Serbonian Bog (, , ) was an area of wetland in a lagoon lying between the eastern Nile Delta, the Isthmus of Suez, Mount Casius, and the Mediterranean Sea in Egypt, with Lake Sirbonis at its center. The lagoon still exists, and is the second-largest in Egypt. The bog is used as a metaphor in English for an inextricable situation. Sirbonis in classical sources As described by Herodotus, Strabo and other ancient geographers and historians, the Serbonian Bog was a mix of genuine sand bars, quicksand, asphalt (according to Strabo) and pits covered with shingle, with a channel running through it to the lake. This gave the wetlands the deceptive appearance of being a lake surrounded by mostly solid land. The place is also called ( or in Greek. The term () in its name can mean "lake", but more usually means a "marshy lake" or mere. The Serbonian Lake is identified as Lake Bardawil (Sabkhat al Bardawil), on the Sinai Peninsula's north coast. According to Diodorus Siculus, most of the army of the King of Persia was lost there after his successful taking of Sidon in his attempt to restore Egypt to Persian rule. Uses Beginning with Milton, who used it in his description of Hell, the term Serbonian Bog is applied metaphorically in English to any situation in which one is entangled from which extrication is difficult. {{Blockquote |text=A Gulf profound as that Serbonian bog Betwixt Damiata and Mount Casius old Where Armies whole have sunk: the parching Air. |author=John Milton |title="Paradise Lost" |source=Book II:292-94 (1674) }} Philosophy & Political Science Edmund Burke used it in his Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790): "The whole of the power obtained by this revolution will settle in the towns among the burghers and the monied directors who lead them. ... Here end all the deceitful dreams and visions of the equality and rights of men. In 'the Serbonian bog' of this base oligarchy they are all absorbed, sunk, and lost for ever." Economics Milton's description was quoted as the epigraph to the chapter "Markets with non-convex preferences and production" presenting "Quasi-equilibria in markets with non-convex preferences" by Ross Starr in the textbook General Competitive Analysis by Kenneth J. Arrow and Frank H. Hahn. Law In his published opinion in In re Dow, 213 F. 355 (E.D.S.C. 1914), Judge Smith wrote regarding judicial interpretations of the racial prerequisite in the