Classical Allusions

Question 0

Agamemnon

Answer 0

Unfaithful husband to Clytemnestra

Question 1

Achilles

Answer 1

The term “Achilles’ heel” refers to the vulnerable part of a person’s character

Question 2

Antigone

Answer 2

Symbolic of the choice between god’s authority and civil authority, or the choice between between justice and law

Question 3

Atalanta

Answer 3

The archetype of speed, strength and daring foiled by a trick of the intellect

Question 4

Atlas

Answer 4

“Has the weight of the world on his shoulders”

Question 5

Cassandra

Answer 5

Represents an accurate but unheeded prophet of doom

Question 6

Daedalus and Icarus

Answer 6

Symbolic of the danger involved in daring to enter “the realm of the gods”

Question 7

Damocles, sword of

Answer 7

The term indicates impending disaster

Question 8

Damon and Pythias

Answer 8

Symbolize lasting friendship

Question 9

Dionysus or Bacchus

Answer 9

The god of wine, revelry, the power of nature, fertility and emotional ecstasy. He is usually thought of in terms of overuse or excess

Question 10

Iphigenia

Answer 10

Fair winds

Question 11

Judgement of Paris

Answer 11

“To the fairest”; the disastrous choice of love and beauty over less ephemeral attributes

Question 12

Laius

Answer 12

Symbolic of the inevitable usurpation of father by son, familiar theme in folklore

Question 13

Medusa

Answer 13

Monsters who had snakes for hair and faces so horrifying that just the sight of them turned men into stone

Question 14

Minotaur

Answer 14

Monster with a bull’s head and a man’s body

Question 15

Myrmidons

Answer 15

Brutality and savagery

Question 16

Nirvana

Answer 16

Ideal condition of harmony

Question 17

Odyssey

Answer 17

The ten-year-long homeward journey of Odysseus and his men after the Trojan War

Question 18

Oedipus

Answer 18

“Oedipus Complex”

Question 19

Pandora

Answer 19

Pandora’s box refers to a gift that turns out to be a curse. It also refers to the unanticipated consequences of one’s actions, as in “opening a can of worms”

Question 20

Persephone

Answer 20

The myth of Persephone is the classical explanation for the seasons

Question 21

Phoenix

Answer 21

The phoenix frequently symbolizes death and resurrection, or eternal life

Question 22

Procrutes

Answer 22

The term “Procrustean bed” connotes a rigid standard to which exact conformity is enforced

Question 23

Prometheus

Answer 23

The champion of men against the gods

Question 24

Proteus

Answer 24

Protean means versatile

Question 25

Pygmalion

Answer 25

When you fall in love with your creation and it comes to life

Question 26

Pyrrhus

Answer 26

A Pyrrhic victory is one that was won at much too high a price

Question 27

Romulus and Remus

Answer 27

Founded the city of Rome; brothers who fought

Question 28

Satyrs

Answer 28

The satyr play treated serious matters in a grotesquely comic way

Question 29

Scylla and Charyhdis

Answer 29

“Between a rock and a hard place”

Question 30

Sisyphus

Answer 30

He serves as a constant metaphor for the never-ending struggle to complete one’s task, only to be thwarted by still more hurdles

Question 31

Sphinx

Answer 31

The sphinx represents monumental silence in literary references

Question 32

Tantalus

Answer 32

His names gives us the word: “tantalize”

Question 33

Trojan Horse

Answer 33

“Beware of Greeks bearing gifts”