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

wealth) in her arms and sometimes with an olive
branch or cornucopia. <strong>The</strong> spirit of Irene reigned
in the negotiating chamber that afternoon, though in the
event this period of perfect harmony was to prove but
short- lived.
iris <strong>The</strong> colored part of the eye surrounding the
pupil and, by extension, the area surrounding a
source of illumination. <strong>The</strong> name comes from Iris,
the Greek goddess of the rainbow who is reputed
to have traveled between heaven and earth by
means of a rainbow in order to fulfi ll her role as
messenger of the gods. She was conventionally
depicted with wings on her shoulders and a herald’s
staff in her left hand. <strong>The</strong> name has also been
applied to a genus of plants notable for their
showy, brightly colored blooms and, poetically, to
the rainbow itself. “Filled with these thoughts—so
fi lled that he had an unwholesome sense of growing
larger, of being placed in some new and diseased
relation towards the objects among which
he passed, of seeing the iris round every misty
light turn red—he went home for shelter” (Charles
Dickens, Hard Times, 1854).
iron curtain An impenetrable barrier, especially
one involving military hardware. <strong>The</strong> phrase is
often attributed to British statesman Winston
Churchill, specifi cally to a speech made by him at
Fulton, Missouri, in 1946 in which he lamented
the division of Eu rope into two distinct blocs:
“From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic,
an iron curtain has descended across the continent.”
In fact, the same phrase had been used the
previous year by German propaganda minister
Joseph Goebbels in a similar context: “If the
German people lay down their arms, the agreement
between Roo se velt, Churchill, and Stalin
would allow the Soviets to occupy all eastern and
southeastern Eu rope, together with the major part
of the Reich. An iron curtain would at once
descend on this territory.” <strong>The</strong> expression also
cropped up elsewhere considerably before the war
years, the fi rst instance being in the earl of Munster’s
journal as early as 1819. <strong>The</strong>y did their best,
but there was no getting behind the iron curtain set in
place by the authorities. See also berlin wall.
iron fi st in a velvet glove, an Ruthlessness or
tyrannical rule disguised by a polite, soothing
manner. <strong>The</strong> phrase (sometimes also found in the
form an iron hand in a velvet glove) alludes to
the policies of Napoleonic France concerning conquered
territories in the early 19th century, and is
often attributed to napoleon himself, although
something similar may have been uttered at an
earlier date by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles
V. “When she later read (at Clare’s instigation) the
Pankhursts’ story, with the exhortation to suffragettes
to be ‘an iron fi st in a velvet glove,’ she immediately
linked that image with the symbol of
‘fi st- in- a-bag’ ” ( Jane Rogers, Her Living Image,
1990).
Isaac See abraham’s supreme test.
Isaiah (izayb) Archetypal prophet. <strong>The</strong> prophecies
of the biblical Isaiah are detailed in the Old
Testament book that bears his name. It describes
the threat of the Assyrian conquest and offers
promise to the exiles in Babylon and later a message
of hope to the Jews after they return from
exile. <strong>The</strong> old man stood at the doors of the theater like
some Isaiah, exhorting the crowd not to go in to witness
such a degrading spectacle.
Ishmael (ishmaybl) A social outcast. Ishmael
appears in the Bible as the son of Abraham and
Ishmael
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