Pop Culture References and Greekisms

Long before planes, trains, and automobiles, there were people. And people still used common phrases and sayings, but they were slightly different. Here are a few examples of lines or other things in the episodes that reference familiar phrases or items in the 20th century.

1.01 Treasure of Zeus

Kora: I'm gonna have to put up a sign: 'No shirt, no feet, no service.'

• Reference to the phrase "No shirt, no shoes, no service" indicating that any customer needs to be wearing at least a shirt and shoes to be served. The origin of this policy is probably from areas like Atlantic City where customers would come in clad only in bathing suits, tracking in sand with their bare feet and making other customers uncomfortable with their lack of dress. - Barefoot and Grounded

1.02 Between Friends

Jason: What'd Fiducius want?
Iolaus: What's a dinar-counter like him always want? The academy fees.

• Reference to the term bean counter, n. Slang
  • A person, such as an accountant or financial officer, who is concerned with quantification, especially to the exclusion of other matters. - Answers.com
  • A disparaging term for an accountant, or anyone who one who is excessively concerned with statistical records or accounts. - The Phrase Finder

1.03 What a Crockery

Hercules: What do you talk to dads about?
Jason: Ask him how his day was. See if you can borrow the reins to the chariot.

• It is a dream of most teenagers to borrow the keys to their father's car.

Iolaus: You'd think Cheiron would have accepted my excuse about the God of War vaporizing my homework.

• Reference to the old "The dog ate my homework" excuse.
  • An excuse kids use at school when they don't have their homework assignment to submit. This excuse is never believed and usually said as a joke. - Idiom Quest
  • A classic and not very credible excuse usually used in cartoons and sitcoms to excuse a student's lack of completed homework when they get to school. - Urban Dictionary

1.05 Girl Trouble

Iolaus: Okay. Through the arch; off the ladder; over the roof; off the well; off the wall; down the steps; nothing but pigpen.

• The contest between Jason and Iolaus is an allusion to a series of 1993 McDonalds Commercials with Michael Jordan and Larry Bird calling and then making impossible bank-shot baskets.

1.06 Teachers Pests

Fiducius: When my boy Pythias went here, the students knew the value of a precisely ordered library. But nobody reads anymore - everyone's too busy going to plays or looking at sculptures.

• A common complaint from an older generation about a younger generation, that they're too busy listening to music or watching tv or movies to enjoy more traditional entertainment, like reading.

1.08 Keeping Up With the Jasons

• The title "Keeping Up With the Jasons" is a play on the phrase "Keeping up with the Joneses", with "Joneses" meaning one's neighbors, friends, business associates, etc. - (Reference.com)
  • "Keeping up with the Joneses" is an idiom in many parts of the English-speaking world referring to the comparison to one's neighbor as a benchmark for social caste or the accumulation of material goods. To fail to "keep up with the Joneses" is perceived as demonstrating socio-economic or cultural inferiority. - (Wikipedia)

1.09 Amazon Grace

• The title "Amazon Grace" may be a reference to the Christian hymn "Amazing Grace".

Jason: They thought everything was quiet... and then it came again, that eerie, scratching sound. So the knave and the maiden sped off in the chariot. And when they got home, they found the monster's hook stuck in the side of the chariot!
Hercules: Last time I heard that, it was a farm boy and a peasant girl in an oxcart.

• Jason's story is incredibly reminiscent of one of the endings of a well-known urban legend called The Hook, in which two lovers are menaced by a man with a hook for a hand. In this ending, the lovers get away, but find the man's hook attached to their vehicle.
  • Legend: A couple's late night make-out session is cut short when they hear a report on the car radio about an escaped killer (who has a hook for a hand) in the vicinity. The girl insists on being driven home immediately; upon arrival at her house, the boy discovers a bloody hook hanging from the passenger-side car door handle. - "The Hook" Urban Legend at Snopes.com

1.12 Battle Lines II

Iolaus: Look, I know a con when I see one, and this has 'setup' chiseled all over it.

• Reference to the phrase: "This has [insert word] written all over it." chisel, n., a metal tool with a sharpened edge at one end used to chip, carve, or cut into a solid material (as wood, stone, or metal) - Merriam-Webster. chiseled, adj., formed or crafted as if with a chisel - Merriam-Webster.
  • [blank] written all over it - an idiom meaning that the object of the phrase is the epitome of [blank]. If something, such as a plan or idea, has disaster written all over it, it is thought to be heading for complete failure or will cause a lot of trouble, i.e. "Mary's idea of a holiday with her in-laws has disaster written all over it!" - English idioms and idiomatic expressions

1.33 Con Ares

Strife May the horse be with you!

• Reference to the famous line from Star Wars: May the Force be with you. - Wikipedia
  • "May The Horse Be With You" is also a song by popular Christian rock band Relient K.