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

Popeye
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Popeye (popi) A man with superhuman
strength. <strong>The</strong> cartoon character Popeye made his
fi rst appearance in the comic strip Thimble <strong>The</strong>ater
in 1929 and went on to star in movie and tele vision
cartoons and even live- action movies. He
owes his extraordinary strength to his prodigious
consumption of tinned spinach, wears the bellbottomed
uniform of a sailor, and is rarely seen
without his pipe. He has a girlfriend called Olive
Oyl and an archenemy called Bluto. “A deepvoiced
character with fi ve o’clock shadow all over
his face and fi sts like Popeye the Sailor grabbed
the girl by her Indian beads and slammed her up
against the mantelpiece” (Kim Newman, Bad
Dreams, 1990).
Poppins, Mary See mary poppins.
pork barrel Legislation that directs federal funds
to local projects that just happen to benefi t the
district of the member of Congress who promoted
the mea sure in the fi rst place. <strong>The</strong> term dates back
to the custom of presenting slaves on southern
plantations with their allowance of pork in a barrel.
“Without close supervision the suggested cuts,
in par tic u lar, would fall victim to the machinations
of interest groups and the pork barrel orientations
of members of Congress” (David Mervin, Ronald
Reagan and the American Presidency, 1990).
Porlock, person from See person from porlock.
Porter, Jimmy See angry young man.
Porthos See three musketeers.
Portia See quality of mercy is not strained,
the; shylock.
Poseidon (pbsidbn) <strong>The</strong> god of the sea. In Greek
mythology Poseidon was one of the 12 gods of
Olympus and a brother of Zeus. As the ruler of the
oceans he was usually depicted with a trident and
usually described as being violent and ill tempered.
He was also feared as the god of earthquakes.
As far as anyone knows, both men were lost in
the realm of Poseidon when their ship found ered. See also
neptune.
postmillennialism See millennium.
Potemkin village (potemkin) A showy facade
that conceals an unattractive reality. <strong>The</strong> allusion is
to the Rus sian statesman Grigory Aleksandrovich
Potemkin (1739–91), who is said to have had cardboard
villages constructed to impress Catherine
the Great, during a royal visit to the Ukraine in
1787, with the improvements he had apparently
made. Sad to relate, the story is untrue. “<strong>The</strong>y
built manyattas, but were not to be found in them;
they were Potemkin manyattas, the real ones fl ourishing
in inaccessible places” (Kathryn Tidrick,
Empire and the En glish Character, 1992).
Potiphar’s wife (potifarz) A woman who gets
revenge on a man who has rejected her advances
by falsely accusing him of rape. Potiphar is
described in Genesis 37:36 as one of Pharaoh’s
offi cers who bought joseph as a slave and made
him overseer of his house hold. Potiphar’s wife
tried to seduce Joseph, but he refused her, so in a
rage she snatched some of his clothing and went to
her husband to complain that Joseph had raped
her, offering his clothing as corroborating evidence.
Potiphar believed his wife’s accusations, and Joseph
was thrown into prison (Genesis 39:7–20). “A
good house wife is of necessity a humbug; and
Cornelia’s husband was hoodwinked, as Potiphar