amphitryon

plural amphitryons

1. poeticA host or entertainer.

   [...] Lord Glenesk, who is a great amphitryon; [...]

   1903, The Lady’s Realm, volume 14, page 424

   3 more examples

   Our amphitryon emptied into it six bottles of Bordeaux, four of sherry, and two of rum, sweetening and seasoning the whole with sugar and nutmeg.

   1875, Paul Marcoy, Travels in South America, page 96

   Historical banquets for which he was responsible included that given on the signing of the Locarno Pact—when Sir Austen Chamberlain, the Foreign Minister, congratulated him and presented him before all the ministers assembled to the British Prime Minister, Mr. (later Earl) Baldwin. The supreme homage of a great amphitryon who did not forget that the table serves diplomacy!

   1955, Eugène Herbodeau, Georges Auguste Escoffier, page 115

   A fine and comforting thing it doubtless is every year to behold, as we are beholding now under Mr. Blanchard’s magic wand, the most representative brains and wills of the world’s governments, workers and employers meeting in Geneva, the amiable and hospitable amphitryon of the Swiss Alps.

   1981, International Labor Conference Record of Proceedings, pages 15-5

1. Greekhuman sciencesA son of Alcaeus and the husband of Alcmene; Zeus assumed his form to trick Alcmene into conceiving Heracles.

plural Amphitryons

1. Alternative letter-case form of amphitryon

   With us generally the fault is the other way, and our Amphitryons 'lay on' the beverage too freely, which is also, though not equally, a mistake, for the best champagne when drunk pure, cloys upon the palate sooner than any other wine.

   1848, The Knickerbocker, volume 31, page 303