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

Troilus and Cressida
476
60 b.c. “He showed her a letter which he was
about to dispatch to Robespierre himself, vindicating
his suspected patriotism, and indignantly
demanding to be allowed to prove it by fi lling some
offi ce, no matter how small, under the redoubtable
triumvirate which then governed, or more properly
terrifi ed, France” (Wilkie Collins, After Dark,
1856).
Troilus and Cressida (troylbs, kresidb) Archetypal
tragic lovers. According to Homer’s Iliad
(c. 700 b.c.), Troilus was the youn gest son of King
Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy and died in the
course of the Trojan War. His romance with Cressida
was a later invention of around the fourth or
fi fth century a.d. subsequently elaborated by medieval
writers. “ ‘Troilus loved and he was fooled,’
said the more manly chaplain. ‘A man may love and
yet not be a Troilus. All women are not Cressids ’ ”
(Anthony Trollope, Barchester Towers, 1857).
Trojan (trojbn) A hard- working, determined,
or otherwise reliable person. <strong>The</strong> Trojans were
much respected for their courage in battle, as evidenced
in the course of the lengthy Trojan War
against the Greeks, as related in Homer’s Iliad
(c. 700 b.c.) and Virgil’s Aeneid (30–19 b.c.). <strong>The</strong>
word, occasionally has other connotations: In William
Shakespeare’s day it could be used as a synonym
for a robber or dissolute rogue. He worked like
a Trojan until dawn broke and the danger had passed.
Trojan horse (trojbn) A deception designed to
undermine an enemy from within. <strong>The</strong> allusion is
to the wooden horse with which the Greeks
achieved the fi nal overthrow of Troy at the conclusion
of the Trojan War. According to Homer (in the
Iliad, c. 700 b.c.) and Virgil (in the Aeneid, 30–19
b.c.), the Greeks built a large, hollow wooden
horse and fi lled it with warriors before making a
pretense of leaving their camps around Troy and
sailing away. <strong>The</strong> Trojans, fooled into thinking the
horse was an offering to the goddess Athena,
dragged it within their walls. After dark the
Greek warriors poured out of the horse and
sacked the city. In modern usage a Trojan horse
usually refers to an apparently harmless gift
through which an enemy may be defeated or disrupted.
<strong>The</strong> term has par tic u lar relevance in
computer circles, where it can refer to an apparently
innocent program or system that subsequently
releases a damaging computer virus. “A
‘Trojan horse’ cancer treatment that slips inside
tumour cells and destroys them with radiation
has been successfully tested in the U.S.” (Times,
November 16, 2001). See also beware of greeks
bearing gifts.
Trophonius See cave of trophonius.
Trump, Last See last trump.
truth?, What is See what is truth?
truth shall make you free, the Knowledge of the
truth is the key to salvation. <strong>The</strong> sentiment is biblical
in origin, appearing in John 8:31–32, in which
Christ promised the Jews that if they obeyed his
word, they would be his true disciples. Such
knowledge—God’s revelation of his truth—would
set them free from sin: “If ye continue in my word,
then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know
the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” “ ‘Well,
if you won’t accept Tennyson as an authority, perhaps
you will believe the words of a Greater than
he,’ said Gilbert seriously. “ ‘Ye shall know the truth
and the truth shall make you free.” I believe that,
Anne, with all my heart. It’s the greatest and grand-