1.
Seduction
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Strategies of seduction include, conversation and sexual scripts, paralingual features, non-verbal communication and short term behavioural strategies. The word seduction stems from Latin and means literally leading astray, as a result, the term may have a positive or negative connotation. Famous seducers from history or legend include Lilith, Giacomo Casanova, the emergence of the Internet and technology has supported the availability and the existence of a seduction community, which is based on discourse about seduction. This is predominately by pickup artists, Seduction is also used within marketing to increase compliance and willingness. Seduction is a motif in history and fiction, both as a warning of the social consequences of engaging in the behaviour or becoming its victim. In the Bible, Eve offers the forbidden fruit to Adam, Eve herself was verbally seduced by the serpent, believed in Christianity to be Satan, later, Chapter 7 of Proverbs warns of the pitfalls of seduction. Sirens of Greek mythology lured sailors to their death by singing them to shipwreck, famous male seducers, their names synonymous with sexual allure, range from Genji to James Bond. If her father refuse to give her unto him, he shall pay money according to the dowry of virgins. The Second Book of Samuel in the Old Testament describes King David seducing Bathsheba, King David has sexual relations with this woman, and then sends her husband to the front lines of battle with near certainty of death. Once Uriah is dead, King David takes Bathsheba as his wife, males and females both implement the strategy of seduction as a method of negotiating their sexual relationships. This can often involve manipulation of other individuals and this is primarily based on desire, normally physical, as well as attraction towards them. Popular phrases often used include, ‘the language of love is universal’ and these phrases help to demonstrate the extensively pervasive and ubiquitous strategy use within love and relationships amongst humans. Research has indicated that seduction could substitute or equate to a form of collapsed or condensed courtship, evolutionary psychology suggests that this form of sexual enticement can be used in order to cajole desired individuals to engage in sexual intercourse and ultimately reproduce. This behaviour is also aimed at persuading someone to develop a short-term or long-term sexual relationship with them, males declare that they adopt the strategy of seduction statistically more frequently than females. From an evolutionary perspective this is due to higher parental investment. Females therefore need to be seduced more prior to engaging in sexual intercourse, men more commonly wish to engage in more frequent short-term mating, which may require this strategy of seduction used to access the female for intercourse. However, this finding has been contradicted by non-verbal seduction results which indicate that females have more control within this area, other potential strategies individuals employ to gain access to a mate include courting or having relatives select mates for socioeconomic reasons. Ultimately, both males and females have reported preferring seduction above all other strategies, such as the use power or aggression, Seduction is related to human mate poaching
2.
Vampire
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A vampire is a being from folklore who subsists by feeding on the life essence of the living. In European folklore, vampires were undead beings that often visited loved ones and they wore shrouds and were often described as bloated and of ruddy or dark countenance, markedly different from todays gaunt, pale vampire which dates from the early 19th century. This increased level of vampire superstition in Europe led to mass hysteria and in some cases resulted in corpses actually being staked and people being accused of vampirism. In modern times, however, the vampire is generally held to be a fictitious entity, porphyria was also linked with legends of vampirism in 1985 and received much media exposure, but has since been largely discredited. However, it is Bram Stokers 1897 novel Dracula which is remembered as the vampire novel. The success of this book spawned a distinctive vampire genre, still popular in the 21st century, with books, films, the vampire has since become a dominant figure in the horror genre. Vampires had already discussed in French and German literature. After Austria gained control of northern Serbia and Oltenia with the Treaty of Passarowitz in 1718, officials noted the practice of exhuming bodies. These reports, prepared between 1725 and 1732, received widespread publicity, among the proposed proto-Slavic forms are *ǫpyrь and *ǫpirь. Another, less widespread theory, is that the Slavic languages have borrowed the word from a Turkic term for witch. Czech linguist Václav Machek proposes Slovak verb vrepiť sa, or its hypothetical anagram vperiť sa as an etymological background, and thus translates upír as someone who thrusts, bites. An early use of the Old Russian word is in the anti-pagan treatise Word of Saint Grigoriy, dated variously to the 11th–13th centuries, the notion of vampirism has existed for millennia. Cultures such as the Mesopotamians, Hebrews, Ancient Greeks, and Romans had tales of demons and spirits which are considered precursors to modern vampires. In most cases, vampires are revenants of evil beings, suicide victims, or witches, belief in such legends became so pervasive that in some areas it caused mass hysteria and even public executions of people believed to be vampires. It is difficult to make a single, definitive description of the folkloric vampire, vampires were usually reported as bloated in appearance, and ruddy, purplish, or dark in colour, these characteristics were often attributed to the recent drinking of blood. Indeed, blood was often seen seeping from the mouth and nose when one was seen in its shroud or coffin and its left eye was often open. It would be clad in the linen shroud it was buried in, and its teeth, hair, although vampires were generally described as undead, some folktales spoke of them as living beings. The causes of vampiric generation were many and varied in original folklore, in Slavic and Chinese traditions, any corpse that was jumped over by an animal, particularly a dog or a cat, was feared to become one of the undead
3.
Lie
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A lie is a statement that the stating party believes to be at least partly false and that is made with the intention to deceive. The practice of communicating lies is called lying, and a person who communicates a lie may be termed a liar, Lies may be employed to serve a variety of instrumental, interpersonal, or psychological functions for the individuals who use them. Generally, the term lie carries a connotation, and depending on the context a person who communicates a lie may be subject to social, legal, religious. In certain situations, however, lying is permitted, expected, believing and acting on false information can have serious consequences. Therefore, scientists and others have attempted to develop methods for distinguishing lies from true statements. As defined by Sartre, bad faith is lying to oneself, a barefaced lie is one that is obviously a lie to those hearing it. The phrase comes from 17th-century British usage referring to those without facial hair as being seen as acting in an unconcealed or open way, bold-faced lie can also refer to misleading or inaccurate newspaper headlines, but this usage appears to be a more recent appropriation of the term. A lie which attempts to trick the victim into believing something major which will likely be contradicted by some information the victim already possesses, or by their common sense. When the lie is of sufficient magnitude it may succeed, due to the reluctance to believe that an untruth on such a grand scale would indeed be concocted. To bluff is to pretend to have a capability or intention one does not actually possess. Bluffing is an act of deception that is seen as immoral when it takes place in the context of a game, such as poker. In these situations, deception is acceptable and is expected as a tactic. Bullshit does not necessarily have to be a complete fabrication, thus bullshit may be either true or false, but demonstrates a lack of concern for the truth which is likely to lead to falsehoods. One can state part of the out of context, knowing that without complete information. Likewise, one can actually state accurate facts, yet deceive with them, to say Yeah, thats right, I ate all the white chocolate, by myself, using sarcasm, a form of assertion by ridiculing the fact implying the liar believes it to be preposterous. A cover-up may be used to deny, defend or obfuscate ones own errors, ones embarrassing actions or lifestyle, one may deny a lie made on a previous occasion, or one may alternatively claim that a previous lie was not as egregious as it actually was. For example, to claim that a lie was really only an emergency lie. Not to be confused with confirmation bias in which the deceiver is deceiving themselves, Deception is the act of propagating beliefs in things that are not true, or not the whole truth (as in half-truths or lying by omission
4.
Sleeping gas
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Sleeping gas is an oneirogenic general anaesthetic that is used to put subjects into a state in which they are not conscious of what is happening around them. Incapacitating agent is a general term for knockout gases or KO gas that ideally render a person unable to harm themselves or others. Most sleeping gases have undesirable effects, or are effective at doses that approach toxicity. Possible side effects might not prevent use of sleeping gas by criminals willing to murder, there are reports of thieves spraying sleeping gases on campers, or in train compartments in some parts of Europe. Alarms are sold to detect and alert to such attacks, so people believe sleeping gas is dangerous to health. The perpetrators would then wait for the women to be incapacitated, later, the women would awaken to a pounding headache, find blood, semen or dirt on their sheets, and would sometimes discover their extremities had also been bound. Most did not remember the attacks, although a few had vague, several men and boys were also suspected of having been raped. While additional actors were thought to have participated, they were never identified nor prosecuted, in fact, the rapes did not stop with the incarceration of the original eight men
5.
The Lady from Shanghai
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The Lady from Shanghai is a 1947 film noir directed by Orson Welles and starring Welles, his estranged wife Rita Hayworth and Everett Sloane. It is based on the novel If I Die Before I Wake by Sherwood King, although The Lady from Shanghai initially received mixed reviews, it has grown in stature over the years, and many critics have praised its set designs and camerawork. Irish sailor Michael OHara meets the beautiful blonde Elsa as she rides a horse-drawn coach in Central Park, Michael rescues Elsa and escorts her home. Michael reveals he is a seaman and learns Elsa and her husband and they are on their way to San Francisco via the Panama Canal. Michael, attracted to Elsa despite misgivings, agrees to sign on as a seaman aboard Bannisters yacht. They are joined on the boat by Bannisters partner, George Grisby and he promises Michael $5,000 and explains that since he would not really be dead and since there would be no corpse, Michael could not be convicted of murder. Michael agrees, intending to use the money to run away with Elsa, Grisby has Michael sign a confession. On the eve of the crime, Sydney Broome, an investigator who has been following Elsa on her husbands orders. Broome has learned of Grisbys plan to actually murder Bannister, frame Michael, Grisby shoots Broome and leaves him for dead. Unaware of what has happened, Michael proceeds with the nights arrangement, meanwhile, Broome, injured but alive, asks Elsa for help. He warns her that Grisby intends to kill her husband, Michael makes a phone call to Elsa, but finds Broome on the other end of the line. Broome warns Michael that Grisby was setting him up, Michael rushes to Bannisters office in time to see Bannister is alive, but that the police are removing Grisbys body from the premises. The police find evidence implicating Michael, including his confession, at trial, Bannister acts as Michaels attorney. He feels he can win the case if Michael pleads justifiable homicide, during the trial, Bannister learns of his wifes relationship with Michael. He ultimately takes pleasure in his suspicion that they lose the case. Bannister also indicates that he knows the killers identity. Before the verdict, Michael escapes by feigning a suicide attempt, Michael and she hide in a Chinatown theater. Elsa calls some Chinese friends to meet her, as Michael and Elsa wait and pretend to watch the show, Michael realizes that she killed Grisby
6.
Film noir
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Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly such that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywoods classical film noir period is regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. Film noir of this era is associated with a low-key black-and-white visual style that has roots in German Expressionist cinematography. Many of the stories and much of the attitude of classic noir derive from the hardboiled school of crime fiction that emerged in the United States during the Great Depression. Cinema historians and critics defined the category retrospectively, before the notion was widely adopted in the 1970s, many of the classic films noir were referred to as melodramas. Whether film noir qualifies as a genre is a matter of ongoing debate among scholars. Although film noir was originally associated with American productions, films now so described have been made around the world, many pictures released from the 1960s onward share attributes with film noir of the classical period, and often treat its conventions self-referentially. Some refer to such works as neo-noir. The clichés of film noir have inspired parody since the mid-1940s, the questions of what defines film noir, and what sort of category it is, provoke continuing debate. They emphasize that not every film noir embodies all five attributes in equal measure—one might be more dreamlike, another, while many critics refer to film noir as a genre itself, others argue that it can be no such thing. Because of the diversity of noir, certain scholars in the field, such as film historian Thomas Schatz, treat it as not a genre but a style. Other critics treat film noir as a mood, characterize it as a series, there is no consensus on the matter. By 1931, Curtiz had already been in Hollywood for half a decade, the Universal horror that comes closest to noir, in story and sensibility is The Invisible Man, directed by Englishman James Whale and photographed by American Arthur Edeson. Edeson later photographed The Maltese Falcon, widely regarded as the first major film noir of the classic era, josef von Sternberg was directing in Hollywood at the same time. Films of his such as Shanghai Express and The Devil Is a Woman, with their hothouse eroticism and baroque visual style, the commercial and critical success of Sternbergs silent Underworld was largely responsible for spurring a trend of Hollywood gangster films. Successful films in that such as Little Caesar, The Public Enemy. An important, possibly influential, cinematic antecedent to classic noir was 1930s French poetic realism, with its romantic, fatalistic attitude, the movements sensibility is mirrored in the Warner Bros. drama I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, a forerunner of noir. Among films not considered films noir, perhaps none had an effect on the development of the genre than Citizen Kane
7.
Mohini
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Mohini is the only female avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu. She is portrayed as an enchantress, who maddens lovers, sometimes leading them to their doom, Mohini is introduced into the Hindu mythology in the narrative epic of the Mahabharata. Here, she appears as a form of Vishnu, acquires the pot of Amrita from thieving asuras, many different legends tell of her various exploits and marriages, including union with Shiva. These tales relate, among other things, the birth of the god Shasta and the destruction of Bhasmasura, Mohinis main modus operandi is to trick or beguile those she encounters. She is worshipped throughout Indian culture, but mainly in Western India, where temples are devoted to her depicted as Mahalasa, the consort of Khandoba, a regional avatar of Shiva. The name Mohini comes from the verb root moha, meaning to enchant, perplex, or disillusion, in the Baiga culture of Central India, the word mohini means erotic magic or spell. The name also has a connotation of the essence of female beauty. The earliest reference to a Mohini-type goddess appears in the Samudra manthan episode of the 5th century BCE Hindu epic Mahabharata, the Amrita, or nectar of immortality, is produced by the churning of the Ocean of Milk. The Deva and the Asura fight over its possession, the Asuras contrive to keep the Amrita for themselves, angering the Devas. Vishnu, wise to their plan, assumes the form of an enchanting damsel and she uses her allure to trick the Asuras into giving her the Amrita, and then distributes it amongst the Devas. Rahu, an Asura, disguises himself as a god and tries to drink some Amrita himself, Surya and Chandra quickly inform Vishnu, and he uses the Sudarshana Chakra to decapitate Rahu, leaving the head immortal. Rahu and Ketu are both regarded as celestial bodies that assume ones destiny, the other major Hindu epic, Ramayana, narrates the Mohini story briefly in the Bala Kanda chapter. This same tale is recounted in the Vishnu Purana four centuries later. In the original text, Mohini is referred to as simply an enchanting, in later versions, Mohini is described as the maya of Vishnu. Later still, the name of the avatar becomes Mohini from the phrase describing his deliberate false appearance. Once the Mohini legend became popular, it was retold, revised, the tales of Mohini-Vishnu also increased among devotional circles in various regions. The same expanded Mahabharata version of the story is recounted in the Bhagavata Purana in the 10th century CE. Here, Mohini becomes an avatar of Vishnu
8.
Folklore
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Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. These include oral traditions such as tales, proverbs and jokes and they include material culture, ranging from traditional building styles to handmade toys common to the group. Folklore also includes customary lore, the forms and rituals of celebrations like Christmas and weddings, folk dances, each one of these, either singly or in combination, is considered a folklore artifact. Just as essential as the form, folklore also encompasses the transmission of these artifacts from one region to another or from one generation to the next, for folklore is not taught in a formal school curriculum or studied in the fine arts. Instead these traditions are passed along informally from one individual to another either through verbal instruction or demonstration, the academic study of folklore is called folkloristics. To fully understand folklore, it is helpful to clarify its component parts and it is well-documented that the term was coined in 1846 by the Englishman William Thoms. He fabricated it to replace the contemporary terminology of popular antiquities or popular literature, the second half of the compound word, lore, proves easier to define as its meaning has stayed relatively stable over the last two centuries. Coming from Old English lār instruction, and with German and Dutch cognates, it is the knowledge and traditions of a particular group, the concept of folk proves somewhat more elusive. When Thoms first created this term, folk applied only to rural, frequently poor, a more modern definition of folk is a social group which includes two or more persons with common traits, who express their shared identity through distinctive traditions. Folk is a concept which can refer to a nation as in American folklore or to a single family. This expanded social definition of folk supports a view of the material, i. e. the lore. These now include all things people make with words, things they make with their hands, Folklore is no longer circumscribed as being chronologically old or obsolete. The folklorist studies the traditional artifacts of a group and how they are transmitted. Transmission is a part of the folklore process. Without communicating these beliefs and customs within the group over space and time, for folklore is also a verb. These folk artifacts continue to be passed along informally, as a rule anonymously, the folk group is not individualistic, it is community-based and nurtures its lore in community. As new groups emerge, new folklore is created… surfers, motorcyclists, in direct contrast to high culture, where any single work of a named artist is protected by copyright law, folklore is a function of shared identity within the social group. Having identified folk artifacts, the professional folklorist strives to understand the significance of these beliefs, customs, for these cultural units would not be passed along unless they had some continued relevance within the group
9.
Kali
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Kālī, also known as Kālikā, is a Hindu goddess. Kali is one of the ten Mahavidyas, a list which combines Sakta, Kalis earliest appearance is that of a destroyer principally of evil forces. She is the goddess of one of the four subcategories of the Kulamārga, over time, she has been worshipped by devotional movements and tantric sects variously as the Divine Mother, Mother of the Universe, Adi Shakti, or Adi Parashakti. Shakta Hindu and Tantric sects additionally worship her as the reality or Brahman. She is also seen as protector and the one who bestows moksha. Kali is often portrayed standing or dancing on her consort, the Hindu god Shiva, Kali is worshipped by Hindus throughout India. Kālī is the form of kālam. Kālī also shares the meaning of time or the fullness of time with the masculine noun kāla—and by extension, other names include Kālarātri, and Kālikā. The homonymous kāla, appointed time, which depending on context can mean death, is distinct from kāla black, the association is seen in a passage from the Mahābhārata, depicting a female figure who carries away the spirits of slain warriors and animals. She is called kālarātri and also kālī, Kālī is also the feminine form of Kāla, an epithet of Shiva, and thus the consort of Shiva. Hugh Urban notes that although the word Kālī appears as early as the Atharva Veda, Kali appears in the Mundaka Upanishad not explicitly as a goddess, but as the black tongue of the seven flickering tongues of Agni, the Hindu god of fire. According to David Kinsley, Kāli is first mentioned in Hindu tradition as a distinct goddess around 600 CE, and she is often regarded as the Shakti of Shiva, and is closely associated with him in various Puranas. Her most well known appearance on the battlefield is in the sixth century Devi Mahatmyam, when Vishnu woke up he started a war against the two demons. After a long battle with lord Vishnu when the two demons were undefeated Mahakali took the form of Mahamaya to enchant the two asuras, when Madhu and Kaitabha were enchanted by Mahakali, Vishnu killed them. In the later chapters the story of two demons can be found who were destroyed by Kali, Chanda and Munda attack the goddess Durga. Durga responds with anger that her face turns dark and Kali appears out of her forehead. Kalis appearance is black, gaunt with sunken eyes, and wearing a tiger skin and she immediately defeats the two demons. Later in the battle, the demon Raktabija is undefeated because of his ability to reproduce himself from every drop of his blood that reaches the ground
10.
Lilith
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Lilith is a figure in Jewish mythology, developed earliest in the Babylonian Talmud. Evidence in later Jewish materials is plentiful, but little information has survived relating to the original Sumerian, Akkadian, Assyrian and Babylonian view of these demons. In Hebrew-language texts, the term lilith or lilit first occurs in a list of animals in Isaiah 34,14, in the Dead Sea Scrolls 4Q510-511, the term first occurs in a list of monsters. In Jewish magical inscriptions on bowls and amulets from the 6th century CE onwards, Lilith is identified as a female demon and the first visual depictions appear. In Jewish folklore, from the satirical book Alphabet of Sirach onwards, Lilith appears as Adams first wife, the legend developed extensively during the Middle Ages, in the tradition of Aggadah, the Zohar, and Jewish mysticism. The resulting Lilith legend continues to serve as material in modern Western culture, literature, occultism, fantasy. The semitic root L-Y-L served as derivative for the Hebrew layil and Arabic layl, the Talmudic and Yiddish use of Lilith cognates with the Hebrew. In the Akkadian language of Assyria and Babylonia the terms lili, some uses of līlītu are listed in The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, in Wolfram von Sodens Akkadisches Handwörterbuch, and Reallexikon der Assyriologie. The Sumerian female demons lili have no relation to Akkadian lilu. Archibald Sayce considered that Hebrew lilit Hebrew, לילית, and the earlier Akkadian, charles Fossey has this literally translating to female night being/demon, although cuneiform inscriptions from Mesopotamia exist where Līlīt and Līlītu refers to disease-bearing wind spirits. Samuel Noah Kramer translated ki-sikil-lil-la-ke as Lilith in Tablet XII of the Epic of Gilgamesh dated c.600 BCE. Tablet XII is not part of the Epic of Gilgamesh, but is a later Assyrian Akkadian translation of the part of the Sumerian poem of Gilgamesh. The ki-sikil-lil-la-ke is associated with a serpent and a zu bird, in Gilgamesh and the Netherworld, a huluppu tree grows in Inannas garden in Uruk, whose wood she plans to use to build a new throne. After ten years of growth, she comes to harvest it and finds a serpent living at its base, a Zu bird raising young in its crown, and that a ki-sikil-lil-la-ke made a house in its trunk. Gilgamesh is said to have smitten the snake, and then the zu bird flew away to the mountains with its young, while the ki-sikil-lil-la-ke fearfully destroys its house, identification of ki-sikil-lil-la-ke as Lilith is stated in Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible. Suggested translations for the Tablet XII spirit in the tree include ki-sikil as sacred place, lil as spirit, but also simply owl, given that the lil is building a home in the trunk of the tree. A connection between the Gilgamesh ki-sikil-lil-la-ke and the Jewish Lilith was rejected by Dietrich Opitz and rejected on grounds by Sergio Ribichini. The terracotta plaque depicts a beautiful, naked goddess-like sylph with bird-like features who stands atop two lions and between two owls
11.
Siren (mythology)
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In Greek mythology, the Sirens were dangerous creatures, who lured nearby sailors with their enchanting music and voices to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island. Roman poets placed them on small islands called Sirenum scopuli. All such locations were surrounded by cliffs and rocks, although a Sophocles fragment makes Phorcys their father, when Sirens are named, they are usually as daughters of the river god Achelous, with Terpsichore, Melpomene, Sterope, or Chthon. In Euripides play, Helen, Helen in her anguish calls upon Winged maidens, although they lured mariners, the Greeks portrayed the Sirens in their meadow starred with flowers and not as sea deities. Roman writers linked the Sirens more closely to the sea, as daughters of Phorcys, Sirens are found in many Greek stories, notably in Homers Odyssey. Their number is reported as from two to five. In the Odyssey, Homer says nothing of their origin or names, according to Ovid, the Sirens were the companions of young Persephone. They were given wings by Demeter to search for Persephone when she was abducted, however, the Fabulae of Hyginus has Demeter cursing the Sirens for failing to intervene in the abduction of Persephone. Their song is continually calling on Persephone, the term siren song refers to an appeal that is hard to resist but that, if heeded, will lead to a bad conclusion. As Jane Ellen Harrison notes of The Ker as siren, It is strange and beautiful that Homer should make the Sirens appeal to the spirit, not to the flesh. The siren song is a promise to Odysseus of mantic truths, with a promise that he will live to tell them, they sing, Once he hears to his hearts content, sails on. We know all the pains that the Greeks and Trojans once endured on the plain of Troy when the gods willed it so— all that comes to pass on the fertile earth. They are mantic creatures like the Sphinx with whom they have much in common and their song takes effect at midday, in a windless calm. The end of song is death. That the sailors flesh is rotting away, suggests it has not been eaten and it has been suggested that, with their feathers stolen, their divine nature kept them alive, but unable to provide food for their visitors, who starved to death by refusing to leave. According to Hyginus, sirens were fated to live only until the mortals who heard their songs were able to pass by them, Sirens were believed to combine women and birds in various ways. In early Greek art, Sirens were represented as birds with womens heads, bird feathers. Later, they were represented as female figures with the legs of birds, with or without wings, playing a variety of musical instruments, especially harps
12.
Sphinx
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A sphinx is a mythical creature with the head of a human and the body of a lion. In Greek tradition, it has the head of a human, the haunches of a lion and it is mythicised as treacherous and merciless. Those who cannot answer its riddle suffer a fate typical in such stories, as they are killed. This deadly version of a sphinx appears in the myth and drama of Oedipus, unlike the Greek sphinx, which was a woman, the Egyptian sphinx is typically shown as a man. In European decorative art, the sphinx enjoyed a revival during the Renaissance. Sphinxes are generally associated with structures such as royal tombs or religious temples. The oldest known sphinx was found near Gobekli Tepe at another site, Nevali Çori, or possibly 120 miles to the east at Kortik Tepe, Turkey, and was dated to 9,500 BCE. The largest and most famous sphinx is the Great Sphinx of Giza, situated on the Giza Plateau adjacent to the Great Pyramids of Giza on the west bank of the Nile River, the sphinx is located southeast of the pyramids. Although the date of its construction is uncertain, the head of the Great Sphinx now is believed to be that of the pharaoh Khafra, what names their builders gave to these statues is not known. At the Great Sphinx site, a 1400 BCE inscription on a stele belonging to the 18th dynasty pharaoh Thutmose IV lists the names of three aspects of the sun deity of that period, Khepera–Rê–Atum. The theme was expanded to form great avenues of guardian sphinxes lining the approaches to tombs, nine hundred with ram heads, representing Amon, were built in Thebes, where his cult was strongest. Perhaps the first sphinx in Egypt was one depicting Queen Hetepheres II and she was one of the longest-lived members of the royal family of that dynasty. The Great Sphinx has become an emblem of Egypt, frequently appearing on its stamps, coins, from the Bronze Age, the Hellenes had trade and cultural contacts with Egypt. Before the time that Alexander the Great occupied Egypt, the Greek name, the historians and geographers of Greece wrote extensively about Egyptian culture. Herodotus called the ram-headed sphinxes Criosphinxes and called the hawk-headed ones Hieracosphinxes, the word sphinx comes from the Greek Σφίγξ, apparently from the verb σφίγγω, meaning to squeeze, to tighten up. This name may be derived from the fact that the hunters for a pride of lions are the lionesses, There was a single sphinx in Greek mythology, a unique demon of destruction and bad luck. According to Hesiod, she was a daughter of Orthrus and either Echidna or the Chimera, or perhaps even Ceto, according to others, she was a daughter of Echidna and Typhon. All of these are figures from the earliest of Greek myths
13.
Scylla
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In Greek mythology, Scylla was a monster that lived on one side of a narrow channel of water, opposite her counterpart Charybdis. The two sides of the strait were within a range of each other—so close that sailors attempting to avoid Charybdis would pass too close to Scylla. Scylla made her first appearance in Homers Odyssey, where Odysseus and his crew encounter her, later myth gave her an origin story as a beautiful nymph who gets turned into a monster. The strait where Scylla dwelled has been associated with the Strait of Messina between Italy and Sicily, the idiom between Scylla and Charybdis has come to mean being forced to choose between two equally dangerous situations. The parentage of Scylla varies according to author, Other authors have Hecate as Scyllas mother. The Hesiodic Megalai Ehoiai gives Hecate and Phorbas as the parents of Scylla, while Acusilaus says that Scyllas parents were Hecate and Phorkys. Perhaps trying to reconcile these accounts, Apollonius of Rhodes says that Crataeis was another name for Hecate. Likewise, Semos of Delos says that Crataeis was the daughter of Hecate and Triton, Stesichorus names Lamia as the mother of Scylla, possibly the Lamia who was the daughter of Poseidon, while according to Hyginus, Scylla was the offspring of Typhon and Echidna. A similar story is found in Hyginus, according to whom Scylla was loved by Glaucus and her body consisted of 12 tentacle-like legs and a cats tail, while four to six dog-heads ringed her waist. In this form, she attacked the ships of passing sailors, in a late Greek myth, recorded in Eustathius commentary on Homer and John Tzetzes, Heracles encountered Scylla during a journey to Sicily and slew her. Her father, the sea-god Phorcys, then applied flaming torches to her body, in Homers Odyssey XII, Odysseus is advised by Circe to sail closer to Scylla, for Charybdis could drown his whole ship, Hug Scyllas crag—sail on past her—top speed. Better by far to lose six men and keep your ship than lose your entire crew, She also tells Odysseus to ask Scyllas mother, the river nymph Crataeis, to prevent Scylla from pouncing more than once. According to Ovid, the fisherman-turned-sea-god Glaucus fell in love with the beautiful Scylla, when he went to Circe to ask for a love potion to win her, the sorceress herself fell in love with him. Meeting with no success, she became jealous of her rival, prepared a vial of poison and poured it in the sea-pool where Scylla bathed. In vain she offers herself to run And drags about her what she strives to shun. The story was adapted into a five-act tragic opera, Scylla et Glaucus. In John Keats loose retelling of Ovids version of the myth of Scylla and Glaucus in Book 3 of Endymion, Glaucus then takes her corpse to a crystal palace at the bottom of the ocean where lie the bodies of all lovers who have died at sea. After a thousand years, she is resurrected by Endymion and reunited with Glaucus, at the Carolingian abbey of Corvey in Westphalia, a unique ninth-century wall painting depicts, among other things, Odysseus fight with Scylla, an illustration not noted elsewhere in medieval arts
14.
Aphrodite
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Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, and procreation. She is identified with the planet Venus, and her Roman equivalent is the goddess Venus, as with many ancient Greek deities, there is more than one story about her origins. According to Hesiods Theogony, she was born when Cronus cut off Uranuss genitals and threw them into the sea, according to Homers Iliad, she is the daughter of Zeus and Dione. In Plato, these two origins are said to be of hitherto separate entities, Aphrodite Ourania and Aphrodite Pandemos, Aphrodite had many lovers—both gods, such as Ares, and men, such as Anchises. She played a role in the Eros and Psyche legend, and was lover and surrogate mother of Adonis. Many lesser beings were said to be children of Aphrodite, Aphrodite is also known as Cytherea and Cypris after the two cult sites, Cythera and Cyprus, which claimed to be her place of birth. Myrtle, roses, doves, sparrows and swans were sacred to her, the ancient Greeks identified her with the Ancient Egyptian goddess Hathor. Aphrodite had many names such as Acidalia and Cerigo, each used by a different local cult of the goddess in Greece. The Greeks recognized all of these names as referring to the single goddess Aphrodite, despite the differences in what these local cults believed the goddess demanded of them. The Attic philosophers of the 4th century, however, drew a distinction between a celestial Aphrodite of transcendent principles, and a separate, common Aphrodite who was the goddess of the people, hesiod derives Aphrodite from aphrós sea-foam, interpreting the name as risen from the foam. Michael Janda, accepting this as genuine, claims the birth myth as an Indo-European mytheme. Likewise, Witczak proposes an Indo-European compound *abʰor- very and *dʰei- to shine and it has been argued that etymologies based on comparison with Eos are unlikely since Aphrodites attributes are entirely different from those of Eos or the Vedic deity Ushas. A number of improbable non-Greek etymologies have suggested in scholarship. One Semitic etymology compares Aphrodite to the Assyrian barīrītu, the name of a demon that appears in Middle Babylonian. Hammarström looks to Etruscan, comparing prϑni lord, an Etruscan honorific loaned into Greek as πρύτανις and this would make the theonym in origin an honorific, the lady. Hjalmar Frisk and Robert Beekes reject this etymology as implausible, especially since Aphrodite actually appears in Etruscan in the borrowed form Apru, the medieval Etymologicum Magnum offers a highly contrived etymology, deriving Aphrodite from the compound habrodíaitos, she who lives delicately, from habrós and díaita. The alteration from b to ph is explained as a characteristic of Greek obvious from the Macedonians. Aphrodite is usually said to have been born near her chief center of worship, Paphos, on the island of Cyprus, however, other versions of her myth have her born near the island of Cythera, hence another of her names, Cytherea
15.
Circe
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Circe (/ˈsɜːrsiː/, is a goddess of magic or sometimes a nymph, witch, enchantress or sorceress in Greek mythology. By most accounts, she was the daughter of the sungod Helios, and Perse and her brothers were Aeetes, keeper of the Golden Fleece, and Perses. Her sister was Pasiphaë, the wife of King Minos and mother of the Minotaur, other accounts make her the daughter of Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft. Circe was renowned for her vast knowledge of potions and herbs, through the use of these and a magic wand or staff, she transformed her enemies, or those who offended her, into animals. Some say she was exiled to the island of Aeaea by her subjects and her father Helios for killing her husband. Later traditions tell of her leaving or even destroying the island and moving to Italy, in Homers Odyssey, Circe is described as living in a mansion that stands in the middle of a clearing in a dense wood. Around the house prowled strangely docile lions and wolves, the victims of her magic, they were not dangerous. Circe worked at a huge loom, thus so she turned them all into swine with her magic wand or staff after they gorged themselves on it. Only drunken Eurylochus, suspecting treachery from the outset, escaped to warn Odysseus, Odysseus set out to rescue his men, but was intercepted by the messenger god, Hermes, who had been sent by Athena. Hermes told Odysseus to use the holy herb moly to protect himself from Circes wizardry and, having resisted it, to draw his sword, from there, Circe would ask him to bed, but Hermes advised caution, for even there the goddess would be treacherous. She would take his manhood unless he had her swear by the names of the gods that she would not, Odysseus followed Hermes advice, freeing his men and then remained on the island for one year, feasting and drinking wine. She also advised Odysseus to go to the Underworld and gave him directions, towards the end of Hesiods Theogony, it is stated that Circe bore Odysseus three sons, Ardeas or Agrius, Latinus, and Telegonus, who ruled over the Tyrsenoi, that is the Etruscans. The Telegony, a now lost, relates the later history of the last of these. Circe eventually informed him who his absent father was and, when he set out to find Odysseus, with this he killed his father unknowingly. Telegonus then brought back his fathers corpse, together with Penelope and Odysseus other son Telemachus, after burying Odysseus, Circe made the others immortal. According to Lycophrons Alexandra and John Tzetzes scholia on the poem, however, Odysseus then gave Telemachus to Circes daughter Cassiphone in marriage. Some time later, Telemachus had a quarrel with his mother-in-law and killed her, on hearing of this, Odysseus died of grief. In a very late Alexandrian epic from the 5th century AD, in the 3rd century BC epic, the Argonautica, Apollonius Rhodius relates that Circe purified the Argonauts for the death of Absyrtus, maybe reflecting an early tradition
16.
Medea
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In Greek mythology, Medea was the daughter of King Aeëtes of Colchis, niece of Circe, granddaughter of the sun god Helios, and later wife to the hero Jason. In Euripides play Medea, Jason abandons Medea when Creon, king of Corinth, the play tells of Medea avenging her husbands betrayal by killing their children. Medea figures in the myth of Jason and the Argonauts, a known best from a late literary version worked up by Apollonius of Rhodes in the 3rd century BC. Medea is known in most stories as an enchantress, and is depicted as a priestess of the goddess Hecate or a witch. The myth of Jason and Medea is very old, originally written around the time Hesiod wrote the Theogony, Medeas role began after Jason came from Iolcus to Colchis, to claim his inheritance and throne by retrieving the Golden Fleece. In a familiar mythic motif, Aeëtes promised to him the fleece. Next, Jason had to sow the teeth of a dragon in the field, and the teeth sprouted into an army of warriors, Jason was forewarned by Medea, however. Unable to determine where the rock had come from, the attacked and killed each other. Finally, Aeëtes made Jason fight and kill the dragon that guarded the fleece. Jason then took the fleece and sailed away with Medea, as he had promised, Apollonius says that Medea only helped Jason in the first place because Hera had convinced Aphrodite or Eros to cause Medea to fall in love with him. Medea distracted her father as they fled by killing her brother Absyrtus, during the fight, Atalanta, a member of the group helping Jason in his quest for the fleece, was seriously wounded, but Medea healed her. According to some versions, Medea and Jason stopped on her aunt Circes island so that she could be cleansed after murdering her brother, relieving her of blame for the deed. On the way back to Thessaly, Medea prophesied that Euphemus, the helmsman of Jasons ship and this came true through Battus, a descendant of Euphemus. The Argo then reached the island of Crete, guarded by the bronze man, Talos had one vein which went from his neck to his ankle, bound shut by a single bronze nail. According to Apollodorus, Talos was slain either when Medea drove him mad with drugs, deceived him that she would make him immortal by removing the nail, or was killed by Poeass arrow. In the Argonautica, Medea hypnotized him from the Argo, driving him mad so that he dislodged the nail, ichor flowed from the wound, after Talos died, the Argo landed. Jason, celebrating his return with the Golden Fleece, noted that his father Aeson was too aged, Medea withdrew the blood from Aesons body, infused it with certain herbs, and returned it to his veins, invigorating him. The daughters of king Pelias saw this and wanted the same service for their father, while Jason searched for the Golden Fleece, Hera, who was still angry at Pelias, conspired to make Jason fall in love with Medea, whom Hera hoped would kill Pelias
17.
Clytemnestra
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Clytemnestra was the wife of Agamemnon and queen of Mycenae in ancient Greek legend. Her Greek name Klytaimnḗstra is also sometimes latinized as Clytaemnestra and it is commonly glossed as famed for her suitors. However, this form is a later misreading motivated by an erroneous etymological connection to the verb mnáomai, the original name form is believed to have been Klytaimḗstra without the -n-. The present form of the name does not appear before the middle Byzantine period, Aeschylus, in certain wordplays on her name, appears to assume an etymological link with the verb mḗdomai. Clytemnestra was the daughter of Tyndareus and Leda, the King, according to the myth, Zeus appeared to Leda in the form of a swan, seducing and impregnating her. Leda produced four offspring from two eggs, Castor and Clytemnestra from one egg, and Helen and Polydeuces from the other, therefore, Castor and Clytemnestra were fathered by Tyndareus, whereas Helen and Polydeuces were fathered by Zeus. Agamemnon and his brother Menelaus were in exile at the home of Tyndareus, in due time Agamemnon married Clytemnestra and Menelaus married Helen. In a late variation, Euripidess Iphigenia at Aulis, Clytemnestras first husband was Tantalus, King of Pisa, Agamemnon kills him and his infant son, in another version, her first husband was King of Lydia. The kings of Lydia, according to Plutarchs The Greek Questions,45, having succeeded Omphale who had received from Herakles Hippolytes axe, after Helen went from Sparta to Troy, her husband, Menelaus, asked his brother Agamemnon for help. However, consistently weak winds prevented the fleet from sailing, through a subplot involving the gods and omens, the priest Calchas said the winds would be favorable if Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia to the goddess Artemis. Agamemnon persuaded Clytemnestra to send Iphigenia to him, telling her he was going to marry her to Achilles, when Iphigenia arrived at Aulis, she was sacrificed, the winds turned, and the troops set sail for Troy. The Trojan War lasted ten years, during this period of Agamemnons long absence, Clytemnestra began a love affair with Aegisthus, her husbands cousin. Whether Clytemnestra was seduced into the affair or entered into it independently differs according to the author of the myth. Nevertheless, Clytemnestra and Aegisthus began plotting Agamemnons demise, Clytemnestra was enraged by Iphigenias murder. Aegisthus saw his father Thyestes betrayed by Agamemnons father Atreus, in old versions of the story, on returning from Troy, Agamemnon is murdered by Aegisthus, the lover of his wife, Clytemnestra. In some later versions Clytemnestra helps him or does the killing herself in his own home, Clytemnestra waited until he was in the bath, and then entangled him in a cloth net and stabbed him. Trapped in the web, Agamemnon could neither escape nor resist his murderer, meanwhile, Cassandra saw a vision of herself and Agamemnon being murdered. Her attempts to elicit help failed and she realized she was fated to die, and resolutely walked into the palace to receive her death
18.
Lesbia
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Lesbia was the literary pseudonym used by the Roman poet Gaius Valerius Catullus to refer to his lover. The name evokes the poet Sappho and this could well be Catullus Lesbia before she became his own lover. What makes this more likely is that the poem is an elegant translation of a poem by Sappho herself and she may have been a poet in her own right, included with Catullus in a list of famous poets whose lovers often helped them write their verses. The name Lesbia was chosen for reasons, including its metrical match with her real name
19.
Helen of Troy
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In Greek mythology, Helen of Troy, also known as Helen of Sparta, or simply Helen, was the daughter of Zeus and Leda, and was a sister of Castor, Pollux, and Clytemnestra. In Greek myths, she was considered the most beautiful woman in the world, by marriage she was Queen of Laconia, a province within Homeric Greece, the wife of King Menelaus. Her abduction by Prince Paris of Troy brought about the Trojan War, elements of her putative biography come from classical authors such as Aristophanes, Cicero, Euripides and Homer. In her youth, she was abducted by Theseus, a competition between her suitors for her hand in marriage sees Menelaus emerge victorious. An oath sworn beforehand by all the suitors requires them to military assistance in the case of her abduction. When she marries Menelaus she is very young, whether her subsequent involvement with Paris is an abduction or a seduction is ambiguous. The legends recounting Helens fate in Troy are contradictory, Homer depicts her as a wistful figure, even a sorrowful one, who comes to regret her choice and wishes to be reunited with Menelaus. Other accounts have a treacherous Helen who simulates Bacchic rites and rejoices in the carnage, ultimately, Paris was killed in action, and in Homers account Helen was reunited with Menelaus, though other versions of the legend recount her ascending to Olympus instead. A cult associated with her developed in Hellenistic Laconia, both at Sparta and elsewhere, at Therapne she shared a shrine with Menelaus and she was also worshiped in Attica and on Rhodes. Her beauty inspired artists of all time to represent her, frequently as the personification of ideal beauty, Christopher Marlowes lines from his tragedy Doctor Faustus are frequently cited, Was this the face that launchd a thousand ships/And burnt the topless towers of Ilium. However, in the play this meeting and the ensuing temptation are not unambiguously positive, closely preceding death, images of her start appearing in the 7th century BC. In classical Greece, her abduction by—or elopement with—Paris was a popular motif, in medieval illustrations, this event was frequently portrayed as a seduction, whereas in Renaissance painting it is usually depicted as a rape by Paris. The fact that rape and kidnapping were interchangeable terms lends additional ambiguity to the story, the etymology of Helens name continues to be a problem for scholars. Georg Curtius related Helen to the moon, Émile Boisacq considered Ἑλένη to derive from the noun ἑλένη meaning torch. It has also suggested that the λ of Ἑλένη arose from an original ν. Linda Lee Clader, however, says none of the above suggestions offers much satisfaction. Inversely, others have connected this etymology to a hypothetical proto-indo-european sun goddess, in particular, her marriage myth may be connected to a broader indo-european marriage drama of the sun goddess, and she is related to the divine twins, just as many of these goddesses are. The origins of Helens myth date back to the Mycenaean age, the first record of her name appears in the poems of Homer, but scholars assume that such myths invented or received by the Mycenaean Greeks made their way to Homer
20.
Cleopatra
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Cleopatra VII Philopator, known to history simply as Cleopatra, was the last active ruler of Ptolemaic Egypt, briefly survived as pharaoh by her son Caesarion. After her reign, Egypt became a province of the recently established Roman Empire, Cleopatra was a member of the Ptolemaic dynasty, a Greek family of Macedonian origin that ruled Egypt after Alexander the Greats death during the Hellenistic period. By contrast, Cleopatra did learn to speak Egyptian and represented herself as the reincarnation of the Egyptian goddess Isis, as queen, she consummated a liaison with Julius Caesar that solidified her grip on the throne. She later elevated Caesarion, her son with Caesar, to co-ruler in name, after Caesars assassination in 44 BC, she aligned with Mark Antony in opposition to Caesars legal heir Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus. With Antony, she bore the twins Cleopatra Selene II and Alexander Helios, Antony committed suicide after losing the Battle of Actium to Octavians forces, and Cleopatra followed suit. According to tradition, she killed herself by means of an asp bite on August 12,30 BC and she was outlived by Caesarion, who was declared pharaoh by his supporters, but he was soon killed on Octavians orders. Egypt then became the Roman province of Aegyptus, Cleopatras father Auletes was a direct descendant of Alexander the Greats general Ptolemy I Soter, son of Arsinoe and Lagus, both of Macedon. Centralization of power and corruption led to uprisings in and the losses of Cyprus and Cyrenaica, Ptolemy went to Rome with Cleopatra, Cleopatra VI Tryphaena seized the crown but died shortly afterwards in suspicious circumstances. It is believed that Berenice IV poisoned her so that she could assume sole rulership, regardless of the cause, she ruled until Ptolemy Auletes returned in 55 BC with Roman support, capturing Alexandria aided by Roman general Aulus Gabinius. Berenice was imprisoned and executed afterwards, her head allegedly being sent to the royal court on the decree of her father. Cleopatra now became joint regent and deputy to her father at age 14, Ptolemy XII died in March 51 BC. His will made 18-year-old Cleopatra and her 10-year-old brother Ptolemy XIII joint monarchs, the first three years of their reign were difficult due to economic failures, famine, deficient floods of the Nile, and political conflicts. Cleopatra was married to her brother, but she quickly made it clear that she had no intention of sharing power with him. In August 51 BC, relations broke down between Cleopatra and Ptolemy. Cleopatra dropped Ptolemys name from official documents and her face appeared on coins. The Gabiniani killed the sons of the Roman governor of Syria Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus when they came to ask the Gabiniani to assist their father against the Parthians, Cleopatra handed the murderers over to Bibulus in chains, whereupon the Gabiniani became bitter enemies of the queen. This conflict was one of the causes of Cleopatras fall from power shortly afterward. The sole reign of Cleopatra was finally ended by a cabal of courtiers led by the eunuch Pothinus, in connection with half-Greek general Achillas, circa 48 BC, Cleopatras younger brother Ptolemy XIII became sole ruler
21.
Messalina
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Valeria Messalina, sometimes spelled Messallina, was the wife of the Roman Emperor Claudius. She was a cousin of the Emperor Nero, a second-cousin of the Emperor Caligula. A powerful and influential woman with a reputation for promiscuity, she conspired against her husband and was executed on the discovery of the plot. Her notorious reputation arguably results from political bias, but works of art, Messalina was the daughter of Domitia Lepida the Younger and her first cousin Marcus Valerius Messalla Barbatus. Her mother was the youngest child of the consul Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, Messalinas grandmothers Claudia Marcella and Antonia Major were half sisters. Claudia Marcella, Messalinas paternal grandmother, was the daughter of Augustus sister Octavia the Younger by her marriage to Gaius Claudius Marcellus Minor, Antonia Major, Messalinas maternal grandmother, was the elder daughter of Octavia by her marriage to Mark Antony, and was Claudius maternal aunt. There was, therefore, an amount of inbreeding in the family. Little is known about Messalina’s life prior to her marriage in 38 to Claudius, her first cousin once removed, who was then about 48 years old. Two children were born as a result of their union, a daughter Claudia Octavia, an empress, stepsister and first wife to the emperor Nero. When the Emperor Caligula was murdered in 41, the Praetorian Guard proclaimed Claudius the new emperor, with her accession to power, Messalina enters history with a reputation as ruthless, predatory and sexually insatiable. Her husband is represented as easily led by her and unconscious of her many adulteries, in 48 AD, he went away on a trip and was informed when he returned that Messalina had gone so far as to marry her latest lover, Senator Gaius Silius. While many would have ordered her death, the Emperor offered her another chance, seeing that as weakness, one of his head officers went behind the Emperors back and ordered Messalinas death. Upon hearing the news, the Emperor did not react and simply asked for another chalice of wine, the Roman Senate then ordered a damnatio memoriae so that Messalinas name would be removed from all public and private places and all statues of her would be taken down. The historians who relay such stories, principally Tacitus and Suetonius and it has been argued that what passes for history is largely a result of the political sanctions that followed her death. Accusations of sexual excess were a tried and tested smear tactic, two accounts especially have added to her notoriety. The poet Juvenal gives a well known description in his sixth satire of how the Empress used to work clandestinely all night in a brothel under the name of the She-Wolf. He also alludes to the story of how she compelled Gaius Silius to divorce his wife, to call a woman a Messalina indicates a devious and sexually voracious personality. The historical figure and her fate were often used in the arts to make a moral point, in modern times, that has led to exaggerated works which have been described as romps
22.
Delilah
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Delilah is a woman in the Book of Judges, where she is the woman in the valley of Sorek whom Samson loved, and who was his downfall. Judges 13–16 portrays Samson as a man who was given strength by God. Samson was born into an Israelite family, the son of Manoah, both were visited by the Angel of the Lord and told that their child would be a Nazirite from birth. Delilah was approached by the lords of the Philistines, to discover the secret of Samsons strength, three times she asked Samson for the secret of his strength, and all three times he gave her a false answer. The first time, he told her, If they bind me with seven green withes that were never dried, then shall I be weak, and be as another man. Then he told her, If they bind me fast with new ropes that never were occupied, then shall I be weak, the third time, he told her, If thou weavest the seven locks of my head with the web. The toponym Sorek or soreq is identified only in connection with the Samson story, in the fourth century AD, Jerome mentions a Capharsorec that was near Saraa. Modern Israel has a Soreq Valley and even a Sorek Vineyard producing Merlot, Soreq, however, is the grapevine itself in Genesis 49,11, Isaiah 5,2, and Jeremiah 2,21. Samson had been dedicated as a Nazirite, from the womb to the day of his death, petrarch instanced Samson and Delilah in his Trionfi, as a victim in his allegorical depiction of the Triumph of Love. In art the subject is one of the most commonly shown in the Power of Women topos, somewhat inappropriately it would seem to a modern eye, the theme was depicted on more than one fifteenth-century Tuscan painted marriage tray. S. Might be a scene of love, Madlyn Kahr has remarked. In Northern Europe the Delilah theme was prominent among painters like Lucas van Leiden and Maerten van Heemskerck. Tintoretto followed Titian in introducing a female accomplice of Delilahs, Rubens added further females, with a suggestion of a brothel, no major seventeenth-century artist approached the subject more often than Rembrandt. John Milton personified her as the misguided and foolish but sympathetic temptress, much like his view of Eve, by the time of Camille Saint-Saëns Samson et Dalila Delilah had become the eponym of a Delilah, a treacherous and cunning femme fatale. Most movie and film versions of Delilah cater to Miltons more sympathetic view, in one, from 1984 based on a book by Erik Linklater, she ends up as the heroine and almost true protagonist. Delilah at DMOZ Hebrew concordance with Strongs Dictionary, soreq International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Sorek, Valley of, asserting connections with specific sites
23.
Jezebel
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Jezebel was a queen, identified in the Book of Kings as the daughter of Ithobaal I of Sidon and the wife of Ahab, King of Israel. According to the Hebrew Bible, Jezebel incited her husband King Ahab to abandon the worship of Yahweh and encourage worship of the deities Baal and Asherah instead. Jezebel persecuted the prophets of Yahweh, and fabricated evidence of blasphemy against an innocent landowner who refused to sell his property to King Ahab, Jezebel became associated with false prophets. In some interpretations, her dressing in finery and putting on makeup led to the association of the use of cosmetics with painted women or prostitutes, Jezebel is the Anglicized transliteration of the Hebrew אִיזָבֶל. The Oxford Guide to People & Places of the Bible states that the name is best understood as meaning Where is the Prince, a ritual cry from worship ceremonies in honor of Baal during periods of the year when the god was considered to be in the underworld. Jezebels story is told in the Books of Kings and she was a Phoenician princess, the daughter of Ethbaal, king of Tyre. According to genealogies given in Josephus and other sources, she was the great-aunt of Dido. Jezebel married King Ahab of the Northern Kingdom and this marriage was the culmination of the friendly relations existing between Israel and Phoenicia during Omris reign, and possibly cemented important political designs of Ahab. Jezebel, like the foreign wives of Solomon, required facilities for carrying on her form of worship, so Ahab made an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, Jezebel went so far as to require that her religion should be the national religion of Israel. She organized and maintained guilds of prophets,450 of Baal and she also destroyed such prophets of Israel as she could reach. Obadiah, the overseer of Ahabs house, rescued one hundred of these, hid them. Bromiley points out that it was Phoenician practice to install a woman as a priestess of Astarte. As such she would have an active role in temple. The prophet Elijah confronted Ahab and charged him with the sin of following Baal, Ahab had two altars set up at Carmel, one dedicated to Baal, one to Yahweh, and a bull sacrificed upon each altar. The supporters of Baal called upon their god to send fire to consume the sacrifice, when Elijah called on Yahweh, fire came down from heaven immediately and consumed the offering. Elijah ordered the people to seize the prophets of Baal and Asherah, the superiority of Elijah and of his God in the test at Carmel, and the slaughter of the 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah, fired the vengeance of Jezebel. Elijah fled for his life to the wilderness, where he mourned the devotion of Israel to Baal, Naboth owned a vineyard near the royal palace in the city of Jezreel. When Jezebel saw that her husband was depressed by this, she arranged for the elders to falsely accuse Naboth of blasphemy, three years later, Ahab died in battle
24.
Salome
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Salome was the daughter of Herod II and Herodias. She is infamous for demanding and receiving the head of John the Baptist, according to Flavius Josephuss Jewish Antiquities, Salome was first married to Philip the Tetrarch of Ituraea and Trakonitis. After Philips death in 34 AD she married Aristobulus of Chalcis and became queen of Chalcis, Three coins with portraits of Aristobulus and Salome have been found. Her name in Hebrew is שלומית and is derived from the root word שָׁלוֹם, Salome is often identified with the unnamed dancing woman in the New Testament. Other elements of Christian tradition concentrate on her lighthearted and cold foolishness that, according to the gospels, a similar motif was struck by Oscar Wilde in his Salome, in which she plays the role of femme fatale. Few literary accounts elaborate the biographical data given by Josephus, even though the New Testament accounts do not mention a name for the girl, this daughter of Herodias is often identified with Salome. According to Marks gospel Herodias bore a grudge against John for stating that Herods marriage to her was unlawful, but a convenient day arrived when Herod spread an evening meal on his birthday for his high officials and the military commanders and the most prominent men of Galilee. And the daughter of Herodias came in and danced and pleased Herod and those dining with him. The king said to the girl, “Ask me for whatever you want, and I will give it to you. ”Yes, he swore to her, “Whatever you ask me for, I will give it to you, up to half my kingdom. ”So she went out and said to her mother, “What should I ask for. ”She said, “The head of John the Baptizer. ”She immediately rushed in to the king and made her request, saying, “I want you to me right away on a platter the head of John the Baptist. ”Although this deeply grieved him. So the king sent a bodyguard and commanded him to bring John’s head. So he went off and beheaded him in the prison and brought his head on a platter and he gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother. When his disciples heard of it, they came and took his body, a parallel passage to Mark 6, 21-29 is in the Gospel of Matthew 14, 6-11, But on Herods birthday, the daughter of Herodias danced before them, and pleased Herod. Whereupon he promised with an oath, to give her whatsoever she would ask of him, but she being instructed before by her mother, said, Give me here in a dish the head of John the Baptist. And the king was struck sad, yet because of his oath, and he sent, and beheaded John in the prison. And his head was brought in a dish, and it was given to the damsel, and his disciples came and took the body, and buried it, and came and told Jesus. Some ancient Greek versions of Mark read Herods daughter Herodias, to scholars using these ancient texts, both mother and daughter had the same name. However, the Latin Vulgate Bible translates the passage as it is above, nevertheless, because she is otherwise unnamed in the Bible, the idea that both mother and daughter were named Herodias gained some currency in early modern Europe. Herods daughter is not Salome the disciple, who is a witness to the Crucifixion of Jesus in Mark 15,40, Salome has become a symbol for dangerous female seductiveness
25.
Daji
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Daji, was the favorite consort of King Zhou of Shang, the last king of the Shang dynasty in ancient China. She is portrayed as a malevolent fox spirit in legends as well as novels and her identification as a fox spirit seems to have originated from at least the Tang dynasty. These accounts have been popularized in such as the Wu Wang Fa Zhou Pinghua, the Fengshen Yanyi. She is considered an example of how a beauty causes the downfall of a dynasty in Chinese culture. In the Song dynasty, fox spirit cults, including dedicated to Daji, became outlawed. For example, in 1111, an edict was issued for the destruction of many spirit shrines within Kaifeng, including those of Daji. Daji was from a family called Su from the state of Yousu. Hence, she is known as Su Daji. In 1047 BC, King Zhou of Shang invaded Yousu and took Daji as his prize. In Feng Shen Yan Yi, she was a daughter of Su Hu, in the early chapters, King Zhou became extremely infatuated with Daji and started to neglect state affairs in order to keep her company. He used any means necessary to ingratiate himself with her and to please her, Daji liked animals so he built her a zoological Xanadu with several rare species of birds and animals. He also ordered artists to compose music and choreograph bawdy dances to satisfy her musical taste. He gathered 3000 guests at one party to indulge in his pond of wine and he allowed the guests to play a cat and mouse game nude in the forest to amuse Daji. When one of King Zhous concubines, the daughter of Lord Jiu, protested and her father was ground in pieces and his flesh fed to King Zhous vassals. Dajis greatest joy was to hear people cry in physical torment, once, she saw a farmer walking barefoot on ice and ordered his feet cut off so she could study them and figure out why they were so resistant to low temperatures. On another occasion, she had a pregnant womans belly cut open so it satisfied her curiosity to find out what happened inside. To verify an ancient saying that a mans heart has seven apertures, she even had the heart of the minister Bi Gan dug out. Daji was best known for her invention of a method of torture known as Paolao, a bronze cylinder covered with oil was heated like a furnace with charcoal beneath until its sides became extremely hot
26.
Franz von Stuck
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Franz Stuck was a German painter, sculptor, engraver, and architect. In 1906, Stuck was awarded the Order of Merit of the Bavarian Crown and was known as Franz Ritter von Stuck. Born at Tettenweis near Passau, Stuck displayed an affinity for drawing, to begin his artistic education he relocated in 1878 to Munich, where he would settle for life. From 1881 to 1885 Stuck attended the Munich Academy and he first became well known by cartoons for Fliegende Blätter, and vignette designs for programmes and book decoration. In 1889 he exhibited his first paintings at the Munich Glass Palace, in 1892 Stuck co-founded the Munich Secession, and also executed his first sculpture, Athlete. The next year he won acclaim with the critical and public success of what is now his most famous work. Also during 1893, Stuck was awarded a medal for painting at the Worlds Columbian Exposition in Chicago. In 1895 he began teaching painting at the Munich Academy, in 1897 Stuck married an American widow, Mary Lindpainter, and began work designing his own residence and studio, the Villa Stuck. His designs for the villa included everything from layout to interior decorations, having attained much fame by this time, Stuck was ennobled on December 9,1905 and would receive further public honours from around Europe during the remainder of his life. He continued to be respected among young artists as professor at the Munich Academy. Notable students of his over the years include Paul Klee, Hans Purrmann, Wassily Kandinsky, Alf Bayrle and he was a member of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers. Franz von Stuck died on August 30,1928 in Munich and he is buried in the Munich Waldfriedhof next to his wife Mary. Stucks subject matter was primarily from mythology, inspired by the work of Arnold Böcklin, large forms dominate most of his paintings and indicate his proclivities for sculpture. His seductive female nudes are an example of popular Symbolist content. Ritter von Stucks Kämpfende Amazone, created in 1897, graced Hermann Görings Carinhall, the number of Stucks pupils who achieved great success served to enhance the teachers own fame. Yet by the time of his death, Stucks importance as an artist in his own right had almost been forgotten, his art seemed old-fashioned, Stucks reputation languished until the late 1960s when a renewed interest in Art Nouveau brought him to attention once more. In 1968 the Villa Stuck was opened to the public, it is now a museum, in Robert Waites book The Psychopathic God, Adolph Hitler and numerous other sources it is noted that Franz Stuck was Hitlers favorite painter from childhood on. Stucks paintings were mentioned by Carl Jung, who wrote, Art nouveau Symbolism Adam, collection of Works by Franz von Stuck Museum Villa Stuck The Gallery of Franz von Stuck Franz von Stuck, Living Images Grave of Mary and Franz von Stuck
27.
Middle Ages
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In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or Medieval Period lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance, the Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history, classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is subdivided into the Early, High. Population decline, counterurbanisation, invasion, and movement of peoples, the large-scale movements of the Migration Period, including various Germanic peoples, formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the seventh century, North Africa and the Middle East—once part of the Byzantine Empire—came under the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate, although there were substantial changes in society and political structures, the break with classical antiquity was not complete. The still-sizeable Byzantine Empire survived in the east and remained a major power, the empires law code, the Corpus Juris Civilis or Code of Justinian, was rediscovered in Northern Italy in 1070 and became widely admired later in the Middle Ages. In the West, most kingdoms incorporated the few extant Roman institutions, monasteries were founded as campaigns to Christianise pagan Europe continued. The Franks, under the Carolingian dynasty, briefly established the Carolingian Empire during the later 8th, the Crusades, first preached in 1095, were military attempts by Western European Christians to regain control of the Holy Land from Muslims. Kings became the heads of centralised nation states, reducing crime and violence, intellectual life was marked by scholasticism, a philosophy that emphasised joining faith to reason, and by the founding of universities. Controversy, heresy, and the Western Schism within the Catholic Church paralleled the conflict, civil strife. Cultural and technological developments transformed European society, concluding the Late Middle Ages, the Middle Ages is one of the three major periods in the most enduring scheme for analysing European history, classical civilisation, or Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Modern Period. Medieval writers divided history into periods such as the Six Ages or the Four Empires, when referring to their own times, they spoke of them as being modern. In the 1330s, the humanist and poet Petrarch referred to pre-Christian times as antiqua, leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodisation in his History of the Florentine People. Bruni and later argued that Italy had recovered since Petrarchs time. The Middle Ages first appears in Latin in 1469 as media tempestas or middle season, in early usage, there were many variants, including medium aevum, or middle age, first recorded in 1604, and media saecula, or middle ages, first recorded in 1625. The alternative term medieval derives from medium aevum, tripartite periodisation became standard after the German 17th-century historian Christoph Cellarius divided history into three periods, Ancient, Medieval, and Modern. The most commonly given starting point for the Middle Ages is 476, for Europe as a whole,1500 is often considered to be the end of the Middle Ages, but there is no universally agreed upon end date. English historians often use the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 to mark the end of the period
28.
Eve
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Eve is a figure in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible. According to the myth of the Abrahamic religions, she was the first woman. In Islamic tradition, Eve is known as Adams wife and the first woman although she is not specifically named in the Quran, according to the second chapter of Genesis, Eve was created by God by taking her from the rib of Adam, to be Adams companion. She succumbs to the temptation to eat the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good. She shares the fruit with Adam, and as a result the first humans are expelled from the Garden of Eden, Christian churches differ on how they view both Adam and Eves disobedience to God, and to the consequences that those actions had on the rest of humanity. Christian and Jewish teachings sometimes hold Adam and Eve to a different level of responsibility for the fall, Eve in Hebrew is Ḥawwāh, meaning living one or source of life, and is related to ḥāyâ, to live. The name derives from the Semitic root ḥyw, Hawwah has been compared to the Hurrian goddess Kheba, who was shown in the Amarna letters to be worshipped in Jerusalem during the Late Bronze Age. It has been suggested that the name Kheba may derive from Kubau, the goddess Asherah, wife of El, mother of the elohim from the first millennium BCE was given the title Chawat, from which the name Hawwah in Aramaic was derived, Eve in English. It has been suggested that the Hebrew name Eve also bears resemblance to an Aramaic word for snake, in the Book of Genesis of the Hebrew Bible, the first human female is called אישה, isha by the first human man, Adam. She is created by Elohim from the mans rib and this enraged Ninhursag, and she caused Enki to fall ill. Enki felt pain in his rib, which is a pun in Sumerian, the other deities persuaded Ninhursag to relent. In Genesis 2, 18–22, the woman is created to be ezer kenegdo, kenegdo means alongside, opposite, a counterpart to him, and ezer means active intervention on behalf of the other person. Gods naming of the elements of the cosmos in Genesis 1 illustrated his authority over creation, the woman is called ishah, woman, with an explanation that this is because she was taken from ish, meaning man, the two words are not in fact connected. Later, after the story of the Garden is complete, she will be given a name and this means living in Hebrew, from a root that can also mean snake. In fact, the word traditionally translated rib in English can also mean side, chamber, in the King James Version, אַחַת מִצַּלְעֹתָיו is translated as one of his ribs. The contrary position is that the term צלע or ṣelaʿ, occurring forty-one times in the Tanakh, is most often translated as side in general. Rib is, however, the primary meaning of the term, which is from a root ṣ-l-ʿ meaning bend. Also God took one of Adams ṣelaʿ, suggesting an individual rib, the Septuagint has μίαν τῶν πλευρῶν αὐτοῦ, with ἡ πλευρά choosing a Greek term that, like the Hebrew ṣelaʿ, may mean either rib, or, in the plural, side in general
29.
Morgan le Fay
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Early works featuring Morgan do not elaborate her character beyond her role as a fay or sorceress. To the former, in early chivalric romances by Chrétien de Troyes and her character may be partially derived from that of the Welsh goddess Modron and other myths. She is often said to be the daughter of Arthurs mother Lady Igraine and her first husband Gorlois, so that Arthur, the son of Igraine and Uther Pendragon, is her half-brother. She becomes an apprentice of Merlin and an adversary of Arthur. In Thomas Malorys Le Morte dArthur and elsewhere, she is married to King Urien, with whom she has the son Ywain. She is also wanton and sexually aggressive, with many lovers including Merlin and Accolon, the earliest spelling of the name is Morgen, which is likely derived from Old Welsh or Old Breton Morgen, meaning Sea-born. The name is not to be confused with the Modern Welsh masculine name Morgan, while later works make her specifically human, she retains her magical powers. Inspiration for her character came from earlier Welsh mythology and literature. Additional speculation sometimes connects Morgan with the Irish goddess Morrígan, though there are few similarities between the two beyond the spelling of their names. Morgan has been more substantially linked with the goddess Modron, a derived from the continental Dea Matrona. Arthurian legends version of Urien is Morgan le Fays husband in the continental romances, the hystorical Urien had a treacherous ally named Morcant Bulc who plotted to assassinate him, similar to how Morgan attempts to kill Urien in the later version of Arthurian myth. This is similar to Avalon, the Isle of Apples with which Morgan le Fay has been associated since her earliest appearances. According to the chronicler Gerald of Wales, Morganis was a cousin of King Arthur who carried him to her island of Avalon. Writing in his Latin encyclopedic work Otia Imperialia, around the time and with similar derision for this belief. Morgan first appears by name in Vita Merlini, written by Norman-Welsh cleric Geoffrey of Monmouth about 1150, purportedly an account of the wizard Merlins later adventures, it elaborates some episodes from Geoffreys more famous earlier work, Historia Regum Britanniae. In Historia, Geoffrey relates how King Arthur, seriously wounded by Mordred at the Battle of Camlann, is taken off to the blessed Isle of Apple Trees, Avalon and her sisters names are Moronoe, Mazoe, Gliten, Glitonea, Gliton, Tyronoe, Thiten and Thiton. Prior to the cyclical Old French prose, the appearances of Morgan are few, the 12th-century French poet Chrétien de Troyes mentions her in his first romance Erec and Enide, completed around 1170. In it, a love of Morgan is Guinguemar, the Lord of the Isle of Avalon and a nephew of King Arthur and she is later mentioned in the same poem when Arthur provides the wounded hero Erec with a healing balm made by his sister Morgan
30.
The Magic Flute
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The Magic Flute, K.620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a form that included both singing and spoken dialogue. The work premiered on 30 September 1791 at Schikaneders theatre, the Freihaus-Theater auf der Wieden in Vienna, separately, then together, Tamino and Pamina undergo severe trials of initiation, which end in triumph, with the Queen and her cohorts vanquished. The earthy Papageno, who accompanies Tamino on his quest, fails the trials completely but is rewarded anyway with the hand of his female companion Papagena. The opera was the culmination of a period of increasing involvement by Mozart with Schikaneders theatrical troupe, Mozart was a close friend of one of the singer-composers of the troupe, tenor Benedikt Schack, and had contributed to the compositions of the troupe, which were often collaboratively written. Mozarts participation increased with his contributions to the 1790 collaborative opera Der Stein der Weisen, like The Magic Flute, Der Stein der Weisen was a fairy-tale opera and can be considered a kind of precursor, it employed much the same cast in similar roles. The libretto for The Magic Flute, written by Schikaneder, is thought by scholars to be based on many sources, especially for the role of Papageno, the libretto draws on the Hanswurst tradition of the Viennese popular theatre. Many scholars also acknowledge an influence of Freemasonry, for detailed discussion of sources see Branscombe, as well as Libretto of The Magic Flute. In composing the opera, Mozart evidently kept in mind the skills of the intended for the premiere. Thus, the lines for Papageno—sung by Schikaneder himself—and Monostatos are often stated first in the strings so the singer can find his pitch. In contrast, Mozarts sister-in-law Josepha Hofer, who premiered the role of the Queen of the Night, evidently needed little such help, in ensembles, Mozart skillfully combined voices of different ability levels. The vocal ranges of two of the singers for whom Mozart tailored his music have posed challenges for many singers who have since recreated their roles. Both arias of the Queen of the Night, O zittre nicht, mein lieber Sohn and Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen require high F6, rare in opera. At the low end, the part of Sarastro, premiered by Franz Xaver Gerl, the opera was premiered in Vienna on 30 September 1791 at the suburban Freihaus-Theater auf der Wieden. Mozart conducted the orchestra, Schikaneder himself played Papageno, while the role of the Queen of the Night was sung by Mozarts sister-in-law Josepha Hofer, as Mozarts letters show, he was very pleased to have achieved such a success. Solomon continues, Mozarts delight is reflected in his last three letters, written to Constanze, who with her sister Sophie was spending the week of October in Baden. I have this moment returned from the opera, which was as full as ever, he wrote on 7 October, but what always gives me the most pleasure is the silent approval. You can see how this opera is becoming more and more esteemed, … He went to hear his opera almost every night, taking along relatives
31.
Age of Enlightenment
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The Enlightenment was an intellectual movement which dominated the world of ideas in Europe during the 18th century, The Century of Philosophy. In France, the doctrines of les Lumières were individual liberty and religious tolerance in opposition to an absolute monarchy. French historians traditionally place the Enlightenment between 1715, the year that Louis XIV died, and 1789, the beginning of the French Revolution, some recent historians begin the period in the 1620s, with the start of the scientific revolution. Les philosophes of the widely circulated their ideas through meetings at scientific academies, Masonic lodges, literary salons, coffee houses. The ideas of the Enlightenment undermined the authority of the monarchy and the Church, a variety of 19th-century movements, including liberalism and neo-classicism, trace their intellectual heritage back to the Enlightenment. The Age of Enlightenment was preceded by and closely associated with the scientific revolution, earlier philosophers whose work influenced the Enlightenment included Francis Bacon, René Descartes, John Locke, and Baruch Spinoza. The major figures of the Enlightenment included Cesare Beccaria, Voltaire, Denis Diderot, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, David Hume, Adam Smith, Benjamin Franklin visited Europe repeatedly and contributed actively to the scientific and political debates there and brought the newest ideas back to Philadelphia. Thomas Jefferson closely followed European ideas and later incorporated some of the ideals of the Enlightenment into the Declaration of Independence, others like James Madison incorporated them into the Constitution in 1787. The most influential publication of the Enlightenment was the Encyclopédie, the ideas of the Enlightenment played a major role in inspiring the French Revolution, which began in 1789. After the Revolution, the Enlightenment was followed by an intellectual movement known as Romanticism. René Descartes rationalist philosophy laid the foundation for enlightenment thinking and his attempt to construct the sciences on a secure metaphysical foundation was not as successful as his method of doubt applied in philosophic areas leading to a dualistic doctrine of mind and matter. His skepticism was refined by John Lockes 1690 Essay Concerning Human Understanding and his dualism was challenged by Spinozas uncompromising assertion of the unity of matter in his Tractatus and Ethics. Both lines of thought were opposed by a conservative Counter-Enlightenment. In the mid-18th century, Paris became the center of an explosion of philosophic and scientific activity challenging traditional doctrines, the political philosopher Montesquieu introduced the idea of a separation of powers in a government, a concept which was enthusiastically adopted by the authors of the United States Constitution. Francis Hutcheson, a philosopher, described the utilitarian and consequentialist principle that virtue is that which provides, in his words. Much of what is incorporated in the method and some modern attitudes towards the relationship between science and religion were developed by his protégés David Hume and Adam Smith. Hume became a figure in the skeptical philosophical and empiricist traditions of philosophy. Immanuel Kant tried to reconcile rationalism and religious belief, individual freedom and political authority, as well as map out a view of the sphere through private
32.
Romanticism
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Romanticism was characterized by its emphasis on emotion and individualism as well as glorification of all the past and nature, preferring the medieval rather than the classical. It was embodied most strongly in the arts, music, and literature, but had a major impact on historiography, education. It elevated folk art and ancient custom to something noble, Romanticism assigned a high value to the achievements of heroic individualists and artists, whose examples, it maintained, would raise the quality of society. It also promoted the individual imagination as a critical authority allowed of freedom from classical notions of form in art, there was a strong recourse to historical and natural inevitability, a Zeitgeist, in the representation of its ideas. In the second half of the 19th century, Realism was offered as a polar opposite to Romanticism, the decline of Romanticism during this time was associated with multiple processes, including social and political changes and the spread of nationalism. Defining the nature of Romanticism may be approached from the point of the primary importance of the free expression of the feelings of the artist. The importance the Romantics placed on emotion is summed up in the remark of the German painter Caspar David Friedrich that the feeling is his law. Samuel Taylor Coleridge and others believed there were laws that the imagination—at least of a good creative artist—would unconsciously follow through artistic inspiration if left alone. As well as rules, the influence of models from other works was considered to impede the creators own imagination, so that originality was essential. The concept of the genius, or artist who was able to produce his own work through this process of creation from nothingness, is key to Romanticism. This idea is called romantic originality. Not essential to Romanticism, but so widespread as to be normative, was a strong belief, however, this is particularly in the effect of nature upon the artist when he is surrounded by it, preferably alone. Romantic art addressed its audiences with what was intended to be felt as the voice of the artist. So, in literature, much of romantic poetry invited the reader to identify the protagonists with the poets themselves. In both French and German the closeness of the adjective to roman, meaning the new literary form of the novel, had some effect on the sense of the word in those languages. It is only from the 1820s that Romanticism certainly knew itself by its name, the period typically called Romantic varies greatly between different countries and different artistic media or areas of thought. Margaret Drabble described it in literature as taking place roughly between 1770 and 1848, and few dates much earlier than 1770 will be found. In English literature, M. H. Abrams placed it between 1789, or 1798, this latter a very typical view, and about 1830, however, in most fields the Romantic Period is said to be over by about 1850, or earlier
33.
John Keats
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John Keats was an English Romantic poet. He had a significant influence on a range of poets. Jorge Luis Borges stated that his first encounter with Keatss work was the most significant literary experience of his life, the poetry of Keats is characterised by sensual imagery, most notably in the series of odes. This is typical of poets, as they aimed to accentuate extreme emotion through the emphasis of natural imagery. Today his poems and letters are some of the most popular, John Keats was born in Moorgate, London, on 31 October 1795 to Thomas Keats and his wife, born Frances Jennings. There is no evidence of his exact birthplace. Although Keats and his family seem to have marked his birthday on 29 October and he was the eldest of four surviving children, his younger siblings were George, Thomas, and Frances Mary Fanny who eventually married Spanish author Valentín Llanos Gutiérrez. Another son was lost in infancy and his father first worked as a hostler at the stables attached to the Swan and Hoop Inn, an establishment he later managed, and where the growing family lived for some years. Keats believed that he was born at the inn, a birthplace of humble origins, the Globe pub now occupies the site, a few yards from the modern-day Moorgate station. He was baptised at St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate, and sent to a dame school as a child. His parents were unable to afford Eton or Harrow, so in the summer of 1803, he was sent to board at John Clarkes school in Enfield, the small school had a liberal outlook and a progressive curriculum more modern than the larger, more prestigious schools. In the family atmosphere at Clarkes, Keats developed an interest in classics and history, the headmasters son, Charles Cowden Clarke, also became an important mentor and friend, introducing Keats to Renaissance literature, including Tasso, Spenser, and Chapmans translations. The young Keats was described by his friend Edward Holmes as a character, always in extremes, given to indolence. However, at 13 he began focusing his energy on reading and study, in April 1804, when Keats was eight, his father died. The cause of death was a fracture, suffered when he fell from his horse while returning from a visit to Keats. Frances remarried two months later, but left her new husband soon afterwards, and the four went to live with their grandmother, Alice Jennings. In March 1810 when Keats was 14, his mother died of tuberculosis and she appointed two guardians, Richard Abbey and John Sandell, to take care of them. That autumn, Keats left Clarkes school to apprentice with Thomas Hammond, a surgeon and apothecary who was a neighbour, Keats lodged in the attic above the surgery at 7 Church Street until 1813
34.
La Belle Dame sans Merci
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La Belle Dame sans Merci is a ballad written by the English poet John Keats. It exists in two versions, with differences between them. The original was written by Keats in 1819 and he used the title of the 15th-century La Belle Dame sans Mercy by Alain Chartier, though the plots of the two poems are different. The poem is considered an English classic, stereotypical of other of Keats works and it avoids simplicity of interpretation despite simplicity of structure. At only a short twelve stanzas, of four lines each, with a simple ABCB rhyme scheme, the poem is nonetheless full of enigmas. O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms, Alone and palely loitering, the sedge has withered from the lake, And no birds sing. O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms, So haggard and so woe-begone, the squirrel’s granary is full, And the harvest’s done. I see a lily on thy brow, With anguish moist and fever-dew, I met a lady in the meads, Full beautiful, a fairy’s child, Her hair was long, her foot was light, And her eyes were wild. She found me roots of sweet, And honey wild. She took me to her Elfin grot, And there she wept and sighed full sore, and there she lullèd me asleep, And there I dreamed—Ah. Woe betide. — The latest dream I ever dreamt On the cold hill side, and this is why I sojourn here, Alone and palely loitering, Though the sedge is withered from the lake, And no birds sing. La Belle Dame sans Merci is a popular form given an artistic sheen by the Romantic poets, keatss economical manner of telling a story in La Belle Dame sans Merci is the direct opposite of his lavish manner in The Eve of St. Agnes. Part of the fascination exerted by the poem comes from Keats use of understatement, Keats sets his simple story of love and death in a bleak wintry landscape that is appropriate to it, The sedge has witherd from the lake / And no birds sing. Keats relates the condition of the trees and surroundings with condition of the knight who is also broken, in keeping with the ballad tradition, Keats does not identify his questioner, or the knight, or the destructively beautiful lady. What Keats does not include in his poem contributes as much to it in arousing the readers imagination as what he puts into it. La belle dame sans merci, the lady without pity, is a femme fatale. She destroys because it is her nature to destroy, Keats could have found patterns for his faerys child in folk mythology, classical literature, Renaissance poetry, or the medieval ballad. With a few skillful touches, he creates a woman who is at once beautiful, erotically attractive, fascinating, some readers see the poem as Keats personal rebellion against the pains of love
35.
Gothic fiction
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Gothic fiction, which is largely known by the subgenre of Gothic horror, is a genre or mode of literature and film that combines fiction and horror, death, and at times romance. Its origin is attributed to English author Horace Walpole, with his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto, the effect of Gothic fiction feeds on a pleasing sort of terror, an extension of Romantic literary pleasures that were relatively new at the time of Walpoles novel. It originated in England in the half of the 18th century and had much success in the 19th, as witnessed by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Another well known novel in this genre, dating from the late Victorian era, is Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the name Gothic refers to the -medieval buildings, emulating Gothic architecture, in which many of these stories take place. This extreme form of romanticism was very popular in England and Germany, the English Gothic novel also led to new novel types such as the German Schauerroman and the French Georgia. The novel usually regarded as the first Gothic novel is Horace Walpoles The Castle of Otranto, Horace Walpoles declared aim was to combine elements of the medieval romance, which he deemed too fanciful, and the modern novel, which he considered to be too confined to strict realism. Walpole published the first edition disguised as a romance from Italy discovered and republished by a fictitious translator. When Walpole admitted to his authorship in the edition, its originally favourable reception by literary reviewers changed into rejection. A romance with elements, and moreover void of didactical intention, was considered a setback. Walpoles forgery, together with the blend of history and fiction, contravened the principles of the Enlightenment and associated the Gothic novel with fake documentation. Clara Reeve, best known for her work The Old English Baron, set out to take Walpoles plot, the question now arose whether supernatural events that were not as evidently absurd as Walpoles would not lead the simpler minds to believe them possible. Ann Radcliffe developed the technique of the supernatural in which every seemingly supernatural intrusion is eventually traced back to natural causes. Among other elements, Ann Radcliffe introduced the figure of the Gothic villain. Radcliffes novels, above all The Mysteries of Udolpho, were best-sellers, however, along with most novels at the time, they were looked down upon by many well-educated people as sensationalist nonsense. Radcliffe also provided an aesthetic for the genre in an influential article On the Supernatural in Poetry, Romantic literary movements developed in continental Europe concurrent with the development of the Gothic novel. The roman noir appeared in France, by writers as François Guillaume Ducray-Duminil, Baculard dArnaud. In Germany, the Schauerroman gained traction with writers as Friedrich Schiller, with novels like The Ghost-Seer and these works were often more horrific and violent than the English Gothic novel. Matthew Gregory Lewiss lurid tale of debauchery, black magic
36.
The Monk
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The Monk, A Romance is a Gothic novel by Matthew Gregory Lewis, published in 1796. A quickly written book from early in Lewiss career, it was published before he turned twenty and its convoluted and scandalous plot has made it one of the most important Gothic novels of its time, often imitated and adapted for the stage and the screen. Agnes is Don Lorenzos younger sister and Don Raymonds lover and her mother fell ill while pregnant with Agnes and promised to send Agnes to the convent if she delivered her safely. She is a young lady who intends to marry Don Raymond but her parents want her to become a nun. Their plans are foiled and, thinking Don Raymond has abandoned her forever, Ambrosio is an extremely devout monk about 30 years old. He was found left at the Abbey doorstep when he was too young to tell his tale, the monks consider him a present from the Virgin Mary and they educate him at the monastery. Antonia is a timid and innocent girl of 15 and she was brought up in an old castle in Murcia with only her mother Elvira and is therefore very sheltered. She is the object of Don Lorenzos attentions, the novels evil characters are considered to be better written than the virtuous ones, and Antonias character is so virtuous that some have found her “deadly dull”. Baptiste is a living outside of Strausbourg. He lets travelers stay in his house so that he may rob and his two sons by a previous wife, Jacques and Robert, assist him to this end. He then forced Marguerite to marry him, Marguerite, however, is disgusted by his life of crime. Cunegonda An old nun who is held by Don Raymond to prevent her telling of his elopement with Agnes. Elvira is the mother of Antonia and Ambrosio and she married a young nobleman in secret. His family does not approve of her and because of this she and her escape to the Indies. After 13 years, when Antonia is very young, her husband dies, Leonella is Elviras sister and Antonias spinster aunt. She takes a dislike to Ambrosio after hearing his sermon. She believes Don Christovals polite attentions are more significant than they actually are and is hurt when he fails to call at her house and she eventually marries a younger man and lives in Cordova. Don Lorenzo de Medina is Agness older brother and friend of Don Raymond, immediately intrigued by Antonia after meeting her at Ambrosios sermon, Don Lorenzo resolves to marry her
37.
Edgar Allan Poe
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Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and he is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States and American literature as a whole, and he was one of the countrys earliest practitioners of the short story. Poe is generally considered the inventor of the fiction genre and is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. He was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a difficult life. Poe was born in Boston, the child of two actors. His father abandoned the family in 1810, and his mother died the following year, thus orphaned, the child was taken in by John and Frances Allan of Richmond, Virginia. They never formally adopted him, but Poe was with them well into young adulthood, tension developed later as John Allan and Edgar repeatedly clashed over debts, including those incurred by gambling, and the cost of secondary education for the young man. Poe attended the University of Virginia for one semester but left due to lack of money, Poe quarreled with Allan over the funds for his education and enlisted in the Army in 1827 under an assumed name. It was at time that his publishing career began, albeit humbly, with the anonymous collection of poems Tamerlane and Other Poems. With the death of Frances Allan in 1829, Poe and Allan reached a temporary rapprochement, however, Poe later failed as an officer cadet at West Point, declaring a firm wish to be a poet and writer, and he ultimately parted ways with John Allan. Poe switched his focus to prose and spent the several years working for literary journals and periodicals. His work forced him to move among several cities, including Baltimore, Philadelphia, in Richmond in 1836, he married Virginia Clemm, his 13-year-old cousin. In January 1845, Poe published his poem The Raven to instant success and his wife died of tuberculosis two years after its publication. For years, he had been planning to produce his own journal The Penn, Poe and his works influenced literature in the United States and around the world, as well as in specialized fields such as cosmology and cryptography. Poe and his work appear throughout popular culture in literature, music, films, a number of his homes are dedicated museums today. The Mystery Writers of America present an award known as the Edgar Award for distinguished work in the mystery genre. He was born Edgar Poe in Boston on January 19,1809 and he had an elder brother William Henry Leonard Poe, and a younger sister Rosalie Poe. Their grandfather David Poe Sr. had emigrated from Cavan, Ireland to America around the year 1750, Edgar may have been named after a character in William Shakespeares King Lear, a play that the couple were performing in 1809
38.
Carmilla
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Carmilla is a Gothic novella by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu and one of the early works of vampire fiction, predating Bram Stokers Dracula by 26 years. First published as a serial in The Dark Blue, the story is narrated by a young woman preyed upon by a vampire named Carmilla, later revealed to be Mircalla. The story is often anthologized and has adapted many times in film. Carmilla, serialized in the literary magazine The Dark Blue in late 1871, consequently, confusion has arisen relating the pictures to the plot. Isabella Mazzanti illustrated the books 2014 anniversary edition, published by Editions Soleil, Le Fanu presents the story as part of the casebook of Dr. Hesselius, whose departures from medical orthodoxy rank him as the first occult doctor in literature. When she was six, Laura had a vision of a visitor in her bedchamber. She later claims to have been punctured in her breast, although no wound was found, twelve years later, Laura and her father are admiring the sunset in front of the castle when her father tells her of a letter from his friend, General Spielsdorf. The General was supposed to bring his niece, Bertha Rheinfeldt, the General ambiguously concludes that he will discuss the circumstances in detail when they meet later. Laura, saddened by the loss of a friend, longs for a companion. A carriage accident outside Lauras home unexpectedly brings a girl of Lauras age into the familys care, both girls instantly recognize the other from the dream they both had when they were young. Carmilla appears injured after her accident, but her mysterious mother informs Lauras father that her journey is urgent. She arranges to leave her daughter with Laura and her father until she can return in three months, before she leaves, she sternly notes that her daughter will not disclose any information whatsoever about her family, past, or herself, and that Carmilla is of sound mind. Laura comments that this information seems needless to say, and her father laughs it off, Carmilla and Laura grow to be very close friends, but occasionally Carmillas mood abruptly changes. She sometimes makes romantic advances towards Laura, Carmilla refuses to tell anything about herself, despite questioning by Laura. Her secrecy is not the mysterious thing about Carmilla, she never joins the household in its prayers, she sleeps much of the day. Meanwhile, young women and girls in the towns have begun dying from an unknown malady. When the funeral procession of one such victim passes by the two girls, Laura joins in the funeral hymn, Carmilla bursts out in rage and scolds Laura, complaining that the hymn hurts her ears. When a shipment of restored heirloom paintings arrives, Laura finds a portrait of her ancestor, Mircalla, Countess Karnstein, the portrait resembles Carmilla exactly, down to the mole on her neck
39.
Marquis de Sade
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Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade, was a French aristocrat, revolutionary politician, philosopher, and writer, famous for his libertine sexuality. He was a proponent of freedom, unrestrained by morality, religion. The words sadism and sadist are derived from his name, during the French Revolution, he was an elected delegate to the National Convention. Many of his works were written in prison and he was his parents only surviving child. He was educated by an uncle, the Abbé de Sade, in Sades youth, his father abandoned the family, his mother joined a convent. He was raised with servants who indulged his every whim, which led to him becoming known as a rebellious, later in his childhood, Sade was sent to the Lycée Louis-le-Grand in Paris, a Jesuit college, for four years. While at the school, he was tutored by Abbé Jacques-François Amblet, later in life, the Abbé testified at one of Sades trials, saying that Sade had a passionate temperament which made him eager in the pursuit of pleasure but had a good heart. At the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, he was subjected to corporal punishment, including flagellation. At age 14, Sade began attending a military academy. At age 15, he was commissioned as a sub-lieutenant on 14 December 1755 after 20 months of training, becoming a soldier. After 13 months as a sub-lieutenant, he was commissioned to the rank of cornet in the Brigade de S. André of the Comte de Provences Carbine Regiment and he eventually became Colonel of a Dragoon regiment and fought in the Seven Years War. In 1766, he had a theatre built in his castle. In January 1767, his father died, the men of the Sade family alternated between using the marquis and comte titles. His grandfather, Gaspard François de Sade, was the first to use marquis, occasionally, he was the Marquis de Sade, but is identified in documents as the Marquis de Mazan. The Sade family were noblesse dépée, claiming at the time the oldest, Frank-descended nobility, so, at Court, precedence was by seniority and royal favor, not title. There is father-and-son correspondence, wherein father addresses son as marquis, for many years, Sades descendants regarded his life and work as a scandal to be suppressed. At that time, the marquis of legend was so unmentionable in his own family that Xavier de Sade only learned of him in the late 1940s when approached by a journalist. He subsequently discovered a store of Sades papers in the family château at Condé-en-Brie and his youngest son, the Marquis Thibault de Sade, has continued the collaboration
40.
Juliette (novel)
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Juliette is a novel written by the Marquis de Sade and published 1797–1801, accompanying Sades Nouvelle Justine. While Justine, Juliettes sister, was a woman who consequently encountered nothing but despair and abuse, Juliette is an amoral nymphomaniac murderer who is successful. The full title of the novel in the original French is LHistoire de Juliette ou les Prospérités du vice, Juliette is raised in a convent. However, at age thirteen she is seduced by a woman who explains that morality, religion. Juliette takes this to the extreme and manages to murder her way through people, including various family members. During Juliettes life from age 13 to about 30, the wanton anti-heroine engages in virtually every form of depravity and she meets the ferocious Clairwil, whose main passion is in murdering young men and boys as revenge for the mans brutality to her sex. In her journeys she also becomes acquainted with Minski, a nomadic, ogre-like Muscovite, a long audience with Pope Pius VI is one of the most extensive scenes in Juliette. The heroine shows off her learning to the pope with a catalogue of alleged immoralities committed by his predecessors. The audience ends, like almost every scene in the narrative. Soon after this, the male character Brisatesta narrates two scandalous encounters, the first is with Princess Sophia, niece of the King of Prussia, who has just married the Stadtholder at the Hague. The second encounter is with Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia, if one removes the narrative and pornographic scenes of Juliette, what would be left could perhaps be the ultimate example of de Sades lifelong philosophy. Juliette holds that nature is the mover of all human experience. Both Justine and Juliette were published anonymously, napoleon ordered the arrest of the author, and as a result de Sade was incarcerated without trial for the last thirteen years of his life. The essay Juliette or Enlightenment and Morality in Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adornos Dialectic of Enlightenment analyzes Juliette as the embodiment of the philosophy of enlightenment
41.
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
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The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was a group of English painters, poets, and critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The three founders were joined by William Michael Rossetti, James Collinson, Frederic George Stephens and Thomas Woolner to form the seven-member brotherhood and their principles were shared by other artists, including Marie Spartali Stillman and Ford Madox Brown. A later, medievalising strain inspired by Rossetti included Edward Burne-Jones, the groups intention was to reform art by rejecting what it considered the mechanistic approach first adopted by Mannerist artists who succeeded Raphael and Michelangelo. Its members believed the Classical poses and elegant compositions of Raphael in particular had been an influence on the academic teaching of art. In particular, the group objected to the influence of Sir Joshua Reynolds, founder of the English Royal Academy of Arts, to the Pre-Raphaelites, according to William Michael Rossetti, sloshy meant anything lax or scamped in the process of painting. Any thing or person of a commonplace or conventional kind, the brotherhood sought a return to the abundant detail, intense colours and complex compositions of Quattrocento Italian art. The group associated their work with John Ruskin, an English critic whose influences were driven by his religious background, the group continued to accept the concepts of history painting and mimesis, imitation of nature, as central to the purpose of art. The Pre-Raphaelites defined themselves as a movement, created a distinct name for their form of art. The groups debates were recorded in the Pre-Raphaelite Journal, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was founded in John Millaiss parents house on Gower Street, London in 1848. At the first meeting, the painters John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Hunt and Millais were students at the Royal Academy of Arts and had met in another loose association, the Cyclographic Club, a sketching society. At his own request Rossetti became a pupil of Ford Madox Brown in 1848, at that date, Rossetti and Hunt shared lodgings in Cleveland Street, Fitzrovia, Central London. Hunt had started painting The Eve of St. Agnes based on Keatss poem of the same name, as an aspiring poet, Rossetti wished to develop the links between Romantic poetry and art. Ford Madox Brown was invited to join, but the more senior artist remained independent but supported the group throughout the PRB period of Pre-Raphaelitism, other young painters and sculptors became close associates, including Charles Allston Collins, Thomas Tupper, and Alexander Munro. The PRB intended to keep the existence of the secret from members of the Royal Academy. The principles were deliberately non-dogmatic, since the brotherhood wished to emphasise the personal responsibility of artists to determine their own ideas. Influenced by Romanticism, the members thought freedom and responsibility were inseparable, nevertheless, they were particularly fascinated by medieval culture, believing it to possess a spiritual and creative integrity that had been lost in later eras. The emphasis on medieval culture clashed with principles of realism which stress the independent observation of nature, in its early stages, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood believed its two interests were consistent with one another, but in later years the movement divided and moved in two directions. The realists were led by Hunt and Millais, while the medievalists were led by Rossetti and his followers, Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris
42.
Edvard Munch
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One of his best known works is The Scream of 1893. Edvard Munch was born in a farmhouse in the village of Ådalsbruk in Løten, United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway, to Laura Catherine Bjølstad and Christian Munch, Christian was a doctor and medical officer who married Laura, a woman half his age, in 1861. Edvard had a sister, Johanne Sophie, and three younger siblings, Peter Andreas, Laura Catherine, and Inger Marie. Both Sophie and Edvard appear to have inherited their artistic talent from their mother, Edvard Munch was related to painter Jacob Munch and historian Peter Andreas Munch. The family moved to Christiania in 1864 when Christian Munch was appointed medical officer at Akershus Fortress, Edvards mother died of tuberculosis in 1868, as did Munchs favorite sister Johanne Sophie in 1877. After their mothers death, the Munch siblings were raised by their father, often ill for much of the winters and kept out of school, Edvard would draw to keep himself occupied. He was tutored by his mates and his aunt. Christian Munch also instructed his son in history and literature, and entertained the children with vivid ghost-stories, as Edvard remembered it, Christians positive behavior toward his children was overshadowed by his morbid pietism. Munch wrote, My father was temperamentally nervous and obsessively religious—to the point of psychoneurosis, from him I inherited the seeds of madness. The angels of fear, sorrow, and death stood by my side since the day I was born, Christian reprimanded his children by telling them that their mother was looking down from heaven and grieving over their misbehavior. The oppressive religious milieu, plus Edvards poor health and the vivid ghost stories, helped inspire his macabre visions and nightmares, one of Munchs younger sisters, Laura, was diagnosed with mental illness at an early age. Of the five siblings, only Andreas married, but he died a few months after the wedding, Munch would later write, I inherited two of mankinds most frightful enemies—the heritage of consumption and insanity. Christian Munchs military pay was low, and his attempts to develop a private side practice failed, keeping his family in genteel. They moved frequently from one flat to another. Munchs early drawings and watercolors depicted these interiors, and the objects, such as medicine bottles and drawing implements. By his teens, art dominated Munchs interests, at thirteen, Munch had his first exposure to other artists at the newly formed Art Association, where he admired the work of the Norwegian landscape school. He returned to copy the paintings, and soon he began to paint in oils, in 1879, Munch enrolled in a technical college to study engineering, where he excelled in physics, chemistry and math. He learned scaled and perspective drawing, but frequent illnesses interrupted his studies, the following year, much to his fathers disappointment, Munch left the college determined to become a painter
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