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

they were ready to leave she was having to use
every ounce of effort to convince André that no,
she didn’t want to paint the town red, or any other
colour, for that matter, and no, she didn’t want to
have any candlelit dinners with him” (Cathy Williams,
A French Encounter, 1992).
palace guard See praetorian guard.
paladin (palbdin) A defender or champion of a
par tic u lar cause. <strong>The</strong> original paladins were the 12
legendary heroes who fought for the emperor
charlemagne (742–814), ruler of the Franks
and Holy Roman Emperor. <strong>The</strong>y represented the
highest ideals of chivalry and were prepared to
die in the struggle against wrong. “Edricson and
Terlake rode behind him in little better case,
while Ford, a careless and light- hearted youth,
grinned at the melancholy of his companions, and
fl ourished his lord’s heavy spear, making a point
to right and a point to left, as though he were a
paladin contending against a host of assailants”
(Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, <strong>The</strong> White Company,
1891). See also roland.
Palamedes (palbmeedeez) An ingenious person.
According to Greek legend Palamedes was a Greek
commander who persuaded the reluctant odysseus
to join the campaign against Troy. Odysseus
had feigned madness in order to excuse himself
from going, demonstrating his insanity by yoking
an ox and a horse to his plow and using them to
plow the sand with salt. Palamedes cleverly tricked
him into betraying his true state of mind by placing
Odysseus’s son, Telemachus, in the path of the
plow, obliging Odysseus to change course and thus
reveal his mastery of his senses. Odysseus eventually
got his revenge by framing Palamedes for
treachery and having him stoned to death. Other
alleged proofs of the ingenuity of Palamedes
included his invention of four letters of the Greek
alphabet as well as of the light house, scales, measures,
discus, and dice. Even as a research student he
established a reputation of being quite a Palamedes.
pale, beyond the See beyond the pale.
Palinurus (palinoorbs) A pi lot, especially one
who is careless or irresponsible. In Roman myth
and Virgil’s Aeneid, Palinurus served as helmsman
under Aeneas but was washed overboard after he
fell asleep and was murdered when he reached
land three days later. Like Palinurus, our pi lot was
more concerned with his own comfort than he seemed to
be with the safety of the vessel.
Pal Joey A calculating, worldly- wise opportunist.
<strong>The</strong> allusion is to the central character of the
book Pal Joey (1940) by the U.S. writer John
O’Hara (1905–70); the character was brought to
life in the 1940 Rodgers and Hart musical of the
same title based on the book. <strong>The</strong> 1957 fi lm version
starred Frank Sinatra in the title role. He had
all the cynicism of Pal Joey.
palladium (pblaydeebm) A safeguard; something
that gives protection. <strong>The</strong> original Palladium was a
wooden statue of Pallas Athena supposedly thrown
out of heaven by Zeus and retrieved by the Trojans.
Tradition had it that the safety of Troy
depended on the protection of this statue. It was
eventually stolen by Odysseus and Diomedes, and
the city fell to the Greeks. In modern usage the
term is typically applied to freedom of speech or
something else that is considered a guarantee of
the safety of a country or constitution. This mea sure
will act to some degree as a palladium against further
encroachments.
palladium
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