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

which the inmates lived. <strong>The</strong>re was bedlam when the
stars appeared at the stage door.
bed of Procrustes See procrustean.
Beelzebub (beeelzebbb) A dev il, demon, or very
wicked person. Beelzebub is identifi ed in 2 Kings
1:2 as a god of the Philistines and is listed in the
Bible as one of the dev il’s closest allies—sometimes
his name is even used as a synonym for
satan. <strong>The</strong> word comes from the Hebrew ba’al
zebub (originally meaning “lord of the heavenly
habitation” but later reinterpreted as meaning
“lord of the fl ies”). “Had this history been writ in
the days of superstition, I should have had too
much compassion for the reader to have left him
so long in suspense, whether Beelzebub or Satan
was about actually to appear in person, with all his
hellish retinue; but as these doctrines are at present
very unfortunate, and have but few, if any
believers, I have not been much aware of conveying
any such terrors” (Henry Fielding, Tom Jones,
1749).
beer and skittles A comfortable situation, an
easy way of life. <strong>The</strong> allusion is to a proverbial
expression, “Life is not all beer and skittles.” <strong>The</strong>
skittles in question are those used in the British
game of ninepins. Life here is pretty good at the
moment, but it hasn’t all been beer and skittles since we
arrived.
before the Flood See fl ood.
be fruitful and multiply To prosper, usually as
mea sured by the production of offspring. <strong>The</strong>
phrase is a quotation from Genesis 1:28, in which
God commands Adam to “be fruitful, and multiply,
and replenish the earth.” It appears once again
behind the eight ball
in Genesis 9:1, in which God repeats the instruction
to Noah. <strong>The</strong> phrase is sometimes cited in
defense of arguments against contraception or
clerical celibacy. <strong>The</strong> expression is also found as go
forth and multiply, in allusion to God’s words to
Noah: ‘Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and
thy sons, and thy sons’ wives with thee. Bring
forth with thee every living thing that is with thee,
of all fl esh both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every
creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that
they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be
fruitful, and multiply upon the earth” (Genesis
8:16–17). <strong>The</strong> settlers took their duty to be fruitful and
multiply very seriously and within fi ve years their small
community had doubled in number.
beginning was the Word, in the See in the
beginning was the word.
behemoth (biheembth) A huge beast or thing.
<strong>The</strong> name appears in Job 40:15–24, where it
probably refers to a hippopotamus (although when
John Milton described the behemoth in Paradise
Lost he clearly had an elephant in mind). <strong>The</strong> word
itself comes from the plural form of the Hebrew
behemah (meaning “beast”). “Adolph tripped gracefully
forward, and Tom, with lumbering tread,
went after. ‘He’s a perfect behemoth!’ said Marie”
(Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, 1852).
See also leviathan.
behind the eight ball In an awkward, even dangerous
position. <strong>The</strong> allusion is to pool, in which
the black eight ball (distinguished by a white
number eight) should not be pocketed until the
end of the game. A player is disadvantaged, therefore,
if the eight ball lies in front of the ball he or
she wishes to pocket and is thus in danger of
being pocketed out of order. When the project
45