1.
Edmund Spenser
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Edmund Spenser was an English poet best known for The Faerie Queene, an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is recognized as one of the craftsmen of nascent Modern English verse. He was deeply affected by Irish faerie mythology, which he knew from his home at Kilcolman and his genocidal tracts against Gaelic culture were war propaganda. His house was burned to the ground during the war, causing him to flee Ireland, Edmund Spenser was born in East Smithfield, London, around the year 1552, though there is some ambiguity as to the exact date of his birth. As a young boy, he was educated in London at the Merchant Taylors School, while at Cambridge he became a friend of Gabriel Harvey and later consulted him, despite their differing views on poetry. In 1578, he became for a time secretary to John Young. In 1579, he published The Shepheardes Calender and around the time married his first wife. They had two children, Sylvanus and Katherine, in July 1580, Spenser went to Ireland in service of the newly appointed Lord Deputy, Arthur Grey, 14th Baron Grey de Wilton. Spenser served under Lord Gray with Walter Raleigh at the Siege of Smerwick massacre, when Lord Grey was recalled to England, Spenser stayed on in Ireland, having acquired other official posts and lands in the Munster Plantation. Raleigh acquired other nearby Munster estates confiscated in the Second Desmond Rebellion, some time between 1587 and 1589, Spenser acquired his main estate at Kilcolman, near Doneraile in North Cork. He later bought a second holding to the south, at Rennie and its ruins are still visible today. A short distance away grew a tree, locally known as Spensers Oak until it was destroyed in a strike in the 1960s. Local legend has it that he penned some of The Faerie Queene under this tree. In 1590, Spenser brought out the first three books of his most famous work, The Faerie Queene, having travelled to London to publish and promote the work and he was successful enough to obtain a life pension of £50 a year from the Queen. By 1594, Spensers first wife had died, and in that year he married Elizabeth Boyle, the marriage itself was celebrated in Epithalamion. They had a son named Peregrine, in 1596, Spenser wrote a prose pamphlet titled A View of the Present State of Ireland. This piece, in the form of a dialogue, circulated in manuscript and it is probable that it was kept out of print during the authors lifetime because of its inflammatory content. The pamphlet argued that Ireland would never be totally pacified by the English until its indigenous language and customs had been destroyed, in 1598, during the Nine Years War, Spenser was driven from his home by the native Irish forces of Aodh Ó Néill
2.
Kingdom of England
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In the early 11th century the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, united by Æthelstan, became part of the North Sea Empire of Cnut the Great, a personal union between England, Denmark and Norway. The completion of the conquest of Wales by Edward I in 1284 put Wales under the control of the English crown, from the accession of James I in 1603, the Stuart dynasty ruled England in personal union with Scotland and Ireland. Under the Stuarts, the kingdom plunged into war, which culminated in the execution of Charles I in 1649. The monarchy returned in 1660, but the Civil War had established the precedent that an English monarch cannot govern without the consent of Parliament and this concept became legally established as part of the Glorious Revolution of 1688. From this time the kingdom of England, as well as its state the United Kingdom. On 1 May 1707, under the terms of the Acts of Union 1707, the Anglo-Saxons referred to themselves as the Engle or the Angelcynn, originally names of the Angles. They called their land Engla land, meaning land of the English, by Æthelweard Latinized Anglia, from an original Anglia vetus, the name Engla land became England by haplology during the Middle English period. The Latin name was Anglia or Anglorum terra, the Old French, by the 14th century, England was also used in reference to the entire island of Great Britain. The standard title for all monarchs from Æthelstan until the time of King John was Rex Anglorum, Canute the Great, a Dane, was the first king to call himself King of England. In the Norman period Rex Anglorum remained standard, with use of Rex Anglie. The Empress Matilda styled herself Domina Anglorum, from the time of King John onwards all other titles were eschewed in favour of Rex or Regina Anglie. In 1604 James VI and I, who had inherited the English throne the previous year, the English and Scottish parliaments, however, did not recognise this title until the Acts of Union of 1707. The kingdom of England emerged from the unification of the early medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdoms known as the Heptarchy, East Anglia, Mercia, Northumbria, Kent, Essex, Sussex. The Viking invasions of the 9th century upset the balance of power between the English kingdoms, and native Anglo-Saxon life in general, the English lands were unified in the 10th century in a reconquest completed by King Æthelstan in 927 CE. During the Heptarchy, the most powerful king among the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms might become acknowledged as Bretwalda, the decline of Mercia allowed Wessex to become more powerful. It absorbed the kingdoms of Kent and Sussex in 825, the kings of Wessex became increasingly dominant over the other kingdoms of England during the 9th century. In 827, Northumbria submitted to Egbert of Wessex at Dore, in 886, Alfred the Great retook London, which he apparently regarded as a turning point in his reign. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says that all of the English people not subject to the Danes submitted themselves to King Alfred, asser added that Alfred, king of the Anglo-Saxons, restored the city of London splendidly
3.
Early Modern English
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Prior to and following the accession of James I to the English throne in 1603, the emerging English standard began to influence the spoken and written Middle Scots of Scotland. Modern readers of English are generally able to understand texts written in the phase of the Early Modern English period. The Early Modern English of the early 17th century forms the base of the grammatical and orthographical conventions that survive in Modern English. The change from Middle English to Early Modern English was not just a matter of vocabulary or pronunciation changing, it was the beginning of a new era in the history of English. An era of change in a language with large variations in dialect was replaced by a new era of a more standardised language with a richer lexicon. 1476 – William Caxton starts printing in Westminster, however, the language he uses reflects the variety of styles,1485 – Caxton publishes Thomas Malorys Le Morte dArthur, the first print bestseller in English. Malorys language, while archaic in some respects, is clearly Early Modern,1491 or 1492 – Richard Pynson starts printing in London, his style tends to prefer Chancery Standard, the form of English used by government. C. 1509 – Pynson becomes the official printer. From 1525 – Publication of William Tyndales Bible translation,1539 – Publication of the Great Bible, the first officially authorised Bible in English, edited by Myles Coverdale, largely from the work of Tyndale. This Bible is read to congregations regularly in churches, familiarising much of the population of England with a form of the language. 1549 – Publication of the first Book of Common Prayer in English under the supervision of Thomas Cranmer and this book standardises much of the wording of church services. 1557 – Publication of Tottels Miscellany, 1586–15931592 – The Spanish Tragedy by Thomas Kyd c.1590 to c.1612 – Shakespeares plays written. Early vocabulary specific to American English loaned from indigenous languages,1611 – The King James Bible is published, largely based on Tyndales translation. It remains the standard Bible in the Church of England for many years,1623 – Shakespeares First Folio published 1630-1651-William Bradford, Governor of Plymouth Colony, writes in his journal. It will become Of Plymouth Plantation, one of the earliest texts written in the American Colonies,1647 – publication of the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio The period of the English Civil War and the Interregnum was one of social and political upheaval and instability. The dates for Restoration literature are a matter of convention,1651 – Publication of Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes. 1660-1669-Samuel Pepys writes in his diary and it will become an important eyewitness account of the Restoration Era. 1662 – New edition of the Book of Common Prayer, largely based on the 1549 and this also long remains a standard work in English
4.
Epic poetry
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An epic poem, epic, epos, or epopee is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation. Milman Parry and Albert Lord have argued that the Homeric epics and these works form the basis of the epic genre in Western literature. Nearly all Western epic self-consciously presents itself as a continuation of the tradition begun by these poems, classical epic employs dactylic hexameter and recounts a journey, either physical or mental or both. Epics also tend to highlight cultural norms and to define or call into question cultural values, another type of epic poetry is epyllion, which is a brief narrative poem with a romantic or mythological theme. The term, which means little epic, came into use in the nineteenth century, the most famous example of classical epyllion is perhaps Catullus 64. The first epics were products of preliterate societies and oral history poetic traditions, in these traditions, poetry is transmitted to the audience and from performer to performer by purely oral means. Early twentieth-century study of living oral traditions in the Balkans by Milman Parry. What they demonstrated was that oral epics tend to be constructed in short episodes, each of equal status, interest and this facilitates memorization, as the poet is recalling each episode in turn and using the completed episodes to recreate the entire epic as he performs it. Parry and Lord also contend that the most likely source for written texts of the epics of Homer was dictation from an oral performance, poets in literate societies have sometimes copied the epic format. The earliest surviving European examples are the Argonautica of Apollonius of Rhodes and Virgils Aeneid, other obvious examples are Nonnus Dionysiaca, Tulsidas Sri Ramacharit Manas. In his work Poetics, Aristotle defines an epic as one of the forms of poetry, contrasted with lyric poetry, an attempt to delineate ten main characteristics of an epic, Begins in medias res. The setting is vast, covering many nations, the world or the universe, Begins with an invocation to a muse. Begins with a statement of the theme, contains long lists, called an epic catalogue. Shows divine intervention on human affairs, features heroes that embody the values of the civilization. Often features the tragic heros descent into the Underworld or hell, the hero generally participates in a cyclical journey or quest, faces adversaries that try to defeat him in his journey and returns home significantly transformed by his journey. The epic hero illustrates traits, performs deeds, and exemplifies certain morals that are valued by the society the epic originates from, many epic heroes are recurring characters in the legends of their native culture. Conventions of epics, Preposition, Opens by stating the theme or cause of the epic and this may take the form of a purpose, of a question, or of a situation. Invocation, Writer invokes a Muse, one of the nine daughters of Zeus, the poet prays to the Muses to provide him with divine inspiration to tell the story of a great hero
5.
Knight
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A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a monarch or other political leader for service to the monarch or country, especially in a military capacity. Historically, in Europe, knighthood was conferred upon mounted warriors, during the High Middle Ages, knighthood was considered a class of lower nobility. By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, often, a knight was a vassal who served as a fighter for a lord, with payment in the form of land holdings. The lords trusted the knights, who were skilled in battle on horseback, since the early modern period, the title of knight is purely honorific, usually bestowed by a monarch, as in the British honours system, often for non-military service to the country. The modern female equivalent in the United Kingdom is Dame, furthermore, Geoffroi de Charnys Book of Chivalry expounded upon the importance of Christian faith in every area of a knights life. This novel explored the ideals of knighthood and their incongruity with the reality of Cervantes world, in the late medieval period, new methods of warfare began to render classical knights in armour obsolete, but the titles remained in many nations. Some orders of knighthood, such as the Knights Templar, have become the subject of legend, each of these orders has its own criteria for eligibility, but knighthood is generally granted by a head of state or monarch to selected persons to recognise some meritorious achievement. This linkage is reflected in the etymology of chivalry, cavalier, the special prestige accorded to mounted warriors finds a parallel in the furusiyya in the Muslim world, and the Greek hippeus and Roman eques of classical antiquity. The word knight, from Old English cniht, is a cognate of the German word Knecht and this meaning, of unknown origin, is common among West Germanic languages. Middle High German had the phrase guoter kneht, which also meant knight, the Anglo-Saxon cniht had no connection to horsemanship, the word referred to any servant. A rādcniht, riding-servant, was a servant delivering messages or patrolling coastlines on horseback, a narrowing of the generic meaning servant to military follower of a king or other superior is visible by 1100. The specific military sense of a knight as a warrior in the heavy cavalry emerges only in the Hundred Years War. The verb to knight appears around 1300, and, from the same time, an Equestrian was a member of the second highest social class in the Roman Republic and early Roman Empire. This class is often translated as knight, the medieval knight, both Greek ἳππος and Latin equus are derived from the Proto-Indo-European word root ekwo-, horse. In the later Roman Empire, the classical Latin word for horse, equus, was replaced in common parlance by the vulgar Latin caballus, sometimes thought to derive from Gaulish caballos. From caballus arose terms in the various Romance languages cognate with the English cavalier, Italian cavaliere, Spanish caballero, French chevalier, Portuguese cavaleiro, the Germanic languages have terms cognate with the English rider, German Ritter, and Dutch and Scandinavian ridder. These words are derived from Germanic rīdan, to ride, in turn derived from the Proto-Indo-European root reidh-, in ancient Rome there was a knightly class Ordo Equestris from which European knighthood may have been derived. Some portions of the armies of Germanic peoples who occupied Europe from the 3rd century AD onward had been mounted, in the Early Medieval period any well-equipped horseman could be described as a knight, or miles in Latin
6.
Allegory
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As a literary device, an allegory is a metaphor whose vehicle may be a character, place or event, representing real-world issues and occurrences. Many ancient religions are based on astrological allegories, that is, allegories of the movement of the sun, in classical literature two of the best-known allegories are the Cave in Platos Republic and the story of the stomach and its members in the speech of Menenius Agrippa. One of the examples of allegory, Platos Allegory of the Cave. In this allegory, Plato describes a group of people who have lived chained in an all of their lives. The people watch shadows projected on the wall by things passing in front of a fire behind them and begin to ascribe forms to these shadows, using language to identify their world. He tries to tell the people in the cave of his discovery, also allegorical is Ezekiel 16 and 17, wherein the capture of that same vine by the mighty Eagle represents Israels exile to Rome. Allegory has an ability to freeze the temporality of a story, Mediaeval thinking accepted allegory as having a reality underlying any rhetorical or fictional uses. The allegory was as true as the facts of surface appearances, if, then, the Greeks or others say that they were not committed to the care of Peter and his successors, they necessarily confess that they are not of the sheep of Christ. This text also demonstrates the frequent use of allegory in religious texts during the Mediaeval Period, following the tradition, since meaningful stories are nearly always applicable to larger issues, allegories may be read into many stories which the author may not have recognised. This is allegoresis, or the act of reading a story as an allegory. S, lewis and A Kingdom Far and Clear, The Complete Swan Lake Trilogy by Mark Helprin. The story of the apple falling onto Isaac Newtons head is another famous allegory and it simplified the idea of gravity by depicting a simple way it was supposedly discovered. It also made the scientific revelation well known by condensing the theory into a short tale. According to Henry Littlefields 1964 article, L. Yet, George MacDonald emphasised in 1893 that, A fairy tale is not an allegory, I much prefer history – true or feigned– with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers. I think that many confuse applicability with allegory, but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and this further reinforces the idea of forced allegoresis, as allegory is often a matter of interpretation and only sometimes of original artistic intention. Like allegorical stories, allegorical poetry has two meanings – a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning, some unique specimens of allegory can be found in the following works, Edmund Spenser – The Faerie Queene, The several knights in the poem actually stand for several virtues. Nathaniel Hawthorne – Young Goodman Brown, The Devils Staff symbolises defiance of God, the characters names, such as Goodman and Faith, ironically serve as paradox in the conclusion of the story. Nathaniel Hawthorne – The Scarlet Letter, The scarlet letter symbolises many things, the characters, while developed with interiority, are allegorical in that they represent ways of seeing the world. George Orwell – Animal Farm, The pigs stand for political figures of the Russian Revolution, lászló Krasznahorkai - The Melancholy of Resistance and the film Werckmeister Harmonies, It uses a circus to describe an occupying dysfunctional government
7.
Elizabeth I of England
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Elizabeth I was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, his second wife, who was executed two and a half years after Elizabeths birth. Annes marriage to Henry VIII was annulled, and Elizabeth was declared illegitimate, edwards will was set aside and Mary became queen, deposing Lady Jane Grey. During Marys reign, Elizabeth was imprisoned for nearly a year on suspicion of supporting Protestant rebels, in 1558, Elizabeth succeeded her half-sister to the throne and set out to rule by good counsel. She depended heavily on a group of trusted advisers, led by William Cecil, one of her first actions as queen was the establishment of an English Protestant church, of which she became the Supreme Governor. This Elizabethan Religious Settlement was to evolve into the Church of England and it was expected that Elizabeth would marry and produce an heir to continue the Tudor line. She never did, despite numerous courtships, as she grew older, Elizabeth became famous for her virginity. A cult grew around her which was celebrated in the portraits, pageants, in government, Elizabeth was more moderate than her father and half-siblings had been. One of her mottoes was video et taceo, in religion, she was relatively tolerant and avoided systematic persecution. Elizabeth was cautious in foreign affairs, manoeuvring between the powers of France and Spain. She only half-heartedly supported a number of ineffective, poorly resourced military campaigns in the Netherlands, France, by the mid-1580s, England could no longer avoid war with Spain. Englands defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 associated Elizabeth with one of the greatest military victories in English history, Elizabeths reign is known as the Elizabethan era. Some historians depict Elizabeth as a short-tempered, sometimes indecisive ruler, towards the end of her reign, a series of economic and military problems weakened her popularity. Such was the case with Elizabeths rival, Mary, Queen of Scots, after the short reigns of Elizabeths half-siblings, her 44 years on the throne provided welcome stability for the kingdom and helped forge a sense of national identity. Elizabeth was born at Greenwich Palace and was named after both her grandmothers, Elizabeth of York and Elizabeth Howard and she was the second child of Henry VIII of England born in wedlock to survive infancy. Her mother was Henrys second wife, Anne Boleyn, at birth, Elizabeth was the heir presumptive to the throne of England. She was baptised on 10 September, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, the Marquess of Exeter, the Duchess of Norfolk, Elizabeth was two years and eight months old when her mother was beheaded on 19 May 1536, four months after Catherine of Aragons death from natural causes. Elizabeth was declared illegitimate and deprived of her place in the royal succession, eleven days after Anne Boleyns execution, Henry married Jane Seymour, who died shortly after the birth of their son, Prince Edward, in 1537
8.
Britomart Redeems Faire Amoret
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Britomart Redeems Faire Amoret is an oil painting on canvas by English artist William Etty, first exhibited in 1833 and now in Tate Britain. In Spensers original poem Amoret has been tortured and mutilated by the time of her rescue, sold by Etty to a private collector in 1833, it passed through the hands of several more before entering the collection of the Lady Lever Art Gallery. In 1958 it was acquired by the Tate Gallery, and it remains in the collection of Tate Britain, William Etty was born in York in 1787, the son of a miller and baker. He showed artistic promise from an age, but his family were financially insecure. On completing his indenture he moved to London with a few pieces of chalk-crayons in colours, with the aim of emulating the Old Masters. Etty gained acceptance to the Royal Academy Schools in early 1807, after a year spent studying under renowned portrait painter Thomas Lawrence, Etty returned to the Royal Academy, drawing at the life class and copying other paintings. In 1821 the Royal Academy exhibited one of Ettys works, The Arrival of Cleopatra in Cilicia, the painting was extremely well received, and many of Ettys fellow artists greatly admired him. He was elected a full Royal Academician in 1828, ahead of John Constable and he became well respected for his ability to capture flesh tones accurately in painting and for his fascination with contrasts in skin tones. Following the exhibition of Cleopatra, Etty attempted to reproduce its success and he exhibited 15 paintings at the Summer Exhibition in the 1820s, and all but one contained at least one nude figure. In so doing Etty became the first English artist to treat nude studies as an art form in their own right, capable of being aesthetically attractive. The supposed prurient reaction of the classes to his nude paintings caused concern throughout the 19th century. Many critics condemned his repeated depictions of nudity as indecent. From 1832 onwards, needled by repeated attacks from the press, Etty remained a prominent painter of nudes, the heroic female warrior Britomart battles through obstacles to reach the chamber in which Amoret is being held, and slays Busirane moments before he is able to kill Amoret. Britomart Redeems Faire Amoret was intended by Etty to illustrate the virtues of chastity and it shows the moment in which Busirane is interrupted by Britomart as he prepares to kill Amoret. Amoret is chained to a gilded Solomonic column, carved with depictions of Venus, Britomart, clad in armour, enters Busiranes Moorish chamber, and tramples a blood-stained grimoire as she draws her sword. Busirane, naked from the waist up and with Chinese-style trousers and queue, falls to the floor, unusually for Etty, Britomart is painted very thinly, with the canvas weave still visible through the paint. Art historian Alison Smith considers that this was inspired by Henry Fuseli. In the original poem, Busirane had tortured and cut out the heart of the still-living Amoret by the time of her rescue
9.
William Etty
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William Etty RA was an English artist best known for his history paintings containing nude figures. He was the first significant British painter of nudes and still lifes, born in York, he left school at the age of 12 to become an apprentice printer in Hull. He completed his apprenticeship seven years later and moved to London, there he studied under Thomas Lawrence and trained by copying works by other artists. Etty earned respect at the Royal Academy of Arts for his ability to paint realistic flesh tones, Ettys Cleopatras Arrival in Cilicia, painted in 1821, featured numerous nudes and was exhibited to great acclaim. Its success prompted several further depictions of scenes with nudes. All but one of the works he exhibited at the Royal Academy in the 1820s contained at least one nude figure, and he acquired a reputation for indecency. Despite this, he was successful and critically acclaimed, and in 1828 was elected a Royal Academician. Although he was one of the most respected artists in the country he continued to study at life classes throughout his life, a practice considered inappropriate by his fellow artists. In the 1830s Etty began to branch out into the lucrative but less respected field of portraiture. He continued to paint both male and female nudes, which caused criticism and condemnation from some elements of the press. An extremely shy man, Etty rarely socialised and never married, from 1824 until his death he lived with his niece Betsy. Even in London he retained a keen interest in his native York, and was instrumental in the establishment of the towns first art school, Etty was prolific and commercially successful throughout the 1840s, but the quality of his work deteriorated throughout this period. As his health worsened he retired to York in 1848. He died in 1849, shortly after a retrospective exhibition. In the immediate aftermath of his death his works became highly collectable, changing tastes meant his work later fell out of fashion, and imitators soon abandoned his style. By the end of the 19th century the value of all of his works had fallen below their original prices, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, British painting was strongly influenced by Joshua Reynolds, the first president of the Royal Academy of Arts. After Reynoldss death his Discourses on Art, which extolled the notion of a duty to paint idealised subjects. The Royal Academy dominated British art, with the annual Royal Academy Summer Exhibition the most important event in the calendar
10.
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
11.
Homer
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Homer is the name ascribed by the ancient Greeks to the semi-legendary author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic poems which are the central works of Greek literature. The Odyssey focuses on the home of Odysseus, king of Ithaca. Many accounts of Homers life circulated in classical antiquity, the most widespread being that he was a bard from Ionia. The modern scholarly consensus is that these traditions do not have any historical value, the Homeric question - by whom, when, where and under what circumstances were the Iliad and Odyssey composed - continues to be debated. Broadly speaking, modern scholarly opinion on the authorship question falls into two camps, one group holds that most of the Iliad and the Odyssey is the work of a single poet of genius. The other considers the Homeric poems to be the crystallization of a process of working and re-working by many contributors and it is generally accepted that the poems were composed at some point around the late eighth or early seventh century B. C. Most researchers believe that the poems were transmitted orally. The Homeric epics were the greatest influence on ancient Greek culture and education, to Plato, the chronological period of Homer depends on the meaning to be assigned to the word Homer. Was Homer a single person, an imaginary person representing a group of poets and this information is often called the world of Homer. The Homeric period would in that cover a number of historical periods, especially the Mycenaean Age. Considered word-for-word, the texts as we know them are the product of the scholars of the last three centuries. Each edition of the Iliad or Odyssey is a different, as the editors rely on different manuscripts and fragments. The term accuracy reveals a belief in an original uniform text. The manuscripts of the work currently available date to no earlier than the 10th century. These are at the end of a missing thousand-year chain of copies made as each generation of manuscripts disintegrated or were lost or destroyed and these numerous manuscripts are so similar that a single original can be postulated. The time gap in the chain is bridged by the scholia, or notes, on the existing manuscripts, librarian of the Library of Alexandria, he had noticed a wide divergence in the works attributed to Homer, and was trying to restore a more authentic copy. He had collected several manuscripts, which he named, the Sinopic, the one he selected for correction was the koine, which Murray translates as the Vulgate. Aristarchus was known for his selection of material
12.
Alcina
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Alcina is an opera seria by George Frideric Handel. Handel used the libretto of Lisola di Alcina, an opera that was set in 1728 in Rome by Riccardo Broschi, partly altered for better conformity, the story was originally taken from Ludovico Ariostos Orlando furioso, an epic poem. The opera contains several musical sequences with opportunity for dance, these were composed for dancer Marie Sallé, Alcina was composed for Handels first season at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden in London. It premiered on 16 April 1735, like the composers other works in the opera seria genre, Alcina fell into obscurity, after a revival in Brunswick in 1738 it was not performed again until a production in Leipzig in 1928. The Australian soprano Joan Sutherland sang the role in a production by Franco Zeffirelli in which she made her debut at La Fenice in February 1960 and she performed in the same production at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in 1962. It was given as part of the Ledlanet Nights festival in Scotland in 1969, a major production was the one directed by Robert Carsen and originally staged for the Opéra de Paris in 1999 and repeated at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Both stagings featured Renée Fleming in the title role, the opera was given a concert performance on 10 October 2014 at the Barbican Centre in London. Joyce DiDonato sang the role under Harry Bicket with The English Concert. Alice Coote, Christine Rice and Anna Christy sang other significant roles, the group toured to the European continent with performances in Pamplona, Madrid, Vienna, and Paris and then to Carnegie Hall in New York on 26 October. The background of the opera comes from the poem Orlando Furioso, the heroic knight Ruggiero is destined to a short but glorious life, and a benevolent magician is always whisking him away from the arms of his fiancée, Bradamante. Bradamante is not the type to put up with the constant disappearance of her lover, just before the opera begins she has rescued him from an enchanted castle, only to have her flying horse take a fancy to Ruggiero and fly off with him. Ruggiero and the land on an island in the middle of the ocean. As the hippogriff begins to eat the leaves of a myrtle bush, the bush reveals that it was once a living soul named Sir Astolfo, and the island belongs to the sister sorceresses Alcina and Morgana. The beautiful Alcina seduces every knight that lands on her isle, despite Astolfos warning, Ruggiero strides off to meet this sorceress – and falls under her spell. Bradamante, again searching for her lover, arrives on Alcinas island with Ruggieros former tutor, dressed in armor, Bradamante looks like a young man and goes by the name of her own brother, Ricciardo. She and Melisso possess a magic ring which enables the wearer to see through illusion, the first person they meet is the sorceress Morgana. Barely human and with no understanding of love, she immediately abandons her own lover Oronte for the handsome Ricciardo. Morgana conveys the visitors to Alcinas court, where Bradamante is dismayed to discover that Ruggiero is besotted with Alcina, also at Alcinas court is a boy, Oberto, who is looking for his father, Astolfo, who was last seen heading toward this island
13.
Armida
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The story of Armida, a Saracen sorceress and Rinaldo, a soldier in the First Crusade, was created by the Italian poet Torquato Tasso. In his epic Gerusalemme liberata, Rinaldo is a fierce and determined warrior who is also honorable, Armida has been sent to stop the Christians from completing their mission and is about to murder the sleeping soldier, but instead she falls in love. She creates a garden where she holds him a lovesick prisoner. Eventually Charles and Ubaldo, two of his fellow Crusaders, find him and hold a shield to his face, so he can see his image, Rinaldo barely can resist Armida’s pleadings, but his comrades insist that he return to his Christian duties. She gives in at this, and like the other Saracen warrior woman, Clorinda, earlier in the piece, becomes a Christian, many painters and composers were inspired by Tassos tale. The works that resulted often added or subtracted an element, Tasso himself continued to edit the story for years, in some versions, Armida is converted to Christianity, in others, she rages and destroys her own enchanted garden. Johannes Brahms composed a cantata entitled Rinaldo based on the story, First performed by the Imperial Ballet at the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre, St. Petersburg on 20 November 1855. First performed by the Imperial Ballet at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre, second premiere given by the Ballets Russes at the Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris on 19 May 1909. First performed by the Sadlers Wells Ballet at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Wood, James, ed. article name needed. London and New York, Frederick Warne
14.
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
15.
Justice
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Justice is the legal or philosophical theory by which fairness is administered. The concept of justice differs in every culture, an early theory of justice was set out by the Ancient Greek philosopher Plato in his work The Republic. Advocates of divine command theory argue that justice issues from God, in the 17th century, theorists like John Locke argued for the theory of natural law. Thinkers in the social contract tradition argued that justice is derived from the agreement of everyone concerned. In the 19th century, utilitarian thinkers including John Stuart Mill argued that justice is what has the best consequences, Theories of distributive justice concern what is distributed, between whom they are to be distributed, and what is the proper distribution. Egalitarians argued that justice can only exist within the coordinates of equality, John Rawls used a social contract argument to show that justice, and especially distributive justice, is a form of fairness. Property rights theorists take a view of distributive justice and argue that property rights-based justice maximizes the overall wealth of an economic system. Theories of retributive justice are concerned with punishment for wrongdoing, restorative justice is an approach to justice that focuses on restoring what is good, and necessarily focuses on the needs of victims and offenders. Understandings of justice differ in culture, as cultures are usually dependent upon a shared history. Each cultures ethics create values which influence the notion of justice, although there can be found some justice principles that are one and the same in all or most of the cultures, these are insufficient to create a unitary justice apprehension. In his dialogue Republic, Plato uses Socrates to argue for justice that covers both the just person and the just City State, Justice is a proper, harmonious relationship between the warring parts of the person or city. Hence, Platos definition of justice is that justice is the having and doing of what is ones own, a just man is a man in just the right place, doing his best and giving the precise equivalent of what he has received. This applies both at the level and at the universal level. A persons soul has three parts – reason, spirit and desire, similarly, a city has three parts – Socrates uses the parable of the chariot to illustrate his point, a chariot works as a whole because the two horses power is directed by the charioteer. Lovers of wisdom – philosophers, in one sense of the term – should rule because only they understand what is good, if one is ill, one goes to a medic rather than a farmer, because the medic is expert in the subject of health. Similarly, one should trust ones city to an expert in the subject of the good, not to a politician who tries to gain power by giving people what they want. For Socrates, the way the ship will reach its destination – the good – is if the navigator takes charge. Advocates of divine command theory argue that justice, and indeed the whole of morality, is the command of God
16.
Sword
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A sword is a long bladed weapon intended for slashing or thrusting. The precise definition of the term varies with the epoch or the geographical region under consideration. A sword consists of a blade attached to a hilt. The blade can be straight or curved, thrusting swords have a pointed tip on the blade, and tend to be straighter, slashing swords have sharpened cutting edge on one or both sides of the blade, and are more likely to be curved. Many swords are designed for thrusting and slashing. Historically, the sword developed in the Bronze Age, evolving from the dagger, the later Iron Age sword remained fairly short and without a crossguard. The word sword continues the Old English, sweord, the use of a sword is known as swordsmanship or as fencing. In the Early Modern period, western sword design diverged into two forms, the thrusting swords and the sabers. The thrusting swords such as the rapier and eventually the smallsword were designed to impale their targets quickly and their long and straight yet light and well balanced design made them highly maneuverable and deadly in a duel but fairly ineffective when used in a slashing or chopping motion. A well aimed lunge and thrust could end a fight in seconds with just the swords point, the saber and similar blades such as the cutlass were built more heavily and were more typically used in warfare. Built for slashing and chopping at multiple enemies, often from horseback, most sabers also had sharp points and double edged blades, making them capable of piercing soldier after soldier in a cavalry charge. Sabers continued to see use until the early 20th century. The US Navy kept tens of thousands of sturdy cutlasses in their armory well into World War II, non-European weapons called sword include single-edged weapons such as the Middle Eastern scimitar, the Chinese dao and the related Japanese katana. The Chinese jian is an example of a non-European double-edged sword, the first weapons that can be described as swords date to around 3300 BC. They have been found in Arslantepe, Turkey, are made from arsenical bronze, some of them are inlaid with silver. The sword developed from the dagger when the construction of longer blades became possible, from the late 3rd millennium BC in the Middle East, first in arsenic copper, then in tin-bronze. Blades longer than 60 cm were rare and not practical until the late Bronze Age because the strength of bronze is relatively low. These are the type A swords of the Aegean Bronze Age, one of the most important, and longest-lasting, types swords of the European Bronze Age was the Naue II type, also known as Griffzungenschwert
17.
Demeter
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In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, Demeter is the goddess of the harvest and agriculture, who presided over grains and the fertility of the earth. Her cult titles include Sito, she of the Grain, as the giver of food or grain, though Demeter is often described simply as the goddess of the harvest, she presided also over the sacred law, and the cycle of life and death. She and her daughter Persephone were the figures of the Eleusinian Mysteries that predated the Olympian pantheon. In the Linear B Mycenean Greek tablets of c, 1400–1200 BC found at Pylos, the two mistresses and the king may be related with Demeter, Persephone and Poseidon. It is possible that Demeter appears in Linear A as da-ma-te on three documents, all three dedicated in religious situations and all three bearing just the name. It is unlikely that Demeter appears as da-ma-te in a Linear B inscription, on the other hand,
18.
Harvest
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Harvesting is the process of gathering a ripe crop from the fields. Reaping is the cutting of grain or pulse for harvest, typically using a scythe, sickle, on smaller farms with minimal mechanization, harvesting is the most labor-intensive activity of the growing season. On large mechanized farms, harvesting utilizes the most expensive and sophisticated farm machinery, the term harvesting in general usage may include immediate postharvest handling, including cleaning, sorting, packing, and cooling. Harvest, a noun, came from the Old English word hærfest, meaning autumn, harvest-time, the harvest came to also mean the activity of reaping, gathering, and storing grain and other grown products during the autumn, and also the grain and other grown products themselves. Harvest was also verbified, To harvest means to reap, gather, people who harvest and equipment that harvests are harvesters, while they do it, they are harvesting. In history, crop failures and subsequent famines have triggered human migration, rural exodus, over years, unsustainable farming of land degrades soil fertility and diminishes crop yield. With a steadily growing population and local overpopulation, even slightly diminishing yields are already the equivalent to a partial harvest failure. Fortunately, fertilizers obviate the need for regeneration in the first place. Harvesting commonly refers to grain and produce, but also has other uses, the term harvest is also used in reference to harvesting grapes for wine. Within the context of irrigation, water harvesting refers to the collection, instead of harvest, the term exploit is also used, as in exploiting fisheries or water resources. Energy harvesting is the process of capturing and storing energy that would otherwise go unexploited, body harvesting, or cadaver harvesting, is the process of collecting and preparing cadavers for anatomical study. In a similar sense, organ harvesting is the removal of tissues or organs from a donor for purposes of transplanting. Harvesting or Domestic Harvesting in Canada refers to hunting, fishing, and plant gathering by First Nations, Métis, for example, in the Gwichin Comprehensive Land Claim Agreement, Harvesting means gathering, hunting, trapping or fishing. Similarly, in the Tlicho Land Claim and Self Government Agreement, Harvesting means, in relation to wildlife, hunting, trapping or fishing and, in relation to plants or trees, combine Harvester Harvest Harvest festival Overharvesting Threshing Winnowing
19.
Ancient Greek religion
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Ancient Greek religion encompasses the collection of beliefs, rituals, and mythology originating in ancient Greece in the form of both popular public religion and cult practices. These groups varied enough for it to be possible to speak of Greek religions or cults in the plural, many ancient Greeks recognized the twelve major gods and goddesses, although philosophies such as Stoicism and some forms of Platonism used language that seems to assume a single transcendent deity. Different cities often worshiped the deities, sometimes with epithets that distinguished them. Greek religion was tempered by Etruscan cult and belief to form much of the later ancient Roman religion, while there were few concepts universal to all the Greek peoples, there were common beliefs shared by many. Ancient Greek theology was polytheistic, based on the assumption there were many gods. There was a hierarchy of deities, with Zeus, the king of the gods, having a level of control all the others. Some deities had dominion over aspects of nature. Other deities ruled over abstract concepts, for instance Aphrodite controlled love, while being immortal, the gods were certainly not all-good or even all-powerful. They had to obey fate, known to Greek mythology as the Moirai, which overrode any of their divine powers or wills. For instance, in mythology, it was Odysseus fate to return home to Ithaca after the Trojan War, and the gods could only lengthen his journey and make it harder for him, the gods acted like humans, and had human vices. They would interact with humans, sometimes even spawning children with them, at times certain gods would be opposed to others, and they would try to outdo each other. In the Iliad, Aphrodite, Ares and Apollo support the Trojan side in the Trojan War, while Hera, Athena, some gods were specifically associated with a certain city. Athena was associated with the city of Athens, Apollo with Delphi and Delos, Zeus with Olympia, other deities were associated with nations outside of Greece, Poseidon was associated with Ethiopia and Troy, and Ares with Thrace. The Greeks believed in an underworld where the spirits of the dead went after death, one of the most widespread areas of this underworld was ruled over by Hades, a brother of Zeus, and was known as Hades. Other well known realms are Tartarus, a place of torment for the damned, and Elysium, in the early Mycenean religion all the dead went to Hades, but the rise of mystery cults in the Archaic age led to the development of places such as Tartarus and Elysium. Such beliefs are found in the most ancient of Greek sources, such as Homer and this belief remained strong even into the Christian era. For most people at the moment of death there was, however, no hope of anything, some Greeks, such as the philosophers Pythagoras and Plato, also embraced the idea of reincarnation, though this was only accepted by a few. Epicurus taught that the soul was simply atoms which dissolved at death, Greek religion had an extensive mythology
20.
Chastity
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Chastity is sexual behavior of a man or woman that is acceptable to the moral standards and guidelines of their culture, civilization or religion. The term has become associated with sexual abstinence, especially before marriage. The words chaste and chastity stem from the Latin adjective castus meaning pure, the words entered the English language around the middle of the 13th century, at that time they meant slightly different things. Chaste meant virtuous or pure from unlawful sexual intercourse, while chastity meant virginity and it was not until the late 16th century that the two words came to have the same basic meaning as a related adjective and noun. For Muslims and many Christians, acts of nature are restricted to marriage. For unmarried persons, chastity is identified with sexual abstinence, sexual acts outside or apart from marriage, such as adultery, fornication and prostitution, are considered sinful. In many Christian traditions, chastity is synonymous with sexual purity, chastity means not having any sexual relations before marriage. It also means fidelity to husband or wife during marriage, in Catholic morality, chastity is placed opposite the deadly sin of lust, and is classified as one of seven virtues. The moderation of sexual desires is required to be virtuous, reason, will and desire can harmoniously work together to do what is good. In marriage, the spouses commit to a relationship which excludes sexual intimacy with other persons. After marriage, a form of chastity, often called vidual chastity, is expected of a woman while she is in mourning for her late husband. For example, Anglican Bishop Jeremy Taylor defined 5 rules in Holy Living, including abstaining from marrying so long as she is with child by her former husband, the particular ethical system may not prescribe each of these. Many Anglican communities allow for artificial contraception, seeing the restriction of family size by artificial contraception as possibly not contrary to Gods will, a stricter view is held by the Shakers, who prohibit marriage as a violation of chastity. The Catholic Church has set up various rules regarding clerical celibacy, celibacy is required of monastics—monks, nuns and friars—even in a rare system of double cloisters, in which husbands could enter the monastery while their wives entered a sister monastery. Required celibacy among the clergy is a recent practice, it became Church policy at the Second Lateran Council in 1139. It was not uniformly enforced among the clergy until 200 years later, eastern Catholic priests are permitted to be married, provided they are so before ordination and outside the monastic life. Vows of chastity can also be taken by laypersons, either as part of a religious life or on an individual basis, as a voluntary act of devotion, or as part of an ascetic lifestyle. The voluntary aspect has led it to being included among the main counsels of perfection, chastity is a central and pivotal concept in Roman Catholic praxis
21.
Bradamante
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Bradamante is a fictional knight heroine in two epic poems of the Renaissance, Orlando Innamorato by Matteo Maria Boiardo and Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto. Since the poems exerted an influence on later culture, she became a recurring character in Western art. Bradamante, a female Christian knight, is the sister of Rinaldo and falls in love with a Saracen warrior named Ruggiero, an expert in combat, she wields a magical lance that unhorses anyone it touches, and rescues Ruggiero from being imprisoned by the wizard Atlante. The two lovers are separated many times in the story, and her parents reject the suitor even after Ruggiero converts to Christianity and she decides to marry whoever withstands her in combat and Ruggiero overcomes the challenge. At the end, their marriage give rise to the noble House of Este, the poems drew from legends of Charlemagne, chansons de geste, and blended recurring motifs found in the Matter of France and the Matter of Britain. In 1582, French dramatist Robert Garnier wrote a tragicomedy named Bradamante that further develops the story between the heroine and Roger. Bradamante, composed by Louis Lacoste with a written by Pierre-Charles Roy, was first performed at the Académie Royale de Musique on 2 May 1707. Bradamante, written by Heinrich Joseph von Collin with music composed by Johann Friedrich Reichardt, was first performed in Vienna on 3 February 1809, Bradamante, composed by Eduard Tauwitz, was first performed in Riga in 1844. Bradamante appears as one of the characters in several novels. For example, in Italo Calvinos surrealistic, highly ironic 1959 novel Il Cavaliere inesistente, in cinema, she is depicted by Barbara De Rossi in the 1983 Italian film Paladini-storia darmi e damori – a film based on the legends surrounding the Peers of Charlemagne. List of woman warriors in legend and mythology Media related to Bradamante at Wikimedia Commons
22.
The Shepheardes Calender
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The Shepheardes Calender was Edmund Spensers first major poetic work, published in 1579. In emulation of Virgils first work, the Eclogues, Spenser wrote this series of pastorals to begin his career, however, Spensers models were rather the Renaissance eclogues of Mantuanus. The title, like the work, is written using deliberately archaic spellings, in order to suggest a connection to medieval literature. The poem introduces Colin Clout, a character originated by John Skelton. It is also remarkable for the extensive commentary included with the work in its first publication, E. K. is an intelligent, very subtle, and often deeply ironic commentator, who is sometimes assumed to be an alias of Spenser himself. The term sarcasm is first recorded in English in Spensers poem, each eclogue is preceded by a woodcut and followed by a motto describing the speaker. The opening line of each eclogue expresses characteristics of the month, and the poem as a whole charts common accuracy of the seasons, the toil and celebrations of the village year. The precision of the description of birds, flowers, and harvests is balanced by a theme of the hardships. Each pastoral in the poem can be classified into one of three categories, identified as moral, plaintive, or re-creative, while the January pastoral tells of the unhappy love of Colin for Rosalind, the springtime of April calls for a song in praise of Elizabeth. In May, the shepherds, who are rival pastors of the Reformation, in summer, they discourse on Puritan theology. October brings them to contemplate the trials and disappointments of a poet, the Shepheardes Calender is a poem that consists of twelve eclogues. Each eclogue is named after a different month, which represents the turning of seasons, an eclogue is a short pastoral poem that is in the form of a dialogue or soliloquy. This is why, while the months together to form a whole year. The months are all written in a different form, for example, April has a lyrical “laye” which honors the Queen. Maye gives off characterization and greater description, Spenser uses rhyme differently in each month. There is a cyclical pattern that shows off the kind of style that Spenser was going for. The months all have repetition of elements and arguments, the style of the poem is also influenced by writers such as Chaucer and Skelton. Edmund Spenser’s involvement with the Earl of Leicester set the work for the influential effect that The Shepheardes Calender would have
23.
Venus (mythology)
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Venus is the Roman goddess whose functions encompassed love, beauty, desire, sex, fertility, prosperity and victory. In Roman mythology, she was the mother of the Roman people through her son, Aeneas, Julius Caesar claimed her as his ancestor. Venus was central to religious festivals, and was revered in Roman religion under numerous cult titles. The Romans adapted the myths and iconography of her Greek counterpart Aphrodite for Roman art, in the later classical tradition of the West, Venus becomes one of the most widely referenced deities of Greco-Roman mythology as the embodiment of love and sexuality. It has connections to venerari and venia through a common root in an Indo-European *wenes- or *u̯enis. Their common Proto-Indo-European root is assumed as *wen- or *u̯en- to strive for, wish for, desire, Venus has been described as perhaps the most original creation of the Roman pantheon, and an ill-defined and assimilative native goddess, combined with a strange and exotic Aphrodite. The ambivalence of her persuasive functions has been perceived in the relationship of the root *venes- with Latin venenum, in the sense of a charm, in myth, Venus-Aphrodite was born of sea-foam. Roman theology presents Venus as the yielding, watery female principle, essential to the generation and her male counterparts in the Roman pantheon, Vulcan and Mars, are active and fiery. Venus absorbs and tempers the male essence, uniting the opposites of male and female in mutual affection and she is essentially assimilative and benign, and embraces several otherwise quite disparate functions. She can give military victory, sexual success, good fortune, in one context, she is a goddess of prostitutes, in another, she turns the hearts of men and women from sexual vice to virtue. Images of Venus have been found in murals, mosaics. Petronius, in his Satyricon, places an image of Venus among the Lares of the freedman Trimalchios lararium, prospective brides offered Venus a gift before the wedding, the nature of the gift, and its timing, are unknown. Some Roman sources say that girls who come of age offer their toys to Venus, it is unclear where the offering is made, in dice-games, a popular pastime among Romans of all classes, the luckiest, best possible roll was known as Venus. Venus signs were for the most part the same as Aphrodites, Venus statues, and her worshipers, wore myrtle crowns at her festivals. Likewise, Roman folk-etymology transformed the ancient, obscure goddess Murcia into Venus of the Myrtles, myrtle was thought a particularly potent aphrodisiac. The female pudendum, particularly the clitoris, was known as murtos, as goddess of love and sex, Venus played an essential role at Roman prenuptial rites and wedding nights, so myrtle and roses were used in bridal bouquets. Marriage itself was not a seduction but a condition, under Junos authority. Venus was also a patron of the ordinary, everyday wine drunk by most Roman men and women, in the rites to Bona Dea, a goddess of female chastity, Venus, myrtle and anything male were not only excluded, but unmentionable
24.
Diana (mythology)
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In Roman mythology, Diana was the goddess of the hunt, the moon, and nature being associated with wild animals and woodland, and having the power to talk to and control animals. She was eventually equated with the Greek goddess Artemis, though she had an independent origin in Italy, Diana was worshipped in ancient Roman religion and is revered in Roman Neopaganism and Stregheria. Diana was known to be the goddess of childbirth and women. She was one of the three goddesses, along with Minerva and Vesta, who swore never to marry. Oak groves were especially sacred to her as were deer, according to mythology, Diana was born with her twin brother, Apollo, on the island of Delos, daughter of Jupiter and Latona. She made up a triad with two other Roman deities, Egeria the water nymph, her servant and assistant midwife, and Virbius, the woodland god. Diana is a form developed from an ancient *divios, corresponding to later divus, dius, as in Dius Fidius, Dea Dia. It is rooted in Indoeuropean *dyw, meaning sky or daylight, from which also derived the name of Vedic god Dyaus and the Latin deus, dies. On the Tablets of Pylos a theonym διϝια is supposed as referring to a deity precursor of Artemis, Modern scholars mostly accept the identification. The ancient Latin writers Varro and Cicero considered the etymology of Dīāna as allied to that of dies, the persona of Diana is complex and contains a number of archaic features. According to Georges Dumézil it falls into a subset of celestial gods. Such gods, while keeping the original features of celestial divinities, the celestial character of Diana is reflected in her connection with light, inaccessibility, virginity, and her preference for dwelling on high mountains and in sacred woods. Diana therefore reflects the world in its sovereignty, supremacy, impassibility. At the same time, however, she is seen as active in ensuring the succession of kings and these functions are apparent in the traditional institutions and cults related to the goddess. This ever open succession reveals the character and mission of the goddess as a guarantor of kingly status through successive generations. Her function as bestower of authority to rule is also attested in the story related by Livy in which a Sabine man who sacrifices a heifer to Diana wins for his country the seat of the Roman empire. Diana was also worshipped by women who wanted to be pregnant or who, once pregnant and this form of worship is attested in archeological finds of votive statuettes in her sanctuary in the nemus Aricinum as well as in ancient sources, e. g. Ovid. According to Dumezil the forerunner of all gods is an Indian epic hero who was the image of the Vedic god Dyaus
25.
Washington Allston
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Washington Allston ARA was an American painter and poet, born in Waccamaw Parish, South Carolina. Allston pioneered Americas Romantic movement of landscape painting and he was well known during his lifetime for his experiments with dramatic subject matter and his bold use of light and atmospheric color. Allston was born on a plantation on the Waccamaw River near Georgetown. His mother Rachel Moore had married Captain William Allston in 1775, though her husband died in 1781, Moore remarried to Dr. Henry C. Flagg, the son of a shipping merchant from Newport. He was admitted to the Royal Academy Schools in London in September, from 1803 to 1808, he visited the great museums of Paris and then, for several years, those of Italy, where he met Washington Irving in Rome and Coleridge, his lifelong friend. In 1809, Allston married Ann Channing, sister of William Ellery Channing, samuel F. B. Morse was one of Allstons art pupils and accompanied Allston to Europe in 1811. After traveling throughout western Europe, Allston finally settled in London, Allston was also a published writer. In London in 1813, he published The Sylphs of the Seasons, with Other Poems, republished in Boston, Massachusetts and his wife died in February 1815, leaving him saddened, lonely, and homesick for America. In 1818, he returned to the United States and lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts and he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1826. He was the uncle of the artists George Whiting Flagg and Jared Bradley Flagg, the first American exhibition of Allstons work was in 1827 when twelve of his paintings were shown at the Boston Athenæum. In 1830 Allston married Martha Remington Dana, the sister of the novelist Richard Henry Dana, Dana was a cousin of Allstons first wife. In 1841, he published Monaldi, a romance illustrating Italian life, and in 1850, a volume of his Lectures on Art, Allston died on July 9,1843, at age 63. Allston is buried in Harvard Square, in the Old Burying Ground between the First Parish Church and Christ Church, Allston was sometimes called the American Titian because his style resembled the great Venetian Renaissance artists in their display of dramatic color contrasts. His work greatly influenced the development of U. S. landscape painting, also, the themes of many of his paintings were drawn from literature, especially Biblical stories. The influential critic and editor Rufus Wilmot Griswold dedicated his famous anthology The Poets, poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,17 years after Allstons death, wrote that, One man may sweeten a whole time. I never pass through Cambridge Port without thinking of Allston and his memory is the quince in the drawer and perfumes the atmosphere. Washington Allston was the first to use the term Objective Correlative in 1840 which subsequently revived, the west Boston, Massachusetts neighborhood of Allston is named after him
26.
Proteus
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In Greek mythology, Proteus is an early sea-god or god of rivers and oceanic bodies of water, one of several deities whom Homer calls the Old Man of the Sea. Some who ascribe to him a specific domain call him the god of sea change. He can foretell the future, but, in a familiar to several cultures, will change his shape to avoid having to. From this feature of Proteus comes the adjective protean, with the meaning of versatile, mutable, capable of assuming many forms. Protean has positive connotations of flexibility, versatility and adaptability, Proteus name suggests the first, as protogonos is the primordial or the firstborn. It is not certain to what this refers, but in myths where he is the son of Poseidon, it refers to his being Poseidons eldest son, older than Poseidons other son. The first attestation of the name, although it is not certain whether it refers to the god or just a person, is in Mycenaean Greek, the attested form, in Linear B, is
27.
Golden Legend
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The Golden Legend is a collection of hagiographies by Jacobus da Varagine that was widely read in late medieval Europe. More than a thousand manuscripts of the text have survived and it was likely compiled around the year 1260, although the text was added to over the centuries. Initially entitled Legenda sanctorum, it gained its popularity under the title by which it is best known. Over eight hundred manuscript copies of the work survive, and when printing was invented in the 1450s, editions appeared quickly, not only in Latin, among incunabula, printed before 1501, Legenda aurea was printed in more editions than the Bible. It was one of the first books William Caxton printed in the English language, Caxtons version appeared in 1483 and his translation was reprinted, in 1900, the Caxton version was translated by Frederick Startridge Ellis, and published in seven volumes. Jacobus da Varagines original was translated into French around the time by Téodor de Wyzewa. The book sought to compile traditional lore about all of the saints venerated at the time of its compilation, Jacobus da Varagine typically begins with an etymology for the saints name. An example shows his method, Silvester is said of sile or sol which is light, and of terra the earth, as who saith the light of the earth, that is of the church. Or Silvester is said of silvas and of trahens, that is to say he was drawing wild men and hard unto the faith. Or as it is said in glossario, Silvester is to say green, that is to wit, green in contemplation of heavenly things, and that is to say he was cold and refrigate from all concupiscence of the flesh, full of boughs among the trees of heaven. As a Latin author, Jacobus da Varagine must have known that Silvester, the correct derivation is alluded to in the text, but set out in parallel to fanciful ones that lexicographers would consider quite wide of the mark. Even the correct explanations are used as the basis for an allegorical interpretation, Jacobus da Varagines etymologies had different goals from modern etymologies, and cannot be judged by the same standards. Jacobus etymologies have parallels in Isidore of Sevilles Etymologiae, in which linguistically accurate derivations are set out beside allegorical, the chapter conveys the limited medieval Christian understanding of the beliefs of Saracens and other Muslims. Many of the stories also conclude with miracle tales and similar wonderlore from accounts of those who called upon that saint for aid or used the saints relics, such a tale is told of Saint Agatha, Jacobus da Varagine has pagans in Catania repairing to the relics of St. Then ran the paynims to the sepulchre of S. Agatha, many of his stories have no other known source. A typical example of the sort of story related, also involving St, then sent the emperor for S. Silvester and asked counsel of him of this matter. S. Silvester answered that by the might of God he promised to make him cease of his hurt, then S Silvester put himself to prayer, and S. Then thou shalt bind his mouth with a thread, and seal it with thy seal, then thou and the two priests shall come to me whole and safe, and such bread as I shall make ready for you ye shall eat
28.
Saint George
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Saint George, according to legend, was a Roman soldier of Syrian origin and officer in the Guard of Roman emperor Diocletian, who ordered his death for failing to recant his Christian faith. As a Christian martyr, he became one of the most venerated saints in Christianity. In hagiography, as one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers and one of the most prominent military saints, he is immortalised in the myth of Saint George and his memorial, Saint Georges Day, is traditionally celebrated on April 23. Numerous countries, cities, professions and organisations claim Saint George as their patron, accounts differ regarding whether George was born in Cappadocia or Syria Palaestina, but agree that he was raised at least partly in Lydda. There is little information on the life of Saint George. Two stories tell of his possible origins, one says that he was born in the region of Cappadocia, which is now located in central Turkey. Georges parents were both Christian, and they brought him up to be a Christian and his father died when he was fourteen, and his mother took George back to her homeland of Palestine. At seventeen, he joined the Roman army, a second story says that Georges father came from Cappadocia. His mother was from Lydda, in Palestine, and George was born in Lydda, both of his parents were from noble Syrian families and gave him the Greek name of Georgios. Georges father had been an officer in the Roman army, so George joined the Roman army as soon as he could, an earlier work by Eusebius, Church history, written in the 4th century, contributed to the legend but did not name George or provide significant detail. A critical edition of a Syriac Acta of Saint George, accompanied by an annotated English translation, was published by E. W. Brooks in 1925. Pope Gelasius I stated that George was among those whose names are justly reverenced among men. The traditional legends have offered a narration of Georges encounter with a dragon. The modern legend that follows below is synthesised from early and late hagiographical sources, chief among the legendary sources about the saint is the Golden Legend, which remains the most familiar version in English owing to William Caxtons 15th-century translation. At the age of 14, George lost his father, a few years later, George then decided to go to Nicomedia and present himself to Diocletian to apply for a career as a soldier. Diocletian welcomed him with arms, as he had known his father. By his late twenties, George was promoted to the rank of military tribune, however, George objected, and with the courage of his faith, approached the Emperor and ruler. Diocletian was upset, not wanting to lose his best tribune, but George loudly renounced the Emperors edict, and in front of his fellow soldiers and tribunes he claimed himself to be a Christian
29.
Flag of England
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The flag of England is derived from St Georges Cross. The association of the red cross as an emblem of England can be traced back to the Middle Ages, since the 1990s it has been in increasingly wide use, particularly at national sporting events. In 1188 Henry II of England and Philip II of France agreed to go on a crusade, 13th-century authorities are unanimous on the point that the English king adopted the white cross, and the French king the red one. It is not clear at what point the English exchanged the white cross for the red-on-white one, there was a historiographical tradition claiming that Richard the Lionheart himself adopted both the flag and the patron saint from Genoa at some point during his crusade. This idea can be traced to the Victorian era, Perrin refers to it as a common belief, Perrin concludes from this that the introduction of the Cross of St George as a national emblem is originally due to Edward I. By 1300, there was also a banner of St George, but not yet in a prominent function. From that time, his banner was used with increasing prominence alongside the Royal Banner, the flag shown for England in the Book of All Kingdoms of 1367 is solid red. John Cabot, commissioned by Henry VII to sail under our banners, flags and ensigns, St Georges Day was considered a double major feast from 1415, but George was still eclipsed by his rivals Saints Edward and Edmund. The first recorded use of St. Georges Cross as a flag, in conjunction with royal banners. In 1606 it was combined with the Scottish St. Andrews Cross to form the Union Jack, the concept of a national flag, as opposed to royal banners, naval ensigns or military flags, developed in the late 18th century, following the American and French Revolutions. In the 19th century, it became desirable for all nations of Europe to identify a national flag, since during that time, the terms Britain and England were used largely interchangeably, the Union Flag was used as national flag de facto, even though never officially adopted. The observation that the Cross of St. George is the flag of England was made in the context of Irish irredentism. Chesterton in 1933, As a very sensible Irishman said in a letter to a Dublin paper, the flag of England is one of the key components of the Union Flag. The Union Flag has been used in a variety of forms since the proclamation by Orders in Council 1606, in Scotland, and in particular on Scottish vessels at sea, historical evidence suggests that a separate design of Union Flag was flown to that used in England. The flag of the City of London is based on the English flag, having a centred St Georges Cross on a white background, the sword is believed to represent the sword that beheaded Saint Paul who is the patron saint of the city. The flag used by the British Royal Navy is also based on the flag of England, consisting of the St Georges Cross, churches belonging to the Church of England may fly St Georges Cross. The correct way is for the church to fly the St Georges cross, the flag is also seen during other sporting events in which England competes, for example during England Cricket matches, during Rugby Union matches and in football. It is also used in icons on the Internet and on the TV screen to represent teams, before 1996, most of the flags waved by supporters were Union Flags
30.
James Scudamore (courtier)
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Sir James Scudamore was a gentleman usher at the court of Queen Elizabeth I. He would assume that title in 1616, and remained Custos Rotulorum for two years until his own death in 1619, Scudamore was respected for his tilting skill and his embodiment of the ideals of chivalry. Scudamore became something of a legend in his time at Elizabeths court, as a young man he idolised Philip Sidney, who, as a poet, soldier, and courtier, exemplified the ideal high-born gentleman of the time. Scudamore sought to emulate Sidney, and befriended him as a teenager, after Sidney died at the Battle of Zutphen, James Scudamore carried his pennant of arms at his funeral in 1586, aged only eighteen years at the time. He can be carrying the pennant near the front of the procession in the funereal roll drawn by Thomas Lant. Seeing himself as Sidneys successor, the young Scudamore sought to carry on the tradition with great zeal. He made a name for himself jousting in the tournament, he was one of the knights who took part in the Accession Day tilt of 1595. At this tournament, his shield was decorated with the motto Lescu Damour, I haue seene the shoes of his horse glister aboue the heades of all the people. And when hee came to reside with sir John Scudamore his father. Holme Lacie att that time seemed not onlie an Academia, though by no means a particularly influential nobleman of the Elizabethan court, he was nonetheless greatly admired for his sporting skill. It is apparent from the dimensions of his suits of armour that he was powerfully-built and tall for his time, the Queens personal attendance of Scudamores own tilt-yard at Holme Lacy is a testament to his gallant reputation. He was a soldier, and served, among other places, at the Capture of Cadiz. He is said to be the inspiration for the character of Scudamour, in the poem, Scudamour is a gallant knight who has had his lover Amoret stolen away from him. He spends the rest of the book trying to find her. It is unknown whether this characterisation is intended as a mockery of the actual Scudamore, Scudamore officially retired from tilting in 1600. However, he and his continued to train horses at Holme Lacy. Sir James Scudamore became the deputy lieutenant of Herefordshire on 25 August 1600 and he was also made High Sheriff of Herefordshire in 1601, and a member of Parliament for the Herefordshire in 1601 and for several years thereafter. He was appointed to the council of the Welsh Marches on 12 November 1617, Scudamore was originally a Catholic, but he later renounced this religion, along with his father, soon after the turn of the century. After his conversion he became a fervent anti-Catholic and made efforts to curtail the practice of Catholicism, on 19 June 1605, he and three other county officials made a thirty-mile sweep along the border between Herefordshire and Monmouthshire to flush out Catholics
31.
Talos
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In Greek mythology, Talos or Talon was a giant automaton made of bronze to protect Europa in Crete from pirates and invaders. He circled the islands three times daily. Alternatively Talos could be figured as a sacred bull, the conception that Hesiods men of the Age of Bronze were actually made of bronze is extended to men of the age of gold by Lucian for humorous effect. The pseudo-Platonic dialogue Minos rationalized the myth, thrice yearly showing at each village in turn the laws of Minos inscribed on brass tablets, according to Brian A. Sparkes, The most detailed treatment in literature is to be found in the Argonautica. However, we have detailed images of the episode,150 years earlier, Talos is said to have been made by Hephaestus at the request of Zeus, to protect Europa from people who would want to kidnap her. In some versions of the myth, Talos is forged by the inventor Daedalus, in the Cretan dialect, talôs was the equivalent of the Greek hêlios, the Sun, the lexicon of Hesychius of Alexandria notes simply Talos is the Sun. In Crete, Zeus was worshipped as Zeus Tallaios, Solar Zeus, the god was identified with the Tallaia, a spur of the Ida range in Crete. On the coin from Phaistos he is winged, in Greek vase-paintings, the ideas of Talos vary widely, with one consistent detail, in Greek imagery outside Crete, Talos is always being vanquished, he seems to have been an enigmatic figure to the Greeks themselves. Talos is described by Greeks in two versions, in one version, Talos is a gift from Hephaestus to Minos, forged with the aid of the Cyclopes in the form of a bull. In the other version, Talos is a gift from Zeus to Europa, or he may have been the son of Kres, the personification of Crete, in Argonautica Talos threw rocks at any approaching ship to protect his island. Talos had one vein, which went from his neck to his ankle, the Argo, transporting Jason and the Argonauts, approached Crete after obtaining the Golden Fleece. As guardian of the island, Talos kept the Argo at bay by hurling great boulders at it, peter Green, translator of Argonautica, notes that the story is somewhat reminiscent of the story regarding the heel of Achilles. In Argonautica, Apollonius notes that the ichor, cook first suggested that the single vein closed by a nail or plug referred to the lost-wax method of casting. Robert Graves suggests that this myth is based on a misinterpretation of an image of Athena demonstrating the process of casting of steel. 2, a bronze sculpture in Portland, Oregon Talos in the Greek Mythology Link
32.
Henry Fuseli
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Henry Fuseli RA was a Swiss painter, draughtsman and writer on art who spent much of his life in Britain. Many of his works, such as The Nightmare, deal with supernatural subject-matter and he painted works for John Boydells Shakespeare Gallery, and created his own Milton Gallery. He held the posts of Professor of Painting and Keeper at the Royal Academy and his style had a considerable influence on many younger British artists, including William Blake. Fuseli was born in Zürich, Switzerland, the second of 18 children and his father was Johann Caspar Füssli, a painter of portraits and landscapes, and author of Lives of the Helvetic Painters. He intended Henry for the church, and sent him to the Caroline college of Zurich, one of his schoolmates there was Johann Kaspar Lavater, with whom he became close friends. After taking orders in 1761 Fuseli was forced to leave the country as a result of having helped Lavater to expose an unjust magistrate and he travelled through Germany, and then, in 1765, visited England, where he supported himself for some time by miscellaneous writing. Eventually, he acquainted with Sir Joshua Reynolds, to whom he showed his drawings. Following Reynolds advice, he decided to devote entirely to art. In 1770 he made an art-pilgrimage to Italy, where he remained until 1778, Early in 1779 he returned to Britain, taking in Zürich on his way. In London he found a commission awaiting him from Alderman Boydell, Fuseli painted a number of pieces for Boydell, and published an English edition of Lavaters work on physiognomy. He also gave William Cowper some valuable assistance in preparing a translation of Homer, in 1788 Fuseli married Sophia Rawlins, and he soon after became an associate of the Royal Academy. Fuseli later said I hate clever women, in 1790 he became a full Academician, presenting Thor Battering the Midgard Serpent as his diploma work. In 1799 Fuseli was appointed professor of painting to the Academy, four years later he was chosen as Keeper, and resigned his professorship, but resumed it in 1810, continuing to hold both offices until his death. As Keeper, he was succeeded by Henry Thomson, in 1799 Fuseli exhibited a series of paintings from subjects furnished by the works of John Milton, with a view to forming a Milton gallery comparable to Boydells Shakespeare gallery. There were 47 Milton paintings, many of them very large, the exhibition proved a commercial failure and closed in 1800. In 1805 he brought out an edition of Pilkingtons Lives of the Painters, which did little for his reputation. Antonio Canova, when on his visit to England, was taken with Fuselis works. As a painter, Fuseli favoured the supernatural and he pitched everything on an ideal scale, believing a certain amount of exaggeration necessary in the higher branches of historical painting
33.
Walter Raleigh
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Sir Walter Raleigh was an English landed gentleman, writer, poet, soldier, politician, courtier, spy and explorer. He was cousin to Sir Richard Grenville and younger half-brother of Sir Humphrey Gilbert and he is also well known for popularising tobacco in England. Raleigh was born to a Protestant family in Devon, the son of Walter Raleigh, later, he became a landlord of property confiscated from the native Irish. He rose rapidly in the favour of Queen Elizabeth I and was knighted in 1585, Raleigh was instrumental in the English colonisation of North America and was granted a royal patent to explore Virginia, which paved the way for future English settlements. In 1591, he secretly married Elizabeth Throckmorton, one of the Queens ladies-in-waiting, without the Queens permission, for which he, after his release, they retired to his estate at Sherborne, Dorset. In 1594, Raleigh heard of a City of Gold in South America and sailed to find it, publishing an exaggerated account of his experiences in a book that contributed to the legend of El Dorado. After Queen Elizabeth died in 1603, Raleigh was again imprisoned in the Tower, this time for being involved in the Main Plot against King James I, in 1616, he was released to lead a second expedition in search of El Dorado. During the expedition, men led by his top commander ransacked a Spanish outpost and he returned to England and, to appease the Spanish, was arrested and executed in 1618. Raleigh was one of the most notable figures of the Elizabethan era, in 2002, he was featured in the BBC poll of the 100 Greatest Britons. Little is known about Raleighs birth, some historians believe that he was born on 22 January 1552, although the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography currently favours a date of 1554. He grew up in the house of Hayes Barton, a farmhouse near the village of East Budleigh and he was the youngest of five sons born to Catherine Champernowne in two successive marriages. His half-brothers John Gilbert, Humphrey Gilbert, and Adrian Gilbert, Catherine Champernowne was a niece of Kat Ashley, Elizabeths governess, who introduced the young men at court. Raleighs family was highly Protestant in religious orientation and had a number of near escapes during the reign of Roman Catholic Queen Mary I of England, in the most notable of these, his father had to hide in a tower to avoid execution. As a result, Raleigh developed a hatred of Roman Catholicism during his childhood, in matters of religion, Elizabeth was more moderate than her half sister Mary. In 1569, Raleigh left for France to serve with the Huguenots in the French religious civil wars, in 1572, Raleigh was registered as an undergraduate at Oriel College, Oxford, but he left a year later without a degree. Raleigh proceeded to finish his education in the Inns of Court, in 1575, he was registered at the Middle Temple. At his trial in 1603, he stated that he had never studied law and his life is uncertain between 1569 and 1575, but in his History of the World he claimed to have been an eyewitness at the Battle of Moncontour in France. In 1575 or 1576, Raleigh returned to England, between 1579 and 1583, Raleigh took part in the suppression of the Desmond Rebellions
34.
King Arthur
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King Arthur is a legendary British leader who, according to medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the late 5th and early 6th centuries AD. The details of Arthurs story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, the sparse historical background of Arthur is gleaned from various sources, including the Annales Cambriae, the Historia Brittonum, and the writings of Gildas. Arthurs name also occurs in early sources such as Y Gododdin. Arthur is a figure in the legends making up the so-called Matter of Britain. The legendary Arthur developed as a figure of international interest largely through the popularity of Geoffrey of Monmouths fanciful, how much of Geoffreys Historia was adapted from such earlier sources, rather than invented by Geoffrey himself, is unknown. Geoffrey depicted Arthur as a king of Britain who defeated the Saxons and established an empire over Britain, Ireland, Iceland, Norway and Gaul. The 12th-century French writer Chrétien de Troyes, who added Lancelot, in these French stories, the narrative focus often shifts from King Arthur himself to other characters, such as various Knights of the Round Table. Arthurian literature thrived during the Middle Ages but waned in the centuries that followed until it experienced a resurgence in the 19th century. In the 21st century, the lives on, not only in literature but also in adaptations for theatre, film, television, comics. The historical basis for the King Arthur legend has long debated by scholars. These culminate in the Battle of Badon, where he is said to have single-handedly killed 960 men, recent studies, however, question the reliability of the Historia Brittonum. The other text that seems to support the case for Arthurs historical existence is the 10th-century Annales Cambriae, the Annales date this battle to 516–518, and also mention the Battle of Camlann, in which Arthur and Medraut were both killed, dated to 537–539. These details have often used to bolster confidence in the Historias account. Problems have been identified, however, with using this source to support the Historia Brittonums account, the latest research shows that the Annales Cambriae was based on a chronicle begun in the late 8th century in Wales. Additionally, the textual history of the Annales Cambriae precludes any certainty that the Arthurian annals were added to it even that early. They were more likely added at point in the 10th century. The Badon entry probably derived from the Historia Brittonum and this lack of convincing early evidence is the reason many recent historians exclude Arthur from their accounts of sub-Roman Britain. These modern admissions of ignorance are a recent trend, earlier generations of historians were less sceptical
35.
Aristotle
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Aristotle was an ancient Greek philosopher and scientist born in the city of Stagira, Chalkidice, on the northern periphery of Classical Greece. His father, Nicomachus, died when Aristotle was a child, at seventeen or eighteen years of age, he joined Platos Academy in Athens and remained there until the age of thirty-seven. Shortly after Plato died, Aristotle left Athens and, at the request of Philip II of Macedon, teaching Alexander the Great gave Aristotle many opportunities and an abundance of supplies. He established a library in the Lyceum which aided in the production of many of his hundreds of books and he believed all peoples concepts and all of their knowledge was ultimately based on perception. Aristotles views on natural sciences represent the groundwork underlying many of his works, Aristotles views on physical science profoundly shaped medieval scholarship. Their influence extended from Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages into the Renaissance, some of Aristotles zoological observations, such as on the hectocotyl arm of the octopus, were not confirmed or refuted until the 19th century. His works contain the earliest known study of logic, which was incorporated in the late 19th century into modern formal logic. Aristotle was well known among medieval Muslim intellectuals and revered as The First Teacher and his ethics, though always influential, gained renewed interest with the modern advent of virtue ethics. All aspects of Aristotles philosophy continue to be the object of academic study today. Though Aristotle wrote many elegant treatises and dialogues – Cicero described his style as a river of gold – it is thought that only around a third of his original output has survived. Aristotle, whose means the best purpose, was born in 384 BC in Stagira, Chalcidice. His father Nicomachus was the physician to King Amyntas of Macedon. Aristotle was orphaned at a young age, although there is little information on Aristotles childhood, he probably spent some time within the Macedonian palace, making his first connections with the Macedonian monarchy. At the age of seventeen or eighteen, Aristotle moved to Athens to continue his education at Platos Academy and he remained there for nearly twenty years before leaving Athens in 348/47 BC. Aristotle then accompanied Xenocrates to the court of his friend Hermias of Atarneus in Asia Minor, there, he traveled with Theophrastus to the island of Lesbos, where together they researched the botany and zoology of the island. Aristotle married Pythias, either Hermiass adoptive daughter or niece and she bore him a daughter, whom they also named Pythias. Soon after Hermias death, Aristotle was invited by Philip II of Macedon to become the tutor to his son Alexander in 343 BC, Aristotle was appointed as the head of the royal academy of Macedon. During that time he gave not only to Alexander
36.
Thomas Aquinas
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Saint Thomas Aquinas O. P. was an Italian Dominican friar, Catholic priest, and Doctor of the Church. He was an influential philosopher, theologian, and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism, within which he is also known as the Doctor Angelicus. The name Aquinas identifies his ancestral origins in the county of Aquino in present-day Lazio and he was the foremost classical proponent of natural theology and the father of Thomism, of which he argued that reason is found in God. His influence on Western thought is considerable, and much of modern philosophy developed or opposed his ideas, particularly in the areas of ethics, natural law, metaphysics, the works for which he is best known are the Summa Theologiae and the Summa contra Gentiles. His commentaries on Scripture and on Aristotle form an important part of his body of work, furthermore, Thomas is distinguished for his eucharistic hymns, which form a part of the Churchs liturgy. Thomas Aquinas is considered one of the Catholic Churchs greatest theologians, Pope Benedict XV declared, This Order. Acquired new luster when the Church declared the teaching of Thomas to be her own and that Doctor, honored with the praises of the Pontiffs. The English philosopher Anthony Kenny considers Aquinas to be one of the dozen greatest philosophers of the western world, Thomas was most probably born in the castle of Roccasecca, located in Aquino, old county of the Kingdom of Sicily, c.1225. According to some authors, he was born in the castle of his father, though he did not belong to the most powerful branch of the family, Landulf of Aquino was a man of means. As a knight in the service of King Roger II, he held the title miles, Thomass mother, Theodora, belonged to the Rossi branch of the Neapolitan Caracciolo family. Landulfs brother Sinibald was abbot of the first Benedictine monastery at Monte Cassino and it was here that Thomas was probably introduced to Aristotle, Averroes and Maimonides, all of whom would influence his theological philosophy. There his teacher in arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music was Petrus de Ibernia, at the age of nineteen Thomas resolved to join the recently founded Dominican Order. Thomass change of heart did not please his family, in an attempt to prevent Theodoras interference in Thomass choice, the Dominicans arranged to move Thomas to Rome, and from Rome, to Paris. Political concerns prevented the Pope from ordering Thomass release, which had the effect of extending Thomass detention, Thomas passed this time of trial tutoring his sisters and communicating with members of the Dominican Order. Family members became desperate to dissuade Thomas, who remained determined to join the Dominicans, at one point, two of his brothers resorted to the measure of hiring a prostitute to seduce him. According to legend Thomas drove her away wielding a fire iron and that night two angels appeared to him as he slept and strengthened his determination to remain celibate. By 1244, seeing all of her attempts to dissuade Thomas had failed, Theodora sought to save the familys dignity. In her mind, an escape from detention was less damaging than an open surrender to the Dominicans
37.
Sacred
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Objects are often considered sacred if used for spiritual purposes, such as the worship or service of gods. The property is often ascribed to objects, or places, the word sacred descends from the Latin wikt, sacer, that is consecrated, or dedicated to the gods or anything in their power, and to sacerdos and sanctum, set apart. Although there are similarities between the sacred and holy and they are sometimes used interchangeably, there are subtle differences. Holiness is generally the term used in relation to persons and relationship, while sacredness is used in relation to objects, places, thus a saint may be considered as holy, but he is not viewed as sacred. However, there are things that are holy and sacred such as the holy bible. The Scottish hale is the most complete form of this Old English root. The word holy in its modern form appears in Wycliffes Bible of 1382, in non-specialist contexts, the term holy is used in a more general way, to refer to someone or something that is associated with a divine power, such as water used for baptism. While both words denote something or someone set apart to the worship of God and therefore worthy of respect and in some cases veneration, Holiness originates in God and is communicated to things, places, times, and persons engaged in His Service. Thus holiness or sanctity is the outcome of sanctification, that Divine act by which God freely justifies a person, hierology is the study of sacred literature or lore. Mircea Eliade outlines that religion should not be interpreted only as belief in deities and he analyses the dialectic of the sacred. The sacred is presented in relation to the profane, the relation between the sacred and the profane is not of opposition, but of complementarity, as the profane is viewed as a hierophany. In Durkheims theory, the sacred represented the interests of the group, especially unity, the profane, on the other hand, involved mundane individual concerns. Durkheim explicitly stated that the dichotomy sacred/profane was not equivalent to good/evil, the sacred could be good or evil, and the profane could be either as well. In Theravada Buddhism one finds the designation of noble person or ariyapuggala, the Buddha described four grades of such person depending on their level of purity. This purity is measured by which of the ten fetters and klesha have been purified and integrated from the mindstream and these persons are called Sotāpanna, Sakadagami, Anāgāmi and Arahant. Catholicism has inherited much of the Jewish vision of the world in terms of holiness, the calendar gives shape to Catholic practice, which tends to focus on the Eucharist, in which the Real Presence of Christ is manifested. Holy days, celebrating events of the life of Christ and the lives of Catholic saints officially recognized as holy, are celebrated throughout the year, in extension of this focus on the Sacrament as holy, many objects in Catholicism are also considered holy. They are called sacramentals and are blessed by a priest
38.
Temperance (virtue)
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Temperance is defined as moderation or voluntary self-restraint. It is typically described in terms of what an individual voluntarily refrains from doing, Temperance has been described as a virtue by religious thinkers, philosophers, and more recently, psychologists, particularly in the positive psychology movement. In classical iconography, the virtue is depicted as a woman holding two vessels transferring water from one to another. It was one of the virtues in western thought found in Greek philosophy and Christianity. Temperance is one of the six virtues in the positive psychology classification, included with wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, themes of temperance can be seen across cultures and time, as illustrated here. Temperance is an part of the Eightfold Path. The third and fifth of the five precepts reflect values of temperance, misconduct concerning sense pleasures, the concept of dama in Hinduism is equivalent to temperance. It is sometimes written as damah, the word dama, and Sanskrit derivative words based on it, connote the concepts of self-control and self-restraint. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, in verse 5.2.3, states that three characteristics of a good, developed person are self-restraint, compassion and love for all sentinent life, in Hinduism literature dedicated to yoga, self-restraint is expounded with the concept of yamas. According to ṣaṭsampad, self-restraint is one of the six cardinal virtues, the list of virtues that constitute a moral life evolve in vedas and upanishads. Over time, new virtues were conceptualized and added, some replaced, for example, Manusamhita initially listed ten virtues necessary for a human being to live a dharmic life, Dhriti, Kshama, Dama, Asteya, Saucha, Indriyani-graha, dhi, vidya, satyam, akrodha. In later verses this list was reduced to five virtues by the same scholar, the shorter list of virtues became, Ahimsa, Dama, Asteya, Saucha, Satyam. This trend of evolving concepts continue in classical Sanskrit literature, Dama with Ahimsa, the scope of self-restraint includes ones action, the words one speaks or writes, and in ones thoughts. The necessity for temperance is explained as preventing bad karma which sooner or later haunts, the theological need for self-restraint is also explained as reigning in the damaging effect of ones action on others, as hurting another is hurting oneself because all life is one. The Greek definition of temperance translates to “moderation in action, thought, or feeling, Temperance is a major Athenian virtue, as advocated by Plato, self-restraint is one of his four core virtues of the ideal city, and echoed by Aristotle. According to Aristotle, “temperance is a mean with regard to pleasures”, in the Judeo-Christian tradition, temperance is prolific. The Old Testament emphasizes temperance as a virtue, as evidenced in both Solomons Book of Proverbs and in the Ten Commandments, with its admonitions against adultery. The New Testament does so as well, with forgiveness being central to theology, with regard to Christian theology, the word temperance is used by the King James Version in Galatians 5,23 for the Greek word ἐγκρατεία, which means self-control or discipline
39.
Friendship
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Friendship is a relationship of mutual affection between people. Friendship is a form of interpersonal bond than an association. Friendship has been studied in fields such as communication, sociology, social psychology, anthropology. Various academic theories of friendship have been proposed, including social exchange theory, equity theory, relational dialectics, a World Happiness Database study found that people with close friendships are happier. Although there are forms of friendship, some of which may vary from place to place. While there is no limit on what types of people can form a friendship, friends tend to share common backgrounds, occupations. In the typical sequence of an individuals emotional development, friendships come after parental bonding, the absence of friends can be emotionally damaging. The evolutionary psychology approach to development has led to the theory of Dunbars number. He theorized that there is a limit of approximately 150 people with whom a human can maintain stable social relationships, in childhood, friendships are often based on the sharing of toys, and the enjoyment received from performing activities together. These friendships are maintained through affection, sharing, and creative playtime and they begin to see their friends points of view, and enjoy playing in groups. They also experience peer rejection as they move through the middle childhood years, establishing good friendships at a young age helps a child to be better acclimated in society later on in their life. In a 1975 study, Bigelow and La Gaipa found that expectations for a best friend become increasingly complex as a child gets older, the study investigated such criteria in a sample of 480 children between the ages of six and fourteen. Their findings highlighted three stages of development in friendship expectations, in the first stage, children emphasized shared activities and the importance of geographical closeness. In the second, they emphasized sharing, loyalty, and commitment, in the final stage, they increasingly desired similar attitudes, values, and interests. High-quality friendships have often assumed to have positive effects on many aspects of childrens social development. Perceived benefits from such friendships include enhanced social success, but they apparently do not include an effect on childrens general self-esteem, numerous studies with adults suggest that friendships and other supportive relationships do enhance self-esteem. Other potential benefits of friendship include the opportunity to learn about empathy, coaching from parents can be useful in helping children to make friends. Eileen Kennedy-Moore describes three key ingredients of childrens friendship formation, openness, similarity, and shared fun, parents can also help children understand social guidelines they havent learned on their own
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Magnanimity
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Magnanimity is the virtue of being great of mind and heart. It encompasses, usually, a refusal to be petty, a willingness to face danger, Magnanimity is a latinization of the Greek word μεγαλοψυχία, megalopsychia which means greatness of soul and was identified by Aristotle as the crowning virtue. Although the word magnanimity has a connection to Aristotelian philosophy. Noah Webster of the American Language defines Magnanimity as such, MAGNANIMITY, in his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle considered it the suitable virtue for a great man, arising from his other virtues. Edmund Spenser, in The Faerie Queene, had each knight allegorically represent a virtue, Prince Arthur represented magnificence, the uncompleted work does not include Prince Arthurs book, and the significance is not clear. Democritus states that magnanimity consists in enduring tactlessness with mildness, as an adjective, the concept is expressed as magnanimous, e. g. Because of his actions, the king then bestows the title Magnanimous upon Hjalti. One form of magnanimity is the generosity of the victor to the defeated, for example, magnanimity has been codified between societies by the Geneva Conventions. Magnanimous relief efforts can serve to offset the damage of war. C. S. Lewis, in his book The Abolition of Man, refers to the chest of man as the seat of magnanimity, or sentiment, with this magnanimity working as the liaison between visceral and cerebral man. Lewis asserts that, in his time, the denial of the emotions that are found in the eternal and sublime -- that which is humbling as an objective reality -- had led to men without chests
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The Faerie Queene public domain audiobook at LibriVox