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

y their fruits ye shall know them
70
(F. Selwyn, Hitler’s En glishman, 1987). See also mad,
bad, and dangerous to know.
by their fruits ye shall know them See false
prophet.
by the rivers of Babylon (babilon) In exile from
a cherished but far- distant place or time. <strong>The</strong>
phrase comes from Psalm 137:1, in which the
Israelites in exile in Babylon lamented their lost
homeland of zion: “By the rivers of Babylon, there
we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered
Zion.” <strong>The</strong> refugees, like the Israelites who wept by the
rivers of Babylon, were inconsolable in their lamentations
for their lost homeland.
by the skin of one’s teeth See skin of one’s
teeth, by the.
Byzantine (bizbnteen; bizbntin) Labyrinthine,
intricate, convoluted, complicated. <strong>The</strong> allusion is
to the intrigue and deviousness that characterized
po liti cal and bureaucratic dealings in the Byzantine
Empire between the time of its foundation in
the fourth century a.d. and its dissolution upon
invasion by the Turks in 1453. It took the detectives
some considerable time to unravel the Byzantine convolutions
of the case, but in due course they conceded
reluctantly that they had been pursuing the wrong
man.