Mythological Allusions

  1. Achilles' heel – today, one spot that is most vulnerable; one weakness a person may have. Achilles was invulnerable except for his heel
  1. Aphrodite/ Venus – goddess of love
  1. Apollo – today, a physically perfect male; the God of music and light; known for his physical beauty
  1. Athena/Minerva – goddess of wisdom, the city, and arts; patron goddess of the city of Athens
  1. Bacchanal – wild, drunken party or rowdy celebration; from god of wine Bacchus
  1. Helen (of Troy) – a beautiful woman; from Helen of Troy, the daughter of Leda and Zeus—the cause of the Trojan War.
  1. Herculean – very strong or of extraordinary power; from Hercules, Hera's glory, the son of Zeus. He performed the 12 labors imposed by Hera (Zeus’s wife but not Hercules’ mother)
  1. Icarus - son of the master craftsman Daedalus, the creator of the Labyrinth. Icarus and his father attempt to escape from Crete by means of wings that his father constructed from feathers and wax. Icarus's father warns him first of complacency and then of hubris, asking that he fly neither too low nor too high, because the sea's dampness would clog his wings or the sun's heat would melt them. Icarus ignored his father's instructions not to fly too close to the sun, whereupon the wax in his wings melted and he fell into the sea and drowned.
  1. Medusa - had theface of a hideous human female with living venomous snakes in place of hair. Gazing directly into her eyes would turn onlookers to stone.
  1. Muse – some creature of inspiration ; the daughters of Mnemosyne and Zeus, divine singers that presided over thought in all its forms
  1. Odyssey - a long journey; named for Odysseus, the character in The Odyssey, by Homer. Odysseus makes his long journey back from the Trojan War, encountering several obstacles along the way, including the one-eyed Cyclops, the Sirens (females who lured nearby sailors with their enchanting music and voices to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island), Circe (goddess who turned Odyssey’s men into pigs), and Calypso (nymph who detained Odysseus for several years)
  1. Oedipus - Tiresias (the blind prophet of Apollo in Thebes, famous for his keen insight) gives Oedipus a prophesy that he will kill his father and marry his mother. Oedipus unwittingly carries out his destiny. When the truth was discovered, his wife-mother hanged herself, and Oedipus gouged out his own eyes, literally becomes the thing he's always metaphorically been: blind. At the end of the play, Oedipus becomes symbolic of all of humanity, stumbling forward through a dark and unknowable universe.Sigmund Freud coined the term “Oedipus complex,” referring to a stage in which someone is attracted to their parent of the opposite sex, and sees their parent of the same sex as a rival.
  1. Orpheus - a great musician, and Eurydice was his wife. When Eurydice died, Orpheus went to the underworld, played his lyre for Hades, ruler of the dead, and asked that Eurydice be sent back to Earth. The god was so moved that he agreed to let her return, on one condition: that Orpheus go ahead of her and not look back until they had reached the Earth again. Orpheus led Eurydice up, but at the last moment, when he had come out of the underworld and she was about to leave it, he could resist no longer and turned to look at her. She vanished, and he had lost her forever. He spent the rest of his days wandering about, playing his lyre, and singing.
  1. Pandora's Box - Something that opens the door for bad occurrences, opened by someone known for curiosity; named for Pandora who was the first mortal, sent by Zeus, to punish man for Prometheus’ theft of fire. For her curiosity in opening the box, Zeus gave her all human ills in the world, leaving only hope at the bottom.
  1. Persephone - the daughter of Zeus and the harvest goddess Demeter, and is the queen of the underworld. Persephone was abducted by Hades, the god-king of the underworld.
  1. Phoenix - Associated with the Sun, a phoenix obtains new life by arising from the ashes of its predecessor.
  1. Promethean - life-bringing, creative, or courageously original; named after a Titan who brought man the use of fire which he had stolen from heaven for their benefit.
  1. Sisyphean - greedy and avaricious; from the shrewd and greedy king of Corinth, Sisyphus, who was doomed forever in Hades to roll uphill a heavy stone, which always rolled down again.
  1. Trojan Horse - a person or thing intended secretly to undermine or bring about the downfall of an enemy or opponent. After a fruitless 10-year siege during the Trojan War, the Greeks constructed a huge wooden horse and hid a select force of men inside. The Greeks pretended to sail away, and the Trojans pulled the horse into their city as a victory trophy. That night the Greek force crept out of the horse and opened the gates for the rest of the Greek army, which had sailed back under cover of night. The Greeks entered and destroyed the city of Troy, decisively ending the war.
  1. Zeus – a powerful man; king of the gods, ruler of Mt. Olympus, vengeful hurler of thunderbolt

Biblical Allusions

  1. Abraham - asked by God to sacrifice his beloved son, Isaac. Abraham made ready to obey. At the last moment, his hand was stayed by an angel of the Lord. Isaac was spared and Abraham received the Lord's blessing. This story is symbolic of man's willingness to make the ultimate sacrifice to demonstrate his faith and trust in God. It is also symbolic of the idea that faith shall be rewarded.
  1. Cain- a brother who kills a brother; from the story of Adam and Eve’s son Cain, who killed his brother Abel out of jealousy(first murder in the Bible)
  1. The Crucifixion of Jesus - occurred during the 1st century AD. According to the accounts in the New Testament, Jesus, whom Christians believe to be the Son of God as well as the Messiah, was arrested, tried, and sentenced by Pontius Pilate to be beaten, and finally crucified. Collectively referred to as the Passion, Jesus' suffering and redemptive death by crucifixion are the central aspects of Christian theology concerning the doctrines of salvation and atonement.
  1. Goliath – a large person; from the giant killed by David, a small shepherd boy
  1. Good Samaritan – someone who helps another person, perhaps someone of a different race or background; from a parable about a Samaritan, a traditional enemy of the Hebrews, who stopped to help a Jewish man who had been beaten and left for dead at the side of the road.
  1. Jezebel - used her station as queen to encourage worship of deities and persecuted and slandered prophets of God. For these transgressions against the God and people of Israel, the Bible relates, Jezebel met a gruesome death –she was thrown out of a window by members of her own court retinue, and the flesh of her corpse eaten by stray dogs.
  1. Job- one who suffers a great deal but remains faithful; from an Old Testament character whose faith in God was tested by Satan; though he lost his family and belongings, he remained patient and faithful
  1. Jonah – one who brings bad luck; an OT prophet who ran from God and sailed to sea. When a storm arose, he admitted that he was the cause, and the sailors threw him overboard, where he was swallowed by a large fish
  1. Judas – a traitor or a treacherous kiss (a Judas kiss) ; one of the 12 Apostles/Disciples, notorious for betraying Jesus. His surname in Latin means "murderer" or "assassin." Judas disclosed Jesus' whereabouts to the chief priests and elders for thirty pieces of silver
  1. Last Supper - The Last Supper is the final meal that Jesus shared with his 12 Apostles/Disciples in Jerusalem before his crucifixion
  1. Lucifer - Lucifer was god’s favorite angel, referred to as the “Morning Star” and “Light.” His sin, and the origin of his transformation into the Devil, stems from his envy of man and disobedience to God.

Lucifer resented God’s command that all of the angels should worship the image of God in the newly created Adam. When Archangel Michael ordered all angels to worship this image of God, Jehovah, Lucifer refused and was cast out of heaven into Hell. Lucifer is transformed into Satan, the Devil, following his fall from grace. The Devil then plans revenge against Adam to expose his weakness of spirit. He blames Adam for being sent out from the glory of heaven.

  1. Mary - mother of Jesus and wife of Joseph. symbolic of purity, virginity, and maternal love
  1. Mary Magdalene - traveled with Jesus as one of his followers. She was present at Jesus' two most important moments: the crucifixion and the resurrection (she was the first witness to the resurrection)
  1. Moses - received the Ten Commandments from Jehovah on Mt. Sinai. Moses was a foundling child rescued by Pharaoh's daughter and raised to be a prince of Egypt. As an adult, he led his own people, the children of Israel, out of bondage in Egypt (after the Plagues of Egypt), through the Red Sea (which was parted by God) on dry land, and on a 40 year journey searching for the Promised Land. Because he committed one arrogant sin- striking a rock to bring forth needed water- he himself was not permitted to enter the Promised Land.
  1. Original Sin/The Fall – the idea that all men are innately sinful as a result ofAdam and Eve’s fall from the state of innocence. God created for these first two humans a perfect garden (known as the Garden of Eden and later called paradise), where everything was beautiful and full of good things for them. However, also in this garden was the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil. Adam and Eve were told by God that they could eat anything in the garden except the fruit of this tree. Eve was tempted by a serpent, which is traditionally held to be the devil in the shape of a snake. The serpent spoke to her, telling her that if she and Adam ate the fruit, they would ‘be as gods, knowing good and evil'. Eve gave in to the temptation and also persuaded Adam to eat. They were then, for the first time, aware of shame. Adam and Eve were then expelled from the garden and kept out by an angel with a flaming sword. The serpent was cursed as an enemy of humankind. Adam and Eve’s disobedience of God is known as the Fall of Humankind. It fractured the relationship between God and humans and caused sin to enter the world.
  1. Noah’s Ark - several generations after the life of Adam, the wickedness of people made God regret that he had created them and made him resolve to send a flood that would destroy all the living creatures in the world. God decided to spare Noah and his family, who lived virtuously, and to allow them to repopulate the Earth. God commanded Noah to build an ark (a large, rudderless ship) and to take his family in it, along with a pair of each of the Earth's animals. When Noah had done so, God sent forty days and forty nights of rain, until the entire globe was flooded and all living creatures were drowned. When the rain ended, Noah released a dove from the ark. When it returned with an olive branch in its beak, Noah knew that the waters had receded and that he and his family could begin a new life. After the ark came to rest on Mount Ararat, and Noah and the other people and animals left it, God set a rainbow in the heavens as a sign that he would never again destroy the world by flood.
  1. Plagues of Egypt - also called the ten plagues, God inflicted upon Egypt to persuade the Pharaoh to release the ill-treated Israelites from slavery. Pharaoh capitulated after the tenth plague, triggering the Exodus of the Hebrew people. (water into blood, frogs, lice, swarms of flies, diseased livestock, boils, thunderstorm of hail and fire, locusts, darkness, death of firstborn son )
  1. Resurrection of Jesus- Christian religious belief that, after being put to death to take the punishment deserved by others for the sins of the world, Jesus rose again from the dead after 3 days
  1. Sacrificial Lamb - a metaphorical reference to a person or animal sacrificed (killed or discounted in some way) for the common good. The term is derived from the traditions of Abrahamic religion where a lamb is a highly valued possession, but is offered to God as a sacrifice for the forgiveness of sin. John the Baptist sees Jesus and exclaims, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."

Numbers in the Bible

Forty

  • Moses was 40 days on Mount Sinai receiving God’s Law (10 Commandments)
  • Moses was on a 40 year journey searching for the Promised Land
  • 40 days and nights of rainfall that caused the Flood of Noah
  • Jesus fasted for 40 days in the wilderness before being tempted by Satan. Jesus remained on Earth for 40 days after his Resurrection, appearing to the Apostles and teaching them, before ascending to Heaven.

Three

  • Holy Trinity (Father, Son, Holy Ghost)
  • Satan tempts Jesus 3 times before giving up.
  • It is on the third day of creation that Earth is made.
  • Jesus rose from the dead on the third day
  • Jonah was in the belly of a great fish 3 days

Seven

  • Seven deadly sins - classification of vices that has been used since early Christian times to educate and instruct Christians concerning fallen humanity's tendency to sin. (wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony)
  • God spends 7 days creating the earth (7th day was a day of rest)