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Gulliver’s Travels vocabulary
327 vocabulary words, including people, places, music, artists, etc.
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helot
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► definition
Definition:serfs of ancient Greece who were essentially slaves of the state---the need to keep helot population in check and prevent rebellion was one of the main concerns of the Spartans. Helots were ritually mistreated, humiliated and even slaughtered: every autumn the Spartans would declare war on the helots so they could be killed by a member of the Crypteia without fear of repercussion. Uprisings and attempts to improve the lot of the helots did occur, such as the Conspiracy of Cinadon.licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike
► uses
Uses:
I spent five days in conversing with many others of the ancient learned. I saw most of the first Roman emperors. I prevailed on the governor to call up Heliogabalus’s cooks to dress us a dinner, but they could not show us much of their skill, for want of materials. A helot of Agesilaus made us a dish of Spartan broth, but I was not able to get down a second spoonful.
Jonathan Swift. Gulliver's Travels (1727)
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Cynics suggested that these honorable titles derived more from the Salvation Army than the fighting forces, but be that cheap sneer justified or no, the fact remains that an M.M. helot had ever so much more pride in being called an “inspector,” an awing designation in all police circles, than in being a “private.”
Sinclair Lewis. It Can't Happen Here
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Successively, in descending helotic order: Poverty: that of the outdoor hawker of imitation jewellery, the dun for the recovery of bad and doubtful debts, the poor rate and deputy cess collector.
James Joyce. Ulysses
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