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They had scarcely entered the house when they were outside it again. Harriet, feeling as peevish as the Major, said: 'Mr. Facing-both-ways stayed on! 'Who?' 'Your friend Phipps! 'You're always wrong about people.' 'I don't think so. I never liked Dubedat and I was right. I was doubtful of Toby Lush.'

OLIVIA MANNING Friends and Heroes, 1965

JanilS Janus was the ancient Roman god of gates and doorways. He was generally represented as Janus Bifrons ('with two faces') by a head with two faces looking in opposite directions.

Marian sat on one side of him, his good side: I soon came to think of him as twosided, like Janus. Together, they looked like Beauty and the Beast.

L. p. HARTLEY The Co-Between, 1953

It is, of course, its essentially schizophrenic outlook on society that makes the middle class such a peculiar mixture of yeast and dough. . . . Now this Janus-like quality derives from the class's one saving virtue, which is this: that alone of the three great castes of society it sincerely and habitually despises itself.

JOHN FOWLES The French Lieutenant's Woman, 1969

Jekyll and Hyde Dr Jekyll is the main character in Robert Louis Stevenson's

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886). He discovers a drug that allows him to create a separate personality, Mr Hyde, in order to express the evil in his own character. Sometimes he is Dr Jekyll, sometimes Mr Hyde. The term 'Jekyll and Hyde' can be used to refer to someone who has two very distinct sides or personalities.

'We're the two parts of Romola Saville's dual personality.' 'I being the Dr Jekyll,' put in the portly one, and both laughed yet once more.

ALDOUS HUXLEY Point Counter Point, 1928

She had done all that, had her hair black, green, then braided; worn beads on her head and round her neck; scuffed round Turkey with dirty feet and sandals for a year; did Greece, Europe by train. Then she'd stopped. Now she was a copper, just about as straight and 'citizen' as you could get, but Caz still liked the smell of anarchy, of noncomformity. When she thought of herself, her character, as Jekyll and Hyde, her only problem was she didn't know which half was the bad side.

ALEX KEEGAN Kingfisher, 1995

Enemy

Whereas the theme Hatred is concerned with personal animosity, this theme deals with the concept of tribal enmity, particularly of a longstanding nature. • See also Conflict Evil, Friendship.

Amalekite The Amalekites were a nomadic tribe of Canaan and the Sinai peninsula, reputedly descended from Esau's grandson Amalek. They waged war against the Israelites, for whom the Amalekites represented perpetual

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treachery and hostility: 'The Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation' (Exod. 17: 16).

But he, sly fox, son of Satan, seed of the Amalekite, he saw me looking at him in the church.

OLIVE SCHREINER The Story of an African Farm, 1883

hosts of Midian The Midianites were a tribal group portrayed in the Bible as nomadic shepherds and traders. The Book of Judges relates the story of a battle led by Gideon against the Midianites in which he defeated the 'host of Midian'. The host of Midian can be alluded to as any unfriendly or hostile group.

I shouldn't be surprised if Tommy and his little friend weren't still lurking in the shadows somewhere. They're like the hosts of Midian. They prowl and prowl around.

p. c. woDEHOusE Laughing Gas, 1936

I knew which side I was on; yet the traitor within my gates felt the issue differently, he backed the individual against the side, even my own side, and wanted to see Ted Burgess pull it off. But I could not voice such thoughts to the hosts of Midian prowling round me under the shade of the pavilion verandah.

L. p. HARTLEY The Go-Between, 1953

Montagues and CapuletS The Montagues and the Capulets are the two feuding Veronese families to which Romeo and Juliet respectively belong in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (1599). As the first lines of the play explain:

'Two households, both alike in dignity, In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,

From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.'

The Molloys and the Timsons are like the Montagues and the Capulets. JOHN MORTIMER Rumpole of the Bailey, 1978

There were soon two factions facing off like Montagues and Capulets.

Radio 4, 1997

Philistines When in the biblical story the Philistines arrived to take Samson captive, Delilah said 'The Philistines be upon you, Samson!' (Judg. 16). These words can be used when people regarded as the enemy suddenly arrive. • See special entry u SAMSON on p. 336.

'The Philistines be upon us,' said Liddy, making her nose white against the glass. THOMAS HARDY Far From the Madding Crowd, 1874

Envy

As can be seen from the stories below, embittered envy of another's success, beauty, favour, etc. is often presented as the motive for malicious action, even murder. Curiously, there does not seem to be a strong archetype representing the quality of envy, as there is for so many of the qualities covered elsewhere in this book (e.g. Othello for jealousy, Lucifer for

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pride, Solomon for wisdom). • See also Jealousy.

Calchas In Greek mythology, Calchas was the wisest of the Greek soothsayers at the time of the Trojan War. He is supposed to have died of grief and disappointment after another soothsayer, Mopsus, was shown to be better than him at prophecy.

lago lago is Othello's ensign in Shakespeare's play Othello (1622). Partly out of anger at being passed over for promotion and partly out of a general, bitter envy of Othello, lago brings about an end to Othello's success and happiness by tricking him into believing that his wife, Desdemona, has been unfaithful to him. As a result of this, Othello kills first Desdemona and later himself.

Joseph In the Bible, Joseph was the son of Jacob and Rachel. He was his father's favourite son, and when his father gave him a coat of many colours his brothers became envious of him, and 'hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him' (Gen. 37: 4). They attacked him, stripped him of his coat, and sold him into slavery in Egypt. The brothers then took Joseph's coat, dipped it in the blood of a kid they had killed and took it to their father to convince him that Joseph was dead. • See special entry a JOSEPH on p. 224.

Snow White's Stepmother In the traditional fairy tale, Snow White's stepmother, proud of her own beauty, becomes envious of her stepdaughter as Snow White grows to be more beautiful than her. The stepmother orders Snow White to be taken into the forest and killed so that she will once again be 'the fairest of them all'. The men charged with Snow White's murder take pity on her and simply abandon her in the forest, where she lives for a while in the house of the Seven Dwarfs and eventually marries a handsome prince.

Escape and Survival

The idea of physical escape is frequently used figuratively to describe the extrication of oneself from a predicament. Also covered here is the notion of being spared punishment or death. In the cases of DEUCALION and his biblical counterpart, NOAH, and of LOT, they survive while all others perish. • See also Freedom, Safety.

Artful Dodger The Artful Dodger is the nickname of Jack Dawkins, a clever young pickpocket and a member of Fagin's gang of thieves in Dickens's Oliver Twist (1837-8). He is known for his ability to use his wits to get himself out of trouble without ever being caught.

In these supposedly rational times, the spectacle of someone repeatedly engaging in sexual behaviour which is dangerously risky, and, potentially, exceedingly selfdestructive, provokes many people to resort to some psychopathological explanation. Many see President Clinton as an Artful Dodger who just got caught.

The Independent, 1998

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Deucalion In Greek mythology, Deucalion was the son of Prometheus. When Zeus, angered by the crimes of men, decided to destroy them by a great flood, Prometheus warned Deucalion, who built a boat for himself and his wife, Pyrrha, in which they floated until the waters subsided and they safely came to land on Mount Parnassus.

Houdini Harry Houdini (born Erik Weisz, 1874-1926) was a Hungarian-born American magician and escape artist, famous for his escapes from chains, handcuffs, padlocks, straitjackets, and numerous locked containers.

'I kept wondering if maybe he hadn't been there all along, hiding out somewhere on the balcony, listening to our conversation.' 'Houdini he may be, Cod he isn't,' I said lightly, but she didn't seem to hear.

SARAH DUNANT Snow Storms in a Hot Climate, 1991

Her wrists and ankles had been cuffed to a solid wooden chair that was bolted to the stone-flagged floor. 'How's she going to make a break?' I asked. 'Unless she happens to be related to Houdini, of course.'

PAUL JOHNSTON Body Politic, 1997

Isaac In the Old Testament, God commanded Abraham to take his son, Isaac, and offer him as a burnt offering. Abraham did as he was bid: he built an altar, laid wood on it, bound his son, and laid him on the altar. Abraham took a knife and was just about to slay Isaac when the angel of the Lord appeared and said 'Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do any thing unto him' (Gen. 22: 12). When Abraham looked up, there was a ram caught in a thicket nearby, which Abraham took and used instead of his son for the burnt offering.

Jonah In the Bible, Jonah, a minor Jewish prophet, refused to obey God's command and preach to the Ninevites. Instead, he embarked on a ship bound for Tarshish, but God sent a storm and, to save the ship, the other sailors cast Jonah into the water as a bringer of bad luck. Jonah was then swallowed by a huge fish (traditionally a whale), and spent three days and three nights in its belly, in which time he repented and prayed to God to save him. After three days 'the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land' (Jonah 2: 10). Jonah can be alluded to as someone who survives a very difficult or dangerous situation.

Lot In the Bible, Lot was the nephew of Abraham and an inhabitant of Sodom, who was allowed to escape from the city before it was destroyed by God because of the wickedness of its inhabitants.

We thought a bolt had fallen in the middle of us, and Joseph swung onto his knees, beseeching the Lord to remember the Patriarchs Noah and Lot; and, as in former times, spare the righteous, though he smote the ungodly.

EMILY BRONTË Wuthering Heights, 1847

Noah According to the Bible, Noah was 'a righteous man, blameless in his generation' in contrast to the wickedness and corruption of the rest of the human race. Before God sent the flood to cover the earth and destroy all humankind, he warned Noah and instructed him to build the ark in order to save his family and specimens of every kind of animal. • See special entry • NOAH

AND THE FLOOD 0/7 p. 279.