Transcript Penelope: Odysseus` wife

After Prometheus' theft of fire, Zeus sent
Pandora in retaliation. Despite Prometheus'
warning, Epimetheus accepted this "gift" from
the gods.Pandora carried a jar with her, from
which were released (91–92) "evils, harsh pain
and troublesome diseases which give men
death".[9] Pandora shut the lid of the jar too
late to contain all the evil plights that escaped,
but foresight[citation needed] remained in the jar,
depriving humanity from hope.
PANDORA was the very first woman who was formed out of clay by the gods. The
Titan Prometheus had originally been assigned with the task of creating man. But
because he was displeased with their lot, stole fire from heaven.
Zeus was angered, and commanded Hephaistos and the other gods to create a woman,
Pandora, and endow her with the beauty and cunning. He then delivered her
to Epimetheus, the foolish younger brother of Prometheus, for a bride.
When he had received her into his house, Pandora opened the pithos (storage jar) which
Zeus had given her as a wedding present, and released the swarm of evil spirits trapped
within. They would ever afterwards plague mankind. Only Elpis (Hope) remained behind,
a single blessing to succor mankind in their suffering.
Pandora's daughter Pyrrha (Fire) was the first-born mortal child. She and her husband
Deukalion alone survived the Great Deluge. To repopulate the earth they each cast
stones over their shoulder. Those cast by Deukalion formed men, and those of Pyrrha
women.
Paris (Ancient Greek: Πάρις), also known
as Alexander (Ἀλέξανδρος, Aléxandros),[1] the
son of Priam and Hecuba, the king and queen
of Troy, appears in a number of Greek legends.
Probably the best-known was
his elopement with Helen, queen of Sparta,
this being one of the immediate causes of
theTrojan War. Later in the war, he fatally
wounds Achilles in the heel with an arrow, as
foretold by Achilles’s mother, Thetis. The
name Paris is probablyLuwian and comparable
to Pari-zitis attested as a Hittite scribe's
name.[2]
Helen was already married to King Menelaus of Sparta (a fact Aphrodite neglected to mention),
so Paris had to raid Menelaus's house to steal Helen from him (according to some accounts, she
fell in love with Paris and left willingly). The Greeks' expedition to retrieve Helen from Paris in
Troy is the mythological basis of the Trojan War.
This triggered the war because Helen was famous for her beauty throughout Achaea (ancient
Greece), and had many suitors of extraordinary ability. Therefore, following Odysseus's advice,
her father Tyndareus made all suitors promise to defend Helen's marriage to the man he chose
for her. When she disappeared to Troy, Menelaus invoked this oath. Helen's other suitors—who
between them represented the lion's share of Achaea's strength, wealth and military
prowess—were obligated to help bring her back. Thus, the whole of Greece moved against Troy
in force. The Trojan War had begun.
This began a 200 year
long peace called the Pax
Romana. The Pax
Romana became a time
of cultural and
intellectual
achievements for Rome.
here are several versions of the birth of the
winged stallion and his brother Chrysaor in the
far distant place at the edge of Earth, Hesiod's
"springs of Oceanus, which encircles the
inhabited earth, where Perseus found Medusa:
One is that they sprang from the blood issuing
from Medusa's neck as Perseus was beheading
her,[8] similar to the manner in
which Athena was born from the head of Zeus.
In another version, when Perseus beheaded
Medusa, they were born of the Earth, fed by
the Gorgon's blood. A variation of this story
holds that they were formed from the mingling
of Medusa's blood, pain and sea foam,
implying that Poseidon had involvement in
their making. The last version bears
resemblance to Hesiod's account of the birth
of Aphrodite from the foam created
when Uranus's severed genitals were cast into
the sea by Cronus.
Penelope and the Suitors by John William Waterhouse (1912).
Penelope is the wife of the main character, the king
of Ithaca, Odysseus (Ulysses in Roman mythology), and daughter
of Icarius and his wifePeriboea. She only has one son by
Odysseus, Telemachus, who was born just before Odysseus was called
to fight in the Trojan War. She waits twenty years for the final return of
her husband,[7] during which she devises various strategies to delay
marrying one of the 108[8] suitors (led byAntinous and
including Agelaus, Amphinomus, Ctessippus, Demoptolemus, Elatus,
Euryades, Eurymachus and Peisandros).
On Odysseus's return, disguised as an old beggar, he finds that
Penelope has remained faithful. She has devised tricks to delay her
suitors, one of which is to pretend to be weaving a burial shroud for
Odysseus's elderly father Laertes and claiming that she will choose a
suitor when she has finished. Every night for three years, she undoes
part of the shroud, until Melantho, one of twelve unfaithful serving
women, discovers her chicanery and reveals it to the suitors.
When Perseus was grown, Polydectes came to fall in love with the beautiful Danaë. Perseus
believed Polydectes was less than honourable, and protected his mother from him; then
Polydectes plotted to send Perseus away in disgrace. He held a large banquet where each guest
was expected to bring a gift.[note 1]
Polydectes requested that the guests bring horses, under the pretense that he was collecting
contributions for the hand of Hippodamia, "tamer of horses". Perseus had no horse to give, so
he asked Polydectes to name the gift; he would not refuse it.
Polydectes held Perseus to his rash promise and demanded the head of the only
mortal Gorgon,[9] Medusa, whose eyes turned people to stone. Ovid's account of Medusa's
mortality tells that she had once been a woman, vain of her beautiful hair, who had lain with
Poseidon in the Temple of Athena.[10] In punishment for the desecration of her temple, Athena
had changed Medusa's hair into hideous snakes "that she may alarm her surprised foes with
terror".[11]
Perseus then returned his magical loans and
gave Medusa's head as a votive gift to Athena,
who set it on Zeus' shield (which she carried),
as the Gorgoneion (see also: Aegis).
Athena instructed Perseus to find the Hesperides, who were entrusted with
weapons needed to defeat the Gorgon. Following Athena's
guidance,[12]Perseus sought out the Graeae, sisters of the Gorgons, to
demand the whereabouts of the Hesperides, the nymphs tending Hera's
orchard. The Graeae were three perpetually old women, who had to share a
single eye. As the women passed the eye from one to another, Perseus
snatched it from them, holding it for ransom in return for the location of the
nymphs.[13] When the sisters led him to the Hesperides, he returned what he
had taken.
From the Hesperides he received a knapsack (kibisis) to safely contain
Medusa's head. Zeus gave him anadamantine sword (a Harpe) and
Hades' helm of darkness to hide. Hermes lent Perseus winged sandals to fly,
while Athena gave him a polished shield. Perseus then proceeded to the
Gorgons' cave.
In the cave he came upon the sleeping Medusa. By viewing Medusa's
reflection in his polished shield, he safely approached and cut off her head.
From her neck sprang Pegasus ("he who sprang") and Chrysaor ("sword of
gold"), the result of Poseidon and Medusa's meeting. The other two
Gorgons pursued Perseus,[14] but, wearing his helm of darkness, he escaped.
From here he proceeded to visit Atlas, king of Mauretania, who had refused
him hospitality; in revenge Perseus turned him to stone.[15]
Saint Bernadette Soubirous was the original visionary at Lourdes, France and died in 1879 in
Nevers, France. Her body was exhumed 30 years later in 1909 and was discovered completely
incorrupt and free of odor. The body was again exhumed a second time ten years later in 1919
and was still incorrupt. Her body is still on display in the Chapel of St. Bernadette in Nevers,
France.
St. Jean Baptiste Marie Vianney (d.1859) was a French
parish priest who became a Catholic saint and the
patron saint of parish priests. He is often referred to,
even in English, as the Curé d'Ars (the parish priest of
the village of Ars). He became famous internationally
for his priestly and pastoral work in his parish due to the
radical spiritual transformation of the community and
its surroundings.
St. Catherine of
BolognaDied in 1463 and
has been incorrupt and on
display in an upright
position for over 500 years.
Romulus /ˈrɒmjᵿləs/ and Remus /ˈriːməs/ were the twin brothers
and main characters of Rome's foundation myth. (The pronunciation
in English is different from the Latin original Rōmulus and Rĕmus).
Their mother was Rhea Silvia, daughter of Numitor, king of Alba
Longa. Before their conception, Numitor's brother Amulius seized
power, killed Numitor's male heirs and forced Rhea Silvia to become
a Vestal Virgin, sworn to chastity. Rhea Silvia conceived the twins by
the god Mars. Once the twins were born, Amulius had
them abandoned to die in the Tiber river. They were saved by a
series of miraculous interventions: the river carried them to safety, a
she-wolf found and suckled them, and a woodpecker fed them. A
shepherdand his wife found them and fostered them to manhood as
simple shepherds. The twins, still ignorant of their true origins,
proved to be natural leaders. Each acquired many followers. When
they discovered the truth of their birth, they killed Amulius and
restored Numitor to his throne. Rather than wait to inherit Alba
Longa, they chose to found a new city.
While Romulus wanted to found the new city on the Palatine Hill,
Remus preferred the Aventine Hill.[2] They agreed to determine the
site throughaugury but when each claimed the results in his own
favor, they quarreled and Remus was killed.[3] Romulus founded the
new city, named it Rome, after himself, and created its
first legions and senate. The new city grew rapidly, swelled by
landless refugees; as most of these were male and unmarried,
Romulus arranged the abduction of women from the
neighboring Sabines. The ensuing war ended with the joining of
Sabines and Romans as one Roman people. Thanks to divine favour
and Romulus's inspired leadership, Rome became a dominant force,
but Romulus himself became increasingly autocratic, and
disappeared or died in mysterious circumstances. In later forms of
the myth, he ascended to heaven and was identified with Quirinus,
the divine personification of the Roman people.
The national epic of mythical Rome, the Aeneid of Virgil, tells the story of
how Trojan prince Aeneas came to Italy. The Aeneid was written
underAugustus, who claimed ancestry through Julius Caesar from the hero
and his mother Venus. According to the Aeneid, the survivors from the
fallen city of Troy banded together under Aeneas and underwent a series of
adventures around the Mediterranean Sea, including a stop at newly
founded Carthage under the rule of Queen Dido, eventually reaching the
Italian coast. The Trojans were thought to have landed in an area between
modern Anzio and Fiumicino, southwest of Rome, probably
at Laurentum or, in other versions, at Lavinium, a place named for Lavinia,
the daughter of King Latinus whom Aeneas married. This started a series of
armed conflicts with Turnus over the marriage of Lavinia.[3] Before the
arrival of Aeneas, Turnus was engaged to Lavinia, who then married
Aeneas, starting the war.[3] Aeneas won the war and killed Turnus.[3] The
Trojans won the right to stay and to assimilate with the local peoples. The
young son of Aeneas Ascanius, also known as Iulus, went on to foundAlba
Longa and the line of Alban kings who filled the chronological gap between
the Trojan saga and the traditional founding of Rome in the 8th century BC.
Toward the end of this line, King Procas was
the father of Numitor and Amulius. At Procas'
death, Numitor became king of Alba Longa,
but Amulius captured him and sent him to
prison; he also forced Numitor's
daughter Rhea Silvia to become a virgin
priestess among the Vestals. For many years,
Amulius was the king. The tortuous nature of
the chronology is indicated by Rhea Silvia's
ordination among the Vestals, whose order
was traditionally said to have been founded by
Romulus's successor Numa Pompilius.
The Greek essayist Plutarch describes Spartacus as "a Thracian of Nomadic
stock",[3] in a possible reference to the Maedi tribe.[4] Appian says he was
"a Thracian by birth, who had once served as a soldier with the Romans,
but had since been a prisoner and sold for a gladiator".[5]
Florus (2.8.8) described him as one "who, from a Thracian mercenary, had
become a Roman soldier, that had deserted and became enslaved, and
afterward, from consideration of his strength, a gladiator".[6] The authors
refer to the Thracian tribe of the Maedi,[7][8][9] which occupied the area on
the southwestern fringes of Thrace, along its border with the Roman
province of Macedonia - present day south-western Bulgaria.[10]Plutarch
also writes that Spartacus' wife, a prophetess of the Maedi tribe, was
enslaved with him.
The name Spartacus is otherwise attested in the Black Sea region. Kings of
the Thracian dynasty of the Cimmerian Bosporus[11] and Pontus[12]are
known to have borne it, and a Thracian "Sparta" "Spardacus"[13] or
"Sparadokos",[14] father of Seuthes I of the Odrysae, is also known.
According to the differing sources and their interpretation, Spartacus either was
an auxiliary from the Roman legions later condemned to slavery, or a captive taken
by the legions.[15] Spartacus was trained at the gladiatorial school (ludus)
near Capua belonging to Lentulus Batiatus. He was a heavyweight gladiator called
a murmillo. These fighters carried a big oblong shield (scutum), and used a sword
with a broad, straight blade (gladius), about 18 inches long.[16] In 73 BC, Spartacus
was among a group of gladiators plotting an escape.[17]
About 70[18] slaves were part of the plot. Although, being a small number, they
seized kitchen utensils, fought their way free from the school, and seized several
wagons of gladiatorial weapons and armor.[17] The escaped slaves defeated a small
force sent after them, plundered the region surrounding Capua, recruited many
other slaves into their ranks, and eventually retired to a more defensible position
on Mount Vesuvius.[19][20]
Once free, the escaped gladiators chose Spartacus and two Gallic slaves—
Crixus and Oenomaus—as their leaders. Although Roman authors assumed that
the escaped slaves were a homogeneous group with Spartacus as their leader, they
may have projected their own hierarchical view of military leadership onto the
spontaneous organization, reducing other slave leaders to subordinate positions in
their accounts. The positions of Crixus and Oenomaus—and later, Gannicus and
Castus—cannot be clearly determined from the sources.[citation needed]
Plutarch, Appian and Florus all claim that
Spartacus died during the battle, but Appian
also reports that his body was never
found.[44] Six thousand survivors of the revolt
captured by the legions of Crassus
were crucified, lining the Appian Way from
Rome to Capua.[45]
Tantalus (Ancient Greek: Τάνταλος, Tántalos)
was a Greek mythological figure, most famous
for his eternal punishment in Tartarus. He was
made to stand in a pool of water beneath a
fruit tree with low branches, with the fruit ever
eluding his grasp, and the water always
receding before he could take a drink. He was
the father of Pelops, Niobe and Broteas, and
was a son of Zeus[1] and the nymph Plouto.
Thus, like other heroes in Greek mythology
such as Theseus and the Dioskouroi, Tantalus
had both a hidden, divine parent and a mortal
one.
Tantalus was initially known for having been welcomed to Zeus' table in Olympus,
like Ixion. There he is said to have misbehaved and stolen ambrosia and nectar to
bring it back to his people,[17] and revealed the secrets of the gods.[18]
Most famously, Tantalus offered up his son, Pelops, as a sacrifice. He cut Pelops up,
boiled him, and served him up in a banquet for the gods. The gods became aware of
the gruesome nature of the menu, so they did not touch the offering; only Demeter,
distraught by the loss of her daughter,Persephone, absentmindedly ate part of the
boy's shoulder. Clotho, one of the three Fates, ordered by Zeus, brought the boy to
life again (she collected the parts of the body and boiled them in a sacred cauldron),
rebuilding his shoulder with one wrought of ivory made by Hephaestus and
presented by Demeter. The revived Pelops grew to be an extraordinarily handsome
youth.
The god Poseidon took him to Mount Olympus to teach him to use chariots. Later,
Zeus threw Pelops out of Olympus due to his anger at Tantalus. The Greeks of
classical times claimed to be horrified by Tantalus's doings; cannibalism and kin
slaying were atrocities and taboo.