1.
Medea (play)
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Medea is an ancient Greek tragedy written by Euripides, based upon the myth of Jason and Medea and first produced in 431 BC. Medea takes vengeance on Jason by killing Jasons new wife as well as her own children, considered shocking to Euripides contemporaries, Medea and the suite of plays that it accompanied in the City Dionysia festival came last in the festival that year. The play has remained the most frequently performed Greek tragedy through the 20th century, Medea was first performed in 431 BC at the City Dionysia festival. Here every year three playwrights competed against each other, each writing a tetralogy of three tragedies and a satyr play, in 431 the competition was among Euphorion, Sophocles and Euripides. Euphorion won, and Euripides placed last, the form of the play differs from many other Greek tragedies by its simplicity, All scenes involve only two actors, Medea and someone else. These encounters serve to highlight Medeas skill and determination in manipulating powerful male figures to achieve her own ends, Medea is centered on a wife’s calculated desire for revenge against her unfaithful husband. The play is set in Corinth some time after Jasons quest for the Golden Fleece, the play begins with Medea raging at Jason for arranging to marry Glauce, the daughter of Creon. The nurse, overhearing Medea’s grief, fears what she might do to herself or her children, Creon, in anticipation of Medea’s wrath, arrives and reveals his plans to send her into exile. Medea pleads for one day’s delay and eventually Creon acquiesces, in the next scene Jason arrives to explain his rationale for his apparent betrayal. He explains that he pass up the opportunity to marry a royal princess, as Medea is only a barbarian woman. Medea, and the chorus of Corinthian women, do not believe him and she reminds him that she left her own people for him, and that she saved him and slew the dragon. Jason promises to support her after his new marriage, but Medea spurns him, Marry the maid if thou wilt, in the following scene Medea encounters Aegeus, King of Athens. He reveals to her that despite his marriage to his wife he is still without children. He visited the oracle who told him that he was instructed “not to unstop the wineskin’s neck. ”Medea relays her current situation to him. Aegeus, unaware of Medea’s plans for revenge, agrees, Medea then returns to plotting the murders of Glauce and Creon. She decides to poison some golden robes and a coronet, in hopes that the bride will not be able to resist wearing them, and consequently be poisoned. Medea resolves to kill her own children as well, not because the children have done anything wrong and she calls for Jason once more and, in an elaborate ruse, apologizes to him for overreacting to his decision to marry Glauce. When Jason appears fully convinced that she regrets her actions, Medea begins to cry in mourning of her exile and she convinces Jason to allow her to give the robes to Glauce in hopes that Glauce might get Creon to lift the exile
2.
Greek language
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Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece and other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the longest documented history of any living language, spanning 34 centuries of written records and its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the major part of its history, other systems, such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary, were used previously. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Coptic, Gothic and many other writing systems. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world, during antiquity, Greek was a widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world and many places beyond. It would eventually become the official parlance of the Byzantine Empire, the language is spoken by at least 13.2 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey, and the Greek diaspora. Greek roots are used to coin new words for other languages, Greek. Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around the 3rd millennium BC, the earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the worlds oldest recorded living language. Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now extinct Anatolian languages, the Greek language is conventionally divided into the following periods, Proto-Greek, the unrecorded but assumed last ancestor of all known varieties of Greek. The unity of Proto-Greek would have ended as Hellenic migrants entered the Greek peninsula sometime in the Neolithic era or the Bronze Age, Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Mycenaean civilisation. It is recorded in the Linear B script on tablets dating from the 15th century BC onwards, Ancient Greek, in its various dialects, the language of the Archaic and Classical periods of the ancient Greek civilisation. It was widely known throughout the Roman Empire, after the Roman conquest of Greece, an unofficial bilingualism of Greek and Latin was established in the city of Rome and Koine Greek became a first or second language in the Roman Empire. The origin of Christianity can also be traced through Koine Greek, Medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek, the continuation of Koine Greek in Byzantine Greece, up to the demise of the Byzantine Empire in the 15th century. Much of the written Greek that was used as the language of the Byzantine Empire was an eclectic middle-ground variety based on the tradition of written Koine. Modern Greek, Stemming from Medieval Greek, Modern Greek usages can be traced in the Byzantine period and it is the language used by the modern Greeks, and, apart from Standard Modern Greek, there are several dialects of it. In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia, the historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of the Greek language is often emphasised. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than a foreign language and it is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, Homeric Greek is probably closer to demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English, Greek is spoken by about 13 million people, mainly in Greece, Albania and Cyprus, but also worldwide by the large Greek diaspora. Greek is the language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population
3.
Greek tragedy
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Greek tragedy is a form of theatre from Ancient Greece and Asia Minor. It reached its most significant form in Athens in the 5th century BC, Greek tragedy is widely believed to be an extension of the ancient rites carried out in honor of Dionysus, and it heavily influenced the theatre of Ancient Rome and the Renaissance. Tragic plots were most often based upon myths from the traditions of archaic epics. In tragic theatre, however, these narratives were presented by actors, the most acclaimed Greek tragedians are Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. The origin of the tragedy has been a matter of discussion from ancient times. The primary source of knowledge on the question is the Poetics of Aristotle, Aristotle was able to gather first-hand documentation from theater performance in Attica, which is inaccessible to scholars today. His work is invaluable for the study of ancient tragedy. According to Aristotle, tragedy evolved from the dithyramb, an Ancient Greek hymn. The term τραγῳδία, derived from goat and ᾠδή song, means song of the goats. Others suggest that the term came into being when the legendary Thespis competed in the first tragic competition for the prize of a goat, there are other suggested etymologies for the word tragedy. The Oxford English Dictionary adds to the reference to goat song. J. DAmico, on the hand, suggests that tragoidía does not mean simply song of the goats. Other hypotheses have included an etymology that would define the tragedy as an ode to beer, jane Ellen Harrison pointed out that Dionysus, god of wine was actually preceded by Dionysus, god of beer. Athenian beer was obtained from the fermentation of barley, which is tragos in Greek, thus, it is likely that the term was originally meant to be odes to spelt, and later on, it was extended to other meanings of the same name. She writes, Tragedy I believe to be not the goat-song, but the harvest-song of the cereal tragos, the origin of Greek tragedy is one of the unsolved problems of classical scholarship. Ruth Scodel notes that, due to lack of evidence and doubtful reliability of sources, still, R. P. Winnington-Ingram points out that we can easily trace various influences from other genres. How these have come to be associated with one another remains a mystery however, speculating on the problem, Scodel writes that, Three innovations must have taken place for tragedy as we know it to exist. First, somebody created a new kind of performance by combining a speaker with a chorus, second, this performance was made part of the City Dionysia at Athens
4.
Skene (theatre)
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The proskenion or space in front of the skene became, after the Classic period, the stage platform, raised above the original orchestra level. Actors emerged from the skene and sometimes in later versions could use its steps or balconies to speak from and it was also where costumes were stored and to which the periaktoi were connected. In Roman theatres, scaenae frons is the term for the decorated stone screens. The word skene means tent or hut, and it is thought that the structure for these purposes was a tent or light building of wood. Placing a skene behind the orchestra where the performers acted, played and danced broke what is thought to have been the theatre in the round nature of Greek theatre. The skene also served as another hidden stage, at times some of the action went on inside, in which case it was up to the audience to decide what was happening based on the noises coming from the inside. It was a convention of the dramas of the period that characters never died on stage. In the course of time, the skene underwent fundamental changes, first it became a permanent building, whose roof could sometimes be used to make speeches. Then it was raised up from the level of the orchestra, creating a proskenion, the facade of the proskenion now was behind the orchestra, and provided a space for supporting stage scenery. This facade was also sometimes elaborately decorated, the evolution of the actor, who assumed an individual part and answered to the chorus, introduced into drama a new form, the alternation of acted scenes, or episodes. This important change occurred in the Hellenistic period, between the 3rd and 1st century BC. In surviving examples this stage seems to have raised by 2.43 m to 3.96 m above the orchestra. The skene itself became increasingly elaborate, and was available as a place for actors to declaim from. By now there was a series of stone buildings. To each side there was a paraskenion, the episkenion was the upper floor of the skene, which might be deepened to give a third stage level, seen through thyromata or openings. The interior of the logeion behind the facade remained normally outside the view of the audience. The Oxford History of Classical Art,1993, OUP, ISBN0198143869 Grove= Anastasia N. Dinsmoor, Dinsmoor jr, Architecture, Theatres section in Thomas Braun, et al. Grove Art Online, Oxford Art Online, Oxford University Press
5.
Aeschylus
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Aeschylus was an ancient Greek tragedian. He is often described as the father of tragedy, academics knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier tragedies is largely based on inferences from his surviving plays. According to Aristotle, he expanded the number of characters in theater allowing conflict among them, fragments of some other plays have survived in quotes and more continue to be discovered on Egyptian papyrus, often giving us surprising insights into his work. He was probably the first dramatist to present plays as a trilogy, at least one of his plays was influenced by the Persians second invasion of Greece. This work, The Persians, is the surviving classical Greek tragedy concerned with contemporary events. Despite this, Aeschylus work – particularly the Oresteia – is generally acclaimed by modern critics and scholars. As soon as he woke from the dream, the young Aeschylus began to write a tragedy, and his first performance took place in 499 BC and he won his first victory at the City Dionysia in 484 BC. In 510 BC, when Aeschylus was 15 years old, Cleomenes I expelled the sons of Peisistratus from Athens, Cleisthenes reforms included a system of registration that emphasized the importance of the deme over family tradition. In the last decade of the 6th century, Aeschylus and his family were living in the deme of Eleusis, the Persian Wars played a large role in the playwrights life and career. In 490 BC, Aeschylus and his brother Cynegeirus fought to defend Athens against the army of Darius I of Persia at the Battle of Marathon. The Athenians emerged triumphant, a victory celebrated across the city-states of Greece, Cynegeirus, however, died in the battle, receiving a mortal wound while trying to prevent a Persian ship retreating from the shore, for which his countrymen extolled him as a hero. In 480, Aeschylus was called into service again, this time against Xerxes Is invading forces at the Battle of Salamis. Ion of Chios was a witness for Aeschyluss war record and his contribution in Salamis, Salamis holds a prominent place in The Persians, his oldest surviving play, which was performed in 472 BC and won first prize at the Dionysia. Aeschylus was one of many Greeks who were initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries, initiates gained secret knowledge through these rites, likely concerning the afterlife. Firm details of specific rites are sparse, as members were sworn under the penalty of not to reveal anything about the Mysteries to non-initiates. Nevertheless, according to Aristotle, Aeschylus was accused of revealing some of the secrets on stage. Other sources claim that a mob tried to kill Aeschylus on the spot. Heracleides of Pontus asserts that the tried to stone Aeschylus
6.
Oresteia
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This trilogy also shows how the Greek gods interacted with the characters and influenced their decisions pertaining to events and disputes. The only extant example of an ancient Greek theater trilogy, the Oresteia won first prize at the Dionysia festival in 458 BC, many consider the Oresteia to be Aeschylus finest work. The principal themes of the include the contrast between revenge and justice, as well as the transition from personal vendetta to organized litigation. Orestia originally included a satyr play Proteus following the tragic trilogy, Agamemnon is the first of the three plays within the Oresteia trilogy. It details the homecoming of Agamemnon, King of Mycene, from the Trojan War, after ten years of warfare, Troy had fallen and all of Greece could lay claim to victory. Waiting at home for Agamemnon is his wife, Queen Clytemnestra, who has been planning his murder. The play opens to a watchman looking down and over the sea, reporting that he has been lying restless like a dog for a year and he laments the fortunes of the house, but promises to keep silent, A huge ox has stepped onto my tongue. The watchman sees a far off in the distance and is overjoyed at the victory. Clytaemnestra is introduced to the audience and she declares that there will be celebrations and sacrifices throughout the city as Agamemnon, upon the return of Agamemnon, his wife laments in full view of Argos how horrible the wait for her husband, and King, has been. After her soliloquy, Clytaemnestra pleads, and later convinces Agamemnon to walk on the laid out for him. This is a very ominous moment in the play as loyalties and motives are questioned, the Kings new concubine, Cassandra, is now introduced and this immediately spawns hatred from the queen, Clytaemnestra. Cassandra is ordered out of her chariot and to the altar where, once she is alone, is crying out insane prophecies to Apollo about the death of Agamemnon. Inside the house a cry is heard, Agamemnon had been stabbed in the bathtub. The chorus separate from one another and ramble to themselves proving their cowardice when another final cry is heard, when the doors are finally opened, Clytaemnestra is seen standing over the dead bodies of Agamemnon and Cassandra. Clytaemnestra describes the murder in detail to the chorus, showing no sign of remorse or regret, suddenly the exiled lover of Clytaemnestra, Aegisthus, bursts into the palace to take his place next to her. Aegisthus proudly states that he devised the plan to murder Agamemnon, Clytaemnestra claims that she and Aegisthus now have all the power and they re-enter the palace with the doors closing behind them. Upon arriving, Orestes reunites with his sister Electra at Agamemnons grave, shortly after the reunion, both Orestes and Electra, influenced by the Chorus, come up with a plan to kill both Clytaemnestra and Aegisthus. Orestes then heads to the door where he is unexpectedly greeted by Clytaemnestra
7.
Euripides
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Euripides was a tragedian of classical Athens. He is one of the few plays have survived, with the others being Aeschylus, Sophocles. Some ancient scholars attributed 95 plays to him but according to the Suda it was 92 at most, of these,18 or 19 have survived more or less complete and there are also fragments, some substantial, of most of the other plays. This new approach led him to pioneer developments that later writers adapted to comedy, yet he also became the most tragic of poets, focusing on the inner lives and motives of his characters in a way previously unknown. He was also unique among the writers of ancient Athens for the sympathy he demonstrated towards all victims of society and his contemporaries associated him with Socrates as a leader of a decadent intellectualism, both of them being frequently lampooned by comic poets such as Aristophanes. Whereas Socrates was eventually put on trial and executed as an influence, Euripides chose a voluntary exile in old age. Recent scholarship casts doubt on ancient biographies of Euripides, for example, it is possible that he never visited Macedonia at all, or, if he did, he might have been drawn there by King Archelaus with incentives that were also offered to other artists. Upon the receipt of a saying that his son was fated to win crowns of victory. In fact the boy was destined for a career on the stage and he served for a short time as both dancer and torch-bearer at the rites of Apollo Zosterius. His education was not confined to athletics, he studied painting and philosophy under the masters Prodicus. He had two marriages and both his wives—Melite and Choerine —were unfaithful. He became a recluse, making a home for himself in a cave on Salamis, there he built an impressive library and pursued daily communion with the sea and sky. Eventually he retired to the court of King Archelaus in Macedonia. However, as mentioned in the introduction, biographical details such as these should be regarded with scepticism and this biography is divided into three sections corresponding to the three kinds of sources. The apocryphal account that he composed his works in a cave on Salamis island was a late tradition, much of his life and his whole career coincided with the struggle between Athens and Sparta for hegemony in Greece but he didnt live to see the final defeat of his city. In an account by Plutarch, the failure of the Sicilian expedition led Athenians to trade renditions of Euripides lyrics to their enemies in return for food. Tragic poets were often mocked by comic poets during the dramatic festivals Dionysia and Lenaia, Aristophanes scripted him as a character in at least three plays, The Acharnians, Thesmophoriazusae and The Frogs. Yet Aristophanes borrowed rather than just satirized some of the methods, he was once ridiculed by a colleague, Cratinus, as a hair-splitting master of niceties
8.
Tragedy
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Tragedy is a form of drama based on human suffering that invokes an accompanying catharsis or pleasure in audiences. In the wake of Aristotles Poetics, tragedy has been used to make genre distinctions, in the modern era, tragedy has also been defined against drama, melodrama, the tragicomic, and epic theatre. Drama, in the sense, cuts across the traditional division between comedy and tragedy in an anti- or a-generic deterritorialisation from the mid-19th century onwards. Both Bertolt Brecht and Augusto Boal define their epic theatre projects against models of tragedy, taxidou, however, reads epic theatre as an incorporation of tragic functions and its treatments of mourning and speculation. The word tragedy appears to have used to describe different phenomena at different times. It derives from Classical Greek τραγῳδία, contracted from trag-aoidiā = goat song, scholars suspect this may be traced to a time when a goat was either the prize in a competition of choral dancing or was that around which a chorus danced prior to the animals ritual sacrifice. In another view on the etymology, Athenaeus of Naucratis says that the form of the word was trygodia from trygos and ode. There is some dissent to the origins of tragedy, mostly based on the differences between the shapes of their choruses and styles of dancing. A common descent from pre-Hellenic fertility and burial rites has been suggested, friedrich Nietzsche discussed the origins of Greek tragedy in his early book The Birth of Tragedy. Here, he suggests the name originates in the use of a chorus of goat-like satyrs in the original dithyrambs from which the genre developed. Scott Scullion writes, There is abundant evidence for tragoidia understood as song for the prize goat, and as prize was established the billy goat, the clearest is Eustathius 1769.45, They called those competing tragedians, clearly because of the song over the billy goat. Athenian tragedy—the oldest surviving form of tragedy—is a type of dance-drama that formed an important part of the culture of the city-state. Having emerged sometime during the 6th century BCE, it flowered during the 5th century BCE, no tragedies from the 6th century and only 32 of the more than a thousand that were performed in the 5th century have survived. We have complete texts extant by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, Athenian tragedies were performed in late March/early April at an annual state religious festival in honor of Dionysus. The presentations took the form of a contest between three playwrights, who presented their works on three successive days, each playwright offered a tetralogy consisting of three tragedies and a concluding comic piece called a satyr play. The four plays sometimes featured linked stories, only one complete trilogy of tragedies has survived, the Oresteia of Aeschylus. The Greek theatre was in the air, on the side of a hill. Performances were apparently open to all citizens, including women, the theatre of Dionysus at Athens probably held around 12,000 people
9.
Medea
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In Greek mythology, Medea was the daughter of King Aeëtes of Colchis, niece of Circe, granddaughter of the sun god Helios, and later wife to the hero Jason. In Euripides play Medea, Jason abandons Medea when Creon, king of Corinth, the play tells of Medea avenging her husbands betrayal by killing their children. Medea figures in the myth of Jason and the Argonauts, a known best from a late literary version worked up by Apollonius of Rhodes in the 3rd century BC. Medea is known in most stories as an enchantress, and is depicted as a priestess of the goddess Hecate or a witch. The myth of Jason and Medea is very old, originally written around the time Hesiod wrote the Theogony, Medeas role began after Jason came from Iolcus to Colchis, to claim his inheritance and throne by retrieving the Golden Fleece. In a familiar mythic motif, Aeëtes promised to him the fleece. Next, Jason had to sow the teeth of a dragon in the field, and the teeth sprouted into an army of warriors, Jason was forewarned by Medea, however. Unable to determine where the rock had come from, the attacked and killed each other. Finally, Aeëtes made Jason fight and kill the dragon that guarded the fleece. Jason then took the fleece and sailed away with Medea, as he had promised, Apollonius says that Medea only helped Jason in the first place because Hera had convinced Aphrodite or Eros to cause Medea to fall in love with him. Medea distracted her father as they fled by killing her brother Absyrtus, during the fight, Atalanta, a member of the group helping Jason in his quest for the fleece, was seriously wounded, but Medea healed her. According to some versions, Medea and Jason stopped on her aunt Circes island so that she could be cleansed after murdering her brother, relieving her of blame for the deed. On the way back to Thessaly, Medea prophesied that Euphemus, the helmsman of Jasons ship and this came true through Battus, a descendant of Euphemus. The Argo then reached the island of Crete, guarded by the bronze man, Talos had one vein which went from his neck to his ankle, bound shut by a single bronze nail. According to Apollodorus, Talos was slain either when Medea drove him mad with drugs, deceived him that she would make him immortal by removing the nail, or was killed by Poeass arrow. In the Argonautica, Medea hypnotized him from the Argo, driving him mad so that he dislodged the nail, ichor flowed from the wound, after Talos died, the Argo landed. Jason, celebrating his return with the Golden Fleece, noted that his father Aeson was too aged, Medea withdrew the blood from Aesons body, infused it with certain herbs, and returned it to his veins, invigorating him. The daughters of king Pelias saw this and wanted the same service for their father, while Jason searched for the Golden Fleece, Hera, who was still angry at Pelias, conspired to make Jason fall in love with Medea, whom Hera hoped would kill Pelias
10.
Infanticide
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Infanticide is the intentional killing of infants. Parental infanticide researchers have found that mothers are far more likely than fathers to be the perpetrator for neonaticide, in many past societies, certain forms of infanticide were considered permissible. In some countries, female infanticide is more common than the killing of male offspring, in China for example, the sex gap between males and females aged 0–19 year old was estimated to be 25 million in 2010 by the United Nations Population Fund. In English law infanticide is established as an offence by the Infanticide Acts. Defined as the killing of a child under 12 months of age by their mother, the practice of infanticide has taken many forms over time. Child sacrifice to supernatural figures or forces, such as that believed to have practiced in ancient Carthage. Rather than being an exception, then, it has been the rule, a frequent method of infanticide in ancient Europe and Asia was simply to abandon the infant, leaving it to die by exposure. Many Neolithic groups routinely resorted to infanticide in order to control their numbers so that their lands could support them. Joseph Birdsell believed that infanticide rates in prehistoric times were between 15% and 50% of the number of births, while Laila Williamson estimated a lower rate ranging from 15% to 20%. Both anthropologists believed that high rates of infanticide persisted until the development of agriculture during the Neolithic Revolution. Comparative anthropologists have calculated that 50% of female newborn babies were killed by their parents during the Paleolithic era, decapitated skeletons of hominid children have been found with evidence of cannibalism. Archaeologists have uncovered evidence of child sacrifice at several locations. Some of the best attested examples are the diverse rites which were part of the practices in Mesoamerica. Three thousand bones of children, with evidence of sacrificial rituals, have been found in Sardinia. Pelasgians offered a sacrifice of every tenth child during difficult times, syrians sacrificed children to Jupiter and Juno. Many remains of children have found in Gezer excavations with signs of sacrifice. Child skeletons with the marks of sacrifice have been also in Egypt dating 950-720 BCE. In Carthage sacrifice in the ancient world reached its infamous zenith, besides the Carthaginians, other Phoenicians, and the Canaanites, Moabites and Sepharvites offered their first-born as a sacrifice to their gods
11.
Jason
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Jason was an ancient Greek mythological hero who was famous for his role as the leader of the Argonauts and their quest for the Golden Fleece. He was the son of Aeson, the king of Iolcos. He was married to the sorceress Medea and he was also the great-grandson of the messenger god Hermes, through his mothers side. Jason appeared in literary works in the classical world of Greece and Rome, including the epic poem Argonautica. In the modern world, Jason has emerged as a character in various adaptations of his myths, such as the 1963 film Jason and the Argonauts, Jason has connections outside the classical world, being the mythical founder of the city of Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. Jasons father is invariably Aeson, but there is great variation as to his mothers name, Pelias was power-hungry and wished to gain dominion over all of Thessaly. Pelias was the product of a union between their mother, Tyro, the daughter of Salmoneus, and the sea god Poseidon. In a bitter feud, he overthrew Aeson, killing all the descendants of Aeson that he could and he spared his half-brother for unknown reasons. Alcimede I already had an infant son named Jason whom she saved from being killed by Pelias, by having women cluster around the newborn and cry as if he were still-born. Alcimede sent her son to the centaur Chiron for education, for fear that Pelias would kill him — she claimed that she had been having an affair with him all along. Pelias, still fearful that he would one day be overthrown, many years later, Pelias was holding games in honor of Poseidon, when Jason arrived in Iolcus and lost one of his sandals in the river Anauros, while helping an old woman to cross. She blessed him for she knew, as goddesses do, what Pelias had planned, when Jason entered Iolcus, he was announced as a man wearing one sandal. Jason, knowing that he was the king, told Pelias that and Pelias said, To take my throne. Jason assembled for his crew, a number of heroes, known as the Argonauts after their ship, the group of heroes included the Boreads who could fly, Heracles, Philoctetes, Peleus, Telamon, Orpheus, Castor and Pollux, Atalanta, Meleager and Euphemus. The isle of Lemnos is situated off the Western coast of Asia Minor, the island was inhabited by a race of women who had killed their husbands. The women had neglected their worship of Aphrodite, and as a punishment the goddess made the women so foul in stench that their husbands could not bear to be near them. The men then took concubines from the Thracian mainland opposite, the king, Thoas, was saved by Hypsipyle, his daughter, who put him out to sea sealed in a chest from which he was later rescued. The women of Lemnos lived for a while without men, with Hypsipyle as their queen, during the visit of the Argonauts the women mingled with the men creating a new race called Minyae
12.
Alcestis (play)
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Alcestis is an Athenian tragedy by the ancient Greek playwright Euripides. It was first produced at the City Dionysia festival in 438 BCE and its ambiguous, tragicomic tone—which may be cheerfully romantic or bitterly ironic—has earned it the label of a problem play. Alcestis is, possibly excepting the Rhesus, the oldest surviving work by Euripides, long before the start of the play, King Admetus was granted by the Fates the privilege of living past the allotted time of his death. The Fates were persuaded to allow this by the god Apollo, Apollo wishes to repay Admetus hospitality and offers him freedom from death. The gift, however, comes with a price, Admetus must find someone to take his place when Death comes to claim him, the time of Admetus death comes and he still has not found a willing substitute. His father, Pheres, is unwilling to step in and thinks that it is ludicrous that he should be asked to give up the life he enjoys so much as part of this strange deal. Finally, Admetus devoted wife Alcestis agrees to be taken in his place because she not to leave her children fatherless or be bereft of her lover. At the start of the play, she is close to death and he offers an exposition of the events leading up to this moment. He hails the arrival of Thanatos, who, dressed in black, Thanatos challenges Apollos apparent defense of Alcestis and accuses him of twisting slippery tricks when he helped Admetus cheat death in the first place. Apollo reassures him and, in a passage of swift stichomythic banter, proposes a postponement of Alcestis death, for once, Thanatos concludes, you may not have what is not yours. Defeated, Apollo leaves angrily, prophesying the arrival of a man who will wrestle Alcestis away from Death. Alone with the audience, Thanatos warns that this was a god of many words, the entry of the chorus, or the parodos sequence, follows, a chorus of fifteen men of Pherae, led by a coryphaeus, enter the orchestra of the theatre. The chorus-leader complains that they are in a state of suspense, the chorus lyrical ode, to which they dance as they sing, consists of two paired stanzas of strophe and antistrophe. They sing of the silence that greets their search for signs of mourning, when goodness dies, they lament, all good men suffer, too. The chorus-leader concludes by dismissing the chorus search for hope in the situation, the first episode begins with a maidservant, who enters from the palace in tears. When the chorus-leader presses her for news, she gives a confusing response, Alcestis stands, she explains, at this moment on the brink of life and death. The chorus-leader anxiously confirms that all of the customary preparations have been made for her proper burial, the maidservant joins the chorus-leader in praising Alcestis virtue. She describes how Admetus held Alcestis weeping in his arms while her eyes clung to the sight of the last rays of sun she would see, the maidservant welcomes the chorus-leader to the palace and goes inside to inform Admetus of their arrival
13.
Eponymous
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An eponym is a person, place, or thing for whom or for which something is named, or believed to be named. For example, Elizabeth I of England is the eponym of the Elizabethan era, recent usage, especially in the recorded-music industry, also allows eponymous to mean named after its central character or creator. In ancient Greece, the eponymous archon was the highest magistrate in classical Athens, Eponymous archons served a term of one year which took the name of that particular archon. Later historians provided yet another case of eponymy by referring to the period of Fifth-century Athens as The Age of Pericles after its most influential statesman Pericles. In Ptolemaic Egypt, the head priest of the Cult of Alexander, the Hebrew Bible explains the origins of peoples through individuals who bear their name. In most cases, the experiences and behavior of the ancestor is meant to indicate the characteristics of the people who take their name, in ancient Rome, one of the two formal ways of indicating a year was to cite the two annual consuls who served in that year. For example, the year we know as 59 BC would have described as the consulship of Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus and Gaius Julius Caesar. Under the empire, the consuls would change as often as two months, but only the two consuls at the beginning of the year would lend their names to that year. During the Christian era, itself eponymous, many households used eponymous dating by regnal years. The Roman Catholic Church, however, eventually used the Anno Domini dating scheme based on the birth of Christ on both the public and royalty. Government administrations may become referred to eponymously, such as Kennedys Camelot, British monarchs have become eponymous throughout the English-speaking world for time periods, fashions, etc. Elizabethan, Georgian, Victorian, and Edwardian are examples of these, trends Political trends or movements often become eponymous with a government leader. Examples include Jacksonian democracy, Stalinism, Maoism, Obamacare, in intellectual property law an eponym can refer to a generic trademark or brand name, a form of metonymy, such as aspirin, heroin and thermos in the United States. In geography, places and towns can also be given a name through a relationship to an important figure. Peloponnesus, for instance, was said to derive its name from the Greek hero Pelops, in historical times, new towns have often been named after their founders, discoverers, or notable individuals. In science and technology, discoveries and innovations are often named after the discoverer or a figure influential in their advance, examples are Avogadros number, the Diesel engine, meitnerium, Alzheimers disease, and the Apgar score. For a different view of the process see Stiglers law of eponymy, the term is also applied to music, usually with regard to record titles, where it is prevalent and leads to confusion. For example, Bad Companys first album was entitled Bad Company, titled a 1988 compilation album Eponymous
14.
Heracles
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Heracles, born Alcaeus or Alcides, was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson and half-brother of Perseus. He was the greatest of the Greek heroes, a paragon of masculinity, the ancestor of clans who claimed to be Heracleidae. In Rome and the modern West, he is known as Hercules, with whom the later Roman emperors, in particular Commodus and Maximian, often identified themselves. The Romans adopted the Greek version of his life and works essentially unchanged, details of his cult were adapted to Rome as well. Extraordinary strength, courage, ingenuity, and sexual prowess with both males and females were among the characteristics commonly attributed to him, together with Hermes he was the patron and protector of gymnasia and palaestrae. His iconographic attributes are the skin and the club. These qualities did not prevent him from being regarded as a figure who used games to relax from his labors. By conquering dangerous archaic forces he is said to have made the safe for mankind. Many popular stories were told of his life, the most famous being The Twelve Labours of Heracles and his figure, which initially drew on Near Eastern motifs such as the lion-fight, was widely known. Heracles was the greatest of Hellenic chthonic heroes, but unlike other Greek heroes, the core of the story of Heracles has been identified by Walter Burkert as originating in Neolithic hunter culture and traditions of shamanistic crossings into the netherworld. Heracles role as a hero, whose death could be a subject of mythic telling, was accepted into the Olympian Pantheon during Classical times. Around him cries of the dead rang out like cries of birds scattering left, in Christian circles a Euhemerist reading of the widespread Heracles cult was attributed to a historical figure who had been offered cult status after his death. The ancient Greeks celebrated the festival of the Heracleia, which commemorated the death of Heracles, what is believed to be an Egyptian Temple of Heracles in the Bahariya Oasis dates to 21 BCE. A reassessment of Ptolemys descriptions of the island of Malta attempted to link the site at Ras ir-Raħeb with a temple to Heracles, several ancient cities were named Heraclea in his honor. A major factor in the tragedies surrounding Heracles is the hatred that the goddess Hera. A full account of Heracles must render it clear why Heracles was so tormented by Hera, Heracles was the son of the affair Zeus had with the mortal woman Alcmene. Zeus made love to her after disguising himself as her husband, Amphitryon, thus, Heracles very existence proved at least one of Zeus many illicit affairs, and Hera often conspired against Zeus mortal offspring as revenge for her husbands infidelities. His twin mortal brother, son of Amphitryon, was Iphicles, Hera did this knowing that while Heracles was to be born a descendant of Perseus, so too was Eurystheus
15.
Thanatos
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In Greek mythology, Thanatos was the personification of death. He was a figure in Greek mythology, often referred to. His name is transliterated in Latin as Thanatus, but his equivalent in Roman mythology is Mors or Letum, the Greek poet Hesiod established in his Theogony that Thánatos is a son of Nyx and Erebos and twin of Hypnos. Then gave him into the charge of swift messengers to him, of Hypnos and Thanatos, who are twin brothers. Counted among Thanatos siblings were other negative personifications such as Geras, Oizys, Moros, Apate, Momus, Eris, Nemesis, Thanatos was loosely associated with the three Moirai, particularly Atropos, who was a goddess of death in her own right. He is also specified as being exclusive to peaceful death. His duties as a Guide of the Dead were sometimes superseded by Hermes Psychopompos, conversely, Thanatos may have originated as a mere aspect of Hermes before later becoming distinct from him. The gods character is established by Hesiod in the passage of the Theogony, And there the children of dark Night have their dwellings, Sleep and Death. The glowing Sun never looks upon them with his beams, neither as he goes up into heaven, Thanatos was thus regarded as merciless and indiscriminate, hated by - and hateful towards — mortals and gods alike. But in myths which feature him, Thanatos could occasionally be outwitted, when it came time for Sisyphus to die, Zeus ordered Thanatos to chain Sisyphus up in Tartarus. Sisyphus cheated death by tricking Thanatos into his own shackles, thereby prohibiting the demise of any mortal while Thanatos was so enchained, eventually Ares, the bloodthirsty god of war, grew frustrated with the battles he incited since neither side suffered any casualties. He released Thanatos and handed his captor over to the god, Sisyphus would evade Death a second time by convincing Persephone to allow him to return to his wife stating that she never gave him a proper funeral. This time, Sisyphus was forcefully dragged back to the Underworld by Hermes when Sisyphus refused to accept his death. Sisyphus was sentenced to an eternity of frustration in Tartarus where he rolled a boulder up a hill and it would roll back down when he got close to the top. Sisyphus, son of Aiolos was a more than mortal figure, for mortals Thanatos usually presents an inexorable fate, Thanatos was consigned to take the soul of Alkestis, who had offered her life in exchange for the continued life of her husband, King Admetos of Pherai. Heracles was an honored guest in the House of Admetos at the time, when Thanatos ascended from Hades to claim Alkestis, Heracles sprung upon the god and overpowered him, winning the right to have Alkestis revived. Thanatos fled, cheated of his quarry, Euripides, in Alcestis, Thanatos, Much talk. All the same, the woman goes with me to Hades house, I go to take her now, and dedicate her with my sword, for all whose hair is cut in consecration by this blades edge are devoted to the gods below
16.
Aristophanes
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Aristophanes, son of Philippus, of the deme Kydathenaion, was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete and these, together with fragments of some of his other plays, provide the only real examples of a genre of comic drama known as Old Comedy, and are used to define it. Also known as the Father of Comedy and the Prince of Ancient Comedy and his second play, The Babylonians, was denounced by the demagogue Cleon as a slander against the Athenian polis. In my opinion, he says through the Chorus in that play, less is known about Aristophanes than about his plays. In fact, his plays are the source of information about him. It was conventional in Old Comedy for the Chorus to speak on behalf of the author during a called the parabasis. However, these facts relate almost entirely to his career as a dramatist, Aristophanes claimed to be writing for a clever and discerning audience, yet he also declared that other times would judge the audience according to its reception of his plays. He sometimes boasts of his originality as a dramatist yet his plays consistently espouse opposition to new influences in Athenian society. He caricatured leading figures in the arts, in politics, such caricatures seem to imply that Aristophanes was an old-fashioned conservative, yet that view of him leads to contradictions. It has been argued that Aristophanes produced plays mainly to entertain the audience, an elaborate series of lotteries, designed to prevent prejudice and corruption, reduced the voting judges at the City Dionysia to just five in number. These judges probably reflected the mood of the audiences yet there is uncertainty about the composition of those audiences. The theatres were certainly huge, with seating for at least 10000 at the Theatre of Dionysus, the conservative views expressed in the plays might therefore reflect the attitudes of the dominant group in an unrepresentative audience. The production process might also have influenced the views expressed in the plays, throughout most of Aristophanes career, the Chorus was essential to a plays success and it was recruited and funded by a choregus, a wealthy citizen appointed to the task by one of the archons. Thus the political conservatism of the plays may reflect the views of the wealthiest section of Athenian society, when Aristophanes first play The Banqueters was produced, Athens was an ambitious, imperial power and the Peloponnesian War was only in its fourth year. His plays often express pride in the achievement of the older generation yet they are not jingoistic, the plays are particularly scathing in criticism of war profiteers, among whom populists such as Cleon figure prominently. However it is whether he led or merely responded to changes in audience expectations. Aristophanes won second prize at the City Dionysia in 427 BC with his first play The Banqueters and he won first prize there with his next play, The Babylonians. Some influential citizens, notably Cleon, reviled the play as slander against the polis, Cleon also seems to have had no real power to limit or control Aristophanes, the caricatures of him continued up to and even beyond his death
17.
Thesmophoriazusae
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Thesmophoriazusae is one of eleven surviving plays by Aristophanes. It was first produced in 411 BCE, probably at the City Dionysia, the work is also notable for Aristophanes free adaptation of key structural elements of Old Comedy and for the absence of the anti-populist and anti-war comments that pepper his earlier work. It was produced in the year as Lysistrata, another play with sexual themes. How The Poet and the Women fared in the City Dionysia drama competition is unknown, today the women at the festival Are going to kill me for insulting them. This bold statement by Euripides is the premise upon which the whole play depends. Agathon is already dressed as a woman, in preparation for a play, Euripides aged in-law then offers to go in Agathons place. Euripides shaves him, dresses him in clothes borrowed from Agathon and finally sends him off to the Thesmophorion. There, the women are discovered behaving like citizens of a democracy, conducting a much as men do, with appointed officials and carefully maintained records. Top of the agenda for that day is Euripides, two women – Micca and a myrtle vendor – summarize their grievances against him. According to Micca, Euripides has taught men not to trust women, this has made them more vigilant, according to the myrtle vendor, his plays promote atheism and this makes it difficult for her to sell her myrtle wreaths. Mnesilochus then speaks up, declaring that the behaviour of women is in far worse than Euripides has represented it. He recites in excruciating detail his own sins as a woman, including a sexual escapade with a boyfriend in a tryst involving a laurel tree. The assembly is outraged but order is restored when a messenger is seen approaching. It turns out to be Cleisthenes, an effeminate homosexual. He has come with the news that a man disguised as a woman is spying upon them on behalf of Euripides. Suspicion immediately falls upon Mnesilochus, being the member of the group that nobody can identify. After they remove his clothes, they discover that he is indeed a man, in a parody of a famous scene from Euripides Telephus, Mnesilochus grabs Miccas baby and threatens to kill it unless the women release him. After closer inspection, however, Mnesilochus discovers that the baby is in fact a wine skin fitted with booties, undeterred, he still threatens it with a knife
18.
Shakespeare
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William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the worlds pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called Englands national poet, and the Bard of Avon and his extant works, including collaborations, consist of approximately 38 plays,154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright, Shakespeare was born and brought up in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children, Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a career in London as an actor, writer. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, at age 49, Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories, which are regarded as some of the best work ever produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, in his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights. Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and it was prefaced with a poem by Ben Jonson, in which Shakespeare is hailed, presciently, as not of an age, but for all time. In the 20th and 21st centuries, his works have been adapted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship. His plays remain highly popular and are studied, performed. William Shakespeare was the son of John Shakespeare, an alderman and a successful glover originally from Snitterfield, and Mary Arden and he was born in Stratford-upon-Avon and baptised there on 26 April 1564. His actual date of birth unknown, but is traditionally observed on 23 April. This date, which can be traced back to an 18th-century scholars mistake, has proved appealing to biographers because Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616 and he was the third child of eight and the eldest surviving son. At the age of 18, Shakespeare married 26-year-old Anne Hathaway, the consistory court of the Diocese of Worcester issued a marriage licence on 27 November 1582. The next day, two of Hathaways neighbours posted bonds guaranteeing that no lawful claims impeded the marriage, twins, son Hamnet and daughter Judith, followed almost two years later and were baptised 2 February 1585. Hamnet died of unknown causes at the age of 11 and was buried 11 August 1596, after the birth of the twins, Shakespeare left few historical traces until he is mentioned as part of the London theatre scene in 1592. The exception is the appearance of his name in the bill of a law case before the Queens Bench court at Westminster dated Michaelmas Term 1588 and 9 October 1589
19.
As You Like It
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As You Like It is a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 and first published in the First Folio,1623. The plays first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wilton House in 1603 has been suggested as a possibility. As You Like It follows its heroine Rosalind as she flees persecution in her uncles court, accompanied by her cousin Celia to find safety and, eventually, love, in the Forest of Arden. In the forest, they encounter a variety of memorable characters, Jaques provides a sharp contrast to the other characters in the play, always observing and disputing the hardships of life in the country. Historically, critical response has varied, with critics finding the work of lesser quality than other Shakespearean works. The play remains a favourite among audiences and has adapted for radio, film. The play is set in a duchy in France, but most of the takes place in a location called the Forest of Arden. Frederick has usurped the Duchy and exiled his brother, Duke Senior. Duke Seniors daughter, Rosalind, has permitted to remain at court because she is the closest friend and cousin of Fredericks only child. Orlando, a gentleman of the kingdom who at first sight has fallen in love with Rosalind, is forced to flee his home after being persecuted by his older brother, Oliver. Frederick becomes angry and banishes Rosalind from court, Celia and Rosalind decide to flee together accompanied by the court fool, Touchstone, with Rosalind disguised as a young man and Celia disguised as a poor lady. Ganymede and Aliena do not immediately encounter the Duke and his companions, instead, they meet Corin, an impoverished tenant, and offer to buy his masters crude cottage. Orlando and his servant Adam, meanwhile, find the Duke and his men and are living with them. Rosalind, also in love with Orlando, meets him as Ganymede, Ganymede says that he will take Rosalinds place and that he and Orlando can act out their relationship. The shepherdess, Phoebe, with whom Silvius is in love, has fallen in love with Ganymede, Touchstone, meanwhile, has fallen in love with the dull-witted shepherdess, Audrey, and tries to woo her, but eventually is forced to be married first. William, another shepherd, attempts to marry Audrey as well, but is stopped by Touchstone, finally, Silvius, Phoebe, Ganymede, and Orlando are brought together in an argument with each other over who will get whom. Ganymede says he will solve the problem, having Orlando promise to marry Rosalind, Orlando sees Oliver in the forest and rescues him from a lioness, causing Oliver to repent for mistreating Orlando. Oliver meets Aliena and falls in love with her, and they agree to marry, Jaques, ever melancholic, declines their invitation to return to the court preferring to stay in the forest and to adopt a religious life as well
20.
Pericles, Prince of Tyre
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John Gower introduces each act with a prologue. The play opens in the court of Antiochus, king of Antioch, who has offered the hand of his daughter to any man who answers his riddle. Pericles, the young Prince of Tyre in Phoenicia, hears the riddle, if he reveals this truth, he will be killed, but if he answers incorrectly, he will also be killed. Pericles hints that he knows the answer, and asks for time to think. Antiochus grants him forty days, and then sends an assassin after him, however, Pericles has fled the city in disgust. Pericles returns to Tyre, where his friend and counsellor Helicanus advises him to leave the city. Pericles leaves Helicanus as regent and sails to Tarsus, a city beset by famine, the generous Pericles gives the governor of the city, Cleon, and his wife Dionyza, grain from his ship to save their people. The famine ends, and after being thanked profusely by Cleon and Dionyza, a storm wrecks Pericles ship and washes him up on the shores of Pentapolis. Fortunately, one of the fishermen drags Pericles suit of armour on shore that very moment, although his equipment is rusty, Pericles wins the tournament and the hand of Thaisa in marriage. Simonedes initially expresses doubt about the union, but soon comes to like Pericles, a letter sent by the noblemen reaches Pericles in Pentapolis, who decides to return to Tyre with the pregnant Thaisa. Again, a storm arises while at sea, and Thaisa appears to die giving birth to her child, the sailors insist that Thaisas body be set overboard in order to calm the storm. Pericles grudgingly agrees, and decides to stop at Tarsus because he fears that Marina may not survive the storm, luckily, Thaisas casket washes ashore at Ephesus near the residence of Lord Cerimon, a physician who revives her. Thinking that Pericles died in the storm, Thaisa becomes a priestess in the temple of Diana, Pericles departs to rule Tyre, leaving Marina in the care of Cleon and Dionyza. Marina grows up more beautiful than Philoten the daughter of Cleon and Dionyza, the plan is thwarted when pirates kidnap Marina and then sell her to a brothel in Mytilene. There, Marina manages to keep her virginity by convincing the men that they should seek virtue, worried that she is ruining their market, the brothel rents her out as a tutor to respectable young ladies. She becomes famous for music and other decorous entertainments, meanwhile, Pericles returns to Tarsus for his daughter. The governor and his wife claim she has died, in grief, Pericles wanderings bring him to Mytilene where the governor Lysimachus, seeking to cheer him up, brings in Marina. They compare their sad stories and joyfully realise they are father and daughter, next, the goddess Diana appears in a dream to Pericles, and tells him to come to the temple where he finds Thaisa
21.
Cymbeline
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Although listed as a tragedy in the First Folio, modern critics often classify Cymbeline as a romance or even a comedy. Like Othello and The Winters Tale, it deals with the themes of innocence, while the precise date of composition remains unknown, the play was certainly produced as early as 1611. Cymbeline, the Roman Empires vassal king of Britain, once had two sons, Guiderius and Arvirargus, but they were twenty years earlier as infants by an exiled traitor named Belarius. Cymbeline now discovers that his only child left, his daughter Imogen, has married her lover Posthumus Leonatus. The lovers have exchanged jewellery as tokens, Imogen now with a bracelet, Cymbeline dismisses the marriage and banishes Posthumus, since Imogen, as Cymbelines only child, must produce a fully royal-blooded heir to succeed to the British throne. In the meantime, Cymbelines Queen is conspiring to have Cloten, her cloddish and arrogant son by a marriage, married to Imogen. The Queen passes the poison along to Pisanio, Posthumus and Imogens loving servant, No longer able to be with her banished Posthumus, Imogen secludes herself in her chambers, away from Clotens aggressive advances. If Iachimo wins, he will get Posthumuss token ring, if Posthumus wins, not only must Iachimo pay him but also fight Posthumus in a duel with swords. Iachimo heads to Britain where he attempts to seduce the faithful Imogen. Iachimo then hides in a chest in Imogens bedchamber and, when the princess falls asleep and he also takes note of the room and Imogens partly naked body to be able to present false evidence to Posthumus that he has seduced his bride. Returning to Italy, Iachimo convinces Posthumus that he has successfully seduced Imogen, however, Pisanio refuses to kill Imogen and reveals to her Posthumuss plot. He has Imogen disguise herself as a boy and continue to Milford Haven to seek employment and he also gives her the Queens poison, believing it will alleviate her psychological distress. In the guise of a boy, Imogen adopts the name Fidele, meanwhile, Cloten learns of the meeting between Imogen and Posthumus at Milford Haven. Dressing himself enviously in Posthumuss clothes, he decides to go to Wales to kill Posthumus, and then rape, abduct and these two young men are in fact the British princes Guiderius and Arviragus, who themselves do not realise their own origin. The men discover Fidele, and instantly captivated by an affinity for him become fast friends. Outside the cave, Guiderius is met by Cloten, who throws insults, meanwhile, Imogens fragile state worsens and she takes the poison as a hopeful medicine, when the men re-enter, they find her dead. They mourn and, after placing Clotens body beside hers, briefly depart to prepare for the double burial, Imogen awakes to find the headless body, and believes it to be Posthumus due to the fact the body is wearing Posthumus clothes. The treacherous Queen is now wasting away due to the disappearance of her son Cloten, meanwhile, despairing of his life, a guilt-ridden Posthumus enlists in the Roman forces as they begin their invasion of Britain
22.
The Winter's Tale
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The Winters Tale is a play by William Shakespeare, originally published in the First Folio of 1623. Although it was grouped among the comedies, some editors have relabelled the play as one of Shakespeares late romances. The Winters Tale was revived again in the 19th century, when the fourth act was widely popular. In the second half of the 20th century The Winters Tale in its entirety, following a brief setup scene the play begins with the appearance of two childhood friends, Leontes, King of Sicilia, and Polixenes, the King of Bohemia. Polixenes is visiting the kingdom of Sicilia, and is enjoying catching up with his old friend, however, after nine months, Polixenes yearns to return to his own kingdom to tend to affairs and see his son. Leontes desperately attempts to get Polixenes to stay longer, but is unsuccessful, Leontes then decides to send his wife, Queen Hermione, to try to convince Polixenes. Hermione agrees and with three short speeches is successful, Leontes orders Camillo, a Sicilian Lord, to poison Polixenes. Camillo instead warns Polixenes and they flee to Bohemia. Furious at their escape, Leontes now publicly accuses his wife of infidelity, and declares that the child she is bearing must be illegitimate. He throws her in prison, over the protests of his nobles, meanwhile, the queen gives birth to a girl, and her loyal friend Paulina takes the baby to the king, in the hopes that the sight of the child will soften his heart. He grows angrier, however, and orders Paulinas husband, Lord Antigonus, to take the child, Cleomenes and Dion return from Delphos with word from the Oracle and find Hermione publicly and humiliatingly put on trial before the king. She asserts her innocence, and asks for the word of the Oracle to be read before the court, the Oracle states categorically that Hermione and Polixenes are innocent, Camillo an honest man, and that Leontes will have no heir until his lost daughter is found. Leontes shuns the news, refusing to believe it as the truth, as this news is revealed, word comes that Leontes son, Mamillius, has died of a wasting sickness brought on by the accusations against his mother. Hermione, meanwhile, falls in a swoon, and is carried away by Paulina, Leontes vows to spend the rest of his days atoning for the loss of his son, his abandoned daughter, and his queen. Antigonus, meanwhile, abandons the baby on the coast of Bohemia, reporting that Hermione appeared to him in a dream and he leaves a fardel by the baby containing gold and other trinkets which suggest that the baby is of noble blood. A violent storm suddenly appears, wrecking the ship on which Antigonus arrived and he wishes to take pity on the child, but is chased away in one of Shakespeares most famous stage directions, Exit, pursued by a bear. Fortunately, Perdita is rescued by a shepherd and his son, Time enters and announces the passage of sixteen years. Camillo, now in the service of Polixenes, begs the Bohemian king to him to return to Sicilia
23.
The Beggar's Opera
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The Beggars Opera is a ballad opera in three acts written in 1728 by John Gay with music arranged by Johann Christoph Pepusch. It is one of the plays in Augustan drama and is the only example of the once thriving genre of satirical ballad opera to remain popular today. Ballad operas were satiric musical plays that some of the conventions of opera. The lyrics of the airs in the piece are set to popular ballads, opera arias, church hymns. The Beggars Opera premiered at the Lincolns Inn Fields Theatre on 29 January 1728 and ran for 62 consecutive performances, the work became Gays greatest success and has been played ever since, it has been called the most popular play of the eighteenth century. The piece satirised Italian opera, which had become popular in London, instead of the grand music and themes of opera, the work uses familiar tunes and characters that were ordinary people. Some of the songs were by composers like Handel. The audience could hum along with the music and identify with the characters, the story satirised politics, poverty and injustice, focusing on the theme of corruption at all levels of society. Lavinia Fenton, the first Polly Peachum, became an overnight success and her pictures were in great demand, verses were written to her and books published about her. After appearing in comedies, and then in numerous repetitions of The Beggars Opera, she ran away with her married lover, Charles Powlett. Elisabeth Hauptmann and Kurt Weill adapted the opera into Die Dreigroschenoper in 1928, sticking closely to the plot and characters but with a new libretto. The original idea of the came from Jonathan Swift, who wrote to Alexander Pope on 30 August 1716 asking. what think you. Their friend, Gay, decided that it would be a rather than a pastoral opera. For his original production in 1728, Gay intended all the songs to be sung without any accompaniment, adding to the shocking and gritty atmosphere of his conception. Although there is no evidence of who the arranger was, inspection of the original 1729 score, formally published by Dover Books. It also deals with social inequity on a scale, primarily through the comparison of low-class thieves and whores with their aristocratic. Gay used Scottish folk melodies mostly taken from the poet Allan Ramsays hugely popular collection The Gentle Shepherd plus two French tunes, to serve his hilariously pointed and irreverent texts. Pepusch composed an overture and arranged all the tunes shortly before the night at Lincolns Inn Fields on 28 January 1728
24.
Tartuffe
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Tartuffe, or The Impostor, or The Hypocrite, first performed in 1664, is one of the most famous theatrical comedies by Molière. The characters of Tartuffe, Elmire, and Orgon are considered among the greatest classical theatre roles, while the king had little personal interest in suppressing the play, he did so because, as stated in the official account of the fête. As a result of Molières play, contemporary French and English both use the word tartuffe to designate a hypocrite who ostensibly and exaggeratedly feigns virtue, especially religious virtue, the play is written entirely in 1,962 twelve-syllable lines of rhyming couplets. Orgons family is up in arms because Orgon and his mother have fallen under the influence of Tartuffe, Tartuffe pretends to be pious and to speak with divine authority, and Orgon and his mother no longer take any action without first consulting him. Tartuffes antics do not fool the rest of the family or their friends, Orgon raises the stakes when he announces that he will marry Tartuffe to his daughter Mariane. Mariane, of course, feels very upset at this news, in an effort to show Orgon how awful Tartuffe really is, the family devises a scheme to trap Tartuffe into confessing to Elmire his desire for her. As a pious man and a guest, he should have no feelings for the lady of the house. Tartuffe is at first shocked but recovers very well, un malheureux pécheur tout plein diniquité. Orgon is convinced that Damis was lying and banishes him from the house, Tartuffe even gets Orgon to order that, to teach Damis a lesson, Tartuffe should be around Elmire more than ever. As a gift to Tartuffe and further punishment to Damis and the rest of his family, in a later scene, Elmire takes up the charge again and challenges Orgon to be witness to a meeting between herself and Tartuffe. Orgon, ever easily convinced, decides to hide under a table in the same room and he overhears, of course, Elmire resisting Tartuffes very forward advances. When Tartuffe has incriminated himself beyond all help and is close to violating Elmire, Orgon comes out from under the table. But this wily guest means to stay, and Tartuffe finally shows his hand and it turns out that earlier, before the events of the play, Orgon had admitted to Tartuffe that he had possession of a box of incriminating letters. Tartuffe had taken charge and possession of box, and now tells Orgon that he will be the one to leave. Tartuffe takes his leave and Orgons family tries to figure out what to do. Very soon, Monsieur Loyal shows up with a message from Tartuffe, Dorine makes fun of Monsieur Loyals name, mocking his fake loyalty. Even Madame Pernelle, who had refused to believe any ill about Tartuffe even in the face of her sons actually seeing it, has become convinced by this time of Tartuffes duplicity. Before Orgon can flee, Tartuffe arrives with an officer, the entire family thanks its lucky stars that it has escaped the mortification of both Orgons potential disgrace and their dispossession
25.
Louis XIV of France
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Louis XIV, known as Louis the Great or the Sun King, was a monarch of the House of Bourbon who ruled as King of France and Navarre from 1643 until his death in 1715. His reign of 72 years and 110 days is the longest of any monarch of a country in European history. In the age of absolutism in Europe, Louis XIVs France was a leader in the centralization of power. Louis began his rule of France in 1661, after the death of his chief minister. By these means he became one of the most powerful French monarchs, under his rule, the Edict of Nantes, which granted rights to Huguenots, was abolished. The revocation effectively forced Huguenots to emigrate or convert in a wave of dragonnades, which managed to virtually destroy the French Protestant minority. During Louis reign, France was the leading European power, and it fought three wars, the Franco-Dutch War, the War of the League of Augsburg. There were also two lesser conflicts, the War of Devolution and the War of the Reunions, warfare defined Louis XIVs foreign policies, and his personality shaped his approach. Impelled by a mix of commerce, revenge, and pique, in peacetime he concentrated on preparing for the next war. He taught his diplomats their job was to create tactical and strategic advantages for the French military, Louis XIV was born on 5 September 1638 in the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, to Louis XIII and Anne of Austria. He was named Louis Dieudonné and bore the title of French heirs apparent. At the time of his birth, his parents had married for 23 years. His mother had experienced four stillbirths between 1619 and 1631, leading contemporaries thus regarded him as a divine gift and his birth a miracle of God. Sensing imminent death, Louis XIII decided to put his affairs in order in the spring of 1643, in defiance of custom, which would have made Queen Anne the sole Regent of France, the king decreed that a regency council would rule on his sons behalf. His lack of faith in Queen Annes political abilities was his primary rationale and he did, however, make the concession of appointing her head of the council. Louis relationship with his mother was uncommonly affectionate for the time, contemporaries and eyewitnesses claimed that the Queen would spend all her time with Louis. Both were greatly interested in food and theatre, and it is likely that Louis developed these interests through his close relationship with his mother. This long-lasting and loving relationship can be evidenced by excerpts in Louis journal entries, such as, but attachments formed later by shared qualities of the spirit are far more difficult to break than those formed merely by blood
26.
Aristotle
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Aristotle was an ancient Greek philosopher and scientist born in the city of Stagira, Chalkidice, on the northern periphery of Classical Greece. His father, Nicomachus, died when Aristotle was a child, at seventeen or eighteen years of age, he joined Platos Academy in Athens and remained there until the age of thirty-seven. Shortly after Plato died, Aristotle left Athens and, at the request of Philip II of Macedon, teaching Alexander the Great gave Aristotle many opportunities and an abundance of supplies. He established a library in the Lyceum which aided in the production of many of his hundreds of books and he believed all peoples concepts and all of their knowledge was ultimately based on perception. Aristotles views on natural sciences represent the groundwork underlying many of his works, Aristotles views on physical science profoundly shaped medieval scholarship. Their influence extended from Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages into the Renaissance, some of Aristotles zoological observations, such as on the hectocotyl arm of the octopus, were not confirmed or refuted until the 19th century. His works contain the earliest known study of logic, which was incorporated in the late 19th century into modern formal logic. Aristotle was well known among medieval Muslim intellectuals and revered as The First Teacher and his ethics, though always influential, gained renewed interest with the modern advent of virtue ethics. All aspects of Aristotles philosophy continue to be the object of academic study today. Though Aristotle wrote many elegant treatises and dialogues – Cicero described his style as a river of gold – it is thought that only around a third of his original output has survived. Aristotle, whose means the best purpose, was born in 384 BC in Stagira, Chalcidice. His father Nicomachus was the physician to King Amyntas of Macedon. Aristotle was orphaned at a young age, although there is little information on Aristotles childhood, he probably spent some time within the Macedonian palace, making his first connections with the Macedonian monarchy. At the age of seventeen or eighteen, Aristotle moved to Athens to continue his education at Platos Academy and he remained there for nearly twenty years before leaving Athens in 348/47 BC. Aristotle then accompanied Xenocrates to the court of his friend Hermias of Atarneus in Asia Minor, there, he traveled with Theophrastus to the island of Lesbos, where together they researched the botany and zoology of the island. Aristotle married Pythias, either Hermiass adoptive daughter or niece and she bore him a daughter, whom they also named Pythias. Soon after Hermias death, Aristotle was invited by Philip II of Macedon to become the tutor to his son Alexander in 343 BC, Aristotle was appointed as the head of the royal academy of Macedon. During that time he gave not only to Alexander
27.
The War of the Worlds
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The War of the Worlds is a science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells first serialised in 1897 in the UK by Pearsons Magazine and in the US by Cosmopolitan magazine. The novels first appearance in hardcover was in 1898 from publisher William Heinemann of London, written between 1895 and 1897, it is one of the earliest stories that detail a conflict between mankind and an extraterrestrial race. The novel is the narrative of both an unnamed protagonist in Surrey and of his younger brother in London as southern England is invaded by Martians. The novel is one of the most commented-on works in the science fiction canon, the plot has been related to invasion literature of the time. The novel has been interpreted as a commentary on evolutionary theory, British imperialism. At the time of publication, it was classified as a scientific romance and it has even influenced the work of scientists, notably Robert Goddard, who invented both the liquid fuelled rocket and multistage rocket, which resulted in the Apollo 11 moon landing 71 years later. The narrative opens in an observatory at Ottershaw where explosions are seen on the surface of planet Mars. Later a meteor lands on Horsell Common, near the unnamed narrators home in Woking, the narrator finds them at once vital, intense, inhuman, crippled and monstrous. They briefly emerge, have difficulty in coping with the Earths atmosphere, a human deputation approaches the cylinder with a white flag, but the Martians incinerate them and others nearby with a heat-ray before beginning to assemble their machinery. Military forces arrive that night to surround the common, including Maxim guns, the population of Woking and the surrounding villages are reassured by the presence of the military. A tense day begins, with anticipation of military action by the narrator. On the road during the height of the storm, he has his first terrifying sight of a fast-moving Martian fighting-machine, in panic he crashes the horse cart, barely escaping detection. He discovers the Martians have assembled towering three-legged fighting-machines, each armed with a heat-ray and a chemical weapon and these tripods have wiped out the army units positioned around the cylinder and attacked and destroyed most of Woking. The two try to escape via Byfleet just after dawn, but are separated at the Shepperton to Weybridge Ferry during a Martian afternoon attack on Shepperton and this gives the authorities precious hours to form a defence-line covering London. The brother encounters Mrs. Elphinstone and her younger sister-in-law, just in time to help fend off three men who are trying to rob them. Since Mrs. Elphinstones husband is missing, the three continue on together, after a terrifying struggle to cross a streaming mass of refugees on the road at Barnet, they head eastward. Two days later, at Chelmsford, their pony is confiscated for food by the local Committee of Public Supply and they press on to Tillingham and the sea. There they manage to buy passage to the Continent on a paddle steamer
28.
Lord of the Flies
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Lord of the Flies is a 1954 novel by Nobel Prize-winning English author William Golding. The books premise focuses on a group of British boys stranded on an island and their attempt to govern themselves. Published in 1954, Lord of the Flies was Goldings first novel, although it was not a great success at the time—selling fewer than three thousand copies in the United States during 1955 before going out of print—it soon went on to become a best-seller. It has been adapted to film twice in English, in 1963 by Peter Brook and 1990 by Harry Hook, the book indicates that it takes place in the midst of an unspecified nuclear war. Some of the characters are ordinary students, while others arrive as a musical choir under an established leader. Most appear never to have encountered each other before, the book portrays their descent into savagery, left to themselves on a paradisiacal island, far from modern civilization, the well-educated children regress to a primitive state. Golding wrote his book as a counterpoint to R. M, Goldings three central characters—Ralph, Piggy and Jack—have been interpreted as caricatures of Ballantynes Coral Island protagonists. In the midst of an evacuation, a British aeroplane crashes on or near an isolated island in a remote region of the Pacific Ocean. The only survivors are boys in their childhood or preadolescence. Two boys—the fair-haired Ralph and an overweight, bespectacled boy nicknamed Piggy—find a conch, Ralph establishes three primary policies, to have fun, survive, and to constantly maintain a smoke signal that could alert passing ships to their presence on the island and thus rescue them. The boys create a form of democracy by declaring that whoever holds the conch shall also be able to speak at their formal gatherings, Jack organises his choir into a hunting party responsible for discovering a food source. Ralph, Jack, and a quiet, dreamy boy named Simon soon form a triumvirate of leaders with Ralph as the ultimate authority. Though he is Ralphs only real confidant, Piggy is quickly made into an outcast by his fellow biguns, Simon, in addition to supervising the project of constructing shelters, feels an instinctive need to protect the littluns. The central paranoia refers to a monster they call the beast. Ralph insists that no such beast exists, but Jack, who has started a struggle with Ralph. At one point, Jack summons all of his hunters to hunt down a wild pig, a ship travels by the island, but without the boys smoke signal to alert the ships crew, the vessel continues without stopping. Ralph angrily confronts Jack about his failure to maintain the signal, in frustration Jack assaults Piggy, the boys subsequently enjoy their first feast. One night, a battle occurs near the island while the boys sleep, during which a fighter pilot ejects from his plane
29.
William Golding
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Sir William Gerald Golding CBE was an English novelist, playwright, and poet. Golding was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1988 and he was a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. In 2008, The Times ranked Golding third on their list of The 50 greatest British writers since 1945, William Golding was born in his grandmothers house,47 Mount Wise, Newquay, Cornwall, and he spent many childhood holidays there. He grew up in Marlborough, Wiltshire, where his father was a master at Marlborough Grammar School. Alec Golding was a teacher at the school the young Golding and his mother, Mildred, kept house at 29, The Green, Marlborough, and was a campaigner for female suffrage. In 1930 Golding went to Brasenose College, Oxford, where he read Natural Sciences for two years before transferring to English Literature and he was a schoolmaster teaching Philosophy and English in 1939, then just English from 1945 to 1961 at Bishop Wordsworths School, Salisbury, Wiltshire. Golding married Ann Brookfield, an analytical chemist, on 30 September 1939 and they had two children, Judith and David. During World War II, Golding joined the Royal Navy in 1940 and he fought and was briefly involved in the pursuit and sinking of the German battleship Bismarck. In 1985, Golding and his moved to Tullimaar House at Perranarworthal, near Truro. He died of heart failure eight years later, on 19 June 1993 and he was buried in the village churchyard at Bowerchalke, South Wiltshire. He left the draft of a novel, The Double Tongue, set in ancient Delphi and his son David continues to live at Tullimaar House. In September 1953, after many rejections from publishers, Golding sent a manuscript to Faber & Faber and was initially rejected by their reader. His book however was championed by Charles Monteith, a new editor at the firm, Monteith asked for some changes to the text and the novel was published in September 1954 as Lord of the Flies. After moving in 1958 from Salisbury to nearby Bowerchalke, he met his fellow villager, Golding won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1979, and the Booker Prize in 1980. In 1983 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, and was according to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography an unexpected, in 1988 Golding was appointed a Knight Bachelor. In September 1993, only a few months after his death, the First International William Golding Conference was held in France. His first novel, Lord of the Flies, describes a group of boys stranded on a tropical island reverting to savagery, the Inheritors shows new people, triumphing over a gentler race by deceit and violence. His 1956 novel Pincher Martin records the thoughts of a drowning sailor, free Fall explores the issue of free choice as a prisoner held in solitary confinement in a German POW camp during World War Two looks back over his life
30.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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He was at one time a close friend of C. S. Lewis—they were both members of the informal literary discussion group known as the Inklings. Tolkien was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II on 28 March 1972, after Tolkiens death, his son Christopher published a series of works based on his fathers extensive notes and unpublished manuscripts, including The Silmarillion. Between 1951 and 1955, Tolkien applied the term legendarium to the part of these writings. While many other authors had published works of fantasy before Tolkien and this has caused Tolkien to be popularly identified as the father of modern fantasy literature—or, more precisely, of high fantasy. In 2008, The Times ranked him sixth on a list of The 50 greatest British writers since 1945, forbes ranked him the 5th top-earning dead celebrity in 2009. Tolkiens paternal ancestors were middle-class craftsmen who made and sold clocks, watches and pianos in London, the Tolkien family had emigrated from Germany in the 18th century but had become quickly intensely English. According to the tradition, the Tolkiens had arrived in England in 1756. Several families with the surname Tolkien or similar spelling live in northwestern Germany, mainly in Lower Saxony, however, this origin of the name has not been proven. A German writer has suggested that the name is likely to derive from the village of Tolkynen near Rastenburg. Although that village is far from Lower Saxony, its name is derived from the now-extinct Old Prussian language. John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born on 3 January 1892 in Bloemfontein in the Orange Free State to Arthur Reuel Tolkien, an English bank manager, the couple had left England when Arthur was promoted to head the Bloemfontein office of the British bank for which he worked. Tolkien had one sibling, his brother, Hilary Arthur Reuel. In another incident, a family servant, who thought Tolkien a beautiful child, took the baby to his kraal to show him off. When he was three, he went to England with his mother and brother on what was intended to be a family visit. His father, however, died in South Africa of rheumatic fever before he could join them and this left the family without an income, so Tolkiens mother took him to live with her parents in Kings Heath, Birmingham. Soon after, in 1896, they moved to Sarehole, then a Worcestershire village, Mabel Tolkien taught her two children at home. Ronald, as he was known in the family, was a keen pupil and she taught him a great deal of botany and awakened in him the enjoyment of the look and feel of plants. Young Tolkien liked to draw landscapes and trees, but his lessons were those concerning languages
31.
The Hobbit
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The Hobbit, or There and Back Again is a childrens fantasy novel by English author J. R. R. Tolkien. It was published on 21 September 1937 to wide acclaim, being nominated for the Carnegie Medal. The book remains popular and is recognized as a classic in childrens literature. The Hobbit is set in a time between the Dawn of Færie and the Dominion of Men, and follows the quest of home-loving hobbit Bilbo Baggins to win a share of the treasure guarded by Smaug the dragon. Bilbos journey takes him from light-hearted, rural surroundings into more sinister territory, the story is told in the form of an episodic quest, and most chapters introduce a specific creature or type of creature of Tolkiens geography. Bilbo gains a new level of maturity, competence, and wisdom by accepting the disreputable, romantic, fey, the story reaches its climax in the Battle of the Five Armies, where many of the characters and creatures from earlier chapters re-emerge to engage in conflict. Personal growth and forms of heroism are central themes of the story and these themes have led critics to view Tolkiens own experiences during World War I as instrumental in shaping the story. The authors scholarly knowledge of Germanic philology and interest in fairy tales are often noted as influences, the publisher was encouraged by the books critical and financial success and, therefore, requested a sequel. As Tolkiens work progressed on the successor The Lord of the Rings and these few but significant changes were integrated into the second edition. Further editions followed with minor emendations, including those reflecting Tolkiens changing concept of the world into which Bilbo stumbled, the work has never been out of print. Its ongoing legacy encompasses many adaptations for stage, screen, radio, board games, several of these adaptations have received critical recognition on their own merits. Bilbo Baggins, the titular protagonist, is a respectable, reserved hobbit, during his adventure, Bilbo often refers to the contents of his larder at home and wishes he had more food. Until he finds a ring, he is more baggage than help. Gandalf, an itinerant wizard, introduces Bilbo to a company of thirteen dwarves, during the journey the wizard disappears on side errands dimly hinted at, only to appear again at key moments in the story. Smaug is a dragon who long ago pillaged the kingdom of Thorins grandfather. Gandalf tricks Bilbo into hosting a party for Thorin and his band of dwarves, when the music ends, Gandalf unveils a map showing a secret door into the Mountain and proposes that the dumbfounded Bilbo serve as the expeditions burglar. The dwarves ridicule the idea, but Bilbo, indignant, joins despite himself, the group travels into the wild, where Gandalf saves the company from trolls and leads them to Rivendell, where Elrond reveals more secrets from the map. Passing over the Misty Mountains, they are caught by goblins, although Gandalf rescues them, Bilbo gets separated from the others as they flee the goblins
32.
The Lord of the Rings
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The Lord of the Rings is an epic high-fantasy novel written by English author J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkiens 1937 fantasy novel The Hobbit, written in stages between 1937 and 1949, The Lord of the Rings is one of the best-selling novels ever written, with over 150 million copies sold. The work was intended by Tolkien to be one volume of a two-volume set, the other to be The Silmarillion. For economic reasons The Lord of the Rings was published in three volumes over the course of a year from 29 July 1954 to 20 October 1955, the three volumes were titled The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King. Structurally, the novel is divided internally into six books, two per volume, with appendices of background material included at the end of the third volume. Some editions combine the work into a single volume. The Lord of the Rings has since been reprinted numerous times, Tolkiens work has been the subject of extensive analysis of its themes and origins. Although a major work in itself, the story was only the last movement of a larger epic Tolkien had worked on since 1917 and these inspirations and themes have often been denied by Tolkien himself. The Lord of the Rings has inspired, and continues to inspire, artwork, music, films and television, video games, award-winning adaptations of The Lord of the Rings have been made for radio, theatre, and film. In 2003, it was named Britains best-loved novel of all time in the BBCs The Big Read, Sauron was defeated by an alliance of Elves and Men led by Gil-galad and Elendil, respectively. Isildur, son of Elendil, cut the One Ring from Saurons finger, Isildur claimed the Ring as an heirloom for his line, but when he was later ambushed and killed by the Orcs, the Ring was lost in the River Anduin at Gladden Fields. Over two thousand years later, the Ring was found by one of the river-folk called Déagol and his friend Sméagol fell under the Rings influence and strangled Déagol to acquire it. Sméagol was banished and hid under the Misty Mountains, the Ring gave him long life and changed him over hundreds of years into a twisted, corrupted creature called Gollum. Gollum lost the Ring, his precious, and as told in The Hobbit, meanwhile, Sauron assumed a new form and took back his old realm of Mordor. When Gollum set out in search of the Ring, he was captured and tortured by Sauron, Sauron learned from Gollum that Baggins of the Shire had taken the Ring. Sauron, who needed the Ring to regain his power, sent forth his powerful servants. The story begins in the Shire, where the hobbit Frodo Baggins inherits the Ring from Bilbo Baggins, his cousin, neither hobbit is aware of the Rings nature, but Gandalf the Grey, a wizard and an old friend of Bilbo, suspects it to be Saurons Ring. After Gandalf confirms his suspicions, he tells Frodo the history of the Ring, Frodo leaves the Shire, in the company of his gardener and friend, Samwise Gamgee, and two cousins, Meriadoc Brandybuck, called Merry, and Peregrin Took, called Pippin
33.
Fellowship of the Ring
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The Fellowship of the Ring is the first of three volumes of the epic novel The Lord of the Rings by the English author J. R. R. Tolkien. It is followed by The Two Towers and The Return of the King and it takes place in the fictional universe of Middle-earth. It was originally published on 29 July 1954 in the United Kingdom, the volume consists of a prologue titled Concerning Hobbits, and other matters followed by Book I and Book II. Tolkien envisioned The Lord of the Rings as a single volume work divided into six sections he called books along with extensive appendices, the original publisher made the decision to split the work into three parts. Tolkien indicated he would have preferred The War of the Ring as a title, before the decision to publish The Lord of the Rings in three volumes was made, Tolkien had hoped to publish the novel in one volume, possibly also combined with The Silmarillion. However, he had proposed titles for the six sections. Of the two books that comprise what became The Fellowship of the Ring the first was to be called The First Journey or The Ring Sets Out, the name of the second was The Journey of the Nine Companions or The Ring Goes South. The titles The Ring Sets Out and The Ring Goes South were used in the Millennium edition, the Prologue is meant partly to help people who have not read The Hobbit to understand the events of that book. It also contains other information to set the stage for the novel. The first chapter in the book begins in a light vein, Bilbo Baggins celebrates his 111th birthday on the same day,22 September, that his younger cousin and adopted heir Frodo Baggins celebrates his coming of age at thirty-three. At the birthday party, Bilbo departs from the Shire, the land of the Hobbits, for what he calls a permanent holiday. Bilbo does so by using the ring to disappear and is aided by Gandalf the Wizard with a flash and puff of smoke. He leaves Frodo his remaining belongings, including his home, Bag End, Gandalf leaves on his own business, warning Frodo to keep the Ring secret. Over the next seventeen years, Gandalf periodically pays short visits to Bag End, One spring night, he arrives to enlighten Frodo about Bilbos ring, it is the One Ring of Sauron the Dark Lord. Isildur, Elendils son, cut the Ring from Saurons finger, Sauron was overthrown, but the Ring itself was not destroyed as it should have been, for Isildur kept it for himself. Isildur was slain soon afterwards in the Battle of the Gladden Fields, thousands of years later, it was found by the hobbit Déagol, but Déagol was thereupon murdered by his friend Sméagol, who wanted the Ring for himself. Sméagol took the Ring and kept it for hundreds of years, the Ring was found by Bilbo Baggins, as told in The Hobbit, and Bilbo left it behind for Frodo. Gandalf tells how Sauron has risen again and has returned to his stronghold in Mordor and is bending all his power toward the hunting of the Ring
34.
Bilbo Baggins
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Bilbo Baggins is the title character and protagonist of J. R. R. Tolkiens 1937 novel The Hobbit, as well as a supporting character in The Lord of the Rings. Here, after the dragon was killed and the Mountain was reclaimed, underground, near Gollums lair, Bilbo accidentally found a magic ring of invisibility, which he used to escape from Gollum. By the end of the journey, Bilbo had become wiser and more confident, Bilbos journey has been compared to a pilgrimage of grace. The Hobbit can be characterized as a Christian bildungsroman which equates progress to wisdom gained in the form of a rite of passage and he rescued the dwarves from giant spiders with the magic ring and a short Elven-sword he acquired. He used the ring to sneak around in dangerous places, as well as his wits to smuggle the dwarves out of the elves prisons. When tensions arose over ownership of the treasure, he tried unsuccessfully to bring the opposing sides to compromise, using the Arkenstone. This strained his relationship with Thorin, but the two were reconciled at Thorins deathbed. At the end of the story, Bilbo returned to his home in the Shire only to find several of his relatives, believing him to be dead, were trying to claim his home. In addition to becoming wealthy from his share of the treasure, he found that he, like Adam, had traded respectability for experience. At the end, Gandalf proclaims Bilbo is no longer the Hobbit he was and this is certainly true as Bilbo has fully matured. Continuing the pilgrimage theme, a true pilgrimage does not end at the destination, but rather when the wanderer is absolved, blessed, and ready to return home. The Fellowship of the Ring, the first volume of The Lord of the Rings, the main character of the novel is Frodo Baggins, Bilbos cousin, who celebrates his 33rd birthday and legally comes of age on the same day. In T. A.2989, Bilbo, a bachelor, adopted Frodo, the orphaned son of his first cousin Primula Brandybuck and his second cousin Drogo Baggins. Though Frodo was actually his first and second cousin once removed either way, all this time Bilbo had kept his magic ring, with no idea of its significance, using it mostly to hide from his obnoxious cousins, the Sackville-Bagginses, when they came to visit. Gandalfs investigations revealed it to be the One Ring forged by the Dark Lord Sauron, the Ring had prolonged Bilbos life beyond the normal hobbit span, and at 111 he still looked 50. On the night of his and Frodos birthday, Bilbo threw himself a party and he signed his home, Bag End, and estate over to Frodo. He then gave an address to his neighbors, at the end of which he put on the Ring. As Bilbo prepared finally to leave the house, he reacted with panic, Bilbo refused to give up the Ring, referring to it as his precious – just as Gollum had
35.
Gandalf
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Gandalf /ˈɡændɑːlf/ is a fictional character and one of the protagonists in J. R. R. Tolkiens novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. He is a wizard, member of the Istari order, as well as leader of the Fellowship of the Ring, in The Lord of the Rings, he is initially known as Gandalf the Grey, but returns from death as Gandalf the White. Tolkien discusses Gandalf in his essay on the Istari, which appears in the work Unfinished Tales. Merry he could be, and kindly to the young and simple, yet quick at times to sharp speech and the rebuking of folly, but he was not proud, and sought neither power nor praise. Mostly he journeyed tirelessly on foot, leaning on a staff, as one of the Maiar, Gandalf would have participated in the Music of the Ainur at the creation of the world. However he does not attain any prominence until the Valar settle in Valinor, in Valinor, Gandalf was known as Olórin. As recounted in the Valaquenta in The Silmarillion, he was one of the Maiar of Valinor, specifically, of the people of the Vala Manwë, and was said to be the wisest of the Maiar. He was also associated with two other Valar, Irmo, in whose gardens he lived, and Nienna, the patron of mercy. When the Valar decided to send the order of the Wizards to Middle-earth in order to counsel and assist all those who opposed Sauron, Olórin was proposed by Manwë. Olórin initially begged to be excused as he feared Sauron and lacked the strength to face him, as one of the Maiar, Gandalf was not a mortal Man but an angelic being who had taken human form. As one of those spirits, Olórin was in service to the Creator, along with the other Maiar who entered into the world as the five Wizards, he took on the specific form of an aged old man as a sign of his humility. Gandalf the Grey was the last of the Istari landing in the Havens of Mithlond. He seemed the oldest and least in stature of them, but Círdan the Shipwright felt that he had the highest inner greatness on their first meeting in the Havens, and gave him Narya, Saruman, the chief Wizard, later learned of the gift and resented it. Gandalf hid the ring well, and it was not widely known until he left with the other ring-bearers at the end of the Third Age that he, Gandalfs relationship with Saruman, the head of their Order, was strained. The Wizards were commanded to aid Men, Elves, and Dwarves, in Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age and The Istari, Tolkien fleshes out the background and the history briefly tabulated by date in Appendix B of The Lord of the Rings. Gandalf suspected early on that the Necromancer of Dol Guldur was not a Nazgûl and he went to Dol Guldur to discover the truth, but the Necromancer withdrew before him. The Necromancer returned to Dol Guldur with greater force in T. A.2460, Galadriel had hoped Gandalf would lead the Council, but Gandalf refused, declining to be bound by any but the Valar who sent him. Saruman was chosen instead, as being most knowledgeable about Saurons work in the Second Age, Gandalf returned to Dol Guldur in T. A.2850 at great peril and learned that the Necromancer was indeed Sauron returned
36.
Middle-earth wars and battles
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J. R. R. Tolkiens Middle-earth fantasy writings include many wars and battles set in the lands of Aman, Beleriand, Númenor, and Middle-earth. These are given below in an in-universe, fictional chronology, The Kinslayings are the term for the three battles fought between the Eldar. The first battle, the Kinslaying at Alqualondë, appears in print in The Silmarillion and it involves the Noldorin Elves under their king, Fëanor, against their fellow Elves, the Teleri. As the easiest route to Middle-earth was by sea, Fëanor and his sons led one host of the Noldor to the city of Alqualondë, the Teleri refused to help them defy the Valar. Bitter fighting broke out and eventually many of Elves on both sides were slain, fingons people assumed erroneously that the Teleri had attacked the Noldor under orders of the Valar. In the end, many of the Teleri were slain and the ships taken, afterward, the sea rose and destroyed many of the boats to punish the Noldor for this cruel act. Though the Teleri forgave the Noldor by the end of the First Age of Middle-earth, all Elves that followed Fëanor and continued towards Middle-earth fell under the Doom of Mandos. This episode appears in Tolkiens earliest Middle-earth-related writings, published in The Book of Lost Tales, in the earliest surviving version, the Noldoli steal the ships of the Solosimpi without any fighting. When a concept of a battle was developed, the location was first called Kopas Alqalunten, in a late version of the legendarium, Galadriel fought on the side of the Teleri, her mother Eärwens people, against the Fëanorians. The second battle is the Sack of Doriath where Dior was killed by the Sons of Fëanor, the third battle in the Kinslaying is the attack by the Sons of Fëanor on the Mouths of Sirion where Elwing was attacked. The last Kinslaying is considered the cruellest of them all because many women and children were murdered by the Fëanorians. The civil war in Gondor in the Third Age called the Kin-strife is also called a Kinslaying. The battles between the Elves of Beleriand and the forces of Morgoth are often referred to as the Battles of Beleriand, the First Battle of Beleriand was fought before the Noldor arrived, and was fought by the Sindar and Laiquendi Elves. The Second Battle was Dagor-nuin-Giliath, fought by the Noldor following Fëanor and his Seven Sons, in which the Noldor were victorious, during this battle the Battle of Lhammoth was fought by the host of Fingolfin. The Third Battle was Dagor Aglareb, which led to the Siege of Angband, various minor battles were fought during the Siege which are not counted. The Fourth Battle was the Dagor Bragollach, in which the Siege was broken, the Fifth Battle was the Nírnaeth Arnoediad, in which the Noldor were utterly defeated. Years later, the Battle of Tumhalad, in which the forces under Orodreth and Túrin were defeated by Angband forces under Glaurung. It was the last battle of the Elves of the kingdom of Nargothrond and it was fought on the plain of Tumhalad between the river Narog and its tributary, the river Ginglith
37.
Frodo Baggins
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Frodo Baggins is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkiens legendarium, and one of the main protagonists of The Lord of the Rings. Frodo is a hobbit of the Shire who inherits the One Ring from his cousin Bilbo Baggins and he is also mentioned in Tolkiens posthumously published works, The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales. Frodo did not appear until the draft of A Long-Expected Party. In the fourth draft, he was renamed Bingo Bolger-Baggins, son of Rollo Bolger, Tolkien did not change the name to Frodo until the third phase of writing, when much of the narrative, as far as the hobbits arrival in Rivendell, had already taken shape. Prior to this, the name Frodo had been used for the character who eventually became Peregrin Took, Frodo is introduced in The Fellowship of the Ring as the adoptive heir of Bilbo Baggins. At the age of 21 he was adopted by his cousin, Bilbo and he and Bilbo shared the same birthday, the 22nd of September. It was Bilbo who introduced the Elvish languages to Frodo, Frodo and Meriadoc Brandybuck are first cousins once removed, since Frodo is first cousin to Meriadocs father, Saradoc Brandybuck. Their common ancestors are Gorbadoc Brandybuck and Mirabella Took Brandybuck, Frodo is moreover second and third cousin to Meriadocs mother, Esmeralda Took. Frodo is also related to Peregrin Took, being his second, even Fredegar Bolger is second cousin once removed to Frodo. Frodo also shares a relationship with his gardener Samwise Gamgee although they are not related. The Council of Elrond convened on 25th October T. A.3018 in Rivendell, the Fellowship of the Ring opens as Frodo came of age and Bilbo left the Shire for good on his one hundred and eleventh birthday. Frodo inherited Bag End and Bilbos ring, which were introduced in The Hobbit. Gandalf, at time, was not certain about the origin of the Ring, so he warned Frodo to avoid using it. Realizing that he was a danger to the Shire as long as he remained there with the Ring, Frodo decided to home and take the Ring to Rivendell, home of Elrond. He left the Shire with three companions, his gardener Samwise Gamgee and his cousins Meriadoc Brandybuck and Peregrin Took and they escaped just in time, for Saurons most powerful servants, the Nine Nazgûl, had entered the Shire as Black Riders, looking for Bilbo and the Ring. They followed Frodos trail across the Shire and nearly intercepted him, after leaving Bombadil, they were caught in fog on the Barrow Downs by Barrow-wights and were entranced under a spell. Frodo broke loose from the spell, attacked the barrow-wight and summoned Tom Bombadil, at the Prancing Pony, an inn in the village of Bree, Frodo received a delayed letter from Gandalf, and met Aragorn, also called Strider, a Ranger of the North. Strider became the guide while journeying through the wilderness towards Rivendell
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Samwise Gamgee
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Samwise Sam Gamgee /ˈsæmˌwaɪz ˈɡæmˌdʒiː/ is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkiens legendarium. Samwise is one of the characters of The Lord of the Rings, in which he fills an archetypical role as the sidekick of the primary protagonist. Sam is a member of the Fellowship of the Ring, Samwise Gamgee is first introduced in The Fellowship of the Ring. Sam is Frodo Baggins gardener, having inherited the position as Baggins gardener from his father, at the time of the War of the Ring, Sam was living in Number 3, Bagshot Row with his father. As punishment for eavesdropping on Gandalfs conversation with Frodo regarding the One Ring and they were joined by Meriadoc Brandybuck and Peregrin Took, Frodos cousins, and journeyed together to Rivendell, where the Council of Elrond took place and Sam joined the Fellowship of the Ring. When the Fellowship was split up at the Falls of Rauros, Sam protected and cared for Frodo, who was growing weaker under the Rings influence, as they moved through the dangerous lands toward Mordor. Sam distrusted Gollum, who became their guide into Mordor and his suspicions were proven right when Gollum betrayed them to the giant spider Shelob. After Shelob apparently killed Frodo, Sam drove her off, when a band of orcs approached, Sam was forced to leave the apparently dead Frodo and take the Ring himself, and briefly became a Ring-bearer. He was momentarily tempted by its promise of power, but did not succumb to it, Sam also returned the Ring to Frodo, making him the only Ring-bearer to freely give up the Ring without intervention. After the hobbits return home and the Battle of Bywater, Sam travelled the length and breadth of the Shire replanting trees that had cut down during Sarumans brief reign. He used the gift of earth given to him by the Lady Galadriel, the small amount remaining he took to the Three-Farthing Stone and cast into the air, prompting the bountiful period of growth starting in the spring of the year 1420. The greatest wonder was a young mallorn tree sprouting in the Party Field, after the War of the Ring, Sam married Rose Rosie Cotton and moved to Bag End with Frodo. Sam and Rosie had 13 children, Elanor the Fair, Frodo, Rose, Merry, Pippin, Goldilocks, Hamfast, Daisy, Primrose, Bilbo, Ruby, Robin, and Tolman. Sam was elected Mayor of the Shire for seven consecutive seven-year terms, after Sam and Roses first child was born, Frodo told Sam he would leave Middle-earth, along with Bilbo Baggins, Gandalf and most of the remaining High Elves, for the Undying Lands. Before Frodo left, he gave the estate of Bag End to Sam, as well as the Red Book of Westmarch for Sam to continue, hinting that Sam might also be allowed to travel into the West eventually. After the death of his wife in the year 62 of the Fourth Age, Sam entrusted the Red Book to Elanor and he was not seen again in Middle-earth, but Elanor and her descendants preserved the tradition that he went to the Grey Havens and sailed into the West. As the last of the Ring-bearers, he was entitled to sail across the Sea, at the start of The Lord of the Rings Sam, typically for a hobbit, had never before ventured far from the immediate area where he lived. Unusually for a hobbit, however, since childhood Sam was fond of legends, Sam was particularly interested in the Elves, and always hoped to one day see one
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The Harvard Lampoon
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The Harvard Lampoon is an undergraduate humor publication founded in 1876 by seven undergraduates at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Harvard Lampoon publication was founded in 1876 by seven undergraduates at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts who were inspired by magazines like Punch. Without counting breaks during World War I and World War II, the organization also produces occasional humor books and parodies of national magazines such as Entertainment Weekly and Sports Illustrated. Much of the capital is provided by the licensing of the Lampoon name to National Lampoon. The Lampoon publishes five issues annually, in 2006, the Lampoon began regularly releasing content on its website, including pieces from the magazine and web-only content. In 2009, the Lampoon published a parody of Twilight called Nightlight, in February 2012, the Lampoon released a parody of The Hunger Games called The Hunger Pains. It is also a New York Times bestseller, the organization is housed a few blocks from Harvard Square in a small mock-Flemish castle, the Harvard Lampoon Building. The Lampoon is known for its parties, which can result in smashed plates. The Lampoons affairs are administered by Harvard Lampoon, Inc. whose Board of Graduate Trustees includes such people as James Murdoch, Ted Widmer, and Bill Oakley. Robert K. Hoffman, co-founder of the National Lampoon and major donor to the Dallas Museum of Art was a Trustee until his death in 2006, and was declared a Trustee Ad-Infinitum a year later. The Harvard Lampoon was first published in 1876 by seven founders including Ralph Wormeley Curtis, Edward Sandford Martin, Edmund March Wheelwright, in 1961, Mademoiselle offered the Lampoon staff an honorarium to produce a parody of their own magazine for the traditionally lower-selling July issue. The magazine also produced a 70-page spoof of Ian Flemings James Bond novels in 1962 titled Alligator and these projects proved popular, and led to full, nationally-distributed parodies of Playboy, Time, and Life, and later, Cosmopolitan in 1972 and Sports Illustrated. An important line of demarcation came when Lampoon editors Douglas Kenney, writers from these shows were subsequently hired to help create Saturday Night Live. An old copy of the magazine was shown in the finale of NewsRadio. Lampoon alumni include such comedians as Conan OBrien, Andy Borowitz, B. J. Novak, Greg Daniels, etan Cohen wrote for Beavis and Butthead as an undergraduate member. The Lampoon has also graduated many noted authors such as George Plimpton, George Santayana, John Updike, actor Fred Gwynne was a cartoonist at the Lampoon and became its president. Celebrities often visit the Lampoon to be inducted as members of the organization. A noted event in the history of the Lampoon–Crimson rivalry was the Crimsons 1953 theft of the Lampoon Castles ibis statue, on September 27,2011, the Lampoon stole the Harvard Crimson Presidents Chair and had it used as a prop on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon
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Bored of the Rings
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Bored of the Rings is a parody of J. R. R. Tolkiens The Lord of the Rings. This short novel was written by Henry N, kenney, who later founded National Lampoon. It was published in 1969 by Signet for the Harvard Lampoon, in 2013, an audio version was produced by Orion Audiobooks, narrated by Rupert Degas. The parody generally follows the outline of The Lord of the Rings, including the preface, the prologue, poetry, names and words in the various languages are parodied with brand names that mimic their sounds. There are many references, including once-popular brand names. It has the distinction for a parody of having been continuously in print since it was first published. Aside from the text itself, the book includes five elements that parody common features of mass-market books, A laudatory back cover review, written at Harvard, possibly by the authors themselves. Inside cover reviews which are entirely contrived, concluding with a quote by someone affiliated with the publication Our Loosely Enforced Libel Laws, a list of other books in the series, none of which exist. A double page map which has almost nothing to do with the events in the text, the Signet first edition cover, a parody of the 1965 Ballantine paperback cover by Barbara Remington, was drawn by Muppets designer Michael K. Frith. Current publications have different artwork by Douglas Carrel, since the cover art for Lord of the Rings prevalent in the 60s. William S. Donnell drew the map of Lower Middle Earth. Estonian, Sõrmuste lisand, was translated by Janno Buschmann and published in 2002, finnish, Loru sorbusten herrasta was translated by Pekka Markkula and published in 1983. Following the release of the Peter Jackson film trilogy, it was republished in 2002, french, Lord of the Ringards was issued in 2002. German, Der Herr der Augenringe, was translated by Margaret Carroux and this version was published first in 1991. Italian, Il signore dei tranelli was issued by Fanucci Editore in 2002, the cover was drawn by Piero Crida, the same person who designed the covers of the Lord of the ring translations issued by Rusconi Libri s. p. a. in 1977. Polish, Nuda Pierścieni was translated by Zbigniew A. Królicki and issued by Zysk i S-ka in 1997, portuguese, O Fedor dos Anéis was published in 2004. Russian, Пластилин Колец was translated by Sergey Iliin and published in 2002, spanish, El Sopor de los Anillos was translated by Jordi Zamarreño Rodea and Salvador Tintoré Fernández and published in 2001. Swedish, Härsken på ringen was translated by Lena Karlin and published in 2003, doon, a parody of Frank Herberts Dune from National Lampoon
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Charles Dickens
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Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the worlds best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era and his works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime, and by the twentieth century critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories enjoy lasting popularity, born in Portsmouth, Dickens left school to work in a factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors prison. Dickenss literary success began with the 1836 serial publication of The Pickwick Papers, within a few years he had become an international literary celebrity, famous for his humour, satire, and keen observation of character and society. His novels, most published in monthly or weekly instalments, pioneered the publication of narrative fiction. The instalment format allowed Dickens to evaluate his audiences reaction, and he modified his plot. For example, when his wifes chiropodist expressed distress at the way Miss Mowcher in David Copperfield seemed to reflect her disabilities and his plots were carefully constructed, and he often wove elements from topical events into his narratives. Masses of the poor chipped in hapennies to have each new monthly episode read to them, opening up. Dickens was regarded as the literary colossus of his age and his 1843 novella, A Christmas Carol, remains popular and continues to inspire adaptations in every artistic genre. Oliver Twist and Great Expectations are also adapted, and, like many of his novels. His 1859 novel, A Tale of Two Cities, set in London, Dickens has been praised by fellow writers—from Leo Tolstoy to George Orwell and G. K. Chesterton—for his realism, comedy, prose style, unique characterisations, and social criticism. On the other hand, Oscar Wilde, Henry James, and Virginia Woolf complained of a lack of depth, loose writing. The term Dickensian is used to something that is reminiscent of Dickens and his writings. Charles John Huffam Dickens was born on 7 February 1812, at 1 Mile End Terrace, Landport in Portsea Island and his father was a clerk in the Navy Pay Office and was temporarily stationed in the district. He asked Christopher Huffam, rigger to His Majestys Navy, gentleman, Huffam is thought to be the inspiration for Paul Dombey, the owner of a shipping company in Dickenss eponymous Dombey and Son. In January 1815 John Dickens was called back to London, when Charles was four, they relocated to Sheerness, and thence to Chatham, Kent, where he spent his formative years until the age of 11. His early life seems to have been idyllic, though he himself a very small. Charles spent time outdoors but also read voraciously, including the novels of Tobias Smollett and Henry Fielding, as well as Robinson Crusoe
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The dictionary definition of deus ex machina at Wiktionary
"Deus ex Machina". New International Encyclopedia. 1905.
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