The Facts on File Dictionary of Allusions - Green Valley High School

and people of Judah as a whole (for example, Isaiah
10:24; 51:11, 16; and 59:20). <strong>The</strong> phrase
Daughter(s) of Zion meant Jerusalem and its
inhabitants, both male and female (see Isaiah 1:8
and Song of Solomon 1:5). Sometimes, confusingly,
other parts of Jerusalem were also referred
to as Zion, as is the case in Joel 3:17 and 21, which
is actually indicating the Temple Mount. Zion has
signifi cance for Christians and Jews. For Christians,
it signifi es the church of God or the kingdom
of heaven (as in Isaiah 4:2–6, Hebrews 12:22,
and Revelation 14:1). For Jews, as early as the
destruction of the fi rst Temple and the exile of the
Jews to Babylonia (586 b.c.), it expressed the
yearning of the Jewish people for their homeland.
Most famously this use of Zion appears in Psalm
137: “. . . we wept when we remembered Zion.”
This longing to return also found expression in
Jewish prayer, which sometimes refl ects the belief
that God’s presence has also been exiled from
Zion. For example, one of the prayers said three
(or more) times a day has, “Let our eyes behold
Your return in mercy to Zion.” <strong>The</strong> term Zionism
fi rst appeared in the 19th century. It encapsulated
the idea of building up the land and the people and
mostly referred to the movement to enable Jews
in the diaspora to return to the land of Israel.
Here, again, Zion represented Israel. <strong>The</strong> Zionist
movement has taken many forms, and the term
Zionist is shared by organizations with varying
emphases in their po liti cal philosophies. Labor
Zionists, for example, focus on Jewish selfdetermination
and self- development. Religious
Zionists focus on the land of Israel as a gift from
God and the responsibility of Jews to fulfi ll God’s
commandments in the land of Israel, including the
commandment to inhabit the land. Since the creation
of the state of Israel, Zionism has concentrated
on the defense and development of Israel
and continues as a movement for the upbuilding of
the land and people. “Glorious things of thee are
spoken, / Zion, city of our God! . . . / Blest
inhabitants of Zion, / Washed in the Redeemer’s
blood— . . . / Saviour, if of Zion’s city / I through
grace a member am, . . . / Solid joys and lasting
trea sure / None but Zion’s children know” ( John
Newton, “Glorious things of thee are spoken,”
Olney Hymns, 1779).
Zoilus (zoylbs) A spiteful critic. <strong>The</strong> allusion is
to a Greek rhetorician of the name who lived in the
fourth century b.c. and became notorious for his
witty, biting remarks about the works of Isocrates,
Plato, and Homer, among others, earning him the
nickname “the Thracian Dog.” It was specifi cally
for his attacks on Homer’s epics that he earned
yet another moniker: “Homeromastix” (Homer’s
scourge). His most outrageous remarks concerning
the writings of Homer included his dismissive
description of the companions of Ulysses on the
island of Circe as “weeping porkers.” “<strong>The</strong> duty of
the critic is to act as judge, not as enemy, of the
writer whom he reviews; a distinction of which the
Zoilus of the Messenger seems not to be aware”
(Edgar Allan Poe, Criticism, 1850).
zombie A dull- witted person. <strong>The</strong> allusion is to
the undead zombies supposedly raised by voodoo
magic. Zombie was originally the name of a python
god worshipped by various West African tribes.
“You wouldn’t want to lay the family heirloom on
a horse ridden by a zombie, would you?” ( John
Francome, Stone Cold, 1990).
Zorro (zoro) An expert swordsman. <strong>The</strong> allusion
is to the black- masked, black- caped hero of
stories written by Johnson McCulley, the fi rst of
which appeared in 1919. <strong>The</strong>y have since been
Zorro
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