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

Heidi, and Mum and I did my pigtails” ( Johnathan
Neale, <strong>The</strong> Laughter of Heroes, 1993).
heil Hitler (hil hitler) Salutation implying that
someone is behaving in a dictatorial manner. <strong>The</strong>
phrase (German for “hail Hitler”) was routinely
chanted by the Nazi hirelings of Adolf hitler in
the 1930s and 1940s, often with the right arm
raised in the Nazi salute. Nowadays, the phrase is
commonly addressed to anyone who is felt to be
throwing his or her weight around in an unwarranted
fashion. As the managing director swept out
with his entourage one of the ju nior secretaries was
heard to breathe “Heil Hitler.”
Helen of Troy (helbn, troi) Archetype of a beautiful
woman, especially one whose beauty infl uences
the course of events. <strong>The</strong> daughter of Zeus
by Leda, Helen was the sister of Clytemnestra,
Castor, and Pollux and won admiration as the most
beautiful woman in the world. Many men competed
for her hand, and it was agreed that whoever
was successful would win the right to be
defended by all the others. Menelaus of Sparta was
the lucky suitor, but after a few years of marriage,
she was abducted and carried off by Paris to Troy.
<strong>The</strong> Greeks banded together to reclaim her and
laid siege to Troy. After 10 years Troy fell, and
Helen was restored to Menelaus in Sparta. Her
beauty is legendary, and hers is often said to be
“the face that launched a thousand ships,” a
quotation from the play Doctor Faustus (1604) by
Christopher Marlowe. She may have looked like a
real Helen of Troy, but she was the loneliest woman I
ever met.
Helicon (helikon) A source of artistic inspiration.
According to Greek mythology, Mount Helicon
in Boeotia was the home of the muses. Its
features included the spring of Aganippe and the
fountain of Hippocrene, whose waters are supposed
to give poetic inspiration to those who
drink from them. “O for a beaker full of the warm
South, / Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene”
(John Keats, “Ode to a Nightingale,” 1819).
Helios (heeleebs, heeleeos) Personifi cation of the
Sun. Helios was the sun god of Greek mythology,
equivalent to the Roman Sol, and was conventionally
depicted driving his chariot from east to west
across the sky, pulled by four white horses. Helios
was directly overhead, and there was little shade from his
blazing heat to be had anywhere.
hell A place of suffering or other unpleasantness.
According to Christian tradition, hell is the
place of eternal punishment intended for Satan,
his demons, and human beings who choose to
reject God. It is conventionally depicted as a vast
burning pit; in Revelation 19:20 it is described as
“a lake of fi re burning with brimstone.” “For them
Methodisses make folks believe as if they take a
mug o’ drink extry, an’ make theirselves a bit
comfortable, they’ll have to go to hell for’t as
sure as they’re born” (George Eliot, Adam Bede,
1859).
Hellespont (helbspont) <strong>The</strong> strait (presently
called the Dardanelles) that separates Eu rope from
Asia in Turkey and connects the Sea of Marmora
with the Aegean Sea. Its name (meaning “sea of
Helle”) is an allusion to an episode in the story of
the Golden Fleece, in which a girl named Helle
falls into this body of water from the back of an
airborne golden ram as she fl ees from her motherin-
law, Ino, and is drowned. I believe he would have
swum the Hellespont to be with her, if only he had known
what had happened. See also hero and leander.
Hellespont
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