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| a character who never lacks a sort of blind optimism; from the novel "Pollyanna," in which the 11 year old protagonist constantly looks on the bright side; often used mockingly today |
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| "albatross around one's neck" |
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| a burden that truly prevents further progress; a reference to the sailor in 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," who killed the lucky albatross bird and was forced to wear it's carcass by his own crew |
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| a bargain made rashly and with only short-term rewards; from the play "Doctor Faustus," in which the main character trades his previously immortal soul for the fulfillment of a passing desire |
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| someone who has no interest in a given culture, also often called a "Philistine;" alluding to the simpleminded businessman in the novel "Babbitt" |
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| a hypocrite; from the french play "Le Tartuffe, ou, l'imposteur," in which a conman pretends to be an intensely religious man in order to work his schemes |
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| a daydreamer who spends his time placing himself into other peoples' roles; reference to a short story called "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" |
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| a so-called "womanizer;" a character from the play "The Fair Penintent" |
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| when a word is accidentally replaced by a similar sounding word with an entirely different meaning; referring to Mrs. Malaprop, of the staged comedy "The Rivals" |
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| an underage, promiscuous girl; from the controversial novel "Lolita," in which a middle-aged professor falls for a 12-year-old |
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| a timid character, from the cartoon "The Timid Soul;" also refers to "milktoast," a bland, unpleasant food |
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| someone who hypnotizes others entirely without their knowledge; originally named after the evil impresario in the novel "Trilby" |
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| the narrator of the famous Persian epic "One Thousand and One Nights;" the Persian empress |
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| refers to the vicious slave owner from "Uncle Tom's Cabin;" often represents greed in modern contexts |
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| often used today to describe a lose-lose situation, or a self-terminating paradox; based on the satirical war novel "Catch 22," which chronicles a fictional army at war |
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| nightmare-like, or defying normal logic; alludes to czech surrealist writer Franz Kafka's stories of terror and fantastical horrors |
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| a dutiful servant; as in the man found on a Friday and hired by protagonist "Robinson Crusoe" to be his personal assistant |
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| dishonest/hypocritical suck up; named after the clerk character in "David Copperfield," who secretly, slowly destroys the business she works for from inside |
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| often used to describe a young boy who is either a member of aristocratic society or dresses like he is; refers to seven-year-old Cedric from the book of the same name |
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| from the famous poem; expresses the author's philosophy that societal evils will dissolve with time, and that human nature is ever-changing and prone to revolution |
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| refers to one who is remarkably creative, after the Greek god whose name comes from their word meaning "forethought" and who is said to have created the first human out of clay |
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| retribution/enemy/deliverer of revenge; named after the Greek goddess of retribution, who enacted the wrath of the heavens on mortals who had angered her |
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| the daughter of Gaia and Okeanos, and the most well-known of the three Gorgons; once beautiful, but made horrendously ugly by Athena after taunting her; today a medusa often refers to a character with crazy hair, resembling her mane of live snakes, or makes the same sort of sharp serpentine movements |
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| fruitless or pointless; named after the mythological character Sisyphus, who was condemned to push a boulder up a steep hill every day for the rest of eternity as a punishment from the Gods |
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| a mythical creature resembling a fiery eagle, which has the ability to rise from the ashes of itself and regenerate after dying an almost unlimited amount of time |
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| a term used to describe a riotous, extravagant behavior; derived from the supposed intoxicated mass orgies that took place in ancient Rome in celebration of the god Dionysis, the god of wine |
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| an implausible whim; also a fire-breathing creature cited many times in greek mythology, which supposedly had different body parts resembling those of a lion, a goat, and a serpent |
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| an obsessive love for oneself; named after Narcissus, a character who supposedly fell in love with his reflection in a lake, and, in attempting to embrace himself, fell in and drowned |
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| to tempt someone else with something they desire; comes from the word Tantalus, the name of Zeus' son who was condemned to hell after stealing his father's favorite pet |
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| "avenging spirits," known also by the names Erinyes and Eumenedies; three sister creatures who sought to punish mortals who hadn't been fairly punished for their crimes; it was thought unlucky to refer to them by the name "The Furies" {like he-who-must-not-be-named} :) |
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| comparable as an expression to the phrase "can of worms;" when opened by the young beautiful Pandora of Greek legend, it released all the evil, disease, and darkness into the universe |
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| a seductive creature with malicious intent; originally depicted in Homer's "Odyssey" as mermaid-like creatures who lure sailors to their demise with their tempting song |
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| to "cut the gordian knot" alludes to the action of taking a simple solution and fixing a complicated issue with it; alludes to the knot Gordius used to tie his wagon to his cart; it was said that anyone who could figure out how to untie the complex ball of ropes would be the ruler of all of Asia |
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| an impending threat; originates from the story of Damocles and his dinner with Dionysis, during which a sword was hung by a single hair over his head the entire meal, to teach him of the danger that comes with Dionysis' rule over Syracuse, which he so envies |
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| ones who prophesises doom but is ignored, and is later proven to have been correct; referring to the prophet who predicted the fall of Troy and later Agememnon's death, but was punished with the curse of never being believed in her visions |
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| "the Electra complex" refers to the phenomenon of a daughter being sub-conciously attracted to her father; named so after the story of Electra, daughter of Agememnon, who killed her mother |
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| "an Oedipal complex" is when a son is unknowingly attracted to his mother and has a resulting mild hatred for his father; from the story of Oedipus, which we all know quite well. :) |
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| a victory in which the costs of winning outweigh the rewards; named after Pyrrhus, the king of a territory near Rome, who waged a long battle against the empire which eventually ended with infinitely more lost than gained. |
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| one who creates someone else, either literally or metaphorically, and feels a sort of obsessive pride about it; Pygmalion, according to greek mythology, sculpted his idea of the perfect women, which angered Aphrodite, who made him fall in love with his creation as punishment |
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| changeable; referring to the God Proteus, who could change form at will |
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| a wise prophet; first featured as a character in stories of Oedious, Zeus and Hera, etc.; commonly portrayed as blind |
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| synonymous with disorder; named after a nature-loving greek God who frequently tortured humans lost in the wilderness |
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| a woman seduced by Zeus when he had taken the form of a swan, who later laid two eggs as a result; describes someone who is unaware of their own attachment to something or someone else |
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