[PW] Re: % promise the moon and the stars?

[AllenAmet at aol.com]

In a message dated 11/21/2006 10:59:21 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
TodO at SBRL.org writes:

> Our patron wants to know the origin/first use of the phrase "promise the
> moon and the stars." We've tried internet searches, Brewster's
> Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, the Oxford English Dictionary, and
> 

***********
Hi

  I suppose it all depends on whrther you literally mean the phrase itself, 
or the basic idea.

  In Bk XVIII (ll. 484-485) of the Iliad, at least 750 BC (presumably), we 
have Thetis, Achilles' divine mother, offering him via Hephaistos, "the sun, the 
moon, and the stars" on his famous shield, as a symbol of all that he means 
to her and as a substitute universe to replace the one he will soon leave. 
Homer frequently externalizes inner emotions through visible imagery, i.e. she 
thinks the world of him (her only son) and gives him armor that shows how she 
feels.

Allen