arrayed themselves—the inspired bard
struck up his resounding lyre and stirred in all
a desire for dance and song, the lovely lilting beat,
till the great house echoed round to the measured tread
of dancing men in motion, women sashed and lithe.†p. 460.4
Definitions:
-
(1)
(lithe) a graceful, flexible body -- often implying thinness
or:
graceful, flexible body movement -
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
More rarely, lithe can mean that something is easily bent or flexed--such as "a thin blade of lithe steel," or "twisted the lithe vines."