Allusions Flashcards
Achilles’ Heel
- Greek Mythology
- refers to a person’s area of particular vulnerability
Pound of Flesh
- Shakespeare
- someone’s insistence to be repaid even if the payment will harm or destroy the debtor
Sacred Cow
- Hinduism
- something that cannot be harmed or interfered with in any way
Crossing the Rubicon
- Roman History (Julius Caesar
- to take an irreversible step, often involving some danger
Pearls before swine
- Biblical (Jesus)
- to “cast one’s pearls to swine” is to offer something precious to someone or a group of people unable to appreciate the value of the gift they were given
Once in a Blue Moon
- astronomy / calendar
- something that happens very rarely
Mrs. Grundy
- Thomas Morton’s play, “Speed the Plough”
- an attitude of narrow-minded prudishness
Crocodile Tears
- old ideas of crocodile anatomy
- to show false sympathy for someone
Sirens
- Greek Mythology
- anything that tempts a person away from safety and towards a destructive path
- a “siren song” is the temptation used to lure someone away
Read the Riot Act
- English Common Law
- to issue a stern warning that if unacceptable behavior does not cease, severe consequences will follow
Thirty Pieces of Silver / Betrayed with a Kiss
- Bible
- “Thirty pieces of silver” refers to payment recieved for an act of treachery
- “betrayed with a kiss” refers to a supposed friend’s treachery
Gordian Knot
- Greek Legend
- Gordian knot= any extremely complex problem
- cutting the Gordian knot= solving a complex problem in a quick, decisive manner
All that Glitters is not Gold
- Aristotle
- things that look better thsn they actually are
- looks can decieve
Sound and Fury
- Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”
- a passionate uproar that is actually meaningless or unimportant
Ivory Tower
- story of a poet
- to be separated from the world and from reality
