Brewer's: Og

King of Bashan, according to Rabbinical mythology, was an antediluvian giant, saved from the flood by climbing on the roof of the ark. After the passage of the Red Sea, Moses first conquered Sihon, and then advanced against the giant Og (whose bedstead, made of iron, was above 15 feet long and nearly 7 feet broad, Deut. iii. 11). The Rabbins say that Og plucked up a mountain to hurl at the Israelites, but he got so entangled with his burden, that Moses was able to kill him without much difficulty.

Og

in the satire of Absalom and Achitophel, by Dryden and Tate, is Thomas Shadwell, who succeeded Dryden as poet-laureate. Dryden called him MacFlecknoe, and says “he never deviates into sense.” He is called Og because he was a very large and fat man. (Part ii.)

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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