Plato (427 ~ 347 BC) was a famous philosopher in ancient Greece. Socrates' student and Aristotle's teacher. His philosophical thoughts have a great influence on the development of western idealism, and his representative works are Republic and Law. He advocates the absolute spirit of human beings and ignores physical feelings. Plato's Marriage is a love between men and women without physical desire but with absolute spirit.
Noah's Ark
From the bible. God was very worried about the crimes committed by mankind and decided to destroy mankind with floods. And Noah was an upright man, and God told him to build a boat to avoid disaster. After 40 days and nights of floods, all other creatures except Noah's family and some animals were swallowed up by the floods. Later, people often used this phrase to describe a refuge or savior in a disaster.
Waterloo (Belgian town)
18 15 years, in Waterloo, Belgium, Napoleon led the French army to wage a fierce battle with the British and Prussian Coalition forces, and the French army was defeated. Subsequently, Napoleon ended his political career by abdicating. Therefore, "Waterloo" is often used as a metaphor for painful failure.
crocodile tears
According to western legends, crocodiles will devour their prey greedily and shed crocodile tears. So "crocodile tears" often refers to false tears and disguised sympathy. Later, it was extended to a person who was insidious, hurt others and pretended to be merciful.
Uncle Sam
Uncle Sam is an American nickname. 18 12 During the American-British War, an honest and capable meat packer in New York State was affectionately called "Uncle Sam". He worked as a quartermaster inspector in new york and New Jersey, and was responsible for stamping beef barrels and wine barrels supplied to the army. It was found that the beef barrel in this factory was covered with the E.A.U.S. logo. Initially, E.A. was the name of an army tool contractor, and U.S. was the abbreviation of America. As it happens, Uncle Sam's abbreviation is the same as that of the United States (U.S.), so people call the United States "Uncle Sam". Americans regard "Uncle Sam" as a kind of national pride and some qualities, such as honesty, reliability, diligence and patriotism. 196 1 year, the US Congress officially recognized "Uncle Sam" as the national symbol of the United States.
Pandora's box.
Pandora is the first earth woman in Greek mythology. After Prometheus stole skyfire from the world, Zeus ordered God to make a beautiful young girl out of clay, named Pandora, which means "a woman with all kinds of talents". And gave her a gift box, and then betrothed her to Prometheus' younger brother Epimetheus (meaning "Monday morning quarterback"). Epimetheus took the gift box regardless of taboos, and Pandora took the opportunity to open it, so all kinds of bad habits, disasters, diseases and wars immediately flew out from it. There is only one beautiful thing left in the box: hope. But before hope flew out, Pandora closed the box forever. So "Pandora's box" is often used as a metaphor for the root of disaster.
domino
This is a western game. Many rectangular dominoes will be arranged vertically in a row. After gently pushing the first card, other dominoes will fall down one after another. Figuratively speaking, the "domino effect" often refers to a series of chain reactions, which is equivalent to what people call "pulling one hair and moving the whole body".
Article 21 Catch up
This is the title of the classic Catch-21, written by joseph heller of Britain. Military regulations stipulate that when faced with real and imminent danger, expressing concern for one's own safety is the result of rational activities of the mind; If you think you are crazy, you can be allowed to stop flying as long as you ask. But as soon as you ask, it proves that you are not crazy, and you have to keep flying. This language is often used to describe traps, shackles, etc. Although invisible and intangible, it is everywhere and all-encompassing. A set of contradictory logic, no one can escape.
pygmalion effect
Pygmalion is the king of Cyprus in ancient Greek mythology, and he is good at carving. Once he carved a beautiful statue of a girl, and Pygmalion gave all his energy, all his passion and all his love to the statue in his work day and night. Later, Aphrodite, the goddess of love, saw his sincere feelings and gave life to the statue, so they got married. Therefore, as long as one has persistent pursuit of artistic objects, "pygmalion effect" has become synonymous with artistic induction.
ponder
Muse is the general name of nine goddesses of literature and science in Greek mythology. They are all daughters of God and the goddess of memory. Headed by Apollo, the god of music and poetry, they are in charge of history, tragedy, comedy, lyric poetry, dance, epic, love poetry, ode and astronomy respectively. Ancient Greek poets and singers prayed to the muse for inspiration. Later, people used "muse" to describe literature, writing and inspiration.
Riddles of the Sphinx
The Sphinx is a monster in Greek mythology that hurts people with hidden mysteries. She was the largest sphinx in Egypt before pyramid of khufu. The question she asked Oedipus was: What walks on four feet in the morning, two feet at noon and three feet at night? Oedipus replied: it is a person. In the morning of life, he was still a child, crawling on the ground with two hands and two feet; At the noon of his life, he became a mature man, walking only on two legs; In his later years, he was old and weak and had to walk with crutches, so he was called three feet. Oedipus was right. The Sphinx fell off the cliff in shame and died. The mystery of the Sphinx is often used as a metaphor for complex, mysterious and incomprehensible problems.
Judas kiss
Judas is one of the 12 disciples of Jesus Christ in the Bible. Although Jesus preached a new road and won the support of the people, it aroused the hatred of Jewish elders and priests. They bought Judas with 30 silver coins and asked him to help identify Jesus. When they went to Kimani Garden to catch Jesus, Judas pretended to meet him, hug him and kiss him. Jesus was immediately arrested and later crucified. People use "judas kiss" as a metaphor for shameful betrayal.
tower of ivory
From19th century French poet and literary critic St. Peiwei Charles Augustine's envelope "To veerman". Augustine criticized the pessimism and negative emotions in the works of contemporary French writer Winnie the Pooh, and advocated that the writer should break away from the vulgar bourgeois reality and enter an artistic world of subjective fantasy-ivory tower. So "ivory tower" is used as a metaphor for isolated dreams. Now some people describe universities as "ivory towers".
Silicon Valley
In the south of San Francisco, from Palo Alto to San Jose, there is a zone 30 miles long and 10 miles wide, which is the world-famous "Silicon Valley". Thousands of microelectronics industries and other high-tech enterprises, such as Hewlett-Packard, Intel and Apple, have gathered here and become the birthplace of the information society. Since 198 1 the first personal computer came out, from 286,386,486 to Pentium, 586 was brewed here). Semiconductor chips made of "silicon" are the basic products of microelectronics industry. So at 197 1, Microelectronics News began to call this area "Silicon Valley". This is the ninth largest manufacturing center in the United States and the fastest growing and richest region in the United States, with more than 6,000 doctors here. But we can't see the chimney or hear the sound of the machine. It is not like an industrial area that people are used to understanding, but like a big garden. Therefore, "Silicon Valley" has become synonymous with the latest and most advanced technology and information sources.
Impending danger
Damocles was a favorite of Dionysus, a tyrant in Greek mythology. He often said that the emperor was blessed to please them. On one occasion, Dionysus Hughes asked him to sit on the throne of Emperor Wang, with a sword tied with a horse's hair on his head, telling him that although he was on the throne, the sword might fall at any time. The emperor has no happiness, but he always has something on his mind. People often use this allusion to describe a potential crisis that may occur at any time.