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Helʹiotrope (4 syl.)

.

Apollo loved Clytʹie, but forsook her for her sister Leucothʹoe. On discovering this, Clytie pined away; and Apollo changed her at death to a flower, which, always turning towards the sun, is called heliotrope. (Greek, “turn-to-sun.”)

⁂ According to the poets, heliotrope renders the bearer invisible. Boccaccio calls it a stone, but Solīnus says it is the herb. “Ut herba ejusdem nominis mixta et prœcantationibus legitimis consecrata, eum, a quocunque gestabitur, subtrahat visibus obviorum.” (Georgic, xi.)

“No hope had they of crevice where to hide,

Or heliotrope to charm them out of view.”


Dante: Inferno, xxiv.


“The other stone is heliotrope, which renders those who have it invisible.”—Boccuccio: The Decameron, Novel iii., Eighth day.

 

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Helen
Helen of One’s Troy (The)
Helena
Helena (St.)
Helenos
Helicon
Heligh-monat (Holy-month)
Heliopolis
He lios
Heliostat
Heliotrope
Hell
Hell or Arka
Hell
Hell (Rivers of)
Hell Broth
Hell Gate
Hell Gates
Hell Kettles
Hell Shoon
Hell or Connaught (To)

See Also:

Heliotrope