Vengeance
Absalomkills half-brother, Amnon, for raping sister, Tamar. [O. T.: II Samuel 13:28–29]
Aeneas’s companion; kills Promachus to avenge brother’s murder. [Gk. Lit.: Iliad]
enabled by Zeus to grow to manhood in single day to avenge father’s murder. [Gk. Myth.: Zimmer-man, 2]
avenges Patroclus’s death by brutally killing Hector. [Gk. Lit.: Iliad]
mutilated by Samuel to requite Israelite slaughter. [O.T.: I Samuel 15:33]
seeks revenge on whale. [Am. Lit.: Moby Dick]
epithet applied to Zeus and others as avenger. [Gk. Myth.: NCE, 49]
takes vengeance on Turiddu for adultery with his wife. [Ital. Opera: Mascagni, Cavalleria Rusticana, Westerman, 338–339]
cuckolded by brother, serves him his sons for dinner. [Rom. Lit.: Thyestes, Brewer Dictionary, 1081]
takes vengeance on David, whose father stole Ebenezer’s woman. [Brit. Lit.: Kidnapped]
his house and riches seized by the governor, murders the governor’s son and others, and betrays the city to the Turks. [Br. Drama: Marlowe The Jew of Malta in Bella, 521]
Tito’s aged benefactor, robbed and betrayed by Tito, eventually denounces and strangles him. [Br. Lit.: George Eliot Romola]
tortures Dimmesdale for adultery. [Am. Lit.: The Scarlet Letter]
will not rest until father’s murder is avenged. [Fr. Lit.: Colomba]
destroys Olympia because of bad check. [Fr. Opera: Offenbach, Tales of Hoffmann, Westerman, 275]
deprived of her lover by Baron Hulot, she eventually manages to ruin the family. [Fr. Lit.: Balzac Cousin Bette in Magill I, 166]
innocent victim’s blood calls for justice. [O.T.: Genesis 4:10; Br. Lit.: Richard II]
uses his wealth to punish those who betrayed him. [Fr. Lit.: Dumas The Count of Monte Cristo]
avenging goddesses or Furies. [Rom. Myth.: LLEI,l: 326]
takes vengeance upon Alvaro, alleged murderer of his father. [Ital. Opera: Verdi, La Forza del Destino, Wester-man, 316–317]
wreaks vengeance on her father’s murderers. [Gk. Lit.: Electra]
sons of the chiefs killed in the siege of Thebes avenge their fathers’ deaths by razing the city. [Gk. Myth.: Benét, 318]
Moses’s lex talionis. [O.T.: Exodus 21:23–25; Leviticus 24:20; Deuteronomy 19:21]
avenges his public humiliation by Eisenstein. [Aust. Operetta: J. Strauss, Die Fledermaus, Westerman, 278]
horrible avengers of crimes. [Gk. Myth.: Brewer Dictionary, 381]
warns the king whenever enemies approach, but kills him when he breaks his promise of a reward. [Russ. Ballet: Coq d’Or in Goode, 78]
spurred on by his father’s ghost, avenges murder of his father. [Br. Lit.: Hamlet]
kills Polymestor’s children and blinds him for his treacherous murder of her son Polydorus. [Gk. Drama: Euripides Hecuba in Benét, 450]
spitefully effects decapitation of John the Baptist. [N.T.: Mark 6:19–26]
adventurous avenger of his father’s wickedness to his mother. [Am. Lit.: Longfellow The Song of Hiawatha in Magill I, 905]
stages a play that gives him the opportunity to kill his son’s murderers. [Br. Drama: The Spanish Tragedy in Magill II, 990]
to avenge the murder of his sweetheart by two Mormons, trails them from Utah to London and kills both. [Br. Lit.: Doyle A Study in Scarlet in Sherlock Holmes]
kills Abner, murderer of his brother. [O.T.: II Samuel 3:27]
noted tale of retribution, inspired many works. [Am. Hist.: Benét, 544]
(Cousin Bette) swears to get back at the Hulots. [Fr. Lit.: Cousin Bette, Magill I, 166–168]
Christian-hating merchant’s betrayal of Malta. [Br. Lit.: The Jew of Malta]
uses poisoned nightgown to kill Jason’s new wife. [Fr. Opera: Cherubini, Medea, Westerman, 81]
redresses insult by entombing insulter in catacomb niche. [Am. Lit.: Poe “The Cask of Amontillado”]
daughter of Night, brought retribution upon haughty. [Gk. Myth.: Hall, 221]
killed his mother and her lover for having murdered his father. [Gk. Myth.: Benét, 741]
refused his promised reward for ridding Hamelin of rats, he lures the children away. [Ger. Legend: Benét, 787]
wreaks vengeance on daughter-seducing Duke of Mantua. [Ital. Opera: Verdi, Rigoletto, Westerman, 300]
brings down the temple of the Philistines to avenge their blinding of him and dies in the process. [O.T.: Judges 16:28-30]
kills Ptolemy for the murder of Pompey. [Br. Opera: Julius Caesar in Egypt, Westerman, 52–53]
plots to avenge son by murdering the Andronicus family. [Br. Lit.: Titus Andronicus]
exacts revenge for crimes against his family. [Br. Lit.: Titus Andronicus]
barber returns to England; takes revenge for false conviction by slitting throats of customers. [Br. Folklore: Misc; Br. Lit.: Sweeney Todd; Am. Musical Theater: Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, in Facts (1979), 292.]
traditional symbol of vengeance. [Flower Symbolism: Flora Symbolica, 178]
a multi-millionairess, she bribes the villagers to execute the man who was responsible for her shame. [Swiss Drama: Duerrenmatt The Visit in Benét, 1063]
Allusions—Cultural, Literary, Biblical, and Historical: A Thematic Dictionary. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.