Western Literature Week Eighteen

Term Explanation

Tragic flaw

The term hamartia derives from the Greek, which means “to miss the mark” or “to err”. In tragedy, hamartia is the protagonist’s error or flaw that leads to a chain of plot actions culminating in a reversal from his/her good fortune to bad. What qualifies as the error or flaw can include an error resulting from ignorance, an error of judgement, a flaw in character, or sin. For example, in Oedipus the King, the tragic flaw of Oedipus is hubris, as he tried to escape from the fate.

Catharsis

Catharsis (from the Greek katharsis meaning "purification" or "cleansing") is the purification and purgation of emotions—especially pity and fear—through art or any extreme change in emotion that results in renewal and restoration. It is a metaphor originally used by Aristotle in the Poetics to describe the effects of tragedy on the spectator. For example, when Oedipus discovers that his wife is his own mother and the person he had killed on the crossroad was his own father.

Chorus

A Greek chorus is a homogeneous, non-individualized group of performers in the plays of classical Greece, who comment with a collective voice on the dramatic action. The chorus consisted of between 12 and 50 players, who variously danced, sang or spoke their lines in unison and sometimes wore masks.

Dues ex machine

The term has evolved to mean a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem is suddenly and abruptly resolved by the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability or object. Depending on how it is done, it can be intended to move the story forward when the writer has "painted himself into a corner" and sees no other way out, to surprise the audience, to bring the tale to a happy ending, or as a comedic device.

Parable

A parable is a succinct, didactic story, in prose or verse, which illustrates one or more instructive lessons or principles. It differs from a fable in that fables employ animals, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature as characters, whereas parables have human characters. A parable is a type of analogy. Some scholars of the canonical gospels and the New Testament apply the term "parable" only to the parables of Jesus, though that is not a common restriction of the term. Parables such as "The Prodigal Son" are central to Jesus' teaching method in the canonical narratives and the apocrypha.

Western Literature Week Seventeen

Samson [seven lock hair]

Samson: He is one of the last of the judges of the ancient lsraelites mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. He was given supernatural strength by God in order to combat his enemies and perform heroic feats such as killing a lion, slaying an entire army with only the jawbone of an ass and destroying a pagan temple. He had two vulnerabilities; however, his attraction to untrustworthy woman and his hair, without he was powerless. These vulnerabilities ultimately proved fatal for him.  

Samson Agonistes

Samson Agonistes is a blank verse play by John Milton. The work is heavily indebted to Greek tragedy, but with a Biblical hero. This mix of two different cultures presents Samson as a tragic hero, who rather than raging against the Olympian deities, supplicates himself to the the one, true Christian God, whom he calls upon to save him. Samson's blindness has led many to see him as a character with whom Milton identified with strongly (since he was blinded later in life).Samson Agonistes plays out the final part of Samson's life, in which he is chained in Gaza. He was tricked by his lover Delilah, his hair was shorn, and he lost his God-given strength. He is a slave and he is torn with the guilt that he betrayed God by giving up the secret he was commanded to keep close (that the source of his strength was his hair).The play is told by a minor character--much like Greek drama, with the climax often occurred off-stage. In the final moments of the play, Samson is tied to two great columns. As Samson pulls the columns down, the mockery by the Philistines of Samson suddenly turns to panic.

Delilah  

She is a character in the Hebrew bible Book of Judges, where she is the woman in the valley Sorek whom Samson loved, and who was his downfall. Samson loved Delilah but she betrayed him. What the worse, she did it for money.   

Meaningful 40

40 this number is important to the stories in the Bible

In the story, Noah’s Ark. God made it rain forty days and caused flood to kill those bad guys in the human world. After stopping raining, Noah let a raven go out for checking the situation. [From then on, ravens represent evil and bad things] When the raven headed back, there was an olive in its mouth. That is the reason why olives are regarded as it can undo the bad things.

Moses walked in the desert for forty years.

Augustine of Hippo

It is also known as Saint Augustine, Saint Austin, or Blessed Augustine, was an early Christian theologian and philosopher whose writings influenced the development of Western Christianity and Western philosophy. He is viewed as one of the most important Church Fathers in Western Christianity for his writings in the Patristic Era.   

Confessions[Augustine]

It is the name of an autobiographical work, consisting of 13 books, by St. Augustine of Hippo, written in Latin. Modern English translations of it are sometimes published under the title The Confessions of St. Augustine in order to distinguish the book from other books with similar titles. Its original title was Confessions in Thirteen Books, and it was composed to read out loud with each book being a complete unit. It is generally considered one of Augustine's most important texts.  

Museum

Hermitage Museum

The Louvre Museum

British Museum

Book Discussion p.1595

Divine Comedy

It is an epic poem by Dante Alighieri. It is widely considered the preeminent work of Italian literature and is seen as one of the greatest works of world literature. It is divided into three parts: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso.

--Inferno: is an allegory telling of the journey of Dante through Hell, guided by the Roman poet Virgil. In the poem, Hell is depicted as nine circles of suffering located within the Earth.

-- Purgatorio: is an allegory telling the climb of Dante up the Mount of Purgatory, guided by the Roman poet Virgil, except for the last four cantos at which point Beatrice takes over as Dante’s guide. In the poem, Purgatory is depicted as a mountain in the Southern Hemisphere , consisting of a bottom section, seven levels of suffering and spiritual growth, and finally the Earthly Paradise at the top.

-- Paradiso: It is an allegory telling of Dante’s journey through Heaven, guided by Beatrice, who symbolizes theology. In the poem, it is depicted as a series of concentric spheres surrounding the Earth. It consists of the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the Fixed Stars, the Empyrean and the Primum Mobile.

Exodus

It tells of the enslavement of the Israelites in Egypt following the death of Joseph, their departure under the leadership of Moses , the revelations at Sinai, and their wanderings in the wilderness up the borders of Canan.   

Moses was born in a time when his people, the Israelites, an enslaved minority, were increasing in numbers and the Egyptian Pharaoh was worried that they might ally with Egypt’s enemies. Moses’s Hebrew mother, secretly hid him when the Pharaoh ordered all newborn Hebrew boys to be killed in order to reduce the population of the Israelites. Through the Pharaoh’s daughter was adopted as a founding from the Nile river and grew up with the Egyptian royal family. After killing an Egyptian slavemaster, Moses fled across the Red Sea to Midian, where he encountered the God of Israel speaking to him within a buring bush which was not consumed by the fire on Mount Horeb. 

Moses 

The burning bush is an object as being at which Moses appointed by Yahweh to lead Israelites out of Egypt into Canon 

 

Mana   

It sometimes spelled mana, is an edible substance that, is the miracle food that saved God’s people. God provided for the Israelites during their travels in the desert. The Old Testament speaks of its coming from heaven. The Lord said to Moses I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day.    

God sent Moses back to Egypt to demand the release of the Israelites from slavery. Moses said that he could not speak with assurance or eloquence, so God allowed Aaron to become his spokeperson. After the Ten Plagues, Moses led the Exodus of the Israelites out of Egypt and across the Red Sea. After 40 years of wandering in the desert, Moses died of the Promised Land.    

Seven deadly sins

lust—to have an intense desire or need

gluttony—excess in eating and drinking

greed—excessive acquisitiveness

laziness—disclined to activity

wrath—strong vengeful

envy—painful or resentful

pride—being proud  

ly—adj.

lovely, friendly, elderly, cowardly

Jewish diaspora

It refers to the dispersion of Israelites, Judahites and later Jaws out what is considered their ancestral homeland and the communities built by them across the world  

Jews and Judaism

Jesus knocking the door

Additional Supplement

Dan Brown: he is an American author of thriller fiction who is best known for the 2003 besting selling novel The Da Vinci code. Also, three of them, Angels and Demons, The Da Vinci code, and Inferno.

John Milton: he is an English poet, polemist.

--Paradise lost: is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17^th century English poet John Milton. The poem concerns the Biblical story of the Fall of Man: the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan.

Vocabulary

para: horizontal

paragraph: a part of a piece of writing that usually deals with one object

parasol: a light umbrella that you use to protect yourself from the sun

parachute: a piece of equipment that allows people to fall slowly and land safely after they jumped from an aircraft

Story

The parable of the lost sheep

A shepherd would leave the ninety-nine sheep and search for the lost one until he found it. Then he would put it on his shoulders with joy, take it home, and tell his friends and neighbors to rejoice with him, because he had found his lost sheep. Jesus concludes that there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who do not need to repent. But the lesson doesn't end there. Jesus goes on to tell another parable of a woman who loses a coin and searches her home until she finds it (Luke 15:8-10). He follows with yet another parable, that of the lost or prodigal son, the stunning message that every repentant sinner is forgiven and welcomed home by God.

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.

Lucifer

He is the King James Version rendering of the Hebrew word in Isaiah 14:12. This word means "shining one, light bearer". The word Lucifer is taken from the Latin Vulgate, which means "the morning star, the planet Venus", or, as an adjective, "light-bringing".

Song    

Hark the herald angels sing

Goldilocks and the Three bears

The original tale tells of an ugly, old woman who enters the forest home of three bachelor bears whilst they are away. She sits in their chairs, eats some of their porridge, and falls asleep in one of their beds. When the bears return and discover her, she starts up, jumps from the window, and is never seen again. The other major version brings Goldilocks to the tale (replacing the old woman), and an even later version retained Goldilocks, but has the three bachelor bears transformed into Papa, Mama, and Baby Bear.