1.
Lyre
–
The lyre is a string instrument known for its use in Greek classical antiquity and later periods. The lyre is similar in appearance to a small harp but with distinct differences, the word comes via Latin from the Greek, the earliest reference to the word is the Mycenaean Greek ru-ra-ta-e, meaning lyrists and written in the Linear B script. The lyres of Ur, excavated in ancient Mesopotamia, date to 2500 BC, the earliest picture of a lyre with seven strings appears in the famous sarcophagus of Hagia Triada. The sarcophagus was used during the Mycenaean occupation of Crete, the recitations of the Ancient Greeks were accompanied by lyre playing. The lyre of classical antiquity was ordinarily played by being strummed with a plectrum, the fingers of the free hand silenced the unwanted strings in the chord. However, later lyres were played with a bow in Europe, one example from Wales that has been resurrected recently is the crwth. In organology, lyres are defined as yoke lutes, being lutes in which the strings are attached to a yoke which lies in the plane as the sound-table. A classical lyre has a body or sound-chest, which. Extending from this sound-chest are two raised arms, which are hollow, and are curved both outward and forward. They are connected near the top by a crossbar or yoke, an additional crossbar, fixed to the sound-chest, makes the bridge which transmits the vibrations of the strings. They were stretched between the yoke and bridge, or to a tailpiece below the bridge, according to ancient Greek mythology, the young god Hermes stole a herd of sacred cows from Apollo. In order not to be followed, he made shoes for the cows which forced them to walk backwards, Apollo, following the trails, could not follow where the cows were going. Along the way, Hermes slaughtered one of the cows and offered all, from the entrails and a tortoise/turtle shell, he created the Lyre. Apollo, figuring out it was Hermes who had his cows, Apollo was furious, but after hearing the sound of the lyre, his anger faded. Apollo offered to trade the herd of cattle for the lyre, hence, the creation of the lyre is attributed to Hermes. Other sources credit it to Apollo himself, locales in southern Europe, western Asia, or north Africa have been proposed as the historic birthplace of the genus. The instrument is played in north-eastern parts of Africa. Some of the cultures using and developing the lyre were the Aeolian and Ionian Greek colonies on the coasts of Asia bordering the Lydian empire, some mythic masters like Musaeus, and Thamyris were believed to have been born in Thrace, another place of extensive Greek colonization
Lyre
–
Greek vase with muse playing the
phorminx, a type of lyre
Lyre
–
Lyre with tortoiseshell body (
rhyton, 480–470 BC)
Lyre
–
The Hagia Triada
Mycenaean sarcophagus, 14th century BCE, depicting the earliest lyre with seven strings, held by a man with long robe, third from the left.
Lyre
–
Pothos (Desire), restored as
Apollo Citharoedus during the Roman era (1st or 2nd century AD, based on a Greek work ca. 300 BC); the cithara strings are not extant
2.
Attica
–
Attica is a historical region that encompasses the city of Athens, the capital of Greece. The historical region is centered on the Attic peninsula, which projects into the Aegean Sea, the modern administrative region of Attica is more extensive than the historical region and includes the Saronic Islands, Cythera, and the municipality of Troizinia on the Peloponnesian mainland. The history of Attica is tightly linked with that of Athens, Attica is a triangular peninsula jutting into the Aegean Sea. It is naturally divided to the north from Boeotia by the 10 mi long Cithaeron mountain range, to the west, it is bordered by the sea and the canal of Corinth. The Saronic Gulf lies to the south, and the island of Euboea lies off the north, mountains separate the peninsula into the plains of Pedias, Mesogaia, and Thriasion. The mountains of Attica are the Hymettus, the portion of the Geraneia, the Parnitha, the Aigaleo. Four mountains—Aigaleo, Parnitha, Penteli and Hymettus —delineate the hilly plain on which the Athens-Piraeus metroplex now spreads, Athens water reservoir, Lake Marathon, is an artificial lake created by damming in 1920. Pine and fir forests cover the area around Parnitha, Hymettus, Penteli, Myrrhinous and Laurium are forested with pine trees, whereas the rest are covered by shrubbery. The Kifisos is the longest river of Attica, according to Plato, Atticas ancient boundaries were fixed by the Isthmus, and, toward the continent, they extended as far as the heights of Cithaeron and Parnes. The boundary line came down toward the sea, bounded by the district of Oropus on the right, during antiquity, the Athenians boasted about being autochthonic, which is to say that they were the original inhabitants of the area and had not moved to Attica from another place. The traditions current in the classical period recounted that, during the Greek Dark Ages, Attica had become the refuge of the Ionians, who belonged to a tribe from the northern Peloponnese. Supposedly, the Ionians had been forced out of their homeland by the Achaeans, supposedly, the Ionians integrated with the ancient Atticans, who, afterward, considered themselves part of the Ionian tribe and spoke the Ionian dialect. Many Ionians later left Attica to colonize the Aegean coast of Asia Minor, during the Mycenaean period, the Atticans lived in autonomous agricultural societies. The main places where prehistoric remains were found are Marathon, Rafina, Nea Makri, Brauron, Thorikos, Agios Kosmas, Eleusis, Menidi, Markopoulo, Spata, Aphidnae, all of these settlements flourished during the Mycenaean period. According to tradition, Attica comprised twelve small communities during the reign of Cecrops, strabo assigns these the names of Cecropia, Tetrapolis, Epacria, Decelea, Eleusis, Aphidna, Thoricus, Brauron, Cytherus, Sphettus, Cephisia, and possibly Phaleron. These were said to have been incorporated in an Athenian state during the reign of Theseus. Modern historians consider it likely that the communities were progressively incorporated into an Athenian state during the 8th. Until the 6th century BC, aristocratic families lived independent lives in the suburbs, only after Peisistratoss tyranny and the reforms implemented by Cleisthenes did the local communities lose their independence and succumb to the central government in Athens
Attica
–
Cape Sounion
Attica
–
The port of
Laurium
Attica
–
Lake Marathon
Attica
–
The
Temple of Poseidon (c.440 B.C.) at
Cape Sounion, the southernmost point of Attica.
3.
Oinochoe
–
An oenochoe, also spelled oinochoe, is a wine jug and a key form of ancient Greek pottery. There are many different forms of oenochoe, Sir John Beazley distinguished ten types, the earliest is the olpe, with no distinct shoulder and usually a handle rising above the lip. The type 8 oenochoe is what one would call a mug, with no single pouring point, the chous was a squat rounded form, with trefoil mouth. Small examples with scenes of children, as in the illustrated, were placed in the graves of children. Oenochoai may be decorated or undecorated, oenochoai typically have only one handle at the back and may include a trefoil mouth and pouring spout. Their size also varies considerably, most, at up to 25 cm tall, could be held and poured with one hand. Most Greek oenochoe were in painted terracotta pottery but metal oenochoai were probably common among the better off, though as with other vessel shapes. Again as with other shapes, large versions in stone were used as grave markers. In pottery, some oinochoai are plastic, with the body formed as sculpture, typology of Greek vase shapes Corpus vasorum antiquorum Ancient Greek vase painting Pottery of ancient Greece Media related to Oinochoes at Wikimedia Commons
Oinochoe
–
A
trefoil oenochoe, wild-goat style, C. 625 BC–600 BC, in the
Louvre
Oinochoe
–
A
bronze oenochoe in the History Museum of Nova Zagora, Bulgaria with a trefoil spout
4.
Achilles Painter
–
The Achilles Painter, was a vase-painter active ca. His name vase is an amphora, Vatican 16571, in the Vatican museums depicting Achilles, an armed and armored Achilles gazes pensively to the right with one hand on his hip. The other hand holds a spear, on the opposite surface a woman performs libation. J. D. Beazley attributed over 200 vases to his hand, in his middle phase, he decorates more open forms. The Achilles Painter was a pupil of the Berlin Painter. The Phiale Painter became the Achilles Painters most prominent student after he assumed the Berlin Painters workshop, almost a dozen other recognizable painters passed through the Achilles Painters workshop as well. Notable painters include the Westreenen Painter, the Persephone Painter, the Clio Painter, Loeb Painter, the Kleophon Painter, the Sabouroff Painter, and the Painter of Munich 2335 all spent time at the workshop as well. Beazley describes him thus, He is the master of the white lekythos. In 1962, Greece issued a stamp featuring the decoration of an Achilles Painter white-ground lekythos, andrew J Clark, Maya Elston, Mary Louise Hart. Understanding Greek Vases, A Guide to Terms, Styles, media related to Achilles Painter at Wikimedia Commons Works at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Name vase at the Beazley Archive Artcyclopedia - The Achilles Painter
Achilles Painter
–
Oedipus and the
Sphinx,
amphora by the Achilles Painter, located in the
Staatliche Antikensammlungen,
Berlin, Number SL 474
5.
Greek mythology
–
It was a part of the religion in ancient Greece. Greek mythology is explicitly embodied in a collection of narratives. Greek myth attempts to explain the origins of the world, and details the lives and adventures of a variety of gods, goddesses, heroes, heroines. These accounts initially were disseminated in a tradition, today the Greek myths are known primarily from ancient Greek literature. The oldest known Greek literary sources, Homers epic poems Iliad and Odyssey, focus on the Trojan War, archaeological findings provide a principal source of detail about Greek mythology, with gods and heroes featured prominently in the decoration of many artifacts. Geometric designs on pottery of the eighth century BC depict scenes from the Trojan cycle as well as the adventures of Heracles, in the succeeding Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods, Homeric and various other mythological scenes appear, supplementing the existing literary evidence. Greek mythology has had an influence on the culture, arts. Poets and artists from ancient times to the present have derived inspiration from Greek mythology and have discovered contemporary significance and relevance in the themes, Greek mythology is known today primarily from Greek literature and representations on visual media dating from the Geometric period from c. Mythical narration plays an important role in every genre of Greek literature. Nevertheless, the only general mythographical handbook to survive from Greek antiquity was the Library of Pseudo-Apollodorus and this work attempts to reconcile the contradictory tales of the poets and provides a grand summary of traditional Greek mythology and heroic legends. Apollodorus of Athens lived from c, 180–125 BC and wrote on many of these topics. His writings may have formed the basis for the collection, however the Library discusses events that occurred long after his death, among the earliest literary sources are Homers two epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Other poets completed the cycle, but these later and lesser poems now are lost almost entirely. Despite their traditional name, the Homeric Hymns have no connection with Homer. They are choral hymns from the part of the so-called Lyric age. Hesiods Works and Days, a poem about farming life, also includes the myths of Prometheus, Pandora. The poet gives advice on the best way to succeed in a dangerous world, lyrical poets often took their subjects from myth, but their treatment became gradually less narrative and more allusive. Greek lyric poets, including Pindar, Bacchylides and Simonides, and bucolic poets such as Theocritus and Bion, additionally, myth was central to classical Athenian drama
Greek mythology
–
Bust of
Zeus,
Otricoli (Sala Rotonda,
Museo Pio-Clementino,
Vatican).
Greek mythology
–
Greek Mythology
Greek mythology
–
Prometheus (1868 by
Gustave Moreau). The myth of Prometheus first was attested by
Hesiod and then constituted the basis for a tragic trilogy of plays, possibly by Aeschylus, consisting of
Prometheus Bound,
Prometheus Unbound, and
Prometheus Pyrphoros.
Greek mythology
–
The Roman poet
Virgil, here depicted in the fifth-century manuscript, the
Vergilius Romanus, preserved details of Greek mythology in many of his writings.
6.
Ancient Greek
–
Ancient Greek includes the forms of Greek used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around the 9th century BC to the 6th century AD. It is often divided into the Archaic period, Classical period. It is antedated in the second millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Hellenistic phase is known as Koine. Koine is regarded as a historical stage of its own, although in its earliest form it closely resembled Attic Greek. Prior to the Koine period, Greek of the classic and earlier periods included several regional dialects, Ancient Greek was the language of Homer and of fifth-century Athenian historians, playwrights, and philosophers. It has contributed many words to English vocabulary and has been a subject of study in educational institutions of the Western world since the Renaissance. This article primarily contains information about the Epic and Classical phases of the language, Ancient Greek was a pluricentric language, divided into many dialects. The main dialect groups are Attic and Ionic, Aeolic, Arcadocypriot, some dialects are found in standardized literary forms used in literature, while others are attested only in inscriptions. There are also several historical forms, homeric Greek is a literary form of Archaic Greek used in the epic poems, the Iliad and Odyssey, and in later poems by other authors. Homeric Greek had significant differences in grammar and pronunciation from Classical Attic, the origins, early form and development of the Hellenic language family are not well understood because of a lack of contemporaneous evidence. Several theories exist about what Hellenic dialect groups may have existed between the divergence of early Greek-like speech from the common Proto-Indo-European language and the Classical period and they have the same general outline, but differ in some of the detail. The invasion would not be Dorian unless the invaders had some relationship to the historical Dorians. The invasion is known to have displaced population to the later Attic-Ionic regions, the Greeks of this period believed there were three major divisions of all Greek people—Dorians, Aeolians, and Ionians, each with their own defining and distinctive dialects. Often non-west is called East Greek, Arcadocypriot apparently descended more closely from the Mycenaean Greek of the Bronze Age. Boeotian had come under a strong Northwest Greek influence, and can in some respects be considered a transitional dialect, thessalian likewise had come under Northwest Greek influence, though to a lesser degree. Most of the dialect sub-groups listed above had further subdivisions, generally equivalent to a city-state and its surrounding territory, Doric notably had several intermediate divisions as well, into Island Doric, Southern Peloponnesus Doric, and Northern Peloponnesus Doric. The Lesbian dialect was Aeolic Greek and this dialect slowly replaced most of the older dialects, although Doric dialect has survived in the Tsakonian language, which is spoken in the region of modern Sparta. Doric has also passed down its aorist terminations into most verbs of Demotic Greek, by about the 6th century AD, the Koine had slowly metamorphosized into Medieval Greek
Ancient Greek
–
Inscription about the construction of the statue of
Athena Parthenos in the
Parthenon, 440/439 BC
Ancient Greek
–
Ostracon bearing the name of
Cimon,
Stoa of Attalos
Ancient Greek
–
The words ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ as they are inscribed on the marble of the 1955
Leonidas Monument at
Thermopylae
7.
Eos
–
In Greek mythology, Ēōs is a Titaness and the goddess of the dawn, who rose each morning from her home at the edge of the Oceanus. Eos had a brother and a sister, Helios, god of the sun, Eos is cognate to the Vedic goddess Ushas, Lithuanian goddess Austrine, and Roman goddess Aurora, all three of whom are also goddesses of the dawn. All four are considered derivatives of the Proto-Indo-European stem *h₂ewsṓs, dawn and this agreement leads to the reconstruction of a Proto-Indo-European dawn goddess. The dawn goddess Eos was almost always described with rosy fingers or rosy forearms as she opened the gates of heaven for the Sun to rise, but soon as early Dawn appeared, the rosy-fingered, then gathered the folk about the pyre of glorious Hector. Hesiod wrote, And after these Erigeneia bore the star Eosphoros, thus Eos, preceded by the Morning Star, is seen as the genetrix of all the stars and planets, her tears are considered to have created the morning dew, personified as Ersa or Herse. Eos is the daughter of Hyperion, a bringer of light and her brother was the Sun god Helios, and her sister was Selene, the Moon goddess. Her team of horses pull her chariot across the sky and are named in the Odyssey as Firebright and Daybright. Eos is the daughter of Hyperion and Theia and sister of Helios the sun and Selene the moon, the generation of Titans preceded all the familiar deities of Olympus, who largely supplanted them. According to Pseudo-Apollodorus, Eos consorted with the war god Ares and was cursed with unsatisfiable sexual desire by the jealous Aphrodite. This caused her to abduct a number of young men, most notably Cephalus, Tithonus, Orion. The good-looking Cleitus was made immortal by her and she also asked for Tithonus to be made immortal, but forgot to ask for eternal youth, which resulted in him living forever as a helpless old man. According to Hesiod by Tithonus Eos had two sons, Memnon and Emathion, Memnon fought among the Trojans in the Trojan War and was slain. Her image with the dead Memnon across her knees, like Thetis with the dead Achilles are icons that inspired the Christian Pietà, in the literary myths Eos kidnapped Cephalus when he was hunting and took him to Syria. The second-century CE traveller Pausanias was informed that the abductor of Cephalus was Hemera, among the Etruscans, the generative dawn-goddess was Thesan. Depictions of the dawn-goddess with a young lover became popular in Etruria in the fifth century, on an Etruscan mirror Thesan is shown carrying off a young man, whose name is inscribed as Tinthu. The Roman equivalent of Eos is Aurora, also a cognate showing the characteristic Latin rhotacism, Dawn became associated in Roman cult with Matuta, later known as Mater Matuta. She was also associated with the sea harbors and ports, and had a temple on the Forum Boarium, on June 11, the Matralia was celebrated at that temple in honor of Mater Matuta, this festival was only for women during their first marriage. Tithonus Memnon Aurora Mater Matuta Zorya Dawn goddess Grimal, Pierre, The Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Wiley-Blackwell,1996, smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London
Eos
–
Eos (1895) by
Evelyn De Morgan
Eos
–
Eos in her chariot flying over the sea, red-figure
krater from South
Italy, 430–420 BC,
Staatliche Antikensammlungen
Eos
–
Eos and the slain
Memnon on an
Attic red-figure cup, ca. 490–480 BCE, the so-called "Memnon Pietà" found at
Capua (
Louvre).
8.
Troy
–
The present-day location is known as Hisarlik. It was the setting of the Trojan War described in the Greek Epic Cycle, in particular in the Iliad, a new capital called Ilium was founded on the site in the reign of the Roman Emperor Augustus. It flourished until the establishment of Constantinople and declined gradually in the Byzantine era and these excavations revealed several cities built in succession. Troy VII has been identified with the city that the Hittites called Wilusa, the origin of the Greek Ἴλιον. Today, the hill at Hisarlık has given its name to a village near the ruins. It lies within the province of Çanakkale, some 30 km south-west of the provincial capital, the map here shows the adapted Scamander estuary with Ilium a little way inland across the Homeric plain. Troy was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1998, Ancient Greek historians variously placed the Trojan War in the 12th, 13th, or 14th centuries BC, Eratosthenes to 1184 BC, Herodotus to 1250 BC, Duris of Samos to 1334 BC. Modern archaeologists associate Homeric Troy with archaeological Troy VII, in the Iliad, the Achaeans set up their camp near the mouth of the River Scamander, where they had beached their ships. The city of Troy itself stood on a hill, across the plain of Scamander, recent geological findings have permitted the identification of the ancient Trojan coastline, and the results largely confirm the accuracy of the Homeric geography of Troy. In November 2001, the geologist John C, kraft from the University of Delaware and the classicist John V. Luce from Trinity College, Dublin, presented the results of investigations, begun in 1977, into the geology of the region. Besides the Iliad, there are references to Troy in the major work attributed to Homer. The Homeric legend of Troy was elaborated by the Roman poet Virgil in his Aeneid, the Greeks and Romans took for a fact the historicity of the Trojan War and the identity of Homeric Troy with the site in Anatolia. Alexander the Great, for example, visited the site in 334 BC and there made sacrifices at tombs associated with the Homeric heroes Achilles and Patroclus. After the 1995 find of a Luwian biconvex seal at Troy VII, with the rise of critical history, Troy and the Trojan War were, for a long time, consigned to the realms of legend. However, the location of ancient Troy had from classical times remained the subject of interest. The Troad peninsula was anticipated to be the location, leChavaliers location, published in his Voyage de la Troade, was the most commonly accepted theory for almost a century. In 1822, the Scottish journalist Charles Maclaren was the first to identify with confidence the position of the city as it is now known, the hill, near the city of Çanakkale, was known as Hisarlık. In 1868, Heinrich Schliemann visited Calvert and secured permission to excavate Hisarlık, in 1871–73 and 1878–79, he excavated the hill and discovered the ruins of a series of ancient cities dating from the Bronze Age to the Roman period
Troy
–
The walls of the
acropolis belong to Troy VII, which is identified as the site of the
Trojan War (c. 1200 BC).
Troy
–
Silver
tetradrachm from Troy with head of
Athena, c. 165–150 BC
Troy
–
The
odeon dates to the
Roman Troy IX and was renovated by
Hadrian in 124 AD.
Troy
–
The view from
Hisarlık across the plain of Ilium to the
Aegean Sea.
9.
Laomedon
–
Tithonus is also described by most sources as Laomedons eldest legitimate son, and most sources omit Ganymedes from the list of Laomedons children, but indicate him as his uncle instead. Laomedons possible wives are Placia, Strymo and Leucippe, by the former he begot Tithonus and he also had a son named Bucolion by the nymph Calybe, as recounted by Homer in the Iliad. Dictys Cretensis added Thymoetes to the list of Laomedons children, Laomedon owned several horses with divine parentage that Zeus had given Tros as compensation for the kidnapping of Ganymedes. Anchises secretly bred his own mares from these horses, according to one story, Laomedons son, Ganymedes, was kidnapped by Zeus, who had fallen in love with the beautiful boy. Sympathetic, Zeus sent Hermes with two horses so swift they could run over water, Hermes also assured Laomedon that Ganymedes was immortal and would be the cupbearer for the gods, a position of much distinction. However, Ganymedes is more usually described as a son of Tros, Laomedon himself was son of Ilus, son of Tros. Poseidon and Apollo, having offended Zeus, were sent to serve King Laomedon and he had them build huge walls around the city and promised to reward them well, a promise he then refused to fulfill. In vengeance, before the Trojan War, Poseidon sent a sea monster to attack Troy, Laomedon planned on sacrificing his daughter Hesione to Poseidon in the hope of appeasing him. Heracles rescued her at the last minute and killed the monster, telamon took Hesione as a war prize and married her, they had a son called Teucer. Apollodorus and Hyginus Apollodorus Library and Hyginus Fabulae, Two Handbooks of Greek Mythology, R. Scott Smith and Stephen Trzaskoma
Laomedon
–
Heracles about to kill Laomedon, terra sigillata flask from Southern Gaul, late 1st century–early 2nd century AD
10.
Naiad
–
In Greek mythology, the Naiads are a type of female spirit, or nymph, presiding over fountains, wells, springs, streams, brooks and other bodies of fresh water. They are distinct from gods, who embodied rivers. Arethusa, the nymph of a spring, could make her way through subterranean flows from the Peloponnesus, the Greek word is Ναϊάς, plural Ναϊάδες It derives from νάειν, to flow, or νᾶμα, running water. Naiad has several English pronunciations, /ˈneɪæd/, /ˈneɪəd/, /ˈnaɪæd/, /ˈnaɪəd/ and they were often the object of archaic local cults, worshipped as essential to humans. Boys and girls at coming-of-age ceremonies dedicated their childish locks to the local naiad of the spring, in places like Lerna their waters ritual cleansings were credited with magical medical properties. Oracles might be situated by ancient springs, Naiads could be dangerous, Hylas of the Argos crew was lost when he was taken by naiads fascinated by his beauty. The naiads were also known to exhibit jealous tendencies, salmacis forced the youth Hermaphroditus into a carnal embrace and, when he sought to get away, fused with him. The loves and rapes of Zeus, according to Graves readings, so, in the back-story of the myth of Aristaeus, Hypseus, a king of the Lapiths, married Chlidanope, a naiad, who bore him Cyrene. Aristaeus had more than ordinary mortal experience with the naiads, when his bees died in Thessaly and his aunt Arethusa invited him below the waters surface, where he was washed with water from a perpetual spring and given advice. St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans was formerly known as Nyades Street, and is parallel to Dryades Street. Crinaeae Eleionomae Limnades or Limnatides Pegaeae Potameides Bibliotheca 2.95,2.11,2.21,2.23,1.61,1.81,1.7.6 Homer. Odyssey 13.355,17.240, Iliad 14.440,20.380 Ovid, theogony Burkert, Walter, Greek Religion, Harvard University Press,1985. Robert Graves, The Greek Myths 1955 Edgar Allan Poe, Sonnet to Science 1829 The Naiades Naiad Nymphs
Naiad
–
A Naiad by
John William Waterhouse, 1893; a water nymph approaches the sleeping
Hylas.
Naiad
–
Undine, by
John William Waterhouse
Naiad
–
Gioacchino Pagliei - The Naiads, 1881
Naiad
–
Fountain of the Naiads,
Piazza della Repubblica, Rome, Italy
11.
Immortality
–
Immortality is eternal life, the ability to live forever. At least one species has potential biological immortality, Turritopsis dohrnii, other advocates believe that life extension is a more achievable goal in the short term, with immortality awaiting further research breakthroughs. The absence of aging would provide humans with biological immortality, but not invulnerability to death by physical trauma, whether the process of internal endoimmortality is delivered within the upcoming years depends chiefly on research in the former view and perhaps is an awaited goal in the latter case. In religious contexts, immortality is often stated to be one of the promises of God to human beings who show goodness or else follow divine law, Life extension technologies promise a path to complete rejuvenation. Cryonics holds out the hope that the dead can be revived in the future, while, as shown with creatures such as hydra and planarian worms, it is indeed possible for a creature to be biologically immortal, it is not known if it is possible for humans. Mind uploading is the transference of brain states from a brain to an alternative medium providing similar functionality. Assuming the process to be possible and repeatable, this would provide immortality to the computation of the original brain, the soul itself has different meanings and is not used in the same way in different religions and different denominations of a religion. For example, various branches of Christianity have disagreeing views on the souls immortality, physical immortality is a state of life that allows a person to avoid death and maintain conscious thought. It can mean the unending existence of a person from a source other than organic life. There are three causes of death, aging, disease and physical trauma. Such issues can be resolved with the provided in research to any end providing such alternate theories at present that require unification. Eliminating aging would require finding a solution to each of these causes, there is also a huge body of knowledge indicating that change is characterized by the loss of molecular fidelity. Disease is theoretically surmountable via technology, in short, it is an abnormal condition affecting the body of an organism, something the body shouldnt typically have to deal with its natural make up. Human understanding of genetics is leading to cures and treatments for previously incurable diseases. The mechanisms by which other diseases do their damage are becoming better understood, sophisticated methods of detecting diseases early are being developed. Preventative medicine is becoming better understood, neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinsons and Alzheimers may soon be curable with the use of stem cells. Breakthroughs in cell biology and telomere research are leading to treatments for cancer, vaccines are being researched for AIDS and tuberculosis. Genes associated with type 1 diabetes and certain types of cancer have been discovered, artificial devices attached directly to the nervous system may restore sight to the blind
Immortality
–
The
Fountain of Eternal Life in
Cleveland, Ohio is described as symbolizing "Man rising above death, reaching upward to God and toward Peace."
Immortality
–
Joseph Wright of Derby, The Alchymist, In Search of the Philosopher's Stone, 1771
Immortality
–
Adam and Eve condemned to mortality.
Hans Holbein the Younger, Danse Macabre, 16th century
Immortality
–
Representation of a soul undergoing punarjanma. Illustration from Hinduism Today, 2004
12.
Eternal youth
–
Eternal youth is the concept of human physical immortality free of ageing. The youth referred to is meant to be in contrast to the depredations of aging. Achieving eternal youth so far remains beyond the capabilities of scientific technology, however, much research is being conducted in the sciences of genetics which may allow manipulation of the aging process in the future. Eternal youth is common in mythology, and is a theme in fiction. Eternal youth is a characteristic of the inhabitants of Paradise in Abrahamic religions, the Hindus believe that the Vedic and the post-Vedic rishis have attained immortality, which implies the ability to change ones bodys age or even shape at will. These are some of the siddhas in Yoga, markandeya is said to always stay at the age of 16. The difference between life and the more specific eternal youth is a recurrent theme in Greek and Roman mythology. The mytheme of requesting the boon of immortality from a god, a similar theme is found in Ovid regarding the Cumaean Sibyl. In Norse mythology, Iðunn is described as providing the gods apples that grant them eternal youthfulness in the 13th century Prose Edda, an individuals DNA plays a role in the aging process. Aging begins even before birth, as soon as cells start to die, on the ends of each chromosome are repetitive sequences of DNA, telomeres, that protect the chromosome from joining with other chromosomes, and have several key roles. One of these roles is to cell division by allowing each cell division to remove a small amount of genetic code. The amount removed varies by the type being replicated. The gradual degradation of the telomeres restricts cell division to 40-60 times, once this limit has been reached, more cells die than can be replaced in the same time span. Thus, soon after this limit is reached the organism dies, the importance of telomeres is now clearly evident, lengthen the telomeres, lengthen the life. Also, telomere shortening does not occur with age in a some postmitotic tissues, in humans, skeletal muscle telomere lengths remain stable from ages 23–74. In baboon skeletal muscle, that consists of fully differentiated cells, less than 3% of myonuclei contain damaged telomeres. Thus telomere shortening does not appear to be a factor in the aging of the differentiated cells of brain or skeletal muscle. Studies have shown that 90 percent of cells contain large amounts of an enzyme called telomerase
Eternal youth
–
Youth and Time,
John William Godward, 1901
13.
Cricket (insect)
–
Crickets, of the family Gryllidae, are insects related to bush crickets, and, more distantly, to grasshoppers. The Gryllidae have mainly cylindrical bodies, round heads, and long antennae, behind the head is a smooth, robust pronotum. The abdomen ends in a pair of cerci, females have a long. The hind legs have enlarged femora, providing power for jumping, the front wings are adapted as tough, leathery elytra, and some crickets chirp by rubbing parts of these together. The hind wings are membranous and folded when not in use for flight, many species, the largest members of the family are the bull crickets, Brachytrupes, which are up to 5 cm long. More than 900 species of crickets are described, the Gryllidae are distributed all around the world except at latitudes 55° or higher and they occur in varied habitats from grassland, bushes, and forests to marshes, beaches, and caves. Crickets are mainly nocturnal, and are best known for the loud, persistent, chirping song of trying to attract females. The singing species have good hearing, via the tympani on the tibiae of the front legs, Crickets often appear as characters in literature. The Talking Cricket features in Carlo Collodis 1883 childrens book, The Adventures of Pinocchio, the eponymous insect is central to Charles Dickenss 1845 The Cricket on the Hearth, as is the chirping insect in George Seldens 1960 The Cricket in Times Square. Crickets are celebrated in poems by William Wordsworth, John Keats and they are kept as pets in countries from China to Europe, sometimes for cricket fighting. Crickets are efficient at converting their food into body mass, making them a candidate for food production and they are used as food in Southeast Asia, where they are sold deep-fried in markets as snacks. They are also used to feed carnivorous pets and zoo animals, in Brazilian folklore, crickets feature as omens of various events. Crickets are small to medium-sized insects with mostly cylindrical, somewhat flattened bodies. The head is spherical with long slender antennae arising from cone-shaped scapes, on the forehead are three ocelli. The pronotum is trapezoidal in shape, robust, and well-sclerotinized and it is smooth and has neither dorsal or lateral keels. At the tip of the abdomen is a pair of cerci, and in females. The femora of the pair of legs are greatly enlarged for jumping. The tibiae of the legs are armed with a number of moveable spurs
Cricket (insect)
Cricket (insect)
–
African
field cricket Gryllus bimaculatus
Cricket (insect)
–
A male Gryllus cricket chirping. Its head faces its burrow; the leathery forewings (
tegmina) are raised (clear of the more delicate hindwings) and are being scraped against each other (
stridulation) to produce the song. The burrow acts as a
resonator, amplifying the sound.
Cricket (insect)
–
Two adult domestic crickets,
Acheta domestica, feeding on carrot
14.
Olympian gods
–
Hades and Persephone were sometimes included as part of the twelve Olympians, although in general Hades was excluded, because he resided permanently in the underworld and never visited Olympus. The Twelve Olympians, also known as the Dodekatheon, were the deities of the Greek pantheon. The Olympians gained their supremacy in a war of gods in which Zeus led his siblings to victory over their predecessor gods. The concept of the Twelve Gods is older than any extant Greek or Roman source, the gods meet in council in the Homeric epics, but the first ancient reference to religious ceremonies for the Olympians collectively is found in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes. The Greek cult of the Twelve Olympians can be traced to 6th-century BC Athens, the Altar of the Twelve Gods at Athens is usually dated to the archonship of the younger Pesistratos, in 522/521 BC. In ancient Greek religion, the Olympian Gods and the Cults of Twelve Gods were often relatively distinct concepts, while the number was fixed at twelve, there was considerable variation as to which deities were included. However, the twelve as most commonly portrayed in art and poetry were Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Hermes and either Hestia, or Dionysus. Hades, known in the Eleusinian tradition as Pluto, was not usually included among the Olympians because his realm was the underworld. Plato connected the Twelve Olympians with the months, and implies that he considered Pluto one of the twelve in proposing that the final month be devoted to him. In Phaedrus, Plato seems to exclude Hestia from the rank of the great gods. At Olympia there were six altars dedicated to six pairs of gods, Zeus and Poseidon, Hera and Athena, Hermes and Apollo, the Charites and Dionysus, Artemis and Alpheus, the historian Herodotus states that Heracles was included as one of the Twelve by some. At Kos, Heracles and Dionysus are added to the Twelve, for Pindar, the Bibliotheca, and Herodorus of Heraclea, Heracles is not one of the Twelve Gods, but the one who established their cult. Lucian includes Heracles and Asclepius as members of the Twelve, without explaining which two had to give way for them, hebe, Helios, Selene, Eos, Eros and Persephone are other important gods and goddesses who are sometimes included in a group of twelve. Eros is often depicted alongside the twelve, especially his mother Aphrodite. Notes ^ Romans also associated Phoebus with Helios and the sun itself, however, ^ According to an alternate version of her birth, Aphrodite was born of Uranus, Zeus grandfather, after Cronus threw his castrated genitals into the sea. This supports the etymology of her name, foam-born, as such, Aphrodite would belong to the same generation as Cronus, Zeus father, and would be Zeus aunt. See the birth of Aphrodite The following gods and goddess are sometimes included as one of the twelve Olympians, the following gods and goddesses were not usually counted as Olympians, although they had close ties to them. Aeolus – King of the winds, keeper of the Anemoi, Alpheus – God of the River Alpheus
Olympian gods
Olympian gods
–
Zeus
Olympian gods
–
Hera
Olympian gods
–
Poseidon
15.
Selene
–
In Greek mythology, Selene is the goddess of the moon. She is the daughter of the Titans Hyperion and Theia, and sister of the sun-god Helios and she drives her moon chariot across the heavens. Several lovers are attributed to her in various myths, including Zeus, Pan, in classical times, Selene was often identified with Artemis, much as her brother, Helios, was identified with Apollo. Both Selene and Artemis were also associated with Hecate, and all three were regarded as goddesses, although only Selene was regarded as the personification of the moon itself. The etymology of Selene is uncertain, but if the name is of Greek origin, it is connected to the word selas. Just as Helios, from his identification with Apollo, is called Phoebus, Selene, the original Phoebe of Greek mythology is Selenes aunt, the Titaness mother of Leto and Asteria, and grandmother of Apollo, Artemis, and Hecate. Also from Artemis, Selene was sometimes called Cynthia, the word men, meant the moon, and the lunar month. It was also the name of the Phrygian moon-god Men, the usual account of Selenes origin is given by Hesiod. The Homeric Hymn to Helios follows this tradition, Hyperion wedded glorious Euryphaëssa, his own sister, here Euryphaëssa is probably an epithet of Theia. Other accounts make Selene the daughter of Pallas, the son of Megamedes or of Helios, Selene is best known for her affair with the beautiful mortal Endymion. The late 7th-century – early 6th-century BC poet Sappho apparently mentioned Selene, and now thou thyself too hast part in a like mad passion, and some god of affliction has given thee Jason to be thy grievous woe. Well, go on, and steel thy heart, wise though thou be, to take up thy burden of pain, fraught with many sighs. The eternally sleeping Endymion was proverbial, but exactly how this eternal sleep came about and what role, if any, according to the Catalogue of Women, Endymion was the son of Aethlius, and Zeus granted him the right to choose when he would die. A scholiast on Apollonius says that, according to Epimenides, Endymion, having fallen in love with Hera, cicero seems to make Selene responsible for Endymions sleep, so that she might kiss him while sleeping. From Pausanias we hear that Selene was supposed to have had by Endymion fifty daughters, nonnus has Selene and Endymion as the parents of the beautiful Narcissus, but in other accounts, including Ovids Metamorphoses, Narcissus was the son of Cephissus and Liriope. According to the Homeric Hymn to Selene, the goddess bore Zeus a daughter, Pandia, alcman makes Ersa, the daughter of Selene and Zeus. Selene and Zeus were also supposed by some to be the parents of Nemea, the nymph of Nemea, where Heracles slew the Nemean Lion. Some accounts also make Selene and Zeus the parents of Dionysus, but this may be the result of confusing Semele, whereas for Hesiod, the Nemean Lion was born to Echidna and raised by Hera, other accounts have Selene involved in some way in its birth or rearing
Selene
–
Detail of Selene from a Roman sarcophagus
Selene
–
Endymion and Selene, by
Sebastiano Ricci (1713),
Chiswick House, England
Selene
–
Detail of a
sarcophagus depicting
Endymion and Selene, shown with her characteristic attributes of lunate crown and billowing veil (
velificatio)
Selene
–
Statue of Luna
16.
Memnon (mythology)
–
In Greek mythology, Memnon was an Ethiopian king and son of Tithonus and Eos. As a warrior he was considered to be almost Achilles equal in skill, during the Trojan War, he brought an army to Troys defense and had killed Antilochus during a fierce battle. The death of Memnon echoes that of Hector, another defender of Troy whom Achilles also killed out of revenge for a fallen comrade, after Memnons death, Zeus was moved by Eos tears and granted him immortality. Memnons death is related at length in the lost epic Aethiopis, Quintus of Smyrna records Memnons death in Posthomerica. His death is described in Philostratus Imagines. Memnons army is described as being too big to be counted, as per usual the two leaders end the dinner by exchanging glorious war stories, and Memnons tales lead Priam to declare that the Aethiopian King will be Troys saviour. Despite this, Memnon is very humble and warns that his strength will, he hopes, be seen in battle, before the next days battle, so great is the divine love towards Memnon that Zeus makes all the other Olympians promise not to interfere in the fighting. In battle, Memnon kills Nestors son, Antilochos, after Antilochos has killed Memnons dear comrade, in this way, Memnon is seen as very similar to Achilles – both of them have strong sets of values that are looked upon favourably by the warrior culture of the time. Zeus favours both of them and makes each man tireless and huge so that the battlefield can watch them clash as demigods. Eventually, Achilles stabs Memnon through the heart, causing his army to flee in terror. In honour of Memnon, the Gods collect all the drops of blood that fall from him, the Aethiopians that stayed close to Memnon in order to bury their leader are turned into birds and they stay by his tomb so as to remove dust that gathers on it. Roman writers and later classical Greek writers such as Diodorus Siculus believed Memnon hailed from Aethiopia, because the original historical work by Arctinus of Miletus only survives in fragments, most of what is known about Memnon comes from post-Homeric Greek and Roman writers. Homer only makes passing mention to Memnon in the Odyssey, one of the statues was on the road from Smyrna to Sardis. Herodotus described a carved figure matching this description near the old road from Smyrna to Sardis, the many call it Memnon, who they say from Aethiopia overran Egypt and as far as Susa. The Thebans, however, say that it is a statue, not of Memnon, but of a native named Phamenoph, according to Manetho Memnon and the 8th Pharaoh of the 18th dynasty Amenophis was one and the same king. According to ancient Greek poets, Memnons father Tithonus was snatched away from Troy by the goddess of dawn Eos and was taken to the ends of the earth on the coast of Oceanus. This literally means he was carried by the east wind and was driven to the ends of the earth beyond the Ocean or Pillars of Hercules. According to Hesiod Eos bore to Tithonus bronzed armed Memnon, the King of the Ethiopians, zephyrus, god of the west wind, like Memnon was also the first-born son of Eos by another father Astraeus, making him the brother of Memnon
Memnon (mythology)
–
The departure of Memnon for Troy. Greek, circa 550-525 BC. Black-figure vase.
Royal Museums of Art and History, Brussels, Belgium.
Memnon (mythology)
–
Memnon in an engraving by
Bernard Picart (1673–1733)
17.
Epic Cycle
–
Aside from the Iliad and the Odyssey, the cyclic epics only survive in fragments and summaries from Late Antiquity and the Byzantine period. The epics were composed in dactylic hexameter verse, the epic cycle was the distillation in literary form of an oral tradition that had developed during the Greek Dark Age, which was based in part on localised hero cults. The traditional material from which the epics were drawn treats Mycenaean Bronze Age culture from the perspective of Iron Age. In modern scholarship the study of the historical and literary relationship between the Homeric epics and the rest of the Cycle is called Neoanalysis, modern scholars do not normally include the Theban Cycle when referring to the Epic Cycle. Herodotus knew of the Cypria and the Epigoni when he wrote his History in mid-5th century BCE and he rejected the Homeric authorship for the former, and questioned it for the latter. As a result, only one tragedy is made out of the Iliad and the Odyssey, but from the Cypria many, the Library attributed to Apollodorus and the 2nd century CE Latin Genealogia attributed to Hyginus also drew on them. Furthermore, there is also the Tabula iliaca inscriptions that cover the same myths, most knowledge of the Cyclic epics comes from a broken summary of them which serves as part of the preface to the famous 10th century CE Iliad manuscript known as Venetus A. This preface is damaged, missing the Cypria, and has to be supplemented by other sources, the summary is in turn an excerpt from a longer work, Chrestomathy, written by a Proclus. This is known from evidence provided by the later scholar Photius, Photius provides sufficient information about Proclus Chrestomathy to demonstrate that the Venetus A excerpt is derived from the same work. Little is known about Proclus, except that he is not the philosopher Proclus Diadochus. The non-Homeric epics are usually regarded as later than the Iliad, there is no reliable evidence for this, however, and some Neoanalyst scholars operate on the premise that the Homeric epics were later than the Cyclic epics and drew on them extensively. Other Neoanalysts make the claim that the Homeric epics draw on legendary material which later crystallized into the Epic Cycle. In antiquity the Homeric epics were considered to be the greatest works in the Cycle, how and when the eight epics of the Cycle came to be combined into a single collection and referred to as a cycle is a matter of ongoing debate. More recent scholars have preferred to push the date slightly earlier, the nature of the relationship between the Cyclic epics and Homer is also bound up in this question. As told by Proclus, the plots of the six non-Homeric epics look very much as though they are designed to integrate with Homer and it is probable that at least some editing or stitching was done to edit epics together. For the last line of the Iliad, ὣς οἵ γ᾽ ἀμφίεπον τάφον Ἕκτορος ἱπποδάμοιο, in this way they performed the funeral of Hector, tamer of horses. An alternative reading is preserved which is designed to directly into the Aethiopis, ὣς οἵ γ ἀμφίεπον τάφον Ἕκτορος· ἦλθε δ Ἀμαζών. In this way they performed the funeral of Hector, then the Amazon Penthesileia came, there are contradictions between epics in the Cycle
Epic Cycle
–
Achilles tending the wounded
Patroclus (
Attic red-figure kylix, c. 500 BCE)
18.
Trojan War
–
In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta. The war is one of the most important events in Greek mythology and has been narrated through many works of Greek literature, most notably through Homers Iliad. The Iliad relates four days in the year of the decade-long siege of Troy. Other parts of the war are described in a cycle of epic poems, episodes from the war provided material for Greek tragedy and other works of Greek literature, and for Roman poets including Virgil and Ovid. Zeus sent the goddesses to Paris, who judged that Aphrodite, as the fairest, in exchange, Aphrodite made Helen, the most beautiful of all women and wife of Menelaus, fall in love with Paris, who took her to Troy. Agamemnon, king of Mycenae and the brother of Helens husband Menelaus, led an expedition of Achaean troops to Troy and besieged the city for ten years because of Paris insult. After the deaths of heroes, including the Achaeans Achilles and Ajax, and the Trojans Hector and Paris. The Achaeans slaughtered the Trojans and desecrated the temples, thus earning the gods wrath, few of the Achaeans returned safely to their homes and many founded colonies in distant shores. The Romans later traced their origin to Aeneas, one of the Trojans, in 1868, however, the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann met Frank Calvert, who convinced Schliemann that Troy was a real city at what is now Hissarlik in Turkey. On the basis of excavations conducted by Schliemann and others, this claim is now accepted by most scholars, whether there is any historical reality behind the Trojan War remains an open question. The events of the Trojan War are found in works of Greek literature. There is no single, authoritative text which tells the events of the war. Instead, the story is assembled from a variety of sources, the most important literary sources are the two epic poems traditionally credited to Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey, composed sometime between the 9th and 6th centuries BC. Each poem narrates only a part of the war, the Iliad covers a short period in the last year of the siege of Troy, while the Odyssey concerns Odysseuss return to his home island of Ithaca, following the sack of Troy. Other parts of the Trojan War were told in the poems of the Epic Cycle, also known as the Cyclic Epics, the Cypria, Aethiopis, Little Iliad, Iliou Persis, Nostoi, and Telegony. Though these poems survive only in fragments, their content is known from an included in Proclus Chrestomathy. The authorship of the Cyclic Epics is uncertain, both the Homeric epics and the Epic Cycle take origin from oral tradition. Even after the composition of the Iliad, Odyssey, and the Cyclic Epics, events and details of the story that are only found in later authors may have been passed on through oral tradition and could be as old as the Homeric poems
Trojan War
–
Achilles tending the wounded
Patroclus (
Attic red-figure kylix, c. 500 BC)
Trojan War
–
The Burning of Troy (1759/62),
oil painting by Johann Georg Trautmann
Trojan War
–
The Judgment of Paris (1904) by
Enrique Simonet
Trojan War
–
Thetis gives her son Achilles weapons forged by Hephaestus (detail of Attic
black-figure hydria, 575–550 BC)
19.
Hephaestus
–
Hephaestus is the Greek god of blacksmiths, craftsmen, artisans, sculptors, metals, metallurgy, fire and volcanoes. In Greek mythology, Hephaestus was the son of Zeus and Hera, in another version, he was Heras parthenogenous child, rejected by his mother because of his deformity and thrown off Mount Olympus and down to earth. As a smithing god, Hephaestus made all the weapons of the gods in Olympus and he served as the blacksmith of the gods, and was worshipped in the manufacturing and industrial centers of Greece, particularly Athens. The cult of Hephaestus was based in Lemnos, Hephaestus symbols are a smiths hammer, anvil, and a pair of tongs. The name of the god in Greek has a root which can be observed in names of places of Pre-Greek origin, Hephaestus had his own palace on Olympus, containing his workshop with anvil and twenty bellows that worked at his bidding. Hephaestus crafted much of the magnificent equipment of the gods, in later accounts, Hephaestus worked with the help of the chthonic Cyclopes—among them his assistants in the forge, Brontes, Steropes and Pyracmon. Hephaestus built automatons of metal to work for him and this included tripods that walked to and from Mount Olympus. He gave to the blinded Orion his apprentice Cedalion as a guide, in some versions of the myth, Prometheus stole the fire that he gave to man from Hephaestuss forge. Hephaestus also created the gift that the gods gave to man, being a skilled blacksmith, Hephaestus created all the thrones in the Palace of Olympus. The Greek myths and the Homeric poems sanctified in stories that Hephaestus had a power to produce motion. He made the golden and silver lions and dogs at the entrance of the palace of Alkinoos in such a way that they could bite the invaders, the Greeks maintained in their civilization an animistic idea that statues are in some sense alive. This kind of art and the animistic belief goes back to the Minoan period, when Daedalus, a statue of the god was somehow the god himself, and the image on a mans tomb indicated somehow his presence. Homers Odyssey and Iliad have Hephaestus being born of the union of Zeus, in another tradition, attested by Hesiod, Hera bore Hephaestus alone. In Hesiods Zeus-centered cosmology, Hera gave birth to Hephaestus as revenge for Zeus giving birth to Athena without her, several later texts follow Hesiods account, including Bibliotheke, Hyginus, and the preface to Fabulae. In the account of Attic vase painters, Hephaestus was present at the birth of Athena, in the latter account, Hephaestus is there represented as older than Athena, so the mythology of Hephaestus is inconsistent in this respect. In one branch of Greek mythology, Hera ejected Hephaestus from the heavens because he was shrivelled of foot and he fell into the ocean and was raised by Thetis and the Oceanid Eurynome. In another account, Hephaestus, attempting to rescue his mother from Zeus advances, was flung down from the heavens by Zeus. He fell for a day and landed on the island of Lemnos
Hephaestus
–
Hephaestus at the Forge by
Guillaume Coustou the Younger (
Louvre)
Hephaestus
–
Vulcan (Roman counterpart of Hephaestus) presenting the arms of Achilles to Thetis. By
Peter Paul Rubens.
Hephaestus
–
The western face of the Doric
temple of Hephaestus,
Agora of Athens.
20.
Diodorus Siculus
–
Diodorus Siculus or Diodorus of Sicily was a Greek historian. He is known for writing the monumental universal history Bibliotheca historica, much of which survives and it is arranged in three parts. The first covers mythic history up to the destruction of Troy, arranged geographically, describing regions around the world from Egypt, India and Arabia to Greece, the second covers the Trojan War to the death of Alexander the Great. The third covers the period to about 60 BC, Bibliotheca, meaning library, acknowledges that he was drawing on the work of many other authors. According to his own work, he was born at Agyrium in Sicily, with one exception, antiquity affords no further information about his life and doings beyond in his work. Only Jerome, in his Chronicon under the year of Abraham 1968, writes, Diodorus of Sicily and it was divided into three sections. In the next section, he recounts the history of the world from the Trojan War down to the death of Alexander the Great, the last section concerns the historical events from the successors of Alexander down to either 60 BC or the beginning of Julius Caesars Gallic Wars. He selected the name Bibliotheca in acknowledgment that he was assembling a composite work from many sources. His account of gold mining in Nubia in eastern Egypt is one of the earliest extant texts on the topic, pappus of Alexandria wrote a Commentary on Diodoruss Analemma. The now lost Analemma applied geometrical constructions in a plane to solve some astronomy related problems of spherical geometry and it contained, for example, a discussion of sundial theory. They are also boasters and threateners and are fond of pompous language, pliny the Elder Strabo Acadine Ambaglio, Dino, Franca Landucci Gattinoni and Luigi Bravi. Diodoro Siculo, Biblioteca storica, commento storico, introduzione generale, aspects of Greek History 750-323 BC, A Source-based Approach. Library of History, Loeb Classical Library, Siculus, Diodorus, G. Booth, H. Valesius, I. The Historical Library of Diodorus the Sicilian in Fifteen Books to which are added the Fragments of Diodorus, siculi, Diodori, Peter Wesseling, L. Rhodoman, G. Heyn, N. Eyring. Bibliothecae Historicae Libri Qui Supersunt, Nova Editio, Diodorus Siculus, the manuscripts of the Bibliotheca Historica
Diodorus Siculus
–
Diodoro siculo
21.
Assyria
–
Assyria was a major Mesopotamian East Semitic-speaking kingdom and empire of the ancient Near East and the Levant. Centered on the Tigris in Upper Mesopotamia, the Assyrians came to rule powerful empires at several times. Assyria is named after its capital, the ancient city of Aššur. In the 25th and 24th centuries BC, Assyrian kings were pastoral leaders, Assyria can also refer to the geographic region or heartland where Assyria, its empires and the Assyrian people were centered. The indigenous modern Eastern Aramaic-speaking Assyrian Christian ethnic minority in northern Iraq, north east Syria, southeast Turkey, in prehistoric times, the region that was to become known as Assyria was home to a Neanderthal culture such as has been found at the Shanidar Cave. The earliest Neolithic sites in Assyria were the Jarmo culture c.7100 BC and Tell Hassuna, during the 3rd millennium BC, a very intimate cultural symbiosis developed between the Sumerians and the Akkadians throughout Mesopotamia, which included widespread bilingualism. The influence of Sumerian on Akkadian, and vice versa, is evident in all areas, from lexical borrowing on a scale, to syntactic, morphological. This has prompted scholars to refer to Sumerian and Akkadian in the third millennium BC as a sprachbund and it is highly likely that the city was named in honour of its patron Assyrian god with the same name. The city of Aššur, together with a number of other Assyrian cities, however it is likely that they were initially Sumerian-dominated administrative centres. In the late 26th century BC, Eannatum of Lagash, then the dominant Sumerian ruler in Mesopotamia, similarly, in c. the early 25th century BC, Lugal-Anne-Mundu the king of the Sumerian state of Adab lists Subartu as paying tribute to him. Of the early history of the kingdom of Assyria, little is known, in the Assyrian King List, the earliest king recorded was Tudiya. According to Georges Roux he would have lived in the mid 25th century BC, Tudiya was succeeded on the list by Adamu, the first known reference to the Semitic name Adam and then a further thirteen rulers. The earliest kings, such as Tudiya, who are recorded as kings who lived in tents, were independent semi-nomadic pastoralist rulers and these kings at some point became fully urbanised and founded the city state of Ashur in the mid 21st century BC. During the Akkadian Empire, the Assyrians, like all the Mesopotamian Semites, became subject to the dynasty of the city state of Akkad, the Akkadian Empire founded by Sargon the Great claimed to encompass the surrounding four quarters. Assyrian rulers were subject to Sargon and his successors, and the city of Ashur became an administrative center of the Empire. On those tablets, Assyrian traders in Burushanda implored the help of their ruler, Sargon the Great, the name Hatti itself even appears in later accounts of his grandson, Naram-Sin, campaigning in Anatolia. Assyrian and Akkadian traders spread the use of writing in the form of the Mesopotamian cuneiform script to Asia Minor, the Akkadian Empire was destroyed by economic decline and internal civil war, followed by attacks from barbarian Gutian people in 2154 BC. The rulers of Assyria during the period between c.2154 BC and 2112 BC once again fully independent, as the Gutians are only known to have administered southern Mesopotamia
Assyria
–
Letter sent by the high-priest Lu'enna to the king of
Lagash (maybe
Urukagina), informing him of his son's death in combat, c. 2400 BC, found in
Girsu.
Assyria
–
Overview map of the Ancient Near East in the 15th century BC (Middle Assyrian period), showing the core territory of Assyria with its two major cities
Assur and
Nineveh wedged between
Babylonia downstream (to the south-east) and the states of
Mitanni and
Hatti upstream (to the north-west).
Assyria
–
Assyrian attack on a town with archers and a wheeled battering ram, 865–860 BC
Assyria
–
Jehu, king of
Israel, bows before Shalmaneser III of Assyria, 825 BC
22.
Susa
–
Susa was an ancient city of the Proto-Elamite, Elamite, First Persian Empire, Seleucid, and Parthian empires of Iran, and one of the most important cities of the Ancient Near East. It is located in the lower Zagros Mountains about 250 km east of the Tigris River, the modern Iranian town of Shush is located at the site of ancient Susa. Shush is the capital of the Shush County of Irans Khuzestan province. It had a population of 64,960 in 2005, in Elamite, the name of the city was written variously Ŝuŝan, Ŝuŝun, etc. The origin of the word Susa is from the city deity Inshushinak. Susa was one of the most important cities of the Ancient Near East, Susa is also mentioned in the Ketuvim of the Hebrew Bible by the name Shushan, mainly in Esther, but also once each in Nehemiah and Daniel. Both Daniel and Nehemiah lived in Susa during the Babylonian captivity of the 6th century BCE, Esther became queen there, married to King Ahasueurus, and saved the Jews from genocide. A tomb presumed to be that of Daniel is located in the area, however, the current structure is actually a much later construction dated to the late nineteenth century, ca. Susa is further mentioned in the Book of Jubilees as one of the places within the inheritance of Shem and his eldest son Elam, Greek mythology attributed the founding of Susa to king Memnon of Aethiopia, a character from Homers Trojan War epic, the Iliad. The site was examined in 1836 by Henry Rawlinson and then by A. H. Layard, in 1851, some modest excavation was done by William Loftus, who identified it as Susa. In 1885 and 1886 Marcel-Auguste Dieulafoy and Jane Dieulafoy began the first French excavations, jacques de Morgan conducted major excavations from 1897 until 1911. These efforts continued under Roland De Mecquenem until 1914, at the beginning of World War I, French work at Susa resumed after the war, led by De Mecquenem, continuing until World War II in 1940. Archaeological results from the period were very thinly published and attempts are underway to remedy this situation. Roman Ghirshman took over direction of the French efforts in 1946, together with his wife Tania Ghirshman, he continued there until 1967. The Ghirshmans concentrated on excavating a single part of the site, the pottery found at the various levels enabled a stratigraphy to be developed for Susa. During the 1970s, excavations resumed under Jean Perrot, archeologists have dated the first traces of an inhabited Neolithic village to c 7000 BCE. Evidence of a civilization has been dated to c 5000 BCE. Painted ceramic vessels from Susa in the earliest first style are a late, in urban history, Susa is one of the oldest-known settlements of the region
Susa
–
Tepe of the Royal city (left) and of the Acropolis (right), seen from the Hill mound of the Apadana in Susa.
Susa
–
Map showing the area of the Elamite kingdom (in red) and the neighboring areas. The approximate
Bronze Age extension of the
Persian Gulf is shown.
Susa
–
Ashurbanipal 's brutal campaign against Susa in 647 BCE is recorded in this relief. Flames rise from the city as
Assyrian soldiers topple it with pickaxes and crowbars and carry off the spoils.
23.
Hesiod
–
Hesiod was a Greek poet generally thought by scholars to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. He is generally regarded as the first written poet in the Western tradition to regard himself as a persona with an active role to play in his subject. Ancient authors credited Hesiod and Homer with establishing Greek religious customs, modern scholars refer to him as a major source on Greek mythology, farming techniques, early economic thought, archaic Greek astronomy and ancient time-keeping. The dating of his life is an issue in scholarly circles. Epic narrative allowed poets like Homer no opportunity for personal revelations, however, Hesiods extant work comprises didactic poems in which he went out of his way to let his audience in on a few details of his life. There are three references in Works and Days, as well as some passages in his Theogony that support inferences made by scholars. Some scholars have seen Perses as a creation, a foil for the moralizing that Hesiod develops in Works and Days. Gregory Nagy, on the hand, sees both Persēs and Hēsiodos as fictitious names for poetical personae. The family association with Cyme might explain his familiarity with eastern myths, evident in his poems, however, while his poetry features some Aeolisms there are no words that are certainly Boeotian—he composed in the main literary dialect of the time, Ionian. Pausanias asserted that Boeotians showed him an old tablet made of lead on which the Works were engraved. If he did write or dictate, it was perhaps as an aid to memory or because he lacked confidence in his ability to produce poems extempore and it certainly wasnt in a quest for immortal fame since poets in his era had no such notions. However, some suspect the presence of large-scale changes in the text. Possibly he composed his verses during idle times on the farm and he was in fact a misogynist of the same calibre as the later poet, Semonides. He resembles Solon in his preoccupation with issues of good versus evil and how a just and he resembles Aristophanes in his rejection of the idealised hero of epic literature in favour of an idealised view of the farmer. Yet the fact that he could eulogise kings in Theogony and denounce them as corrupt in Works, two different—yet early—traditions record the site of Hesiods grave. This tradition follows a familiar ironic convention, the oracle that predicts accurately after all, the other tradition, first mentioned in an epigram by Chersias of Orchomenus written in the 7th century BC claims that Hesiod lies buried at Orchomenus, a town in Boeotia. Eventually they came to regard Hesiod too as their hearth-founder, later writers attempted to harmonize these two accounts. Greeks in the fifth and early 4th centuries BC considered their oldest poets to be Orpheus, Musaeus, Hesiod
Hesiod
–
The Dance of the Muses at Mount Helicon by
Bertel Thorvaldsen (1807). Hesiod cites inspiration from the
Muses while on Mount Helicon.
Hesiod
–
Hesiod and the
Muse, by
Gustave Moreau. Here he is presented with a
lyre, which contradicts the account given by Hesiod himself, in which the gift was a laurel staff.
Hesiod
–
Modern Mount Helicon—Hesiod once described his nearby hometown,
Ascra, as "cruel in winter, hard in summer, never pleasant."
Hesiod
–
16th-century manuscript of Theogony
24.
Hesperides
–
In Greek mythology, the Hesperides are the nymphs of evening and golden light of sunset, who were the Daughters of the Evening or Nymphs of the West. They tend a garden in a far western corner of the world, located near the Atlas mountains in North Africa at the edge of the encircling Oceanus. The name means originating from Hesperos, Hesperos, or vesper in Latin, is the origin of the name Hesperus, the evening star as well as having a shared root with the English word west. Ordinarily the Hesperides number three, like the other Greek triads, since the Hesperides themselves are mere symbols of the gifts the apples embody, they cannot be actors in a human drama. Their abstract, interchangeable names are a symptom of their impersonality and they are sometimes portrayed as the evening daughters of Night either alone, or with Darkness, in accord with the way Eos in the farthermost east, in Colchis, is the daughter of the titan Hyperion. Or they are listed as the daughters of Atlas, or of Zeus, in another source, the nymphs are said to be the daughters of Hesperus. Nevertheless, among the names given to them, though never all at once, is the colour of the setting sun, red, yellow or gold. Pseudo-Apollodorus gives the number of the Hesperides as four, named, Aigle, Erytheia, Hesperia, fulgentius gives four Hesperides, named, Aegle, Hesperie, Medusa and Arethusa. Apollonius of Rhodes gives their names as Aigle, Erytheis and Hespere, hyginus in his preface to the Fabulae names them as Aegle, Hesperie and Aerica. In another source, they are named Ægle, Arethusa and Hesperethusa, an ancient vase painting attests the following names as four, Asterope, Chrysothemis, Hygieia and Lipara, on another seven names as Aiopis, Antheia, Donakis, Kalypso, Mermesa, Nelisa and Tara. A Pyxis has Hippolyte, Mapsaura, and Thetis, petrus Apianus attributed to these stars a mythical connection of their own. He believed that they were the seven Hesperides, nymph daughters of the Atlas and their names were, Aegle, Erythea, Arethusa, Hestia, Hespera, Hesperusa and Hespereia. In the far west of the world, Hesperis is appropriately the personification of the evening and the Evening Star is Hesperus. In addition to their tending of the garden, they were said to have great pleasure in singing. Erytheia is one of the Hesperides, the name was applied to an island close to the coast of southern Hispania, which was the site of the original Punic colony of Gades. By Ephorus and Philistides it is called Erythia, by Timæus and Silenus Aphrodisias, the island was the seat of Geryon, who was overcome by Heracles. The Garden of the Hesperides is Heras orchard in the west, the trees were planted from the fruited branches that Gaia gave to Hera as a wedding gift when Hera accepted Zeus. The Hesperides were given the task of tending to the grove, not trusting them, Hera also placed in the garden a never-sleeping, hundred-headed dragon named Ladon as an additional safeguard
Hesperides
–
This circular Pyxis or box depicts two scenes. The one shown presents the Olympian gods feasting around a tripod table holding the golden Apple of the Hesperides. The Walters Art Museum.
Hesperides
–
The Garden of the Hesperides by
Frederick, Lord Leighton, 1892.
Hesperides
–
Hercules stealing the golden apples from the Garden of the Hesperides. Detail of a
Twelve Labours Roman mosaic from
Llíria,
Spain (3rd century).
25.
Oceanus
–
Strictly speaking, Oceanus was the ocean-stream at the Equator in which floated the habitable hemisphere. Thus, the sun rises from the deep-flowing Oceanus in the east, in Greek mythology, this world-ocean was personified as a Titan, the eldest son of Uranus and Gaia. In Hellenistic and Roman mosaics, this Titan was often depicted as having the body of a muscular man with a long beard and horns. In Roman mosaics, such as that from Bardo he might carry a steering-oar, some scholars believe that Oceanus originally represented all bodies of salt water, including the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, the two largest bodies known to the ancient Greeks. Oceanus consort is his sister Tethys, and from their union came the ocean nymphs, also referred to as the three-thousand Oceanids, and all the rivers of the world, fountains, and lakes. In most variations of this myth, Oceanus also refused to side with Cronus in the revolt against their father. R. S. P. Beekes has suggested a Pre-Greek proto-form *-kay-an-, when Odysseus and Nestor walk together along the shore of the sounding sea they address their prayers to the great Sea-god who girdles the world. It is to Oceanus, not to Poseidon, that their thoughts are directed, Heracles forced Helios to lend him his golden bowl, in order to cross the wide expanse of the Ocean on his trip to the Hesperides. When Oceanus tossed the bowl about, Heracles threatened him and stilled his waves, the journey of Heracles in the sun-bowl upon Oceanus became a favored theme among painters of Attic pottery. Oceanus appears in Hellenic cosmography as well as myth, cartographers continued to represent the encircling equatorial stream much as it had appeared on Achilles shield. Apollonius of Rhodes calls the lower Danube the Keras Okeanoio in Argonautica, accion in the fourth century Gaulish Latin of Rufus Avienus, Ora maritima, was applied to great lakes. At the end of the Okeanos Potamos, is the island of Alba, sacred to the Pelasgian Apollo. Hecateus of Abdera refers to Apollos island from the region of the Hyperboreans and it was on Leuke, in one version of his legend, that the hero Achilles, in a hilly tumulus, was buried. Leto, the Hyperborean goddess, after nine days and nine nights of labour on the island of Delos gave birth to the god of the antique light. Old Romanian folk songs sing of a monastery on a white island with nine priests, nine singers, nine altars. Oceanid Ogyges Rasā Uranus Aeschylus, Persians, edited and translated by Alan H. Sommerstein. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press,2009, online version at Harvard University Press. Apollodorus, Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, London, William Heinemann Ltd.1921
Oceanus
–
Oceanus in the
Trevi Fountain,
Rome
Oceanus
–
Oceanus, at right, with scaly tail, in the
Gigantomachy of the
Pergamon Altar.
26.
Zephyrus
–
The Spartans were reported to sacrifice a horse to the winds on Mount Taygetus. Astraeus, the deity, and Eos/Aurora, the goddess of the dawn, were the parents of the Anemoi. The daughters of the Anemoi are the Aurae, the deities equivalent to the Anemoi in Roman mythology were the Venti. These gods had different names, but were very similar to their Greek counterparts, borrowing their attributes. Boreas was the Greek god of the north wind and the bringer of winter. Although normally taken as the wind, the Roman writers Aulus Gellius. Boreas is depicted as being strong, with a violent temper to match. He was frequently shown as an old man with shaggy hair and beard, holding a conch shell. Pausanias wrote that Boreas had snakes instead of feet, though in art he was depicted with winged human feet. Boreas two sons Calaïs and Zetes, known as Boreads, were in the crew of the Argo as Argonauts, Boreas was closely associated with horses. He was said to have fathered twelve colts after taking the form of a stallion, to the mares of Erichthonius and these were said to be able to run across a field of grain without trampling the plants. Pliny the Elder thought that mares might stand with their hindquarters to the North Wind and he is said to have fathered three giant Hyperborean priests of Apollo by Chione. Boreas was also said to have kidnapped Orithyia, an Athenian princess, Boreas had taken a fancy to Orithyia and had initially pleaded for her favours, hoping to persuade her. When this failed, he reverted to his temper and abducted her as she danced on the banks of the Ilisos. Boreas wrapped Orithyia up in a cloud, raped her, and with her, from then on, the Athenians saw Boreas as a relative by marriage. When Athens was threatened by Xerxes, the people prayed to Boreas, and when they went home they built the god a shrine by the River Ilissus. The abduction of Orithyia was popular in Athens before and after the Persian War, in these paintings, Boreas was portrayed as a bearded man in a tunic, with shaggy hair that is sometimes frosted and spiked. The abduction was also dramatized in Aeschyluss lost play Oreithyia, in other accounts, Boreas was the father of Butes and the lover of the nymph Pitys
Zephyrus
–
Wind rose as known in ancient Greece, created by the scholar
Adamantios Korais around 1796
Zephyrus
–
Greco-Buddhist fragment of the wind god Boreas,
Hadda,
Afghanistan
Zephyrus
–
Tower of the Winds in ancient
Athens, part of the frieze depicting the Greek wind gods Boreas (north wind, on the left) and Skiron (northwesterly wind, on the right)
Zephyrus
–
Zephyrus, the
Greek god of the
west wind and the
goddess Chloris, from an 1875
oil painting by
William-Adolphe Bouguereau
27.
Sappho
–
Sappho was an archaic Greek poet from the island of Lesbos. Sapphos poetry was lyric poetry, and she is best known for her poems about love, most of Sapphos poetry is now lost, and survives only in fragmentary form. As well as poetry, three epigrams attributed to Sappho are preserved, but these are in fact Hellenistic imitations. Little is known of Sapphos life and she was from a wealthy family from Lesbos, though the names of both of her parents are uncertain. Ancient sources say that she had three brothers, the names of two of them are mentioned in the Brothers Poem discovered in 2014 and she was exiled to Sicily around 600 BC, and may have continued to work until around 570. Sapphos poetry was well-known and greatly admired through much of antiquity, today, Sapphos poetry is still considered extraordinary, and her works have continued to influence other writers up until the modern day. Outside of academic circles, she is perhaps best known as a symbol of same-sex desire, there are three major sources of information about Sapphos life, her own poetry, other ancient sources, and deductions from our knowledge of the historical context in which Sappho worked. The only contemporary source for Sapphos life is her own poetry, despite this, though they are a valuable source on the reception of Sappho in antiquity, it is difficult to assess how accurate a picture they paint of Sapphos life. The testimonia are almost entirely derived from Sapphos poetry, and the inferences made by ancient scholars, Sappho was from Mytilene on the island of Lesbos, and was probably born around 630 BC. Tradition names her mother as Cleïs, though ancient scholars may simply have guessed this name for Sapphos mother, Sapphos fathers name is less certain. The Suda gives eight possible names, suggesting that he was not explicitly named in any of Sapphos poetry, in Ovids Heroides, Sapphos father died when she was seven, Campbell suggests that this may have been based on a now-lost poem of Sappho. Sappho was said to have three brothers, Erigyius, Larichus, and Charaxus, according to Athenaeus, Sappho often praised Larichus for pouring wine in the town hall of Mytilene, an office held by boys of the best families. This indication that Sappho was born into a family is consistent with the sometimes rarefied environments that her verses record. One ancient tradition tells of a relation between Charaxus and the Egyptian courtesan Rhodopis, herodotus, the oldest source of the story, reports that Charaxus ransomed Rhodopis for a large sum and that Sappho wrote a poem rebuking him for this. Sappho may have had a daughter called Cleïs, who is referred to in two fragments, therefore, it has been suggested, Cleïs was one of Sapphos younger lovers, rather than her daughter. Judith Hallett argues, however, that the used in fragment 132 suggests that Sappho was referring to Cleïs as her daughter. According to the Suda, Sappho was married to Kerkylas of Andros, thus, the name can be translated as Dick Allcock from the Isle of Man. One tradition said that Sappho was exiled from Lesbos to Sicily around 600 BC, a tradition going back at least to Menander suggested that Sappho killed herself by jumping off the Leucadian cliffs for love of Phaon, a ferryman
Sappho
–
Bust inscribed, literally Sappho Eresia, meaning Sappho of
Eresos. Roman copy of a Greek original of the 5th century BCE
Sappho
–
Roman bust of Sappho found at
Smyrna (Izmir), copied from a lost Hellenistic original (
Istanbul Archaeological Museum)
Sappho
–
Sappho on an Attic red-figure vase by the
Brygos Painter, c. 470 BCE.
Sappho
–
Sappho and her lyre
28.
Etruscan civilization
–
The Etruscan civilization is the modern name given to a powerful and wealthy civilization of ancient Italy in the area corresponding roughly to Tuscany, western Umbria, and northern Lazio. Culture that is identifiably Etruscan developed in Italy after about 800 BC, the latter gave way in the 7th century BC to a culture that was influenced by ancient Greece, Magna Graecia, and Phoenicia. The decline was gradual, but by 500 BC the political destiny of Italy had passed out of Etruscan hands, the last Etruscan cities were formally absorbed by Rome around 100 BC. Politics were based on the city, and probably the family unit. In their heyday, the Etruscan elite grew very rich through trade with the Celtic world to the north and the Greeks to the south, archaic Greece had a huge influence on their art and architecture, and Greek mythology was evidently very familiar to them. The study also excluded recent Anatolian connection, the ancient Romans referred to the Etruscans as the Tuscī or Etruscī. Their Roman name is the origin of the terms Tuscany, which refers to their heartland, and Etruria, which can refer to their wider region. In Attic Greek, the Etruscans were known as Tyrrhenians, from which the Romans derived the names Tyrrhēnī, Tyrrhēnia, the word may also be related to the Hittite Taruisa. The Etruscans called themselves Rasenna, which was syncopated to Rasna or Raśna, the origins of the Etruscans are mostly lost in prehistory, although Greek historians as early as the 5th century BC, repeatedly associated the Tyrrhenians with Pelasgians. Strabo as well as the Homeric Hymn to Dionysus make mention of the Tyrrhenians as pirates, pliny the Elder put the Etruscans in the context of the Rhaetian people to the north and wrote in his Natural History, Adjoining these the Noricans are the Raeti and Vindelici. All are divided into a number of states, the Raeti are believed to be people of Tuscan race driven out by the Gauls, their leader was named Raetus. Historians have no literature and no original Etruscan texts of religion or philosophy, therefore, much of what is known about this civilization is derived from grave goods, another source of genetic data on Etruscan origins is from four ancient breeds of cattle. Analyzing the mitochondrial DNA of these and seven other breeds of Italian cattle, the other Italian breeds were linked to northern Europe. Etruscan expansion was focused both to the north beyond the Apennine Mountains and into Campania, some small towns in the sixth century BC disappeared during this time, ostensibly consumed by greater, more powerful neighbours. However, it is certain that the structure of the Etruscan culture was similar to, albeit more aristocratic than. The mining and commerce of metal, especially copper and iron, led to an enrichment of the Etruscans and to the expansion of their influence in the Italian peninsula and the western Mediterranean Sea. Here, their interests collided with those of the Greeks, especially in the sixth century BC and this led the Etruscans to ally themselves with Carthage, whose interests also collided with the Greeks. Around 540 BC, the Battle of Alalia led to a new distribution of power in the western Mediterranean, from the first half of the 5th century BC, the new political situation meant the beginning of the Etruscan decline after losing their southern provinces
Etruscan civilization
–
Etruscan pendant with
swastika symbols,
Bolsena,
Italy, 700-650 BC.
Louvre Museum
Etruscan civilization
–
Extent of Etruscan civilization and the twelve Etruscan League cities.
Etruscan civilization
–
Etruscan riders, Silver panel 540-520BC, Castel San Marino, near
Perugia
Etruscan civilization
–
Etruscan walled town,
Civita di Bagnoregio.
29.
Tithonus (poem)
–
Tithonus is a poem by the Victorian poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson, originally written in 1833 as Tithon and completed in 1859. It first appeared in the February edition of the Cornhill Magazine in 1860, faced with old age, Tithonus, weary of his immortality, yearns for death. The poem is a monologue with Tithonus addressing his consort Eos. In Greek mythology, Tithonus was a Trojan by birth, the son of King Laomedon of Troy by a nymph named Strymo. Eos, the Greek goddess of the dawn, abducted Ganymede, when Zeus stole Ganymede from her to be his cup-bearer, as a repayment, Eos asked for Tithonus to be made immortal, but forgot to ask for eternal youth. Tithonus indeed lived forever but grew ever older, in later tellings, Eos eventually turned him into a cricket to relieve him of such an existence. In the poem however, it is Eos, and not Zeus, in the poem, Tithonus asks Eos for the gift of immortality, which she readily grants him, but forgets to ask for eternal youth along with it. As time wears on, age catches up with him, wasted and withered, Tithonus is reduced to a mere shadow of himself. But since he is immortal, he cannot die and is destined to live forever, the main classical source that Tennyson draws upon is from the story of Aphrodites relationship with Anchises in the ancient Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite. In this Aphrodite briefly tells of Eoss foolishness in neglecting to ask Zeus for immortal youth for Tithonus along with his immortality, the original version of the poem, named Tithon, was written in 1833 shortly after Tennysons friend Arthur Henry Hallams death but was not published. It was published in the February edition and it was finally published by Tennyson in an anthology in the Enoch Arden volume in 1864. The poem begins with Tithonus speaking to Eos at the limit of the world where he lives with her. Confronted with old age and its attendant pains, he meditates upon death and mortality and he recounts how Eos, choosing him to be her lover, had filled him with so much pride that he had seemed To his great heart none other than a God. Though she carelessly granted him immortality at his asking, he could not escape the ravages of time, the Hours aged him and his youth and beauty faded away−-But thy strong Hours indignant workd their wills / And beat me down and marrd and wasted me. He asks Eos to set him free−-Let me go, take back thy gift −-and questions why anyone should desire that which is unattainable, Eos departs at dawn without replying to his wish that she take back the boon of immortality. As she leaves, her tears fall on his cheek and this fills him with the foreboding that the saying he had learnt on earth, that even The Gods themselves cannot recall their gifts, might be true. In the final section, weary of life and immortality, he yearns for death to take him and he feels that men that have the power to die are happy and fortunate. His death greatly influenced much of Tennysons later poetry, Victorian scholar Matthew Reynolds wrote, Grieving for Arthur Hallam, Tennyson wrote poems which describe what they themselves possess, a life unusually, but not eternally, prolonged through time
Tithonus (poem)
–
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, author of "Tithonus".
Tithonus (poem)
–
Aurora e Titone by
Francesco de Mura.
Aurora was the
Roman equivalent of
Eos and often substitutes her as
Tithonus 's consort.
Tithonus (poem)
–
Dawn (1881) by
William-Adolphe Bouguereau.
Eos was the Greek goddess of the dawn.
30.
Alfred Tennyson
–
Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, FRS was Poet Laureate of Great Britain and Ireland during much of Queen Victorias reign and remains one of the most popular British poets. Tennyson excelled at penning short lyrics, such as Break, Break, Break, The Charge of the Light Brigade, Tears, Idle Tears, Tennyson also wrote some notable blank verse including Idylls of the King, Ulysses, and Tithonus. During his career, Tennyson attempted drama, but his plays enjoyed little success and he is the ninth most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. Tennyson was born in Somersby, Lincolnshire, England and he was born into a middle-class line of Tennysons, but also had a noble and royal ancestry. His father, George Clayton Tennyson, was rector of Somersby, also rector of Benniworth and Bag Enderby, and vicar of Grimsby. Rev. George Clayton Tennyson raised a family and was a man of superior abilities and varied attainments, who tried his hand with fair success in architecture, painting, music. He was comfortably well off for a clergyman and his shrewd money management enabled the family to spend summers at Mablethorpe. Alfred Tennysons mother, Elizabeth Fytche, was the daughter of Stephen Fytche, vicar of St. James Church, Louth and rector of Withcall, Tennysons father carefully attended to the education and training of his children. Tennyson and two of his brothers were writing poetry in their teens and a collection of poems by all three was published locally when Alfred was only 17. One of those brothers, Charles Tennyson Turner, later married Louisa Sellwood, the sister of Alfreds future wife. Another of Tennysons brothers, Edward Tennyson, was institutionalised at a private asylum, Tennyson was a student of Louth Grammar School for four years and then attended Scaitcliffe School, Englefield Green and King Edward VI Grammar School, Louth. He entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1827, where he joined a society called the Cambridge Apostles. A portrait of Tennyson by George Frederic Watts is in Trinitys collection, at Cambridge, Tennyson met Arthur Henry Hallam and William Henry Brookfield, who became his closest friends. His first publication was a collection of his rhymes and those of his elder brother Charles entitled Poems by Two Brothers. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellors Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of his first pieces, reportedly, it was thought to be no slight honour for a young man of twenty to win the chancellors gold medal. He published his first solo collection of poems, Poems Chiefly Lyrical in 1830, claribel and Mariana, which later took their place among Tennysons most celebrated poems, were included in this volume. Although decried by critics as overly sentimental, his verse soon proved popular and brought Tennyson to the attention of well-known writers of the day. In the spring of 1831, Tennysons father died, requiring him to leave Cambridge before taking his degree and he returned to the rectory, where he was permitted to live for another six years and shared responsibility for his widowed mother and the family
Alfred Tennyson
–
1869
Carbon print by
Julia Margaret Cameron
Alfred Tennyson
–
An illustration by
W. E. F. Britten showing Somersby Rectory, where Tennyson was raised and began writing.
Alfred Tennyson
–
Tennyson with his wife Emily (1813–1896) and his sons Hallam (1852–1928) and Lionel (1854–1886).
Alfred Tennyson
–
Lord Tennyson.
