Scalero Allusions

Furor

(Latin- furere to rage) wild enthusiasm or excitement, rage; fury, "run like fury"; any one of the three Furies

Achilles' heel

today, one spot that is most vulnerable; one weakness a person may have. Achilles was invulnerable except for his heel (achilles tendon).

Adonis

handsome young man; Aphrodite loved him.

Gorgon

a very ugly or terrible person, especially a repulsive woman; Medusa, any one or three sisters have snakes for hair and faces so horrible that anyone who looked at them turned to stone

Aeolian

anything pertaining to wind; god who was Keeper of Wind

Apollo

a physically perfect male; the God of music and light; known for his physical beauty

Halcyon

calm, peaceful, tranquil --Archaic bird supposed to breed in a nest on the sea and calm the water, identified with the kingfisher (Latin< Greek halkyon)

Argus-eyed

omniscient, all-seeing; from Argus, the 100-eyed monster that Hera had guarding Io

Harpy

a predatory person or nagging woman; from harpy, a foul creature that was part woman, part bird

Athena/Minerva

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

Hector

to bully; from Hector, the son of Priam (king of Troy), and the bravest Trojan warrior. Killed Achilles' friend Patroclus.

Atlantean

strong like Atlas -who carried the globe (world) on his shoulders

Aurora

early morning or sunrise; from the Roman personification of Dawn or Eos

Helen (of Troy)

Hellenistic; of or relating to Greece, or a Specialist of language or culture in Greece; symbol of a beautiful woman; from Helen of Troy, the daughter of Leda and Zeus—the cause of the Trojan War.

Bacchanal

n; wild, drunken party or rowdy celebration; from god of wine Bacchus

Herculean

very strong or of extraordinary power; from Hercules, Hera's glory, the son of Zeus. He performed the 12 labors imposed by Hera.

Bacchanalian

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

Calliope

series of whistles --circus organ; from the Muse of eloquence or beautiful voice

Hydra-Headed

having many centers or branches, hard to bring under control; something bad you cannot eradicate; from Hydra, the 9-headed serpent that was sacred to Hera. Hercules killed him in one of the 12 labors.

Iridescent

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

Cassandra

a person who continually predicts misfortune but often is not believed; from (Greek legends) a daughter of Priam cursed by Apollo for not returning his love; he left her with the gift of prophecy but made it so no one would believe her

Jovial

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

Centaur

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

Junoesque

marked by stately beauty; comes from the word Juno, the wife of Jupiter, the Goddess of light, birth, women, and marriage

Chimera

a horrible creature of the imagination, an absurd or impossible idea; wild fancy; a monster with a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail, supposed to breathe out fire

Lethargy

n., abnormal drowsiness or inertia; from the word Lethe, a river in Hades that caused drinkers to forget their past

Cupidity

eager "desire" to possess something; greed or avarice; Roman god of love (Greek name is Eros)

Martial

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

Erotic

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

Medea

sorceress or enchantress; from Medea who helped Jason and the Argonauts capture the Golden Fleece; known for her revenge against Jason when he spurned her for the princess of Corinth

Olympian

majestic in manner, superior to mundane affairs; any participant in the ancient or modern Olympic games; named after 12 gods that were supposed to reside on Mt. Olympus.

Mentor

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

Paean

a song of joy; a ritual epithet of Apollo the healer.

Mercurial

Suddenly cranky or changeable; of or relating to the god Mercury in Roman Mythology.

Mercury/Hermes

A messenger of the gods, conductor of souls to the lower world, and god of eloquence; the fabled inventor who wore winged hat and sandals.

Pandora's Box

Something that opens the door for bad occurrences, opened by someone known for curiosity; named for Pandora, who was sent by Zeus to punish man for Prometheus' theft of fire.

Mnemonics

A device used to aid memory; the personification of memory, Mnemosyne, who gave birth to the nine Muses.

Morphine

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

Parnassus

A mountain sacred to arts and literature; named after the hero of Mt. Parnassus, the son of Poseidon and a Nymph.

Muse

Some creature of inspiration; the daughters of Mnemosyne and Zeus, divine singers that presided over thought in all its forms.

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; named after the Egyptian Mythology phoenix, a long bird that consumed itself in fire and rose renewed from the flame.

Narcissism

Being in love with our own self-image; named for Narcissus, who fell in love with his image and drowned himself trying to capture it.

Plutocracy

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

Nemesis

Just punishment; a goddess who punishes crime and curbs excess, such as excessive good fortune or arrogant pride.

Neptune

The sea personified; the Roman god associated with Poseidon, god of the water and oceans.

Promethean

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

Niobe

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

Protean

Taking many forms; named after Proteus, a god of the sea with the ability to change himself into whatever form he desired.

Odyssey

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

Psyche

The human soul, self, the mind; named after Psyche, who reunited with Cupid and was made immortal by Jupiter.

Vulcanize

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

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; a woman-hating sculptor who makes a female figure of ivory who Aphrodite brings to life for him.

Zeus

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

Pyrrhic victory

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

Saturnalia

a period of unrestrained revelry; named after the ancient Roman festival of Saturn, with general feasting in revelry in honor of the winter solstice.

Saturnine

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

Babbitt

a self-satisfied person concerned chiefly with business and middle-class ideals like material success; a member of the American working class whose unthinking attachment to its business and social ideals is such to make him a model of narrow-mindedness and self-satisfaction; after George F. Babbitt, the main character in the novel Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis

Sibyl

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

Brobdingnagian

gigantic, enormous, on a large scale, enlarged; after Brobdingnag, the land of giants visited by Gullivar in Gullivar's Travels, by Jonathan Swift

Sisyphean

greedy and avaricious; from the shrewd and greedy king of Corinth, Sisyphus, who was doomed forever in Hades to roll uphill a heavy stone, which always rolled down again.

Bumble

to speak or behave clumsily or faltering, to make a humming or droning sound; Middle English bomblem; a clumsy religious figure (a beadle) in a work of literature

Stentorian

having a loud voice; after Stentor, a character in the Iliad who could shout as loudly as 50 men. He engaged in a shouting match against Hermes and was put to death after losing.

Cinderella

one who gains affluence or recognition after obscurity and neglect, a person or thing whose beauty or worth remains unrecognized; after the fairy-tale heroine who escapes from a life of drudgery through the intervention of a fairy godmother and marries a handsome prince

Stygian

dark and gloomy; named after the river Styx, a river in the Underworld. The water is poisonous for human and cattle and said to break iron, metal and pottery, though it is said a horse's hoof is unharmed by it.

Don Juan

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

Tantalize

from King Tantalus, who reigned on Mt. Sipylus and was condemned to reside in a beautiful river with sumptuous fruits just out of reach and the water undrinkable, always tempting him as punishment

Don Quixote

someone overly idealistic to the point of having impossible dreams; from the crazed and impoverished Spanish noble who sets out to revive the glory of knighthood, romanticized in the musical The Man of La Mancha based on the story by Cervantes

Panglossian

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

Terpsichorean

pertaining to dance; for Terpsichore, one of the nine muses, sometimes said to be the mother of the sirens and the protector of dance.

Falstaffian

full of wit and bawdy humor; after Falstaff, a fat, sensual, boastful, and mendacious knight who was the companion of Henry, Prince of Wales

Titanic

large, grand, enormous; after Tityus, a giant, the son of Zeus and Elara. His body covers over two acres. Or after the Titans, the offspring of Chronus and Rhea, who went to war against Zeus and the other Olympian gods.

Volcanoes

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

Frankenstein

Anything that threatens or destroys its creator; from the young scientist in Mary Shelley's novel of this name, who creates a monster that eventually destroys him.

Friday

A faithful and willing attendant, ready to turn his hand to anything; from the young savage found by Robinson Crusoe on a Friday, and kept as his servant and companion on the desert island.

Quixotic

Having foolish and impractical ideas of honor, or schemes for the general good; after Don Quixote, a half-crazy reformer and knight of the supposed distressed, in a novel by the same name.

Robot

A machine that looks like a human being and performs various acts of a human being, a functional machine whose lack of capacity for human emotions is often emphasized by an efficient, insensitive person who functions automatically.

Galahad

A pure and noble man with limited ambition; in the legends of King Arthur, the purest and most virtuous knight of the Round Table, the only knight to find the Holy Grail.

Jekyll and Hyde

A capricious person with two sides to his/her personality; from a character in the famous novel Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde who had more than one personality, a split personality (one good and one evil).

Lilliputian

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

Rodomontade

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

Scrooge

A bitter and/or greedy person; from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, an elderly stingy miser who is given a reality check by 3 visiting ghosts.

Little Lord Fauntleroy

Refers either to a certain type of children's clothing or to a beautiful, but pampered and effeminate small boy; from a work by Frances H. Burnett, the main character, seven-year-old Cedric Errol.

Simon Legree

A harsh, cruel, or demanding person in authority, such as an employer or officer that acts in this manner; from Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, the brutal slave overseer.

Lothario

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

Svengali

A person with an irresistible hypnotic power; from a person in a novel written in 1894 by George du Maurier; a musician who hypnotizes and gains control over the heroine.

Malapropism

The usually unintentional humorous misuse or distortion of a word or phrase, especially the use of a word sounding somewhat like the one intended, but ludicrously wrong in context - Example: polo bears.

Tartuffe

hypocrite or someone who is hypocritical; central character in a comedy by Moliere produced in 1667; Moliere was famous for his hypocritical piety

Milquetoast

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

Uncle Tom

someone thought to have the timid service attitude like that of a slave to his owner; from the humble, pious, long-suffering Negro slave in Uncle Tom's Cabin by abolitionist writer Stowe

Pickwickian

humorous, sometimes derogatory; from Samuel Pickwick, a character in Charles Dickens' Pickwickian Papers

Uriah Heep

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

Walter Mitty

a commonplace non-adventuresome person who seeks escape from reality through daydreaming

Pollyanna

a person characterized by impermissible optimism and a tendency to find good in everything, a foolishly or blindly optimistic person; from Eleanor Porter's heroine, Pollyanna Whittier, in the book Pollyanna

Yahoo

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

Pooh-bah

a pompous, ostentatious official, especially one who, holding many offices, fulfills none of them, a person who holds high office; after Pooh-Bah Lord-High-Everything-Else, character in The Mikado, a musical by Gilbert and Sullivan

Ishmael

one who is cast out as being unworthy; the son of Abraham and his handmaiden Hagar, he was cast out into the desert when his wife Sarah had their son Isaac; therefore said to be the ancestor of the nomadic desert tribes of Arabs

Jacob

grandson of Abraham, son of Isaac and Rebekah, brother of Esau, and the traditional ancestor of Israelites. His name was changed to Israel, and his 12 sons became the 12 Tribes of Israel.

Absolom

a son who brings heartache to his father; from the third son of David, King of Israel. Exiled for three years before he was allowed to return to the court or see his royal father, Absolom plotted to cause a rebellion against his father to overtake the kingdom because he heard Solomon was to succeed David. When Absolom was killed in battle, King David grieved for his son in spite of his treachery against him.

Alpha and Omega

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