2016年10月28日 星期五

「theseus black sails」的圖片搜尋結果
Ship of Theseus
According to Plutarch's Life of Theseus, the ship Theseus used on his return from Crete to Athens was kept in the Athenian harbor as a memorial for several centuries.
The ship wherein Theseus and the youth of Athens returned had thirty oars, and was preserved by the Athenians down even to the time of Demetrius Phalereus,for they took away the old planks as they decayed, putting in new and stronger timber in their place...

The ship had to be maintained in a seaworthy state, for, in return for Theseus's successful mission, the Athenians had pledged to honour Apollo every year henceforth. Thus, the Athenians sent a religious mission to the island of Delos (one of Apollo's most sacred sanctuaries) on the Athenian state galley – the ship itself – to pay their fealty to the god. To preserve the purity of the occasion, no executions were permitted between the time when the religious ceremony began to when the ship returned from Delos, which took several weeks.

To preserve the ship, any wood that wore out or rotted was replaced; it was, thus, unclear to philosophers how much of the original ship actually remained, giving rise to the philosophical question whether it should be considered "the same" ship or not. Such philosophical questions about the nature of identity are sometimes referred to as the Ship of Theseus Paradox.
Regardless of these issues of the originality of the ship's structure, for Athenians the preserved ship kept fresh their understanding that Theseus had been an actual, historic figure – which none then doubted – and gave them a tangible connection to their divine providence.
「theseus and the minotaur」的圖片搜尋結果
Theseus and the Minotaur
                                                     

The myth of Theseus and the Minotaur

The myth of Theseus and the Minotaur is one of the most tragic and fascinating myths of the Greek Mythology.

Theseus, a genuine Greek hero of the Mythology and Minotaur, one of the most devastating and terrifying monsters are the main protagonists of a myth that involves gods and monsters, heroes and kings and two of the main city–states in the Hellenic world: Athens and Crete.

The Minotaur and the Labyrinth of Crete

The Minotaur was the son of Pasiphae, wife of King Minos of Crete.
Queen Pasiphae slept with a bull sent by Zeus, and gave birth to Minotaur, a creature half man – half bull. King Minos was embarrassed, but did not want to kill the Minotaur, so he hid the monster in the Labyrinth constructed by Daedalus at the Minoan Palace of Knossos.

According to the myth, Minos was imprisoning his enemies in the Labyrinth so that the Minotaur could eat them. The labyrinth was such a complicated construction that no one could ever find the way out alive.

Son of Minos, Androgeus, went to Athens to participate to the Panathenaic Games, but he was killed during the Marathon by the bull that impregnated his mother Pasiphae. Minos was infuriated, and demanded Aegeus the king of Athens to send seven men and women every year to the Minotaur to advert the plague caused by the death of Androgeus.

The third year, Theseus, son of Aegeus decided to be one of the seven young men that would go to Crete, in order to kill the Minotaur and end the human sacrifices to the monster. King Aegeus tried to make him change his mind but Theseus was determined to slay the Minotaur.

Theseus promised his father that he would put up white sails coming back from Crete, allowing him to know in advance that he was coming back alive. The boat would return with the black sails if Theseus was killed.

※labyrinth:something that is extremely complicated or difficult to understand

Theseus and the Minotaur
Theseus kills the Minotaur
Theseus announced to King Minos that he was going to kill the Monster, but Minos knew that even if he did manage to kill the Minotaur, Theseus would never be able to exit the Labyrinth.
「Ariadne」的圖片搜尋結果
                    Ariadne

Ariadne Giving Theseus a Ball of String to Find His Way Out of the Maze - 19th century painting by Pelagio Palagi
        Ariadne Giving Theseus a Ball of String to Find His Way Out of the Maze

Theseus met Princess Ariadne, daughter of King Minos, who fell madly in love with him and decided to help Theseus. She gave him a thread and told him to unravel it as he would penetrate deeper and deeper into the Labyrinth, so that he knows the way out when he kills the monster.

Theseus followed her suggestion and entered the labyrinth with the thread. Theseus managed to kill the Minotaur and save the Athenians, and with Ariadne’s thread he managed to retrace his way out.
Theseus took Princess Ariadne with him and left Crete sailing happily back to Athens.
「Ariadne fell asleep」的圖片搜尋結果
                            Theseus and Ariadne

Aegeus and the Sails

Theseus’ boat stopped at Naxos and the Athenians had a long celebration dedicated to Theseus and Ariadne. After long hours of feasting and drinking, Ariadne fell asleep on the shore and didn’t enter the boat that sailed to Athens. Theseus figured out that Ariadne was not with them when it was too late and he was so upset that he forgot the promise made to his father and did not change the sails.
John Vanderlyn, Ariadne Sleeping on the island of Naxos, 1809-14
                            Ariadne Sleeping on the island of Naxos 
King Aegeus was waiting at Cape Sounion to see the sails of the boat. He saw the black sails from afar and presumed his son was dead. He dropped himself to the waters, committing suicide and since then, this sea is called the Aegean Sea.

The myth of Theseus and the Minotaur has inspired numerous artists throughout the centuries, who have created paintings and sculptures dedicated to the myth and the hero of Athens.
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The Apology of Socrates by Plato
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Plato's The Apology is an account of the speech Socrates makes at the trial in which he is charged with not recognizing the gods recognized by the state, inventing new deities, and corrupting the youth of Athens. Socrates' speech, however, is by no means an "apology" in our modern understanding of the word. The name of the dialogue derives from the Greek "apologia," which translates as a defense, or a speech made in defense. Thus, in The Apology, Socrates attempts to defend himself and his conduct--certainly not to apologize for it.

For the most part, Socrates speaks in a very plain, conversational manner. He explains that he has no experience with the law courts and that he will instead speak in the manner to which he is accustomed: with honesty and directness. He explains that his behavior stems from a prophecy by the oracle at Delphi which claimed that he was the wisest of all men. Recognizing his ignorance in most worldly affairs, Socrates concluded that he must be wiser than other men only in that he knows that he knows nothing. In order to spread this peculiar wisdom, Socrates explains that he considered it his duty to question supposed "wise" men and to expose their false wisdom as ignorance. These activities earned him much admiration amongst the youth of Athens, but much hatred and anger from the people he embarrassed. He cites their contempt as the reason for his being put on trial.
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       ※ Death of Socrates
Socrates then proceeds to interrogate Meletus, the man primarily responsible for bringing Socrates before the jury. This is the only instance in The Apology of the elenchus, or cross-examination, which is so central to most Platonic dialogues. His conversation with Meletus, however, is a poor example of this method, as it seems more directed toward embarrassing Meletus than toward arriving at the truth.

In a famous passage, Socrates likens himself to a gadfly stinging the lazy horse which is the Athenian state. Without him, Socrates claims, the state is liable to drift into a deep sleep, but through his influence--irritating as it may be to some--it can be wakened into productive and virtuous action.

「socrates apology speech」的圖片搜尋結果
Socrates is found guilty by a narrow margin and is asked to propose a penalty. Socrates jokingly suggests that if he were to get what he deserves, he should be honored with a great meal for being of such service to the state. On a more serious note, he rejects prison and exile, offering perhaps instead to pay a fine. When the jury rejects his suggestion and sentences him to death, Socrates stoically accepts the verdict with the observation that no one but the gods know what happens after death and so it would be foolish to fear what one does not know. He also warns the jurymen who voted against him that in silencing their critic rather than listening to him, they have harmed themselves much more than they have harmed him.

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Odysseus's women
1.Nausicaa
「odysseus and nausicaa」的圖片搜尋結果
She is the daughter of King Alcinous and Queen Arete of Phaeacia. Her name, in Greek, means "burner of ships" .
In Book Six of the Odyssey, Odysseus is shipwrecked on the coast of the island of Scheria. Nausicaä and her handmaidens go to the sea-shore to wash clothes. Awoken by their games, Odysseus emerges from the forest completely naked, scaring the servants away, and begs Nausicaä for aid.
 Nausicaä gives Odysseus some of the laundry to wear, and takes him to the edge of the town. Realizing that rumors might arise if Odysseus is seen with her, she and the servants go ahead into town. But first she advises Odysseus to go directly to Alcinous' house and make his case to Nausicaä's mother, Arete. Arete is known as wiser even than Alcinous, and Alcinous trusts her judgment. Odysseus follows this advice, approaching Arete and winning her approval, and is received as a guest by Alcinous.

During his stay, Odysseus recounts his adventures to Alcinous and his court. This recounting forms a substantial portion of the Odyssey. Alcinous then generously provides Odysseus with the ships that finally bring him home to Ithaca.

Nausicaä is young and very pretty; Odysseus says that she resembles a goddess, particularly Artemis. Nausicaä is known to have several brothers. According to Aristotle and Dictys of Crete, Nausicaä later married Telemachus, the son of Odysseus, and had a son named Ptoliporthus.

Homer gives a literary account of love never expressed. While she is presented as a potential love interest to Odysseus – she says to her friend that she would like her husband to be like him, and her father tells Odysseus he would let him marry her – no romantic relationship takes place between the pair. Nausicaä is also a mother figure for Odysseus; she ensures Odysseus' return home, and thus says "Never forget me, for I gave you life," indicating her status as a "new mother" in Odysseus' rebirth. Odysseus never tells Penelope about his encounter with Nausicaä, out of all the women he met on his long journey home. Some suggest this indicates a deeper level of feeling for the girl.

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                            odysseus and nausicaa
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2.Circe
File:Offor Circe.jpg


Circe was a powerful sorceress—variously described as a goddess, nymph, or witch—in Greek myth and legend. By most accounts, Circe was the daughter of Helios:[1] Titan of the Sun and Perse[1] the Oceanid. Her brothers were Aeetes, the keeper of the Golden Fleece, and Perses. Her sister was Pasiphaë, the wife of King Minos and mother of the Minotaur.[2] Other accounts make her the daughter of Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft herself.
「odysseus and circe」的圖片搜尋結果
In Homer's Odyssey, Circe is described as living in a mansion that stands in the middle of a clearing in a dense wood. Around the house prowled strangely docile lions and wolves, the drugged victims of her magic;they were not dangerous, and fawned on all newcomers. Circe worked at a huge loom.She invited Odysseus' crew to a feast of familiar food, a pottage of cheese and meal, sweetened with honey and laced with wine, but also laced with one of her magical potions and drunk from an enchanted cup. Thus so she turned them all into swine with her magic wand or staff after they gorged themselves on it. Only drunken Eurylochus, suspecting treachery from the outset, escaped to warn Odysseus and the others who had stayed behind at the ship. Odysseus set out to rescue his men, but was intercepted by the messenger god, Hermes, who had been sent by Athena. Hermes told Odysseus to use the holy herb moly to protect himself from Circe's potion and, having resisted it, to draw his sword and act as if he were to attack Circe. From there, Circe would ask him to bed, but Hermes advised caution, for even there the goddess would be treacherous. She would take his manhood unless he had her swear by the names of the gods that she would not.

Odysseus followed Hermes' advice, freeing his men and then remained on the island for one year, feasting and drinking wine. According to Homer, Circe suggested two alternative routes to Odysseus to return to Ithaca: toward Planctae, the "Wandering Rocks", or
  passing between the dangerous Scylla and the whirlpool-like Charybdis,
 conventionally identified with the Strait of Messina. She also advised Odysseus to go to the Underworld and gave him directions.
「odysseus and circe」的圖片搜尋結果
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※nymph: a spirit in the shape of a young woman who lives in mountains, forests, meadows, and water
※docile: easily taught, led, or controlled
※drug: to give a drug to (a person or animal) in order to make that person or animal very sleepy or unconscious
※pottage: a thick soup of vegetables and often meat
※gorge:to eat greedily or to repletion
※moly: a mythical herb with a black root, white blossoms, and magical powers
「moly」的圖片搜尋結果
                                moly
※treachery:violation of allegiance or of faith and confidence
※fawn:to court favor by a cringing or flattering manner
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3.Calypso
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Calypso was a nymph in Greek mythology, who lived on the island of Ogygia, where she detained Odysseus for several years. She is generally said to be the daughter of the Titan Atlas.

Hesiod, and the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, mention either a different Calypso or possibly the same Calypso as one of the Oceanid daughters of Tethys and Oceanus. Apollodorus includes the name Calypso in his list of Nereids, the daughters of Nereus and Doris.

「Calypso」的圖片搜尋結果

Calypso is remembered most for her role in Homer's Odyssey, in which she keeps the fabled Greek hero Odysseus on her island to make him her immortal husband. According to Homer, Calypso kept Odysseus prisoner at Ogygia for seven years.Calypso enchants Odysseus with her singing as she moves to and fro, weaving on her loom with a golden shuttle. During this time they sleep together, although Odysseus soon comes to wish for circumstances to change.

Odysseus can no longer bear being separated from his wife Penelope and wants to go to Calypso to tell her. His patron goddess Athena asks Zeus to order the release of Odysseus from the island, and Zeus orders the messenger Hermes to tell Calypso to set Odysseus free, for it was not his destiny to live with her forever. She angrily comments on how the gods hate goddesses having affairs with mortals, but eventually concedes, sending Odysseus on his way after providing him with wine, bread, and the materials for a raft.

Homer does not mention any children by Calypso. By some accounts, which come after the Odyssey, Calypso bore Odysseus a son, Latinus, though Circe is usually given as Latinus' mother.
In other accounts Calypso bore Odysseus two children, Nausithous and Nausinous.
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God's will+Moirai(The fate ,destiny)+Catharsis
Moirai
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In Greek mythology, the Moirai or Moerae , often known in English as the Fates , were the white-robed incarnations of destiny; their Roman equivalent was the Parcae (euphemistically the "sparing ones"). Their number became fixed at three: Clotho (spinner), Lachesis (allotter) and Atropos (unturnable).
「Moirae」的圖片搜尋結果
They controlled the mother thread of life of every mortal from birth to death. They were independent, at the helm of necessity, directed fate, and watched that the fate assigned to every being by eternal laws might take its course without obstruction. The gods and men had to submit to them, although Zeus's relationship with them is a matter of debate: some sources say he is the only one who can command them , yet others suggest he was also bound to the Moirai's dictates.In the Homeric poems Moira or Aisa, is related with the limit and end of life, and Zeus appears as the guider of destiny. In the Theogony of Hesiod, the three Moirai are personified, daughters of Nyx and are acting over the gods.Later they are daughters of Zeus and Themis, who was the embodiment of divine order and law. In Plato's Republic the Three Fates are daughters of Ananke (necessity).
「Moirae」的圖片搜尋結果
It seems that Moira is related with Tekmor (proof, ordinance) and with Ananke (destiny, necessity), who were primeval goddesses in mythical cosmogonies. The ancient Greek writers might call this power Moira or Ananke, and even the gods could not alter what was ordained.The concept of a universal principle of natural order has been compared to similar concepts in other cultures like the Vedic Rta, the Avestan Asha (Arta) and the Egyptian Maat.

In earliest Greek philosophy, the cosmogony of Anaximander is based on these mythical beliefs. The goddess Dike (justice, divine retribution), keeps the order and sets a limit to any actions.

Clotho ( "spinner") spun the thread of life from her Distaff onto her Spindle. Her Roman equivalent was Nona,  who was originally a goddess called upon in the ninth month of pregnancy.
Lachesis ("allotter" or drawer of lots) measured the thread of life allotted to each person with her measuring rod. Her Roman equivalent was Decima (the 'Tenth').
Atropos ( "inexorable" or "inevitable", literally "unturning", sometimes called Aisa) was the cutter of the thread of life. She chose the manner of each person's death; and when their time was come, she cut their life-thread with "her abhorred shears".Her Roman equivalent was Morta ('Dead One').
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※primeval: very old or ancient; basic and powerful
※cosmogony: a theory of the origin of the universe
※ordain:to establish or order by appointment, decree, or law 
※allortter:to give someone (an amount of something) to use or have
※incarnation:a concrete or actual form of a quality or concept; especially a person showing a trait or typical character to a marked degree
※abhor:to dislike (someone or something) very much
※shear: to cut off
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SOCRATES, PLATO, AND ARISTOTLE: THE BIG THREE IN GREEK PHILOSOPHY
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SOCRATES: ATHENS’ STREET-CORNER PHILOSOPHER
Socrates was the big-city philosopher in ancient Athens. Accused and convicted of corrupting the youth, his only real crime was embarrassing and irritating a number of important people. His punishment was death.

Famous quote: “The unexamined life is not worth living.”

Socrates didn’t write books; he just liked to ask probing and sometimes humiliating questions, which gave rise to the famous Socratic Method of Teaching. This street-corner philosopher made a career of deflating pompous windbags.

PLATO: THE PHILOSOPHER WHO WOULD BE KING
An aristocratic man with plenty of money and a superb physique, Plato at one time won two prizes as a championship wrestler. Actually, the man’s real (and little known) name was Aristocles; Plato was just a nickname given to him by his friends, whose original connotation made reference to his broad shoulders.

Plato became an enthusiastic and talented student of Socrates and wrote famous dialogues featuring his teacher verbally grappling with opponents. Our wrestler believed in the pre-existence and immortality of the soul, holding that life is nothing more than the imprisonment of the soul in a body. In addition to the physical world, there is a heavenly realm of greater reality consisting in Forms, Ideals, or Ideas (such as Equality, Justice, Humanity, and so on).

As his crowning achievement: He wrote a famous treatise (The Republic) on the ideal society, in which he expressed the thought that a philosopher, of all people, who should be king (big surprise!).

ARISTOTLE: A LONG WALK TO THE GOLDEN MEAN
Aristotle was Plato’s best student. He went on to become the very well-paid tutor of Alexander the Great — probably the highest paid philosopher in history. Aristotle started his own philosophical school when he was 50 years old. Although he lived only ten more years, he produced nearly a thousand books and pamphlets, only a few of which have survived.
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This great thinker was called a peripatetic philosopher (peripateo = “to walk around”) because he liked to lecture to his students while taking a walk. Another group of philosophers were called stoics because they preferred sitting around on porches  when they shot the breeze.

A key theme in Aristotle’s thought is that happiness is the goal of life. Aristotle was a good deal less other-worldly than Plato. He voluntarily went into exile from Athens when conditions became a bit politically dangerous for him, in his words, “lest Athens sin twice against philosophy.”

The founder of logical theory, Aristotle believed that the greatest human endeavor is the use of reason in theoretical activity. One of his best known ideas was his conception of “The Golden Mean” — “avoid extremes,” the counsel of moderation in all things.
「plato and aristotle and socrates」的圖片搜尋結果
                                                         Raphael's School of Athens.




2016年10月19日 星期三

Note from class

Seven deadly sins
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 pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth
which are also contrary to 
the seven virtues
 refers to the union of two sets of virtues: the four cardinal virtues, from ancient Greek philosophy, are prudence, justice, temperance (meaning restriction or restraint), and courage (or fortitude); and the three theological virtues, from the letters of Saint Paul of Tarsus, are faith, hope, and charity (or love). These were adopted by the Church Fathers as the seven virtues.
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1.Pride
「pride and prejudice」的圖片搜尋結果「mr.Darcy pride」的圖片搜尋結果
Darcy's greatest sin is his pride. His pride drives him away from Eliizbeth, causes him to make judgements he shouldn't make, and keeps him aloof from the things that really matter to him. He suffers from pride throughout the novel, but as we find out...... he really is a good man.「pride and prejudice」的圖片搜尋結果
The negative version of pride is considered the original and most serious of the seven deadly sins: the perversion of the faculties that make humans more like God—dignity and holiness. It is also thought to be the source of the other capital sins. Also known as hubris (from ancient Greek ),or futility, it is identified as dangerously corrupt selfishness, the putting of one's own desires, urges, wants, and whims before the welfare of people.

In even more destructive cases, it is irrationally believing that one is essentially and necessarily better, superior, or more important than others, failing to acknowledge the accomplishments of others, and excessive admiration of the personal image or self (especially forgetting one's own lack of divinity, and refusing to acknowledge one's own limits, faults, or wrongs as a human being).

As pride has been labelled the father of all sins, it has been deemed the devil's most prominent trait.
 it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind." Pride is understood to sever the soul from God, as well as His life-and-grace-giving Presence.
In Ancient Athens, hubris was considered one of the greatest crimes and was used to refer to insolent contempt that can cause one to use violence to shame the victim. Aristotle defined hubris as shaming the victim, not because of anything that happened to the committer or might happen to the committer, but merely for the committer's own gratification.
※gratification : something that pleases or satisfies
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Dante's definition of pride was "love of self perverted to hatred and contempt for one's neighbour".

Benjamin Franklin said "In reality there is, perhaps no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. Disguise it, struggle with it, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive and will every now and then peep out and show itself; you will see it, perhaps, often in this history. For even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility."
※stifle: to cut off
※mortify: to cause (someone) to feel very embarrassed and foolish
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2.envy
Envy , like greed and lust, is characterized by an insatiable desire. It can be described as a sad or resentful covetousness towards the traits or possessions of someone else. It arises from vainglory,and severs a man from his neighbor.

Envy can be directly related to the Ten Commandments, specifically, "Neither shall you covet... anything that belongs to your neighbour."

Dante defined envy as "a desire to deprive other men of theirs". In Dante's Purgatory, the punishment for the envious is to have their eyes sewn shut with wire because they have gained sinful pleasure from seeing others brought low. 

Envy is said to be the motivation behind Cain murdering his brother, Abel, as Cain envied Abel because God favored Abel's sacrifice over Cain's.


Bertrand Russell said that envy was one of the most potent causes of unhappiness,bringing sorrow to committers of envy whilst giving them the urge to inflict pain upon others.
※potent: having or wielding force, authority, or influence 
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3.wrath
Wrath  can be defined as uncontrolled feelings of anger, rage, and even hatred, often revealing itself in the wish to seek vengeance.Wrath, in its purest form, presents with injury, violence, and hate that may provoke feuds that can go on for centuries. Wrath may persist long after the person who did another a grievous wrong is dead. Feelings of wrath can manifest in different ways, including impatience, hateful misanthropy, revenge, and self-destructive behavior, such as drug abuse or suicide.
※feud   :a mutual enmity or quarrel that is often prolonged or inveterate; especially
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★★★Highly recommended book:
                    The Grapes of Wrath
JohnSteinbeck TheGrapesOfWrath.jpg「the grape of wrath」的圖片搜尋結果

*About the book:
The Grapes of Wrath is an American realist novel written by John Steinbeck and published in 1939.The book won the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and it was cited prominently when Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1962.

Set during the Great Depression, the novel focuses on the Joads, a poor family of tenant farmers driven from their Oklahoma home by drought, economic hardship, agricultural industry changes and bank foreclosures forcing tenant farmers out of work. Due to their nearly hopeless situation, and in part because they are trapped in the Dust Bowl, the Joads set out for California. Along with thousands of other "Okies", they seek jobs, land, dignity, and a future.
*About the title:


While writing the novel at his home, Steinbeck had unusual difficulty devising a title. The Grapes of Wrath, suggested by his wife Carol Steinbeck,was deemed more suitable than anything by the author. The title is a reference to lyrics from "The Battle Hymn of the Republic", by Julia Ward Howe:

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord:
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:
His truth is marching on.

These lyrics refer, in turn, to the biblical passage Revelation 14:19–20, an apocalyptic appeal to divine justice and deliverance from oppression in the final judgment. This and other biblical passages had inspired a long tradition of imagery of Christ in the winepress, in various media.
※apocalyptic:of, relating to, or involving terrible violence and destruction
※winepress: a vat in which juice is expressed from grapes by treading or by means of a plunger
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Christ in the winepress
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4.sloth
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Sloth( or acedia ("without care")) refers to a peculiar jumble of notions, dating from antiquity and including mental, spiritual, pathological, and physical states. It may be defined as absence of interest or habitual disinclination to exertion.

The scope of sloth is wide. Spiritually, acedia first referred to an affliction attending religious persons, especially monks, where in they became indifferent to their duties and obligations to God. Mentally, acedia, has a number of distinctive components of which the most important is affectlessness, a lack of any feeling about self or other, a mind-state that gives rise to boredom, rancor, apathy, and a passive inert or sluggish mentation, Physically, acedia is fundamentally associated with a cessation of motion and an indifference to work; it finds expression in laziness, idleness, and indolence.


Sloth not only subverts the livelihood of the body, taking no care for its day-to-day provisions, but also slows down the mind, halting its attention to matters of great importance. Sloth hinders the man in his righteous undertakings and thus becomes a terrible source of human's undoing.

Dante describes acedia as the failure to love God with all one's heart, all one's mind and all one's soul; to him it was the middle sin, the only one characterised by an absence or insufficiency of love.
「sloth」的圖片搜尋結果"sloth "as a noun refers to a kind of a very lazy animal!


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※exertion:physical or mental effort
※affectlessness:  showing or expressing no emotion
※rancor: an angry feeling of hatred or dislike for someone who has treated you unfairly
※apathy:lack of feeling or emotion ;lack of interest or concern
※sluggish:moving slowly or lazily
※mentation:mental activity; thinking
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5.Greed
 also known as avarice(a strong desire to have or get money), cupidity or covetousness, is, like lust and gluttony, a sin of desire. However, greed  is applied to an artificial, rapacious desire and pursuit of material possessions.  In Dante's Purgatory, the penitents were bound and laid face down on the ground for having concentrated too much on earthly thoughts. Hoarding of materials or objects, theft and robbery, especially by means of violence, trickery, or manipulation of authority are all actions that may be inspired by Greed. Such misdeeds can include simony, where one attempts to purchase or sell sacraments, including Holy Orders and, therefore, positions of authority in the Church hierarchy.
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As defined outside Christian writings, greed is an inordinate desire to acquire or possess more than one needs, especially with respect to material wealth. Like pride, it can lead to not just some, but all evil.
※cupidity:a strong desire for money or possessions
※covetousness:having a craving for possession
※rapacious:always wanting more money, possessions.
※simony:  the buying or selling of a church office or ecclesiastical preferment
※inordinate:exceeding reasonable limits
※ecclesiastical:of or relating to the Christian church or clergy
※preferment:advancement or promotion in dignity, office, or station
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6.Gluttony
Gluttony  is the overindulgence and overconsumption of anything to the point of waste.
The word derives from the Latin gluttire, meaning to gulp down or swallow.

In Christianity, it is considered a sin if the excessive desire for food causes it to be withheld from the needy.
「gluttony」的圖片搜尋結果
Because of these scripts, gluttony can be interpreted as selfishness; essentially placing concern with one's own impulses or interests above the well-being or interests of others.
During times of famine, war, and similar periods when food is scarce, it is possible for one to indirectly kill other people through starvation just by eating too much or even too soon.
「gluttony」的圖片搜尋結果
Medieval church leaders  took a more expansive view of gluttony,arguing that it could also include an obsessive anticipation of meals, and the constant eating of delicacies and excessively costly foods.
Out of these ardenter is often considered the most serious, since it is extreme attachment to the pleasure of mere eating, which can make the committer eat impulsively; absolutely and without qualification live merely to eat and drink; lose attachment to health-related, social, intellectual, and spiritual pleasures.

※withhold:  to hold back from action
※famine:an extreme scarcity of food
※ardenter: having or showing very strong feelings
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7.Lust
Lust, or lechery (Latin, "luxuria" ), is intense longing. It is usually thought of as intense or unbridled sexual desire,which leads to fornication, adultery, rape, bestiality, and other immoral sexual acts. However, lust could also mean simply desire in general; thus, lust for money, power, and other things are sinful. In accordance with the words of Henry Edward, the impurity of lust makes one "a slave of the devil".
「lust painting」的圖片搜尋結果
Lust, if not managed properly, can subvert propriety.

※German philosopher Schopenhauer wrote:
"Lust is the ultimate goal of almost all human endeavour, exerts an adverse influence on the most important affairs, interrupts the most serious business, sometimes for a while confuses even the greatest minds, does not hesitate with its trumpery to disrupt the negotiations of statesmen and the research of scholars, has the knack of slipping its love-letters and ringlets even into ministerial portfolios and philosophical manuscripts".
「lust painting」的圖片搜尋結果
Dante defined lust as the disordered love for individuals. It is generally thought to be the least serious capital sin as it is an abuse of a faculty that humans share with animals, and sins of the flesh are less grievous than spiritual sins.
※subvert:o make (something) weaker or less effective
※propriety:behavior that is accepted as socially or morally correct and proper
※knack:behavior that is accepted as socially or morally correct and proper
※unbridle: to free from restraint.
※bestiality: sex between a person and an animal

2016年10月13日 星期四

poetry&mythology

Leda and swan

by W. B. Yeats

「Leda and the Swan」的圖片搜尋結果「Leda and the Swan」的圖片搜尋結果
※Leda and the Swan is a story and subject in art from Greek mythology in which the god Zeus, in the form of a swan, seduces or rapes Leda.

A sudden blow: the great wings beating still
Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed
By the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill,
He holds her helpless breast upon his breast.

How can those terrified vague fingers push
The feathered glory from her loosening thighs?
And how can body, laid in that white rush,
But feel the strange heart beating where it lies?

A shudder in the loins engenders there
The broken wall, the burning roof and tower
And Agamemnon dead.
 Being so caught up,
So mastered by the brute blood of the air,
Did she put on his knowledge with his power
Before the indifferent beak could let her drop?
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※Leda and Zeus have four children:
, Leda bore Helen and Polydeuces, children of Zeus, while at the same time bearing Castor and Clytemnestra, children of her husband Tyndareus, the King of Sparta. 「Leda and Zeus children」的圖片搜尋結果
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「W. B. Yeats」的圖片搜尋結果About the poet----W. B. Yeats
William Butler Yeats, widely considered one of the greatest poets of the English language, received the 1923 Nobel Prize for Literature. His work was greatly influenced by the heritage and politics of Ireland.
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Types of Poetry
Lyric Poetry
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A lyric poem is a comparatively short, non-narrative poem in which a single speaker presents a state of mind or an emotional state. Lyric poetry retains some of the elements of song which is said to be its origin: For Greek writers the lyric was a song accompanied by the lyre.

Subcategories of the lyric are, for example
:elegy, ode, sonnet and dramatic monologue and most occasional poetry:
《Elegy》
In modern usage, elegy is a formal lament for the death of a particular person.
More broadly defined, the term elegy is also used for solemn meditations, often on questions of death.
《Ode》
An ode is a long lyric poem with a serious subject written in an elevated style.
《Sonnet》
The sonnet was originally a love poem which dealt with the lover’s sufferings and hopes. It originated in Italy and became popular in England in the Renaissance. From the seventeenth century onwards the sonnet was also used for other topics than love, for instance for religious experience , reflections on art  or even the war experience . The sonnet uses a single stanza of  fourteen lines and an intricate rhyme pattern (see stanza forms). Many poets wrote a series of sonnets linked by the same theme, so-called sonnet cycles (for instance Petrarch, Spenser, Shakespeare, Drayton, Barret-Browning, Meredith) which depict the various stages of a love relationship.

※stanza:a group of lines in a poem

《Dramatic》
In a dramatic monologue a speaker, who is explicitly someone other than the author, makes a speech to a silent auditor in a specific situation and at a critical moment. Without intending to do so, the speaker reveals aspects of his temperament and character.
In Browning's My Last Duchess for instance, the Duke shows the picture of his last wife to the emissary from his prospective new wife and reveals his excessive pride in his position and his jealous temperament.
《Ocassional》
Occasional poetry is written for a specific occasion: a wedding , the return of a king from exile ,or a death, etc.

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Narrative Poetry
Narrative poetry gives a verbal representation, in verse, of a sequence of connected events, it propels characters through a plot. It is always told by a narrator. Narrative poems might tell of a love story , the story of a father and son , or the deeds of a hero or heroine .

Sub-categories of narrative poetry:
《Epic》
Epics usually operate on a large scale, both in length and topic, such as the founding of a nation (Virgil’s Aeneid) or the beginning of world history,they tend to use an elevated style of language and supernatural beings take part in the action.
《 Mock-epic 》
The mock-epic makes use of epic conventions, like the elevated style and the assumption that the topic is of great importance, to deal with completely insignificant occurrences. A famous example is Pope's The Rape of the Lock, which tells the story of a young beauty whose suitor secretly cuts off a lock of her hair.
《Ballad》

A ballad is a song, originally transmitted orally, which tells a story. It is an important form of folk poetry which was adapted for literary uses from the sixteenth century onwards.
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Mythology
Ares & Aphrodite- the Forbidden Lovers
「ares and aphrodite love story」的圖片搜尋結果「ares and aphrodite love story」的圖片搜尋結果

Aphrodite,the goddess of love, lust, and mating never had to do a bit of work. Indeed, she had no other responsibility but to make love—and that she did with abandon.

「ares and aphrodite love story」的圖片搜尋結果Aphrodite, who possessed a magic girdle that made its wearer an object of desire for everyone who saw her, was always happy to help young lovers. She took particular delight in causing her fellow Olympians to fall in love with mortals. (Zeus paid her back in kind by making her fall in love with the mortal Anchises—and conceive the hero Aeneas.)
※girdle:    something (as a belt or sash) that encircles or binds

Like the other gods and goddesses, however, Aphrodite also harshly punished those who refused to honor her properly (in her case, this meant celibates or others who withstood the pleasures of love). Hippolytus was just one of the mortals whom Aphrodite punished for denying himself erotic joys.






Hera, reconciled with her son Hephaestus(god of blacksmiths, sculptors, metallurgy, fire and volcanoes), arranged for him to marry the goddess of love. Zeus, Aphrodite's adoptive father, agreed. Unsurprisingly, the marriage of the enchantingly beautiful, sensual, and insatiable Aphrodite and the powerful, but gruff, ugly, and lame Hephaestus was not a happy one. Aphrodite could not confine her love to just one other. The goddess did not remain faithful to Hephaestus—not by a long shot. She had countless affairs with both gods and mortals.
「Hephaestus, god」的圖片搜尋結果
Hephaestus 
The most long-standing and significant of all of Aphrodite's lovers was Ares. But one night, the lovers tarried too long together. As Helius hitched up his golden chariot of the sun, he saw the lovers in Ares' palace in Thrace.

When Helius told Hephaestus what he had seen, the smith god forged an unbreakable bronze net and secretly attached it to the posts and sides of his bed. Then he bid Aphrodite adieu, saying he was going to relax on Lemnos for a while.

As soon as he had gone, Aphrodite sent for Ares. When the morning came, Hephaestus walked in—“Surprise! Hi, honey, I'm home!”—and found the two ensnared in the net. The cuckolded god quickly gathered all the other gods at his bedside to witness the shame of the naked, helpless couple and to heap ridicule upon them.

Hephaestus then demanded the return of the marriage gifts he had given to Zeus. But the ruler of the gods refused, calling the adultery a marital dispute and ridiculing Hephaestus as a fool for making it a public spectacle. (Hermes and Apollo snickered that they would gladly make such a public spectacle if it meant lying with Aphrodite.)

With his first glance at the naked goddess, Poseidon fell in love. So the sea god suggested that Ares should pay for the marriage gifts. Poseidon gladly offered to serve as guarantor: If Ares defaulted on the payment, Poseidon would pay the price and take Aphrodite as his wife. Ares did ultimately default on the debt, but Hephaestus—still smitten with his wife—did not really want a divorce at all, so he never brought it up again.
「poseidon」的圖片搜尋結果「 Hermes」的圖片搜尋結果
-------------Poseidon----------------------------------------Hermes-----------------------
Poseidon, however, was not the only god to envy Ares' position. Hermes too fell in love with naked Aphrodite. When Aphrodite spurned his advances, Hermes sought the help of Zeus. The king of gods dispatched an eagle to steal one of Aphrodite's sandals. To retrieve it, the goddess was forced to submit to Hermes. This union produced a double-sexed child: Hermaphroditus.「hermaphroditus」的圖片搜尋結果「Dionysus」的圖片搜尋結果
------Hermaphroditus------------------ Dionysus---------------------------------
Aphrodite also slept with the youngest of gods, Dionysus. But Hera, who disapproved of Aphrodite's free ways, deformed their child Priapus. She made the boy incredibly ugly and endowed him with gargantuan genitals—an ironic comment on his mother's behavior.
---------------- Dionysus----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dionysus  is the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness, fertility, theatre and religious ecstasy in Greek mythology.
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APHRODITE, ARES, AND CUPID
Aphrodite, Ares, and Cupid
Cupid as son of Aphrodite, the Greek Goddess of Beauty and Ares, the Greek God of War, whose love affair represented an allegory of Love and War.

►Eros, Greek God of Love: Attributes and Themes:
Eros (Or Cupid), The Honey Thief: In “Idylls” of Theocritus (3rd century BC), the poet tells the tale of Cupid the honey thief, the child-god is stung by bees when he steals honey from their hive. He cries and runs to his mother, who laughs, and tells him that he also delivers the sting of love.

Eros and the Dolphin: In later art, Eros is often shown riding a dolphin. This may be a symbol representing how swiftly love moves.

Eros, the Blinfolded Minion: In the later satirical poets, he is represented as a blindfolded child, and this is a symbol of Love being blinkered and arbitrary.

Eros, the winged boy: He is also described a winged boy. This may suggest that lovers are flighty and likely to change their minds. He is just a boy, because love is irrational.

Eros’ symbols: The Arrow and the Torch: His symbols are the arrow and torch, because love is said to wound and inflame the heart”.

According to Ovid, Cupid carries two kinds of arrows, one with a sharp golden point, and the other with a blunt tip of lead.

A person wounded by the golden arrow is filled with uncontrollable desire, but the one struck by the lead feels aversion and desires only to flee.
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arbitrary: not planned or chosen for a particular reason : not based on reason or evidence
blindfold: to cover the eyes of (a person) with a piece of cloth
aversion:  a strong feeling of not liking something
gargantuan:  very large in size or amount
genital:  of or relating to the sexual organs
ensnare: to catch (an animal or person) in a trap or in a place from which there is no escape
spurn:  to refuse to accept (someone or something) that you do not think deserves your respect,                       attention, affection.
adultery:  sex between a married person and someone who is not that person's wife or husband
marital:  of or relating to marriage
tarry:  to be slow in going : to stay somewhere
snicker: to make a short, quiet laugh in a way that shows disrespect
erotic:  relating to sex ;causing sexual feelings
celibacy:   the state of not being married
metallurgy:  a science that deals with the nature and uses of metal
insatiable: always wanting more : not able to be satisfied

2016年10月9日 星期日

Virgil's Aeneid and Homer's Iliad and Odyssey

「virgil and homer」的圖片搜尋結果

「virgil」的圖片搜尋結果「homer」的圖片搜尋結果


When writing the Aeneid,Virgil (or Vergil) drew from his studies on the Homeric epics of the Iliad and the Odyssey to help him create a national epic poem for the Roman people. Virgil used several characteristics associated with epic poetry, more specifically Homer's epics, including the use of hexameter verse, book division, lists of genealogies and underlying themes to draw parallels between the Romans and their cultural predecessors, the Greeks.

Similarities to the Odyssey
The first half of the Aeneid mimics the journey of Odysseus in several ways. Though the Odyssey takes course over the span of 24 books while the Aeneid replicates the happenings in the Odyssey in 6 books, there are several comparisons to make.

The Characters
Odysseus and Aeneas are both royalty, Odysseus being the king of Ithaca and Aeneas a Trojan prince. Without the help of divine intervention though, neither hero would have met his destiny, though there were opposing gods who wanted to delay and provide hardship for the heroes along the journey.Odysseus’ antagonist was Poseidon, the god of the sea, whom he angered by blinding Poseidon's son Polyphemus. In doing this, Poseidon's wrath was given every chance possible, especially with storms blowing the Greek ships off course, even destroying them. Hera was the goddess who used everything in her power to delay Aeneas from ever fulfilling his prophecy since Aeneas was a Trojan, and Hera  that she was the most beautiful out of her, Athena and Hera. Storms caused by Hera also blow the Trojan fleet about and off course, which ultimately lands them at Carthage (leading to another reason for Hera to despise Aeneas and the Trojans).

Stories within a Story
The concept of a character narrating a story within the current story, providing subsequent layers, is seen in both the Aeneid and the Odyssey, more specifically the story of the heroes' journey up until that point in time, since both epics start in medias res, in the middle of things. With the story of Odysseus, the Greek washes up on the shores of Scheria, the land of the Phaeacians, whom hospitably take Odysseus in and ask him how he has come to their land. Odysseus spends Books IX through XII recounting his journey from Troy to where he was presently. In Aeneas' case, upon arrival in Carthage, Dido asked Aeneas to share his story, so Books II and III were narrating the fall of Troy and how Aeneas and his people arrived at Carthage.

The Journey
The ultimate purpose of both Aeneas and Odysseus is returning home, or in Aeneas' case, founding a new home.[6] Both heroes sail over the same sea, sometimes visiting the same locations and experiencing the same difficulties. In Book III of the Aeneid, Aeneas and his men come close to Scylla and Charybdis, as Odysseus and his men do in Book XII of the Odyssey, followed by the Trojans landing on the island of the Cyclopes, as Aeneas does in Book IV. Aeneas' crew had the fortune of not having the same fate as some in Odysseus' crew. Virgil also included an emaciated Greek named Achaemenides, who had sailed with Odysseus but had been left behind. The two heroes also make a katabasis into the Underworld to retrieve information from the deceased.

The Homecoming
Upon arrival in Ithaca, Odysseus is met with suitors in his home, destroying it and trying to win his wife, Penelope's hand. Odysseus proceeds to fight off these suitors, killing them so he can have his home back. Similarly, Aeneas is supposed to found his home in Latium and marry the princess Lavinia, where he is met with the army of Turnus, who was the king of Rutuli and Lavinia's leading suitor before Aeneas came along. Aeneas has to engage in a battle before he can finally rest in his newfound home.

Similarities to the Iliad
The second half of the Aeneid, Books VI through XII, follow similarly to what happens throughout the Iliad.

Absences of the Heroes
Book VI of the Aeneid reveals a prophecy for Aeneas by the Sibyl of Cumae stating that a Latin-born Achilles exists, who is also the son of a goddess (Aeneid, Book VI, lines 89–90)[1] exists. There are many scholarly debates on who this Latin-born Achilles is, whether he is Aeneas, Turnus, or some other character, and if so, is the opponent symbolic of another character from the Iliad?[citation needed] If comparing Aeneas to Achilles and Turnus to Hector, several parallels can be drawn. One example is when Aeneas is absent from the battlefield, Turnus lays waste to the Trojan army, just as Hector did to the Greek army in the absence of Achilles. Just as Hector kills Patroclus, Turnus slaughters Pallas, and to avenge the deaths of their friends, both Achilles and Aeneas slay their opponents.
Prophecies
Prophecies contribute a large theme among epics, especially that of the Iliad, the Odyssey and the Aeneid. From the beginning of the Iliad, readers knew that the Greeks were fated to triumph over the Trojans, as was declared by the king of the gods, Zeus. Achilles fate was also foretold; if he went to war he would die a hero. Similarly, Aeneas was told by the ghost of Hector in Book II that he was to leave burning Troy to found a new city.Throughout the rest of the epic, the gods include reminders that Aeneas is destined to find Italy and found Rome for future generations.

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Did Virgil Copy Homer?
fromPosted on 26/08/2011 by Maddy V-T

「Aeneid」的圖片搜尋結果
The Aeneid

Now, I know this is more of a literary question than a historical one, but why shouldn’t it be included? As everyone else on the blog can tell you, Classical Civilisation is my true passion (History is a very close second), and I thought I’d share some of that with our lovely readers.

When looking at The Aeneid, there is debate as to whether Virgil has simply plagiarised Homer’s works, written centuries before. It is argued that Virgil intended the Aeneid to be a tribute to Homer, while others say he’s manipulated Homer’s works to create his own. In particular, you can see many parallels between the storms in book one of The Aeneid and in books five and twelve of The Odyssey.

One of the most glaring similarities is the parts the gods play in the storms. All are started by a god who has something against the hero. However, there is a notable difference in that whilst Poseidon starts the storm, his Roman counterpart, Neptune, calms it.
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“With that he marshalled the clouds and, seizing his trident in his hands, stirred up the sea.”
The Odyssey, Book 5

“These were his words and, before he had finished speaking, he was calming the swell…”
The Aeneid, Book 1
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This is the main difference between the gods’ actions in the storms. Despite this, in both a god who supports the hero calms the storm Neptune in the Aeneid and Athene in the Odyssey.
 Also, there is a goddess featured in both although, again, there is a role-reversal- Virgil’s goddess is the villain whilst Homer’s is a heroine.
On the same topic, Virgil’s portrayal of Juno makes her seem less omnipotent that Poseidon in the Odyssey. Whilst he doesn’t say that she can’t raise the storm by herself, she persuades another god to do so for her- Aeolus, King of the Winds. This makes her seems less powerful and more conniving, whereas Poseidon, as seen in the quote above, has no trouble raising a storm by himself.

Another similarity is the way the gods seem to be completely human, only with far more power than any human could ever have. All the gods shown in the storms- Poseidon, Athene, Juno, Aeolus and Neptune- all have their own motives and grudges.
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“The sight of Odysseus sailing over the seas enraged him.”
The Odyssey, Book 5

“He recognised the anger and cunning of his sister Juno…”
The Aeneid, Book 1
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This is a huge similarity between all Greek and Roman tales- the gods are far more human than we see our modern deities as. They fight with each other as any mortal would, they all have favourites and their family ties are as important as ours are. Since this is a feature of all literature and mythology from that period, it can’t be used to say that Virgil copied Homer.

The way the hero speaks and acts is also quite similar. For example, as the storms gain intensity, they act almost identically- “Odysseus’ knees shook and his spirit failed.” (The Odyssey, Book 5) “A sudden chill went through Aeneas and his legs grew weak.” (The Aeneid, Book 1)
What both heroes also do is make long, heartfelt speeches about their terrible plight and how they wish they’d died heroically at Troy, instead of the ignominious end that would come at sea. They wax lyrical about those who perished at Troy, Achilles mentioned by both. Here is an example of Virgil heavily borrowing from Homer.

Both of the gods who start the storms- Aeolus and Poseidon- use a long weapon to spark it off.
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“At these words he struck the side of the hollow mountain with the butt of his spear and the winds seemed to form a column and pour out through the open gate to blow a hurricane over the whole earth.”
The Aeneid, Book 1

“With that he marshalled the clouds and, seizing his trident in his hands, stirred up the sea.”
The Odyssey, Book 5
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The difference here is the way they start the storms- Poseidon uses his trident to stir up the sea, whilst Aeolus uses his spear to release the winds who do the stirring for him. However, despite using them in a different fashion, both use weapons to start the storm.

As he describes the winds, seas and skies, many of Virgil’s descriptions bear vast similarity to Homer’s. Amongst these, the most striking similarity is the whirlpool in the Odyssey and the waves in the Aeneid.


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“…the waters opened and in the troughs could bee seen the sea-bed and the seething sand.”
The Aeneid, Book 1

“…the awesome Charybdis sucked down the salt water in her dreadful way… and the dark blue sands of the sea-bed were exposed.”
The Odyssey, Book 12
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Other examples include the darkening of the sea.
In The Odyssey, Homer tells us ‘the sea was darkened by shadow’ and in The Aeneid, Virgil writes ‘black night brooded over the sea’.

★In my opinion, Virgil was intending for the reader to detect the similarities between his poem and the works of Homer- which all literate Romans would have learnt. He was using intertextuality to increase the reader’s enjoyment of the poem. However, I think that he could have achieved the same effect without taking as much from Homer as he did.
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Achilles and Patroclus
「achilles and patroclus」的圖片搜尋結果

The relationship between Achilles and Patroclus is a key element of the myths associated with the Trojan War. Its exact nature has been a subject of dispute in both the classical period and modern times. In the Iliad, the two heroes have a deep and meaningful relationship. Achilles is tender towards Patroclus, while he is callous and arrogant towards others. In the Iliad Homer describes the friendship of Achilles and Patroclus.
In the Iliad
Due to this strong relationship, the death of Patroclus becomes the prime motivation for Achilles to return to battle. The friendship of Achilles and Patroclus is mentioned explicitly in the Iliad. Whether in the context of a tender friendship or military excellence, Homer makes their strong connection clear.

The death of Patroclus underpins a great deal of Achilles' actions and emotions toward the Trojan war for the rest of the poem. Achilles' strongest interpersonal bond is with Patroclus, whom he loves dearly. As Gregory Nagy points out,

For Achilles ... in his own ascending scale of affection as dramatized by the entire composition of the Iliad, the highest place must belong to Patroklos.... In fact Patroklos is for Achilles the πολὺ φίλτατος ... ἑταῖρος — the ‘hetaîros who is the most phílos by far’ (XVII 411, 655).
Hetaîros meant companion or comrade; in Homer it is usually used of soldiers under the same commander. While its feminine form would be used for courtesans, an hetaîros was still a form of soldier in Hellenistic and Byzantine times. In ancient texts, philos denoted a general type of love, used for love between family, between friends, a desire or enjoyment of an activity, as well as between lovers.

Although most warriors fought for personal fame or their city-state (including, at times, Achilles), at certain junctures in the Iliad, Achilles fights for Patroclus. He dreams that all Greeks would die so that he and Patroclus might gain the fame of conquering Troy alone .After Patroclus dies, Achilles agonizes, touching his dead body, smearing himself with ash, and fasting. He laments Patroclus' death using language very similar to that later used by Andromache of Hector. For a brief moment Achilles' character shifts from a strong and unbreakable warrior to an emotional and vulnerable character. However, Thetis motivates Achilles to return to the battlefield. Achilles returns to the battlefield with the sole aim of avenging Patroclus' death by killing Hector, Patroclus' killer, even though the gods had warned him that it would cost him his life.

Achilles' attachment to Patroclus is an archetypal male bond that occurs elsewhere in Greek culture: Alexander the Great and Hephaestion who made symbolic public references to Achilles and Patroclus, Damon and Pythias, Orestes and Pylades, Harmodius and Aristogeiton are pairs of comrades who gladly face danger and death for and beside each other.


2016年10月7日 星期五

Information for quiz

The major of Olympians

Greek Roman

ZeusJupiter*King of the gods and ruler of Mount Olympus;
god of the sky, lightning, thunder, law, order, justice.  
HeraJunoQueen of the gods and the goddess of marriage and family. 
PoseidonNeptuneGod of the seas, earthquakes, and tidal wave. 
DemeterCeresGoddess of fertility, agriculture, nature, and the seasons. 
AthenaMinervaGoddess of wisdom, reason, intelligent,activity,literature,handicrafts and science.
ApolloApolloGod of light, prophecy, inspiration, poetry, music and arts,medicine and healing. 
ArtemisDianaGoddess of the hunt, virginity, archery, the moon, and all animals.
AresMars*God of war, violence, and bloodshed. 
AphroditeVenus*Goddess of love, beauty, and desire. 
HephaestusVulcanMaster blacksmith and craftsman of the gods; god of fire and the forge. His Latin name, Vulcan, gave us the word "volcano."
HermesMercury*Messenger of the gods; god of commerce, communication, borders, eloquence, diplomacy, thieves and games. 
HestiaVestaGoddess of the hearth and of the right ordering of domesticity and the family.
DionysusBacchusGod of wine, celebrations, and ecstasy. Patron god of the art of theatre. 
「greek deity」的圖片搜尋結果
Greek Roman 

Hades Orcus God of the Underworld, dead and the riches under the Earth.
HeraclesHerculesA divine hero, the son of Zeus and Alcmene.He was the greatest of the Greek heroes, a paragon of masculinity and a champion of the Olympian order against chthonic monsters.
PersephoneProserpinaQueen of the Underworld ,also goddess of spring time. 
AsclepiusVejovisThe god of medicine and healing. He represents the healing aspect of the medical arts.
 His daughters are
 Hygieia ("Health"),
 Iaso ("Medicine"),
Aceso ("Healing"),
Aglæa/Ægle ("Healthy Glow"),
and Panacea ("Universal Remedy"). 
ErosCupid The god of sexual love and beauty. He was also worshipped as a fertility deity.
HebeJuventas
 The goddess of youth.
※chthonic:Of or relating to the underworld.
※deity:a god or goddess
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Planet Names and Greek Mythology
「nine planets」的圖片搜尋結果
1.Mercury (Hermes) is the god of commerce, travel and thievery in Roman mythology.
                               Named for the winged Roman god of travel because it appears to move so swiftly.
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2.Venus (Aphrodite) is the Roman goddess of love and beauty. The planet is aptly named since it makes a beautiful sight in the sky, with only the Sun and the Moon being brighter.
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3.Earth (Gaia) is the only planet whose English name does not derive from Greek/Roman mythology. The name derives from Old English and Germanic. There are, of course, many other names for our planet in other languages.
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4.Jupiter (Zeus) was the King of the Gods in Roman mythology, making the name a good choice for what is by far the largest planet in our solar system.
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5.Mars (Ares) is the Roman god of War. The planet probably got this name due to its red color.
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6.Saturn (Cronus) is the Roman god of agriculture.
7.Uranus is the ancient Roman deity of the Heavens, the earliest supreme god.
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8.Neptune (Poseidon)was the Roman god of the Sea. Given the beautiful blue color of this planet, the name is an excellent choice!
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9.Pluto (Hades) is the Roman god of the underworld in Roman mythology. Perhaps the planet received this name because it's so far from the Sun that it is in perpetual darkness.
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※red herring
A red herring is something that misleads or distracts from a relevant or important issue.It may be either a logical fallacy or a literary device that leads readers or audiences towards a false conclusion. A red herring might be intentionally used, such as in mystery fiction or as part of rhetorical strategies , or it could be inadvertently used during argumentation.
「red herring」的圖片搜尋結果
The origin of the expression is unknown. Conventional wisdom has long supposed it to be the use of a kipper (a strong-smelling smoked fish) to train hounds to follow a scent, or to divert them from the correct route when hunting; however, modern linguistic research suggests that the term was probably invented in 1807 by English polemicist William Cobbett, referring to one occasion on which he had supposedly used a kipper to divert hounds from chasing a hare, and was never an actual practice of hunters. The phrase was later borrowed to provide a formal name for the logical fallacy and literary device.
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※foreshadowing
Meaning:
Foreshadowing or guessing ahead is a literary device by which an author hints what is to come. Foreshadowing is a dramatic device in which an important plot-point is mentioned early in the story and will return in a more significant way. It is used to avoid disappointment. It is also sometimes used to arouse the reader.

It often appears at the beginning of a story or a chapter and helps the reader develop expectations about the coming events in a story. There are various ways of creating a foreshadowing. A writer may use dialogues of characters to hint at what may occur in future. In addition, any event or action in the story may throw a hint to the readers about future events or action. Even a title of a work or a chapter title can act as a clue that suggests what is going to happen. Foreshadowing in fiction creates an atmosphere of suspense in a story so that the readers are interested to know more.
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Function of Foreshadowing
Generally, the function of foreshadowing is to build anticipation in the minds of readers about what might happen next and thus adding dramatic tension to a story. It is deliberately employed to create suspense in mystery novels, usually by giving false clues or “red herrings” to distract readers.

Moreover, foreshadowing can make extraordinary and bizarre events appear credible as the events are predicted beforehand, so that readers are mentally prepared for them.
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※flash forward
Meaning:A flash-forward (or sometimes known as a flash-ahead) in a narrative occurs when the primary sequence of events in a story is interrupted by the interjection of a scene representing an event expected, projected, or imagined to occur at a later time. The flash-forward technique is used less frequently than its reverse, the flashback, or the flash-sideways.
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Function of Flash-Forward
Flash-forward enables a writer to give logical explanations to the actions of the characters in a narrative. The character’s actions make more sense to the readers – after having developed a greater understanding of the character and the character’s personality.

Moreover, flash-forward grabs the readers’ interest in the current events of the narrative to see how the story develops towards the future that has already been shown to them.
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★Difference between Flash-Forward and Foreshadowing
Flash-forward is similar to foreshadowing. However, foreshadowing hints at the possible outcome in future without any interruption and using events or dialogues of characters in the current time. It may also be present in the titles of narratives or chapter titles.
 Flash-forward, on the other hand, is an interjected scene in a narrative that takes the narrative forward in time. The events presented in a flash-forward are bound to happen in the story. Foreshadowing predicts the future events, but the events do not necessarily take place in the future – as in “red-herring”.

「what's the difference」的圖片搜尋結果
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★Lame vs Cripple - What's the difference?
「crippled and lame」的圖片搜尋結果Crippled is a synonym of lame.
As adjectives the difference between crippled and lame is that
crippled is having a less than fully functional limb, or injuries which prevent full mobility
while 
lame is unable to walk properly because of a problem  with one's feet or legs. 

☆As verbs the difference between crippled and lame is that crippled is (cripple) while lame is to cause a person or animal to become lame or lame can be (obsolete) to shine. 

2016年10月1日 星期六

Week3---- About the word

Prefix

1.para-
before vowels,
par-, word-forming element meaning "alongside, beyond; altered; contrary; irregular, abnormal," from Greek para-  "beside, near, issuing from, against, contrary to".
EX: parallel1 from Middle French parallèle  and directly from Latin parallelus, from Greek parallelos "parallel," from para allelois "beside one another," from para- "beside" + allelois "each other," from allos "other". 
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2.-vo-    ----->meaning''voice"
EX:
vocal
voice
evocation
:from Latin evocationem (nominative evocatio) "a calling forth, a calling from concealment.
🙄Meaning:the act of bringing something into the mind or memory : the act of evoking something
invoke:
🙄Meaning:to mention (someone or something) in an attempt to make people feel a certain way or have a certain idea in their mind
invocation
🙄Meaning:(1)the act or process of petitioning for help or support; specifically often capitalized :  a                      prayer of entreaty (as at the beginning of a service of worship)
                    (2)a calling upon for authority or justification
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3.-mor------->meaning"to die"
 from Latin mors (genitive mortis) "death"+ root of facere "to make" .
EX:
immortal
mortification
mortify