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

solve the riddle What creature goes on four legs
in the morning, two legs at noon, and three in the
eve ning? Those who got the answer wrong suffered
instant death, but if someone answered correctly,
the Sphinx’s power would be destroyed.
Oedipus correctly identifi ed the answer as “man,”
because he crawls as a child, walks as an adult, and
proceeds with the aid of a staff in old age. Oedipus
thus saved the city and won the hand of Queen
Jocasta, at the time ignorant of the fact that she
was his mother (see oedipus complex). “<strong>The</strong>
Interviewer had attempted the riddle of the
Sphinx, and had failed to get the fi rst hint of its
solution” (Oliver Wendell Holmes, A Moral Antipathy,
1885).
riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma An
impenetrable mystery. This is a quotation from a
speech by British statesman Winston Churchill
(1874–1965) broadcast on October 1, 1939, referring
specifi cally to the unknowable nature of Russian
policy in the early stages of World War II.
<strong>The</strong> term has continued to be applied to Rus sia
ever since, although it has also been used in many
other contexts. Why your father ever married your
mother remains a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an
enigma.
ride off into the sunset To leave the scene; to
depart. <strong>The</strong> allusion is to Western movies of the
1930s and 1940s, which not infrequently ended
with just such an image of the hero riding away
into a glorious sunset. <strong>The</strong> news is that the old man
has ridden off into the sunset for the last time.
ride shotgun To act as guard over something as is
being taken from one place to another. <strong>The</strong> allusion
is to the days when people and valuables being
carried in stagecoaches were protected from any
threat by an armed guard, who typically occupied
the seat next to the coachman. In modern usage,
the term is sometimes applied to any person who
sits next to the driver of a vehicle. <strong>The</strong> army has
provided men to ride shotgun with UN convoys bringing
humanitarian aid to the refugee camps on the border.
right hand offend thee See if thy right eye
offend thee.
right stuff, the Courage; reliability; toughness.
This was originally army slang, dating from at least
the 1930s and possibly ultimately of 19th- century
origin, but it became more widely familiar after it
appeared as the title of a 1979 book by U.S. writer
Tom Wolfe (b. 1931) about the fi rst U.S. astronauts.
“If you all get on well and are prepared to
make the same sacrifi ces to succeed, you might
just be ‘the right stuff’ ” (Norton York, <strong>The</strong> Rock
File, 1991).
Riley, life of See life of riley.
Ripper See jack the ripper.
Rip Van Winkle
Rip Van Winkle (winkbl) Archetype of a person
who is evidently completely out of touch with the
surrounding world or contemporary events. <strong>The</strong>
allusion is to a story by U.S. writer Washington
Irving (1783–1859), fi rst published in <strong>The</strong> Sketch
Book (1819–20). Irving’s Rip Van Winkle is the
henpecked husband of a nagging wife, who goes
to sleep for 20 years after sharing a drink with
gnomes in the Catskill Mountains. When he wakes
up, having slept right through the death of his wife
and the fi ghting of the American Revolution, he is
astonished to find the world greatly changed.
“In 1958 Harold Macmillan called him Rip Van
Winkle, because he talked about the ‘Concert of
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