Greek Mythology Essay Example for Free

Greek Mythology Essay Do you know any historical background on the word giant? Greek and Roman mythology is present all around us. Many new and interesting words were created from the Greeks. There are many types of myths that we hear about including; gods, goddesses, mythical heroes, other heroes, monsters, and villains. When looking up these myths, research will show that many of the words we say today come from these gods and goddesses. An example of this is the words gigantic and gigantism comes from giant. The word giant has a long, unique, and mysterious background. According to dictionary. com, â€Å"Giant is very large; abnormally great development in size. †(dictionary. com) Prior to my search, I predicted that a giant was a very large man that lived in the forest and had no connection with either gigantic nor gigantism. I inferred this because of movies and books. When I saw the word gigantic I remember hearing it and I thought it meant a large person, but I had no idea it was related to Greek or Roman mythology. Gigantism puzzled me because I’ve never heard it before. As I came across the definition of gigantic, I found out that it meant very large which connects to giant and gigantism. (dictionary. com) upon conducting research, I learned more about the root word giant, coming across information about its etymology and actual story behind it. Perrizo 2 Giant’s roots go all the way back before gods or even humans existed. The etymology relates back to Greek mythology the giants were the children of Uranus and Gaea. They were involved in a conflict with the Olympian gods called the Gigantomachy, which was eventually settled when the hero Heracles decided to help the Olympians. The Greeks believed some giants lay buried from that time under the earth and that they resulted in earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Many stories have been written about giants in lots of cultures. In Norse mythology, the giants are the origin of most of various monsters, and in the eventual battle of Ragnarok the giants will storm Asgard and defeat them in war. The gods themselves were related to the giants by many marriages, and there are giants such as ? gir, Loki, Mimir and Ska? i, who have little difference in status to them. In Bulgarian mythology, giants called ispolini inhabited the Earth before modern humans. They lived in the mountains, fed on raw meat and often fought against dragons. Ispolini were afraid of blackberries which posed a danger of tripping and dying, so they offered sacrifices to that plant. Giants stand for the Basque people not willing to convert to Christianity who decides to stick to the old life style and customs in the forest. Sometimes they hold the secret of ancient techniques and wisdom unknown to the Christians, like in the legend of San Martin Txiki, while their most outstanding feature is their strength. It follows that in many legends all over the Basque territory the giants are held accountable for the creation of many stone formations, hills and old structures, with similar explanations provided in different spots. There are many similarities and differences in the words giant, gigantic, and gigantism. Gigantic is big: very large, tall, or bulky. Giant is a very tall imaginary creature: in fairy tales and legends, an imaginary being who resembles a human but is much taller, larger, and stronger. Perrizo 3 Gigantism is the quality of being giant: the quality or condition of being much taller, larger, or stronger than is usual. These three definitions are similar to each other because all of them have to do with being large. Today these words are all used to describe how tall, strong, or big someone is. All of these words also share the same Greek, Roman, and other origins. These he creatures. This particular word has a very long and precise background, whereas gigantic and gigantism have a short and not informational background. Not only is the word giant relevant in today’s world, famous playwright William Shakespeare alludes to the word in one of his plays. In Shakespeare’s play much ado about nothing, Claudio uses the word giant in act 1 scene 3. â€Å"He is then a giant to an ape; but then is an ape a doctor to such a man. †(line 2276) Shakespeare uses the monsters name as an illusion to illustrate the comparison between a giant, an ape, and man. Perhaps Shakespeare wanted to show the difference between stupid and so-called smart. Giant is being used to illustrate that a giant and an ape are two unintelligent creatures. Aside from Shakespeare’s use of the word, giant is used in the following quote from measure for measure. â€Å"O, I do fear thee, Claudio; and I quake, lest thou a fevorous life shouldest entertain, and six or seven winters more respect than a perpetual honor. Darest thou die? The sense of death is most apprehension; and the poor beetle that we tread upon, in corpual sufferance finds a pang as great as when a giant dies. (isabell). The word giant is used in reference to emphasize the greatness of a giant dieing with Claudio dying. perrizo 4 Whether giant is used in Shakespeare or other forms of literature, the words etymology seems to be prevalent in today’s world. The word Is regularly used today, ranging from a gas company, to a disability center. The general meaning of giant hasn’t changed over time, but only people who are educated about the word know its true mythical meaning. For example gigantism organization is an organization for the tallest people in the world. I did not find a relevant industry on website on giant or gigantic. When writing this paper, I learned a plethora of information about the word giant, and its ethnic background. Not only did I learn about this interesting monster, I gained experience on learning how to evaluate reliable sources and search the web cautiously. This essay taught me that the majority of the words we use today have an origins that dates back to Roman and Greek times. Giant originated the words gigantic and gigantism, and I found a great deal of information that connected giant to both of the other words. Furthermore, locating the information necessary to complete the project was easy and fast, but then I began to write my report, I had to think about where to start and how to organize the information I had into a cohesive essay. Finally,, I learned that people can misconstrue the meanings of words easily if they do not understand or use the words correctly. All people need to develop their communication skills and look up unfamiliar words or inquire about the origin of words so they learn about the amazing history of our amazing language.

Essay on Picture of Dorian Gray: The Character of Lord Henry Wotten

The Character of Lord Henry Wotten of The Picture of Dorian Gray  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The purpose of this essay is to explore the character of Lord Henry Wotten, from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. Oscar Wilde once said: I only know that Dorian Gray is a classic and deservedly. With this in mind, this essay is aimed at looking at how Lord Henry Wotton manipulates various conversations and how he effects the story with his challenging speeches, which is the reason The Picture of Dorian Gray is a classic. Henry is such a memorable, cleverly developed character, that his influence on the text elevates the novel's value. In the conversations of Lord Henry Wotton and the behaviour of Dorian Gray [Wilde shows that] †¦. self-expression can be turned into an art. - Acroyd. Lord Henry's conversations are used to introduce humour and intelligence to a tragic story. Lord Henry has a cynical view of the opposite sex, and also to marriage or any form of relationship which involves both genders. Henry says: Men marry because they are tired, women, because they are curious: both are disappointed. Henry here is humorously analyzing marriage, and summing it up in one sentence, which is typical of his conversation. He says things quickly and sharply so the story can move on with humour arising from the conversation. In this example Henry is giving quite a bleak outlook on marriage. This theme is explored further when he says: Young men want to be faithful, and are not, old men want to be faithless, and cannot. In this example, Henry explores the driving force between the nature of old and young men, and how they relate to the opposite sex. He uses irony to demonstrate his knowledge of how males relate t... ... parallel, as Henry's influence on Dorian Gray is evident, but Dorian Gray doesn't affect Henry's character at all. The reader also gets a contrast with Basil's relationship to Henry. Basil appears to ignore the humorous speeches that Henry gives by dismissing them as being "not serious" in nature. Because of this, Henry doesn't effect Basil in a negative way, as he does Dorian. Dorian appears to hang on every word that Henry gives, whereas Basil practically ignores what Henry says. Lord Henry's influence in the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray is that is gives a meaningful, ethical story a further contextual layer. Dorian Gray is a superb story, but the character of Lord Henry Wotton is what elevates the novel to its classic status. Works Cited: Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray; For Love of the King. London: Routledge/Thoemmes Press, 1993.

Indiana Jones the Movie, Analysis of Hinduism

rough copy : indiana jones temple of doom movie review in relation to hinduism. what it got right, wrong and why Dr. Henry â€Å"Indiana† Jones, is known as a famous character protagonist of his own movie, television, and comic book franchise: known for his love of adventure and signature crack of his whip makes for a good time at the cinema, and does well at the box office. In his first ever on screen full feature movie adventure â€Å"Indiana Jones: The temple of doom† directed by Steven Spielberg, and produced by George Lucas â€Å"Indie† travels to the great vastness known as Asia, specifically the nation of India, or what’s depicted as India anyways.Within the first 10 minutes the vague credibility of the film goes downhill and go for the worst. In most cases to the untrained eye, the story line still looks accurate, but with any, even basic prior knowledge the errors are easily apparent. While many parts of the movie are relatively close to real Hind u life in India, like: the presence of a Thugee Cult, the government in India at which the time in the movie takes place (set in 1935), and the religious and political structure of India. Besides these components most other depictions involving India or Hinduism, provide false facts.In my opinion three of the most significant wrong-doings in the film are: the falsified history of Kali, the inappropriate religious/divine being shrines and temples, and most of all the location of the film that creates the religious basis for the entire movie. The question to be asked in this instance is did the producer, George Lucas make these religious aspect errors by lack of research and investment, or intentionally? The stereotyping of Hinduism in this movie is inaccurate and offensive to Hindu culture. This movie, though action packed and entertaining, has many easily visible faults.The first, which you notice within the first scenes is the false location of the movie. Even though the location i s not directly in violation of Hinduism, and doesn’t affect the ability to create realism within the film, it dies set the bases of all the Hindu practices, and is the cause of most other wrong-doings in the movie. Before the movie even began shooting, it, even though uncommonly known to the public, had the script run by the Indian government (the most Hindu rich nation in the world, and the basis of the movie) and had it’s filming abilities in the country suspended, and ltimately got the producer and film team banned from the country. Therefore the actual filming of the movie took place in Sri Lanka and Brazil. The film was banned on grounds of injustice of the culture, the script depicting all of the Hindu nature as a demon-like paralleled to the Thugee cult, which is greatly untrue. Thus making the location the basis for the injustice of the film. The second most significant error made in the film of my opinion is the story/ history of Kali.Kali, better known as the goddess Parvati, the mother goddess of Hinduism and leader of the shakti energy path and consort of Shiva. One of her many forms is Kali, along with Durga and many others. Kali is the fierce destroyer of evil, and the center item of worship in the Thugee cult. The errors involving Kali include instances like: in the scene after the battle of Indiana Jones and the Thugee cult leader on the destroyed bridge over the chasm, Indie states (right before sending his opponent to his death) â€Å"You can burn with Kali in hell†.This statement raises two problems; the first being the concept of hell, and Hindu no matter which yoga path, theistic or non-theistic, does not believe in the concept of hell or place of eternal evil damnation, but only in reincarnation and achieving moksha. The second being that if there was a hell or place of evil, the fact that Kali belongs there or that Kali is viewed as â€Å"bad†. Kali is the fierce destroyer of evil, and protector of the good, d eserving great appreciation. (Even if she doesn’t look so good with her mask of ugliness, you shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover)The last, and one of the most blatantly ridiculous mistakes made within the movie is the false/wrongly used religious and divine shrines and statues. Hindu’s use deity statues and shrines to give thanks or â€Å"puja† to the deities. These statues can range from depictions of Shiva to Ganesha or any of the other three million deities. The mistakes made under this category vary, but the most common are the use of statuettes from other religions, fake/ made up gods, or use of statues that are not gods.Examples of this are in the scenes in the Thugee cults â€Å"lair† or temple, where they actually use Mayan deity sculptures in place of Kali sculptures, most likely to depicted as a more ferocious character. This affects the whole layout of the temple, and the Thugee ceremony no longer has any remote resemblance to t hat of a genuine Thugee ceremony. Thus adding to the horrifying action but tremendous inaccuracy of the movie. And unfortunately this only begins the immense amount of inaccuracies within the film. The extent of the true accuracy in the movie is quite small to what someone would expect.So little is accurate you have to search for factual information, and give pity for the producer, almost like saying â€Å"at least you tried†, and instead of giving him a gold star he gets a sort of cheesy smiley face sticker that no one really wants as a reward. The three most significant true to life facts, I scraped together from the film are as follows: the basis of the Thugee cult, India’s depicted government at the time (1935), and the religious and political structure in the movie (federal, and municipal).The main type pf Hinduism displayed in the movie was that of a cult in asia from the early 1400’s to the late 1830’s called the thugees. This cult was never recogn ized as an actual part of the Hindu religion, and was suppressed by the British government because of malpractice. This cult would practice in secret, in informal places of worship (like one of the cult members homes), the basis of the belief and the practiced ceremonies were to please the goddess embodiment of Parvati named Kali.To show their devotion to her, they would offer human sacrifices as a form of Puja. They would do this by kidnapping random travelers in India (to not raise an suspicion) and would sacrifice them in front of a Kali sculpture by strangulation and suffixation. This practice is what the ceremonial sacrificing in the movie remotely resembles, and most likely where Mr. Lucas got the idea. The next accuracy is the government in the movie, and its true reality to life at the time.This is significant to the religious standings in the movie because in 1935, Britain had claimed India as a colony, and therefore disrupted many of their religious practice and replace th em with their own. This caused tension between the British and Indian governments, and was visible during the dinner scene at Bangkok palace between the British ambassador and the Indian royal regent to the child king. Lastly The municipal and federal government structures, are relatively true to even modern day culture. In majorly religious cultures, like that of India religious hierarchy’s and political governments are combined and intertwined.Meaning many religious figures, like priests and guru’s also hold political power, which truly keeps religious qualities in mind while created laws to benefit people in reality and spiritually. This is scene in the movie in two cases; one, when the child king is also a major component of the thugee ceremony and it vital to its practices, and two, in the town where the children were stolen from the priest and community leader (like a mayor) are equals in the society. Unfortunately this is really all the movie got right, but it d id make for a good action flick, and Harrison Ford was pretty easy on the eyes.Indiana Jones and the temple of doom was an action movie of its time, earning great reviews from everybody everywhere in America. Western culture ate up the story line, the action of the fighting scenes, the compassion for the kidnapped children, and the cute romance between Indie and a strange club singer. Western culture truly have no clue about other religions besides there own. The Hindu culture is nothing like that portrayed in this film, but would anybody enjoy the movie if everyone got along and shared the prasad of the puja like one big happy family?No. Movie goers want to see action, they want to see the weird stuff other people do (even if it’s fake), and they want to see one of their own people defeat the evil doers of others, it brings a sense of pride. I believe Mr Lucas intentionally made these mistakes to play to the viewers needs to make a successful movie. Mr Lucas achieved his goa l but paid the price with realism, and the fact he can never go to India on vacation which would make a really cool holiday.

Spondee Definition and Examples from Poetry

A  spondee  is a metrical foot in poetry, composed of two stressed syllables in a row. But lets back up for a second. A poetic foot is merely a unit of measure based on stressed and unstressed syllables, usually made up of  two or three syllables. There are a number of arrangements possible for the stresses within these syllables, and all of these arrangements have different names (iamb, trochee, anapest, dactyl, etc.). A spondee (coming from the Latin word for libation) is a foot made up of two stressed syllables. Its opposite, a foot made up of two unstressed syllables, is known as a pyrrhic foot. Spondees are what we call irregular feet. A regular foot (like an iamb) is often used throughout a whole line or poem. An entire, 14-line, Shakespearean sonnet can be made up of iambs. Since spondees are singularly stressed, every single syllable in the line or poem would need to be stressed in order for it to be considered regular. This is almost entirely impossible, since English relies on both stressed and unstressed syllables. Mostly, spondees are used for emphasis, as a foot or two in an otherwise regular (iambic, trochaic, etc.) poetic line. How to Identify Spondees Just as with any other metrical foot, the easiest way to start out when identifying spondees is to over-emphasize a words or phrases syllables. Try putting emphasis on different syllables to see which one feels the most natural (For example: do GOOD morning, good MORning, and good morNING all sound and feel the same? Which one sounds the most natural?). Once you figure out which syllables in a poetic line are stressed (and which are unstressed) you can then figure out if there are any spondees present. Take this line from William Shakespeares Sonnet 56: Which but to-day by feeding is allay’d,To-morrow sharpen’d in his former might: Scanning this line (checking out its stressed/unstressed syllables) we can write it out as: which BUT toDAY by FEEDing IS allAYD,to-MORrow SHARPend IN his FORmer MIGHT Here the capital-letter blocks are stressed syllables and lowercase are unstressed. As we can see, every other syllable is stressed--this line is iambic, and there are no spondees to be found. Again, it would be very unusual to find a whole line composed of spondees; there might be one or two in an entire poem.   One common place to find a spondee is  when a one-syllable word is repeated. Think â€Å"Out, out—† from Macbeth. Or someone shouting No no! It’s hard to pick one of the words to be stressed in cases like this: would we say â€Å"NO no!† or â€Å"no NO!†? Neither one feels right, whereas â€Å"NO NO† (with equal stress on both words) feels the most natural. Heres an example of that working really nicely in Robert Frosts poem Home Burial: ...But I understand: it is not the stones,But the child’s mound—’‘Don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t,’ she cried.She withdrew shrinking from beneath his arm The majority of this poem is fairly tight iambic pentameter (five feet per line, with each foot made of unstressed/stressed syllables)--here, in these lines, we find variation on that. but i UNderSTAND: IT is NOT the STONES,but the CHILDS MOUND This portion is largely iambic (even more so if you, like I do, pronounce child with two syllables). But then we get to   Dont, dont, dont dont, she cried. If we were following and enforcing strict iambs here, we would get the weird and awkward dont, DONT, dont, DONT which sounds like an old junky car driving too fast over a speed bump. Instead, what Frost is doing here is a much more intentional slowing of the line, an inversion of the traditional and established meter. To read this as naturally as possible, as the woman would be speaking these words, we need to stress  every single one. DONT, DONT, DONT, DONT, she CRIED This immediately grinds the poem almost to a halt. By stressing each one-syllable word, we are forced to take our time with this line, really feeling the repetition of the words, and, consequently, the emotional tension created by that repetition. More Examples of Spondees If you have a poem of metered verse, youll probably find a spondee or two within the lines. Here are two more examples of spondees in some  lines you might recognize. Stressed syllables are capitalized, and spondees are in italics. BATter my HEART, three-PERsond GOD, for YOUAs YET  but KNOCK, BREATHE, SHINE, and SEEK to MEND; (Holy Sonnet XIV by John Donne) OUT, DAMNED SPOT!  OUT, I SAY! - ONE: TWO: why,THEN tis TIME to DOt. (from  Macbeth  by William Shakespeare) Why do Poets Use Spondees? The majority of the time, outside of poetry, spondees are unintentional. At least in English, which is a language based on stressed and unstressed syllables, youre likely to speak or write spondees on a regular basis  without even knowing it. Some are just unavoidable; anytime you write Oh no! in a poem, for example, its probably going to be a spondee.   But, in all of the above examples from Frost, Donne, and Shakespeare, these extra weighted words do something for the poem. By making us (or an actor) slow down and accent each syllable, we, as readers (or audience members) are tuned in to pay attention to those words. Notice how  in each of the above examples, the spondees are emotion-heavy, crucial moments within the lines. Theres a reason words like is, a, and, the, of, etc., are never parts of spondees. Accented syllables have meat; they have heft to them linguistically, and, more often than not, that weight translates into meaning. Controversy With the evolution of linguistics and methods of scansion, some poets and scholars believe that a true spondee is impossible to achieve—that no two consecutive syllables can have the exact same weight or emphasis. Still, while the existence of spondees is being called into question, it is important to understand them as a concept, and to recognize when extra, consecutive stressed syllables in a poetic line impact the way we interpret and understand the poem. A Final Note This might go without saying, but its helpful to remember that scansion (determining the stressed/unstressed syllables in poetry) is somewhat subjective. Some people may read some words/syllables as stressed in a line, while others might read them as unaccented. Some spondees, like Frosts Dont dont dont dont are clearly spondees, while others, like Lady Macbeths words, are more open to different interpretations. The important thing to remember is that, just because a poem is in, say, iambic tetrameter, it doesnt mean that there are no variations within that poem. Some of the greatest poets know when to use spondees, when to shake up the meter a little for maximum impact, for greater emphasis and musicality. When writing your own poetry, keep that in mind—spondees are a tool you can use to make your poems come alive.