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

once more, now we appear to be so near the Eldorado
of our wishes?” (James Fenimore Cooper, Jack
Tier, 1848).
Electra complex (blektrb) <strong>The</strong> subconscious sexual
attraction of a daughter to her father or a father
fi gure, often to the exclusion of the mother. This
Freudian concept takes its name from the Greek
myth about Electra, which was brought to life in
great dramas by Aeschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles.
Electra was the daughter of Agamemnon,
king of Mycenae, and Clytemnestra. Electra helped
her brother Orestes kill their mother and her lover
after Clytemnestra had murdered their father. She
gave up on her psychoanalyst and stormed off in a high
temper after he had the temerity to suggest she might be
suffering from some kind of an Electra complex. See also
oedipus complex.
elementary, my dear Watson <strong>The</strong> conclusion
reached is obvious. This somewhat overused
expression alludes to the detective stories of Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle, in which it is supposedly
said by his observant sleuth sherlock holmes to
his slower- witted companion doctor watson,
typically decrying the latter’s astonishment at the
detective’s brilliant deductive powers. In reality,
the phrase does not appear in its pop u lar form
anywhere in the Sherlock Holmes tales (although on
one occasion Holmes does remark “Elementary!”
to Watson, in the 1894 story “<strong>The</strong> Crooked Man”).
In its usual form the expression appears to date
back to the 1929 fi lm <strong>The</strong> Return of Sherlock Holmes,
which ends with the line “Elementary, my dear
Watson, elementary.” In modern usage, the phrase
is often employed with sarcastic intent after someone
has made a completely obvious connection. Of
course you have to turn the computer back on before the
new program is installed—elementary, my dear Watson!
Elephant Man A grotesquely ugly individual.
<strong>The</strong> original Elephant Man was Joseph Merrick
(1862–90), whose facial deformities (probably the
result of the rare Proteus syndrome) made him a
fairground attraction and the subject of considerable
interest to the medical establishment of 19thcentury
Britain. Awareness of the tragic life story
of Joseph Merrick grew with the release of the
1980 fi lm <strong>The</strong> Elephant Man, and unwittingly promoted
use of the epithet as a jocular insult directed
at anyone with less than perfectly attractive looks.
He asked her to go out with him, but she said she
wouldn’t be seen dead with the Elephant Man.
Eleusinian mystery (elyoosineebn) Any obscure
ritual or pro cess. <strong>The</strong> original Eleusinian mysteries
were the rituals observed in strict secrecy in honor
of the corn goddess Demeter and her daughter
Persephone at Eleusis, near Athens. Only the participants
knew what took place at the rituals. <strong>The</strong>
purpose of the rites was to ensure divine protection
of crops in the year ahead. <strong>The</strong> rituals, which also
had signifi cance for devotees of Dionysus, were
eventually abolished by the emperor <strong>The</strong>odosius
toward the end of the fourth century a.d. “<strong>The</strong>y
were, and felt themselves to be, the only true
depositaries left of certain Eleusinian mysteries, of
certain deep and wondrous ser vices of worship by
which alone the gods could be rightly approached”
(Anthony Trollope, Barchester Towers, 1857).
eleventh hour, at the See at the eleventh hour.
Elijah (blijb) A prophet, especially one who
foresees coming disaster. <strong>The</strong> biblical prophet Elijah
warned King Ahab of a forthcoming drought
(1 Kings 17:1) and mocked the king’s false prophets
(1 Kings 18:27) and their god Baal before fl eeing
the country. This Elijah on the loose stormed
Elijah
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