Parnassus

English

Pallas Athene Visiting Apollo on the Parnassus (1703) by Arnold Houbraken

Alternative forms

• Parnassos

Etymology

From Latin Parnāsus, from Ancient Greek Παρνασσός (Parnassós).

Proper noun

Parnassus

1. A mountain in central Greece, adjacent the site of the ancient city of Delphi, that in Greek mythology was sacred to Apollo and the Corycian nymphs and was the home of the Muses.
   • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, Canto XXXVII, page 57:

     Go down beside thy native rill,
     ⁠On thy Parnassus set thy feet,
     ⁠And hear thy laurel whisper sweet
     About the ledges of the hill.

   • 1851, Ovid, “Book 1”, in Henry T. Riley, transl., The Metamorphoses of Ovid‎^[1], volumes 1—Books I–VII, London: George Bell & Sons […] , published 1893:

     Phocis separates the Aonian from the Actæan region; a fruitful land while it was a land; but at that time it had become a part of the sea, and a wide plain of sudden waters. There a lofty mountain rises towards the stars, with two tops, by name Parnassus, and advances beyond the clouds with its summit.

3. (figuratively) The home of poetry, literature, and learning.
   • 1908 September – 1909 September, Jack London, chapter XLIII, in Martin Eden, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, published September 1909, →OCLC:

     His intrinsic beauty and power meant nothing to the hundreds of thousands who were acclaiming him and buying his books. He was the fad of the hour, the adventurer who had stormed Parnassus while the gods nodded.

   • 2006, William Zinsser, On Writing Well:

     […] "He's arguably the best pitcher on the Mets," the preening sportswriter writes, aspiring to Parnassus, which Red Smith reached by never using words like "arguably."

4. A small town in Hurunui District, north Canterbury, New Zealand, named after Mount Parnassus.

Derived terms

• grass of Parnassus
• Parnassian
• Parnassianism

Translations

mountain

• Catalan: Pàrnas m
• Finnish: Parnassos
• French: Parnasse (fr) m
• Galician: Parnaso (gl)
• German: Parnass (de) m
• Italian: Parnaso m
• Portuguese: Parnaso (pt) m
• Spanish: Parnaso m

home of poetry, literature and learning

• Finnish: Parnassos
• German: Parnass (de) m

Further reading

• Mount Parnassus on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Parnassus (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Latin

Proper noun

Parnassus m sg (genitive Parnassī); second declension

1. Alternative form of Parnāsus

Declension

Second-declension noun, with locative, singular only.

	singular
nominative	Parnassus
genitive	Parnassī
dative	Parnassō
accusative	Parnassum
ablative	Parnassō
vocative	Parnasse
locative	Parnassī