AP Literature Mythological Allusions Flashcards
Terms : Hide Images
| 3676983726 | Agamemnon | King who led Greeks against Troy in the Trojan War; to obtain fair winds, he sacrificed his daughter, Iphigenia. Murdered by his wife Clytemnestra after returning home. | 0 | |
| 3676984404 | Ambrosia | the food of the gods; those who ate it became immortal | 1 | |
| 3676984405 | Aurora | early morning or sunrise: from the Roman personification of Dawn or Eos. | 2 | |
| 3676985286 | Bacchanalian | pertaining to a wild, drunken party or celebration from the Greek/Roman god of wine, Dionysus/ Bacchus. | 3 | |
| 3676985287 | Brigadoon | a place that is idyllic, unaffected by time, or remote from reality; a mysterious Scottish village that appears for only one day every hundred years in the musical Brigadoon (1947). | 4 | |
| 3676985590 | Cassandra | a person who continuously 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. | 5 | |
| 3676985591 | Centaur | a monster that had the head, arms, and chest of a man, and the body and legs of a horse. | 6 | |
| 3676985868 | Charon | boatman who carried souls across the river Styx and into the underworld, Hades. | 7 | |
| 3676985869 | Chimera | a horrible creature of the imagination, an absurd or impossible idea; wild fancy; a monster with a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail, supposed to breathe fire. | 8 | |
| 3676986206 | Circe | powerful sorceress who turned people into swine. | 9 | |
| 3676986207 | Daedalus | a symbol of inventiveness; in mythology, the designer of the Labyrinth and one of the few to escape from it; father of Icarus. | 10 | |
| 3676986805 | Damocles, sword of | figuratively, an impending danger that causes anxiety. According to legend, Damocles frequently expressed his awe at the power and happiness of the king. The king, tired of flattery, invited him to a banquet, and seated him beneath a sword that was suspended from the ceiling by a single hair - demonstrating that kingship brought fears and worries as well as pleasure. | 11 | |
| 3676989164 | Elysian Fields | the place where souls of the good went after death: a peaceful, beautiful location, full of meadows, groves, sunlight, and fresh air. Figuratively, any place of supreme happiness and bliss. | 12 | |
| 3676989172 | Godiva, Lady | An English noblewoman of the 11th century. According to legend, she once rode naked on horseback through the streets of Coventry, England, covered only by her long hair. Her husband had imposed taxes on the people, and agreed to lift them if Godiva took the ride. | 13 | |
| 3676989743 | Gordian Knot | a complex knot tied by a Greek king; according to legend, whoever loosed it would rule all of Asia. Some accounts say that Alexander the Great undid the knot by cutting through it with the sword. Today, to "cut the Gordian knot" is to quickly solve a very complex problem. | 14 | |
| 3676989744 | Halcyon | calm, peaceful, tranquil; Archaic bird supposed to breed in a nest on the sea and calm the water, identified with the kingfisher. | 15 | |
| 3676990668 | Harpy | a predatory person or nagging woman; from harpy, a foul creature that was part woman, part bird. | 16 | |
| 3676990669 | Hydra-Headed | having many centers or branches, hard to bring under control; something bad you cannot eradicate; from Hydra, the 9-headed serpent that was sacred to Hera. Hercules killed him in one of the 12 labors. | 17 | |
| 3676991620 | Icarus | son of Daedalus; died while using the artificial wings, invented by his father, to escape the Labryinth. When he flew too close to the sun, it melted the wax that held the wings together and he fell to the earth. | 18 | |
| 3676991623 | Iridescent | a play of colors producing rainbow effects; from Iris, goddess of the rainbow. | 19 | |
| 3676992675 | Janus | Roman god of doors and gateways (beginnings); pictured with two faces looking in different directions, one old and one young. | 20 | |
| 3676992676 | Jovial | good humored; from the word Jove, used to express surprise or agreement (Jupiter). | 21 | |
| 3676995719 | La Llorona | legend of Mexico in which a woman drowns her children in order to be with the man she loves. When he rejects her, she kills herself. She is said to claim any children wandering near the river at night. | 22 | |
| 3676995720 | Leda and the Swan | story about the rape of Leda, a queen of Sparta, by Zeus, who had taken the form of a swan. | 23 | |
| 3676995721 | Lethargy | abnormal drowsiness or inertia; from the word Lethe, a river in Hades that caused drinkers to forget their past. | 24 | |
| 3676995722 | Mercurial | suddenly cranky or possessing changeable moods; of or relating to the Roman god Mercury. | 25 | |
| 3676996237 | Minotaur | half-man, half-bull born to the queen of Crete after she mated with a sacred bull. King Minos had Daedalus construct the Labryinth to hide the Minotaur. Theseus defeated the Minotaur by unspooling a ball of thread as he moved through the Labryinth; he killed the creature, using the thread to find his way out. | 26 | |
| 3676996238 | Mnemonics | a device used to aid memory; the personification of memory, Mnemosyne, gave birth to the nine Muses, who supposedly gave good memory in story telling. | 27 | |
| 3676996646 | Morphine | a bitter white, crystalline alkaloid used to relieve pain and induce sleep; Morpheus was the Roman god of sleep and dreams that could easily change form or shape. | 28 | |
| 3676996647 | Muse | some creature of inspiration; the nine daughters of Mnemosyne and Zeus, divine singers that presided over thought in all its forms. | 29 | |
| 3676999287 | Narcissism | being in love with one's self image; named for Narcissus, a handsome young man who despised love. Echo, a nymph who was in love with him, was rejected and decreed, "Let he who loves not others, love himself." Hearing this, he fell in love with his image, while gazing in a pond, and drowned himself trying to capture it. | 30 | |
| 3676999288 | Nemesis | one who inflicts due punishment or brings destruction or downfall; Greek goddess of vengeance who punishes crime and curbs excess (arrogant pride, etc). | 31 | |
| 3676999972 | Niobe | mournful woman; from Niobe, whose children were slain by Apollo and Artemis because of her bragging; the gods pitied her and turned her into a rock that was always wet from weeping. | 32 | |
| 3676999973 | Nymph | a beautiful or seductive woman; in mythology, a female spirit who lived in forests or bodies of water. | 33 | |
| 3677000944 | Orpheus and Eurydice | Orpheus was a great musician; when his wife, Eurydice, died, he traveled to Hades and asked that his wife be allowed to return to earth. Hades was moved and granted his request on the condition that Orpheus not look back at Eurydice until they left the underworld. Orpheus led Eurydice up from Hades, but at the last moment, he turned to look at her and she vanished forever. | 34 | |
| 3677000945 | Paean | a song of joy; a ritual epithet of Apollo the healer. In Homeric poems, an independent god of healing named Paean (or Paeon), who took care of Hades when he was wounded. | 35 | |
| 3677000946 | Pan | Greek god of flocks, forest, meadows, and shepherds; he had the horns and feet of a goat. His musical instrument was a set of reed pipes, the "Pipes of Pan." Fright at nighttime noises called "panic." | 36 | |
| 3677002070 | Pandora's Box | something that opens the door for bad occurrences; 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. | 37 | |
| 3677002071 | Phoenix | a symbol of immortality and rebirth; named after the mythological Egyptian phoenix, a bird which lived in the Arabian desert and then consumed itself in fire, rising renewed form the flame to start another long life. | 38 | |
| 3677003050 | 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. | 39 | |
| 3677003051 | Protean | taking many forms, versatile; named after Proteus, a god of the sea, charged with trending the flocks of the sea creatures belonging to Poseidon. He had the ability to change himself into whatever form he desired, using this power particularly when he wanted to elude those asking him questions. | 40 | |
| 3677003338 | Pyrrhic victory | a too costly victory; from Pyrrhus, a Greek king who defeated the Romans in 279 BC, but suffered extremely heavy losses in the fight. | 41 | |
| 3677004029 | Saturnalia | a period of unrestrained revelry; named after the ancient Roman festival of Saturn, with general feasting and revelry in honor of the winter solstice. | 42 | |
| 3677004030 | Saturnine | sluggish, gloomy, morose; inactive in winter months; named after the god Saturn and often associated with the god of the underworld. | 43 | |
| 3677004504 | Satyr/Faun | Greek/Roman creatures who were part man, part goat; companions of Dionysus, they were famous for being constantly drunk and chasing nymphs. | 44 | |
| 3677004505 | Sibyl | a witch or sorceress; a priestess who made known the oracles of Apollo and possessed the girt of prophecy. | 45 | |
| 3677004506 | Sirens | evil creatures who lived on a rocky island, singing in beautiful voices to lure sailors into shipwreck and death. Figuratively, a "siren" is a beautiful, tempting woman; a "siren song" is an irresistible distraction. | 46 | |
| 3677005395 | Sisyphean | greedy and avaricious; a difficult, but ultimately useless, task; from the shrewd and greedy king of Corinth, Sisyphus, who was doomed in Hades to forever roll uphill a heavy stone, which always rolled down again. | 47 | |
| 3677005396 | Stentorian | having a loud voice; after Stentor, a character in the Iliad who could shout as loudly as 50 men. | 48 | |
| 3677005760 | Stygian | dark and gloomy; named after the river Styx, a river in the Underworld. | 49 | |
| 3677005761 | Tantalize | to tempt with something desirable but unattainable. From King Tantalus, who was condemned to reside in a beautiful river with sumptuous fruits just out of reach and undrinkable water always tempting him. This was punishment for excessive pride. | 50 | |
| 3677007331 | Tiresias | the blind prophet who revealed the truth to Oedipus. According to Ovid, Tiresias spent part of his life as a man and part as a woman so he understood love from both sides. | 51 | |
| 3676994853 | La Llorona | 52 | ||
| 3676994854 | Leda and the Swan | 53 |
