Literary notes about Inglorious (AI summary)
The term "inglorious" is often used in literature to denote a lack of honor or the presence of shame, contrasting sharply with images of valor and grandeur. In epic narratives, such as those by Homer and Virgil, it underscores the ignominy of cowardly retreats, futile battles, or disreputable characters ([1], [2], [3]), while in historical and political discourse it criticizes regimes or actions that fall short of noble ideals ([4], [5], [6]). Its application extends to personal character assessments and metaphorical descriptions—ranging from the base nature of human failings to the sorrow of a misused legacy—as seen in phrases that mourn unworthy careers or trivial defeats ([7], [8], [9]). This nuanced use of "inglorious" enriches the dramatic tension in literature by juxtaposing the ideal of glory with the reality of ignominy.
- resolve to earth, from whence ye grew, A heartless, spiritless, inglorious crew!
— from The Iliad by Homer - He takes the cowards’ last relief away; For fly they cannot, and, constrain’d to stay, Must yield unfought, a base inglorious prey.
— from The Aeneid by Virgil - would a soft, inglorious, dastard train An absent hero's nuptial joys profane!
— from The Odyssey by Homer - Nor when it finally yielded to the iron progress of oligarchical supremacy, was its catastrophe inglorious.
— from Sybil, Or, The Two Nations by Earl of Beaconsfield Benjamin Disraeli - To overcome in such a contest he thought inglorious; and to be put down, a disgrace.
— from The Germany and the Agricola of Tacitus by Cornelius Tacitus - It is not easy to pronounce whether the servitude of Demetrius, or the exile of his brother Thomas, 90 be the most inglorious.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - Resolved to pursue no inglorious career, he turned his eyes toward the East, as affording scope for his spirit of enterprise.
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - The difference in result is often decisive victory instead of inglorious defeat.
— from Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Complete by Ulysses S. Grant - Now, death stared him in the face—death inglorious, even ignominious.
— from The White Gauntlet by Mayne Reid
