Zephon.—A “strong and subtle spirit” in Milton’s Paradise Lost, whom Gabriel dispatched with Ithuriel to find Satan.
Zillah.—One of Southey’s characters, beloved by Hamuel, a brutish sot. Zillah rejected his suit, and Hamuel vowed vengeance. Accordingly, he gave out that Zillah had intercourse with the devil, and she was condemned to be burnt alive. God averted the flames, which consumed Hamuel; but Zillah stood unharmed, and the stake to which she was bound threw forth white roses, “the first ever seen on earth since paradise was lost.”
Zimri (zim´ri).—In Dryden’s Absalom and Achitophel, is intended for George Villiers, duke of Buckingham, who had satirized Dryden in The Rehearsal as Bayes.
Zophiel (zō´fi-el).—In Milton’s Paradise Lost, an angelic scout.
Zuleika (zū-lē´kä).—The heroine in Byron’s poem of The Bride of Abydos, in love with Selim:
“Fair, as the first that fell of womankind...
Soft, as the memory of buried love;
Pure, as the prayer which childhood wafts above:
Such was Zuleika—such around her shone
The nameless charms unmark’d by her alone:
The light of love, the purity of grace,
The mind, the music breathing from her face,
The heart whose softness harmonized the whole—
And, oh! that eye was in itself a soul!”
This beautiful Roman temple, said to have been erected by Agrippa in 27 B. C, was dedicated to all the gods of Greece and Rome. It is lighted by a single aperture in the center of its magnificent dome. (See [illustration] on next page.)