Idiot (The Inspired), Oliver Goldsmith. So called by Horace Walpole (1728-1774).
Idleness (The Lake of). Whoever drank thereof grew instantly “faint and weary.” The Red Cross Knight drank of it, and was readily made captive by Orgoglio.—Spenser, Faëry Queen, i. (1590).
Idom´eneus [I.dom´.e.nuce], king of Crete. He made a vow when he left Troy, if the gods would vouchsafe him a safe voyage, to sacrifice to them the first living being that he encountered in his own kingdom. The first living object he met was his own son, and when the father fulfilled his vow, he was banished from his country as a murderer.
⁂ The reader will call to mind Jephthah’s rash vow.—Judges xi.
Agamemnon vowed to Diana to offer up in sacrifice to her the most beautiful thing that came into his possession within the next twelve months. This was an infant daughter named Iphigeni´a; but Agamemnon deferred the offering till she was full grown. The fleet, on its way to Troy, being wind-bound at Aulis, the prophet Calchas told Agamemnon that it was because the vow had not been fulfilled; accordingly Iphigenia was laid on the altar for sacrifice, but Diana interposed, carried the victim to Tauris, and substituted a hind in her place. Iphigenia in Tauris became a priestess of Diana.
⁂ Abraham, being about to sacrifice his son to Jehovah, was stayed by a voice from heaven, and a ram was substituted for the lad Isaac.—Gen. xxii.
Idwal, king of North Wales, and son of Roderick the Great. (See Ludwal).
Idyl (An Old Man’s). The old man dreams over a checquered life, since the golden days of the beautiful early summer weather, to the time when—
“We sit by our household fires together,
Dreaming the dreams of long ago;