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The Whale (poem)
According to the tradition of the ''Physiologus'' and medieval bestiary, bestiaries, the aspidochelone is a fabled sea creature, variously described as a large whale or vast sea turtle, and a giant sea monster with huge spines on the ridge of its back. No matter what form it is, it is always described as being so huge that it is often mistaken for an island and appears to be rocky with crevices and valleys with trees and greenery and having sand dunes all over it. The name ''aspidochelone'' appears to be a compound word combining Greek language, Greek ''aspis'' (which means either "wikt:asp, asp" or "shield"), and ''chelone'', the turtle. It rises to the surface from the depths of the sea, and entices unwitting sailors with its island appearance to make landfall on its huge shell and then the whale is able to pull them under the ocean, ship and all the people, drowning them. It also emits a sweet smell that lures fish into its trap where it then devours them. In the moralistic alle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Two Fishermen On An Aspidochelone, C
2 (two) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 1 and preceding 3. It is the smallest and only even prime number. Because it forms the basis of a duality, it has religious and spiritual significance in many cultures. Evolution Arabic digit The digit used in the modern Western world to represent the number 2 traces its roots back to the Indic Brahmic script, where "2" was written as two horizontal lines. The modern Chinese and Japanese languages (and Korean Hanja) still use this method. The Gupta script rotated the two lines 45 degrees, making them diagonal. The top line was sometimes also shortened and had its bottom end curve towards the center of the bottom line. In the Nagari script, the top line was written more like a curve connecting to the bottom line. In the Arabic Ghubar writing, the bottom line was completely vertical, and the digit looked like a dotless closing question mark. Restoring the bottom line to its original horizontal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hexameron
The term Hexameron (Greek: Ἡ Ἑξαήμερος Δημιουργία ''Hē Hexaēmeros Dēmiourgia'') refers either to the genre of theological treatise that describes God's work on the six days of creation or to the six days of creation themselves. Most often these theological works take the form of commentaries on Genesis. As a genre, hexameral literature was popular in the early church and medieval periods. The word derives its name from the Greek roots ''hexa-'', meaning "six", and ''hemer-'', meaning "day". The order of creation in Genesis (1,1 to 2,3) is: # ''Light'' - first day. # ''A vault between the waters, to separate water from water'' called ''the heavens'' - second day. # ''The water ... gathered ... so that dry land may appear ... and ... growing things, ... plants that bear seed, and trees bearing fruit each with its own kind of seed'' - third day. # ''Lights in the vault of the heavens'' - fourth day: sun, moon, and stars. # "''Let the water teem with living cr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A True Story
''A True Story'' ( grc, Ἀληθῆ διηγήματα, ''Alēthē diēgēmata''; or ), also translated as True History, is a long novella or short novel written in the second century AD by the Greek author Lucian of Samosata. The novel is a satire of outlandish tales that had been reported in ancient sources, particularly those that presented fantastic or mythical events as if they were true. It is Lucian's best-known work. It is the earliest known work of fiction to include travel to outer space, alien lifeforms, and interplanetary warfare. It has been described as "the first known text that could be called science fiction". However, the work does not fit into typical literary genres: its multilayered plot and its characters have been interpreted as belonging to science fiction, fantasy, satire or parody, and have been the subjects of scholarly debate. Plot The novel begins with an explanation that the story is not at all "true", and that everything in it is a complete an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lucian
Lucian of Samosata, '; la, Lucianus Samosatensis ( 125 – after 180) was a Hellenized Syrian satirist, rhetorician and pamphleteer Pamphleteer is a historical term for someone who creates or distributes pamphlets, unbound (and therefore inexpensive) booklets intended for wide circulation. Context Pamphlets were used to broadcast the writer's opinions: to articulate a poli ... who is best known for his characteristic tongue-in-cheek style, with which he frequently ridiculed superstition, religious practices, and belief in the paranormal. Although his native language was probably Syriac language, Syriac, all of his extant works are written entirely in ancient Greek (mostly in the Attic Greek dialect popular during the Second Sophistic period). Everything that is known about Lucian's life comes from his own writings, which are often difficult to interpret because of his extensive use of sarcasm. According to his oration ''The Dream'', he was the son of a lower middle clas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Natural History (Pliny)
The ''Natural History'' ( la, Naturalis historia) is a work by Pliny the Elder. The largest single work to have survived from the Roman Empire to the modern day, the ''Natural History'' compiles information gleaned from other ancient authors. Despite the work's title, its subject area is not limited to what is today understood by natural history; Pliny himself defines his scope as "the natural world, or life". It is encyclopedic in scope, but its structure is not like that of a modern encyclopedia. It is the only work by Pliny to have survived, and the last that he published. He published the first 10 books in AD 77, but had not made a final revision of the remainder at the time of his death during the AD 79 eruption of Vesuvius. The rest was published posthumously by Pliny's nephew, Pliny the Younger. The work is divided into 37 books, organised into 10 volumes. These cover topics including astronomy, mathematics, geography, ethnography, anthropology, human physiolog ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pliny The Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic ''Naturalis Historia'' (''Natural History''), which became an editorial model for encyclopedias. He spent most of his spare time studying, writing, and investigating natural and geographic phenomena in the field. His nephew, Pliny the Younger, wrote of him in a letter to the historian Tacitus: Among Pliny's greatest works was the twenty-volume work ''Bella Germaniae'' ("The History of the German Wars"), which is no longer extant. ''Bella Germaniae'', which began where Aufidius Bassus' ''Libri Belli Germanici'' ("The War with the Germans") left off, was used as a source by other prominent Roman historians, including Plutarch, Tacitus and Suetonius. Tacitus—who many scholars agree had never travelled in Germania—used ''Bella Germani ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jonah
Jonah or Jonas, ''Yōnā'', "dove"; gr, Ἰωνᾶς ''Iōnâs''; ar, يونس ' or '; Latin: ''Ionas'' son of Amittai, is a prophet in the Hebrew Bible and the Quran, from Gath-hepher of the northern kingdom of Israel in about the 8th century BCE. Jonah is the central figure of the Book of Jonah, which details his reluctance in delivering God's judgement on the city of Nineveh. Subsequently he returns to the divine mission after he is swallowed by a large sea creature and then released. In Judaism, the story of Jonah represents the teaching of ''teshuva'', which is the ability to repent and be forgiven by God. In the New Testament, Jesus calls himself "greater than Jonah" and promises the Pharisees "the sign of Jonah", which is his resurrection. Early Christian interpreters viewed Jonah as a type for Jesus. Jonah is regarded as a prophet in Islam, and the biblical narrative of Jonah is repeated in the Quran. Mainstream Bible scholars generally regard the Book of Jona ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Samuel Ibn Naghrillah
Samuel ibn Naghrillah (, ''Sh'muel HaLevi ben Yosef HaNagid''; ''ʾAbū ʾIsḥāq ʾIsmāʿīl bin an-Naghrīlah''), also known as Samuel HaNagid (, ''Shmuel HaNagid'', lit. ''Samuel the Prince'') and Isma’il ibn Naghrilla (born 993; died 1056), was a medieval Jewish Spanish Talmudic scholar, grammarian, philologist, soldier, merchant, politician, and an influential poet who lived in Iberia at the time of the Moorish rule. His poetry was one area through which he was well known. Marcus, Jacob Rader. "59: Samuel Ha-Nagid, Vizier of Granada." ''The Jew in the Medieval World: A Source Book, 315-1791.'' Cincinnati: Union of American Hebrew Congregations, 1938. 335-38. He was perhaps the most politically influential Jew in Muslim Spain. Stillman, Norman A. ''The Jews of Arab Lands: A History and Source Book'', The Jewish Publication Society of America,1979. 56 He was also the Prime Minister of the Muslim state of Granada and battlefield commander of the non-Jewish Granadan army. Lif ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rabbah Bar Bar Hana
Rabbah bar bar Hana (רבה בר בר חנה) was a Jewish Talmudist who lived in Babylonia, known as an Amora of the second generation. Biography He was the grandson of Hana and the brother of Hiyya. He went to Palestine and became a pupil of Rabbi Yochanan, whose sayings he transmitted. He does not seem to have enjoyed high regard in Palestine, for it was taken as a matter of course that Rav Shimon ben Lakish should not do him the honor of addressing him in public. After a somewhat prolonged sojourn in Palestine he returned to Babylonia, residing both at Pumbedita and at Sura. In Pumbedita he at first refused to attend the lectures of Rav Judah ben Ezekiel, but he soon became his friend, and was consulted by him in difficult cases. Judah and his pupil Rabbah bar Nahmani once visited Rabbah, who was ill, and submitted a halakhic question to him. While they were there a Zoroastrian priest ("geber") suddenly appeared and extinguished the lamp, the day being a festival of Ormuzd, o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Babylonian Talmud
The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the centerpiece of Jewish cultural life and was foundational to "all Jewish thought and aspirations", serving also as "the guide for the daily life" of Jews. The term ''Talmud'' normally refers to the collection of writings named specifically the Babylonian Talmud (), although there is also an earlier collection known as the Jerusalem Talmud (). It may also traditionally be called (), a Hebrew abbreviation of , or the "six orders" of the Mishnah. The Talmud has two components: the Mishnah (, 200 CE), a written compendium of the Oral Torah; and the Gemara (, 500 CE), an elucidation of the Mishnah and related Tannaitic writings that often ventures onto other subjects and expounds broadly on the Hebrew Bible. The term "Talmud" may refer to eith ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leo Of Naples
Leo of Naples ( fl. 950s), also called Leo the Archpriest ( it, Leone Arciprete), was a diplomat and translator in the service of Dukes John III and Marinus II of Naples. He undertook a diplomatic mission to Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, during the joint reign of Constantine VII and Romanus II between 945 and 959. During his time in the capital, he came across the '' Alexander Romance'', a collection of Greek stories about Alexander the Great, and had a copy made for Theodora, the wife of John III. After Theodora's death, John commissioned Leo to translate the ''Romance'' into Latin. The date of Theodora's death is unknown, but she was still living in 951. John died in 968 or 969. All that is known of Leo comes from the prologue he wrote to this translation, in which he calls himself an ''archipresbyter''. Leo entitled his work ''Nativitas et victoria Alexandri magni'' (Birth and Victory of Alexander the Great). The autograph does not survive and all survivin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Epistola Alexandri Ad Aristotelem
The ''Epistola Alexandri ad Aristotelem'' ("Letter of Alexander to Aristotle") is a purported letter from Alexander the Great to the philosopher Aristotle concerning his adventures in India. Although accepted for centuries as genuine, it is today regarded as apocryphal. It is the primary source for most of the tales of the marvellous and fabulous found in later Alexander traditions. Textual history The ''Epistola'' was composed in Greek. The original version may have adhered more closely to historical fact than later versions. An abridged version, including much fabulous material, was incorporated into the '' Alexander Romance'' no later than the third century AD. In the Greek alpha recension of the ''Romance'', the letter is chapter 17 of book III. The ''Epistola'' was widely translated and circulated both with the various versions of the ''Romance'' and independently of it. In some later Greek recensions of the ''Romance'', the letter is switched from the first person to the t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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