Literary, Biblical, and Mythological Allusions

A complete set of vocabulary flashcards covering the literary, biblical, mythological, and historical allusions detailed in the lecture notes.

Achilles' Heel

A person's only weak or vulnerable point; from the myth of Achilles who as a baby was dipped in the River Styx everywhere except his heel, which remained his only vulnerable spot.

Adonis

A handsome young man; from the youth loved by Aphrodite, the goddess of love, for his physical beauty.

Aeolian

Anything pertaining to wind; from Aeolus, who was Keeper of Wind and lived in a cave on Mount Haemus.

Apollo

A physically perfect male; the God of music and light, known for his physical beauty.

Argus-eyed

All-seeing; from Argus, the $100$-eyed monster that Hera had guarding Io.

Athena/Pallas

Goddess of wisdom, the city, and arts; patron goddess of the city of Athens.

Atlas

Strong like Atlas, who carried the globe (world) on his shoulders.

Aurora

Early morning or sunrise; from the Roman personification of Dawn or Eos.

Bacchanal

A wild, drunken party or rowdy celebration; from the god of wine, Bacchus.

Bacchanalian

Pertaining to a wild, drunken party or celebration; from the god of wine, Bacchus (Roman) or Dionysus (Greek).

Calliope

A series of whistles (circus organ); from the Muse of eloquence or beautiful voice.

Cassandra

A person who continually predicts misfortune but often is not believed; daughter of Priam cursed by Apollo for not returning his love.

Centaur

A monster that had the head, arms, and chest of a man, and the body and legs of a horse.

Chimera

A horrible creature of the imagination, an absurd or impossible idea, or a wild fancy; a monster with a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail.

Cupid

Eager 'desire' to possess something, greed or avarice; Roman god of love (Greek name is Eros).

Erotic

Of or having to do with sexual passion or love; Greek god of love, Eros.

Fury

Wild enthusiasm or excitement, rage, or fury; any one of the three Furies.

Gorgon

A very ugly or terrible person, especially a repulsive woman; Medusa, one of three sisters with snakes for hair whose look turned people to stone.

Halcyon

Calm, peaceful, tranquil; from an archaic bird supposed to breed in a nest on the sea and calm the water.

Harpy

A predatory person or nagging woman; from a foul creature that was part woman and part bird.

Hector

To bully; from Hector, the son of Priam and the bravest Trojan warrior who killed Achilles' friend Patroclus.

Hellenic

Hellenistic, of or relating to Greece, or a specialist of language or culture in Greece.

Helen of Troy

A symbol of a beautiful woman; the daughter of Leda and Zeus and the cause of the Trojan War.

Herculean

Very strong or of extraordinary power; from Hercules, the son of Zeus who performed the $12$ labors imposed by Hera.

Hydra-headed

Having many centers or branches, hard to bring under control; something bad you cannot eradicate; from Hydra, the $9$-headed serpent.

Iridescent

A play of colors producing rainbow effects; from Iris, goddess of the rainbow.

Jovial

Good humored; from the word Jove, used to express surprise or agreement (Jupiter).

Junoesque

Marked by stately beauty; from Juno, the wife of Jupiter, Goddess of light, birth, women, and marriage.

Lethargy

Abnormal drowsiness or inertia; from the river Lethe in Hades that caused drinkers to forget their past.

Martial

Suited for war or a warrior; from Mars, the Roman God of War.

Medea

Sorceress or enchantress; from Medea who helped Jason and the Argonauts capture the Golden Fleece and seeked revenge against Jason.

Mentor

A trusted counselor or guide; from Mentor, a friend of Odysseus' son, who was entrusted with his education.

Mercurial

Suddenly cranky or changeable; from the Roman god Mercury.

Mercury/Hermes

A carrier of tidings, a newsboy, or a messenger; messenger of the gods and conductor of souls to the lower world.

Mnemosynic

A device used to aid memory; from Mnemosyne, the personification of memory and mother of the nine Muses.

Morphine

A bitter white, crystalline alkaloid used to relieve pain and induce sleep; from Morpheus, a god who could easily change form or shape.

Muse

Some creature of inspiration; the daughters of Mnemosyne and Zeus, divine singers who presided over thought.

Narcissism

Being in love with our own self-image; named for Narcissus, a handsome young man who fell in love with his reflection in a pond.

Nemesis

Just punishment, or one who inflicts due punishment; goddess who punishes crime and curbs excess.

Neptune

The sea personified; the Roman god associated with Poseidon.

Niobe

A mournful woman; from Niobe, whose children were slain by Apollo and Artemis because of her bragging.

Odyssey

A long journey; named for Odysseus, the character in The Odyssey by Homer who makes a long journey back from the Trojan War.

Olympian

Majestic in manner, superior to mundane affairs; named after the $12$ gods supposed to reside on Mt. Olympus.

Paean

A song of joy, a ritual epithet of Apollo the healer.

Pandora's Box

Something that opens the door for bad occurrences, opened by someone known for curiosity; named for Pandora, the first mortal sent by Zeus.

Parnassus

Mountain sacred to arts and literature; any center of poetic or artistic activity; named after the son of Poseidon and a Nymph.

Pegasus

Poetic inspiration; named after a winged horse which sprang from the blood of Medusa at her death.

Phoenix

A symbol of immortality or rebirth; from Egyptian mythology, a bird that consumed itself in fire and rose renewed.

Plutocracy

A government by the wealthy; named after Plouton, the 'Rich Man,' a ritual title of Hades.

Promethean

Life-bringing, creative, or courageously original; named after a Titan who brought man the use of fire stolen from heaven.

Protean

Taking many forms, versatile; named after Proteus, a god of the sea charged with tending the flocks of Poseidon.

Psyche

The human soul, self, or mind; named after Psyche, a maiden made immortal by Jupiter to be reunited with Cupid.

Pygmalion

Someone (usually a male) who tries to fashion someone into the person he desires; from a myth adapted into a play by George Bernard Shaw.

Pyrrhic victory

A too costly victory; from Pyrrhus, a Greek king who defeated the Romans in $279$ BC but suffered extremely heavy losses.

Saturnalia

A period of unrestrained revelry; named after the ancient Roman festival of Saturn with general feasting and revelry.

Saturnine

Sluggish, gloomy, morose, inactive in winter months; named after the god Saturn, often associated with the god of the Underworld.

Sibyl

A witch or sorceress; a priestess who made known the oracles of Apollo and possessed the gift of prophecy.

Sisyphean

Greedy and avaricious; from the shrewd and greedy king of Corinth, Sisyphus, doomed to forever roll a heavy stone uphill.

Stentorian

Having a loud voice; after Stentor, a character in the Iliad who could shout as loudly as $50$ men.

Stygian

Dark and gloomy; named after the river Styx in the Underworld, whose water is poisonous to humans.

Tantalize

From King Tantalus, who was condemned to reside in a beautiful river with fruits just out of reach and undrinkable water.

Terpsichorean

Pertaining to dance; for Terpsichore, one of the nine muses and protector of dance.

Titanic

Large, grand, enormous; after Tityus, a giant, or the Titans, the offspring of Chronus and Rhea who went to war against Zeus.

Volcano

Originated from Vulcan, the Roman god of fire, whose forge is said to be under mountains.

Vulcanize

To treat rubber with sulfur to increase strength and elasticity; from the Roman God of Fore and Metallurgy, Vulcan (Hephaestus).

Zeus

A powerful man; king of the gods, ruler of Mt. Olympus, vengeful hurler of thunderbolts.

Babbitt

A self-satisfied person concerned chiefly with business and middle-class ideals like material success; after George F. Babbitt in the novel Babbitt.

Brobdingnagian

Gigantic, enormous, on a large scale, enlarged; after Brobdingnag, the land of giants visited by Gulliver in Gulliver's Travels.

Bumble

To speak or behave clumsily or faltering; a clumsy religious figure (a beadle) in a work of literature.

Cinderella

One who gains affluence or recognition after obscurity and neglect; after the fairy-tale heroine who escapes a life of drudgery.

Don Juan

A libertine, profligate, a man obsessed with seducing women; after Don Juan, the legendary $14$th century Spanish nobleman.

Don Quixotic

Someone overly idealistic to the point of having impossible dreams; from the Spanish noble who sets out to revive the glory of knighthood.

Panglossian

Blindly or misleadingly optimistic; after Dr. Pangloss in Candide by Voltaire, a pedantic old tutor.

Falstaffian

Full of wit and bawdy humor; after Falstaff, a fat, sensual, boastful, and mendacious knight.

Frankenstein

Anything that threatens or destroys its creator; from the young scientist in Mary Shelley's novel of this name.

Friday

A faithful and willing attendant, ready to turn his hand to anything; from the young savage found by Robinson Crusoe.

Galahad

A pure and noble man with limited ambition; the purest and most virtuous knight of the Round Table who found the Holy Grail.

Jekyll and Hyde

A capricious person with two sides to his/her personality; from a character in the novel Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde who had a split personality.

Lilliputian

Descriptive of a very small person or of something diminutive, trivial or petty; after the Lilliputians, tiny people in Gulliver’s Travels.

Little Lord Fauntleroy

Refers either to a certain type of children's clothing or to a beautiful but pampered and effeminate small boy.

Lothario

Used to describe a man whose chief interest is seducing a woman; from the play The Fair Penitent by Nicholas Rowe.

Malapropism

The usually unintentional humorous misuse or distortion of a word or phrase; after Mrs. Malaprop in R. B. Sheridan's comedy The Rivals.

Milquetoast

A timid, weak, or unassertive person; from Caspar Milquetoast, who was a comic strip character created by H.T. Webster.

Pickwickian

Humorous, sometimes derogatory; from Samuel Pickwick, a character in Charles Dickens' The Pickwick Papers.

Pollyanna

A person characterized by impermissible optimism and a tendency to find good in everything; from Eleanor Porter's heroine, Pollyanna Whittier.

Pooh-bah

A pompous, ostentatious official, especially one who, holding many offices, fulfills none of them; after Pooh-Bah Lord-High-Everything-Else.

Quixotic

Having foolish and impractical ideas of honor or schemes for the general good; after Don Quixote, a half-crazy reformer and knight.

Robot

A machine that looks like a human being and performs various acts of a human being; from Karel Capek's Rossum's Universal Robots ($1920$).

Rodomontade

Bluster and boasting, to boast; from Rodomont, a brave but braggart knight in Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato.

Scrooge

A bitter and/or greedy person; from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, an elderly stingy miser.

Simon Legree

A harsh, cruel, or demanding person in authority; from Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, the brutal slave overseer.

Svengali

A person with an irresistible hypnotic power; from a musician in a novel who hypnotizes and gains control over the heroine.

Tartuffe

Hypocrite or someone who is hypocritical; central character in a comedy by Moliere produced in $1664$.

Uncle Tom

Someone thought to have the timid service attitude like that of a slave to his owner; from the humble, pious Negro slave in Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Uriah Heep

A fawning toady, an obsequious person; from a character in Charles Dickens' David Copperfield ($1849-50$).

Walter Mitty

A commonplace non-adventurous person who seeks escape from reality through daydreaming; after the daydreaming 'hero' in a story by James Thurber.

Yahoo

A boorish, crass, or stupid person; from a member of a race of brutes in Swift's Gulliver's Travels.

Absalom

A son who brings heartache to his father; from the third son of David, King of Israel, who plotted a rebellion against his father.

Alpha and Omega

The beginning and the end; from a quote in Revelations in the New Testament.

Cain

A brother who kills a brother; from the story of Adam and Eve's son Cain, who killed his brother Abel out of jealousy.