1.
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
2.
Ancient Greek
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Ancient Greek includes the forms of Greek used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around the 9th century BC to the 6th century AD. It is often divided into the Archaic period, Classical period. It is antedated in the second millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Hellenistic phase is known as Koine. Koine is regarded as a historical stage of its own, although in its earliest form it closely resembled Attic Greek. Prior to the Koine period, Greek of the classic and earlier periods included several regional dialects, Ancient Greek was the language of Homer and of fifth-century Athenian historians, playwrights, and philosophers. It has contributed many words to English vocabulary and has been a subject of study in educational institutions of the Western world since the Renaissance. This article primarily contains information about the Epic and Classical phases of the language, Ancient Greek was a pluricentric language, divided into many dialects. The main dialect groups are Attic and Ionic, Aeolic, Arcadocypriot, some dialects are found in standardized literary forms used in literature, while others are attested only in inscriptions. There are also several historical forms, homeric Greek is a literary form of Archaic Greek used in the epic poems, the Iliad and Odyssey, and in later poems by other authors. Homeric Greek had significant differences in grammar and pronunciation from Classical Attic, the origins, early form and development of the Hellenic language family are not well understood because of a lack of contemporaneous evidence. Several theories exist about what Hellenic dialect groups may have existed between the divergence of early Greek-like speech from the common Proto-Indo-European language and the Classical period and they have the same general outline, but differ in some of the detail. The invasion would not be Dorian unless the invaders had some relationship to the historical Dorians. The invasion is known to have displaced population to the later Attic-Ionic regions, the Greeks of this period believed there were three major divisions of all Greek people—Dorians, Aeolians, and Ionians, each with their own defining and distinctive dialects. Often non-west is called East Greek, Arcadocypriot apparently descended more closely from the Mycenaean Greek of the Bronze Age. Boeotian had come under a strong Northwest Greek influence, and can in some respects be considered a transitional dialect, thessalian likewise had come under Northwest Greek influence, though to a lesser degree. Most of the dialect sub-groups listed above had further subdivisions, generally equivalent to a city-state and its surrounding territory, Doric notably had several intermediate divisions as well, into Island Doric, Southern Peloponnesus Doric, and Northern Peloponnesus Doric. The Lesbian dialect was Aeolic Greek and this dialect slowly replaced most of the older dialects, although Doric dialect has survived in the Tsakonian language, which is spoken in the region of modern Sparta. Doric has also passed down its aorist terminations into most verbs of Demotic Greek, by about the 6th century AD, the Koine had slowly metamorphosized into Medieval Greek
3.
Nonnus
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For other people named Nonnus, see Nonnus Nonnus of Panopolis was a Greek epic poet of Hellenized Egypt of the Imperial Roman era. He was a native of Panopolis in the Egyptian Thebaid and probably lived at the end of the 4th or in the 5th century. He is known as the composer of the Dionysiaca, a tale of the god Dionysus, and of the Metabole. There is almost no evidence for the life of Nonnus and it is known that he was a native of Panopolis in Upper Egypt from his naming in manuscripts and the reference in epigram 9.198 of the Palatine Anthology. Scholars have generally dated him from the end of the 4th to the years of the 5th century. He must have lived after the composition of Claudians Greek Gigantomachy as he appears to be familiar with that work, agathias Scholasticus seems to have followed him, with a mid-6th-century reference to him as a recent author. Nonnus principal work is the 48-book epic Dionysiaca, the longest surviving poem from antiquity. It has 20,426 lines composed in Homeric dialect and dactylic hexameters, the subject of which is the life of Dionysus, his expedition to India. The poem is thought to have written in the early 5th century. His Paraphrase of John also survives, a team of Italian scholars is currently producing a full commentary of the poem, book by book, of which several parts have already been published. They have shown that Nonnus was as learned in Christian theology as in pagan myth, a complete and updated bibliography of Nonnus scholarship may be found at Hellenistic Bibliographys page at Google Sites. F. Tissoni, Nonno di Panopoli, I Canti di Penteo, commento, Firenze 1998 Editions and translations of the Paraphrase include, The only complete translation into English, Prost, Mark Anthony. Nonnos of Panopolis, The Paraphrase of the Gospel of John, translated from the Greek by M. A. P. Parafrasi del Vangelo di S. Giovanni, canto sesto, Bologna K. Spanoudakis, Paraphrase of the Gospel of John XI, Oxford C. On Nonnus and his context, D. Accorinti - P. Chuvin, mélanges de mythologie et de poésie grecques offerts à Francis Vian. Alessandria L. Miguélez-Cavero, Poems in Context, Greek Poetry in the Egyptian Thebaid 200-600 AD, Berlin Robert Shorrock, Myth of Paganism, Nonnus, Dionysus and the World of Late Antiquity. Allusive Engagement in the Dionysiaca of Nonnus, leiden, Brill,2001 K. Spanoudakis, Nonnus of Panopolis in Context. On the Paraphrase, Konstantinos Spanoudakis, Icarius Jesus Christ, dionysiac Passion and Biblical Narrative in Nonnus Icarius Episode, Wiener Studien,120, 35–92
4.
Dionysus
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Dionysus is the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness, fertility, theatre and religious ecstasy in ancient Greek religion and myth. Wine played an important role in Greek culture, and the cult of Dionysus was the religious focus for its unrestrained consumption. He may have been worshipped as early as c, 1500–1100 BC by Mycenean Greeks, traces of Dionysian-type cult have also been found in ancient Minoan Crete. His origins are uncertain, and his cults took many forms, some are described by ancient sources as Thracian, in some cults, he arrives from the east, as an Asiatic foreigner, in others, from Ethiopia in the South. He is a god of epiphany, the god that comes and his festivals were the driving force behind the development of Greek theatre. The earliest cult images of Dionysus show a male, bearded and robed. He holds a staff, tipped with a pine-cone and known as a thyrsus. Later images show him as a beardless, sensuous, naked or half-naked androgynous youth, in its fully developed form, his central cult imagery shows his triumphant, disorderly arrival or return, as if from some place beyond the borders of the known and civilized. His procession is made up of female followers and bearded satyrs with erect penises, some are armed with the thyrsus. The god himself is drawn in a chariot, usually by exotic beasts such as lions or tigers and this procession is presumed to be the cult model for the followers of his Dionysian Mysteries. He is also known as Bacchus, the adopted by the Romans. His thyrsus, sometimes wound with ivy and dripping with honey, is both a beneficent wand and a used to destroy those who oppose his cult and the freedoms he represents. As Eleutherios, his wine, music and ecstatic dance free his followers from self-conscious fear and care and those who partake of his mysteries are possessed and empowered by the god himself. The cult of Dionysus is also a cult of the souls, his maenads feed the dead through blood-offerings and he is sometimes categorised as a dying-and-rising god. Some scholars believe that Dionysus is a syncretism of a local Greek nature deity, Dionysus had a strange birth that evokes the difficulty in fitting him into the Olympian pantheon. His mother was a woman, Semele, the daughter of king Cadmus of Thebes, and his father was Zeus. Zeus wife, Hera, discovered the affair while Semele was pregnant, appearing as an old crone, Hera befriended Semele, who confided in her that Zeus was the actual father of the baby in her womb. Hera pretended not to believe her, and planted seeds of doubt in Semeles mind, curious, Semele demanded of Zeus that he reveal himself in all his glory as proof of his godhood
5.
Homer
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Homer is the name ascribed by the ancient Greeks to the semi-legendary author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic poems which are the central works of Greek literature. The Odyssey focuses on the home of Odysseus, king of Ithaca. Many accounts of Homers life circulated in classical antiquity, the most widespread being that he was a bard from Ionia. The modern scholarly consensus is that these traditions do not have any historical value, the Homeric question - by whom, when, where and under what circumstances were the Iliad and Odyssey composed - continues to be debated. Broadly speaking, modern scholarly opinion on the authorship question falls into two camps, one group holds that most of the Iliad and the Odyssey is the work of a single poet of genius. The other considers the Homeric poems to be the crystallization of a process of working and re-working by many contributors and it is generally accepted that the poems were composed at some point around the late eighth or early seventh century B. C. Most researchers believe that the poems were transmitted orally. The Homeric epics were the greatest influence on ancient Greek culture and education, to Plato, the chronological period of Homer depends on the meaning to be assigned to the word Homer. Was Homer a single person, an imaginary person representing a group of poets and this information is often called the world of Homer. The Homeric period would in that cover a number of historical periods, especially the Mycenaean Age. Considered word-for-word, the texts as we know them are the product of the scholars of the last three centuries. Each edition of the Iliad or Odyssey is a different, as the editors rely on different manuscripts and fragments. The term accuracy reveals a belief in an original uniform text. The manuscripts of the work currently available date to no earlier than the 10th century. These are at the end of a missing thousand-year chain of copies made as each generation of manuscripts disintegrated or were lost or destroyed and these numerous manuscripts are so similar that a single original can be postulated. The time gap in the chain is bridged by the scholia, or notes, on the existing manuscripts, librarian of the Library of Alexandria, he had noticed a wide divergence in the works attributed to Homer, and was trying to restore a more authentic copy. He had collected several manuscripts, which he named, the Sinopic, the one he selected for correction was the koine, which Murray translates as the Vulgate. Aristarchus was known for his selection of material
6.
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
7.
The Bacchae
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The Bacchae is an ancient Greek tragedy, written by the Athenian playwright Euripides during his final years in Macedonia, at the court of Archelaus I of Macedon. It won first prize in the City Dionysia festival competition and this side is sensual without analysis, it feels a connection between man and beast, and it is a potential source of divinity and spiritual power. In Euripides’ plays the gods represent various qualities, allowing the audience to grapple with considerations of the human condition. The tragedy is based on the Greek myth of King Pentheus of Thebes and his mother Agave, and their punishment by the god Dionysus. The god Dionysus appears at the beginning of the play and proclaims that he has arrived in Thebes to avenge the slander, which has been repeated by his aunts, that he is not the son of Zeus. In response, he intends to introduce Dionysian rites into the city, and he intends to demonstrate to the king, Pentheus, and to Thebes that he was indeed born a god. However, as the play proceeds Dionysus encounters what he considers newly occurring reasons to be angry, and in his capriciousness, the audience watches his revenge grow out of proportion. By the end of the play, there is the horrible and gruesome death of the king, Dionysus will further cause the plundering of a number of other cities. In The Bacchae there are two different versions of Dionysus. First there is the god as he is described by the chorus, however, Dionysus also appears as a character on the stage, has come for revenge, and is never like this. He is instead deliberate, plotting, angry and vengeful, the Bacchae is considered to be not only Euripides greatest tragedy, but one of the greatest ever written, modern or ancient. The Bacchae is distinctive for the facts that the chorus is integrated into the plot and the god is not a distant presence, but a character in the play, indeed, the protagonist. The Bacchae has been the subject of varying interpretations regarding what the play as a whole means. The extraordinary beauty and passion of the poetic choral descriptions indicate that the author certainly knew what attracted those who followed Dionysus, and the vivid gruesomeness of the punishment of Pentheus suggests that he could also understand those who were troubled by the religion. The Dionysus in Euripides tale is a god, angry that his mortal family. His mortal mother, Semele, was a mistress of Zeus, while pregnant she was killed, through trickery, by Hera, who was jealous of her husbands affair. When Semele died, her sisters said it was Zeus will and accused her of lying, they accused their father, Cadmus. Most of Semeles family refuse to believe Dionysus is the son of Zeus, and he has traveled throughout Asia and other foreign lands, gathering a cult of female worshipers
8.
Euphorion of Chalcis
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Euphorion of Chalcis was a Greek poet and grammarian, born at Chalcis in Euboea about 275 BC. Euphorion spent much of his life in Athens, where he amassed great wealth, after studying philosophy with Lacydes and Prytanis, he became the student and eromenos of the poet Archeboulus. About 221 he was invited by Antiochus the Great to the court of Syria and he assisted in the formation of the royal Library of Antioch, of which he held the post of librarian till his death. He wrote mythological epics, amatory elegies, epigrams and a poem after the manner of the Ibis of Callimachus. Prose works on antiquities and history are also attributed to him, like Lycophron, he was fond of using archaic and obsolete expressions, and the erudite character of his allusions rendered his language very obscure. His elegies were highly esteemed by the Romans—they were imitated or translated by Cornelius Gallus, fragments published in Meineke, De Euphorionis Chalcidensis vita et scriptis, in his Analecta Alexandrina began the modern editions of the surviving fragments of Euphorion. Further lines have been recovered from papyri of Oxyrhynchus and elsewhere, Euphorion – Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. article name needed. Euphorion Whos Who in the Greek World by John Hazel, studi su Euforione Powell, Johannes U. 1981. Collectanea Alexandrina, Reliquiae minores poetarum Graecorum aetatis Ptolemaicae 323–146 A. C. (Oxford, Oxford University Press,1925, der Thrax des Euphorion, Philologus 44 129–55, reprinted in Latte, Kleine Schriften Munich 1968, pp 562–84. Studi su Euforione Franz Skutsch, Euphorion, in, Pauly Realencyclopädie of classical archeology. Volume VI,1, Stuttgart,1907, 1174–1190 Sp
9.
Hesiod
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Hesiod was a Greek poet generally thought by scholars to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. He is generally regarded as the first written poet in the Western tradition to regard himself as a persona with an active role to play in his subject. Ancient authors credited Hesiod and Homer with establishing Greek religious customs, modern scholars refer to him as a major source on Greek mythology, farming techniques, early economic thought, archaic Greek astronomy and ancient time-keeping. The dating of his life is an issue in scholarly circles. Epic narrative allowed poets like Homer no opportunity for personal revelations, however, Hesiods extant work comprises didactic poems in which he went out of his way to let his audience in on a few details of his life. There are three references in Works and Days, as well as some passages in his Theogony that support inferences made by scholars. Some scholars have seen Perses as a creation, a foil for the moralizing that Hesiod develops in Works and Days. Gregory Nagy, on the hand, sees both Persēs and Hēsiodos as fictitious names for poetical personae. The family association with Cyme might explain his familiarity with eastern myths, evident in his poems, however, while his poetry features some Aeolisms there are no words that are certainly Boeotian—he composed in the main literary dialect of the time, Ionian. Pausanias asserted that Boeotians showed him an old tablet made of lead on which the Works were engraved. If he did write or dictate, it was perhaps as an aid to memory or because he lacked confidence in his ability to produce poems extempore and it certainly wasnt in a quest for immortal fame since poets in his era had no such notions. However, some suspect the presence of large-scale changes in the text. Possibly he composed his verses during idle times on the farm and he was in fact a misogynist of the same calibre as the later poet, Semonides. He resembles Solon in his preoccupation with issues of good versus evil and how a just and he resembles Aristophanes in his rejection of the idealised hero of epic literature in favour of an idealised view of the farmer. Yet the fact that he could eulogise kings in Theogony and denounce them as corrupt in Works, two different—yet early—traditions record the site of Hesiods grave. This tradition follows a familiar ironic convention, the oracle that predicts accurately after all, the other tradition, first mentioned in an epigram by Chersias of Orchomenus written in the 7th century BC claims that Hesiod lies buried at Orchomenus, a town in Boeotia. Eventually they came to regard Hesiod too as their hearth-founder, later writers attempted to harmonize these two accounts. Greeks in the fifth and early 4th centuries BC considered their oldest poets to be Orpheus, Musaeus, Hesiod
10.
Catalogue of Women
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The Catalogue of Women — also known as the Ehoiai — is a fragmentary Greek epic poem that was attributed to Hesiod during Archaic Greece. The women of the title were in fact heroines, many of whom lay with gods, in contrast with the focus upon narrative in the Homeric Iliad and Odyssey, the Catalogue was structured around a vast system of genealogies stemming from these unions and, in M. L. Wests appraisal, covered the whole of the heroic age, still, the Catalogue is much better attested than most lost works, with some 1,300 whole or partial lines surviving, between a third and a quarter of the original poem, by one estimate. Ancient authors most commonly referred to the poem as the Catalogue of Women, or simply the Catalogue and this nickname also provided the standard title for a similar Hesiodic work, the Megalai Ehoiai or Great Ehoiai. As is reflected by its use as a title, the ē hoiē-formula was one of the poems most recognizable features. A characteristic example is found in the introduction of the daughters of Porthaon at Cat. fr. 26. 5–9, The preceding section of the poem had dealt at length with the extended family of Porthaons sister Demodice. Here ē hoiai is used to jump backwards in order to complete the account of the descendants of Porthaon, elsewhere the formula is used in transitions to more distant branches. The Ehoie of Mestra, for example, ultimately serves to reintroduce the family of Sisyphus, although that marriage does not take place, the descendants of Sisyphus are soon presented. According to the Suda, the Catalogue was five books long, the length of each is unknown, but it is likely that the entire poem consisted of anywhere from 4000 to over 5000 lines. One papyrus includes line numbers which, taken together with the system of overlaps among the other sources, immortals who slept with mortal men, bearing children like gods. The first allowed for the liaisons that are the ostensible subject, gods. A further significant detail about the condition is offered next in one of the most puzzling passages of the Catalogue. The differing fates of the heroes are described, some appear to have lived a long life characterized by perpetual youth. The papyrus is damaged at this point, and the implications of these comparisons are unknown. The Muses are next addressed again, asked to sing of however many lay with, siring the race of glorious kings. the repeated use of the introductory phrase or such as. And it is likely that this first woman treated was Pyrrha, Zeus unsurprisingly had first pick from the catalogue of women, and sired Hellen by Pyrrha. Pyrrha also had three daughters by Deucalion, Thyia, Protogeneia and Pandora, who was named for her maternal grandmother, like their mother, these three lay with Zeus, bearing sons from whom several early Greek tribes were said to descend
11.
Pindar
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Pindar was an Ancient Greek lyric poet from Thebes. Of the canonical nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, his work is the best preserved and his poems can also, however, seem difficult and even peculiar. The Athenian comic playwright Eupolis once remarked that they are reduced to silence by the disinclination of the multitude for elegant learning. His poetry, while admired by critics, still challenges the casual reader, Pindar was the first Greek poet to reflect on the nature of poetry and on the poets role. A dream of a shadow Is our mortal being, but when there comes to men A gleam of splendour given of heaven, Then rests on them a light of glory And blessed are their days. His poetry illustrates the beliefs and values of Archaic Greece at the dawn of the classical period, five ancient sources contain all the recorded details of Pindars life. One of them is a short biography discovered in 1961 on an Egyptian papyrus dating from at least 200 AD and it has been claimed that biographical interpretations of the poems are due to a fatal conjunction of historicism and Romanticism. In other words, we know almost nothing about Pindars life based on traditional sources or his own poems. However, the pendulum of fashion has begun to change direction again. He was probably born in 522 BC or 518 BC in Cynoscephalae and his fathers name is variously given as Daiphantus, Pagondas or Scopelinus, and his mothers name was Cleodice. It is reported that he was stung on the mouth by a bee in his youth, Pindar was about twenty years old in 498 BC when he was commissioned by the ruling family in Thessaly to compose his first victory ode. He studied the art of poetry in Athens, where his tutor was Lasos of Hermione. The early-to-middle years of Pindars career coincided with the Persian invasions of Greece in the reigns of Darius and it is possible that Pindar spent much of this time at Aegina. Thrasybulus had driven the winning chariot and he and Pindar were to form a lasting friendship, Pindar seems to have used his odes to advance his, and his friends, personal interests. In 462 BC he composed two odes in honour of Arcesilas, king of Cyrene, pleading for the return from exile of a friend, Demophilus. In the latter ode Pindar proudly mentions his own ancestry, which he shared with the king, as an Aegeid or descendent of Aegeus, the historian Herodotus considered the clan important enough to deserve mention. Pindar might not actually claim to be an Aegeid since his I statements do not necessarily refer to himself. He was possibly the Theban proxenos or consul for Aegina and/or Molossia, as indicated in another of his odes, Nemean 7, in which he glorifies Neoptolemus, a national hero of Aegina and Molossia
12.
Callimachus
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Callimachus was a native of the Greek colony of Cyrene, Libya. He was a poet, critic and scholar at the Library of Alexandria and enjoyed the patronage of the Egyptian–Greek Pharaohs Ptolemy II Philadelphus. Although he was never made chief librarian, he was responsible for producing a survey based upon the contents of the Library. This, his Pinakes,120 volumes long, provided the foundation for work on the history of Greek literature. As one of the earliest critic-poets, he typifies Hellenistic scholarship, Callimachus was of Libyan Greek origin. He was named after his grandfather, an elder Callimachus, who was regarded by the Cyrenaean citizens and had served as a general. Callimachus married the daughter of a Greek man called Euphrates who came from Syracuse, however, it is unknown if they had children. In later years, he was educated in Athens, when he returned to North Africa, he moved to Alexandria. Elitist and erudite, claiming to abhor all common things, Callimachus is best known for his poems and epigrams. During the Hellenistic period, a trend in Greek-language poetry was to reject epics modelled after Homer. Big book, big evil is another saying attributed to him, often thought to be attacking long, Callimachus also wrote poems in praise of his royal patrons, and a wide variety of other poetic styles, as well as prose and criticism. Some classicists, including Peter Green, speculate that this contributed to the long feud. Though Callimachus was an opponent of big books, the Suda puts his number of works at 800, suggesting that he found large quantities of small works more acceptable. In the first three books at least, the formula appears to ask a question of the Muse, of the form, Why, on Paros, why, at Argos is a month named for lambs. Why, at Leucas, does the image of Artemis have a mortar on its head, a series of questions can be reconstituted from the fragments. One passage of the Aetia, the so-called Coma Berenices, has been reconstructed from papyrus remains, the extant hymns are extremely learned, and written in a style that some have criticised as labored and artificial. The epigrams are more widely respected, and several have been incorporated into the Greek Anthology, according to Quintilian he was the chief of the elegiac poets, his elegies were highly esteemed by the Romans, and imitated by Ovid, Catullus, and especially Sextus Propertius. Many modern classicists hold Callimachus in high regard for his influence on Latin poetry
13.
Theocritus
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Theocritus, the creator of ancient Greek bucolic poetry, flourished in the 3rd century BC. Little is known of Theocritus beyond what can be inferred from his writings and we must, however, handle these with some caution, since some of the poems commonly attributed to him have little claim to authenticity. Theocritus was from Sicily, as he refers to Polyphemus, the cyclops in the Odyssey and he also probably lived in Alexandria for a while, where he wrote about everyday life, notably Pharmakeutria. It is also speculated that Theocritus was born in Syracuse, lived on the island of Kos and he says, Bucolic muses, once were ye scattered, but now one byre, one herd is yours. The second epigram is anonymous, and runs as follows, The Chian is another, I, Theocritus, who wrote these songs, am of Syracuse, a man of the people, the son of Praxagoras and famed Philina. I never sought after a strange muse, the last line may mean that he wrote nothing but bucolic poems, or that he only wrote in Doric. The assertion that he was from Syracuse appears to be upheld by allusions in the Idylls, the information concerning his parentage bears the stamp of genuineness, and disposes of a rival theory based upon a misinterpretation of Idyll 7—which made him the son of one Simichus. Some persons also attribute to him the following, Daughters of Proetus, Hopes, Hymns, Heroines, Dirges, Lyrics, Elegies, Iambics, the first of these may have been known to Virgil, who refers to the Proetides at Eclogue 6.48. The spurious poem 21 may have one of the Hopes, and poem 26 may have been one of the Heroines, elegiacs are found in 8. 33—60. The other classes are all represented in the collection which has come down to us. The distinction between these is that the scenes of the former are laid in the country and those of the latter in a town, the most famous of the Bucolics are 1,6,7 and 11. In Idyll 1 Thyrsis sings to a goatherd about how Daphnis, in the poem, a series of divine figures from classical mythology, including Hermes, Priapus, and Aphrodite herself, interrogate the shepherd about his lovesickness. Finally, Venus, the goddess of love, appears to taunt Daphnis for his hubris, “‘Thou indeed, Daphnis, didst boast that thou wouldst bend Love. Hast not thou, in thine own person, been bent by grievous love. ”The failure of these figures to comfort Daphnis in his dying moments thematizes classical beliefs about the folly of mortals who challenge the gods. In Idyll 11 Polyphemus is depicted as in love with the sea-nymph Galatea, in Idyll 6, he is cured of his passion and naively relates how he repulses the overtures now made to him by Galatea. The monster of Homers Odyssey has been written up to date after the Alexandrian manner and has become a gentle simpleton, Idyll 7, the Harvest Feast, is the most important of the bucolic poems. The scene is laid in the isle of Kos, the poet speaks in the first person and is called Simichidas by his friends. Other poets are introduced under feigned names, Theocritus speaks of himself as having already gained fame, and says that his songs have been brought by report even unto the throne of Zeus
14.
Virgil
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Publius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil /ˈvɜːrdʒᵻl/ in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He wrote three of the most famous poems in Latin literature, the Eclogues, the Georgics, a number of minor poems, collected in the Appendix Vergiliana, are sometimes attributed to him. Virgil is traditionally ranked as one of Romes greatest poets and his Aeneid has been considered the national epic of ancient Rome from the time of its composition to the present day. Virgils work has had wide and deep influence on Western literature, most notably Dantes Divine Comedy, in which Virgil appears as Dantes guide through Hell, the tradition holds that Virgil was born in the village of Andes, near Mantua in Cisalpine Gaul. Analysis of his name has led to beliefs that he descended from earlier Roman colonists, modern speculation ultimately is not supported by narrative evidence either from his own writings or his later biographers. Macrobius says that Virgils father was of a background, however. He attended schools in Cremona, Mediolanum, Rome and Naples, after considering briefly a career in rhetoric and law, the young Virgil turned his talents to poetry. From Virgils admiring references to the neoteric writers Pollio and Cinna, it has been inferred that he was, for a time, according to Servius, schoolmates considered Virgil extremely shy and reserved, and he was nicknamed Parthenias or maiden because of his social aloofness. Virgil also seems to have suffered bad health throughout his life, according to the Catalepton, he began to write poetry while in the Epicurean school of Siro the Epicurean at Naples. A group of works attributed to the youthful Virgil by the commentators survive collected under the title Appendix Vergiliana. One, the Catalepton, consists of fourteen poems, some of which may be Virgils, and another. The biographical tradition asserts that Virgil began the hexameter Eclogues in 42 BC and it is thought that the collection was published around 39–38 BC, the Eclogues are a group of ten poems roughly modeled on the bucolic hexameter poetry of the Hellenistic poet Theocritus. The loss of his farm and the attempt through poetic petitions to regain his property have traditionally been seen as Virgils motives in the composition of the Eclogues. This is now thought to be an unsupported inference from interpretations of the Eclogues, the ten Eclogues present traditional pastoral themes with a fresh perspective. Eclogues 1 and 9 address the land confiscations and their effects on the Italian countryside,2 and 3 are pastoral and erotic, discussing both homosexual love and attraction toward people of any gender. Eclogue 4, addressed to Asinius Pollio, the so-called Messianic Eclogue uses the imagery of the age in connection with the birth of a child. Virgil came to many of the other leading literary figures of the time, including Horace, in whose poetry he is often mentioned, and Varius Rufus. At Maecenas insistence Virgil spent the years on the long didactic hexameter poem called the Georgics which he dedicated to Maecenas
15.
Ovid
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Publius Ovidius Naso, known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is ranked as one of the three canonical poets of Latin literature. The Imperial scholar Quintilian considered him the last of the Latin love elegists and he enjoyed enormous popularity, but, in one of the mysteries of literary history, was sent by Augustus into exile in a remote province on the Black Sea, where he remained until his death. Ovid himself attributes his exile to carmen et error, a poem and a mistake and his poetry was much imitated during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, and greatly influenced Western art and literature. The Metamorphoses remains one of the most important sources of classical mythology, Ovid talks more about his own life than most other Roman poets. Information about his biography is drawn primarily from his poetry, especially Tristia 4.10, other sources include Seneca the Elder and Quintilian. Ovid was born in Sulmo, in an Apennine valley east of Rome, to an important equestrian family and that was a significant year in Roman politics. He was educated in rhetoric in Rome under the teachers Arellius Fuscus and Porcius Latro with his brother who excelled at oratory and his father wanted him to study rhetoric toward the practice of law. According to Seneca the Elder, Ovid tended to the emotional, after the death of his brother at 20 years of age, Ovid renounced law and began travelling to Athens, Asia Minor, and Sicily. Ovids first recitation has been dated to around 25 BC, when he was eighteen and he was part of the circle centered on the patron Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus, and seems to have been a friend of poets in the circle of Maecenas. 4.10. 41–54, Ovid mentions friendships with Macer, Propertius, Horace, Ovid was very popular at the time of his early works, but was later exiled by Augustus in AD8. He married three times and divorced twice by the time he was thirty years old and he had one daughter, who eventually bore him grandchildren. His last wife was connected in some way to the influential gens Fabia, the first 25 years of Ovids literary career were spent primarily writing poetry in elegiac meter with erotic themes. The chronology of early works is not secure, tentative dates. 2.18. 19–26 that seems to describe the collection as a published work. The authenticity of some of these poems has been challenged, between the publications of the two editions of the Amores can be dated the premiere of his tragedy Medea, which was admired in antiquity but is no longer extant. Ovid may identify this work in his poetry as the carmen, or song. The Ars Amatoria was followed by the Remedia Amoris in the same year and this corpus of elegiac, erotic poetry earned Ovid a place among the chief Roman elegists Gallus, Tibullus, and Propertius, of whom he saw himself as the fourth member
16.
Papyrus
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The word papyrus /pəˈpaɪrəs/ refers to a thick precursor to modern paper made from the pith of the papyrus plant, Cyperus papyrus. Papyrus can also refer to a document written on sheets of papyrus joined together side by side and rolled up into a scroll, the plural for such documents is papyri. Papyrus is first known to have used in ancient Egypt. It was also used throughout the Mediterranean region and in Kingdom of Kush, the Ancient Egyptians used papyrus as a writing material, as well as employing it commonly in the construction of other artifacts such as reed boats, mats, rope, sandals, and baskets. Papyrus was first manufactured in Egypt as far back as the fourth millennium BCE, the earliest archaeological evidence of papyrus was excavated in 2012 and 2013 at Wadi al-Jarf, an ancient Egyptian harbor located on the Red Sea coast. The papyrus rolls describe the last years of building the Great Pyramid of Giza, in the first centuries BCE and CE, papyrus scrolls gained a rival as a writing surface in the form of parchment, which was prepared from animal skins. Sheets of parchment were folded to form quires from which book-form codices were fashioned, early Christian writers soon adopted the codex form, and in the Græco-Roman world, it became common to cut sheets from papyrus rolls to form codices. Codices were an improvement on the scroll, as the papyrus was not pliable enough to fold without cracking. Papyrus had the advantage of being cheap and easy to produce. Unless the papyrus was of quality, the writing surface was irregular. Its last appearance in the Merovingian chancery is with a document of 692, the latest certain dates for the use of papyrus are 1057 for a papal decree, under Pope Victor II, and 1087 for an Arabic document. Its use in Egypt continued until it was replaced by more inexpensive paper introduced by Arabs who originally learned of it from the Chinese, by the 12th century, parchment and paper were in use in the Byzantine Empire, but papyrus was still an option. Papyrus was made in several qualities and prices, pliny the Elder and Isidore of Seville described six variations of papyrus which were sold in the Roman market of the day. These were graded by quality based on how fine, firm, white, grades ranged from the superfine Augustan, which was produced in sheets of 13 digits wide, to the least expensive and most coarse, measuring six digits wide. Materials deemed unusable for writing or less than six digits were considered commercial quality and were pasted edge to edge to be used only for wrapping, until the middle of the 19th century, only some isolated documents written on papyrus were known. They did not contain literary works, the first modern discovery of papyri rolls was made at Herculaneum in 1752. Until then, the papyri known had been a few surviving from medieval times. The English word papyrus derives, via Latin, from Greek πάπυρος, Greek has a second word for it, βύβλος
17.
Codex
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A codex is a book constructed of a number of sheets of paper, vellum, papyrus, or similar materials, with hand-written contents. The book is bound by stacking the pages and fixing one edge. Some codices are continuously folded like a concertina, the alternative to paged codex format for a long document is the continuous scroll. Examples of folded codices include the Maya codices, sometimes people use the term for a book-style format, including modern printed books but excluding folded books. The Romans developed the form from wooden writing tablets, the codexs gradual replacement of the scroll—the dominant book form in the ancient world—has been called the most important advance in book making before the invention of printing. The codex transformed the shape of the book itself, and offered a form that lasted for centuries, the spread of the codex is often associated with the rise of Christianity, which adopted the format for use with the Bible early on. In fact, any combination of codices and scrolls with papyrus and parchment is technically feasible, the codex began to replace the scroll almost as soon as it was invented. In Egypt, by the century, the codex outnumbered the scroll by ten to one based on surviving examples. By the sixth century, the scroll had almost vanished as a medium for literature, technically, even modern paperbacks are codices, but publishers and scholars reserve the term for manuscript books produced from Late antiquity until the Middle Ages. The scholarly study of manuscripts from the point of view of the bookbinding craft is called codicology. The study of ancient documents in general is called paleography, the Romans used precursors made of reusable wax-covered tablets of wood for taking notes and other informal writings. Two ancient polyptychs, a pentatych and octotych, excavated at Herculaneum used a connecting system that presages later sewing on of thongs or cords. Julius Caesar may have been the first Roman to reduce scrolls to pages in the form of a note-book. At the turn of the 1st century AD, a kind of folded parchment notebook called pugillares membranei in Latin became commonly used for writing in the Roman Empire, theodore Cressy Skeat theorized that this form of notebook was invented in Rome and then spread rapidly to the Near East. Codices are described in works by the Classical Latin poet. He wrote a series of five couplets meant to accompany gifts of literature that Romans exchanged during the festival of Saturnalia. ”Early codices of parchment or papyrus appear to have widely used as personal notebooks. The parchment notebook pages were commonly washed or scraped for re-use and consequently, writings in a codex were often considered informal, as early as the early 2nd century, there is evidence that a codex—usually of papyrus—was the preferred format among Christians. In the library of the Villa of the Papyri, Herculaneum, however, in the Nag Hammadi library, hidden about AD390, all texts are codices
18.
Persephone
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In Greek mythology, Persephone, also called Kore or Cora, is the daughter of Zeus and the harvest goddess Demeter, and is the queen of the underworld. Homer describes her as the formidable, venerable majestic princess of the underworld, Persephone was married to Hades, the god-king of the underworld. Similar myths appear in the Orient, in the cults of gods like Attis, Adonis and Osiris. Persephone is further said to have become by Zeus the mother of Dionysus, Iacchus, or Zagreus, the origins of her cult are uncertain, but it was based on very old agrarian cults of agricultural communities. Persephone was commonly worshipped along with Demeter and with the same mysteries, to her alone were dedicated the mysteries celebrated at Athens in the month of Anthesterion. In Classical Greek art, Persephone is invariably portrayed robed, often carrying a sheaf of grain and she may appear as a mystical divinity with a sceptre and a little box, but she was mostly represented in the process of being carried off by Hades. In Roman mythology, she is called Proserpina, and her mother, persephonē is her name in the Ionic Greek of epic literature. The Homeric form of her name is Persephoneia, in other dialects she was known under variant names, Persephassa, Persephatta, or simply Korē. Plato calls her Pherepapha in his Cratylus, because she is wise, There are also the forms Periphona and Phersephassa. The existence of so many different forms shows how difficult it was for the Greeks to pronounce the word in their own language, an alternative etymology is from φέρειν φόνον, pherein phonon, to bring death. John Chadwick speculatively relates the name of Persephone with the name of Perse, the Romans first heard of her from the Aeolian and Dorian cities of Magna Graecia, who used the dialectal variant Proserpinē. Hence, in Roman mythology she was called Proserpina, a name derived by the Romans from proserpere, to shoot forth. In a Classical period text ascribed to Empedocles, c, and Nestis, moistening mortal springs with tears. The epithets of Persephone reveal her double function as chthonic and vegetation goddess, the surnames given to her by the poets refer to her character as Queen of the lower world and the dead, or her symbolic meaning of the power that shoots forth and withdraws into the earth. Her common name as a goddess is Kore and in Arcadia she was worshipped under the title Despoina the mistress. Plutarch identifies her with spring and Cicero calls her the seed of the fruits of the fields, in the Eleusinian mysteries her return is the symbol of immortality and hence she was frequently represented on sarcophagi. The Orphic Persephone is further said to have become by Zeus the mother of Dionysus, Iacchus, Zagreus, as a goddess of the underworld, Persephone was given euphemistically friendly names. However it is possible some of them were the names of original goddesses
19.
Maximus Planudes
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Maximus Planudes was a Byzantine Greek monk, scholar, anthologist, translator, grammarian and theologian at Constantinople. Through his translations from Latin into Greek and from Greek into Latin he brought the Greek East and he is now best known as a compiler of the Greek Anthology. Maximus Planudes lived during the reigns of the Byzantine emperors Michael VIII and he was born at Nicomedia in Bithynia in 1260, but the greater part of his life was spent in Constantinople, where as a monk he devoted himself to study and teaching. On entering the monastery he changed his original name Manuel to Maximus, Planudes possessed a knowledge of Latin remarkable at a time when Rome and Italy were regarded with some hostility by the Greeks of the Byzantine Empire. A more important result was that Planudes, especially by his translations, paved the way for the revival of the study of Greek language, traditionally, a translation of Julius Caesars De Bello Gallico has been attributed to Planudes, but this is much repeated mistake. These translations were not only useful to Greek speakers but were widely used in western Europe as textbooks for the study of Greek. It is, however, for his edition of the Greek Anthology that he is best known. J. W. Mackail in his book Select Epigrams from the Greek Anthology, has this to add of him, Among his works were translations into Greek of Augustines City of God, the restored Greek Empire of the Palaeologi was then fast dropping to pieces. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Planudes. Editions include, Fabricius, Bibliotheca graeca, ed. Harles,682, theological writings in Migne, Patrologia Graeca, cxlvii, correspondence, ed. M Treu, with a valuable commentary K. Krumbacher, Geschichte der byzantinischen Litteratur J. E. Sandys, History of Classical Scholarship, vol
20.
Poliziano
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Angelo Ambrogini, commonly known by his nickname Poliziano, was an Italian classical scholar and poet of the Florentine Renaissance. His scholarship was instrumental in the divergence of Renaissance Latin from medieval norms and his nickname, Poliziano, by which he is chiefly identified to the present day, was derived from the Latin name of his birthplace, Montepulciano. Polizianos works include translations of passages from Homers Iliad, an edition of the poetry of Catullus and commentaries on classical authors and it was his classical scholarship that brought him the attention of the wealthy and powerful Medici family that ruled Florence. He served the Medici as a tutor to their children, and later as a close friend and his later poetry, including La Giostra, glorified his patrons. He used his didactic poem Manto, written in the 1480s, Politian was born as Angelo Ambrogini in Montepulciano, in central Tuscany in 1454. At the age of ten, after the death of his father, Politian began his studies at Florence. There he learned the languages of Latin and Greek. From Marsilio Ficino he learned the rudiments of philosophy, at 13 he began to circulate Latin letters, at 17 he wrote essays in Greek versification, and at 18 he published an edition of Catullus. In 1470 he won the title of homericus adulescens by translating books II-V of the Iliad into Latin hexameters, during this time, Poliziano lectured at the Platonic Academy under the leadership of Marsilio Ficino, at the Careggi Villa. Among Politians pupils could be numbered the chief students of Europe and he also educated students from Germany, England and Portugal. Poliziano covered nearly the whole ground of classical literature during his tenure, and published the notes of his courses upon Ovid, Suetonius, Statius, Pliny the Younger and he also undertook a recension of the text of Justinian IIs Pandects and lectured about it. This recension influenced the Roman code. and considering his achievements to be of merit above Alexander the Great or Julius Caesar and he offered himself to write an epic work giving an account of John IIs accomplishments in navigation and conquests. The king replied in a manner, in a letter of October 23,1491. The epic work regarding Portuguese discoveries was only written almost one hundred years later by Luís de Camões and it is likely that Politian was homosexual, or at least had male lovers, and he never married. Evidence includes denunciations of sodomy made to the Florentine authorities, poems and letters of contemporaries, allusions within his work, the last suggests he was killed by a fever which was exacerbated by standing under the windowsill of a boy he was infatuated with despite being ill. He may also have been a lover of Pico della Mirandola, in 2007, the bodies of Poliziano and Pico della Mirandola were exhumed from St. Scientists under the supervision of Giorgio Gruppioni, a professor of anthropology from Bologna, used current testing techniques to study the mens lives and establish the causes of their deaths. A television documentary is being made of this research, and it was announced that forensic tests showed that both Poliziano and Pico della Mirandola likely died of arsenic poisoning
21.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer and statesman. In addition, numerous literary and scientific fragments, more than 10,000 letters and he was an early participant in the Sturm und Drang literary movement. He also contributed to the planning of Weimars botanical park and the rebuilding of its Ducal Palace and his first major scientific work, the Metamorphosis of Plants, was published after he returned from a 1788 tour of Italy. During this period, Goethe published his novel, Wilhelm Meisters Apprenticeship, the verse epic Hermann and Dorothea, and, in 1808. Goethes comments and observations form the basis of several biographical works, Goethes father, Johann Caspar Goethe, lived with his family in a large house in Frankfurt, then an Imperial Free City of the Holy Roman Empire. Though he had studied law in Leipzig and had been appointed Imperial Councillor, Johann Caspar married Goethes mother, Catharina Elizabeth Textor at Frankfurt on 20 August 1748, when he was 38 and she was 17. All their children, with the exception of Johann Wolfgang and his sister, Cornelia Friederica Christiana and his father and private tutors gave Goethe lessons in all the common subjects of their time, especially languages. Goethe also received lessons in dancing, riding and fencing, Johann Caspar, feeling frustrated in his own ambitions, was determined that his children should have all those advantages that he had not. Although Goethes great passion was drawing, he became interested in literature, Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock. He also took pleasure in reading works on history and religion. He writes about this period, Goethe became also acquainted with Frankfurt actors, among early literary attempts, he was infatuated with Gretchen, who would later reappear in his Faust and the adventures with whom he would concisely describe in Dichtung und Wahrheit. He adored Caritas Meixner, a wealthy Worms traders daughter and friend of his sister, Goethe studied law at Leipzig University from 1765 to 1768. He detested learning age-old judicial rules by heart, preferring instead to attend the lessons of Christian Fürchtegott Gellert. In Leipzig, Goethe fell in love with Anna Katharina Schönkopf, in 1770, he anonymously released Annette, his first collection of poems. His uncritical admiration for many contemporary poets vanished as he became interested in Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, already at this time, Goethe wrote a good deal, but he threw away nearly all of these works, except for the comedy Die Mitschuldigen. The restaurant Auerbachs Keller and its legend of Fausts 1525 barrel ride impressed him so much that Auerbachs Keller became the real place in his closet drama Faust Part One. As his studies did not progress, Goethe was forced to return to Frankfurt at the close of August 1768, Goethe became severely ill in Frankfurt. During the year and a half that followed, because of several relapses, during convalescence, Goethe was nursed by his mother and sister
22.
Thomas Love Peacock
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Thomas Love Peacock was an English novelist, poet, and official of the East India Company. He was a friend of Percy Bysshe Shelley and they influenced each others work. Peacock wrote satirical novels, each with the basic setting. Peacock was born in Weymouth, Dorset, the son of Samuel Peacock and his wife Sarah Love, daughter of Thomas Love and his father was a glass merchant in London, partner of a Mr Pellatt, presumed to be Apsley Pellatt. Peacock went with his mother to live with her family at Chertsey in 1791 and in 1792 went to a run by Joseph Harris Wicks at Englefield Green where he stayed for six. Peacocks father died in 1794 in poor circumstances leaving a small annuity, Peacocks first known poem was an epitaph for a school fellow written at the age of ten and another on his Midsummer Holidays was written when he was thirteen. Around that time in 1798 he was taken from school. In February 1800, Peacock became a clerk with Ludlow Fraser Company and he lived with his mother on the firms premises at 4 Angel Court Throgmorton Street. He won the prize from the Monthly Preceptor for a verse answer to the question Is History or Biography the More Improving Study. He also contributed to The Juvenile Library, a magazine for youth whose competitions excited the emulation of other boys including Leigh Hunt, de Quincey. He began visiting the Reading Room of the British Museum and continued doing so for years, diligently studying the best literature in Greek, Latin, French. In 1804 and 1806 he published two volumes of poetry, The Monks of St. Mark and Palmyra, some of Peacocks juvenile compositions were privately printed by Sir Henry Cole. In around 1806 Peacock left his job in the city and during the year made a walking tour of Scotland. The annuity left by his father expired in October 1806, in 1807 he returned to live at his mothers house at Chertsey. He was briefly engaged to Fanny Faulkner, but it was broken off through the interference of her relations and his friends, as he hints, thought it wrong that so clever a man should be earning so little money. In the autumn of 1808 he became secretary to Sir Home Popham. By the end of the year he was serving Captain Andrew King aboard HMS Venerable in the Downs and his preconceived affection for the sea did not reconcile him to nautical realities. Writing poetry, he says, or doing anything else that is rational, I would give the world to be at home and devote the winter to the composition of a comedy
23.
Caesura
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A caesura, also written cæsura and cesura, is a break in a verse where one phrase ends and the following phrase begins. In time value this break may vary between the slightest perception of all the way up to a full pause. A caesura in music represents a break or pause. The length of a caesura where notated is at the discretion of the conductor, in choral works a brief caesura may be notated where singers are to catch their breath. In classical Greek and Latin poetry a caesura is the juncture where one word ends, in contrast, a word juncture at the end of a foot is called a diaeresis. Some caesurae are expected and represent a point of articulation between two phrases or clauses, all other caesurae are only potentially places of articulation. The opposite of a caesura is a bridge where word juncture is not permitted. In modern European poetry, a caesura is defined as a natural phrase end, a masculine caesura follows a stressed syllable while a feminine caesura follows an unstressed syllable. Initial and terminal caesurae are rare in formal, Romance, and Neoclassical verse, in music, a caesura denotes a brief, silent pause, during which metrical time is not counted. Similar to a silent fermata, caesurae are located between notes or measures, rather than on notes or rests, a fermata may be placed over a caesura to indicate a longer pause. In verse scansion, the modern caesura mark is a vertical bar ⟨||⟩ or ⟨‖⟩. The same mark separately developed as the virgule, the single used to mark line breaks in poetry. In musical notation, a caesura is marked by a double oblique lines, the symbol is popularly called tram-lines in the UK and railroad tracks in the US. It can also be marked by a quarter rest with a fermata over it, in choral works, a smaller apostrophe-like mark is used to denote caesurae. Unlike later writers, Homeric lines more commonly employ feminine caesurae, caesurae were widely used in Latin poetry, for example, in the opening line of Virgils Aeneid, Arma virumque cano || Troiae qui primus ab oris This line uses caesura in the medial position. The ancient elegiac couplet form of the Greeks and Romans contained a line of dactylic hexameter followed by a line of pentameter, the pentameter often displayed a clearer caesura, as in this example from Propertius, Cynthia prima fuit, || Cynthia finis erit. The caesura was even more important to Old English verse than it was to Latin or Greek poetry, in Latin or Greek poetry, the caesura could be suppressed for effect in any line. In the alliterative verse that is shared by most of the oldest Germanic languages, the opening line of Beowulf reads, Hwæt
24.
Metamorphoses
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The Metamorphoses is a Latin narrative poem by the Roman poet Ovid, considered his magnum opus. Comprising fifteen books and over 250 myths, the chronicles the history of the world from its creation to the deification of Julius Caesar within a loose mythico-historical framework. Although meeting the criteria for an epic, the poem defies simple classification by its use of varying themes and tones. One of the most influential works in Western culture, the Metamorphoses has inspired such authors as Dante Alighieri, Giovanni Boccaccio, Geoffrey Chaucer, numerous episodes from the poem have been depicted in acclaimed works of sculpture, painting, and music. The work has been the subject of numerous translations into English, Ovids decision to make myth the dominant subject of the Metamorphoses was influenced by the predisposition of Alexandrian poetry. However, whereas it served in that tradition as the cause for reflection or insight, he made it instead the object of play. There are three examples of the Metamorphoses by later Hellenistic writers, but little is known of their contents, the Heteroioumena by Nicander of Colophon is better known, and clearly an influence on the poem —21 of the stories from this work were treated in the Metamorphoses. However, in a way that was typical for writers of the period, the Metamorphoses was longer than any previous collection of metamorphosis myths and positioned itself within a historical framework. Some of the Metamorphoses derives from literary and poetic treatment of the same myths. This material was of varying quality and comprehensiveness — while some of it was finely worked, scholars have found it difficult to place the Metamorphoses in a genre. However, the handles the themes and employs the tone of virtually every species of literature, ranging from epic and elegy to tragedy. Commenting on the debate, G. Karl Galinsky has opined that. It would be misguided to pin the label of any genre on the Metamorphoses and it begins with the ritual invocation of the muse, and makes use of traditional epithets and circumlocutions. But instead of following and extolling the deeds of a human hero, the recurring theme, as with nearly all of Ovids work, is love—be it personal love or love personified in the figure of Amor. Apollo comes in for particular ridicule as Ovid shows how love can confound the god out of reason. The work as a whole inverts the order, elevating humans and human passions while making the gods and their desires. The Metamorphoses ends with an epilogue, one of two surviving Latin epics to do so. Book I – The Creation, the Ages of Mankind, the flood, Deucalion and Pyrrha, Apollo and Daphne, Io, Book II – Phaëton, Callisto, the raven and the crow, Ocyrhoe, Mercury and Battus, the envy of Aglauros, Jupiter and Europa
25.
Epyllion
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Modern discussion has, however, been bedevilled by the grouping together of poems so diverse as to render that grouping almost meaningless, however many points of individual contact they may share. An epyllion is, in its most basic definition, a poem written in dactylic hexameters that is comparatively short. There is disagreement about whether the term should also be applied to works written in elegiac couplets, a similar variation in lengths is found in epyllia that form episodes within larger works. Callimachus, Hecale fr.1 Hollis =230 Pf, the Epyllion, A Chapter in the History of Literary Criticism, TAPA,71, 1–26. The Non-Existent Classical Epyllion, Studies in Philology,55, 515–18, courtney, E. Epyllion, in S. Hornblower & A. Spawforth, Oxford Classical Dictionary, Oxford, ISBN9780198661726 CS1 maint, Uses editors parameter. The Epyllion from Theocritus to Ovid, Oxford, fantuzzi, M. Epyllion, in H. Cancik & H. Schneider, Brills New Pauly, Antiquity,4, ISBN9789004122673 CS1 maint, Uses editors parameter. Tradition and Innovation in Hellenistic Poetry, Cambridge, ISBN 978-0521835114, fordyce, C. J. Catullus, A Commentary, Oxford, ISBN 978-0198721475. Haupt, M, Opuscula, volumen secundum, Leipzig, the Latin Epyllion, Harvard Studies in Classical Philology,24, 37–50. Leumann, J. De epyllio Alexandino, Königsee, neues zur Geschichte des Terminus Epyllion, Philologus,126, 153–6. Origins of the Word Epyllion, The Classical Journal,49, thoughts on the Epyllion, The Classical Journal,66, 38–43
26.
Byzantine Empire
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It survived the fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until it fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, several signal events from the 4th to 6th centuries mark the period of transition during which the Roman Empires Greek East and Latin West divided. Constantine I reorganised the empire, made Constantinople the new capital, under Theodosius I, Christianity became the Empires official state religion and other religious practices were proscribed. Finally, under the reign of Heraclius, the Empires military, the borders of the Empire evolved significantly over its existence, as it went through several cycles of decline and recovery. During the reign of Maurice, the Empires eastern frontier was expanded, in a matter of years the Empire lost its richest provinces, Egypt and Syria, to the Arabs. This battle opened the way for the Turks to settle in Anatolia, the Empire recovered again during the Komnenian restoration, such that by the 12th century Constantinople was the largest and wealthiest European city. Despite the eventual recovery of Constantinople in 1261, the Byzantine Empire remained only one of several small states in the area for the final two centuries of its existence. Its remaining territories were annexed by the Ottomans over the 15th century. The Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 finally ended the Byzantine Empire, the term comes from Byzantium, the name of the city of Constantinople before it became Constantines capital. This older name of the city would rarely be used from this point onward except in historical or poetic contexts. The publication in 1648 of the Byzantine du Louvre, and in 1680 of Du Canges Historia Byzantina further popularised the use of Byzantine among French authors, however, it was not until the mid-19th century that the term came into general use in the Western world. The Byzantine Empire was known to its inhabitants as the Roman Empire, the Empire of the Romans, Romania, the Roman Republic, Graikia, and also as Rhōmais. The inhabitants called themselves Romaioi and Graikoi, and even as late as the 19th century Greeks typically referred to modern Greek as Romaika and Graikika. The authority of the Byzantine emperor as the legitimate Roman emperor was challenged by the coronation of Charlemagne as Imperator Augustus by Pope Leo III in the year 800. No such distinction existed in the Islamic and Slavic worlds, where the Empire was more seen as the continuation of the Roman Empire. In the Islamic world, the Roman Empire was known primarily as Rûm, the Roman army succeeded in conquering many territories covering the entire Mediterranean region and coastal regions in southwestern Europe and north Africa. These territories were home to different cultural groups, both urban populations and rural populations. The West also suffered heavily from the instability of the 3rd century AD
27.
Loeb Classical Library
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The General Editor is Jeffrey Henderson, holder of the William Goodwin Aurelio Professorship of Greek Language and Literature at Boston University. The Loeb Classical Library was conceived and initially funded by the Jewish-German-American banker and philanthropist James Loeb. The first volumes were edited by T. E. Page, W. H. D. Rouse, and Edward Capps, since then scores of new titles have been added, and the earliest translations have been revised several times. Profit from the editions continues to fund graduate student fellowships at Harvard University, the Loebs have only a minimal critical apparatus, when compared to other publications of the text. They are intended for the reader of Greek or Latin. In 1917 Virginia Woolf wrote, The Loeb Library, with its Greek or Latin on one side of the page and its English on the other, the existence of the amateur was recognised by the publication of this Library, and to a great extent made respectable. The difficulty of Greek is not sufficiently dwelt upon, chiefly perhaps because the sirens who lure us to these waters are generally scholars have forgotten. But for the ordinary amateur they are real and very great. Harvard University assumed complete responsibility for the series in 1989 and in recent years four or five new or re-edited volumes have been published annually, in 2001, Harvard University Press began issuing a second series of books with a similar format. The I Tatti Renaissance Library presents key Renaissance works in Latin with a facing English translation, it is similarly to the Loeb Classics. A third series, the Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library, was introduced in 2010 covering works in Byzantine Greek, Medieval Latin, volumes have the same format as the I Tatti series, but with a brown cover. The Clay Sanskrit Library, bound in cloth, was also modeled on the Loeb Classical Library. As the command of Latin among generalist historians and archaeologists shrank in the course of the 20th century, the listings of Loeb volumes at online bookstores and library catalogues vary considerably and are often best navigated via ISBN numbers. L170N) Iliad, Second Edition, Volume I, Books 1–12 L171N) Iliad, Volume II. Books 13–24 L104) Odyssey, Volume I, Books 1–12 L105) Odyssey, Volume II. Other Fragments L344) Dionysiaca, Volume I, Books 1–15 L354) Dionysiaca, Volume II. Books 16–35 L356) Dionysiaca, Volume III, Lives of Homer L497) Greek Epic Fragments L001) Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica L019) Quintus Smyrnaeus, The Fall of Troy L219) Oppian, Colluthus, and Tryphiodorus L142) Greek Lyric Poetry, Volume I. Sappho and Alcaeus L143) Greek Lyric Poetry, Volume II, anacreon, Anacreontea, Choral Lyric from Olympus to Alcman L476) Greek Lyric Poetry, Volume III
28.
Ring composition
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Chiastic structure, or chiastic pattern, is a literary technique in narrative motifs and other textual passages. An example of structure would be two ideas, A and B, together with variants A and B, being presented as A, B, B, A. Alternative names include ring structure, because the opening and closing A can be viewed as completing a circle, palistrophe and it may be regarded as chiasmus scaled up from clauses to larger units of text. These often symmetrical patterns are found in ancient literature such as the epic poetry of the Iliad. Various chiastic structures are seen in the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. Chiastic structures are seen in the Book of Mormon. Chiastic structures also appear in Ancient Greek sculpture, the contrapposto technique of sculpture in Ancient Greek sculpture often lead to this Chiastic structure, such as in the Diadumenos of Polykleitos. The term chiastic derives from the mid-17th century term chiasmus, which refers to an arrangement of concepts or words that are repeated in reverse order. Chiasmus derives from the Greek word khiasmos, a word that is khiazein, chi is made up of two lines crossing each other as in the shape of an X. The line that starts leftmost on top, comes down, and is rightmost on the bottom, and vice versa. If one thinks of the lines as concepts, one sees that concept A, which comes first, is also last, and concept B, if one adds in more lines representing other concepts, one gets a chiastic structure with more concepts. Shea proposed that the Book of Daniel is composed of a double-chiasm and he argued that the chiastic structure is emphasized by the two languages that the book is written in, Aramaic and Hebrew. The first chiasm is written in Aramaic from chapters 2-7 following an ABC. CBA pattern, the second chiasm is in Hebrew from chapters 8-12, also using the ABC. CBA pattern. However, Shea represents Daniel 9,26 as D, a break in the center of the pattern, gordon Wenham has analyzed the Genesis Flood narrative and has shown that it is essentially an elaborate chiasm. Based on the study of grammatical structure by F. I. Andersen, Wenham illustrated a chiastic structure as displayed in the two tables. Within this overall structure, there is a numerical mini-chiasm of 7s, 40s, all this is consistent with the date in 8,4. There was no compelling reason to repeat the first 7-day figure of waiting to enter the Ark except for the corresponding two 7-day figures for the dove, the second mention of the 150 days was also because of the chiasmus
29.
Typhon
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Typhon, also Typhoeus, Typhaon or Typhos, was a monstrous giant and the most deadly creature in Greek mythology. Typhon was the last son of Gaia, and was fathered by Tartarus, Typhon and his mate Echidna were the progenitors of many famous monsters. The mythographer Apollodorus adds that Gaia bore Typhon in anger at the gods for their destruction of her offspring the Giants, numerous other sources mention Typhon as being the offspring of Gaia, or simply earth-born, with no mention of Tartarus. However, according to the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, Typhon was the child of Hera alone. Hera, angry at Zeus for having given birth to Athena by himself, prayed to Gaia to give her a son as strong as Zeus, then slapped the ground and became pregnant. Hera gave the infant Typhon to the serpent Python to raise, several sources locate Typhons birth and dwelling place in Cilicia, and in particular the region in the vicinity of the ancient Cilician coastal city of Corycus. The poet Pindar calls Typhon Cilician, and says that Typhon was born in Cilicia and nurtured in the famous Cilician cave, in Aeschylus Prometheus Bound, Typhon is called the dweller of the Cilician caves, and both Apollodorus and the poet Nonnus have Typhon born in Cilicia. The b scholia to Iliad 2.783, preserving a possible Orphic tradition, has Typhon born in Cilicia, Gaia, angry at the destruction of the Giants, slanders Zeus to Hera. So Hera goes to Zeus father Cronus and Cronus gives Hera two eggs smeared with his own semen, telling her to them, and that from them would be born one who would overthrow Zeus. Hera, angry at Zeus, buries the eggs in Cilicia under Arimon, the Homeric Hymn to Apollo describes Typhon as fell and cruel, and neither like gods nor men. Three of Pindars poems have Typhon as hundred-headed, while apparently a fourth gives him only fifty heads, a Chalcidian hydria, depicts Typhon as a winged humanoid from the waist up, with two snake tails below. For Nicander, Typhon was a monster of enormous strength, and strange appearance, with heads, hands, and wings. As far as the thighs he was of human shape and of such prodigious bulk that he out-topped all the mountains, one of his hands reached out to the west and the other to the east, and from them projected a hundred dragons heads. From the thighs downward he had huge coils of vipers, which when drawn out, reached to his very head and his body was all winged, unkempt hair streamed on the wind from his head and cheeks, and fire flashed from his eyes. The most elaborate description of Typhon is found in Nonnuss Dionysiaca, Nonnus makes numerous references to Typhons sepentine nature, giving him a tangled army of snakes, snaky feet, and hair. Nonnus also gives Typhon legions of arms innumerable, and where Nicander had only said that Typhon had many hands, according to Hesiods Theogony, Typhon was joined in love to Echidna, a monstrous half-woman and half-snake, who bore Typhon fierce offspring. The Theogony next mentions an ambiguous she, which refer to Echidna. The lyric poet Lasus of Hermione adds the Sphinx, later authors mostly retain these offspring of Typhon by Echidna, while adding others
30.
Proteus
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In Greek mythology, Proteus is an early sea-god or god of rivers and oceanic bodies of water, one of several deities whom Homer calls the Old Man of the Sea. Some who ascribe to him a specific domain call him the god of sea change. He can foretell the future, but, in a familiar to several cultures, will change his shape to avoid having to. From this feature of Proteus comes the adjective protean, with the meaning of versatile, mutable, capable of assuming many forms. Protean has positive connotations of flexibility, versatility and adaptability, Proteus name suggests the first, as protogonos is the primordial or the firstborn. It is not certain to what this refers, but in myths where he is the son of Poseidon, it refers to his being Poseidons eldest son, older than Poseidons other son. The first attestation of the name, although it is not certain whether it refers to the god or just a person, is in Mycenaean Greek, the attested form, in Linear B, is
31.
Thebes, Greece
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Thebes is a city in Boeotia, central Greece. It played an important role in Greek myths, as the site of the stories of Cadmus, Oedipus, Dionysus and others. Archaeological excavations in and around Thebes have revealed a Mycenaean settlement and clay tablets written in the Linear B script, Thebes was the largest city of the ancient region of Boeotia and was the leader of the Boeotian confederacy. It was a rival of ancient Athens, and sided with the Persians during the 480 BC invasion under Xerxes. Theban forces ended the power of Sparta at the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC under the command of Epaminondas, the Sacred Band of Thebes famously fell at the battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC against Philip II and Alexander the Great. Prior to its destruction by Alexander in 335 BC, Thebes was a force in Greek history. During the Byzantine period, the city was famous for its silks, the modern city contains an Archaeological Museum, the remains of the Cadmea, and scattered ancient remains. Modern Thebes is the largest town of the unit of Boeotia. Thebes is situated in a plain, between Lake Yliki to the north, and the Cithaeron mountains, which divide Boeotia from Attica and its elevation is 215 metres above mean sea level. It is about 50 kilometres northwest of Athens, and 100 kilometres southeast of Lamia, motorway 1 and the Athens–Thessaloniki railway connect Thebes with Athens and northern Greece. The municipality of Thebes covers an area of 830.112 square kilometres, the unit of Thebes 321.015 square kilometres. In 2011, as a consequence of the Kallikratis reform, Thebes was merged with Plataies, Thisvi, and Vagia to form a larger municipality, the other three become units of the larger municipality. Five main cycles of story may be distinguished, The foundation of the citadel Cadmea by Cadmus, the building of a seven-gated wall by Amphion, and the cognate stories of Zethus, Antiope and Dirce. See Theban pederasty and Pederasty in ancient Greece for detailed discussion, the immolation of Semele and the advent of Dionysus. The Greeks attributed the foundation of Thebes to Cadmus, a Phoenician king from Tyre, Cadmus was famous for teaching the Phoenician alphabet and building the Acropolis, which was named the Cadmeia in his honor and was an intellectual, spiritual, and cultural center. Archaeological excavations in and around Thebes have revealed cist graves dated to Mycenaean times containing weapons, ivory, *Tʰēgʷai in LHIIIB lost contact with Egypt but gained it with Miletus and Cyprus. In the late LHIIIB, according to Palaima, *Tʰēgʷai was able to pull resources from Lamos near Mount Helicon, and from Karystos and Amarynthos on the Greek side of the isle of Euboia. As a fortified community, it attracted attention from the invading Dorians, and this centralizing policy is as much the cardinal fact of Theban history as the counteracting effort of the smaller towns to resist absorption forms the main chapter of the story of Boeotia
32.
Samothrace
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Samothrace is a Greek island in the northern Aegean Sea. It is a municipality within the Evros regional unit of Thrace, the island is 17 km long and is 178 km2 in size and has a population of 2,859. Its main industries are fishing and tourism, resources on the island include granite and basalt. Samothrace is one of the most rugged Greek islands, with Mt. Saos and its tip Fengari rising to 1,611 m. Samothrace was not a state of any significance in ancient Greece, since it has no natural harbour and most of the island is too mountainous for cultivation. It was, however, the home of the Sanctuary of the Great Gods, among those who visited this shrine to be initiated into the island cult were Lysander of Sparta, Philip II of Macedon and Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, father-in-law of Julius Caesar. The ancient city, the ruins of which are called Palaeopoli, was situated on the north coast, demetrios of Skepsis mention the Samothracian Mysteries. The traditional account from antiquity is that Samothrace was first inhabited by Pelasgians and Carians, at the end of the 8th century BC the island was colonised by Greeks from Samos, from which the name Samos of Thrace, that later became Samothrace, however, Strabo denies this. The archaeological evidence suggests that Greek settlement was in the sixth century BC, the Persians occupied Samothrace in 508 BC, it later passed under Athenian control, and was a member of the Delian League in the 5th century BC. It was subjugated by Philip II, and from then till 168 BC it was under Macedonian suzerainty, with the battle of Pydna Samothrace became independent, a condition that ended when Vespasian absorbed the island in the Roman Empire in AD70. Apart from the sanctuary, decisive role in the great development of Samothrace played also her two ports from which passed the sea road Troas - Macedonia. Furthermore, an important role played as well her possessions in Perea, st. Theophanes died in Samothrace in 818. The Byzantines ruled until 1204, when Venetians took their place, only to be dislodged by a Genoan family in 1355, the island came under Greek rule in 1913 following the Balkan War. It was occupied by Bulgaria during the Second World War, from 1941 to 1944, the modern port town of Kamariotissa is on the north-west coast and provides ferry access to and from points in northern Greece such as Alexandroupoli and Kavala. There is no airport on the island. Other sites of interest on the island include the ruins of Genoese forts, the picturesque Chora and Paliapoli and it was discovered in pieces on the island in 1863 by the French archaeologist Charles Champoiseau, and is now—headless—in the Louvre in Paris. It had the territory as the present municipality. List of settlements in the Evros regional unit Samothrace temple complex Winged Victory of Samothrace Samothrace travel guide from Wikivoyage Official Samothrace webpage
33.
Harmonia (mythology)
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Harmonia, in ancient Greek religion, is the immortal goddess of harmony and concord. Her Roman counterpart is Concordia, and her Greek opposite is Eris and her siblings are Eros/Cupid, Phlegyas, Adrestia, and the twins Phobos and Deimos. Her parents are the Goddess of Love, Aphrodite, and the God of War, finally, Harmonia is rationalized as closely allied to Aphrodite Pandemos, the love that unites all people, the personification of order and civic unity, corresponding to the Roman goddess Concordia. Almost always, Harmonia is the wife of Cadmus, with Cadmus, she was the mother of Ino, Polydorus, Autonoë, Agave and Semele. When Cadmus was obliged to quit Thebes, Harmonia accompanied him, when they came to the Encheleans, they assisted them in their war against the Illyrians, and conquered the enemy. Cadmus then became king of the Illyrians, but afterwards he was turned into a serpent, Harmonia, in her grief stripped herself, then begged Cadmus to come to her. As she was embraced by the serpent Cadmus in a pool of wine, Harmonia is renowned in ancient story chiefly on account of the fatal necklace she received on her wedding day. When the government of Thebes was bestowed upon Cadmus by Athena, all the gods honored the wedding with their presence. Cadmus presented the bride with a robe and necklace, which he had received either from Hephaestus or from Europa and this necklace, commonly referred to as the Necklace of Harmonia, brought misfortune to all who possessed it. Other traditions stated that Harmonia received this necklace from some of the gods, polynices, who inherited the necklace, gave it to Eriphyle, that she might persuade her husband, Amphiaraus, to undertake the expedition against Thebes. The necklace had wrought mischief to all who had been in possession of it, phayllus, the tyrant, stole it from the temple to gratify his mistress, the wife of Ariston. She wore it for a time, but at last her youngest son was seized with madness, and set fire to the house, in which she perished with all her treasures. According to him, the thing which brought ill fate to the descendents of Harmonia is not a necklace, the necklace gave peace and held Harmonias powers in it, which is what made it cursed. Homonoia goddess of concord, unanimity, and oneness of mind Aneris Concordia Eris Cadmus et Hermione Chisholm, Hugh and this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Leonhard Schmitz. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology
34.
Aristaeus
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Aristaeus may appear as a winged youth in painted Boeotian pottery, similar to representations of the Boreads, spirits of the North Wind. When Aristaeus was born, according to what Pindar sang, Hermes took him to be raised on nectar and ambrosia and be made immortal by Gaia. The Myrtle-nymphs taught him useful arts and mysteries, how to curdle milk for cheese, how to tame the Goddesss bees and keep them in hives, thus he became the patron god of cattle, fruit trees, hunting, husbandry and bee-keeping. He also taught humanity dairy skills and the use of nets, when he was grown, he sailed from Libya to Boeotia, where he was inducted into further mysteries in the cave of Chiron the centaur. In Boeotia, he was married to Autonoë and became the father of the ill-fated Actaeon, who inherited the family passion for hunting, to his ruin, and of Macris, Aristaios is an epithet rather than a name For some men to call Zeus and holy Apollo. Agreus and Nomios, and for others Aristaios According to Pherecydes, Aristaeus fathered Hecate, goddess of witchcraft, crossroads, hesiods Theogony suggests her parents were Perses and Asteria. Aristaeus presence in Ceos, attested in the fourth and third centuries BC, was attributed to a Delphic prophecy that counselled Aristaeus to sail to Ceos, where he would be greatly honored. He found the islanders suffering from sickness under the stifling and baneful effects of the Dog-Star Sirius at its first appearance before the suns rising, in early July. In a development that offered more immediate causality for the myth, Aristaeus discerned that the Ceans troubles arose from murderers hiding in their midst, but the Ceans continued to propitiate the Dog-Star, just before its rising, just to be sure. Aristaeus settled for a time in the Vale of Tempe, by the time of Virgils Georgics, the myth has Aristaeus chasing Eurydice when she was bitten by a serpent and died. Soon Aristaeus bees sickened and began to die and he went to the fountain Arethusa and was advised to establish altars, sacrifice cattle and leave their carcasses. From the carcasses, new swarms of bees rose, a variation of this tale was told in the 2002 novel by Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees. In later times, Aristaios was a familiar Greek name, borne by several archons of Athens, bee deities, Ah-Muzen-Cab -- Mayan god of bees. Bhramari -- Hindu goddess of bees, melissa -- Ancient Greek/Minoan—goddess of bees. Mellona -- Roman goddess of bees
35.
Actaeon
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Actaeon, in Greek mythology, son of the priestly herdsman Aristaeus and Autonoe in Boeotia, was a famous Theban hero. Like Achilles in a generation, he was trained by the centaur Chiron. This is the iconic motif by which Actaeon is recognized, both in ancient art and in Renaissance and post-Renaissance depictions. Among others, John Heath has observed, The unalterable kernel of the tale was a transformation into a deer. But authors were free to suggest different motives for his death and he stopped and stared, amazed at her ravishing beauty. Once seen, Artemis got revenge on Actaeon, she forbade him speech — if he tried to speak, upon hearing the call of his hunting party, he cried out to them and immediately transformed. At this he fled deep into the woods, and doing so he came upon a pond and, seeing his reflection and his own hounds then turned upon him and pursued him, not recognizing him. In an endeavour to save himself, he raised his eyes toward Mount Olympus, the gods did not heed his plea, and he was torn to pieces. An element of the earlier myth made Actaeon the familiar hunting companion of Artemis, in an embroidered extension of the myth, the hounds were so upset with their masters death, that Chiron made a statue so lifelike that the hounds thought it was Actaeon. Diodorus Siculus, in a variant of Actaeons hubris that has largely ignored, has it that Actaeon wanted to marry Artemis. Other authors say the hounds were Artemis own, some lost elaborations of the myth seem to have them all names. This version also appears in Callimachus Fifth Hymn, as a parallel to the blinding of Tiresias after he sees Athena bathing. His reconstruction opposes a too-pat consensus that has an archaic Actaeon aspiring to Semele, a classical Actaeon boasting of his hunting prowess, the following list is as given in Hyginus Fabulae. The first part of the list is taken from Ovids Metamorphoses, note, In the first part of the list, Hyginus fails to correctly differentiate between masculine and feminine names. Bitches, Agre, Nape, Poemenis, Harpyia, Canache, Sticte, Alce, Lycisce, Lachne, Melanchaetes, Therodamas, Oresitrophos. In the second century AD, the traveller Pausanias was shown a spring on the road in Attica leading to Plataea from Eleutherae, just beyond Megara and a little farther on a rock. It is called the bed of Actaeon, for it is said that he slept thereon when weary with hunting, but you hit him and turned him into a wolf, His own herd-boys hunt him down And his dogs tear at his haunches. Actaeon, torn apart by dogs incited by Artemis, finds another Near Eastern parallel in the Ugaritic hero Aqht, torn apart by eagles incited by Anath who wanted his hunting bow
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