|
Iphianassa (daughter Of Agamemnon)
In the ''Iliad'', Iphianassa (; Ancient Greek: Ίφιάνασσα ''Īphianassa'' "strong queen") is an obscure and controversial daughter of Agamemnon and Clytaemnestra, sister to Laodice and Chrysothemis, sometimes considered identical to Iphigeneia. Mythology Extant plays by Sophocles, Aeschylus and Euripides on the tale of Orestes and Electra do not include her as a character. This is consistent with the theory that she and Iphigeneia are one and the same. On the other hand, Sophocles does mention her, and hints that she lives in the palace of Aegisthus and Clytemnestra, together with Electra and Chrysothemis. Lucretius, in '' De Rerum Natura'', mentions Iphianassa being sacrificed by her father on the altar of the "Virgin of the Crossways" (''Triviai virginis'') Diana at Aulis as an offering to ensure a successful voyage, in undoubted reference to the tradition of Iphigeneia. Lucretius cited this episode to make the point: "Superstition ('' religio'') was able to i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iliad
The ''Iliad'' (; grc, Ἰλιάς, Iliás, ; "a poem about Ilium") is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Odyssey'', the poem is divided into 24 books and contains 15,693 lines in its most widely accepted version, and was written in dactylic hexameter. Set towards the end of the Trojan War, a ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Mycenaean Greek states, the poem depicts significant events in the siege's final weeks. In particular, it depicts a fierce quarrel between King Agamemnon and a celebrated warrior, Achilles. It is a central part of the Epic Cycle. The ''Iliad'' is often regarded as the first substantial piece of European literature. The ''Iliad'', and the ''Odyssey'', were likely written down in Homeric Greek, a literary amalgam of Ionic Greek and other dialects, probably around the late 8th or early 7th century BC. Homer's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aegisthus
Aegisthus (; grc, Αἴγισθος; also transliterated as Aigisthos, ) was a figure in Greek mythology. Aegisthus is known from two primary sources: the first is Homer's ''Odyssey'', believed to have been first written down by Homer at the end of the 8th century BCE, and the second from Aeschylus's ''Oresteia'', written in the 5th century BCE. Aegisthus also features heavily in the action of Euripides's '' Electra'' ( 420 BCE), although his character remains offstage. Family Aegisthus was the son of Thyestes and Thyestes's own daughter Pelopia, an incestuous union motivated by his father's rivalry with the house of Atreus for the throne of Mycenae. Aegisthus murdered Atreus in order to restore his father to power, ruling jointly with him, only to be driven from power by Atreus's son Agamemnon. In another version, Aegisthus was the sole surviving son of Thyestes after Atreus killed his brother's children and served them to Thyestes in a meal. While Agamemnon laid siege to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Religio
The Latin term ''religiō'', the origin of the modern lexeme ''religion'' (via Old French/ Middle Latin), is of ultimately obscure etymology. It is recorded beginning in the 1st century BC, i.e. in Classical Latin at the end of the Roman Republic, notably by Cicero, in the sense of "scrupulous or strict observance of the traditional ''cultus''". In classic antiquity, it meant conscientiousness, sense of right, moral obligation, or duty towards anything and was used mostly in secular or mundane contexts. Etymology The classical etymology of the word, traced to Cicero himself, derives it from ''relegere'': re (again) + lego (read) where lego is in the sense of "go over", "choose", or "consider carefully". Modern scholars such as Tom Harpur and Joseph Campbell have argued that ''religio'' is derived from ''religare'': re (again) + ''ligare'' (bind or connect), which was made prominent by Augustine of Hippo, following the interpretation of Lactantius in ''Divinae institutiones' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aulis (ancient Greece)
Aulis ( grc, Αὐλίς) was a Greek port-town, located in ancient Boeotia in central Greece, at the Euripus Strait, opposite of the island of Euboea. Livy states that Aulis was distant from Chalcis. Aulis never developed into a fully independent polis, but belonged to Thebes (378 BC) and Tanagra respectively.Xenophon, ''Hellenica'' iii According to legend (The ''Iliad'') the Greek fleet gathered in Aulis to set off for Troy. However, the departure was prevented by Artemis, who stopped the wind to punish Agamemnon, who had killed a deer in a sacred grove and boasted he was the better hunter. The fleet was only able to sail off after Agamemnon had sacrificed his eldest daughter Iphigenia. Strabo says that the harbour of Aulis could only hold fifty ships, and that therefore the Greek fleet must have assembled in the large port in the neighbourhood, called Βαθὺς λιμὴν. Aulis appears to have stood upon a rocky height, since it is called by Homer Αὐλὶς π ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hecate
Hecate or Hekate, , ; grc-dor, Ἑκάτᾱ, Hekátā, ; la, Hecatē or . is a goddess in ancient Greek religion and mythology, most often shown holding a pair of torches, a key, snakes, or accompanied by dogs, and in later periods depicted as three-formed or triple-bodied. She is variously associated with crossroads, entrance-ways, night, light, magic, witchcraft, the Moon, knowledge of herbs and poisonous plants, graves, ghosts, necromancy, and sorcery.Seyffert, s.vHecate/ref>d'Este, Sorita & Rankine, David, Hekate Liminal Rites, Avalonia, 2009. Her earliest appearance in literature was in Hesiod's ''Theogony'' in the 8th century BCE as a goddess of great honour with domains in sky, earth, and sea. Her place of origin is debated by scholars, but she had popular followings amongst the witches of Thessaly and an important sanctuary among the Carian Greeks of Asia Minor in Lagina. Her oldest known representation was found in Selinunte, in Sicily. Hecate was one of several de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Artemis
In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Artemis (; grc-gre, Ἄρτεμις) is the goddess of the hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, nature, vegetation, childbirth, care of children, and chastity. She was heavily identified with Selene, the Moon, and Hecate, another Moon goddess, and was thus regarded as one of the most prominent lunar deities in mythology, alongside the aforementioned two.Smiths.v. Artemis/ref> She would often roam the forests of Greece, attended by her large entourage, mostly made up of nymphs, some mortals, and hunters. The goddess Diana is her Roman equivalent. In Greek tradition, Artemis is the daughter of the sky god and king of gods Zeus and Leto, and the twin sister of Apollo. In most accounts, the twins are the products of an extramarital liaison. For this, Zeus' wife Hera forbade Leto from giving birth anywhere on land. Only the island of Delos gave refuge to Leto, allowing her to give birth to her children. Usually, Artemis i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diana (mythology)
Diana is a goddess in Roman and Hellenistic religion, primarily considered a patroness of the countryside, hunters, crossroads, and the Moon. She is equated with the Greek goddess Artemis, and absorbed much of Artemis' mythology early in Roman history, including a birth on the island of Delos to parents Jupiter (mythology), Jupiter and Latona, and a twin brother, Apollo,''Larousse Desk Reference Encyclopedia'', The Book People, Haydock, 1995, p. 215. though she had Diana Nemorensis, an independent origin in Italy. Diana is considered a virgin goddess and protector of childbirth. Historically, Diana made up a triad with two other Roman deities: Egeria (mythology), Egeria the water nymph, her servant and assistant midwife; and Virbius, the woodland god. Diana is revered in modern neopagan religions including Roman polytheistic reconstructionism, Roman neopaganism, Stregheria, and Wicca. In the ancient, medieval, and modern periods, Diana has been considered a triple deity, m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
De Rerum Natura
''De rerum natura'' (; ''On the Nature of Things'') is a first-century BC didactic poem by the Roman poet and philosopher Lucretius ( – c. 55 BC) with the goal of explaining Epicurean philosophy to a Roman audience. The poem, written in some 7,400 dactylic hexameters, is divided into six untitled books, and explores Epicurean physics through poetic language and metaphors. Greenblatt (2011). Namely, Lucretius explores the principles of atomism; the nature of the mind and soul; explanations of sensation and thought; the development of the world and its phenomena; and explains a variety of celestial and terrestrial phenomena. The universe described in the poem operates according to these physical principles, guided by ''fortuna'' ("chance"), and not the divine intervention of the traditional Roman deities. Background To the Greek philosopher Epicurus, the unhappiness and degradation of humans arose largely from the dread which they entertained of the power of the deities, from ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lucretius
Titus Lucretius Carus ( , ; – ) was a Roman poet and philosopher. His only known work is the philosophical poem ''De rerum natura'', a didactic work about the tenets and philosophy of Epicureanism, and which usually is translated into English as ''On the Nature of Things''—and somewhat less often as ''On the Nature of the Universe''. Lucretius has been credited with originating the concept of the three-age system that was formalised in 1836 by C. J. Thomsen. Very little is known about Lucretius's life; the only certainty is that he was either a friend or client of Gaius Memmius, to whom the poem was addressed and dedicated. ''De rerum natura'' was a considerable influence on the Augustan poets, particularly Virgil (in his ''Aeneid'' and ''Georgics'', and to a lesser extent on the ''Eclogues'') and Horace. The work was almost lost during the Middle Ages, but was rediscovered in 1417 in a monastery in Germany by Poggio Bracciolini and it played an important role both ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electra (Sophocles Play)
''Electra,'' ''Elektra, or The Electra'' ( grc, ΗΛΕΚΤΡΑ, ''Ēlektra'') is a Greek tragedy by Sophocles. Its date is not known, but various stylistic similarities with the '' Philoctetes'' (409 BC) and the ''Oedipus at Colonus'' (401 BC) lead scholars to suppose that it was written towards the end of Sophocles' career. Jebb dates it between 420 BC and 414 BC. Set in the city of Argos a few years after the Trojan War, the play tells of a bitter struggle for justice by Electra and her brother Orestes for the murder of their father Agamemnon by Clytemnestra and their stepfather Aegisthus. When King Agamemnon returns from the Trojan War, his wife Clytemnestra (who has taken Agamemnon's cousin Aegisthus as a lover) kills him. Clytemnestra believes the murder was justified, since Agamemnon had sacrificed their daughter Iphigenia before the war, as commanded by the gods. Electra, daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, rescued her younger brother Orestes from her mother by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clytemnestra
Clytemnestra (; grc-gre, Κλυταιμνήστρα, ''Klytaimnḗstrā'', ), in Greek mythology, was the wife of Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, and the twin sister of Helen of Troy. In Aeschylus' ''Oresteia'', she murders Agamemnon – said by Euripides to be her second husband – and the Trojan princess Cassandra, whom Agamemnon had taken as a war prize following the sack of Troy; however, in Homer's ''Odyssey'', her role in Agamemnon's death is unclear and her character is significantly more subdued. Name Her Greek name ''Klytaimnḗstra'' is also sometimes Latinized as Clytaemnestra. It is commonly glossed as "famed for her suitors". However, this form is a later misreading motivated by an erroneous etymological connection to the verb ''mnáomai'' (, "woo, court"). The original name form is believed to have been ''Klytaimḗstra'' () without the ''-n-''. The present form of the name does not appear before the middle Byzantine period. Homeric poetry shows an awareness of bot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orestes (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Orestes or Orestis (; grc-gre, Ὀρέστης ) was the son of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon, and the brother of Electra. He is the subject of several Ancient Greek plays and of various myths connected with his madness and purification, which retain obscure threads of much older ones. Etymology The Greek name Ὀρέστης, having become "Orestēs" in Latin and its descendants, is derived from Greek ὄρος (óros, “mountain”) and ἵστημι (hístēmi, “to stand”), and so can be thought to have the meaning "stands on a mountain". Greek literature Homer In the Homeric telling of the story, Orestes is a member of the doomed house of Atreus, which is descended from Tantalus and Niobe. He is absent from Mycenae when his father, Agamemnon, returns from the Trojan War with the Trojan princess Cassandra as his concubine, and thus not present for Agamemnon's murder by Aegisthus, the lover of his wife, Clytemnestra. Seven years later, Orestes retu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
