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Elysium
Elysium (), otherwise known as the Elysian Fields (, ''Ēlýsion pedíon''), Elysian Plains or Elysian Realm, is a conception of the afterlife that developed over time and was maintained by some Greek religious and philosophical sects and cults. It was initially separated from the Greek underworld – the realm of Hades. Only mortals related to the gods and other heroes could be admitted past the river Styx. Later, the conception of who could enter was expanded to include those chosen by the gods, the righteous, and the heroic. They would remain at the Elysian Fields after death, to live a blessed and happy afterlife, and indulge in whatever they had enjoyed in life. The Elysian Fields were, according to Homer, located on the western edge of the Earth by the stream of Oceanus. In the time of the Greek poet Hesiod, Elysium would also be known as the " Fortunate Isles", or the "Isles (or Islands) of the Blessed", located in the western ocean at the end of the earth. The Isl ...
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Greek Underworld
In Greek mythology, the underworld or Hades () is a distinct realm (one of the three realms that make up the cosmos) where an individual goes after death. The earliest idea of afterlife in Greek myth is that, at the moment of death, an individual's essence (''psyche'') is separated from the corpse and transported to the underworld. In early mythology (e.g., Homer's ''Iliad'' and ''Odyssey'') the dead were indiscriminately grouped together and led a shadowy post-existence; however, in later mythology (e.g., Platonism, Platonic philosophy) elements of post-mortem judgment began to emerge with good and bad people being separated (both spatially and with regards to treatment). The underworld itself—commonly referred to as Hades, after its Hades, patron god, but also known by various metonyms—is described as being located at the periphery of the earth, either associated with the outer limits of the ocean (i.e., ''Oceanus'', again also a god) or beneath the earth. Darkness and a l ...
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Hades
Hades (; , , later ), in the ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, is the god of the dead and the king of the Greek underworld, underworld, with which his name became synonymous. Hades was the eldest son of Cronus and Rhea (mythology), Rhea, although this also made him the last son to be Cronus#Mythology, regurgitated by his father. He and his brothers, Zeus and Poseidon, defeated their father's generation of gods, the Titan (mythology) , Titans, and claimed joint rulership over the cosmos. Hades received the underworld, Zeus the sky, and Poseidon the sea, with the solid earth (long the province of Gaia (mythology) , Gaia) available to all three concurrently. In artistic depictions, Hades is typically portrayed holding a bident and wearing his cap of invisibility , helm with Cerberus, the Polycephaly, three-headed dogs in religion#Religions, myths, legends, and cultures, guard-dog of the underworld, standing at his side. Roman-era mythographers eventually ...
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Afterlife
The afterlife or life after death is a purported existence in which the essential part of an individual's Stream of consciousness (psychology), stream of consciousness or Personal identity, identity continues to exist after the death of their physical body. The surviving essential aspect varies between belief systems; it may be some partial element, or the entire soul or spirit, which carries with it one's personal identity. In some views, this continued existence takes place in a Supernatural, spiritual realm, while in others, the individual may be reborn into World#Religion, this world and begin the life cycle over again in a process referred to as reincarnation, likely with no memory of what they have done in the past. In this latter view, such rebirths and deaths may take place over and over again continuously until the individual gains entry to a spiritual realm or otherworld. Major views on the afterlife derive from religion, Western esotericism, esotericism, and metaphy ...
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Fortunate Isles
The Fortunate Isles or Isles of the Blessed (, ''makarōn nēsoi'') were semi-legendary islands in the Atlantic Ocean, variously treated as a simple geographical location and as a winterless earthly paradise inhabited by the heroes of Greek mythology. In the time of Hesiod, the Fortunate Isles were associated with the concept of Elysium, a utopian location in the Greek underworld thought to be found in the Western ocean on the margin of the known world. The number of the islands would later be reduced to one by the poet Pindar. Legend According to Greek mythology, the islands were reserved for those who had chosen to be reincarnated three times, and managed to be judged as especially pure enough to gain entrance to the Elysian Fields all three times. The Theban poet Pindar reduced the number of the islands to one, describing it as having shady parklands with residents indulging in athletic and musical pastimes, activities that were thought to be the ideal life for ancient Gree ...
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Rhadamanthus
In Greek mythology, Rhadamanthus () or Rhadamanthys () was a wise king of Crete. As the son of Zeus and Europa (mythology), Europa he was considered a demigod. He later became one of the Greek underworld#Judges of the underworld, judges of the dead and an important figure in Greek mythology. His name, whose etymology is obscure, was later used to allude to persons showing stern and inflexible judgement. Family Rhadamanthus was, according to Bulfinch's ''The Age of Fable'', the son of Zeus and Europa (mythology), Europa and brother to Sarpedon (brother of Minos), Sarpedon and Minos (also a king and later a judge of the dead). Together with his brother, Rhadamanthus was raised by Asterion (king of Crete), Asterion, their stepfather. He had two sons, Gortys (mythology), Gortys (associated with Gortyn, Crete) and Erythrus (founder of Erythrae). A different tradition represents Rhadamanthys as the son of Hephaestus, Hephaestus as a son of Talos, and Talos as a son of Cres (mytho ...
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Aeneid
The ''Aeneid'' ( ; or ) is a Latin Epic poetry, epic poem that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy, Trojan who fled the Trojan War#Sack of Troy, fall of Troy and travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Ancient Rome, Romans. Written by the Roman poet Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, the ''Aeneid'' comprises 9,896 lines in dactylic hexameter. The first six of the poem's twelve books tell the story of Aeneas' wanderings from Troy to Italy, and the poem's second half tells of the Trojans' ultimately victorious war upon the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins, under whose name Aeneas and his Trojan followers are destined to be subsumed. The hero Aeneas was already known to Greco-Roman legend and myth, having been a character in the ''Iliad''. Virgil took the disconnected tales of Aeneas' wanderings, his vague association with the foundation of Ancient Rome, Rome and his description as a personage of no fixed characteristics other than a scrupulous ''pietas'', ...
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Oceanus
In Greek mythology, Oceanus ( ; , also , , or ) was a Titans, Titan son of Uranus (mythology), Uranus and Gaia, the husband of his sister the Titan Tethys (mythology), Tethys, and the father of the River gods (Greek mythology), river gods and the Oceanids, as well as being the great river which encircled the entire world. Etymology According to M. L. West, the etymology of Oceanus is "obscure" and "cannot be explained from Greek". The use by Pherecydes of Syros of the form () for the name lends support for the name being a loanword. However, according to West, no "very convincing" foreign models have been found. A Semitic derivation has been suggested by several scholars, while R. S. P. Beekes has suggested a loanword from the Aegean Pre-Greek non-Indo-European Stratum (linguistics), substrate. Nevertheless, Michael Janda sees possible Indo-European connections. Genealogy Oceanus was the eldest of the Titan offspring of Uranus (Sky) and Gaia (Earth). Hesiod lists his T ...
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Lucian
Lucian of Samosata (Λουκιανὸς ὁ Σαμοσατεύς, 125 – after 180) was a Hellenized Syrian satirist, rhetorician and pamphleteer 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, 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 class family from the city of Samosata along the banks of the Euphrates in the remote Roman province of Syria. As a young man, he was apprenticed to his uncle to become a sculptor, but, after a failed attempt at sculpting, he ran away to pursue an educati ...
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Goethe Elysium Crop
Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Political philosophy#European Enlightenment, political, and Western philosophy, philosophical thought in the Western world from the late 18th century to the present.. A poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre-director, and critic, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe bibliography, his works include plays, poetry and aesthetic criticism, as well as treatises on botany, anatomy, and colour. Goethe took up residence in Weimar in 1775 following the success of his first novel, ''The Sorrows of Young Werther'' (1774), and joined a thriving intellectual and cultural environment under the patronage of Duchess Anna Amalia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Duchess Anna Amalia that formed the basis of Weimar Classicism. He was ennobled by Karl August, G ...
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Didactic
Didacticism is a philosophy that emphasises instructional and informative qualities in literature, art, and design. In art, design, architecture, and landscape, didacticism is a conceptual approach that is driven by the urgent need to explain. Overview The term has its origin in the Ancient Greek word διδακτικός (''didaktikos''), "pertaining to instruction", and signified learning in a fascinating and intriguing manner. Didactic art was meant both to entertain and to instruct. Didactic plays, for instance, were intended to convey a moral theme or other rich truth to the audience. During the Middle Age, the Roman Catholic chants like the '' Veni Creator Spiritus'', as well as the Eucharistic hymns like the '' Adoro te devote'' and '' Pange lingua'' are used for fixing within prayers the truths of the Roman Catholic faith to preserve them and pass down from a generation to another. In the Renaissance, the church began a syncretism between pagan and the Christian didacti ...
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Works And Days
''Works and Days'' ()The ''Works and Days'' is sometimes called by the Latin translation of the title, ''Opera et Dies''. Common abbreviations are ''WD'' and ''Op'' for ''Opera''. is a didactic poem written by ancient Greek poet Hesiod around 700 BC. It is in dactylic hexameter and contains 828 lines. At its center, the ''Works and Days'' is a Almanac, farmer's almanac in which Hesiod instructs his brother Perses in the agricultural arts. Scholars have seen this work against a background of agrarian crisis in mainland Greece, which inspired a wave of Greek colonies, colonial expeditions in search of new land. In the poem, Hesiod also offers his brother extensive moralizing advice on how he should live his life. ''Works and Days'' is perhaps best known for its two mythological aetiology, aetiologies for the toil and pain that define the human condition—the story of Prometheus and Pandora, and the so-called Ages of Man, Myth of Five Ages. Synopsis In ''Works and Days'', Hesi ...
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Diomedes
Diomedes (Jones, Daniel; Roach, Peter, James Hartman and Jane Setter, eds. ''Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary''. 17th edition. Cambridge UP, 2006.) or Diomede (; ) is a hero in Greek mythology, known for his participation in the Trojan War. He was born to Tydeus and Deipyle and later became King of Argos, Peloponnese, Argos, succeeding his maternal grandfather, Adrastus. In Homer's ''Iliad'' Diomedes is regarded alongside Ajax the Great and Agamemnon, after Achilles, as one of the best warriors of all the Achaeans (Homer), Achaeans in prowess (which is especially made clear in Book 7 of the ''Iliad'' when Ajax the Greater, Diomedes, and Agamemnon are the most wished for by the Achaeans to fight Hector out of nine volunteers, who included Odysseus and Ajax the Lesser). Subsequently, Diomedes founded ten or more Italian cities and, after his death, was worshipped as a divine being under various names in both Italy and Greece. Description In the account of Dares Phrygius ...
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