| A | B |
|---|
| Achilles' heel | vulnerability; weak spot |
| Apollo | a very handsome young man |
| Argus-eyed | watchful; vigilant |
| Aurora | the dawn |
| Bacchanal | an occasion of drunken revelry |
| Brobdingnagian | Extraordinarily large |
| Cain | a murderer, particularly of a brother |
| Casanova | a charming seducer of women who moves quickly from one casual relationship to another, or who constantly pesters women in his pursuits; a man who is amorously and gallantly attentive to women; a promiscuous man; a philanderer. |
| Damon & Pythias | an extremely loyal friendship |
| Don Juan | A libertine; a profligate; a man who is an obsessive seducer of women. |
| Donnybrook | a chaotic brawl |
| El Dorado | a place that has great wealth or where great riches can be acquired |
| Falstaffian | Characterized by joviality and conviviality; enjoying wine, woman, and song |
| Frankenstein | somebody who creates something that causes widespread ruin or destruction, or that brings about the creator's own downfall; an out-of-control invention |
| Good Samaritan | A compassionate person who unselfishly helps others. |
| Hector | a bully; to bully; to speak to somebody in a loud, threatening, or domineering tone intended to intimidate |
| Helen | a beautiful woman who causes strife or conflict |
| Herculean | staggeringly, heroically difficult feat or task |
| Horatio Alger | a person who climbs the ladder of success through hard work and positive attitudes |
| Hydra-headed | Having many facets or aspects, especially difficult or intractable ones |
| Icarus | someone who takes too many risks for his own good |
| Jezebel | a shameless impudent scheming woman |
| Job | A very patient, long-suffering person |
| Jonah | any person or thing regarded as bringing bad luck |
| Judas | A traitor, especially somebody who betrays a close friend or a cause or belief |
| laconic | spare in words; saying little |
| lethargy | extreme sluggishness |
| Lilliputian | Diminutive; a person or thing that is unusually small in height; trivial or petty |
| Machiavellian | Cunning and unscrupulous; using clever trickery, amoral methods, and expediency to achieve a desired goal, especially in politics |
| Malapropism | the misuse of a word through confusion with another word that sounds similar, especially when the effect is ridiculous |
| Manna | something very welcome or of great benefit that comes unexpectedly |
| Mentor | somebody, usually older and more experienced, who provides advice and support to, and watches over and fosters the progress of, a younger, less experienced person |
| Muse | Somebody who inspires an artist |
| nirvana | emotional bliss; An ideal condition of rest, harmony, stability, or joy. |
| Nostradamus | One who predicts the future |
| Oedipus Conflict | A psychoanalytical term designating attraction on the part of a child toward the parent of the opposite sex and rivalry and hostility toward the parent of its own. |
| Original Sin | Tendency to evil supposedly innate in all human beings |
| Orphean | melodious or musically enchanting |
| Pandora's box | A source of many unforeseen troubles |
| Philistine | ignorant, uncultured, and indifferent or hostile to artistic and intellectual achievement |
| Phoenix | A symbol of rebirth and resurrection |
| Prodigal Son | somebody who spends money, especially money from his or her parents, wastefully |
| Promethean | creative, boldly original |
| Pygmalion | Someone who rescues or transforms the object of his affections |
| Pyrrhic victory | a win which comes at devastating cost to the victor |
| Quixotic | tending to take a romanticized, impulsive, and impractical view of life |
| Samson | Any very strong man |
| Siren song | An enticing plea or appeal, especially one that is deceptively alluring |
| Solomon | an extremely wise man |
| Spartan | austere; marked by stern discipline, frugality, simplicity, or courage |
| Sword of Damocles | Constant threat or imminent peril. |
| Sisyphean | extremely difficult and actually or seeminly futile "(a __ task or endeavor) |
| Svengali | a person who controls another's mind, usually with sinister intentions |
| Tantalize | to tease or torment people by letting them see, but not have, something they desire |
| Uncle Tom | offensive and derogatory name for a Black man who is abjectly servile and deferential to Whites |
| Waterloo | a crushing or decisive defeat |
| Yahoo | a person regarded as unruly, crude or purely physical or instinctive, rather than intellectual or reasoned |
