Briarʹeos or Ægeʹon
.A giant with fifty heads and a hundred hands. Homer says the gods called him Briarʹeos, but men called him Ægeon. (Iliad, i. 403.)
“Not he who brandished in his hundred hands
His fifty swords and fifty shields in fight,
Could have surpassed the fierce Argantes might.”
The Briareus of languages. Cardinal Mezzofanti, who knew fifty-eight different tongues. Byron called him “a walking polyglot; a monster of languages; a Briareus of parts of speech.” (1774–1849.) Generally pronounced Briʹ-a-ruce.
Bold Briareus. Handel (1685–1756).
