Circean, Circæan (sersean)

[L. Circœus, enchanted beverage; hence, fascinating but brutifying; infatuating and depraving: as, a Circean draught. Many sober English men not sufficiently awake to consider this, like men in chanted with the Circæan cup of servitude, will not be held back from running thir heads into the Yoke of Bondage. Milton , Eikon ok las tes, xiii. n. [It.: see cipolin.] In geol., a granular limestone containing mica. - Italian cipollino, marble or gypsum having a thinly laminated and concretionary cippus (sip'us), n.; pl. cippi (-1). [L. (>F.cippe), also cipus, a stake, post, pillar, perhaps akin to scipio, a staff, and that prob. to Gr. σκῆπ τρον, a scepter: see scepter.] 1. In Rom. antiq., a post or pillar, or even a large stake, of wood or stone, used for forming a palisade circensial (ser-sen's hial), a. Same as circen sian. IMG:content-0435.jpg:[blocks in formation] (for which purpose tree-trunks stripped of their branches were commonly used), or as a mark or monu ment; specifically, such a monument marking a grave or a sacred place. The cippus was either cylindrical or square, and sometimes had a base and and more or le sculptured ornament. Many cippi bear the inscription S. T. T. L. ( Sit tibi terra levis, May the earth be light to thee); but many other forms of inscription appear. Cippi were also used to display decrees of the senate and other public notices. 2. In Rom. mil it. hist., a palisade for military purposes.