Untitled Flashcard Set

Way of all flesh

• This is a misquoted, but long-lasting

passage of the Bible that essentially

means “to die.”

• To go “the way of all flesh” means to

perish.

• The real passage says, “the way of all

the earth,” but there is a poetry to “the

way of all flesh”

Way of all flesh

• Samuel Butler titled his autobiographical novel

The Way of All Flesh that was a diatribe against

Victorian hypocrisy.

• He didn’t publish it in his lifetime, stipulating in

his will that it be published after his death,

adding meaning to the title.

• The novel is considered one of the 100 best of

the 20th century by Modern Library.

• James Joyce’s Ulysses, which has allusions to

EVERYTHING, says at one point,

• “Mr Bloom being handicapped by the circumstance that

one of the back buttons of his trousers had, to vary the

timehonoured adage, gone the way of all buttons

though”

• making a reference to the oft-misquoted

Biblical phrase.

Pygmalion

• Legendary king of Cyprus, as well as being

an adept sculptor

• According to Ovid’s myths, Pygmalion

carved an ivory sculpture of a woman and

promptly fell in love with her.

• He treated the sculpture like a beloved

wife until the feast of Aphrodite.

• At the feast, he quietly wished for a

woman just like his sculpture.

• When he returned home, he found that

his sculpture had come to life.

Pygmalion

• Versions of this story have been told and

retold throughout the centuries.

• One variation of the story is Carlo Collodi’s

Pinocchio.

• George Bernard Shaw wrote a play called

Pygmalion in which a wealthy professor

takes a lower-class flower girl under his

wing, educates her and falls in love. It was

later turned into the musical My Fair Lady.

• The recent film Lars and the Real Girl with

Ryan Gosling provides a twist / reversal on

the story and its message.

“Lion lies down

with the lamb”

• This is either a misquoted phrase that has

become popularized through song or an oblique

reference to epithets of Jesus being conflated.

• Some say it is part of a passage predicting the

future when Jesus returns (The Second Coming)

and peace reigns on earth (meaning predators

and prey will lie together as all animosity and

strife will be gone from the world), but the actual

passage says “wolf.”

• Others say something similar, but that Jesus is the

“lamb of God” and also the “lion of Judah,” the

lamb representing Christ’s sacrifice and the lion

representing Jesus’ resurrection.

“Lion lies down

with the lamb”

• One need look no further than C.S. Lewis’

The Chronicles of Narnia to see the most

obvious allusion to this phrase.

• The story is a Christian allegory and Aslan

the lion is the Jesus of that world, being

sacrificed and coming again.

• Animals are prominent characters who all

live in harmony together in Aslan’s world.

Menelaus

• Menelaus was a prominent figure in the Trojan War.

• He was one of the many suitors of Helen who ended

up married to her and becoming King of Sparta.

• Two of the more told stories of Menelaus include:

• He was one of the soldiers hiding in the Trojan

Horse and killed 8 men in the ensuing battle.

• After Helen was abducted, Menelaus was

reunited with her upon the invasion. He spared

her life due to her beauty and anguish.

• According to one version of the story,

Menelaus was reunited with Helen after death

on the Isle of the Blessed.

Menelaus

• Allusions to Menelaus are often to things adjacent

to the story, especially The Trojan Horse itself,

which he and Agamemnon orchestrated, and the

phrase “is this the face that launched a thousand

ships?”

• As written by Christopher Marlowe

• “Was this the face that launched a thousand

ships

And burnt the topless towers of Illium

Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a

kiss...”

• Though Menelaus didn’t use this phrase, he was

Helen’s husband who essentially launched a

thousand ships in order to rescue Helen from

abduction.

• Most direct allusions would be to someone who

seeks retaliation in the face of adultery or

kidnapping.

Doubting Thomas

• Thomas is one of Jesus’ 12 Apostles

• He is called “Doubting Thomas” because

after Jesus rose from the dead, he did not

and would not believe it unless he were able

to see and feel Jesus’ wounds for himself.

• Thomas actually put his hand into the wound

on Jesus’ side in order to ensure for himself

that Jesus had been resurrected.

• “Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou

hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed

are they that have not seen, and yet have

believed.”

Doubting Thomas

• There are several cool allusions to Doubting

Thomas that I particularly enjoy.

• One is from the film The Matrix.

• The main character, Neo, who is the

prophesied savior of humanity, but

refuses to believe it, has the real name

of Thomas A. Anderson.

• The Prestige also has an allusion to the

story

• Another is from the music video for R.E.M.’s

“Losing My Religion”

• In the video, the tableau of Caravaggio’s

painting (on previous slide) is recreated.

• The video also makes other allusions to

Icarus, Saint Sebastian, and Hindu

deities.

Medusa

• One of three monstrous Gorgons of

Greek myth, female bodies with snakes

for hair.

• Those who gazed into her eyes would

turn to stone.

• Medusa was defeated and beheaded by

the hero Perseus.

• He continued to then use her severed

head as a weapon until he gave it to

Athena to place on her shield.

Medusa • In the 20th century, the feminist

movement did a lot to reclaim the

power and image of Medusa.

• The claim that Medusa as a

dangerous female that required

male conquest and control has

been reckoned with as a threat to

female autonomy.

• Medusa has been taken on by

Versace as its logo.

• Annie Lennox named her second

album Medusa after her debut

album Diva. Both are tongue-in-

check: the first to claim she is

“diva-esque” to go solo after years

of being in a duo, the second to

claim people were going to despise

her for making a covers album.

Shibboleth • This is a Hebrew word whose meaning has

little to do with its modern usage.

• The word itself was used as a “password” to

tell a group of neighboring invaders from

indigenous people.

• And the Gileadites took the passages of

Jordan before the Ephraimites: and it was

so, that when those Ephraimites which were

escaped said, Let me go over; that the men

of Gilead said unto him, Art thou an

Ephraimite? If he said, Nay;

Then said they unto him, Say now

Shibboleth: and he said Sibboleth: for he

could not frame to pronounce it right. Then

they took him and slew him at the passages

of Jordan: and there fell at that time of the

Ephraimites forty and two thousand. –

Judges 12: 5-6

• For instance, a British comedian recently

noted that he could identify American

tourists in London due to pronunciations or

“shibboleths.” One American pronounced

“Streatham” as “Saint Reethum” or

“Streethum” instead of “Stretum”

Shibboleth • Another example is with the

pronunciation of Nevada. Though

an outsider’s pronunciation is

more aligned with the actual

Spanish pronunciation, insiders

pronounce it with the “a” as in

“trap”

• One knows when someone is

from the mid-Atlantic region by

their pronunciation of “water.”

• In the television show The West

Wing, there is an episode called

“Shibboleth” in which Chinese

refugees seek religious asylum.

President Bartlet is tasked with

determining if the claim of asylum

is real or if they are falsely

religious. The head of the group

actually uses the terms “by faith

alone” and the word “shibboleth,”

which proves their case.

Chimaera

• A monstrous, fire-breathing, hybrid

creature depicted as a lion with the head

of a goat protruding from its back and the

tail of a serpent.

• The term "chimera" has come to describe

any mythical or fictional creature with

parts taken from various animals, to

describe anything composed of very

disparate parts, or perceived as wildly

imaginative, implausible, or dazzling.

Chimera

• Chimeras can be found all

throughout medieval European art,

especially in sculptures these

sculptures were used to

communicate to the everyday

people the different animals and

characters from the Bible.

Sometimes, however, they were

used simply to represent evil.

Chimera

• Using an alternate spelling of Chimera,

postmodern author John Barth published a

book of three interconnected novellas under

the title.

• The novellas are called Dunyazadiad, Perseus,

and Bellerophon respectively.

• The three novellas are stitched together much

like the Chimera itself.

• It is also a hybrid of three myths / genres in:

Greek mythology, 1001 Nights, and

postmodern novel.

“Blind leading the

blind”

• Though this term appears in the Bible, like the Flood, it was not its first

appearance.

• The first appearance was in the Upanishads.

• This is the Biblical quotation from the Gospel of Matthew:

• "Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled

up by the roots. Leave them; they are blind guides [of the blind]. If

a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.“

• it is used to describe a situation where a person who knows nothing is

getting advice and help from another person who knows almost nothing.

“Blind leading the

blind”

• Tons of modern allusions including:

• Songs by Mick Jagger, Mushroomhead,

Keane, Mumford & Sons, Metallica,

Violent Femmes and Skin Yard

• The show Sex and the City

• The play A Streetcar Named Desire

• A poem by Lisel Mueller

Romulus & Remus

• Romulus and Remus are twin human boys who were raised by a she-wolf

• Their story is a myth accepted as the founding of the city of Rome.

• The legend goes that these twins were looking at the seven hills and argued

over which one would be the perfect site for an eventual city.

• They chose to use augury (interpreting the omens of the flights of birds) to

decide. One saw six birds and one saw twelve.

• Remus insults Romulus’ choice of location and Romulus kills Remus, thus

the name of the city becomes Rome.

Romulus & Remus

• There is an allusion to Romulus and Remus

(specifically in a reference to their father

Aeneas) in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.

• Remus Lupin, a character in Harry Potter, is

named after Remus, with Lupin being Latin for

“wolf,” an allusion to Remus’ upbringing.

• There is a reference to Romulus and Remus in

Alexander Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo.

Swords into

Ploughshares

• A “ploughshare” is the cutting edge of a plough / plow

for farming.

• The Biblical phrase is

• “He shall judge between the nations, and shall

arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their

swords into plowshares, and their spears into

pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against

nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”

• The meaning of the phrase is that eventually, with

acceptance of God, all weapons will be turned into

items of peace.

Swords into

Ploughshares

• Several political allusions including being used in speeches by:

• Dwight D. Eisenhower

• Richard M. Nixon

• Jimmy Carter / Anwar Sadat / Menachem Begin

• Ronald Reagan

• Songs by:

• Megadeth

• Don Henley

• Michael Jackson

• Les Miserables

• There is also an iconic card with that title in Magic: The Gathering

Gordian Knot

• According to legend, Gordius was a Greek

king. He tied an extremely complex knot,

and an oracle prophesied that whoever

untied it would rule all of Asia.

• Alexander the Great “untied” the knot

simply by cutting through it with a sword.

Gordian Knot

• A “Gordian Knot,” in modern

parlance, is any extremely complex

problem, and “cutting the Gordian

Knot” refers to solving such a

problem in a quick decisive manner.

• i.e., Each year the school counselors

face the Gordian knot of scheduling

classes.

• The councilwoman cut the Gordian

knot so that two worthy programs

would not have to be cut. Cutting

both programs budgets prevented

from having to eliminate one or the

other.

Gordian Knot

• This is my favorite reference to the myth.

• Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ graphic novel Watchmen

has TONS of allusions in it. Here, Ozymandias (another

allusion), the so-called “smartest man in the world,” solves

the issue of global war by “creating” an alien “attack” that

kills 3 million people.

• In response, the world sets aside its differences and comes

together to defend against this fictional threat.

Manna from

Heaven

• Manna, according to the Bible, is

an edible substance that God

provided the Israelites during

their 40-day Exodus.

• Because it was miraculously

provided by God to his people, it

is now translated to mean any

unexpected benefit or assistance,

especially when it is needed

most.

Manna from

Heaven

• In Finding Nemo, two Australian crabs start

eating from a sewer pipe and one says,

“Manna from heaven!” while the other

says “sweet nectar of life!”

• Dua Lipa’s “Hotter than Hell” has the lyrics:

• You’re my manna from heaven

We all gotta get fed

Can’t let me know I’m wanted

Can’t let me in your head

I’m not here to make you kneel

But it’s praise

Proteus

• An early Greek mythological sea-god.

• Homer called him “the old man of the sea”

• While Poseidon is also a god who rules over

the sea, Proteus is more specifically the

god of “sea change.”

• He is elusive to even his followers.

• He can foretell the future, but because he

can do so, is often sought after.

• He changes his shape to avoid being

captured, because that is the only way he

will use his power for people.

Proteus

• Because he can change shape, his name has morphed into a

term that has come to mean “versatile” or “capable of

achieving many forms”

• That word is “protean,” pronounced pro-tee-un.

• John Milton, Shakespeare, Wordsworth, James Joyce, Kurt

Vonnegut, Thomas Wolfe and John Barth also either reference

Proteus or name of their characters Proteus as an allusion to

the character.

• There is also a Proteus syndrome, which is a rare genetic

condition of overgrowth of the bones.

• And, as usual, there is a comic book villain with the name

Proteus who fought the X-Men.

Ruth

• Ruth, as a character in the Bible, has an entire Book of said

Bible named after her.

• She was a Moabite woman who married an Israelite and

accepted Yahweh, the Hebrew God.

• However, all male members of her family die and she can

either stay where she is in safety or assist her mother-in-

law, Naomi.

• She agrees to move with Naomi and help her rehabilitate

her life.

• Because of her kindness and selflessness, Ruth catches the

attention of the wealthy Boaz who marries her and bears

her a son who becomes the grandfather of King David.

Ruth

• In the Bible, Boaz calls Ruth a hah-yil woman, which means

“of moral strength and integrity.”

• Any allusions to Ruth would be to a person, most often a

woman, of integrity.

• In Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, the wife of

Walter Lee is Ruth. She exhibits all the characteristics of

Ruth from the Bible and has moved in with her mother-in-

law. It just can’t be coincidence.

Nemesis & Hubris

• Nemesis is the goddess of Rhamnous (a city in Greece) who

enacts retribution against those who succumb to hubris,

arrogance before the gods.

• She is portrayed as a winged goddess wielding a whip or

dagger.

• It was Nemesis who punished Narcissus for rejecting Echo,

luring him to a body of water and fixing him there forever.

• The term “hubris” is now often used to simply mean

arrogance and self-confidence when it isn’t merited.

• The term “nemesis” means arch-enemy or the inescapable

agent of someone’s downfall.

Nemesis & Hubris

• One big example we will see (or have

seen) this year is in Frankenstein.

• Frankenstein’s “nemesis” is actually his

own “hubris” in creating life from death.

• The creature is a living representation of

“hubris” who then becomes his

“nemesis” or downfall.

Good Shepherd

• This is a term used in a set of rhetorical

verses in the Gospel of John to

represent Jesus.

• It is to indicate that he laid down his life

for his sheep.

• This image has since gone on to be

depicted in several interpretations and

paintings of Jesus.

• In later modern parlance, it has since

come to mean someone who sacrifices

for people who are reliant.

Good Shepherd

• It could be argued that any leader or teacher who sacrifices

themselves for someone can be a reference to the Good Shepherd

• (SPOILERS)

• Obi-Wan Kenobi

• Dumbledore

• Aslan

• Captain John H. Miller in Saving Private Ryan

• Sgt. Elias in Platoon

• There is a film called The Good Shepherd about the formation of

the CIA. The title has an aspirational meaning as opposed to an

apropos meaning.

Chiron

• In Greek mythology, Chiron is a centaur.

• He is superior amongst the centaurs, being “wisest and justest of all the centaurs.”

• He was taught various arts, sports, and skills by his foster father, Apollo.

• He, in turn, teaches Achilles how to play the lyre.

• Another famous student of Chiron is Jason of Jason & the Argonauts.

Chiron

• “One of the most fascinating myths about Chiron

involves Heracles and Prometheus. While visiting the

centaur, Heracles accidentally pricked Chiron with one

of his arrows poisoned with the blood of the Hydra.

The poison’s virulence made the wound incurable,

despite Chiron’s skill in healing, and the centaur was

doomed to an eternity of agony. So Chiron went to

Zeus and offered to give up his immortality in exchange

for the freedom of Prometheus. The king of the gods

agreed, Prometheus was freed, and Chiron’s soul was

placed among the stars, where he became the

constellation Sagittarius.” – Madeleine Miller

Chiron • In addition to the constellation,

there are several other possible

allusions to Chiron that could

appear

• Any allusions to a gifted or

revered teacher could be a

reference to Chiron.

• The graphics and text on the

lower third of a news broadcast

are called a chyron.

• This name, however, comes from

the name of the company who

created them in 1966, but

because they are informative in

nature, could have been the

impetus for the company’s name.

Joseph in Egypt

• Joseph was one of 12 sons of Jacob in the Torah / Old

Testament.

• Jacob loved Joseph the most of all 12 of his children and

gave him a beautiful colored cloak to show his love.

• Jealous, his brothers sold Joseph into slavery.

• He became a steward to Potiphar, an official of the Pharaoh.

• Imprisoned eventually for refusing the advances of

Potiphar’s wife, he was freed and made a governor of Egypt

for interpreting Pharaoh’s dreams.

• Joseph was reunited with his family when his brothers

repented.

Joseph in Egypt

• The story of Joseph is famous for being made into a

musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber called Joseph and the

Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

• Several movies have been made of this story as well.

• Joseph was considered to be a pre-Jesus type figure –

messianic, miraculous, etc.

• Any reference to interpretation of dreams or a multi-

colored coat would be considered a reference to

Joseph.

• For instance, there is a reference in Dolly Parton’s song

and album, Coat of Many Colors.

Minerva

• Roman goddess of wisdom, justice, law, victory,

and the sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy.

• The Romans equated her with the Greek goddess

Athena.

• Minerva is one of the three Roman deities in the

Capitoline Triad, along with Jupiter and Juno. (The

three deities worshipped in the Capitoline building)

• She is often pictured with an owl, which

symbolized her wisdom and knowledge.

Minerva

• Minerva has been alluded to in many works and images

including

• The House on Mango Street

• The Taming of the Shrew

• Madame Bovary

• Wonder Woman

• Sigh….Harry Potter

• There are several statues of Minerva in front of libraries

and universities due to the connection with wisdom.

• Minerva is also depicted on the United States Medal of

Honor.

Leviathan

• A sea serpent in theology and mythology.

• Referenced in several books of the Bible.

• The Leviathan is often an embodiment of chaos and threatening to

eat the damned after their life.

• The interpretation of the creature changed over time and culture

from the Nordic “world serpent” to 19th century’s crocodile, and more

recently the Leviathan is thought of as a whale.

Leviathan

• One of the most prominent allusions, references

can be found everywhere.

• Thomas Hobbes wrote a famous book about the

creation of an idea state called The Leviathan.

• Herman Melville’s Captain Ahab refers to the

white whale he is pursuing as Leviathan.

• The first book in the “Expanse” series of science

fiction books (now an Amazon Prime show) is

called Leviathan Wakes.

• Metal band Mastodon named their second

album Leviathan.

Daedalus &

Icarus

• Daedalus was a master craftsman and

father of Icarus.

• One of his creations was the great

labyrinth for King Minos, which trapped

the minotaur.

• He also created a set of wings made to

escape the island of Crete.

• Both wearing wings, Daedalus warned

his son not to fly too close to the sun as

his wings would melt.

• Icarus did and they did.

• It is a tale told to warn against hubris and

cockiness.

Daedalus & Icarus

• The phrase “fly too close to the sun” has

become a part of modern parlance

meaning getting too confident or trying to

push something too far.

• As with a previous allusion, there is an

image in R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion”

video that refers to Daedalus & Icarus.

• A very “on the nose” allusion is in Marvel’s

The Eternals film in which there is a

character named Ikaris (the Eternals were

all named after mythological heroes) who

sacrificed himself by flying into the sun.

• There was a fairly popular Nintendo game

called Kid Icarus about an angel who can’t

fly and is in search of wings.

Daedalus & Icarus

• Icarus is also the symbol / logo for rock band Led

Zeppelin’s Swan Song record label.

• A swan song, by the way, is a term that is used to mean

one’s “last hurrah” or last work before dying. It comes

from the fact that swans can actually sing beautifully,

but only just before their own deaths.

• The original painting that the logo was taken from says

it is Apollo. Some have said it is a depiction of Lucifer,

the fallen angel, but Zeppelin called it Icarus, so that is

the interpretation

Lilies of the

Field

• A discourse given by Jesus in his

Sermon on the Mount.

• The term is taken from a section in

which he says “consider the lilies of

the field”

• The meaning of the discourse is that

people should not worry about

material things, but rather think of

God as he would provide for you, just

as he provides for the lilies of the field.

Lilies of the Field

• There are allusions to the Lilies of the Field in Ray

Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 as well as Barbara

Kingsolver’s Poisonwood Bible.

• It became the title of a popular novel that became

an even more popular film starring Sydney Poitier

about an itinerant worker who stays with a group

of East German nuns to build them a chapel.

Amazons

• The Amazons were a group of female warriors and

hunters who matched men in physical agility and

strength, in archery, riding skills, and the arts of combat.

(Greek mythology)

• Their society was closed for men and they only raised

their daughters, either killing their sons or returning

them to their fathers, with whom they would only

socialize briefly in order to reproduce.

• Courageous and fiercely independent, the Amazons,

commanded by their queen, regularly undertook

extensive military expeditions into the far corners of the

world.

Amazons

• One of the more well-known uses of the Amazons in modern

culture is the character of Wonder Woman.

• She is an Amazon from the mythological island of

Themiscyra.

• Another is in the Futurama episode “Amazon Women in the

Mood,” the title a play on the film title “Amazon Women on the

Moon.”

• In the comic and television show Y: The Last Man, a genetic plague

kills all the men on the planet. A group of militant women form

“Daughters of the Amazons.” As a ritual, they have one breast

removed both to prove membership and for the ease of using a

bow and arrow, their weapons of choice. (This is a

misinterpretation of Greek myth).

Amazons

• Allusions to Amazons are almost always in reference to a

strong woman or women.

• Over time, the allusion has also changed to being women

of considerable height.

Jonah

• Jonah is a prophet in the Torah and the Qur’an.

He has his own book dedicated to him in these

two books / Old Testament.

• He is called upon by God to travel to Nineveh

and tell them they are doomed to destruction

by prophecy.

• Jonah refuses and flees, only to be plagued by

calamities.

• He gets on a boat and it is hit by massive

storms. The sailors realize Jonah is to blame

and eventually throw him overboard.

• Jonah is swallowed by a large creature (at first

determined to be a fish, but has since been

translated as a whale), is trapped there for 3

days and nights, and is only expelled after

repenting.

Jonah

• Allusions to Jonah are usually about either his overall story

of avoidance of fate or about the whale incident in

particular.

• In Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, Captain Ahab reads

directly from the Book of Jonah in his single-minded

pursuit of the white whale.

• In the book and animated film Pinocchio, Pinocchio and

Geppetto are swallowed by a whale, Monstro, from which

they have to escape.

Aphrodite

• Aphrodite is an ancient Greek goddess associated with love, lust,

beauty, pleasure, passion, and procreation. She is associated with

the Roman goddess Venus.

• Aphrodite's major symbols include myrtles, roses, doves, sparrows,

and swans.

• In Greek mythology, Aphrodite was married to Hephaestus, the god

of fire, blacksmiths and metalworking. Aphrodite was frequently

unfaithful to him and had many lovers; in The Odyssey, she is caught

in the act of adultery with Ares, the god of war.

• Along with Athena and Hera, Aphrodite was one of the three

goddesses whose feud resulted in the beginning of the Trojan War

and she plays a major role throughout the Iliad.

• She is an enduring symbol in art of female beauty.

Aphrodite

• Most allusions to Aphrodite have to do with a

reference to great beauty.

• The Beauty and the Beast could be considered an

allusion with Aphrodite being a great beauty and

her husband Hephaestus being a storied

unattractive man.

• There is a skin care line called Aphrodite Skin Care.

•

Armageddon • According to the Book of Revelation in

the New Testament of the Christian

Bible, Armageddon is the prophesied

location of a gathering of armies for a

battle during the “end times,” which is

variously interpreted as either a literal

or a symbolic location.

• The term is also used in a generic sense

to refer to any end of the world

scenario.

Armageddon

• Allusions to Armageddon are usually referencing some final

battle of good vs. evil.

• The final battle in Harry Potter could be considered their

version of Armageddon.

• There is, of course, a movie by Michael Bay called

Armageddon with Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck about a

group of demolition “experts” sent to space to destroy a

meteor that will destroy Earth.

• Tons of books and movies about alien invasions in which

they attempt to destroy the planet are allusions to

Armageddon.