Reader question:
What does this sentence – Most historians agree that the battle was an Egyptian defeat or a draw or at best a Pyrrhic victory – mean, and in particular what is "pyrrhic victory"?
My comments:
It means the Egyptians probably lost the battle. It was perhaps a draw. At the very best, if the Egyptians won, their own loss was so great that they could hardly find any satisfaction in the victory.
Pyrrhic victory? You could have more or less guessed it, I think. It refers to a victory that has come at a great cost, such a great cost, in fact, that it's perhaps not worth fighting for. Pyrrhic, with a capitalized "P", is after Greek king Pyrrhus (318-272), who gained such a victory against the Romans. Pyrrhus had lost so many men in the battle that when people came to congratulate him for the victory, Pyrrhus said to them: "One more such victory and Pyrrhus is undone."
Hence, Pyrrhic victory.
Having grasped its origin, I hope you'll find this phrase easy to remember. And having learned its story, you'll be able to put Pyrrhic victory into use in the right situations. While we're at it, talking about victory, we might as well touch upon two other kinds of victories for the sake of comparison. One is Cadmean victory, the other moral victory. Cadmean is also Greek in origin. A Cadmean victory is one that has come at ruinous costs to both sides. A moral victory, on the other hand, refers to a situation in which you feel you do the right things and your beliefs are right even though you do not win the game, battle or argument.
Well, in short, all three of these victories we'd probably do better without.
Here are two media examples of Pyrrhic victory.
1. In short, the Hong Kong government might have won this particular battle against the speculators, just as the Malaysians reckon they have done. But with both administrations' credibility hugely damaged as a result, these are Pyrrhic victories that they may come to rue.
- "Market intervention: Fashionable", The Economist, September 5, 1998.
2. After intense and wearying discussions that came close to breakdown on more than one occasion, European leaders, thanks mainly to the efforts of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Luxemburg's Jean-Claude Juncker, snatched victory from the jaws of defeat to reach agreement over a reform treaty in the early hours of June 23.
But it was a pyrrhic victory. The document that emerged from Brussels appeared to reject the ideals of a strong and unified European Union as envisioned by statesmen like Francois Mitterrand or Helmut Kohl and was instead a watered down, dismembered, and completely illegible version of the defunct EU constitutional project.
高考英语名词性从句专项练习
高考英语语法填空解题步骤及练习题
英语语法:限制性定语从句与非限制性定语从句的区别
高中英语语法:容易误用作不及物动词的及物动词
高考英语语法分类讲解:过去完成进行时
高考英语语法分类讲解:过去进行时
高中英语语法考点归纳之动词
高考英语语法分类讲解:一般现在时
高中英语语法中的省略现象
高考英语语法分类讲解:一般过去时
高考英语语法分类汇编:名词
高考英语语法分类讲解:现在完成时连用
高考英语语法分类讲解:过去将来完成时
高中英语语法 感官动词
高中英语语法 alone,lone,lonely用法区别
高考英语语法非谓语动词练习题
高中英语语法考点归纳之动词不定式
高中英语语法知识重点复习
高考英语语法分类汇编:冠词
高考英语语法分类讲解:现在进行时表示将来意义
高中英语反意疑问句用法归纳
高中英语语法 讲究方法提高效率
高考英语语法分类讲解:将来进行时
历届高考英语语法分类汇编 冠词 (3)
高中英语语法:常用“be+形容词+with”结构
历届高考英语语法试题分析 冠词与数词
历届高考英语语法分类汇编 冠词 (4)
高考英语语法分类讲解:过去完成时
高考英语语法分类讲解:将来完成进行时
历届高考英语语法分类汇总 冠词 (2)
不限 |
英语教案 |
英语课件 |
英语试题 |
不限 |
不限 |
上册 |
下册 |
不限 |