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WEEK 11 西概筆記 (Western Literature)
2017/01/03 20:42
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1.Dionysus

Dionysus (/d.əˈnsəs/GreekΔιόνυσοςDionysos) is the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness, fertility, theatre andreligious ecstasy in ancient Greek religion and mythWine played an important role in Greek culture, and the cult of Dionysus was the main religious focus for its unrestrained consumption. He may have been worshipped as early as c. 1500–1100 BC by Mycenean Greeks; traces of Dionysian-type cult have also been found in ancient Minoan Crete. His origins are uncertain, and his cults took many forms; some are described by ancient sources as Thracian, others as Greek. In some cults, he arrives from the east, as an Asiatic foreigner; in others, from Ethiopia in the South. He is a god of epiphany, "the god that comes", and his "foreignness" as an arriving outsider-god may be inherent and essential to his cults. He is a major, popular figure of Greek mythology and religion, becoming increasingly important over time, and included in some lists of the twelve Olympians, as the last of their number, and the only god born from a mortal mother. His festivals were the driving force behind the development of Greek theatre.

2.Herodotus

Herodotus (/hˈrɒdətəs/Ancient GreekἩρόδοτος HēródotosAttic Greekpronunciation: [hɛː.ró.do.tos]) was Greek historian who was born inHalicarnassus in the Persian Empire (modern-day BodrumTurkey) and lived in the fifth century BC (c. 484–c. 425 BC), a contemporary of Socrates. He is widely referred to as "The Father of History" (first conferred by Cicero); he was the first historian known to have broken from Homeric tradition to treat historical subjects as a method of investigation—specifically, by collecting his materials systematically and critically, and then arranging them into ahistoriographic narrative. The Histories is the only work which he is known to have produced, a record of his "inquiry" (or ἱστορία historía) on the origins of the Greco-Persian Wars, including a wealth of geographical andethnographical information. Some of his stories were fanciful and others inaccurate; yet he states that he was reporting only what was told to him and was often correct in his information. Despite Herodotus' historical significance, little is known of his personal history.

3.Extra Words
3)lame: also lamé, "silk interwoven with metallic threads," 1918, from a specialized sense of French lame, which generally meant "thin metal plate (especially in armor), gold wire; blade; wave (of the sea)," from Old French lame "thin strip, panel, blade, sheet, slice" (13c.), from Latin laminalamna "thin piece or flake of metal". The same French word was used in English earlier in armory as "a plate of metal" (1580s).
2)allusion: 1540s, "metaphor, parable" (a sense now obsolete); 1550s, "word-play, joke;" 1610s as "passing or casual reference," from Latinallusionem (nominative allusio) "a playing with, a reference to," noun of action from past participle stem of alludere "to play, jest, make fun of," from ad "to" + ludere "to play" . An allusion is never an outright or explicit mention of the person or thing the speaker seems to have in mind.

3)peculiar: mid-15c., "belonging exclusively to one person," from Latin peculiaris "of one's own (property)," from peculium "private property," literally "property in cattle" (in ancient times the most important form of property), from pecu "cattle, flock," related to pecus "cattle" . Meaning "unusual" is first attested c. 1600 (earlier "distinguished, special," 1580s; for sense development, compare idiom). Related: Peculiarly.

4)scotch: "of Scotland," 1590s, contraction of Scottish. Disdained by the Scottish because of the many insulting and pejorative formations made from it by the English (such as Scotch greys "lice;" Scotch attorney, a Jamaica term from 1864 for strangler vines). 

Scotch-Irish is from 1744 (adj.); 1789 (n.); more properly Scots-Irish (1966), from Scots (mid-14c.), the older adjective, which is from Scottis, the northern variant of ScottishScots (adj.) was used in Scottish until 18c., then Scotch became vernacular, but in mid-19c. there was a reaction against it. Scotch Tape was said to be so called because at first it had adhesive only on the edges (to make it easier to remove as a masking tape in car paint jobs), which was interpreted as a sign of cheapness on the part of the manufacturers.

5)alter: late 14c., "to change (something), make different in some way," from Old French alterer "to change, alter," from Medieval Latinalterare "to change," from Latin alter "the other (of the two)," from PIE *al- (1) "beyond"  + comparative suffix -ter (as in other). Intransitive sense "to become otherwise" first recorded 1580s. Related: Alteredaltering.

6)altar: Old English alteraltar "altar," from Latin altare (plural altaria) "high altar, altar for sacrifice to the great gods," perhaps originally meaning "burnt offerings" (compare Latin adolere "to worship, to offer sacrifice, to honor by burning sacrifices to"), but influenced by Latin altus "high." In Middle English, often auter, from Old French auter. Latin spelling restored 1500s. As a symbol of marriage, by 1820. Altar-piece is from 1640s; altar-boy from 1772.

4.in Just-BY E. E. CUMMINGS

in Just- 
spring          when the world is mud- 
luscious the little 
lame balloonman 
whistles          far          and wee 
and eddieandbill come 
running from marbles and 
piracies and it's 
spring 
when the world is puddle-wonderful 
the queer 
old balloonman whistles 
far          and             wee 
and bettyandisbel come dancing 
from hop-scotch and jump-rope and 
it's 
spring 
and 
         the 
                  goat-footed 
balloonMan          whistles 
far 
and 
wee
5.Queer

Queer is an umbrella term for sexual and gender minorities that are notheterosexual or not cisgender. Originally meaning "strange" or "peculiar",queer came to be used pejoratively against those with same-sex desires or relationships in the late 19th century. Beginning in the late 1980s, queer scholars and activists began to reclaim the word to establish community and assert an identity distinct from the gay identity. People who reject traditional gender identities and seek a broader and deliberately ambiguous alternative to the label LGBT may describe themselves as "queer".

6.Drama

Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" (Classical Greekδρᾶμαdrama), which is derived from "to do" (Classical Greekδράωdrao). The two masks associated with drama represent the traditional generic division between comedy and tragedy. They are symbols of the ancient Greek MusesThalia, and Melpomene. Thalia was the Muse of comedy (the laughing face), while Melpomene was the Muse of tragedy (the weeping face). Considered as a genre ofpoetry in general, the dramatic mode has been contrasted with the epic and the lyricalmodes ever since Aristotle's Poetics (c. 335 BCE)—the earliest work of dramatic theory.

7.Tragedy

Tragedy (from the Greekτραγῳδίαtragōidia) is a form of drama based on human suffering that invokes an accompanying catharsis or pleasure in audiences. While many cultures have developed forms that provoke thisparadoxical response, the term tragedy often refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of Western civilisation. That tradition has been multiple and discontinuous, yet the term has often been used to invoke a powerful effect ofcultural identity and historical continuity—"the Greeks and the Elizabethans, in one cultural form; Hellenes and Christians, in a common activity," as Raymond Williams puts it.

8.Comedy

In a modern sensecomedy (from the Greekκωμῳδίαkōmōidía) refers to any discourse or work generally intended to be humorous or amusing by inducinglaughter, especially in theatretelevisionfilm, and stand-up comedy. The origins of the term are found in Ancient Greece. In the Athenian democracy, the public opinionof voters was influenced by the political satire performed by the comic poets at thetheaters. The theatrical genre of Greek comedy can be described as a dramatic performance which pits two groups or societies against each other in an amusingagon or conflict. Northrop Frye depicted these two opposing sides as a "Society of Youth" and a "Society of the Old". A revised view characterizes the essential agon of comedy as a struggle between a relatively powerless youth and the societal conventions that pose obstacles to his hopes. In this struggle, the youth is understood to be constrained by his lack of social authority, and is left with little choice but to take recourse in ruses which engender very dramatic irony which provokes laughter.

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