Week 7

Glossary

Epic of Gilgamesh

 Epic Poetry: It is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation. It always has interaction with god and mythology. This kind of works form the basis of the epic genre in Western literature. For example, Iliad,Odyssey, and Aeneid

 Invocation: It is to call on god or goddess. When a person calls upon God, a god, or goddess to ask for something or simply for worship, this can be done in a pre-established form or with the invoker's own words or actions. An example is the Lord's Prayer. 







the Odyssey (second part)

Cyclops Polyphemus

When Odysseus on the way home from Troy,he and his twelve ships were driven off course by storms. They visited the lethargic Lotus-Eaters and were captured by the Cyclops Polyphemus, while visiting his island. Polyphemus was eating his men. Polyphemus and Odysseus had a discussion and Odysseus told Polyphemus his name was 'Nobody'. Odysseus took a barrel of wine and the Cyclops drank it, falling asleep. Odysseus and his men took a wooden stake, igniting it with the remaining wine, and blinding him. While they were escaping, Polyphemus cried in pain and the other Cyclopes asked him what the matter was. Polyphemus cried 'Nobody has blinded me!' and the other Cyclopes thought he had gone mad. Odysseus and his crew hid underneath sheep and then escaped from the island.

Aeolus

They stayed with Aeolus, the master of the winds where he gave Odysseus a leather bag containing all the winds, except the west wind, a gift that should have ensured a safe return home. However, the sailors foolishly opened the bag while Odysseus slept, thinking that it contained gold. All of the winds flew out and the resulting storm drove the ships back the way they had come, just as Ithaca came into sight.

After pleading in vain with Aeolus to help them again, they re-embarked and encountered the cannibalistic Laestrygonians. Odysseus' ship was the only one to escape. He sailed on and visited the witch-goddess Circe. She turned half of his men into swine after feeding them cheese and wine. Hermes warned Odysseus about Circe and gave Odysseus a drug called moly, a resistance to Circe's magic. Circe, being attracted to Odysseus' resistance, fell in love with him and released his men. Odysseus and his crew remained with her on the island for one year, while they feasted and drank. 

Tiresias

Guided by Circe's instructions, Odysseus and his crew crossed the ocean and reached a harbor at the western edge of the world, where Odysseus sacrificed to the dead and summoned the spirit of the old prophet Tiresias to advise him. Next Odysseus met the spirit of his own mother, who had died of grief during his long absence. From her, he learned for the first time news of his own household, threatened by the greed of Penelope's suitors. Odysseus also managed to talk to his fallen war comrades and the mortal shade of Heracles.

Calypso

They landed on the island of Thrinacia. There, Odysseus' men ignored the warnings of Tiresias and Circe and hunted down the sacred cattle of the sun god Helios. Helios told Zeus what happened ordered for Odysseus' men to be punished or else he would take the sun and shine it in the Underworld. Zeus fulfilled Helios' demands where he caused a shipwreck during a thunderstorm in which all but Odysseus drowned. He was washed ashore on the island of Ogygia, where Calypso compelled him to remain as her lover for 7 years before he finally escaped upon Hermes telling Calypso to release Odysseus.

Odysseus finally escapes and is shipwrecked and befriended by the Phaeacians. After telling them his story, the Phaeacians led by King Alcinous agree to help Odysseus get home.

Week 6

the Odyssey (first part)

Penelope is the wife of the main character, the king of Ithaca, Odysseus, and daughter of Icarius and his wife Periboea. She only has one son by Odysseus, Telemachus, who was born just before Odysseus was called to fight in the Trojan War. She waits twenty years for the final return of her husband, during which she devises various strategies to delay marrying one of the 108 suitors.

On Odysseus's return, disguised as an old beggar, he finds that Penelope has remained faithful. She has devised tricks to delay her suitors, one of which is to pretend to be weaving a burial shroud for Odysseus's elderly father Laertes and claiming that she will choose a suitor when she has finished. Every night for three years, she undoes part of the shroud, until Melantho, one of twelve unfaithful serving women, discovers her chicanery and reveals it to the suitors.

Because of her efforts to put off remarriage, Penelope is often seen as a symbol of connubial fidelity and we are reminded several times of her fidelity. But due to Athena's meddling, who wants her "to show herself to the wooers, that she might set their hearts a-flutter and win greater honor from her husband and her son than heretofore", Penelope does appear before the suitors.  

She is ambivalent, variously asking Artemis to kill her and, apparently, considering marrying one of the suitors. When the disguised Odysseus returns, she announces in her long interview with the disguised hero that whoever can string Odysseus's rigid bow and shoot an arrow through twelve axe heads may have her hand.

There are debate as to whether she is aware that Odysseus is behind the disguise. Penelope and the suitors know that Odysseus (were he in fact present) would easily surpass all in any test of masculine skill. Since Odysseus seems to be the only person (perhaps excepting Telemachus) who can actually use the bow, it could merely have been another delaying tactic of Penelope's.

When the contest of the bow begins, none of the suitors are able to string the bow, but Odysseus does, and wins the contest. Having done so, he proceeds to slaughter the suitors. Odysseus has now revealed himself in all his glory (with a little makeover by Athena); yet Penelope cannot believe that her husband has really returned—she fears that it is perhaps some god in disguise, and tests him by ordering her servant Euryclea to move the bed in their bridal-chamber. Odysseus protests that this cannot be done since he made the bed himself and knows that one of its legs is a living olive tree. Penelope finally accepts that he truly is her husband, a moment that highlights their homophrosýnē. Homer implies, that from then on, Odysseus would live a long and happy life together with Penelope and Telemachus, wisely ruling his kingdom and enjoying wide respect and much success.

Odysseus and Penelope

Penelope's Weaving

The Story of Argus and The peacock's tail

Zeus was married to Hera, however, he fell in love with Io. Zeus had turned Io into a beautiful white bovine to hide her true identity from Hera. Zeus feared the intensity of Hera's jealousy and tried to hide himself and the heifer he loved by wrapping the earth in a dense cloud, thick enough to create constant night.  

With daylight suddenly missing from the earth, Hera knew that her obtuse husband was up to something.  Searching the heavens to no avail, she descended to earth, ordering the cloud away.  She found Zeus beside the white heifer, claiming he just discovered the newly born cow. Hera knew that Zeus was lying to her, but played his bluff and asked for the cow as a gift. Zeus felt terrible doing it, but he knew that Hera would suspect something if he didn't concede. He reluctantly turned Io over to his wife, and Hera knew exactly what to do to keep Io away from him.

Enter Argus. Hera recruited Argus to guard the heifer. He had a hundred eyes and could sleep while always leaving some eyes open, making him the perfect watchman. Zeus writhed as misery engulfed his love. Io had been turned into a cow, taken from her home, and now trapped under Hera's orders.  

Unable to withstand Io's anguish, Zeus called on Hermes, the messenger of the gods, and informed him to find a way to kill Argus and set Io free. 

Hermes was extremely clever, shedding all his godly paraphernalia and went to Argus in the guise of a country fellow. Hermes decide to make a pipe of reeds his luring weapon of choice and played music close enough to draw Argus' attention. Argus found the music most pleasing and invited Hermes to sit beside him to play music for him. The music however did not cause repose as Hermes hoped. Soon, Hermes stopped playing and began to talk and talk monotonously. This was nowhere near as enjoyable to Argus and he soon found himself bored as Hermes droned on and on with his mundane stories. The tale of Pan and Syrinx would finally lull Argus to sleep. Once the hundredth eye had shut, Hermes struck, killing Argus in his slumber.

Io was set free, until Hera would turn on her again, plaguing her with gad-flies that stung her into madness. In tribute to her trusted watchman, Hera took the eyes of Argus and set them to the tail of her favorite bird, the peacock.

Hermes & Argus

the Oresteia (The House of Atreus)

After a stormy voyage, Agamemnon and Cassandra either landed in Argolis, or were blown off course and landed in Aegisthus' country. Clytemnestra, Agamemnon's wife, had taken Aegisthus, son of Thyestes, as a lover. When Agamemnon came home, Agamemnon was slain in a bath by his wife alone, a blanket of cloth or a net having first been thrown over him to prevent resistance. Clytemnestra also killed Cassandra. Her jealousy of Cassandra, and her wrath at the sacrifice of Iphigenia and at Agamemnon's having gone to war over Helen of Troy, are said to have been the motives for her crime. Aegisthus and Clytemnestra then ruled Agamemnon's kingdom for a time, Aegisthus claiming his right of revenge for Agamemnon's father Atreus having fed Thyestes his own children (Thyestes then crying out "So perish all the race of Pleisthenes!", thus explaining Aegisthus' action as justified by his father's curse).

Agamemnon's son Orestes later avenged his father's murder, with the help or encouragement of his sister Electra, by murdering Aegisthus and Clytemnestra (his own mother), thereby inciting the wrath of the Erinyes , winged goddesses who tracked down egregiously impious wrongdoers with their hounds' noses and drove them to insanity.

Week 5

Eris: the Greek goddess of chaos, strife, and discord. Her name is the equivalent of Latin Discordia, which means "discord". Eris' Greek opposite is Harmonia, whose Latin counterpart is Concordia.Homer equated her with the war-goddess Enyo, whose Roman counterpart is Bellona.
(She initiating the Trojan War by causing the Judgement of Paris. The goddesses Hera, Athena and Aphrodite had been invited along with the rest of Olympus to the forced wedding of Peleus and Thetis, who would become the parents of Achilles, but Eris had been snubbed because of her troublemaking inclinations. She therefore [as mentioned at the Kypria according to Proclus as part of a plan hatched by Zeus and Themis] tossed into the party the Apple of Discord, a golden apple inscribed – "For the most beautiful one", or "To the Fairest One" – provoking the goddesses to begin quarreling about the appropriate recipient. The hapless Paris, Prince of Troy, was appointed to select the fairest by Zeus. The goddesses stripped naked to try to win Paris' decision, and also attempted to bribe him.)

Eris on an Attic plate, ca. 575–525 BC

Golden apple of discord

Iris: the personification of the rainbow and messenger of the gods. She is also known as one of the goddesses of the sea and the sky. Iris links the gods to humanity. She travels with the speed of wind from one end of the world to the other, and into the depths of the sea and the underworld.
(She is frequently mentioned as a divine messenger in the Iliad which is attributed to Homer, but does not appear in his Odyssey, where Hermes fills that role. Like Hermes, Iris carries a caduceus or winged staff. By command of Zeus, the king of the gods, she carries an ewer of water from the River Styx, with which she puts to sleep all who perjure themselves. According to Apollonius Rhodius, Iris turned back the Argonauts Zetes and Calais who had pursued the Harpies to the Strophades ['Islands of Turning']. The brothers had driven off the monsters from their torment of the prophet Phineus, but did not kill them upon the request of Iris, who promised that Phineus would not be bothered by the Harpies again.)

Iris

The Fates: Moirai, the white-robed incarnations of destiny. Their number became fixed at three-

• Clotho spun the thread of life from her Distaff onto her Spindle. Her Roman equivalent was Nona, (the 'Ninth'), who was originally a goddess called upon in the ninth month of pregnancy.
• Lachesis measured the thread of life allotted to each person with her measuring rod. Her Roman equivalent was Decima (the 'Tenth').
• Atropos 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'). 

Moerae

Hypnos: was the personification of sleep. the Roman equivalent was known as Somnus.

(In the Iliad, Hypnos used his powers to trick Zeus. Hypnos was able to trick him and help the Danaans win the Trojan war. )

Book Discussion

What is Literature?  Literature - comes from Latin which means "letters".

-Oral literature: song, poetry, story telling.

-Writing

Ancient: 

a) Hebrews-

manuscript of the Hebrew Bible

Hebrew Bible is the term used by biblical scholars to refer to the Tanakh, the canonical collection of Jewish texts, which is the common textual source of the several canonical editions of the Christian Old Testament.

Monotheism is defined by the Encyclopædia Britannica as belief in the existence of one god or in the oneness of God. The word monotheism comes from the Greek  meaning "single" and meaning "god".

b) Greeks-

Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC) was an ancient Greek war fought by Athens and its empire against the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta. Historians have traditionally divided the war into three phases. In the first phase, the Archidamian War, Sparta launched repeated invasions of Attica, while Athens took advantage of its naval supremacy to raid the coast of the Peloponnese attempting to suppress signs of unrest in its empire. This period of the war was concluded in 421 BC, with the signing of the Peace of Nicias. That treaty, however, was soon undermined by renewed fighting in the Peloponnese. In 415 BC, Athens dispatched a massive expeditionary force to attack Syracuse in Sicily; the attack failed disastrously, with the destruction of the entire force, in 413 BC. This ushered in the final phase of the war, generally referred to either as the Decelean War, or the Ionian War. In this phase, Sparta, now receiving support from Persia, supported rebellions in Athens' subject states in the Aegean Sea and Ionia, undermining Athens' empire, and, eventually, depriving the city of naval supremacy. The destruction of Athens' fleet at Aegospotami effectively ended the war, and Athens surrendered in the following year. Corinth and Thebes demanded that Athens should be destroyed and all its citizens should be enslaved but Sparta refused.

Postal Stamp 

Phoenician 

called by convention the Proto-Canaanite alphabet for inscriptions older than around 1050 BC, is the oldest verified alphabet. The Phoenician alphabet contains 22 letters, all of which are consonants, and is described as an abjad, with matres lectionis being used for some vowels in certain late varieties.

 

c) Romans-

Carthage is a city in Tunisia that was once the center of the ancient Carthaginian civilization. The city developed from a Phoenician colony of the 1st millennium BC into the capital of an ancient empire. It was founded by Canaanite-speaking Phoenician colonists from Tyre under the leadership of Queen Elissa or Dido. It became a large and rich city and thus a major power in the Mediterranean. The resulting rivalry with Syracuse, Numidia, and Rome was accompanied by several wars with respective invasions of each other's homeland.

Dido, Queen of Carthage

The Aeneid is widely considered Virgil's finest work and one of the most important poems in the history of western literature. Virgil worked on the Aeneid during the last eleven years of his life (29–19 BC), commissioned, according to Propertius, by Augustus.

Virgil was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues, the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid. A number of minor poems, collected in the Appendix Vergiliana, are sometimes attributed to him.

Ovid was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of Virgil and Horace.

Week 4

Glossary
1) In median res: Latin for "into the middle of things." It usually describes a narrative that begins, not at the beginning of a story, but somewhere in the middle — usually at some crucial point in the action.
2) Homeric Epithet: One of the hallmarks of the Homeric style is the epithet, a combination of a descriptive phrase and a noun. An epithet presents a miniature portrait that identifies a person or thing by highlighting a prominent characteristic of that person or thing.
(In English, the Homeric epithet usually consists of a noun modified by a compound adjective, such as the following: fleet-footed Achilles, rosy-fingered dawn, wine-dark sea, earth-shaking Poseidon, and gray-eyed Athena.)

3) Shield: a type of personal armor, meant to intercept attacks, either by stopping projectiles such as arrows or redirecting a hit from a sword, mace, battle axe or similar weapon to the side of the shield-bearer.

4) Helmet: a form of protective gear worn to protect the head from injuries.

Book Discussion
 Preface: A preface or poem, is an introduction to a book or other literary work written by the work's author. The preface often closes with acknowledgments of those who assisted in the literary work. A preface generally covers the story of how the book came into being, or how the idea for the book was developed; this is often followed by thanks and acknowledgments to people who were helpful to the author during the time of writing.

          Augustus: the founder of the Roman Empire and its first Emperor, ruling from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD.














Books Recommend
1) Mythology: Wrote by Edith Hamilton, retells stories of Greek, Roman, and Norse mythology drawn from a variety sources. The introduction includes commentary on the major classical poets used as sources, and on how changing cultures have led to changing characterizations of the deities and their myths.
exp sentence: to make him invulnerable(impossible to harm or damage) by dipping him.

Edith Hamilton

Books

2) The Greek Gatsby: a 1925 novel written by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald. The story primarily concerns the young and mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and his quixotic passion and obsession for the beautiful former debutante Daisy Buchanan.
Chapter 1: know who is Gatsby, who should we care.

Books

 F. Scott Fitzgerald

movie: The Great Gatsby (1974 film)

Trailer:

click here to watch in YouTube