Western Literature week 7
Ithaca is an island in the Ionian Sea in Greece, which was an important
setting in one of the most famous myths of ancient Greece, the Odyssey.
The main hero of the story, Odysseus, lived
in Ithaca and was its rightful ruler. Homer described it as being "low-lying" and
farthest to the west, despite being mountainous, and the island of Kefalonia
being even more to the west. Some scholars argue that Homer's Ithaca was not modern-day Ithaca, but rather a nearby island. Odysseus was one of the suitors of Helen, the most beautiful woman in the known world.
Odysseus was a legendary hero in Greek mythology, king of the
island of Ithaca and the main protagonist of Homer's
epic, the Odyssey. He
was also a prominent character
in the other surviving Homeric epic, the Iliad. He was the son of Laertes and Anticlea, and is well known as an eloquent speaker, ingenious and cunning.
Penelope was the wife of the hero Odysseus in Greek mythology. She was the daughter
of Icarius and Periboea.
Helen or Helen of Troy was the daughter of Zeus and Leda in Greek mythology, although her
putative father was Tyndareus. A twin sister of Clytemnestra, she
also had the twin brothers Castor and Pollux, also known as the Dioscuri. She was considered to be the most beautiful woman in the known world.
Helen and Menelaus: Menelaus intends to strike Helen; captivated by her beauty, he
drops his sword. A flying Eros and Aphrodite (on
the left) watch the scene. Detail of an Attic red-figure krater, c. 450–440 BC (Paris, Louvre)
Menelaus was a king of Sparta in Greek mythology, husband of Helen. He was one of the main characters involved in
the Trojan War. His parents were Atreus and Aerope, while his brother was Agamemnon who ruled over the city of Mycenae.
Paris was the son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy, who
eloped with Helen, queen of Sparta, thus causing the events that led to the Trojan War.
Shakespeare's
Sonnets
Shakespeare's Sonnets is the title of a
collection of 154 sonnets by William Shakespeare, which covers themes such as the passage of time, love, beauty and mortality. The
first 126 sonnets are addressed to a young man; the last 28 to a woman.
The sonnets were first
published in a 1609 quarto with the full stylized title: SHAKE-SPEARES
SONNETS. Never before Imprinted. (although
sonnets 138 and 144 had previously been
published in the 1599 miscellany The Passionate Pilgrim). The quarto ends with "A
Lover's Complaint", a narrative poem of 47
seven-line stanzas written in rhyme royal – though some
scholars have argued convincingly against Shakespeare's authorship of the poem.
SONNET 18
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st;
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st;
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
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