In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, David Wilson-Okamura <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes >That's right: the author I cited (Lipsius) was an ardent Dutch Protestant, >so I don't think he was really swearing "by Hercules." I would translate it >as "by gum" or something generic like that. But the contracted form is old: >see Lewis & Short, "Hercules," 1b. When a Roman said 'hercle' he was swearing by Hercules, and I mean 'he', for women didn't say it; conversely mean didn't say 'ecastor', 'by Castor', though both sexes said 'edepol', by Pollux: see Aulus Gellius 11. 6. Similarly it is Greek men who say Herakleis. However, 'hercle' found its way into literary prose as _ne Dia_, by Zeus, did in Greek, and was used as a classicism at the Renaissance. (That is nothing to the letter in the British Library from Vida to Bembo congratulating him on being made a cardinal, which thanks 'the immortal gods'. It is Additional MS 21520, folio 19; the MS is a collection of autographs, including a Michelangelo drawing.) Leofranc Holford-Strevens
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