1. Allusions
Allusion: an indirect or passing reference to some event, person, place or artistic work
When used it is assumed that both the author and the reader share the same historical or literary knowledge.

2. Allusions derived from
Greek Mythology

3. “The Midas Touch”
To be very lucky OR to have the ability to make money easily.
King Midas wanted to be the richest man in the world. He was given the ability to turn everything he touched into gold. This became his greatest ability, but also a curse for even his food turned to gold. The worst part of his ability…he turned his own daughter into gold.

4. Pandora’s Box A temptation that leads to trouble
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. Herculean Task A task that requires great strength
Hercules is a demigod – half human, half god (son of Zeus). He was given the gift of brute force. As his story goes on, Hercules unknowingly kills his three sons. In order to atone for his sin, he is given a series of impossible tasks by the Oracle of Delphi.

6. Achilles Heel A weakness; a weak spot
Achilles’ mother was fearful that harm would come to her son. She therefore dipped Achilles into the River Styx, which was known to have magical powers. His whole person got wet, except for the spot on his ankle, known as the Achilles. This is the only vulnerable spot on Achilles’ body.

7. The Face that Launched a Thousand Ships
Helen: an extremely beautiful woman for whom men would be willing to fight and die.
Daughter to Zeus, Wife to the King of Sparta, was taken captive by Paris, Prince of Troy. They eloped, and war began.

8. Trojan Horse To defeat from within
The Greeks won the Trojan war by hiding men inside of a giant wooden horse intended as a gift to their enemy. Once inside the city gates the soldiers jumped out defeated Troy.

9. A long journey or an adventure
This is in reference to Odysseus’ journey home from the Trojan War.

10. Amazon A strong, aggressive, and masculine woman.
The Amazons were a tribe of war-like women who had their right breasts cut off to facilitate a bow and arrow.

11. Prometheus A creative and courageous man who defies authority
Prometheus was the god who created man out of clay. He wanted to provide for man, so he stole fire from Mt. Olympus.

12. Pygmalion
One who creates or remakes another person by teaching skills or accomplishments and then falls in love with his or her protégé.
Pygmalion was a sculptor who rejected the love of all women and created a statue of the ideal woman with whom he fell madly in love
George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion and the musical My Fair Lady both used the story

13. Just like Icarus Fell
Someone who disregard warnings and pays the price for pride
Daedalus, an artist & inventor who constructed wings of wax and feathers to escape from imprisonment, warned his son, Icarus not to fly too high lest the sun would melt the wax. Icarus ignored his father’s warning and fell to his death.

14. 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

15. Biblical Allusions

16. Garden of Eden
an unspoiled, idyllic, peaceful place

17. Adam & Eve
Man’s ancestors

18. Noah’s Ark
A safe haven

19. Solomon
A wise man

20. Judas
A traitor

21. Ten Commandments
Strict Rule or Guidelines

22. The end of the world / Armageddon
Judgement Day
The end of the world / Armageddon

23. Something that his morally wrong, especially sex outside of marriage.
Forbidden Fruit
Something that his morally wrong, especially sex outside of marriage.

24. a confusion or scene of noisy confusion of sounds and voices
Tower of Babel
a confusion or scene of noisy confusion of sounds and voices

25. Allusions to fairy tales, fables, and legends

26. Snow White, Cinderella, Beauty & the Beast, etc.
a pretty girl whose kindness is
rewarded in the end

27. An indicator of falsehood
Pinocchio’s Nose
An indicator of falsehood

28. An indicator of falsehood
Cry Wolf
An indicator of falsehood

29. A heroic figure who steals from the rich
Robin Hood
A heroic figure who steals from the rich
and gives to the poor

30. Something that can satisfy all wishes and whims
Aladdin’s Lamp
Something that can satisfy all wishes and whims

31. To do a daring or risky deed
Bell the cat
To do a daring or risky deed

32. Emperor's New Clothes something meaningless or wrong that is
automatically and uncritically agreed with

33. Historical Allusions

34. To make an irrevocable decision
Cross the Rubicon
To make an irrevocable decision
Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon River with his army knowing that step would mean civil war.

35. A Pyrrhic Victory A victory won at an excessive cost
A cost that outweigh expected benefits
Pyrrhic, the king of Epirus, defeated the Romans with heavy losses

36. Suffer a decisive or final defeat or setback
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.

37. 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 WWII, 340,00 men were rescued from the beach by allied ships while under attack by Germans.

38. Any beginning day of a major event
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.

39. Hidden traitors within an organization
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.

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

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

42. 11. Mr. Pickwick: a fat, naïve, kindly,
cheerful man (Pickwick Papers by
Charles Dickens)
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)

43. 13. Frankenstein: one who creates and
is ultimately destroyed by a
technological marvel or scientific
advance (Frankenstein by Mary
Shelley)
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)

44. 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)
Lolita: a precociously seductive girl
(Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov)
Main Street: an environment of
materialistic, complacent
provincialism (Main Street by
Sinclair Lewis)

45. 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)
Catch-22: an illogical,
unreasonable, senseless situation
(Catch-22 by Joseph Heller)
Shangri-la: a remote, beautiful, ]
peaceful place, a utopia (Lost
Horizon by James Hilton)