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Fate vs free will greek mythology
Analysis of Sonnet XVII
Analysis of sonnet 16
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'O heavens! verily in the house of Hades there is soul and ghostly form but no mind at all!'
Again of Tiresias:--
'(To him even after death did Persephone grant mind,) that he alone should be wise; but the other souls are flitting shades.'
Again:--
'The soul flying from the limbs had gone to Hades, lamenting her fate, leaving manhood and youth.'
Again:--
'And the soul, with shrilling cry, passed like smoke beneath the earth.'
And,--
'As bats in hollow of mystic cavern, whenever any of them has dropped out of the string and falls from the rock, fly shrilling and cling to one another, so did they with shrilling cry hold together as they moved.'
And we must beg Homer and the other poets not to be angry if we strike out these and similar passages, not because they are
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unpoetical, or unattractive to the popular ear, but because the greater the poetical charm of them, the less are they meet for the ears of boys and men who are meant to be free, and who should fear slavery more than death. Undoubtedly. Also we shall have to reject all the terrible and appalling names which describe the world below--Cocytus and Styx, ghosts under the earth, and sapless shades, and any similar words of which the very mention causes a shudder to pass through the inmost soul of him who hears them. I do not say that these horrible stories may not have a use of some kind; but there is a danger that the nerves of our guardians may be rendered too excitable and effeminate by them. There is a real danger, he said. Then we must have no more of them. True. Another and a nobler strain must be composed and sung by us. Clearly. And shall we proceed to get rid of the weepings and wailings of famous men? They will go with the rest. But shall we be right in getting rid of them? Reflect: our principle is that the good man will not consider death terrible to any other good man who is his comrade. Yes; that is our principle. And therefore he will not sorrow for his departed friend as though he had suffered anything terrible? He will not. Such an one, as we further maintain, is sufficient for himself and his own happiness, and therefore is least in need of other men. True, he said. And for this reason the loss of a son or brother, or the deprivation of fortune, is to him of all men least terrible. Assuredly. And therefore he will be least likely to lament, and will bear with the greatest equanimity any misfortune of this sort which may befall him. Yes, he will feel such a misfortune far less than another. Then we shall be right in getting rid of the lamentations of famous men, and making them over to women (and not even to women who are good for anything), or to men of a baser sort, that those who are being educated by us to be the defenders of their country may scorn to do the like. That will be very right. Then we will once more entreat Homer and the other poets not to depict Achilles, who is the son of a goddess, first lying on his side, then on his back, and then on his face; then starting up and sailing in a frenzy along the shores of the barren sea; now taking the sooty ashes in both his hands and pouring them over his head, or weeping and wailing in the various modes which Homer has delineated. Nor should he describe Priam the kinsman of the gods as praying and beseeching, 'Rolling in the dirt, calling each man loudly by his name.' Still more earnestly will we beg of him at all events not to introduce the gods lamenting and saying, 'Alas! my misery! Alas! that I bore the bravest to my sorrow.' But if he must introduce the gods, at any rate let him not dare so completely to misrepresent the greatest of the gods, as to make him say-- 'O heavens! with my eyes verily I behold a dear friend of mine chased round and round the city, and my heart is sorrowful.' Or again:-- Woe is me that I am fated to have Sarpedon, dearest of men to me, subdued at the hands of Patroclus the son of Menoetius.' For if, my sweet Adeimantus, our youth seriously listen to such unworthy representations of the gods, instead of laughing at them as they ought, hardly will any of them deem that he himself, being but a man, can be dishonoured by similar actions; neither will he rebuke any inclination which may arise in his mind to say and do the like. And instead of having any shame or self-control, he will be always whining and lamenting on slight occasions. Yes, he said, that is most true. Yes, I replied; but that surely is what ought not to be, as the argument has just proved to us; and by that proof we must abide until it is disproved by a better. It ought not to be. Neither ought our guardians to be given to laughter. For a fit of laughter which has been indulged to excess almost always produces a violent reaction. So I believe. Then persons of worth, even if only mortal men, must not be represented as overcome by laughter, and still less must such a representation of the gods be allowed. Still less of the gods, as you say, he replied. Then we shall not suffer such an expression to be used about the gods as that of Homer when he describes how 'Inextinguishable laughter arose among the blessed gods, when they saw Hephaestus bustling about the mansion.' On your views, we must not admit them. On my views, if you like to father them on me; that we must not admit them is certain. Again, truth should be highly valued; if, as we were saying, a lie is useless to the gods, and useful only as a medicine to men, then the use of such medicines should be restricted to physicians; private individuals have no business with them. Clearly not, he said. Then if any one at all is to have the privilege of lying, the rulers of the State should be the persons; and they, in their dealings either with enemies or with their own citizens, may be allowed to lie for the public good. But nobody else should meddle with anything of the kind; and although the rulers have this privilege, for a private man to lie to them in return is to be deemed a more heinous fault than for the patient or the pupil of a gymnasium not to speak the truth about his own bodily illnesses to the physician or to the trainer, or for a sailor not to tell the captain what is happening about the ship and the rest of the crew, and how things are going with himself or his fellow sailors. Most true, he said. If, then, the ruler catches anybody beside himself lying in the State, 'Any of the craftsmen, whether he be priest or physician or carpenter,' he will punish him for introducing a practice which is equally subversive and destructive of ship or State. Most certainly, he said, if our idea of the State is ever carried out. In the next place our youth must be temperate? Certainly. Are not the chief elements of temperance, speaking generally, obedience to commanders and self-control in sensual pleasures? True. Then we shall approve such language as that of Diomede in Homer, 'Friend, sit still and obey my word,' and the verses which follow, 'The Greeks marched breathing prowess, ...in silent awe of their leaders,' and other sentiments of the same kind. We shall. What of this line, 'O heavy with wine, who hast the eyes of a dog and the heart of a stag,' and of the words which follow? Would you say that these, or any similar impertinences which private individuals are supposed to address to their rulers, whether in verse or prose, are well or ill spoken? They are ill spoken. They may very possibly afford some amusement, but they do not conduce to temperance. And therefore they are likely to do harm to our young men--you would agree with me there? Yes.
And then, again, to make the wisest of men say that nothing in his opinion is more glorious than
'When the tables are full of bread and meat, and the cup-bearer carries round wine which he draws from the bowl and pours into the cups,'
is it fit or conducive to temperance for a young man to hear such words? Or the verse
'The saddest of fates is to die and meet destiny from hunger?'
What would you say again to the tale of Zeus, who, while other gods and men were asleep and he the only person awake, lay devising plans, but forgot them all in a moment through his lust, and was so completely overcome at the sight of Here that he would not even go into the hut, but wanted to lie with her on the ground, declaring that he had never been in such a state of rapture before, even when they first met one another
'Without the knowledge of their parents;'
or that other tale of how Hephaestus, because of similar goings on, cast a chain around Ares and Aphrodite?
Indeed, he said, I am strongly of opinion that they ought not to hear that sort of thing.
But any deeds of endurance which are done or told by famous men, these they ought to see and hear; as, for example, what is said in the
verses, 'He smote his breast, and thus reproached his heart, Endure, my heart; far worse hast thou endured!' Certainly, he said. In the next place, we must not let them be receivers of gifts or lovers of money. Certainly not. Neither must we sing to them of 'Gifts persuading gods, and persuading reverend kings.' Neither is Phoenix, the tutor of Achilles, to be approved or deemed to have given his pupil good counsel when he told him that he should take the gifts of the Greeks and assist them; but that without a gift he should not lay aside his anger. Neither will we believe or acknowledge Achilles himself to have been such a lover of money that he took Agamemnon's gifts, or that when he had received payment he restored the dead body of Hector, but that without payment he was unwilling to do so. Undoubtedly, he said, these are not sentiments which can be approved. Loving Homer as I do, I hardly like to say that in attributing these feelings to Achilles, or in believing that they are truly attributed to him, he is guilty of downright impiety. As little can I believe the narrative of his insolence to Apollo, where he says, 'Thou hast wronged me, O far-darter, most abominable of deities. Verily I would be even with thee, if I had only the power;' or his insubordination to the river-god, on whose divinity he is ready to lay hands; or his offering to the dead Patroclus of his own hair, which had been previously dedicated to the other river-god Spercheius, and that he actually performed this vow; or that he dragged Hector round the tomb of Patroclus, and slaughtered the captives at the pyre; of all this I cannot believe that he was guilty, any more than I can allow our citizens to believe that he, the wise Cheiron's pupil, the son of a goddess and of Peleus who was the gentlest of men and third in descent from Zeus, was so disordered in his wits as to be at one time the slave of two seemingly inconsistent passions, meanness, not untainted by avarice, combined with overweening contempt of gods and men. You are quite right, he replied. And let us equally refuse to believe, or allow to be repeated, the tale of Theseus son of Poseidon, or of Peirithous son of Zeus, going forth as they did to perpetrate a horrid rape; or of any other hero or son of a god daring to do such impious and dreadful things as they falsely ascribe to them in our day: and let us further compel the poets to declare either that these acts were not done by them, or that they were not the sons of gods;--both in the same breath they shall not be permitted to affirm. We will not have them trying to persuade our youth that the gods are the authors of evil, and that heroes are no better than men--sentiments which, as we were saying, are neither pious nor true, for we have already proved that evil cannot come from the gods.
The character Hades from the Disney movie Hercules is an allusion to Hades from Greek Mythology. The movie takes the traditional character of Hades as the god of the underworld from Greek mythology and makes it palatable for children.
This theme of death giving meaning to life is prevalent throughout the Odyssey. Hell is death, heaven is now, in life, in the field of time and action.
The speaker also, literally, refers to herself as Ceres, Persephone’s mother. She identifies with the sorrow Ceres felt when winter was approaching and the inevitable was
Odysseus is often times considered a hero for triumphing, for living through the many challenges that he has to face over the course of The Odyssey. He defeats the mighty cyclops, he braves years away from home fighting one battle after the other and makes it home alive. Many times he has the chance to give in to death, to end his suffering, however he doesn’t take his chance and he continues fighting. He survives. However Homer doesn’t put it in that light, he doesn’t centralize the idea of life in The Odyssey but rather the idea of death, and all that it brings, or fails to bring.
Quotation: “O me, this sight of death is as a bell/ That warns my old age to a sepulcher.” (Rom. 5. 3. 214-215)
“To find that the utmost reward of daring should be still to dare”, this line has much more of a meaning than what is said. Many people are dared each day to do certain things that they decline, but doing what one is dared will allow a great reward. Soldiers never give up. Each day soldiers stand on a field against other soldiers that are completely against them and they have never given up on their country, due to their bravery. Soldiers are rewarded daily because of what they decide to do.
"Sonnet 130," by William Shakespeare, is probably a mockery of love poems of his era which focus mainly on comparing the loved one to nature and heavenly characteristics. An example of such poems is "Epithalamion," by Edmund Spenser, which sticks to the conventionality of it's time. Shakespeare's style used conveys his love for his "mistress" in an honest and sincere way without "false compare," which makes it more acceptable than the poems of his time. He does not in anyway think of his love as a goddess or a heavenly creature, but in spite of that, his love "as rare," which makes it realistic and charming at the same time.
[Thor] Great idea, I'll drive. My keys are right next to my hammer- WHERE'S MY HAMMER
"An old servant remained with her to give her something to drink, or a little cold meat, from time to time. What passed in that despairing mind? No one ever knew, for she did not speak at all now. Was she thinking of the dead? Was she dreaming sadly, without any precise recollection of anything that had happened? Or was her memory as stagnant as water without any current? But however this may have been, for fifteen years she remained thus inert and secluded.
Because of the ……… the focus of Sonnet 24 is based on the love between both her beloved and herself.
One important aspect of Greek Mythology present in the film is the character of Hades. In Greek mythology, Hades is amoral as gods are neither good nor evil he was essentially just another god, just like his brothers Zeus and Poseidon "[Zeus :] `My rank is no greater [than Haides]. I hold court in the sky; another rules the sea [Poseidon], and one the void [Haides].'” -Ovid, Fasti (THEOI.COM). However, Columbus has depicted Hades in the film as the enemy to his brothers, for example in the film Hades takes Sally, who is the mother of Percy and the lover of Poseidon, into the underworld. Hades also wants to overthrow his brother Zeus the king of the gods. Columbus has depicted Hades as the rebel brother or the outsider of the family to allow
Follow me. Seek me. Find me. Once this is done a man is closer to his calling. Once this is done a man is then closer to the wisdom and peace of the world. All facets of one’s life must unite together if one is to truly live a life. Listen to the sky. Listen to the trees. Listen to the ground. They tell a story of which you have heard before. A story that belongs to you but also to the everything and the universe. The instinct you feel inside you is not one of false perception but one of nature. One should be silent but also let their vibrations be felt throughout. Some refer to me as The Way. Some call me the order of nature and law of things. Some should call me their guide post along the many path on which one journeys. You Odysseus, are
“The Odyssey” is an epic poem that tells the story of Odysseus and the story of his many travels and adventures. The Odyssey tells the main character’s tale of his journey home to the island of Ithaca after spending ten years fighting in the Trojan War, and his adventures when he returns home and he is reunited with his family and close friends. This literary analysis will examine the story and its characters, relationships, major events, symbols and motifs, and literary devices.
I was involuntarily brought into the Underworld by Hades, the god of the Underworld. Before Hades took me from Sicily and brought me into the Underworld, I was picking flowers off of a field. Within an instant Hades picked me up and headed toward the portal that led to the Underworld. I shrieked for help but no one heard me. After arriving in the Underworld, Hades left me; trusting that I would not run off. However, my mind was set on escaping this monstrous place, I set myself up for an adventure I had never thought of. I thought about it for a moment or two. It was my best option, I had no other option I thought to myself. Unaware of the dangers that I would face, I took off. Many people underestimate the Cerberus in the Underworld; it is
Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st”