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The One Time Talking About People Is Not Gossiping

Take the Eponym Quiz

Eponyms are words derived from people's names. See if you know the meaning of each of the following eponyms. Each one is a person's name that has become a word in the English language. The solution to the Eponym Quiz follows below.

Section #1:

What are you if you are:

A. a Benedict Arnold
B. a Casanova
C. a Don Juan
D. a Jezebel
E. a Judas
F. a Lazarus
G. a martinet
H. a Mata Hari
I. a Methuselah
J. a Solomon
K. a thespian

Section #2:

What are you doing if you:

A. Hold a dead man's hand
B. Win a pyrrhic victory
C. Write your John Hancock
D. Have a platonic love affair
E. Have the Midas touch
F. Bowdlerize a piece of literature
G. Give someone a Hobson's choice
H. Make a Machiavellian scheme
I. Design a Rube Goldberg invention
J. Sit under a sword of Damocles

Eponym Quiz Solution Section #1:

What are you if you are….

A. a Benedict Arnold: You are a traitor. The American Revolutionary War General Benedict Arnold (1741-1801) tried to surrender West Point to the British. Ironically, when he died on June 14, 1801, he was buried, at his request, in his American uniform.
B. a Casanova: You are a sensualist fond of love affairs and seducing women. Giovanni Jacopo Casanova de Seingalt (1725-1798) published his one-and-one-half-million-word-memoirs detailing his many love affairs. One of his seduction techniques was the "oyster game." He convinced women it would be fun to eat oysters off of each other's tongues.
C. a Don Juan: You are a seducer of women. Don Juan was a legendary Spanish lover who, according to Mozart's opera Don Giovanni, had 2,594 mistresses. Don Juan was seducing Dona Anna when he was surprised by her father and challenged to a duel. Don Juan won the duel only to be murdered by Franciscan monks who claimed a statue of Dona Anna's father came to life and took Don Juan to Hell. A 14th century Spaniard, Don Juan Tenorio, may be the original Don Juan.
D. a Jezebel: You are a wicked, shameless woman flaunting her lack of morals. The Old Testament wife of King Ahab of Israel, Jezebel was ultimately thrown from a roof to her death. Her body was trampled by horses and eaten by dogs. (II Kings 9:30-37)
E. a Judas: You are a betrayer. Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus Christ with a kiss on the cheek for thirty pieces of silver. Judas hung himself after Christ's crucifixion.
F. a Lazarus: You are someone who overcame tremendous odds. Lazarus, the brother of Martha and Mary, had been dead for four days when he was raised by Jesus. (John 11:38-44)
G. a martinet: You are a strict disciplinarian, intransigently insisting on rigid regulations. Jean Martinet (-1672) was charged with developing new military drills and tactics when he became the Inspector General of King Louis XIV of France's army. He was very successful and is credited with creating the first modern army. He insisted his orders be carried out to the letter. He was hated by his troops, who found his drilling tedious and his discipline overbearing. He was killed by a cannon shot fired by his own troops at the siege of Duisberg.
H. a Mata Hari: You are a seductive female spy. Margaretha Geertruida Zelle (1876-1917) took the stage name Mata Hari, meaning "Eye of the Dawn", when she left her abusive, alcoholic husband and began a dancing career in Paris. She was famous for performing naked Indonesian dances and having love affairs with hundreds of men. She was executed during World War I for passing secret information to the Germans she had gathered from officers during liaisons.
I. a Methuselah: You are a very old man. Methuselah, who was Noah's grandfather, lived 969 years. Methuselah died in the flood Noah floated above in his ark. (Genesis 5:21-28)
J. a Solomon: You are a wise person. Solomon (?- c. 933 B. C.) was a King of Israel who ruled forty years in peace and prosperity.
K. a thespian: You are an actor. Thespis was the first actor. In 6th century B. C. Greece he went from town to town on a cart impersonating the characters in his poems.

Eponym Quiz Solution Section #2:

What are you doing if you….

A. Hold a dead man's hand: You are holding a pair of aces and a pair of eights in a poker hand. James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok (1837-1876) was the dead man. Hickok was playing poker (something he frequently did) with his back to the door (something he had only done once before) in Deadwood's No. 10 saloon when Jack McCall shot him in the back of the head. Hickok slumped forward, his dead fingers tightly clutching his final poker hand: two pair, aces over eights.
B. Win a pyrrhic victory: You are winning a costly victory, so costly you may as well have lost. "Another such victory and I must return to Epirus alone," is one version of what King Pyrrhus (c. 318-272 B. C.) said after he defeated the Romans at Asculum in 279 B.C. Pyrrhus invaded Italy with 25,000 troops and fought two major battles against the Romans. He defeated them twice, but his army was reduced to 8,000 men. After the Romans refused to surrender, Pyrrhus withdrew.
C. Write your John Hancock: You are signing your name. John Hancock (1737-1793) was the first and only person to sign the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. His is the largest signature on the document written, "so big no Britisher would have to use his spectacles to read it."
D. Have a platonic love affair: You are engaged in a purely intellectual relationship without sexual contact. The Greek philosopher Plato (c. 427-347 B. C.) described his teacher Socrates' (469-399 B. C.) pure, non-sexual love for young men.
E. Have the Midas touch: You are successful in everything you do. In Greek mythology the god Dionysus granted King Midas' wish that everything he touched would turn to gold but not as Midas expected. Everything Midas touched turned to gold, including his food and drink. Faced with starvation the repentant Midas asked the god to take the power away. Dionysus complied.
F. Bowdlerize a piece of literature: You are prudishly censoring material you perceive to be objectionable to prevent others being hurt by reading it. In 1818, Thomas Bowdler's (1754-1825) edited the ten volume Family Shakespeare in which "those expressions are omitted which cannot with propriety be read aloud in a family." Some characters were also completely omitted.
G. Give someone a Hobson's choice: You are giving them no choice or a choice between undesirable alternatives. Thomas Hobson (1545-1631) rented horses at Cambridge, England. To prevent his more-popular horses from being over-ridden and worn out, Hobson insisted on renting whatever horse was nearest the stable door because that horse was the most rested.
H. Make a Machiavellian scheme: You are creating as brilliant, although deceitful and unethical political plan. Niccolo di Bernardo Machiavelli (1469-1527) was a political philosopher whose book The Prince claimed rulers may use any means necessary to maintain power.
I. Design a Rube Goldberg invention: You have created an absurdly complicated device to perform a simple task. Rube Goldberg (1883-1970) was a Pulitzer-prize-winning political cartoonist who drew cartoons showing ludicrous, exaggerated machines performing simple tasks.
J. Sit under a sword of Damocles: You are subject to impending catastrophe. Dionysius I of Syracuse (405-367 B.C.) was perturbed by Damocles' oft-repeated contention that Dionysius' great wealth and power ensured perfect happiness. Dionysus invited Damocles to a sumptuous banquet in luxurious surroundings. Damocles enjoyed himself until he glanced upward and saw a razor-sharp sword was hanging by a single hair directly over his head.

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