100 Allusion Final

AdOnis

handsOme young man; Aphrodite loved him.

AenEas

a reference to the founder of RomE according to Virgi’s epic of that name; he carried
his father away from Troy as it fell and eventually married Queen Dido before founding what
would become Rome

AnansI

takes on the role of trIckster in the form of a spider; he is also one of the most
important characters of West African, African American and Caribbean folklore

AntiGONE

a reference to the daughter of Oedipus who attempts to bury her brother Polynices
against her uncle (Creon’s) wishes and is punished by being WALLED INTO A CAVE TO DIE ; she is also
the daughter who takes care of Oedipus after he blinds himself and is sent into exile from
Thebes

AtlantiS

believed to belong to Poseidon and SUNKEN by an earthquake; it was described as
being a perfect society and being mostly comprised of mountains in the northern portions and
along the shore there is debate as to whether or not the island actually existed

AurorA

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

AvalOn

a place of wOnder , magic, and peace in Arthurian legends; King Arthur is said
to be taken to this magical island after his receiving a fatal wound to heal in order to be
able to return when Britain needs him most.

BaCchanal/Bacchanalian

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

CallIope

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

CharYbdis

a SEA NYMPH turned into a monster. She was in control of the tides. She took over so
much land that Zeus turned her into a bulbous monster that swallowed down the oceans waters and
everything in them and spit them back up.

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

GilgaMesh

the semi-Mythic King of Uruk in Mesopotamia best known for killing the Bull of
Heaven as well as his search for immortality after the best friend Enkidu. Stemming from the
Summerian/Mesopotamian culture, his story pre-dates Homer's (Greek) writing by 1500 years and,
therefore, stands as the oldest piece of epic world literature.

Gorgon (is a gorgon pretty or ugly)

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

Golden FLeece

-coming from the gold-haired winged ram; it is a symboL of authority and
kingship; it is sought by Jason and the Argonauts (as well as others) as a prized possession; it
also symbolizes something highly sought after and of great value that is almost impossible to
attain

HarpY

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

Helen( of Troy)(what war and a woman or man)

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.

ICaruS

son of Daedalus who attempts to design wings to fly and subsequently flies too close to the
sun and dies; references to him usually deal with excessive ambition ( I crash into the sun)

IShtar

a Summerian/Akkadian goddess of war and sexual love. She is one of the most
important deities of this pantheon (sometimes connected to Inanna and Astarte)

IsiS

In Egyptian mythology, She was known as the goddess of the moon. As goddess of life and
magic, Isis protected women and children, and healed the sick. She was the sister/wife of Osiris
who becomes the God of the Dead.

Labyrinth

any maze-like structure with a single path through it

Medeak

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

Mercury/Hermes

a carrier or tidings, a newsboy, a messenger; messenger of the gods,
conductor of souls to the lower world, and god of eloquence; the fabled inventor, wore winged hat
and sandals

Midas

person with uncanny ability to succeed in everything; however, because of his ability to
turn everything to gold, he also suffers great loss

Minotaur

half man and half bull, this creature represents strength and power as well as unbridled
rage; he lived in the middle of the labyrinth and was ultimately killed by Theseus

Muse

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

Narcissism

being in love with our own self-image; named for Narcissus, a handsome young
man who despised love

Oedipus

a tragic Greek king who was fated to kill his father and marry his mother; he also
solved the riddle of the Sphynx in order to become the king of Thebes

Odyssey

a long journey; named for Odysseus, the character in The Odyssey, by Homer.
Odysseus makes his long journey back from the Trojan War, encountering several obstacles
along the way.

Pandora's Box

Something that opens the door for bad occurrences, opened by someone known
for curiosity;

Parnassus

Mountain was sacred to arts and literature; any center of poetic or artistic activity;
.poetry or poets collectively, a common title for selection of poetry; named after the hero of Mt.
Parnassus, the son of Poseidon and a Nymph. He founded the oracle of Python, which was later
occupied by Apollo.

Pegasus

Poetic inspiration; named after a winged horse which sprang from the blood of Medusa at
her death; a stamp of his hoof caused Hippocrene, the fountain of the Muses, to issue poetic
inspiration from Mount Helicon

Phoenix

a symbol of immortality or rebirth; named after the Egyptian Mythology phoenix, a long
bird which lived in the Arabian desert and then consumed itself in fire

Psyche

the human soul, self, the mind; named after Psyche, a maiden who, after undergoing many
hardships due to Aphrodite’s jealousy, reunited with Cupid and was made immortal by Jupiter; she
personifies the soul joined to the heart of love.

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.

Ra(re)

the king of the deities and the father of all creation in Egyptian mythology. He was the
patron of the sun, heaven, kingship, power, and light

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.

Scylla

once a beautiful sea nymph, she was changed by the witch Circe, who put poison in the
water in which she bathed, changing into a monster with twelve feet and six heads with three
rows of teeth apiece; she is often paired with Charybdis, indicating a choice between a “rock
and a hard place”

Sibyl

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

Sirens

sea creatures who lured sailors to their deaths on the rocky shores by singing a beautiful,
irresistible song.

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.

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

Theseus

a legendary hero from Greek mythology who was considered an early king of Athens
and credited with unifying all of Attica. Famously killing villains, Amazons, and centaurs, his
most celebrated adventure was his slaying of the fearsome Minotaur of the Cretan king Minos;
believed to have eventually married the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta

Titans

any of the 12 children of Uranus (Heaven) and Gaea (Earth) and their descendants,
preceding the Olympian God/desses.

Trojan Horse

To end the Trojan War, the Greeks built a large hollow wooden horse and left it
secretly as a gift for the Trojans, who took it into the city believing it to be a gift from the gods,
thus leading to their downfall since it was fully of Greek soldiers; this now references something
that is seen initially as good but that can bring great destruction

World Tree

In the vertical, tree-of-knowledge tradition, the tree extends between earth and
heaven. ... It is the vital connection between the world of the gods and the human world. Oracles
and judgments or other prophetic activities are performed at its base. In Norse mythology this is
represented by Yggdrasil, which also connects to the cycle of life, death, and rebirth.

Venus/Aphrodite

the Roman/ Greek goddess whose functions encompassed love, beauty,
desire, sex, fertility, prosperity, and victory.

Beatrice

Dante’s true and idealized love; she serves as his guide in Paradise in the Divine Comedy
and is an allusion to perfection

Brobdingnagian

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

Brutus

Initially a noble and honorable man as well as Julius Caesar’s closest friend and advisor, he
supposedly delivers the final blow in Caesar’s assassination; he is considered to be one of the
greatest betrayers

Camelot

the fabled castle of King Arthur; it has come to represent an ideal of chivalry and a society
in perfect harmony

Don Juan

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

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

Excalibur

a legendary sword, in the mythology of Great Britain given to King Arthur by the
Lady of the Lake. The sword and its name have become very widespread in popular culture, and
are used in fiction and films. Excalibur is a symbol of divine kingship and great power. (This is
NOT the same as the sword in the stone that he originally pulls to determine he is to be king.)

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

Faustus

this doctor makes a “deal with the devil” to sell his soul and shows that the cost of sin is
always higher than its potential benefits,

(The) Fisher King

this Wounded King or Maimed King is the last in a long bloodline charged
with keeping the Holy Grail

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

Grendel

a hideous monster living in the swamps around Herot, he is eventually defeated by
the Anglo-Saxon hero Beowulf; he is believed to be descended from Cain

Guinevere

in Arthurian legend, the wife of King Arthur and lover of Lancelot. In the
Arthurian cycle she is seen through her love for Lancelot as one of the key figures in the
ultimate destruction of Arthur's kingdom, by providing an opening which can be exploited by
the traitor Mordred.

Holy grail

found in both Celtic mythology as well as Christianity, this is supposedly the last
cup from which Jesus drank; it is an object that is extremely desirable or valuable and which
is attained only after a long difficult quest. In medieval times the holy grail was an object of
quest and is frequently connected to stories about the Crusades and King Arthur.

Inferno

Dante’s nine leveled hell that serves as the first section of his three part Divine
Comedy (the other two sections being Purgatory and Paradise); this version of hell functions
on the law of symbolic retribution; therefore, the punishment “fits” the crime symbolically if
not literally; it culminates in a frozen layer of hell where Satan is described as a three headed
monster frozen in ice and blowing icy punishment on the worst sinners; he is also constantly
gnawing on those considered by Dante to be the worst betrayers--Cassius, Brutus, Judas.

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)

King Arthur

a legendary warrior, a knight and a king who killed giants, witches and
monsters and led a band of heroes on many daring adventures. He is known for his Knights
of the Round Table and for uniting the peoples of his land. He represents an ideal of
leadership and chivalry.

Lancelot

one of the greatest knights in Arthurian romance; he was the lover of Arthur’s
queen Guinevere (thus causing him to be banished from Camelot), and was the father of the
pure knight Sir Galahad. He, therefore, represents knightly perfection and human weakness.

Limbo

a region on the edge of hell (limbus means "hem" or "border") for those who are not
saved even though they did not sin--exists in Christian theology by Dante's time; this is the
first level of hell in Dante’s Inferno

Lilliputian

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

Merlin

well-known in Arthurian legend as the chief advisor to King Arthur, and as such
serves as an allusion to one who gives prudent advice. He is a wizard who throughout King
Arthur’s reign, uses his knowledge, his magic, and his ability to foretell fates of the future to
counsel Arthur.

Morgan le Fay

-a powerful female figure in the Arthur legends, represents control, sorcery,
and manipulation. She uses underhanded, often manipulative methods to create her power
according to these tales. During King Arthur's reign, and in various romances and folk tales,
she shows up as a shape-shifter.

Philosopher’s Stone

an ancient stone in alchemy believed to be able to turn anything into
gold

Scheherazade

the narrator of A Thousand and One Arabian Nights, which is a collection of
stories she tells to the Sultan to avoid being put to death (as he usually did). For 1001 nights she
would tell a tale so compelling that he would not kill her because he wanted to hear how it
ended. These tales included stories about the seven voyages of Sinbad, Aladdin, and other
Middle Eastern favorites. By the end of the 1001 nights, the Sultan had fallen in love with her
and married her instead of putting her to death.

Sinbad

a sailor and a notable hero from the Arabic collection of folk tales called A Thousand
and One Arabian Nights. Sinbad, over the course of the tale, undertakes seven voyages. In the
tales of his seven voyages, he battled incredible monsters, visited amazing lands and met with
supernatural forces as he sailed the Indian Ocean's fabled trade routes

White whale

Originating in Melville’s Moby Dick, this has come to be a metaphor for an
obsession, usually in the sense of a goal that one chases but is unlikely to attain.

Yahoo

a boorish, crass, or stupid person; from a member of a race of brutes in Swift's
Gulliver's Travels who have the form and all the vices of humans

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

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

Daniel

one known for wisdom and accurate judgment; from a wise leader in the Old Testament
who was able to read the handwriting on the wall

David and Bathsheba

represents a big sin; from King David’s affair with Bathsheba, the
wife of Uriah. After they had an affair and she became pregnant, David had her husband
Uriah put on the front lines of battle so he would die. The "Bathsheba Affair" formed a critical
turning point in King David's life. Prior to this, he had prospered greatly, but afterward, his
personal fortunes were greatly diminished. Nathan the prophet confronted David after he took
Bathsheba for his wife and trapped him into admitting his own guilt.

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

Job

who who suffers a great deal but remains faithful; from an OT character whose faith in
God was tested by Satan; though he lost his family and belongings, he remained patient and
faithfu

Jonah

one who brings bad luck; an OT prophet who ran from God and sailed to sea. When a
storm arose, he admitted that he was the cause, and the sailors threw him overboard, where he
was swallowed by a large fish

Judas

(n) a traitor or a treacherous kiss (a Judas kiss) ; one of the 12 Apostles, notorious for
betraying Jesus. His surname in Latin means "murderer" or "assassin." Judas disclosed Jesus'
whereabouts to the chief priests and elders for thirty pieces of silver

Manna

a sustaining life-giving source or food; from the sweetish bread-like food that fell from
heaven for the Israelites as they crossed the Sinai Desert to the Promised Land with Moses

Original Sin/The Fall

the idea that all men are innately sinful as a result of Adam and Eve’s
fall from the state of innocence. When they ate of the forbidden fruit, they were cast out of the
Biblical Garden of Eden; a post-biblical expression for the doctrine of Adam's transgression and
mankind's consequential inheritance of a sinful nature because he ate the forbidden fruit from
the Tree of Knowledge.

Prodigal Son

a wasteful son who disappoints his father; from the NT parable of a man with
two sons. When he split his estate between the two, the younger son gathered his fortune and left home to live the wild life

Promised Land

-(in the Bible) the land of Canaan, that was promised to Abraham and his
descendants (Gen. 12:7).; it has come to mean a place or situation in which someone expects
to find great happiness or a utopia

Samson and Delilah

Treacherous love story. Samson, an Israelite hero and legendary
warrior with extraordinary physical strength, fell in love with Delilah, a Philistine. When
Delilah learned that Samson's hair was the source of his strength, she betrayed him by
excepting a Philistine bribe to cut off his hair while he slept. Today the name Delilah is
associated with a voluptuous, treacherous woman

Sodom and Gomorrah

any place associated with wickedness or sin; from the evil cities
of the OT that were destroyed by fire

Solomon

an extremely wise person; from the son of King David, the Israelite king who
wrote Proverbs, and was known for wisdom

Tower of Babel

an origin myth meant to explain why the world's peoples speak different
languages. According to the story, a united human race in the generations following the Great
Flood, speaking a single language and migrating eastward, comes to the land of Shinar and
attempts to build a tower to reach heaven. As a result of this, God confounds their language,
causing them to speak many different languages and no longer be able to understand one
another, and the people scatter to the different corners of the Earth. This reference connects
to the repercussions of excessive pride.

Alamo

a mission in San Antonio, Texas that was used as a fort during the Texas revolution
where a siege and massacre occurs in 1836; Mexican forces under Santa Anna besieged and
massacred American rebels who were fighting to make Texas independent of Mexico; In
popular culture,it is regarded as an untrammeled symbol of freedom since they refused to
surrender or retreat.

Attila

barbarian, rough leader; King of the Huns from 433-453 and the most successful of the
barbarian invaders of the Roman Empire

Casanova

a man who is amorously and gallantly attentive to women; a promiscuous man.;
Giovanni Jacopo Casanova De Seingalt (1725-98), an Italian adventurer who established a
legendary reputation as a lover

Constantine

made Christianity the main religion of Rome (thus stopping the persecution of
Christians), and created Constantinople, which became the most powerful city in the world.

Custer's Last Stand

Refers to the defeat of Colonel George A. Custer and his cavalry
detachment by a large force of Native Americans at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876; it
has come to mean someone's final attempt to defend themselves before they are defeated or a
futile effort

El Dorado

a place of reputed wealth; from the legendary city in South America,
sought by early Spanish explorers

Machiavellian

of or relating to Machiavelli or Machiavellianism, characterized by
expedience, deceit and cunning; after Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1537), a philosopher
known for his treaties and political expediency; wrote "The Prince" (1513)

Mesmerize

to induce the state of being hypnotized; F.A. Mesmer, an Austrian physician
who used hypnotism and developed a theory called "animal magnetism"

Nostradamus

fortune teller; (1503-66) French physician and astrologer who wrote a book
of rhymed prophecies

Wagnerian

style of music: loud, dramatic, radical; having to do with Wagner, his music, or
his musical styles or theories

Waterloo

A decisive or final defeat or setback; Belgian 1816, source of Napoleon's last defea