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Epithalamium
An epithalamium (; Latin form of Greek ἐπιθαλάμιον ''epithalamion'' from ἐπί ''epi'' "upon," and θάλαμος ''thalamos'' "nuptial chamber") is a poem written specifically for the bride on the way to her marital chamber. This form continued in popularity through the history of the classical world; the Roman poet Catullus wrote a famous epithalamium, which was translated from or at least inspired by a now-lost work of Sappho. According to Origen, the Song of Songs might be an epithalamium on the marriage of Solomon with the Pharaoh's daughter (wife of Solomon), Pharaoh's daughter. History It was originally among the Greeks a song in praise of bride and bridegroom, sung by a number of boys and girls at the door of the nuptial chamber. According to the scholiast on Theocritus, one form was employed at night, and another, to rouse the bride and bridegroom on the following morning. In either case, as was natural, the main burden of the song consisted of invocations o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Helen Of Troy
Helen (), also known as Helen of Troy, or Helen of Sparta, and in Latin as Helena, was a figure in Greek mythology said to have been the most beautiful woman in the world. She was believed to have been the daughter of Zeus and Leda (mythology), Leda or Nemesis, and the sister of Clytemnestra, Castor and Pollux, Castor, Pollux, Philonoe, Phoebe (mythology), Phoebe and Timandra (mythology), Timandra. She was married first to King Menelaus of Sparta "who became by her the father of Hermione (mythology), Hermione, and, according to others, of Nicostratus (mythology), Nicostratus also." Her subsequent marriage to Paris (mythology), Paris of Troy was the most immediate cause of the Trojan War. Elements of her putative biography come from classical authors such as Aristophanes, Cicero, Euripides, and Homer (in both the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey''). Her story reappears in Book II of Virgil's ''Aeneid''. In her youth, she was abducted by Theseus. A competition between her suitors ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ausonius
Decimius Magnus Ausonius (; ) was a Latin literature, Roman poet and Education in ancient Rome, teacher of classical rhetoric, rhetoric from Burdigala, Gallia Aquitania, Aquitaine (now Bordeaux, France). For a time, he was tutor to the future Emperor Gratian, who afterwards bestowed the Roman consul, consulship on him. His best-known poems are ''Mosella'', a description of the River Moselle, and ''Ephemeris'', an account of a typical day in his life. His many other verses show his concern for his family, friends, teachers and circle of well-to-do acquaintances and his delight in the technical handling of poetic meter, meter. Biography Decimius Magnus Ausonius was born in Burdigala (now Bordeaux), the son of Julius Ausonius (378), a Roman medicine, physician of Greeks, Greek ancestry,The Cambridge History of Classical Literature, Edward John Kenney, Cambridge University Press, p.16 and Aemilia Aeonia, daughter of Caecilius Argicius Arborius, descended on both sides from establis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nuptial
A wedding is a ceremony in which two people are united in marriage. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnicities, races, religions, denominations, countries, social classes, and sexual orientations. Most wedding ceremonies involve an exchange of marriage vows by a couple; a presentation of a gift (e.g., an offering, rings, a symbolic item, flowers, money, or a dress); and a public proclamation of marriage by an authority figure or celebrant. Special wedding garments are often worn, and the ceremony is sometimes followed by a wedding reception. Music, poetry, prayers, or readings from religious texts or literature are also commonly incorporated into the ceremony, as well as superstitious customs. Common elements across cultures Some cultures have adopted the traditional Western custom of the white wedding, in which a bride wears a white wedding dress and veil. This tradition was popularized through the marriage of Queen Victoria. Some s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anacreon (poet)
Anacreon ( BC) was an Ancient Greek lyric poet, notable for his drinking songs and erotic poems. Later Greeks included him in the canonical list of Nine Lyric Poets. Anacreon wrote all of his poetry in the ancient Ionic dialect. Like all early lyric poetry, it was composed to be sung or recited to the accompaniment of music, usually the lyre. Anacreon's poetry touched on universal themes of love, infatuation, disappointment, revelry, parties, festivals, and the observations of everyday people and life. Life Anacreon lived in the sixth century BC. His exact year of birth is not known, with the general scholarly consensus being that he was likely born in the 570s BC: Hans Bernsdorff says c. 575, David Campbell says c. 570. The Suda reports four possible names for his father: Eumelus, Aristocritus, Parthenius, and Scythinus. Ancient sources agree that Anacreon came from Teos, on the coast of Ionia (modern Turkey); this tradition is attested as early as Herodotus, and at least one ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Julius Caesar Scaliger
Julius Caesar Scaliger (; 23 April or August 1484 – 21 October 1558), or Giulio Cesare della Scala, was an Italian scholar and physician, who spent a major part of his career in France. He employed the techniques and discoveries of Renaissance humanism to defend Aristotelianism against the New Learning. In spite of his contentious disposition, his contemporary reputation was high. Jacques Auguste de Thou claimed that none of the ancients could be placed above him and that he had no equal in his own time. Biography Scaliger's father, Benedetto Bordone, was a miniaturist and illuminator. Scaliger himself was known in his youth by the family name Bordone, but later insisted that he was a scion of the house of La Scala, for a hundred and fifty years lords of Verona. He was born in Padua on 23 April or August 1484, though his son later claimed that he was born at the Rocca di Riva, on Lake Garda. There are two accounts of his life, his own and that of his critics. His own acc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Claudian
Claudius Claudianus, known in English as Claudian (Greek: Κλαυδιανός; ), was a Latin poet associated with the court of the Roman emperor Honorius at Mediolanum (Milan), and particularly with the general Stilicho. His work, written almost entirely in hexameters or elegiac couplets, falls into three main categories: poems for Honorius, poems for Stilicho, and mythological epic. Life Claudian was born in Alexandria. He arrived in Rome in 394 and made his mark as a court poet with a eulogy of his two young patrons, Probinus and Olybrius, consuls of 395. He wrote a number of panegyrics on the consulship of his patrons, praise poems for the deeds of the general Stilicho, and invectives directed at Stilicho's rivals in the Eastern court of Arcadius. Little is known about his personal life, but it seems he was a convinced pagan: Augustine refers to him as "foreign to the name of Christ" ('' Civitas Dei'', V, 26), and Paul Orosius describes him as an "obstinate pagan" (' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sidonius Apollinaris
Gaius Sollius Modestus Apollinaris Sidonius, better known as Sidonius Apollinaris (5 November, 430 – 481/490 AD), was a poet, diplomat, and bishop. Born into the Gallo-Roman aristocracy, he was son-in-law to Emperor Avitus and was appointed Urban prefect of Rome by Emperor Anthemius in 468. In 469 he was appointed Bishop of Clermont and he led the defence of the city from Euric, King of the Visigoths, from 473 to 475. He retained his position as bishop after the city's conquest, until his death in the 480s. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic church, the Orthodox Church, and the True Orthodox Church, with his feast day on 21 August. Sidonius is "the single most important surviving author from 5th-century Gaul" according to Eric Goldberg. He is one of four Gallo-Roman aristocrats of the 5th- to 6th-century whose letters survive in quantity; the others are Ruricius, bishop of Limoges (died 507), Alcimus Ecdicius Avitus, bishop of Vienne (died 518) and Magnus Felix En ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Statius
Publius Papinius Statius (Greek language, Greek: Πόπλιος Παπίνιος Στάτιος; , ; ) was a Latin poetry, Latin poet of the 1st century CE. His surviving poetry includes an epic in twelve books, the ''Thebaid (Latin poem), Thebaid''; a collection of occasional poetry, the ''Silvae''; and an unfinished epic, the ''Achilleid''. He is also known for his appearance as a guide in the ''Purgatorio, Purgatory'' section of Dante Alighieri, Dante's epic poem, the ''Divine Comedy''. Life Family background The poet's father (whose name is unknown) was a native of Velia but later moved to Naples and spent time in Rome where he taught with marked success. From boyhood to adulthood, Statius's father proved himself a champion in the poetic contests at Naples in the Augustalia and in the Nemean, Pythian Games, Pythian, and Isthmian Games, Isthmian games, which served as important events to display poetic skill during the early empire. Statius declares in his lament for his fath ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marriage Of Thetis And Peleus
Catullus 64 is an epyllion or "little epic" poem written by Latin poet Catullus. Catullus' longest poem, it retains his famed linguistic witticisms while employing an appropriately epic tone. Though ostensibly concerning itself with the marriage of Peleus and the sea-nymph Thetis (parents of the famed Greek hero Achilles), a sizeable portion of the poem's lines is devoted to the desertion of Ariadne by the legendary Theseus. Although the poem implies that Theseus and Ariadne were in love, in reality the text never explicitly states that Theseus even looked at Ariadne. Told through ecphrasis, or the depiction of events on inanimate objects, the bulk of the poem details Ariadne's agonized solace. Her impassioned vituperations and eventual discovery by the wine-god Bacchus are some of the included plot events. The poem relies heavily on the theme of nostalgia as Catullus reflects on what he believes are better times in Roman history. He wrote the poem during a time of civil war in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fescennine
Fescennine Verses (Fescennina carmina), one of the earliest kinds of Italian poetry, subsequently developed into satire and Roman comic drama. History Originally sung at village harvest-home rejoicing, they made their way into the towns, and became the fashion at religious festivals and private gatherings, especially weddings, to which in later times they were practically restricted. They were usually in the Saturnine metre and took the form of a dialogue consisting of an interchange of extemporaneous raillery. Those who took part in them wore masks made of the bark of trees. At first harmless and good-humored, if somewhat coarse, these songs gradually outstripped the bounds of decency; malicious attacks were made upon both gods and men, and the matter became so serious that the law intervened and scurrilous personalities were forbidden by the Twelve Tables (Cicero, ''De re publica'', 4.10; see also Horace ''epist''. 2.1.139). Examples Specimens of the Fescennines used at weddings ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area around Rome, Italy. Through the expansion of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language in the Italian Peninsula and subsequently throughout the Roman Empire. It has greatly influenced many languages, Latin influence in English, including English, having contributed List of Latin words with English derivatives, many words to the English lexicon, particularly after the Christianity in Anglo-Saxon England, Christianization of the Anglo-Saxons and the Norman Conquest. Latin Root (linguistics), roots appear frequently in the technical vocabulary used by fields such as theology, List of Latin and Greek words commonly used in systematic names, the sciences, List of medical roots, suffixes and prefixes, medicine, and List of Latin legal terms ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Menelaus
In Greek mythology, Menelaus (; ) was a Greek king of Mycenaean (pre- Dorian) Sparta. According to the ''Iliad'', the Trojan war began as a result of Menelaus's wife, Helen, fleeing to Troy with the Trojan prince Paris. Menelaus was a central figure in the Trojan War, leading the Spartan contingent of the Greek army, under his elder brother Agamemnon, king of Mycenae. Prominent in both the ''Iliad'' and ''Odyssey'', Menelaus was also popular in Greek vase painting and Greek tragedy, the latter more as a hero of the Trojan War than as a member of the doomed House of Atreus. Description In the account of Dares the Phrygian, Menelaus was described as "of moderate stature, auburn-haired, and handsome. He had a pleasing personality." Family Menelaus was a descendant of Pelops son of Tantalus. He was the younger brother of Agamemnon, and the husband of Helen of Troy. According to the usual version of the story, followed by the ''Iliad'' and ''Odyssey'' of Homer, Agamemno ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
