Pyrrhic victory = a victory with devastating cost to the victor; takes its name from King Pyrrhus, whose army suffered irreplaceable casualties when he defeated the Romans during the Pyrrhic War in 280/279 B.C.; (referred to in Joyce’s Ulysses)
Gordian Knot = often used as a metaphor for an intractable problem, solved by a bold stroke (“cutting the Gordian knot”). Phrase comes from a legend associated with Alexander the Great:
Midas tied his father’s ox-cart to a post with an intricate knot of bark. It was prophesied that the one to untie the knot would become the king of Asia. In 333 BC, wintering at Gordium, Alexander attempted to untie the knot. When he could find no end to the knot to unbind it, he sliced it in half with his sword, producing the required ends (the so-called “Alexandrian solution”). OR Plutarch claims that according to Aristobulus, Alexander pulled the knot out of its pole pin.
Maginot Line = a line of fortifications and weapons for French defense against the Germans during WWII; praised as a great idea, but ultimately failed when the Germans circumvented it by going through Belgium before the French were prepared; named after the French Minister of War André Maginot; can be used metaphorically to signify a strategy that seems like it would be effective, but ultimately fails devastatingly