face that launched a thousand ships, Was this the
A line from the sixteenth-century play Doctor Faustus, by Christopher Marlowe. Faustus says this when the devil Mephistopheles (Marlowe spells the name “Mephistophilis”) shows him Helen of Troy, the most beautiful woman in history. The “thousand ships” are warships, a reference to the Trojan War (see also Trojan War).
QUIZZES
QUIZ YOURSELF ON THESE WORDS FROM BROWN GIRL DREAMING!
Visualize yourself passing this quiz on words from Jacqueline Woodson’s exquisite verse novel “Brown Girl Dreaming,” and then take the quiz to prove you can do it! (Because you can.)
Question 1 of 10
What does “barren” mean?
Words nearby face that launched a thousand ships, Was this the
face-saver, face-saving, facet, facete, facetectomy, face that launched a thousand ships, Was this the, face the music, facetiae, face time, facetious, facet joint
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.