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ECLYMPASTEYR. This name does not appear in mythological dictionaries. Enclimpostair is a son of the god of sleep in Froissart's Paradys d'Amours 28 (before 1369).

Juno's messenger arrives at the cave of sleep and finds Morpheus and Eclympasteyr, BD 167. The poet says that Eclympasteyr is the heir of the god of sleep, BD 168, who sleeps and does no work, BD 169.

Eclympasteyr, Chaucer's variant of Froissart's Enclimpostair, appears in final rhyming position, BD 167. N.R. Cartier suggests that Froissart distorted known names to produce strange ones; in this case the final consonant of Enclin ("incline" or "lean") is assimilated to the initial bilabial plosive of postere (from French postérieur, "back" or "rear"). Enclimpostair is thus a compound meaning "supine" or "lazybones."

N.R. Cartier, "Froissart, Chaucer, and Enclimpostair." RLC 38 (1964): 18-34; G.L. Kittredge, "Chaucer and Froissart (with a discussion of the date of the Méliador)." Englische Studien 26 (1899): 321-336.
From CHAUCER NAME DICTIONARY
Copyright © 1988, 1996 Jacqueline de Weever
Published by Garland Publishing, Inc., New York and London.
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