Allusive

These tales are ‘new’, they are not directly derived from other myths and legends, but they must inevitably contain a large measure of ancient wide-spread motives or elements. After all, I believe that legends and myths are largely made of ‘truth’, and indeed present aspects of it that can only be received in this mode; and long ago certain truths and modes of this kind were discovered and must always reappear. 
~ Letter 131 to Milton Waldman

All stories, art, and creative endeavors depend in part on the stories, art, and creative endeavors to come before them, weaving back and across and through familiar and loved (or loathed!) works. These allusions create a sense of depth and remind us that new creative works are always unspooling, an essential part of our humanity.

This month's challenge considers the concept of the allusion: a reference to a previous work of literature, art, myth, or history. Participants will choose one (or more!) prompts from a list of allusions, found below. As always, you can use your prompt however you want, and we will never question if a challenge work has adequately used its prompt. For instance, you can create a fanwork about the allusion you select, or you can use the specific phrase in your work—or you can take a totally new and different approach!

Thank you to Zdenka for this month's banner and stamps!

This challenge opened in August 2026 .

Prompts

Choose your prompt from the collection below.

View Prompts

• Achilles' heel
• Beatrice
• bowdlerize
• boycott
• Cain and Abel
• Cassanova
• Cassandra
• Catch-22
• caught between a rock and a hard place
• chimera
• cross the Rubicon
• descent into the underworld
• doublespeak
• down a rabbithole
• draconian laws
• fallen from the heavens
• Faustian bargain
• fiddle while Rome burns
• fisher king
• 40 days and 40 nights
• Herculean
• the inanimate brought to life
• Jekyll and Hyde
• kiss of death
• Kryptonite
• labyrinth
• the North Star
• over the rainbow
• Pandora's box
• Pied Piper
• pilgrimage
• pillar of salt
• poisoned apple
• poison the well
• Prince Charming
• prodigal son
• Promethean fire
• Pyrrhic victory
• raised from the dead
• rise from the ashes
• river of forgetfulness
• running the gauntlet
• Scrooge
• Siren's song
• Sisyphean task
• sold down the river
• stabbed in the back
• star-crossed lovers
• "There cannot be any 'story' without a fall …"
• third eye
• tilting at windmills
• a thousand ships
• transformation from/into an animal
• trial by fire
• two-faced
• weaving fate
• "we're not in Kansas anymore"
• white whale
• wings