A Profusion of Allusions Abraham and Isaac-In Genesis (the first book of the Bible), Abraham was asked by God to sacrifice his beloved son, Isaac. Abraham made ready to obey. A the last moment, his hand was stayed by an angel. Isaac was spared and Abraham received the Lord’s blessing. This 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. Absalom– In Samuel II, Absalom was David’s favorite son who was killed in battle while attempting to usurp his father’s throne.David grieved: “O my son Absalom, my son, Absalom!” The world alludes to paternal grief and to a lost and faithless son.William Faulkner used Absalom! Absalom! As the title of the novel. Achilles: In Greek legend, Achilles was the hero of Homer’sIliadwho was the model of valor and the beauty. He slew the Trojan hero Hector but was himself invulnerable to wounds because his mother Thetis had held him by the heel and dipped him in the river Styx.Later he was slain by Paris who shot an arrow into his heel, which had not gotten wet. Today the term “Achilles’ heel” refers to the vulnerable part of a person’s character. Adonis- handsome young man; Aphrodite loved him. Agamemnon:In Greek mythology, he was the king who sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia to win the gods’ favor for war against Troy.Also the father of Orestes and Electra and an unfaithful husband of Clytemnestra. An Albatross around One’s Neck- sometimes used to mean an encumbrance, or a wearisome burden.It is an allusion to Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER. In the poem, an albatross starts to follow a ship ‚Äî being followed by an albatross was generally considered an omen of good luck. However, the ancient mariner shoots the albatross with a crossbow, which is regarded as an act that will curse the ship (which indeed suffers terrible mishaps). To punish him, his companions induce him to wear the dead albatross around his neck indefinitely (until they all die from the curse, as it happens).Thus the albatross can be both an omen of good or bad luck, as well as a metaphor for a burden to be carried (as penance). Alpha and Omega- The beginning and the end, from a quote in Revelations in the New Testament Antigone:Daughter of Oedipus who performed funeral rites over her brother Polynices in defiance of Creon’s order. Her story can be seen as a symbolic of the choice between the gods’ authority and civil authority. Apollo- a physically perfect male; the God of music and light; known for his physical beauty Argus-eyed- omniscient, all-seeing; from Argus, the 100-eyed monster that Hera had guarding Io Armageddon:In Revelation, which predicts apocalypse, Armageddon is the location of the final cosmic battle between the forces of good and evil.The term is often used in literature to refer to an apocalyptic climax, or to the time of judgment.
