AP English 11 / 12
Mr. Michael Lutz, WakefieldHigh School
Note to teachers: This document is intended as a resource for literary study. Teachers can direct students to this text to clarify contextual allusions found in their studies. As an independent reading supplement, students can read the context of the original myth and make independent connections to class work. I have included citations, should students need to read the original texts. As this project required extensive research on my part, I ask that I receive credit through a proper notation when taking reference from this source.
A Reader’s Reference of Biblical / Mythological / Legendary Allusions
Literature, especially that of the West, has been extremely affected by the Judeo-Christian and ancient mythological influences. From Geoffrey Chaucer and Shakespeare to John Gardner, T. S. Eliot and even Stephen King, authors commonly make references to characters and stories from the Bible and Roman and Greek myths, among other ancient texts. They do so to incorporate a richer meaning and a layer to their texts that you, the reader, bring with your understanding of the allusions. These citations are culture-specific and should be studied and read as literature.
The AP College Board states in their course description, “Because the Bible and Greek and Roman mythology are central to much Western literature, students should have some familiarity with them. These religious concepts and stories have influenced and informed Western literary creation since the Middle Ages, and they continue to provide material for modern writers in their attempts to give literary form to human experience.”
Below is a list (by no means exhaustive) of the more frequently utilized names / stories / references. Following some entries are notations of context and possibly titles in which these are seen. Familiarizing yourselves with these will make you a stronger reader, and adding to it will earn accolades and extra credit!
I.The Bible
- The Old Testament
1. The Garden of Eden (Genesis): This is the first book of the Bible, in which is told how God created the earth and the heavens in six days and rested on the seventh. Man’s name was Adam, and his companion, Eve, was fashioned from mud and one of Adam’s ribs. They lived in the sanctuary of the Garden of Eden, where they were free to roam naked among the animals and the forest. They were restricted only from eating from a single tree in the center of the Garden, an apple tree. Eve is tempted by the devil, Lucifer, or Satan, into eating the apple to gain God’s knowledge. She persuades Adam to eat with her, and God banishes them from the Garden. This act of defiance is referred to as “Original Sin” and brought with it mortality and a sense of shame.
2. Cain and Abel (Genesis): Adam’s and Eve’s sons, Cain and Abel, vie for their parents’ and God’s attention. In a fit of jealousy, Cain murders Abel and is cursed with the murderer’s mark on his forehead. He is sentenced to wander the earth alone until he dies.
3. Noah and the flood (Genesis): Noah and his family are warned by God that he intends to destroy the sinful people of the earth. They are instructed to build an enormous boat, called an ark, and to gather two of every creature. They do so to the ridicule of their neighbors, and when the destructive rains come they alone are spared. After forty days and nights of rain, Noah sends a dove out to see if it finds land. It returns with a tiny olive tree twig in its beak – a sign that God’s wrath has passed.
4. The Tower of Babel (Genesis): The people of the world at that time all spoke the same language. In Babylon (now Iraq), the masses gathered to build a huge tower that would reach up to the heavens so that they would gain fame. God was angered at their conceited pride (their hubris) and cursed them by scattering them among different languages. This divided the people and stopped their project. Hence the word babble.
5. Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis):There were two sister cities of these names that were reputed to be full of people engaging in disgusting and immoral acts. God destroyed the cities by raining fire upon them. Hence the word sodomy.
6. Abraham (Genesis): Abraham is blessed with many sons. It is his progeny that will go forth to become the Jewish nation, Israel.
7. Rachel and Leah (Genesis): Sisters and cousins of Jacob, who falls in love with Rachel and serves as servant to her father for seven years so that he may marry her. However, at the end of the allotted time, Laban, Rachel’s father, sends the elder sister, Leah, in to Jacob’s bed since she is the firstborn and should marry first. Jacob strikes a deal to serve seven more years and is granted Rachel’s hand as well. God sees that Jacob loves Rachel and hates Leah and strikes Rachel with barrenness while Leah conceives four sons, hoping each time that Jacob will love her. Rachel was beside herself for children, and she sends her handmaid into Jacob’s bed, from which she bears two sons. Now Leah is jealous, so she likewise sends her handmaid to Jacob’s bed to father two sons. After Leah bears another son and a daughter, Rachel finally gives birth to two sons, Joseph and Benjamin. Rachel is the archetypal grieving mother who longs to love children she can call her own. “It is Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted for her children, because they are no more” (Jr. 31:15). [See Moby Dick’s ship The Rachel, see Jacob Have I Loved]
8. Joseph and his brothers (Genesis): Sons of Jacob (later called Israel) and Rachel, great-grandsons of Abraham, these men fathered the twelve tribes of Israel.
9. Moses’s rescue and childhood (Exodus): The Egyptian king, Pharaoh, was afraid of the growing population of the nation of Israel, whose people were living in Egypt, and he devised a plan to oppress them by enslaving them and by killing all the newborn boys. A Hebrew, or Jewish, woman gave birth to a son and feared his execution, so to save him she placed him in a basket made of reeds and floated him down the river where Pharaoh’s daughter was bathing. Pharaoh’s daughter adopts him and raises him as her own.
10. Moses and the Burning Bush (Exodus): Moses sympathizes with his countrymen, the Hebrews, and intercedes to stop an Egyptian from beating a slave. Moses kills the Egyptian then flees from Pharaoh’s wrath. He escapes to nearby Midian, where he is mistaken for an Egyptian. He settles in with a family and marries Zipporah. Some time later, Moses is tending sheep when God calls to him from a bush that is on fire without being consumed. God tells him to return to Egypt and free the Hebrew people.
11. Moses and the plagues (Exodus): Moses returns to Egypt as the representative of the Hebrew people. He demands that Pharaoh free the Jews. When Pharaoh refuses, God sends a series of plagues upon the Egyptian nation, including the water turning to blood, infestation of frogs, infestation of mosquitoes, infestation of flies, death of livestock, infectious boils, hail, locusts, and darkness. The final plague is the death of every first-born male. God spares the Hebrews this judgment, but they must mark their doors with the blood of a lamb so that the angel of death passes over them. Hence begins the Jewish holiday, Passover.
12. Moses and the Red Sea (Exodus): Pharaoh reluctantly agrees to release the Hebrews, and they begin their journey to Canaan, referred to as “the land of milk and honey.” This verbiage has come to represent any paradise land. Once the Hebrews depart, Pharaoh changes his mind and sends an army to slaughter all 600,000 of them. When the Egyptians catch up to them, the Hebrews are on the shores of the Red Sea. Moses parts the sea, and the Jews cross safely to the other side. The army hastily gives chase, but the walls of the sea close down upon them, destroying them.
13. Moses and the Ten Commandments (Exodus): It takes the Hebrew people forty years of wandering in the desert to find their place to call home. During this time, they are fed each morning by finding manna, a strange bread-like substance that covers the ground like dew, and in the evenings quails miraculously flew into the camp. Today people might say, “Like manna from heaven…” to refer to a windfall or an unexpected blessing. God calls Moses to the top of Mount Sinai and gives him two stone tablets on which are recorded the Ten Commandments. In the meantime, the Hebrews have fallen away from God’s rules and have created a golden calf to worship. When Moses comes down from the mountain and sees their heretical behavior, he breaks the stone tablets on the ground.
14. The walls of Jericho (Joshua): During their days of wandering, the Hebrew people come to Jericho, a city that is barricaded and at war. God tells Joshua, the Hebrew leader, that he will give the Jews the city. They surround the city and blare ram’s horns and war cries, which topple the city’s walls.
15. Samson and the Philistines (Judges): Samson was the judge in Israel and lived among the Philistines, known for their course and callous ways. With the jawbone of an ass, he once slew 1000 enemies who attacked him.
16. Samson and Delilah (Judges): Samson falls in love with a woman named Delilah, who sought to find the secret to his strength and thereby kill him. She gives him a series of taunting, tempting questions to get to his secret and puts him to the test by binding him to see if he can escape. Hidden guards attack him, but he snaps the bindings and survives. Eventually he tells her that his strength is in his hair, and she lulls him to sleep and orders his head shaved. The Philistines bind him and gouge out his eyes, then enslave him and force him to turn a mill. When his hair grows back, he calls upon God to punish the Philistines, who were a pagan people. With his bare hands, he pushes down the pillars of their temple, killing himself and all the people there.
17. David and Goliath (Samuel): Young David and the Philistines are at war, and the Philistines have the upper hand. The Hebrew king Saul is at a loss as to how to defeat the Philistine giant, Goliath, who stands nearly 13 feet tall. Goliath continually taunts the Hebrews and has proven himself practically undefeatable in battle. As the war wages on, Goliath brags and taunts the Hebrews, offering an end to the war altogether if any single warrior can defeat him in battle. Of course no one volunteers to die, except a young shepherd boy named David from Bethlehem. Saul offers David his own armor, which David refuses, choosing to rely on his faith in God instead. As he squares off against Goliath, David fills his sling with a single stone and fells charging Goliath by hitting him squarely in the forehead. The war thus ends, and David goes on to become king of Judah.
18. Absalom’s rebellion (Samuel): King David’s son Absalom avenges the rape of his sister, Tamar, by his half-brother, brother, Amnon, by murdering him and fleeing for his safety. After several years, David’s counselors arrange to have Absalom return safely. For two years the king refuses to see Absalom, whose frustration brings him to set fire to fields until he is admitted. Finally, King David pardons him, but Absalom’s heart had grown dark. Standing guard on the roads into the city, he turns away anyone going to the king for justice, saying that no one will see them but that he is willing to judge if only the king would grant him that role. In this way, Absalom wins the favor of the tribes of Israel, and he gets permission to go to Hebron. From there he sends couriers to the twelve tribes, telling them that when they hear the trumpets sound they must proclaim Absalom king of Hebron. he returns and is pardoned by King David. He conspires with the tribes of the land to overthrow David, and David and his retinue must flee for their safety. He then sends his faithful servant, Hushai back to Jerusalem to enter into Absalom’s service as a spy. Absalom’s army gives chase, and Absalom himself is killed, even though David sent word to treat him gently. When David learns of his son’s death, in spite of all Absalom had done, he grieves deeply. “My son Absalom! My son! My son Absalom!” [See Faulkner’s Absalom! Absalom!]
19. David and Bath-Sheba (Samuel): David is smitten by the beauty of Bath-Sheba and fathers a son by her. She is the wife of one of his most trusted generals, Uriah, and David sends Uriah into the thickest part of the battle in which the people are engaged. Thus David rids himself of Bath-Sheba’s husband and takes her for his own. David repents and is punished by losing the child.
20. King Solomon’s wisdom and temple (Kings): Solomon is David’s son and is archetypal for his famous wisdom, the gift of seeing into men’s hearts which God grants him. He composed 3000 proverbs and 5005 songs and had a remarkable understanding of plant and animal life. Once two prostitutes came to him squabbling over a child that both claimed was theirs. Solomon orders that the child be cut in two, each woman receiving one half. While one woman agreed, the other declined, and by this Solomon knew that the child was hers, reasoning that a mother’s love above all wants to protect her child. Solomon is also famed for the wondrous temple he commissioned in 960 BC.
21. Job (Job): Job (pronounced Jobe) is a man of great faith in whom God is pleased. The devil, however, questions Job’s faith and goads God by insinuating that if Job were robbed of all his blessings, his faith would dissipate. To test Job’s faith, therefore, God rains ruin upon Job’s life. Job loses his business, his home, his family, his wealth, but his faith endures. Thus the adage of one’s having “the patience of Job.” Job’s story is one of redemptive suffering, since through all his hardships, he stays strong in his faith, even when all those around him are voices of doubt. In the end, God restores all that Job had lost, ten times over.
22. Psalm 23 (The Good Shepherd): With its symbolic use of valley imagery, this Psalm is often alluded to or incorporated into context. The famous line, “Yeah, though I walk through the shadow of the valley of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” The valley is an image of any low, dark place of tribulation.
23. Psalm 137 (The Waters of Babylon): This psalm contains an image frequently borrowed from: “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.” This represents the cry of the displaced and the pain of the outcast and exile.
24. Nebuchadnezzar’s dream (Daniel): The Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, asks Daniel, a Judaean exile enslaved in Babylon who is gifted with reading dreams and prophesying, to interpret a dream that has plagued him for some time. The dream presents an image of a huge tree which provides refuge for birds and creatures and which can be seen from afar as it stretches up to heaven. A “watcher” comes from heaven and orders its branches all cut down and its stump bound in iron and bronze hoops but its roots to remain. Daniel explains that the tree is king Nebuchadnezzar and the vanity of his stature. He is destined to wander amuck in insanity until he comes to understand humility and to pay homage to God.
25. the writing on the wall (Daniel): While Nebuchadnezzar’s son, Belshazzar, is king, he holds a great feast during which the men and women are drinking from the holy vessels looted from the temple in Jerusalem. While they are celebrating, the fingers of a human hand mysteriously appear and begin writing a message on the wall. Since no one can read it and Daniel is reputed for his prophetic and interpretive gifts, the king summons him. Daniel explains that the writing is an omen and states that because of the king’s pride and stubbornness his reign will end. He is murdered that night, and Darius takes over the kingship. Thus the adage, “read the writing on the wall,” which means to see things for what they are, to “wake up and smell the coffee,” per se.