Terms 2

Achilles' heel-weakness a person may have. Achilles was invulnerable except for his heel (achilles tendon).

Adonis - handsome younger man; Aphrodite loved him.

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

Cassandra a person who continually predicts misfortune but often is not believed; from Greece

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

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

Helen - symbol of a beautiful woman; from Helen of Troy.

Morphine - alkaloid used to relieve pain and induce sleep; Morpheus was a god that could easily change shape

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; narmed for Narcissus, a handsome young man who despised love but fell in love with himself instead.

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

Pandora's Box - Something that opens the door for bad occurrences, opened by someone known for curiosity; named for Pandora who opened a box of human ills.

Phoenix - a symbol of immortality or rebirth; named after a long bird that consumed itself in fire, rising renewed from the flame to start another long life.

Psyche - the human soul, self, the mind; named after Psyche, a maiden who, after undergoing many hardships reunited with her love.

Pygmalion - someone who tries to fashion someone into the person he desires; from a myth adapted into a play by George Bernard Shaw.

Sibyla - a witch or sorceress; a priestess who had the gift of prophecy.

Tantalize - from King Tantalus, who reigned on Mt. Sipylus and was condemned to a river but couldn't eat the beautiful food around him.

Titanic - grand and enormous; after Tityus, the son of Zeus and Elara whose body covered nearly two acres.

Volcanoes - originated from Vulcan, the Roman god of fire.

Babbitta - a self-satisfied person concerned chiefly with business and middle-class ideals like material success; from Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis.

Cinderella - one who gains affluence or recognition after being treated poorly.

Don Juan - a libertine, profligate, a man obsessed with women.

Don Quixote - someone overly idealistic to the point of being unrealistic. From the Cervantes story and The Man of La Mancha.

Frankenstein - Anything that threatens or destroys its creator; from Mary Shelley's novel.

Jekyll and Hyde - A capricious person with two sides to his personality. From the novel of the same name.

Lothario - used to describe a man who seduces women; from The Fair Penitent by Nicholas Rowe.

Scrooge - a bitter and/or greedy person; from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.

Svengali - a person with an irresistible hypnotic power, from 1984 by George Mauriers.

Absolom - a son who brings heartache to his father.

Alpha and Omega - The beginning and the end, from a quote in Revelations

Daniel - one known for wisdom and accurate judgment.

David and Bathsheba - represents a big sin; from King David's affair with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah.

Eye of the Needle - A very difficult task; from famous narrow gateway called "the needle." Goliath a large person; from the giant from the Philistine city of Gath, slain by David.

Ishmael - one who is cast out as being unworthy.

Job - who who suffers a great deal but remains faithful.

Jonah - one who brings bad luck.

Judas - a traitor

Original Sin - the idea that all men are innately sinful as a result of Adam and Eve's fall.

Prodigal Son - a wasteful son who disappoints his father.

Samson and Delilah - Treacherous love story.

Scapegoat - one that is made an object of blame for others

Solomon - an extremely wise person.

Attila - barbarian, rough leader; King of the Huns from 433-453.

Berserk - destructively or frenetically violent, from mental upset.

Boycott - to act together in abstaining from using a specific item. From Charles C. Boycott who refused to charge lower rents and his staff boycotted.

Canopy - an overhanging protection or shelter, to cover.

Casanova - a man who is amorous to women; based on the Italian adventurer.

Chauvinist - one who has a militant devotion to and glorification to country or gender; Nicolas Chauvin.

El Dorado - a place of reputed wealth; from the legendary city in South America.

Machiavellian - characterized by expedience, deceit and cunning; after Niccolo Machiavelli.

McCarthyism - modern witch hunt, the practice of publicizing accusations without evidence; after Joseph McCarthy.

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

Stonewall - hinder or obstruct by evasive, delaying tactics from Stonewall Jackson.

Thespian - having to do with the theater or acting; from Thespis, an attic poet and father of Greek tragedy.

Uncle Sam - government of people of the United States; derived from Uncle Sam, a business man in the 1900s