Allusion Definitions

Question 1

Absolom

Answer 1

a son who brings heartache to his father;
from the third son of David, King of Israel. Exiled for
three years r, Absolom plotted to cause a
rebellion against his father to overtake the kingdom. When Absolom was killed in battle, King David grieved for his son in spite of his treachery against him

Question 2

Achille’s Heel

Answer 2

one weakness a person may have. Achilles was

invulnerable except for his heel (achilles tendon)

Question 3

Attila

Answer 3

barbarian, rough leader; King of the Huns from
433-453 and the most successful of the barbarian
invaders of the Roman Empire

Question 4

Aeloian

Answer 4

anything pertaining to wind; god who was

Keeper of Wind

Question 5

Bowdlerize

Answer 5

to censor; after Thomas Bowdler (1754-1825), who expurgated

Shakespeare

Question 6

Cassandra

Answer 6

a person who continually predicts
misfortune but often is not believed; from (Greek
legends) a daughter of Priam cursed by Apollo for not
returning his love; he left her with the gift of prophecy
but made it so no one would believe her

Question 7

Cinderella

Answer 7

one who gains affluence or recognition
after obscurity and neglect, a person or thing whose
beauty or worth remains unrecognized; after the fairytale

Question 8

Daniel

Answer 8

one known for wisdom and accurate judgment;
from a wise leader in the Old Testament who was able to
read the handwriting on the wall

Question 9

Don Juan

Answer 9

a libertine, profligate, a man obsessed with
seducing women ; after Don Juan, the legendary 14th
century Spanish nobleman and libertine

Question 10

Filthy Lucre

Answer 10

Money or profits; from a story in the NT

of Jesus casting moneylenders out of the Temple

Question 11

Frankenstein

Answer 11

Anything that threatens or destroys its
creator; from.the young scientist in Mary Shelley’s novel
of this name, who creates a monster that eventually
destroys him

Question 12

Hackney

Answer 12

to make something banal or trite by frequent
use, a horse for ordinary riding or driving, a horse kept
for hire, let out, employed, or done for hire

Question 13

Junoesque

Answer 13

marked by stately beauty; comes from the
word Juno, the wife of Jupiter, the Goddess of light,
birth, women, and marriage

Question 14

King Ahab and Jezebel

Answer 14

an evil king of Israel and his
treacherous evil wife, synonymous today with evil.
Through her marriage to Ahab, Jezebel introduced the
worship of Baal, an idol, to Israel. Today Jezebel means a brazen or forward woman

Question 15

Simon Legree

Answer 15

a harsh, cruel, or demanding person in
authority, such as an employer or officer that acts in this
manner ; from Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher
Ward, the brutal slave overseer