Well-Known Allusions

[The City Manager]

I'm looking for help in compiling a list of well-known allusions, or what might be called (for lack of a better tern) principles.

An allusion is a figure of speech that makes a reference or representation of or to a well-known person, place, event, literary work, myth, or work of art.

Some examples of what I'm talking about are:

Occam's razor (sometimes spelled Ockham's razor)
The Gordian Knot
Hobson's Choice

If you can think of others. please add them in reply to this post.

[Black Angel]

The only ones I know off the top of my head are achillies heel.. which usually means weakness.. nemesis, which refers to someone who is your even match, can of worms, I think it means mass-confusion and complication, pandora's box, I think that would be similar to a can of worms, just on a more serious note.. herculian, as in herculian effort, playing cupid which means to set people up in a romantic setting.. white whale, from moby dick..

but I did find these..

www.laflemm.com/RfT/AllusionsHandout.html

www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0934910.html

do these help any?

[The City Manager]

Sept 30, 2008 6:55:25 GMT -5 Black Angel said:

do these help any?

Bravo! Yes, they do.