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Chapter 13
The Warden's Decision

The rants of a tragedy heroine!
Eleanor is described as a tragic heroine.  She was depicted in a similar fashion in Chapter 11, when first depicted as an Iphigenia.  However, the description of Eleanor in this chapter also marks the end of the Iphigenia theme surrounding her.  The Greek Iphigenia is considered a tragic heroine because of the ordeal she suffered in support of her father.  She was sacrificed by her father Agamemnon in Euripides' tragedy Iphigenia at Aulis.  She was needed by Agamemnon as a sacrifice to Artemis.  Without her being sacrificed the ships would not have been able to sail to Troy.  Her mother and their supporters opposed the sacrifice, but it was Iphigenia who made the choice to acquiesce to her father's will.  Eleanor is very much like Iphigenia.  In all of these events Eleanor acts independently.  She is not ordered by her father to make any sacrifice.  She is willing to sacrifice her love for John Bold, in order that her father's interests are served.
http://www.pantheon.org/articles/i/iphigenia.html  [TH]

Crabtree Parva
Parva is a Latin adjective meaning "small."  It is a play on Crabtree Canonicorum, mentioned in the same paragraph.  "Canonicorum" is derived from "canonicalis" which means "canonical."  A canonical piece of land is one that belongs to the church.  The name Crabtree Canonicorum sounds very prestigious.  Lending it that name makes the reader imagine it to be large, attractive and in all probability wealthy.  The use of Latin in the case of Crabtree Parva, however, lends it a sense of classical dignity despite its juxtaposition with the imposing Crabtree Canonicorum.  It is a somewhat humorous approach to describing the place.
Stelten, Leo.  Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin.  Peabody, Massachusetts:  Hendrickson Publishers, 1995.  [TH]

Chapter 14
Mount Olympus

Mount Olympus
Mount Olympus is the highest peak in Greece and was considered to be the dwelling place of the most powerful gods and goddesses.  It was also the place from whence Zeus (the Romans' Jupiter) launched thunderbolts to punish mortals who had angered him.  [JC]

Thunderbolts and Tom Towers
"...that laboratory where, with amazing chemistry, Tom Towers compounded thunderbolts...."  In this reference to Jupiter's favored weapon, Trollope not only equates Towers with the king of the gods, but makes him in a way more powerful.  Jupiter could not make his own thunderbolts, but had to have them made by Vulcan, the smith of the gods.  Towers, on the other hand, does not depend on anyone but himself for his power.  Tom Towers' name also connects him in a small way with the gods.  If Towers is taken as a verb, it's very easy to see the implication that he towers over the rest of humanity, just as the gods in Olympus tower over the mortals below.  [JC]

Castalian ink
Castalia was a sacred spring on Mount Parnassus near Delphi thought to be a source of poetic inspiration.  Here Trollope makes it the source of Towers' inspiration, but instead of water, it flows with ink (which he then uses to write his articles). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castalian_Spring  [JC]

Workshop of the gods
Trollope is continuing his portrait of Towers as a combination of both Jupiter and Vulcan by referring to the Jupiter's office as the "workshop of the gods."  Vulcan was the only god with a workshop as he was their blacksmith.  Towers is in a sense more powerful than Jupiter, who had to rely on Vulcan to make the fire-bolts which were his weapon of choice.  Towers relies on no one but himself. [JC]

Ambrosia and nectar as toast and tea
Ambrosia and nectar are the food and drink of the gods.  Trollope is again poking fun at Towers' overconfident view of himself.  If Towers is a god, then he must not eat the food of mortals therefore his toast and tea must be called ambrosia and nectar.  The fact remains, however, that it is in reality toast and tea and Towers is no god. [JC]

Favoured abode of Themis
Themis is the goddess of law and justice and therefore would likely favor the Inns of Court, where barristers (English lawyers) in London reside.  [JC]

Towers of Caesar
"...the rich tide that now passes between the towers of Caesar to Barry's halls of eloquence..."  The Inns of Court are located near the Thames between the newly built Houses of Parliament (completed in 1860) and the Tower of London which was thought to have been built by Julius Caesar.  Trollope clearly uses the Tower as a reference point for the grandness of the allusion to Caesar.  He could have just as easily used the Westminster Bridge (which was built together with Barry's Houses of Parliament) and the London Bridge which would have pinpointed his location more accurately.  [JC]

Paphian goddess, Cyprus
Aphrodite the goddess of love and beauty; the epithet "Paphian" refers to Paphos, a particular place on Cyprus where she was worshiped.  [JC]

Wildest worshiper of Bacchus
Bacchus (Dionysus) is the god of wine.  His worshipers are considered "wild" because of the altered states of consciousness that often occurred during the business of worshiping him.  [JC]

Tenth Muse
There were nine Muses in Greek and Roman mythology who were patronesses of the arts.  Here Trollope creates a Tenth Muse "who now governs the periodical press" and is no doubt the source of Towers' skill at this particular art.  [JC]

Sebastian with his arrows
St. Sebastian, a Roman martyr, survived being pierced by several arrows and is a favorite example of martyrdom, appearing as the subject of numerous works of art.  [JC]

Sybarite
Sybaris was an ancient Greek colony located in Italy (Magna Graecia) and traditionally known as a place of luxury.  Therefore its inhabitants, Sybarites, were people who loved luxury.  In his Deipnosophistae Athanaeus describes the Capuans whose luxury and extravagance was even greater than "the traditional fame of. . .Sybaris." (5.528b)  [JC]

Tom Towers man and god in one
"It is probable that Tom Towers considered himself the most powerful man in Europe; and so he walked on from day to day, studiously striving to look a man, but knowing within his breast that he was a god."  Trollope is making one of two references here (or perhaps both of the two): either that Towers is like the gods who from time to time take human form and walk among mortals or that he is like the Roman emperors, men who certainly must have considered themselves the most powerful men in Europe and also thought themselves divine.  [JC]

Chapter 15
Tome Towers, Dr Anicant, and Mr Sentiment

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