All Allusions 1-90 Flashcards
Achilles
a foremost Greek warrior at the siege of Troy; when he was a baby his mother tried to make him immortal by bathing him in a magical river but the heel by which she held him remained vulnerable.
- ex: Achilles Heel
Adonis
Greek god of rebirth. After he failed to listen to Aphrodite’s pleas to be careful while hunting, he was killed by a wild boar that was sent by Artemis
-When Zeus resurrected him= God of rebirth
Aeneas
- son of the goddess Aphrodite and Anchises.
- cousin of Hector
- Hero of Troy and Rome Defended against the Greeks
- Second in skill to Hector
- Trojan war
Ares/Mars
- Greek god of war
- More specifically the spirit of battle
- represented the distasteful aspects of brutal warfare and slaughter.
- (not very popular among the Greeks)
Argus
- giant with 100 eyes on his body.
- was a servant of the goddess Hera and watchman because he never fell asleep
Athena/Minerva
- Greek God city protectress, goddess of war, handicraft, and practical reason,
Atlas
- Greek God a Titan who was forced by Zeus to bear world on his shoulders
- used as the name for maps
Delphic oracle
- a priestess who made prophecies (predictions) about the future. People went there to ask questions of the god Apollo, who would answer through the prophet
-based in the Greek city of Delphi - Oedipus Rex: was told the prophecy that Oedipus will murder his father and marry his mother
Bacchus/Dionysus
- Greek god of wine and pleasure (aka liked to fuck)
- Greek plays were performed in his honor.
- the son of Zeus(god) and Semele(mortal)
Powers: transfiguration(lion/bull)+ drive mortals insane
Niobe
- the bereaved mother, weeping for the loss of her children.
- as punishment for boasting about he many children Apollo and Artemis killed all her children
Judgement of Paris
a contest between the three most beautiful goddesses of Olympus–Aphrodite, Hera and Athena
- The Prize was a golden apple addressed “the fairest”
-Aphrodite, wins the competition as she has promised Paris possession of the most beautiful women on earth, Helen.
Jupiter/Zeus
- chief deity of the pantheon, a sky and weather god
- considered the ruler, protector, and father of all gods and humans
Laocoön
a seer and a priest of the god Apollo
Prometheus
- one of the Titans, the supreme trickster, and a god of fire
- he developed into a master craftsman is known as the creator of mortals
Nike
the winged goddess of victory
Pygmalion
- a king and a sculptor who fell in love with a statue he had carved
Odin
- War god, and protector of heroes
Cassandra
-Trojan priestess dedicated to the god Apollo and fated by him to utter true prophecies but never to be believed.
Cerberus
- often referred to as the hound of Hades, is a multi-headed dog that guards the gates of the Underworld to prevent the dead from leaving.
Ceres/Demeter
- goddess of the harvest and was credited with teaching humans how to grow, preserve, and prepare grain and corn
- responsible for the fertility of the land.
Chimera
- ## a monstrous fire-breathing hybrid creature, composed of different animal parts
Circe
- a sorceress, the daughter of Helios, the sun god, and of the ocean nymph Perse
- was able by means of drugs and incantations to change humans into wolves, lions, and swine
Daedalus
mythical Greek inventor, architect, and sculptor who was said to have built the paradigmatic Labyrinth for King Minos of Crete.
Damocles(Sword of Democles)
- those in power always labor under the specter of anxiety and death
- in Oedipus this is why Creon doesn’t want to be king
Hera/Juno
- goddess of women, marriage, and childbirth
- sister and wife to Zeus
Electra
- saved the life of her young brother Orestes by sending him away when their father was murdered. When he later returned, she helped him to slay their mother and their mother’s lover
Pan
- god of the wild, shepherds and flocks, rustic music and impromptus(an instrument), and companion of the nymphs
Pandora’s Box
A box containing all manners of evil(aka all the evil in the world) that when this person opened it due to curiosity released it all upon the world
Paris
A dream regarding his birth was interpreted as an evil portent, and he was consequently expelled from his family as an infant. Left for dead, he was either nursed by a bear or found by shepherds.
Parnassus
- Parnassus was the site of the fountain Castalia and the home of the Muses
- became known as the home of poetry music and learning
Vesta
- goddess of the sacred fire of the hearth in every house
- associated with faith, family, and domestic order.
Zephyr
- Greek god of the west wind, which was considered the gentlest wind.
- indicated the coming spring season awaking the Earth after winter
- Even today the name of the god is used to indicate a warm and light breeze.
Aphrodite/Venus
- ancient Greek goddess of sexual love and beauty
- goddess of fertility and occasionally presided over marriage
Romulus & Remus
In Roman mythology, they are twin brothers whose story tells of the events that led to the founding of the city of Rome and the Roman Kingdom
Elysian Fields
the paradise to which heroes on whom the gods conferred immortality were sent.
Fauns
a half-human and half-goat mythological creature appearing in Greek and Roman mythology.
Golden Fleece
- made from a flying, winged ram named Crius Chrysomallos
- best known from the story of Jason and the Argonauts, who were sent by Pelias, the ruler of Iolcos, to retrieve it
Hades
god of the dead and the king of the underworld
Hector
- a character in Homer’s Iliad. He was a Trojan prince and the greatest warrior for Troy during the Trojan War
- Homer’s Iliad he is represented as an ideal warrior and the mainstay of Troy
Augean Stables/task
- Eurystheus ordered Hercules to clean up the king’s stables.
- sometimes even a hero has to do these things
- But Eurystheus had him clean up after the cattle of Augeas in a single day.
(fifth labor)
Lorelei
a beautiful maiden who threw herself into the Rhine River in despair over a faithless lover and was transformed into a siren who lured fishermen to destruction.
Hermes
God of boundaries, roads and travelers, thieves, athletes, shepherds, commerce, speed, cunning, wit, and sleep. Psychopomp and divine messenger.
Scylla & Charybdis
- One was a horrible six-headed monster who lived on a rock on one side of a narrow strait.
- The other was a whirlpool on the other side.
Sisyphus
Hades punished him for cheating death twice by forcing him to roll an immense boulder up a hill only for it to roll back down every time it neared the top
Tiresias
The blind prophet in Oedipus and Antigone
Titan
- god of the stars, winds, astrology and astronomy
- any of the children of Uranus (Heaven) and Gaea (Earth) and their descendants.
- the brothers Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, and Cronus and the sisters Thea, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, and Tethys.
Midas
“Midas touch”
remembered in Greek mythology for his ability to turn everything he touched into gold.
Nemesis
- godess of revenge
- represents jealousy, envy and anger of the gods
- was believed to punish human gluttony.
Abraham & Isaac
God gave him a son, and then to test his faith he told him to sacrifice him, the son was then spared at the last moment
Annunciation
marks the visit of the angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary, during which he told her that she would be the mother of Jesus Christ, the Son of God
Jacob’s Ladder
- the vivid, prophetic dream in which he sees a ladder stretching from heaven to earth
- affirmed him as the father of God’s chosen people, the Israelites
Armageddon
place where the kings of the earth under demonic leadership will wage war on the forces of God at the end of history
Noah
- he was instructed to build an ark, and in accordance with God’s instructions he took into the ark male and female specimens of all the world’s species of animals, from which the stocks might be replenished.
Babylon/ Babylonians
- According to Genesis, the _____________ wanted to make a name for themselves by building a mighty city and a tower “with its top in the heavens.” God disrupted the work by so confusing the language of the workers that they could no longer understand one another.
Burning Bush
-Moses was appointed to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and into Canaan when they encountered _______ which was on fire but was not consumed by the flames
Methuselah
- he has survived in legend and tradition as the longest-lived human.
- lived till Noah’s arch but died before the flood.
Daniel
Though he faced pressures to conform to Babylonian society he stood strong in his faith, and God blessed him with wisdom and the ability to interpret dreams
Gideon
- As a leader of the Israelites, he won a decisive victory over a Midianite
- God asked him to bring him unleavened bread and meat and then when it was brought to god, he consumed it with flames.
Holy Grail
- the cup that Jesus Christ drank from at the Last Supper and that Joseph of Arimathea used to collect Jesus’s blood at his crucifixion
John the Baptist
- Jewish prophet known in Christianity as the forerunner of Jesus
- preached about God’s Final Judgment and baptized repentant followers in preparation for it
- Jesus was among the recipients of his rite of baptism.
Pontius Pilate
He is best known for being the official who presided over the trial of Jesus and ultimately ordered his crucifixion
Solomon
the king of Israel who built the first Temple in Jerusalem. He was also the second (after his father, David) and last king of a unified Israel, which was at the height of its power during his reign.
Good Samaritan
saw the injured Jewish man lying in the road. Unlike the priest and unlike the Levite, he stopped and took pity on the man. He bent down and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. He helped the man climb up onto the back of his own donkey and then took him to an inn, walking alongside.
Golden calf
We are who we were to some degree – Moses could take the Israelites out of Egypt, but he couldn’t take the Egypt out of the Israelites.
Promised Land
The promised land in the Bible was that geographic area God the Father swore to give to his chosen people, the descendants of Abraham.
Gospels
found in the New Testament, are of course, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
- The stories written in the Bible
Job
a man who feared God and avoided evil.
- “The Lord blessed me with seven sons and three daughters, and He granted me great material wealth, including “seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred [donkeys], and a very great household.”
Leviathan
-a sea monster or to any gigantic powerful thing
Damascus (The Road to)
-a sudden or radical conversion of thought or a change of heart or mind even in matters outside of a Christian context.
-a symbol of transformation.
- story of Paul, a tent maker who hated the Christians, was blinded by a light from heaven until his baptism
Adam and Eve
- First man and woman
- God made the man first then made the woman with the rib of the man.
- given the garden of eden and told not to eat the forbidden
- woman eats the fruit and creates original sin
Divine Comedy
- Dante’s infernal
- Allegorically, the poem represents the soul’s journey towards God, beginning with the recognition and rejection of sin, followed by the penitent Christian life, which is then followed by the soul’s ascent to God
Goliath
- despite his greater size and strength was defeated by the young David- something supposedly strong and unbeatable that’s actually vulnerable.
Jezebel
- an impudent, shameless, or morally unrestrained woman.
-she provoked conflict that weakened Israel for decades by interfering with the exclusive worship of the Hebrew god Yahweh, disregarding the rights of the common man, and defying the great prophets Elijah and Elisha.
Jonah
- was a prophet, and even though he had let God down in numerous ways, he was still forgiven because God showed him unlimited love and compassion
- dove
Samson & Delilah
- She made him morally weak causing him to become less connected with his holy spirit and God
- And she betrays him by cutting off his hair
- Forgiveness: he goes back to god and gets his strength back.
Sodom & Gomorrah
- the two evil cities that God destroyed with a rain of fire and brimstone (because the inhabitants were sinners >:(
- Before the destruction, God sent two angels in the form of men to advise all good men to leave the evil towns.
Olive Branch
- a symbol of peace
- represents the conversion of Gentiles to Christianity
Pearls before Swine
- pigs, would be unable to appreciate pearls if the jewels were given to them.
- to offer something precious to someone, or a group of people, unable to appreciate the value of what they are being given.
The Maji
- “wise men from the East” in the Gospel of Matthew who journeyed to Bethlehem to honor the baby Jesus.
- brought Jesus treasures of gold, frankincense, and myrrh
The Prodigal Son
a wayward son who squanders his inheritance but returns home to find that his father forgives him.
Queen of Sheba
The story is that she hears reports of King Solomon’s fame and comes to visit him with gold and precious jewels and more spices than had ever been seen in Israel
Ruth
a woman who after being widowed remains with her husband’s mother
Lot’s Wife
Their family was visited by two angels to tell them to leave Solomon. However, this person disobeyed the order to not look back and turned into a pillar of salt.
Cain & Abel
- first two sons of Adam and Eve. Cain, the firstborn, was a farmer, and his brother Abel was a shepherd. The brothers made sacrifices to God, but God favored Abel’s sacrifice instead of Cain’s.
- And they killed each other
Eden(Garden of Eden)
- Was given to Adam and eve
- paradise
Mary Magdalene
traveled with Jesus as one of his followers and was a witness to his crucifixion and resurrection
Lazarus
- brought back to life by Jesus
- proved that Jesus was the savior
Judas-Iscariot
one of the Twelve Apostles. He is notorious for betraying Jesus by disclosing Jesus’ whereabouts for 30 pieces of silver.
Parting of the Red Seas
Moses stretched out his hand and the waters divided, allowing his followers’ safe passage.
Rainbow
- used to communicate the glory of God
- “One day, the rainbow will no longer be misused by sinners to boast in their sin.”
