The Oxford dictionary of allusions
By: Andrew Delahunty, Sheila Dignen, and Penny Stock.
Contributors: Dignen, Sheila.; Stock, Penny.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2001
Place of publication: Oxford; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 453
Subjects: English language -- Etymology -- Dictionaries; English language -- Foreign words and phrases -- Dictionaries; English language -- Terms and phrases; Allusions -- Dictionaries
Genres: Dictionaries.
Notes: Includes index.

LIST OF THEMES:

Abundance and plenty -- Actors -- Adultery  -- Adventure -- Ambition -- Anger -- Animals, love of -- Appearing -- Arrogance and pomposity -- Artists -- Ascent and descent -- Avarice -- 

Baldness -- Bargain -- Beauty : female beauty -- Beauty : male beauty -- Betrayal -- Blindness -- 

Captives -- Change -- Chaos and disorder -- Chastity and virginity -- Comedy and humour -- Communication -- Complexity -- Concealment -- Conflict -- Conformity -- Courage -- Cowardice -- Craftsmen -- Criminals -- Cunning -- Curse -- 

Dancing -- Danger -- Darkness -- Death -- Defeat -- Departure -- Deserted places -- Despair -- Destiny and luck -- Destruction -- Detectives -- Devil -- Dictators and tyrants -- Difficulty -- Disappearance and absence -- Disapproval -- Disclosure -- Disguise -- Distance -- Doubt -- Dreams -- Duality -- 

Enemy -- Envy -- Escape and survival -- Evil -- Explorers -- 

Failure -- Fatness -- Fear -- Fertility -- Fierce women -- Food and drink -- Forgiveness -- Freedom -- Friendship -- 

Generosity -- Gesture -- Gluttony -- Goodness -- Grief and sorrow -- Guarding -- Guilt -- 

Hair -- Happiness -- Hatred -- Height -- Heroes -- Honesty and truth -- Horror -- Horses -- Humility -- Hunters -- Hypocrisy -- 

Idealism -- Idyllic Places -- Illusion -- Immobility -- Importance -- Indifference -- Innocence -- Insanity -- Inspiration -- Intelligence -- Invisibility -- Jealousy -- Judgement and decision --

Knowledge -- Lack of change -- Large size -- Leaders -- Life : generation of life -- Light -- Love and marriage -- Lovers -- Lying -- 

Macho men -- Magic -- Medicine -- Memory -- Messengers -- Mischief -- Miserliness -- Modernity -- Monsters -- Moustaches -- Movement -- Murderers -- Music -- Mystery -- 

Naivety -- Nakedness -- Nonconformity -- Noses -- Old age -- Optimism -- Oratory -- Outdatedness -- Outlaws -- 

Past -- Patience -- Peace -- Perseverance -- Pessimism -- Poverty -- Power -- Pride -- Prisons -- Problem -- Prophecy -- Prostitutes -- Punishment -- 

Quest -- Realization -- Rebellion and disobedience -- Rebirth and resurrection -- Rescue -- Returning -- Revenge -- Ruthlessness -- 

Safety -- Sculptors -- Seducers and male lovers -- Sex and sexuality -- Silence -- Similarity -- Sirens -- Sleep -- Small size -- Smiles -- Soldiers -- Solitude -- Sound -- Speech -- Speed -- Sternness -- Storytellers -- Strangeness -- Strength -- Struggle -- Stupidity -- Success -- Suffering -- Superiority -- 

Teachers -- Temperature -- Temptation -- Thinness -- Thrift -- Time -- Travellers and wanderers -- Ugliness -- Unpleasant or wicked places -- 

Vanity -- Victory -- Walk -- War -- Water -- Weakness -- Wealth  -- Wholesomeness -- Wisdom -- Writers -- Youth.

Special entries . Achilles -- Adam and Eve -- Alice in Wonderland -- Apollo -- Cain -- Cinderella -- David -- Dionysus -- Don Quixote -- Gulliver’s travels -- Hades -- Hercules --Jason and the Argonauts -- Jesus -- Joseph -- Moses and the Book of Exodus -- Noah and the flood -- Odysseus -- Prometheus -- Samson -- Trojan war.