[HPforGrownups] Re: Stouffer to be on ABC News

[Jen Faulkner]

No: HPFGUIDX 14832

On Wed, 21 Mar 2001, Sofie 'Melle' Werkers wrote:

> Eh? I always thought that 'Nimbus' was a reference to a sort of clous. The 
> Something Nimbus, a storm cloud, I think. Since it sounds Latin, I suspect 
> it may well have been some sort of [lesser] god of clouds in the Roman 
> panthenon, and it'd make sense to JKR to name a broomstick after him.

A 'nimbus' in Latin is a (storm) cloud.  There was no god Nimbus, but
the word is also used to refer to the circle behinds the heads of gods
or holy persons in (just Christian?) iconography.

You can see an example of a nimbus on a coin of Honorius at 
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/image?lookup=1997.03.2786

Stouffer's claim on this point, like the rest, is groundless.

--jen, who deeply cherishes the photograph of a friend of hers standing
with a Frisbee held above her head as a nimbus.  Said friend is also,
bien sûr, a Classicist. :)

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