2. Allusion: an indirect or passing reference to some event, person, place or artistic work, an economic means of calling upon the history or the literary tradition that author and reader are assumed to share I. Allusions derived from Greek & Roman myth 1. Cupid/ Cupid’s bow: love God of love in Roman mythology

3. 2. Helen: an extremely beautiful woman for who men would be willing to fight and die Daughter to Zeus and Leda, wife to Menelaus, the king of Sparta, the matchless beauty with “the face that launched a thousand ships” eloped with Paris, Prince of Troy, which led to the Trojan War and hence the destruction of Troy.

4. 3. Prometheus: a creative and courageous man who defies authority Titan Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to man. As punishment, Zeus chained him to a rock where an eagle tore out his liver by day; by night, it was restored so the torture could begin again. 4. Pandora’s box: a source of troubles and disasters To punish Prometheus, Zeus sent him a mortal woman with a sealed box as a gift. Not able to contain her curiosity, she opened the box and out flew all the evils of mankind.

5. 5. Achilles’ heel: a vulnerable point, a fatal weakness The hero was invulnerable to mortal wounds because his mother had dipped him as an infant into the magical waters of the River Styx, except for the heel by which his mother held him.

6. 6. Odyssey: a long and complicated journey, be it physical, mental, emotional or spiritual. Odysseus, the title hero in Homer’s epic poem, wandered for 10 years before he could reach home after the Trojan War. 7. Trojan Horse: something intended to defeat or subvert from within It was a strategy devised by the Greeks to conquer the city of Troy.

7. Ⅱ Allusions derived from the Bible 1. Adam and Eve: man’s ancestors 2. Judas: a traitor, a betrayer

8. 3. Last Supper: a farewell dinner

9. 4. Judgment Day: the end of the world 5. Forbidden fruit: morally wrong, esp. sex outside marriage 6. Tower of Babel: a confusion or scene of noisy confusion of sounds and voices

10. Ⅲ Allusions derived from the fairy tales, Aesop’s fables and legends 1. Snow White/Sleeping Beauty/Cinderella /Beauty (and the Beast): a pretty girl whose kindness is rewarded in the end 2. Pinocchio’s nose: an indicator of falsehood

11. 3. Cry wolf: send out false alarm 4. Robin Hood: a heroic figure who robs the rich to help the poor 5. Aladdin’s lamp: something that can satisfy all wishes and whims of mankind 6. Bell the cat: to do a daring or risky deed

12. 7. Midas touch: an uncanny ability for making money in every venture, a golden touch 8. Sword of Damocles: an impending potential danger Damocles was invited to a banquet where he was seated under a sword suspended by a strand of hair as a reminder that people with power are in a similar precarious situation. 9. Emperor’s new clothes: something meaningless or wrong that is automatically and uncritically agreed with

13. Ⅳ Allusions derived from historical events 1. Cross the Rubicon: make an irrevocable decision – Julius Caesar crossed the river, knowing well that this step would mean civil war. 2. Pyrrhic victory: a victory won at excessive cost, a cost that outweighs expected benefits - Pyrrhic, the king of Epirus, defeated the Romans with heavy losses.

14. 3. Cut the Gordian knot: take decisive, swift action to resolve a complicated problem once and for all The Gordian knot is an intricate knot and whoever could undo it would rule all Asia. Many tried to untie it but in vain until Alexander the Great cut the knot with a single stroke of his sword.

15. 4. Meet one’s waterloo: suffer a decisive or final defeat or setback Waterloo was the scene where Napoleon was totally defeated by Duke of Wellington. 5. Dunkirk: a retreat to avoid total defeat or a crisis situation that requires a desperate last effort to forestall failure Dunkirk was the scene of the greatest military evacuation in history. During WW Ⅱ, 340,000 men were rescued from the beach by allied ships while under attack by Germans.

16. 6. D-day: any beginning day of a major event June, 6, 1944 was the date when allies forces launched a massive counter- attack against Nazi German in Normandy, France. 7. Pearl Harbor: a surprise attack On Dec., 7, 1941, a Day of Infamy in US history, Japanese forces secretly attacked US naval base of Pearl Harbor.

17. 8. The Fifth Column: hidden traitors within an organization In the Spanish Civil War, the fifth column referred to a group of secret sympathizers or supporters of an enemy that engage in espionage or sabotage within the country.

18. Ⅴ Allusions derived from literary works(titles, characters, quotations) 1. Shakespeare’s works Romeo and Juliet: devoted lovers Hamlet: a melancholy and hesitant man Much Ado About Nothing All’s Well That Ends Well 2. Shakespeare’s characters Shylock: a cruel, merciless loan shark (The Merchant of Venice) Falstaff: a cheerful, sociable and mischievous man (Merry Wives of Windsor and Henry Ⅳ ) Iago: a villain (Othello)

19. 3. Shakespeare’s quotations All the world’s a stage: all life is theater and we have to play our part in it (As You Like It) All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time play many parts…. Sound and fury: great but meaningless noise (Macbeth) Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more; it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.

20. 4. Don Quixote: a chivalrous man who is romantically unrealistic and unrealistically idealistic (Don Quixote by Cervantes) 5. Don Juan: a womanizer, a libertine, a lady-killer (Don Juan by Lord Byron) 6. Robinson Crusoe: a castaway living in a isolated place (Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe) Man Friday: an efficient and devoted aide (ibid)

21. 8. Uriah Heep: a fawning sycophant, a unctuous hypocrite (David Copperfield by Charles Dickens) 9. Mr. Micawber: a kindhearted, incurable optimist 10. Scrooge: a miser, a skinflint, a cheapskate (A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens)

22. 11. Mr. Pickwick: a fat, naïve, kindly, cheerful man (Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens) 12. Jekyll and Hyde: one having a two- sided personality, one side of which is good, the other evil (The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Stevenson)

23. 13. Frankenstein: one who creates and is ultimately destroyed by a technological marvel or scientific advance (Frankenstein by Mary Shelley) 14. Faustian bargain: a bargain made for present gain without regard for future cost or consequences, a pact with the Devil– selling one’s soul in order to gain power, knowledge, wealth, beauty or other desired goals (Faust by Goethe)

24. 15. Holden Caulfield: a teenager who is repelled by the phoniness and hypocrisy of the adult world (The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger) 16. Lolita: a precociously seductive girl (Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov) 17. Main Street: an environment of materialistic, complacent provincialism (Main Street by Sinclair Lewis)

25. 18. Walter Mitty: a hen-pecked daydreamer who escapes boredom by imagining himself in heroic adventures (The Secret Life of Walter Mitty by James Thurber) 19. Catch-22: an illogical, unreasonable, senseless situation (Catch-22 by Joseph Heller) 20. Shangri-la: a remote, beautiful, peaceful place, a utopia (Lost Horizon by James Hilton)

26. Ⅵ Allusions derived from the pop culture 1. Agent 007/ James Bond: a strong and sexy, versatile and invincible man 2. Mr. Bean: a eccentric yet good-natured trouble maker 3. Mission Impossible: an extremely difficult task 4. Bart Simpson: a subversive, anti-culture and anti-society teenager

27. 5. Oscar: highest award in any certain field 6. Mickey Mouse: some simple and unimportant matter 7. Barbie Doll: a sexy but senseless woman

28. 8. Rambo: a tough guy 9. Watergate: scandal (Prisonergate, Iraqgate, Zipgate, Rathergate) 10. Gone With The Wind: something that disappears into thin air