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

in the shade / Or with the tangles of Neaera’s
hair?” ( John Milton, Lycidas, 1637).
amazon (ambzon) A large, robust, or aggressive
woman. <strong>The</strong> Amazons were, according to Greek
mythology, a race of warrior women who inhabited
Scythia, on the shores of the Black Sea. <strong>The</strong>y
were called Amazons (meaning “without breast”)
because of their practice of removing the right
breasts in order to facilitate the drawing of a bow.
<strong>The</strong>y only consorted with men for the purpose of
procreation. Led by their queen, Hippolyta, they
were renowned for their fi erceness in battle. <strong>The</strong>
Amazon River in South America is said to have
been so called by the Spanish explorer Francisco
de Orellana, who reported seeing female warriors
in the region in 1541. In 1997 the discovery in
southern Rus sia of ancient graves of what appeared
to be female warriors suggested a possible source
of the legend of the Amazons. In modern usage,
anyone with a clean- shaven face may be said to
have an Amazonian chin. I didn’t offer to break
down the door, since if the door needed breaking down
this amazon looked quite capable of doing the job
herself.
ambrosia (ambrozhb) A delicious or sweetsmelling
food. <strong>The</strong> allusion is to Greek mythology
and the belief that the gods on Olympus fed on
such food, which gave them immortality. “We
feasted that eve ning as on nectar and ambrosia”
(Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, 1847). See also
nectar.
Amelia Earhart (bmeeleeb erhahrt) <strong>The</strong> archetype
of an adventurous female aviator. Amelia Earhart
(1897–1937) was a U.S. pi lot who, in 1932,
became the fi rst woman to fl y solo across the Atlantic.
She is presumed to have died with her naviga-
America’s Sweetheart
tor after her aircraft went missing over the Pacifi c
during a round- the- world fl ight in 1937. Her
grandmother was an intrepid pi lot who earned a modest
reputation as a second Amelia Earhart without ever fl ying
outside her home continent.
American Dream <strong>The</strong> notion that the United
States is a land of freedom and opportunity for all
people, of what ever color, gender, religion, or
class. More cynical observers, however, tend to
associate the phrase with the disappointment of
naive optimism about what the United States really
has to offer. <strong>The</strong> phrase appears to have been in use
since at least the early years of the 20th century,
when hundreds of thousands of immigrants
fl ocked to the United States from all over the
world in search of better lives. His fi rst impression of
downtown Detroit sat uneasily with the image in his
head of the American Dream.
American Gothic That aspect of the American
provincial character that is stiff, conservative, and
narrow- minded. <strong>The</strong> allusion is to a famous painting
of the same title painted by Grant Wood
(1891–1942) in 1930, which depicts a stern- faced
pitchfork- wielding farmer and his wife before
their immaculate, white- painted home. Today, the
painting is celebrated as a satirical comment on
American provincial life, although Wood himself
protested that he was simply portraying the values
of the rural communities of Iowa in which he grew
up. <strong>The</strong> family represented to him all that was stifl ing
and hateful in American Gothic.
America’s Sweetheart An overly sweet girl. <strong>The</strong>
title was originally bestowed on silent- movie star
Mary Pickford (1892–1979), who was famed
throughout the world for her winning per formances
in the role of the pure, vulnerable young
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