Western Literature Week Five

                                        The Odyssey

Term Explanation

In medias res: It is the literary and artistic narrative technique of relating

a story from the midpoint rather than the beginning. In an in media res

narrative, the story opens with dramatic action rather than exposition setting up the characters and situation. For example: Odysseus’s journey when he was held captive on Calypso’s island.

Flashback: It is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point in the story. Flashbacks are often used to recount that happen before the story’s primary sequence of events to fill in crucial backstory.

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 into a pre-established form or with the invoker’s own words or actions. An example is the Lord’s prayer.

The goddess

Iris: She is goddess of the rainbow and a messenger of the gods. She is often carrying messages for Hera. She is the daughter of Thaumas and Electra. Her sisters were the fearful harpies. She had not cult following and no temples dedicated to her. In some legends, she is the mother of Eros by Sephyrus.

Eris: She is the Greek goddess of chaos, strife, and discord. She is the daughter of Zeus and Hera. Her opposite was Harmonia. The equivalent Roman goddess of Eris and Harmonia were Discordia and Concordia. She plays an important role in the events that eventually lead to the Trojan War.

Messenger of the god

Hermes [male]

His another name was Mercury . He was the messenger of god, and the god of travelers. He was said to dress a shepherd, with wings on his feet and his cap. He was also said to invented fire. He is the son of Zeus and the Pleiad Maia. He is the second youngest of the Olympian gods. Hermes is considered a god of transitions and boundaries. He is described as quick and cunning, moving freely between the worlds of the mortal and divine. He is also portrayed as an emissary and messenger of the gods: an intercessor between mortals and the divine, and conductor of souls into the afterlife. He has been viewed as the protector and patron of herdsmen, thieves, oratory and wit, literature and poetry, athletics and sports, invention and trade, roads, boundaries and travellers. In the Roman adaptation of the Greek pantheon, Hermes is identified with the Roman god Mercury.   

Story   

Zeus and Io

There is one time, Zeus was stunned by Io’s beauty, so he turned to Io a heifer. Zeus’s wife, Hera, was mad and sent Argus to watch the heifer all day and night. Therefore, Zeus told Hermes to kill Argus. After Argus died, Hera felt upset and put his a hundred eyes on a bird. However, the heifer wasn’t good at the moment because of stung by the gadfly all the time so she became to Caucasus Mountains then she met Prometheus. He saved the heifer by blew her once.          

The Histories

It is now considered the founding work in Western Literature. It serves as a record of the ancient traditions, politics, geography, and clashes of various cultures that were known in Western Asia, Northern Africa and Greece.    

Herodotus: He was a Greek historian. He was the first historian known to have broken from Homeric tradition to treat historical subjects as a method of investigation. He was called the father of History.

Herodoutus Atticus in Athens[play drama]

It is a place to experience a live classical theatre performance.

Greek Philosopher

Socrates: He was a classical Greek philosopher. His Socratic method, laid the groundwork for Western system of logic and philosophy. He believed that philosophy should achieve practical results for the greater well-being of society.      

Plato: He was a student of Socrates and the teacher of Aristotle. His writings explored justice, beauty, and equality, and also contained discussions in aesthetics, political philosophy, theology, cosmology, epistemology and the philosophy of language.   

     

Xenophon: He was known for writing about the history of his own times. His Anabasis in particular was highly regarded in antiquity and has a strong influence on Latin Literature.

Greek dramatist: Aristophanes

He was the greatest representative of ancient Greek comedy and the one whose works have been persevered in greatest quantity. He was also known as the Father of Comedy and the prince of Ancient Comedy. Aristophanes has been said to recreate the life of ancient Athens more convincingly than any other author. His powers of ridicule were feared and acknowledged by influential contemporaries; Plato singled out Aristophanes' play The Clouds as slander that contributed to the trial and subsequent condemning to death of Socrates although other satirical playwrights had also caricatured the philosopher.

Ancient Greek

Hellenes: The Greeks or Hellenes are an ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus, Albania, Anatolia, Southern Italy, and other regions. The name came from Hellen who was not the woman famed from the Trojan War, but the son of Deucalion and Pyrrha of flood fame, who was named Helen. Hellenistic Greece referred to the period in Greek history following Alexander the Great. The end of the Hellenistic World came when the Romans took over Egypt.

Alexander: He was the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon.

Alexander the Great [Macedon] is known as the ''great '' for his military genius and diplomatic skills in handling the various populaces of the regions he conquered. He is further recognized for spreading Greek culture, language and thought.

Nero: he was Roman Emperor. He was adopted by his grand-uncle Cladius to become his heir and successor. He focused much of his attention on diplomacy, trade and enhancing the cultural life of the Empire.

Satan

He is a figure appearing in the texts of the Abrahamic religions who brings evil and temptation, and is known as the deceiver who leads humanity astray. Some religious groups teach that he originated as an angel who fell out of favor with God, seducing humanity into the ways of sin, and who has power in the fallen world. In the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, Satan is primarily an accuser and adversary, a decidedly malevolent entity, also called the devil, who possesses demonic qualities. In Theistic Satanism, Satan is considered a positive force and deity who is either worshipped or revered.

Seven Deadly sins

It is also known as the capital vices or cardinal sins, is a Western religious grouping and classification of vices. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, a mortal or deadly sin is believed to destroy the life of grace and charity within a person. Though the sins have fluctuated over time, the currently recognized list includes pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath and sloth. There is a parallel tradition of seven virtues.

Destiny vs. Fate

fate: defines events as ordered or avoidable

destiny: is used with regard to the finality of events as they have worked themselves out 

Fatal woman: Salome

Fatal Woman

She was a shock character of a mysterious and seductive woman whose charms ensures her lovers, often leading them into compromising, dangerous, and deadly situations.  

She was the daughter Herod II and Herodias. She first married to Philip the Tetrarch of Ituraea and Trakonitis. After Philip’s death, she married Aristobulus of Chalicis and became the queen of Chalicis and Armenia Minor.

Hubris

It means, in a modern context, extreme pride or self-confidence; in its ancient Greek context, it typically describes violent and excessive behavior rather than an attitude. When it offends the gods of ancient Greece, it is usually punished. The adjectival form of the noun hubris is "hubristic". Hubris is usually perceived as a characteristic of an individual rather than a group, although the group the offender belongs to may suffer consequences from the wrongful act. Hubris often indicates a loss of contact with reality and an overestimation of one's own competence, accomplishments or capabilities, especially when the person exhibiting it is in a position of power.

>> Aeneas

In Greek mythology, Aeneas was a Trojan hero, the son of the prince Anchises and the goddess Venus. His father was the second cousin of King Priam of Troy, making Aeneas Priam’s second son, once removed.

Civilization

Mycenae: is an archaeological site in Greece, located about 90 kilometressouthwest of Athens, in the north-eastern Peloponnese. Argos is 11 kilometres to the south; Corinth, 48 kilometres to the north. In the second millennium BC, Mycenae was one of the major centres of Greek civilization, a military stronghold which dominated much of southern Greece.

Vocabulary

ab: bad

abduction: the illegal way of carrying away someone

ver/vir: ture

verify: to prove, show, find out

virtual: very close to being something without actually being it

para: on the equal line

paragraph: a part of writing that usually deals with one subject

parasol: a light umbrella that you use to protect yourself

paradoxical: something that is made up of two opposite things and seems impossible but it is actually possible or true

Additional Supplement

atheism: It means without gods. It is not a belief system nor it is a religion

hubris: excessive pride or self- confidence

homosexual: nature or nurture ?

Movie

Final Destination