Allusions

Question 1

Abaddon

Answer 1

An archangel of the abyss in the Bible

Also, place of destruction

Question 2

Houyhnhnms

Answer 2

A fictional race of intelligent horses described in the last part of Jonathan Swift’s satirical 1726 novel Gulliver’s Travels.

Question 3

Abdera

Answer 3

Place in ancient Greece where inhabitants were known for their stupidity

In Thrace, northern “ceiling” bit of Greece.

Question 4

Boetia

Answer 4

Place in ancient Greece where inhabitants were known for their stupidity

Question 5

Abelard and Heloise

Answer 5

Abelard was a French philosopher who secretly married one of his pupils. Her uncle castrated him as punishment, and the two lived as monk and nun.

Question 6

Abraham’s bosum

Answer 6

Place where the good rest in peace.

The place of comfort in the Biblical Sheol where the righteous dead await Judgment Day.

Question 7

Absalom

Answer 7

Favourite son of King David

Led a rebellion against his father, but defeated in battle and killed by Joab, one of David’s officers. Absalom killed David’s oldest son Amnon. Absalom was fleeing on a mule, but was caught by his long hair in the branches of a tree and left hanging. Joab killed him with three darts. King David was very sad.

Question 8

Achates

Answer 8

Faithful friend of Aeneas in Virgil’s Aeneid.

Question 9

Acheron

Answer 9

known as the “river of woe”, and was one of the five rivers of the Greek underworld

Question 10

Achilles had famous friendship with

Answer 10

Patroclus.

Patroclus borrowed his armour and was killed by Trojan hero Hector.

Question 11

Bob Acres

Answer 11

A character in Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s The Rivals. Acres was a coward, whose “courage always oozed out at his finger ends”

Question 12

Wise men of Gotham

Answer 12

Folk tale were villagers pretended to be stupid.

King John was going to visit which meant turning the road into a royal highway. The villagers did all sorts of stupid things (e.g. drowning an eel in water) so KJ built his hunting lodge elsewhere.

Later Washington Irving named NYC “gotham”, picked up Bill Finger in the creation of Batman.

Question 13

Damon and Pythias

Answer 13

Symbol of close friendship. When Pythias was sentenced to death Damon stood bail for him. Pythias returned just in time to save him (and was subsequently reprieved).

Question 14

David and Jonathan

Answer 14

Symbol of close friendship. Jonathan was Saul’s son, David was his appointed successor. Saul eventually got jealous of David’s popularity but Jonathan interceeded (though eventually David had to flee to the mountains).

Question 15

Javert

Answer 15

Merciless persecutor in Victor Hugo’s Les misérables.

Question 16

Cornucopia

Answer 16

Horn of plenty.

One of the horns of the goat-nymph Amalthea whose milk nourished Zeus as a baby, and who was placed into the sky as the constellation Capricorn in thanks.

Question 17

Land of Goshen

Answer 17

Fertile region of Egypt inhabited by the Israelites from the time of Joseph until the Exodus.

Question 18

Pomona

Answer 18

Roman goddess of fruit

Question 19

Kills herself with arsenic

Answer 19

Emma Bovary

Kills herself with arsenic after her second lover (Leon) grows tired of her

Question 20

Throws herself under a train

Answer 20

Anna Karenina

Has love affair with Count Vronsky. She chooses him but is unable to cope with social isolation and commits suicide by throwing herself under a train.

Question 21

Book by Rider Haggard with the hero Allan Quartermain.

Answer 21

King Solomon’s Mines

Question 22

Self-important “Lord-High-Everything-Else”

Answer 22

Pooh-Bah

Character from Gilbert & Sulivan. Self-important.