Confusing heritage

Several characters in Ægypt have had cause to refer to what is claimed to be a Greek word, heimarmene, meaning, variously, fate, destiny, prison, &c.  But I always read it as an extrasyllabic German adjective: ein heimarmer Mann, a man with little home, or something like that.

And later: En ciel un dieu, en terre une déesse, attributed to nameless Provençal poets, clearly means "in heaven a god, on earth an absence" (or failure).

I'm totally enjoying Crowley's vocabulary.  Best word yet: cicisbeo.  How civilized.

Comments

[Scott Eric Kaufman]

Next on your list should be Alexander Theroux's Darconville's Cat. Not quite the read, but an equally impressive vocabulary.