Sex. Milton says that spirits can assume either sex at pleasure, and Michael Psellus asserts that demons can take what sex, shape, and color they please, and can also contract or dilate their forms at pleasure.
For spirits when they please,
Can either sex assume, or both; so soft
And uncompounded is their essence pure;
Not tied or manacled with joint and limb,
Nor founded on the brittle strength of bones,
Like cumbrous flesh.
Paradise Lost, i. 423, etc. (1665).
Sex. Cæneus and Tire´sias were at one part of their lives of the male sex, and at another part of their lives of the female sex. (See these names.)
Iphis was first a woman, and then a man.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, ix. 12; xiv 699.
Sextus [Tarquinius]. There are several points of resemblance in the story of Sextus and that of Paris, son of Priam. (1) Paris was the guest of Menelāos, when he eloped with his wife, Helen; and Sextus was the guest of Lucretia when he defiled her. (2) The elopement of Helen was the cause of a national war between the Greek cities and the allied cities of Troy; and the defilement of Lucretia was the cause of a national war between Rome and the allied cities under Por´sena. (3) The contest between Greece and Troy terminated in the victory of Greece, the injured party; and the contest between Rome and the supporters of Tarquin terminated in favor of Rome, the injured party. (4) In the Trojan war, Paris, the aggressor, showed himself before the Trojan ranks, and defied the bravest of the Greeks to single combat, but when Menelaos appeared, he took to flight; and so Sextus rode vauntingly against the Roman host, but when Herminius appeared, fled to the rear like a coward. (5) In the Trojan contest, Priam and his sons fell in battle; and in the battle of Lake Regillus, Tarquin and his sons were slain.
*** Lord Macaulay has taken the “Battle of Lake Regillus” as the subject of one of his Lays of Ancient Rome. Another of his lays, called “Horatius,” is the attempt of Porsĕna to re-establish Tarquin on the throne.
Seyd, pacha of the Morea, assassinated by Gulnare (2 syl.), his favorite concubine. Gulnare was rescued from the burning harem by Conrad, “the Corsair.” Conrad, in the disguise of a dervise, was detected and seized in the palace of Seyd, and Gulnare, to effect his liberation, murdered the pacha.—Byron, The Corsair (1814).
Seyton (Lord), a supporter of Queen Mary’s cause.
Catherine Seyton, daughter of Lord Seyton, a maid of honor in the Court of Queen Mary. She appears at Kinross village in disguise.
Henry Seyton, son of Lord Seyton.—Sir W. Scott, The Abbot (time, Elizabeth).