Week06

Introduction to Western Literature:

1.      Odysseus: also known by the Latin name Ulysses, was a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem the Odyssey.

Head of Odysseus

2.      Nausicaa: a character in Homer's Odyssey. She is the daughter of King Alcinous and Queen Arete of Phaeacia.

Nausicaa

3.      Swineherd: One who tends to swine.

4.      Penelope: the faithful wife of Odysseus, who keeps her suitors at bay in his long absence and is eventually reunited with him.

Odysseus and Penelope

5.      Penelope’s weaving: She has devised tricks to delay her suitors, one of which is to pretend to be weaving a burial shroud for Odysseus's elderly father Laertes and claiming that she will choose a suitor when she has finished. Every night for three years, she undoes part of the shroud, until Melantho, one of twelve unfaithful serving women, discovers her chicanery and reveals it to the suitors.

Penelope’s weaving

6.      Suitor: A person who makes a petition or request.

7.      Archery contest:

8.      Lotus: 蓮花

9.      Mentor: A wise and trusted counselor or teacher.

10.  Argo: Greek Mythology The ship in which Jason sailed in search of the Golden Fleece.

11.  Argos peacock: Argos Panoptes was a hundred-eyed giant who lived in the region of Argolis in the Peloponnese.

Hermes and Argos Panoptes

12.  Siren: Greek Mythology One of a group of sea nymphs who by their sweet singing lured mariners to destruction on the rocks surrounding their island.

13.  Polyphemus: the giant son of Poseidon and Thoosa in Greek mythology, one of the Cyclopes described in Odyssey.

The blinded Polyphemus seeks vengeance on Odysseus

14.  Agamemnon: the son of king Atreus and queen Aerope of Mycenae, the brother of Menelaus, the husband of Clytemnestra and the father of Iphigenia, Electra or Laodike, Orestes and Chrysothemis. Mythical legends make him the king of Mycenae or Argos, thought to be different names for the same area.

The Mask of Agamemnon

15.  Clytemnestra: the wife of Agamemnon, ruler of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Mycenae or Argos.

16.  Orestes: the son of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon.

17.  Electra: was the daughter of King Agamemnon and Queen Clytemnestra, and thus princess of Argos.

Electra at the Tomb of Agamemnon

18.  Plot: A secret plan to accomplish a hostile or illegal purpose; a scheme.

19.  Oedipus complex: explains the emotions and ideas that the mind keeps in the unconscious, via dynamic repression, that concentrates upon a child's desire to have sexual relations with the parent of the opposite sex (i.e. males attracted to their mothers, and females attracted to their fathers).

Oedipus describes the riddle of the Sphinx

20.  Mephistopheles: is a demon featured in German folklore.

Mephistopheles flying over Wittenberg

21.  Ithaca: A city of southwest-central New York on Cayuga Lake south-southwest of Syracuse.

22.  Cassandra: also known as Alexandra or Kassandra, was the daughter of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy.

Cassandra by Evelyn De Morgan

23.  Prophetess: A woman who speaks by divine inspiration or as the interpreter through whom the will of a god is expressed.

24.  Tiresias: a blind prophet of Apollo in Thebes, famous for clairvoyance and for being transformed into a woman for seven years.

Tiresias strikes two snakes with a stick