Examples of Allusion

Greek Mythology:

Tantalos and Niobe

“How often I have heard the story of Niobe, Tantalos’ wretched daughter, how the stone clung fast about her, ivy-close: and they say the rain falls endlessly and sifting soft snow; her tears never done. I feel the loneliness of her death in mine.”

Danae

“All Danae’s beauty was locked away in a brazen cell where sunlight could not come: A small room, still as any grave, enclosed her. Yet she was a princess too, and Zeus in a rain of gold poured love upon her.”

Persephone

“O tomb, vaulted bride-bed in eternal rock, soon I shall be with my own again where Persephone welcomes the thin ghosts underground.”