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▪ I. ‖ cestus1|ˈsɛstəs|
Also cestos.
[L. cestus, ad. Gr. κεστός; properly vbl. adj., ‘stitched’.]
A belt or girdle for the waist; particularly that worn by a bride in ancient times.
1577tr. Bullinger's Decades (1592) 236 For Cestus signifieth the Marriage girdle which the Bride did weare. 1736Bailey (Folio), Cestus, a Marriage-girdle, that of old Times the Bride used to wear, and the Bridegroom unloosed on the Wedding-night. 1778Sir N. Wraxall North. Courts (Warsaw) The princess wore round her waist a girdle or cestus of silk, nine inches broad: it is the zone of the Greeks and is still worn in Wallachia. 1870L'Estrange Miss Mitford I. ii. 40 To complete the set of amethysts by a bandeau and tiara, a cestus for the waist.
b. spec. That of Aphrodite or Venus.
a1661B. Holyday Juvenal 130 Like the outragious love of Jupiter to Juno, effected by the cæstus, or girdle of Venus, as it is in Homer, Iliad 18. 1709Steele & Addison Tatler No. 147 ⁋3. 1712 Addison Spect. No. 425 ⁋4 Venus, without any ornament but her own beauties, not so much as her own cestus. 1850J. Leitch tr. Müller's Anc. Art §376. 474 She also appears half-draped, girding herself with the cestus, on coins of Domitian.
c. fig.
1651Jer. Taylor Holy Dying iii. §6 (L.) As soon as that cestus [of lust and wanton appetite], that lascivious girdle, is thrown away, then the reins chasten us. 1865Carlyle Fredk. Gt. IX. xxi. iii. 295 The brightest jewel in the cestus of Polish Liberty is this right of confederating.
▪ II. ‖ cestus2|ˈsɛstəs|
[a. L. cæstus, commonly regarded as anomalously f. cædĕre to strike; perh. it was an incorrect spelling of cestus girdle, band, ligature: see prec.]
A contrivance consisting of thongs of bull-hide, loaded with strips of iron and lead, and wound round the hands. Used by Roman boxers as a protection and to give greater weight to the blows.
1734tr. Rollin's Anc. Hist. (1827) I. 76 The Cestus was a kind of gauntlet, or glove, made of straps of leather, and plated with brass, lead, or iron. 1791Cowper Iliad xxiii. 774 For thou shalt wield The cæstus..never again. 1807Robinson Archæol. Græca iii. xx. 323 The hands and arms of the combatants were..surrounded with thongs of leather called cestus. 1870Bryant Iliad II. xxiii. 369 Since thou wilt wield No more the cestus. |