Word: zeus
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...eyed civil servants dog the Pentagon procurers, has a San Francisco headquarters from which 85 auditors foray out to make sure that company costs are being held down. Chicago's Hallicrafters Co., which had a fixed-price contract to deliver electronic components for the Army's Nike-Zeus, is under Pentagon pressure to reduce the profit it made...
...Chiron was erroneously wounded by a poisoned arrow, and, unable to bear the pain, he longed for death. He prayed that he might pass on his immortality to Prometheus, and that his death would be accepted in atonement for Prometheus's sin, the presentation of divine fire to man. Zeus answered his prayer, and placed Chiron among the stars as the constellation Sagittarius, the Archer...
...Fortunately, the book is not so serious. Updike treats the myth lightheartedly, operating on three levels: First, the corresponding characters of Chiron and Caldwell; next, parallel nomenclature (for those who like to play such games, it has been suggested that Olinger is Olympus; Zimmerman, principal of Olinger High, is Zeus; and third, the subtle penetration of mythical allusions into what appears the most straightforward Pennsylvania prose...
Caldwell's mortal wound comes from the indifference of students at Olinger (read Olympus) High, and the casual thunderings of its Principal Zimmerman (read Zeus). He is, moreover, tormented by the teasing lechery of Vera (Venus), the gym teacher, and the unreliability of his old Buick, which must be fixed by Vera's husband Hummel (Hephaestus), a cuckolded garage keeper...
Widening Awe. Through the author's elaborate literary construction, Caldwell-Chiron clumps on two feet or prances on four. In both shapes his portrait is memorable. The other god-teachers, too, are drawn with grace and wit. There is a wry. schoolboy truth in seeing Father Zeus as a capricious pedagogue who tyrannizes teachers and likes to fondle the shoulders of girl students...