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Trojan War In Literature And The Arts
There are a wide range of ways in which people have represented the Trojan War in literature and the arts. Art Painting *The pre-war episodes of Leda and the Swan and the Judgement of Paris were frequent subjects in art from the Renaissance onwards. * Laocoön, c.1610–1614, a painting by El Greco from The National Gallery of Art*''Helen of Troy'' by Evelyn De Morgan *''Fifty Days at Iliam'' by Cy Twombly, painted in 1978 *Sketches of Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, illustrating the fall of Troy Mosaic * In a Roman villa complex at the Rutland (East Midlands, United Kingdom), dating back to the 3rd and 4th century AD, archaeologists discovered a mosaic depicting the fight between Achilles and Hector. Pottery Innumerable ancient items, including: * the Trojan War was a classic subject for the Pottery of ancient Greece (for example see the potter Exekias and certain bands of the François Vase). * the Mykonos vase, pottery depiction of the Trojan war and horse Sculpture * the Medici ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leda And The Swan
Leda and the Swan is a story and subject in art from Greek mythology in which the god Zeus, in the form of a swan, seduces or rapes Leda. According to later Greek mythology, Leda bore Helen and Polydeuces, children of Zeus, while at the same time bearing Castor and Clytemnestra, children of her husband Tyndareus, the King of Sparta. According to many versions of the story, Zeus took the form of a swan and had sexual intercourse with Leda on the same night she slept with her husband King Tyndareus. In some versions, she laid two eggs from which the children hatched. In other versions, Helen is a daughter of Nemesis, the goddess who personified the disaster that awaited those suffering from the pride of Hubris. Especially in art, the degree of consent by Leda to the relationship seems to vary considerably; there are numerous depicions, for example by Leonardo da Vinci, that show Leda affectionately embracing the swan, as their children play. The subject was rarely seen in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laocoön And His Sons
The statue of ''Laocoön and His Sons'', also called the Laocoön Group ( it, Gruppo del Laocoonte), has been one of the most famous ancient sculptures ever since it was excavated in Rome in 1506 and placed on public display in the Vatican Museums, where it remains. It is very likely the same statue that was praised in the highest terms by the main Roman writer on art, Pliny the Elder. The figures are near life-size and the group is a little over in height, showing the Trojan priest Laocoön and his sons Antiphantes and Thymbraeus being attacked by sea serpents. The group has been called "the prototypical icon of human agony" in Western art, and unlike the agony often depicted in Christian art showing the Passion of Jesus and martyrs, this suffering has no redemptive power or reward. The suffering is shown through the contorted expressions of the faces (Dr. Guillaume-Benjamin Duchenne pointed out to Charles Darwin that Laocoön's bulging eyebrows are physiologically impossible) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stesichorus
Stesichorus (; grc-gre, Στησίχορος, ''Stēsichoros''; c. 630 – 555 BC) was a Greek lyric poet native of today's Calabria (Southern Italy). He is best known for telling epic stories in lyric metres, and for some ancient traditions about his life, such as his opposition to the tyrant Phalaris, and the blindness he is said to have incurred and cured by composing verses first insulting and then flattering to Helen of Troy. He was ranked among the nine lyric poets esteemed by the scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria, and yet his work attracted relatively little interest among ancient commentators, so that remarkably few fragments of his poetry now survive. As David Campbell notes: "Time has dealt more harshly with Stesichorus than with any other major lyric poet." Recent discoveries, recorded on Egyptian papyrus (notably and controversially, the Lille Stesichorus),P.J. Parsons, "The Lille Stesichorus", ''Zeitschreift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik'' Vol. 26 (1977), pages 7 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nostoi
The ''Nostoi'' ( el, Νόστοι, ''Nostoi'', "Returns"), also known as ''Returns'' or ''Returns of the Greeks'', is a lost Epic poetry, epic of ancient Greek literature. It was one of the Epic Cycle, that is, the Trojan cycle, which told the entire history of the Trojan War in epic verse. The story of the ''Nostoi'' comes chronologically after that of the ''Iliou persis'' (''Sack of Ilium''), and is followed by that of the ''Odyssey''. The author of the ''Nostoi'' is uncertain: ancient writers attributed the poem variously to Agias (8th century BC), Homer (8th century BC), and Eumelos (8th century BC) (see Cyclic poets). The poem comprised five books of verse in dactylic hexameter. The word ''nostos'' means "return home". Date The date of composition of the ''Nostoi'', and the date when it was set in writing, are both very uncertain. The text is most likely to have been finalized in the seventh or sixth century BC. Content The ''Nostoi'' relates the return home of the Greek hero ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iliou Persis
The ''Iliupersis'' (Greek: , ''Iliou persis'', "Sack of Ilium"), also known as ''The Sack of Troy'', is a lost epic of ancient Greek literature. It was one of the Epic Cycle, that is, the Trojan cycle, which told the entire history of the Trojan War in epic verse. The story of the ''Iliou persis'' comes chronologically after that of the ''Little Iliad'', and is followed by the ''Nostoi'' ("Returns"). The ''Iliou persis'' was sometimes attributed by ancient writers to Arctinus of Miletus (8th century BCE) (see Cyclic poets). The poem comprised two books of verse in dactylic hexameter. Date The ''Iliou persis'' was probably composed in the seventh century BCE, but there is much uncertainty. Ancient sources date Arctinus to the eighth century BCE, but evidence concerning another of his poems, the '' Aethiopis'', suggests that he lived considerably later than that. Content Only ten lines of the original text of the ''Iliou persis'' survive. For its storyline we are almost entirel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Little Iliad
The ''Little Iliad'' (Greek: , ''Ilias mikra''; la, parva Illias) is a lost epic of ancient Greek literature. It was one of the Epic Cycle, that is, the Trojan cycle, which told the entire history of the Trojan War in epic verse. The story of the ''Little Iliad'' comes chronologically after that of the '' Aethiopis'', and is followed by that of the ''Iliou persis'' ("Sack of Troy"). The ''Little Iliad'' was variously attributed by ancient writers to Lesches of Pyrrha (7th century BCE), Cinaethon of Sparta (8th century BCE), Diodorus of Erythrae, Thestorides of Phocaea, or Homer himself (8th century BCE) (see Cyclic poets). The poem comprised four books of verse in dactylic hexameter, the heroic meter. Date The ''Little Iliad'' was probably composed in the latter half of the seventh century BCE, but there is much uncertainty. Ancient sources date Lesches to the seventh century; but it is typical for ancient writers to place archaic literary authors earlier (sometimes centuries ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aithiopis
The ''Aethiopis'' , also spelled ''Aithiopis'' (Greek: , ''Aíthiopís''; la, Aethiopis), is a lost epic of ancient Greek literature. It was one of the Epic Cycle, that is, the Trojan cycle, which told the entire history of the Trojan War in epic verse. The story of the ''Aethiopis'' comes chronologically immediately after that of the Homeric ''Iliad'', and is followed by that of the ''Little Iliad''. The ''Aethiopis'' was sometimes attributed by ancient writers to Arctinus of Miletus (8th century BC) (see Cyclic poets). The poem comprised five books of verse in dactylic hexameter. Date The ''Aethiopis'' was probably composed in the seventh century BC, but there is much uncertainty about its date. Ancient sources date Arctinus to the eighth century; but the earliest artistic representations of one of the most important characters, Penthesilea, date to about 600 BC, suggesting a much later date. Content In current critical editions only five lines survive of the ''Aethiopi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stasinus
According to some ancient authorities, Stasinus ( el, Στασῖνος) of Cyprus was a semi-legendary early Greek poet. He is best known for his lost work, ''Cypria'' which was one of the poems belonging to the Epic Cycle that narrated the War of Troy. The ''Cypria'', presupposing an acquaintance with the events of the Homeric poem, confined itself to what preceded the ''Iliad'', and has been described as an introduction. The poem contained an account of the Judgement of Paris, the rape of Helen, the abandonment of Philoctetes on the island of Lemnos, the landing of the Achaeans on the coast of Asia Minor, and the first engagement before Troy. Proclus, in his ''Chrestomathia'', gave an outline of the poem (preserved in Photius, cod. 239). Plato puts quotes from Stasinus' works in the mouth of Socrates, in his dialogue ''Euthyphro''.Plato, ''Euthyphro'' 12a–b (Stasinus ''Cypria'' Fr. 20). Surviving fragments *''Of Zeus, the author and creator of all these things,/ You will no ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cypria
The ''Cypria'' (; grc-gre, Κύπρια ''Kúpria''; Latin: ''Cypria'') is a lost epic poem of ancient Greek literature, which has been attributed to Stasinus and was quite well known in classical antiquity and fixed in a received text, but which subsequently was lost to view. It was part of the Epic Cycle, which told the entire history of the Trojan War in epic hexameter verse. The story of the ''Cypria'' comes chronologically at the beginning of the Epic Cycle, and is followed by that of the ''Iliad''; the composition of the two was apparently in the reverse order. The poem comprised eleven books of verse in epic dactylic hexameters. Date and authorship The ''Cypria'', in the written form in which it was known in classical Greece, was probably composed in the late seventh century BCE, but there is much uncertainty. The Cyclic Poets, as the translator of Homerica, Hugh G. Evelyn-White noted "were careful not to trespass upon ground already occupied by Homer," one of the reasons ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Epic Cycle
The Epic Cycle ( grc, Ἐπικὸς Κύκλος, Epikòs Kýklos) was a collection of Ancient Greek epic poems, composed in dactylic hexameter and related to the story of the Trojan War, including the ''Cypria'', the '' Aethiopis'', the so-called ''Little Iliad'', the ''Iliupersis'', the ''Nostoi'', and the ''Telegony''. Scholars sometimes include the two Homeric epics, the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', among the poems of the Epic Cycle, but the term is more often used to specify the non-Homeric poems as distinct from the Homeric ones. Unlike the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', the cyclic epics survive only in fragments and summaries from Late Antiquity and the Byzantine period. The Epic Cycle was the distillation in literary form of an oral tradition that had developed during the Greek Dark Age, which was based in part on localised hero cults. The traditional material from which the literary epics were drawn treats Mycenaean Bronze Age culture from the perspective of Iron A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Homer
Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the most revered and influential authors in history. Homer's ''Iliad'' centers on a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles during the last year of the Trojan War. The ''Odyssey'' chronicles the ten-year journey of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, back to his home after the fall of Troy. The poems are in Homeric Greek, also known as Epic Greek, a literary language which shows a mixture of features of the Ionic and Aeolic dialects from different centuries; the predominant influence is Eastern Ionic. Most researchers believe that the poems were originally transmitted orally. Homer's epic poems shaped aspects of ancient Greek culture and education, fostering ideals of heroism, glory, and honor. To Plato, Homer was simply the one who ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Odyssey
The ''Odyssey'' (; grc, Ὀδύσσεια, Odýsseia, ) is one of two major Ancient Greek literature, ancient Greek Epic poetry, epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Iliad'', the poem is divided into 24 books. It follows the Greek hero cult, Greek hero Odysseus, king of Homer's Ithaca, Ithaca, and his journey home after the Trojan War. After the war, which lasted ten years, his journey lasted for ten additional years, during which time he encountered many perils and all his crew mates were killed. In his absence, Odysseus was assumed dead, and his wife Penelope and son Telemachus had to contend with a Suitors of Penelope, group of unruly suitors who were competing for Penelope's hand in marriage. The ''Odyssey'' was originally composed in Homeric Greek in around the 8th or 7th century BCE and, by the mid-6th century BCE, had become part of the Greek literary canon. In Classic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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