Homer/Dante
Return of the Rings: Nordic Mythology co-created the epics of Tolkien and Wagner

Tolkien and Wagner are among the most influential artists in their respective fields. Tolkien has been (deservedly or no) been credited with being the founding father of the modern fantasy genre, and Wagner's mythic explorations not only created a new expression for opera but have also been credited (almost certainly undeservedly) for having inspired the Jewish holocaust. oth Tolkien and Wagner sought to (re)create the myths of an ancient era, giving to their audience a sense of history which transcended the momentary. Tolkien and Wagner both seem to believe that myth is necessary to the soul of the modern romantic; Tolkien approaches it as a sort of religious and linguistic door to truth, which opens vistas of hope in men's minds, while Wagner approaches myth as a metaphor for the evolution of culture, in which one can inspire…...

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Bibliography

Dubois, Tom & Mellor, Scott. "The Nordic Roots Of Tolkien's Middle Earth" The American-Scandinavian Foundation.  http://www.amscan.org/tolkien.html 

Henning, Jeffrey. "On Tolkien/Emulating Tolkien." Model Languages, Vol. 1 Is. 8 Jan-Feb, 1996. http://207.36.37.9/ml0108.htm

The Nibelungenlied. Trans. Daniel Bussier Shumway, 1909. http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/OMACL/Nibelungenlied/

Pekonen, Osmo. "Kalevala inspired Tolkien." Dreamcatcher Productions. http://www.6d.fi/starters/kalevalainspired_Tolkien

Fagles' translation uses punctuation to create dramatic emphasis. For example, the dash in the opening line creates a momentary pause for drama, "Rage - Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus' son Achilles," (Book I, line 1). A more subdued pause is created by ellipsis during a speech by the seer "Achilles, dear to Zeus... you order me to explain Apollo's anger" (Book I, lines 86-87). Later, an explanation point marks both the end of a short syllable, and creates a feeling of drama and emphasis, as the runner says, "Courage!" (Book I, line 99).
Similes are used frequently throughout Homer's Iliad. In using similes to compare on object to another, Homer illustrates much of the action throughout the poem. During the Battle of Achilles, in Book I, he describes the god Phoebus Apollo's descent from the peaks of Olympus, in these terms: "and down he came like night" (Book I,…...

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Works Cited

Bookrags. The Iliad. 24 October 2005. http://www.bookrags.com/notes/il/BIO.htm

Dunkle, Roger. 1986. The Classical Origins of Western Culture, The Core Studies 1 Study Guide. Brooklyn College Core Curriculum Series. Brooklyn College, The City University of New York. Accessed October 25, 2005. http://depthome.brooklyn.cuny.edu/classics/dunkle/studyguide/homer.htm.

Homer. 1990. The Iliad. Trans. Robert Fagles. New York: Penguin Classics.

Virgil and Homer -- orld Literature
The Trojan Legacy: Textual Similarities in the Epics Iliad by Homer and Aeneid by Virgil

In the study of world literature, it is essential that one must know about the earliest forms of literature, especially the works of Homer and Virgil. Homer, considered one of the greatest literary writers of Greek literature, was said to have composed his great epic poems, Iliad and Odyssey, during 8 B.C. He is well-known for his effective depiction of early Greek life, where the interplay between mortals and immortals and the inevitable Fate were discussed. Homer's legacy as chronicler of Greek history, society, and culture helped influence Virgil, who composed the Aeneid in 19 B.C. Using some of Homer's themes, characters, and some parts of the plot in the Iliad and Odyssey, Virgil created the Aeneid, which also gained popularity and acclaim as Homer's epic works.

This paper discusses similarities between…...

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Works Cited

Homer. Iliad. Translated by Samuel Butler. Available at  http://www.uoregon.edu/~joelja/iliad.html .

Virgil. Aeneid. Available at  http://www.uoregon.edu/~joelja/aeneid.html .

Moral Perfidy in the Odyssey
In The Odyssey, Homer utilizes the lie as a motif, and in so doing, he establishes a moral dichotomy. The Odyssey is populated with lies and with liars, but the liars operate differently from one another. Indeed, when vocalized by some liars, the lies become virtuous necessities or demonstrate superior intelligence. Other liars prove themselves to be base and without morals as they lie to manipulate, to increase their own wealth or to take advantage of hospitality.

The lies themselves act as methods of characterization. In particular, Odysseus' lies contribute to Homer's characterization of the hero as wily and cunning. Ironically, when Odysseus uses lies strategically, they become weapons, and he is often able to establish important truths about the individuals to whom he lies. In total, Odysseus' use of lies in the second half of The Odyssey, while seemingly cruel to his wife and to his…...

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Works Cited

Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. Samuel Butler. 2000. The Internet Classics Archive. 13

April 2004  http://classics.mit.edu/Homer/odyssey.html .

afterlife in two philosophers' representations. Specifically, it will explain and compare conceptions and representations of the afterlife in Homer and Virgil.
Homer and Virgil

Homer and Virgil both described Hades and their versions of the afterlife in their works, and they were far different views. In Homer's Hades, the area looks much like Earth, but it is barren and twisted, the geography is definitely warped and there is little scenery, it is more like a dreamland. Homer sees suffering far differently than Virgil. His residents of Hades do not really seem to suffer much, although he does indicate some tortures inflicted on some poor souls. Mostly, his Hades is filled with people who are there because of personal trials and tribulations, and the Devil does not deem it necessary to place them on display as a warning to others. Virgil's view of Hades is more traditional, with fire erupting out of…...

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References

Thuleen, Nancy. "Interaction and Reaction in Virgil and Homer." Personal Web Page. 1992. 18 Dec. 2003.  http://www.nthuleen.com/papers/L10virgil.html

Troublemakers
Though an audience trained by the principle of chivalry and Christian sentiment might expect an epic hero to be a paragon of virtue, the ancient epic heroes were quite often more what the postmodernists have created in the modern antihero. So one can compare the protagonist of John Gardner's antiheroic Grendel -- in which the monster of an old dawn-of-Christianity epic becomes the hero of a postmodern tale -- not so much with the villains of older epics but with their heroes. In particular, one can compare the character of Grendel with Odysseus (particularly as he is seen in the Odyssey, though it is important to remember that both the Iliad and the Odyssey are written by Homer and as companion pieces function as elements of the same epic). Both Grendel and Odysseus are somewhat antiheroic: Grendel is a murderer and a trickster whose villainy defines a people, while Odysseus…...

Homer
What is the proper relationship between the Gods and Humans according Homer?

"These are not poems about Gods, but about human beings. These human beings inhabit a world of which the gods are an unquestioned part."[footnoteef:1] For Homer, the gods are indispensible parts of literary structure and narrative form. It impossible to imagine a Homeric world without gods. From a purely cosmological standpoint, the gods add structure, meaning, and order to a universe that might otherwise prove to be too chaotic to sustain life. From a literary standpoint, the gods add a moral dimension as well as key characters -- often antagonists but always catalysts. It therefore becomes the central function of the storyteller to elucidate the relationship between the gods and humans. The roles that gods play in Homeric epics are multifaceted. They are advisors on the one hand, and saboteurs on the other. Gods intervene and assist human beings,…...

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References

Homer, Illiad. Online version:  http://classics.mit.edu/Homer/iliad.html 

Homer. Odyssey. Online version:  http://classics.mit.edu/Homer/odyssey.1.i.html 

Kearns, Emily. "The Gods in the Homeric Epics." Chapter 5 in The Cambridge Companion to Homer, edited by Robert Louis Fowler, 59-73. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.

Legacy of Homer
Modern best sellers' books could never compare to the great ancient writings of Homer. Homer has become a household name and is considered one of the most important and influential writers in history. Little is known about Homer's life yet his poetry, including the Iliad and the Odyssey, has gained recognition as some of the greatest literary works ever written.

According to research, Homer was born sometime around 700 .C. And lived for approximately 70 years. According to historians, Homer was born on the island of Khios but traveled throughout Greece. During his travels, he was notorious for singing poetry to aristocrats and commoners in the islands he visited. Homer's best-known tales were those he told of the Trojan War in the Iliad and the homecoming of a war hero in the Odyssey. He was well-known amongst the Greeks for his stories.

However, scholars do not know for sure…...

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Bibliography

Homer (Preface by Stanford, W.B.). (1967). The Odyssey. New York: St. Martin's Press

Finley, M.I. (1954). The World of Odysseus. New York: The Viking Press.

Lefkowitz, Mary R. (1981). The Lives of the Greek Poets. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.

Scott, John. (1963). Homer and His Influence. New York: Cooper Square Publishers, Inc.

CPA Advice for Homer Simpson
Homer Simpson

FROM: CPA & Associates

Economic Substance and Moe's Business Plan

Mr. Simpson:

I appreciate your contact regarding economic substance and my recommendations as to if you should enter Moe's business plan. With such a large amount of cash taxed on your latest success, it is only obvious that you would want to protect and profit off of what remains. However, one must do so in good ethical standing. he rest of this memorandum serves the purpose of educating you into making the proper decision for yourself.

First and foremost, before entering any business transaction, one must understand the definition of "economic substance," which defined by the United States reasury Department, means that one "gains tax benefits from a transaction that does not meaningfully change a tax payer's economic position." he IRS has set up protections against such uncalled for reduction in tax liability under the 2010 Revenue Reconciliation Act,…...

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The federal government has been tightening the laws about unethical profit for some time now. You may recall Martha Stewart's insider-trading scandal, or the accounting fraud of Enron that resulted in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Though both do not directly relate to your situation, it is clear that one should not attempt to fool the United States government. Once in court, Martha Stewart and the accounting staff of Enron were found guilty. Martha Stewart was convicted of conspiracy and served time in jail, while guilty Enron staff served jail time for fraud.

It is to my recommendation that you receive the advice of your wife as more justified than the advice of Moe. Unethically selling an investment in time for a large reported loss will surely trigger a red flag to the IRS, and your defense will be weak. On top of this, every business venture has some risk, so returns are not even guaranteed, and thus might not end up in your favor anyways.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have further questions.

Overall, the destruction that occurs during this homecoming suggests that war is so destructive to the world and family order that it rends the cosmos. The pre-war home cannot be reconstructed.
In contrast, Homer shows a home that can be rebuilt. Unlike "Agamemnon," Odysseus returns to an Ithaca that does not appear to be happy on the surface. But while Agamemnon's home appeared to be happy to the general, it was a fiction created by his wife so she could avenger her daughter. Odysseus' palace is overrun with suitors, vying for the hand of Penelope, his wife. But while Clytemnestra uses her cleverness to trick her husband, Penelope uses her cleverness to trick the suitors. Throughout much of the first few books of the "Odyssey," Odysseus' son Telemachus is shown, trying to find out information about his father's mysterious absence. The wife and son of Odysseus never give up on…...

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Works Cited

Aeschylus. "Agamemnon." From The Greek Tragedies. Edited by David Grene and Richmond Lattimore. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992.

Homer. "The Odyssey." Translated by Richmond Lattimore. New York: Perennial Classics, 1999.

Homer was a legendary Greek poet who is traditionally credited as the author of the major Greek epics the "Iliad and the Odyssey," as well as the comic mini-epic "Batracholmyomachia" (The Frog-Mouse ar), the corpus of Homeric Hymns, and various other lost or fragmentary workd such as "Margites" (Homer pp). Some ancient authors credited him with the entire Epic Cycle, which included other poems about the Trojan ar as well as the Theban poems concerning Oedipus and his sons (Homer pp). According to legend, Homer was blind, and aside from several Ionian cities claiming to be his birthplace, there is nothing else known about him (Homer pp). Aristotle and Pindar believed that Homer was born in Smyrna, on the coast of modern-day Turkey, and enjoyed years of fame on the Aegean island of Chios (Tolson pp). Although the great scholar-librarians of Alexandria scrutinized the epics for historical and geographic errors,…...

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Work Cited

Tolson, Jay. "Was Homer a solo act or a bevy of bards?"

U.S. News & World Report; 7/24/2000; Tolson, Jay

Boorstin, Daniel J. "The reign of the spoken word; Homer spun epics that survived while marble temples fell to ruin." U.S. News & World Report; 8/31/1992; pp.

Due, Casey. "Homer and the Papyri: Center of Hellenic Studies."

Homer -- Was the Blind Bard a Poetic Activist for War or Peace?
Homer is a poet of war, namely the war between the Greeks and Trojans, and later in his "Odyssey," of the war between Odysseus and the gods whom would bar him from his trajectory homeward. He is a poet of war in the sense that war provides the narrative structure of how he outlines how a moral human being lives in a violent, conflict-based society. However, Homer also chronicles in his works with what might seem to the modern reader, a distinctly anti-war literary sentiment and tone. This is perhaps best embodied in the example of Odysseus himself as a character. Homer's most famous anti-hero initially attempted to simulate madness to avoid being a participant in the Trojan wartime events, because they were far away from his beloved home of Ithaca and wife Penelope.

However, Homer's anti-war message is…...

The Guilt and Shame In Heroes

Sometimes, there is a misconception that heroes do not feel shame and guilt. For instance, in a movie, when heroes eliminate their adversaries, the viewers are happy because they just think of the good result that such action can bring to everyone. The viewers do not care of how the hero may have felt about his action of getting rid of the enemies and the viewers may think that the hero will feel happy and proud for what he did. However, in the Iliad of Homer, it is apparent that even heroes do feel shame and guilt. The best example of which are revealed in the characters of Achilles and Hector.

Achilles was a great Greek fighter. His passion was to fight and become well-known for his fighting skills. He was known to be the greatest fighter in Greece, thus despite Menelaus and Achilles do not…...

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Bibliography

Homer, The Iliad.  http://www.bopsecrets.org/rexroth/cr/1.htm#Homer,%20The%20Iliad 

Homer and the Oral Tradition.  http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/ckostopo/GreeceY&T/Homer.rtf 

Olesker, Katie. The Conflicting Views of Helen. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/classes/KOp.html

Shay, Jonathan. Review of Achilles in Vietnam.

Homer
Will the Real Greek Homer Please Stand Up?

Homer is the name by which the legendary Greek poet of great fame is known. He is credited with the Greek epics The Iliad and They Odyssey, as well as with the authorship of the mini-epic Batrachomyomachia, the corpus of the Homeric Hymns, and also the Margites. (Docu) Nothing about Homer's actual biographical information is known, (though he is commonly assumed to have been blind) and there are many theories that speculate Homer himself may have been completely mythological, or that he may have been more than one person. It is assumed, however, that Homer's works originated from the Greek settlements on the west coast of Asia Minor in the 9th century BC (Helenism), and several Ionian cities claim to be the birthplace of Homer. (Docu) Although Homer's works great works The Iliad and The Odyssey have shaped a great deal of our…...

There it is called the underworld and truly reminds one of the subconscious in many ways. For the Greeks, this is just one aspects of life after death.. In some sense it seems more closely associated with the Christian idea of limbo. Heaven has its counterpart in the Elysian fields. In the Inferno hell is again representing the subconscious, but in it's more visceral and active and judgmental aspect. In general the "nature" of man to be violent, deceiving, etc. is found in hell in varying degrees. Yet one has some pity for many of its inhabitants, the same as in the Odyssey.
But why these visions of gods and hell by these authors? Jung points out that the introversion necessary to look within is the common factor:

The visionary phenomena, produced in the first stages of introversion, are grouped among the well-known phenomena of hypnagogic vision. They form, as I…...

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Works Cited

Alighieri, Dante. Dante's Inferno. Trans. Henry Francis Cary. New York: Cassell, Petter, Galpin,

Dougherty, Carol. The Raft of Odysseus: The Ethnographic Imagination of Homer's Odyssey.

New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.

Dulles, Avery Cardinal. "The Population of Hell." First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life May 2003: 36

Chaucer and Boccaccio: Exploring Echoes of Greek Mythology

The works of Geoffrey Chaucer and Giovanni Boccaccio, two literary luminaries of the medieval era, are replete with allusions to Greek mythology, a testament to its enduring influence on Western literature. This essay will delve into the significant ways in which Chaucer and Boccaccio incorporated Greek myths into their writings, examining its impact on characterization, narrative structure, and thematic development.

Chaucer's Canterbury Tales: A Tapestry of Mythological Intertexts

Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" is a masterpiece that deftly weaves together a diverse cast of characters on a pilgrimage. Embedded within these tales are numerous references to Greek....

Oral Tradition: The Ancient Roots of Storytelling

Literature has its primordial origins in the spoken word, as stories were passed down through generations of oral tradition. This rich tapestry of storytelling served as a means of cultural preservation, historical documentation, and moral instruction.

In ancient civilizations, storytellers known as bards, rhapsodes, or griots played a pivotal role in transmitting cultural narratives. They memorized and recited epics, myths, and legends, weaving them into elaborate performances that captivated their audiences.

The oral tradition allowed for stories to evolve and adapt with each telling, as performers embellished them with personal experiences, local customs, and the prevailing....

Understanding the Concept of Narrative

A narrative is a form of storytelling that unfolds a sequence of events or experiences over time. It typically involves characters, a setting, a conflict, and a resolution. Narratives can be fictional or nonfictional, and they can be expressed through various mediums such as literature, film, music, and visual arts.

Approaching Narrative Essay Topics

When developing essay topics centered around narratives, consider the following aspects:

Personal Narratives: Explore personal experiences, anecdotes, or stories that have shaped your life or perspectives.
Literary Narratives: Analyze narratives in literary works, examining character development, plot structure, and themes.
Historical Narratives: Examine historical....

Internal Conflict: A Psychological and Literary Exploration

Thesis Statement:

Internal conflict arises as a fundamental struggle within the psyche, shaping the trajectory of individuals and contributing to the complexities of literary narratives. By examining the psychological dynamics and literary representations of internal conflict, we gain insight into the human condition, the interplay between external and internal forces, and the transformative potential of confronting our inner turmoil.

Introduction (200 words):

Internal conflict, an intrinsic aspect of human experience, manifests as a psychological struggle between opposing desires, beliefs, or values. It can arise from various sources, including unmet needs, societal expectations, or moral dilemmas. This paper....