Allegory
Allegory ({not transcribed}) , noun
[Latin allegoria, Greek {not transcribed}, description of one thing under the image of another; {not transcribed} other + {not transcribed} to speak in the assembly, harangue, {not transcribed} place of assembly, from {not transcribed} to assemble: compare French allégorie.]
1.
A figurative sentence or discourse, in which the principal subject is described by another subject resembling it in its properties and circumstances. The real subject is thus kept out of view, and we are left to collect the intentions of the writer or speaker by the resemblance of the secondary to the primary subject.
2.
Anything which represents by suggestive resemblance; an emblem.
3.
(Painting & Sculpt.) A figure representation which has a meaning beyond notion directly conveyed by the object painted or sculptured.
An allegory is a prolonged metaphor. Bunyan's “Pilgrim's Progress” and Spenser's “Faerie Queene” are celebrated examples of the allegory.