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

latter was much easier to convey using signal fl ags.
En gland Expects that Every Man will Do His Duty
and Join the Army Today (World War I recruiting
poster).
Enid Blyton (eenid blitbn) Childish or sickly
sweet in character. <strong>The</strong> allusion is to the bestselling
children’s novels of the British writer Enid
Blyton (1897–1968), creator of such characters as
Noddy and the famous fi ve. Though decried by
critics and other adults for their simplistic, sentimental
style and unchallenging, unrealistic plots,
her stories were hugely pop u lar with children
around the world and are still widely read today.
That fi lm was a bit too Enid Blyton for me.
Enlightenment A liberal, tolerant mode of thinking.
<strong>The</strong> Enlightenment was an intellectual and literary
movement of the 17th and 18th centuries
that championed reason and freedom of thought
in preference to more restrictive traditional
approaches toward politics, religion, etc. Modern
Western civilization depends largely upon the ideals
of the Enlightenment, and the term is now
widely used in its allusive sense. This forwardlooking
policy is a product of modern Enlightenment
thinking.
Ennius (eneebs) Epithet sometimes applied to
a poet or writer considered to be the found er
of, or fi rst outstanding fi gure in, a nation’s literature.
<strong>The</strong> original Ennius (239–169 b.c.) was a
Roman writer who was dubbed the Father of
Roman Poetry by his admirers. Later writers considered
to share such a founding role included
En gland’s Layamon (fl . 1200) and Geoffrey Chaucer
(c.1340–1400), France’s Guillaume de Lorris
(fl . 1230) and Jean de Meun (c. 1240–c. 1305), and
Spain’s Juan de Mena (1411–56). Who is the Ger-
man Ennius? Wagner presumably thought it was Hans
Sachs.
Enoch (eenok) An upright, virtuous man.
According to Genesis 5:21–24, Enoch was the
father of Methuselah; he is described as one who
“walked with God.” Enoch and Elijah were both
taken away into the presence of God without
experiencing death (2 Kings 2:11; Hebrews 11:5).
“. . . I, in whose daily life you discern the sanctity
of Enoch—I, whose footsteps, as you suppose,
leave a gleam along my earthly track, whereby the
Pilgrims that shall come after me may be guided
to the regions of the blest” (Nathaniel Hawthorne,
<strong>The</strong> Scarlet Letter, 1850).
enter into one’s closet To retire to a private
place, especially for prayer or contemplation. <strong>The</strong>
phrase comes from Christ’s Sermon on the Mount,
as related in Matthew 6:6, in which Christ urges
the faithful to pray in private rather than in public,
where they may be tempted to do so only to
impress others: “. . . when thou prayest, enter
into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door,
pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father
which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” At
the bishop’s invitation the two men entered into his closet
so that their conversation might not be overheard.
Eos See aurora.
epicurean (epikyooreebn) Having a refi ned taste
in food and wine. <strong>The</strong> word alludes to the Greek
phi los o pher Epicurus (341–270 b.c.), who encouraged
his followers to indulge in simple pleasures
with moderation and self- control, although his
suggestion that the pursuit of plea sure is the primary
goal of life means that epicurean today is
often interpreted as signifying unrestricted
epicurean
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