It can be deinós, dread or awe-inspiring, a term used frequently of gods, and a feeble echo of which is captured in our dinosaur-the dread lizard.
Fear turns warriors green, jabbers their teeth, trembles their limbs.
Fear can be krúoeis, chilling, freezing, numbing or smerdaléos, a huge and terrifying adjective-in origin it appears to have been a dreadful sound, such as the crushing of bones or gnashing of teeth, and is used of the thunder of Zeus. The Greek language offered wide-ranging terminology to calibrate different shades and effects: déos, straightforward terror, fear, or apprehension phóbos, fear that impels panic and battle rout ekplektos, shock that strikes one dumb. The ancient Greeks were connoisseurs of fear.
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