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Author Says a Whole Culture—Not a Single 'Homer'—Wrote 'Iliad,' 'Odyssey'

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Author Says a Whole Culture—Not a Single 'Homer'—Wrote 'Iliad,' 'Odyssey'

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The Iliad and The Odyssey are two of the key works of Western civilization. But almost nothing is known about their author and the date and manner of their creation. In Why Homer Matters, historian and award-winning author Adam Nicolson suggests that Homer be thought of not as a person but as a tradition and that the works attributed to him go back a thousand years earlier than generally believed.

Speaking from his home in England, Nicolson describes how being caught in a storm at sea inspired his passion for Homer, how the oral bards of the Scottish Hebrides may hold the key to understanding Homer's works, and why smartphones are connecting us to ancient oral traditions in new and surprising ways.
Your book begins with a storm at sea.
About ten years ago, I set off sailing with a friend of mine. We wanted a big adventure, so we decided to sail up the west coast of the British Isles, the exposed Atlantic coast, visiting various remote islands along the way. I had thrown into my luggage a copy of The Odyssey, translated by Robert Fagles, having never really looked at Homer for about 25 years.

We had a rough time. Our instruments broke, and it had been a big hike from Cornwall. Lying in my bunk tied up next to a quay in southwest Ireland, I opened this book and found myself confronted with what felt like the truth-like somebody was telling me what it was like to be alive on Earth, in the figure of Odysseus.

Odysseus is the great metaphor for all of our lives: struggling with storms, coming across incredibly seductive nymphs, finding himself trapped between impossible choices. I suddenly thought, This is talking to me in a way I would never have guessed before.
Seven locations have been given as Homer's birthplace. It's said he was blind. Samuel Butler, the 19th-century satirist, wrote an entire book trying to prove he was actually a she. Do we know anything factual about Homer?
I think it's a mistake to think of Homer as a person. Homer is an "it." A tradition. An entire culture coming up with ever more refined and ever more understanding ways of telling stories that are important to it. Homer is essentially shared.

Today we have an author obsession-we want to know biography all the time. But Homer has no biography. The Iliad and The Odyssey are like Viking longships. Nobody knows who made them, no name is attached to them, there's no written design or drawings. They're simply the evolved beauty of long and careful tradition.
There are even doubts about when they were composed. The usual date is about 800 B.C. You believe the tradition began much earlier than that. Make your case.
My claim is that the poems, especially The Iliad, have their beginnings around 2000 B.C.-about 1,000 or 1,200 years earlier than most people say Homer existed. The reason I say that has two strands to it. One is that there are large elements of the Homeric stories, particularly , that are shared among the Indo-European world as a whole, all the way from north India through Greece to Germanic and Icelandic stories. There are deep elements in Homer that have nothing to do with Greece or the Aegean.

The second thing is that the situation in The Iliad is very clearly not one in which two deeply civilized nations are opposed to each other. The civilized nation in The Iliad is Troy. It's a well-set-up, organized city, where women lead very dignified lives.

Outside Troy is this camp of wild barbarians-the Greeks. The Greeks are Homer's barbarians. The atmosphere in the Greek camp is like gang life in the more difficult parts of modern industrialized cities. All ideas of rule and law and love count for nothing. The only thing that makes sense is revenge and self-assertion.

And that picture of the Greeks doesn't make sense any later than about 1800 to 1700 B.C. After that, the Greeks had arrived in the Mediterranean and started to create a civil society. Before that, they were essentially tribes from the steppes between the Black Sea and the Caspian-nomadic, male-dominated, violent.

That's the essential drama of Homer: this beautiful city trying to defend itself against these increasingly lawless, violent warriors outside. That's what The Iliad is about.
Bernard Knox, the renowned Homer scholar, says that 3,000 years haven't changed the human condition. We're still lovers and victims of violence, and as long as we are, Homer will be read as the truest interpretation of humankind. Can we love Homer without loving violence?
I think Homer does not love violence in the end. Homer dramatizes violence as one of the aspects of the human condition, but he doesn't celebrate it. It's a grave misunderstanding to think that Homer is about how beautiful the violent warrior is.

The key to that comes at the end of The Iliad. You've had these terrible scenes where Achilles, the great Greek warrior, has killed Hector, the prince of Troy, and tied him to the back of his chariot and dragged him round the walls of Troy with his whole family looking down from the ramparts. It's not some elegant funeral procession. It's a hectic, brutal moment, and we can only read that with horror in our minds. Michael Longley, the great Irish poet, calls The Iliad "an ocean of sadness." I think that's exactly what it is.
You say these are essentially authorless works. Are there any manuscripts? Tell us about Venetus A.
Homer's works were orally transmitted and orally performed poems, ever changing in the mouths of the different people who learned them and told them again. The Iliad survived for hundreds, if not thousands, of years as a spoken poem and was eventually written down, around 700 to 750 B.C. But no manuscripts survive from that time.

The earliest that survive were found rolled up under the heads of mummified Greek Egyptians in the Egyptian deserts from about 150 to 200 B.C. But they're just fragments, not the whole Iliad. The oldest complete Iliad is a manuscript found in the doge's library in Venice. A French scholar discovered it at the end of the 18th century, which is why it's called the Venetus A. It had come to Venice from Constantinople-Byzantium, where it had probably been made in about A.D. 900, thousands and thousands of years after the poems had first been composed.

More importantly, it contained all kinds of marginal notes, the so-called scholia, which had been made by the great editors of The Iliad in the Greek city of Alexandria sometime between the first century B.C. and the first century A.D. So what you have in Venetus A is not only the text of The Iliad but also what these ancient commentators thought about it.

One of the exciting things that emerge from that is that in the early days it seems there was no such thing as a single Iliad, no one fixed text, but this wild and variable tradition of the stories, with many different versions in different parts of the Mediterranean, endlessly interacting with itself, like a braided stream in the mountains. That's a very exciting idea for me-that texts are not fixed, unitary objects but like the mental bloodstream of a whole people.
You say Homer tells us who we are. There's not much in it for women, though, is there? Does your wife like Homer?
[Laughs] She can't stand him! And for me, it wasn't easy to spend a few years writing a book about Homer, because it basically shuts you out from the female world. There are wonderful women in Homer, like Odysseus's queen, Penelope. The word Homer uses for her means her prime quality is her wise governance-that she knows how to organize things and maintain the state for 20 years while Odysseus is away. He deeply admires women like that.

On the other hand, in the Greek camp, after chariot races, prizes are given. You either get a slave girl or a couple of oxen. So there's no doubt that the Homeric world is not one in which, on the whole, women are hugely empowered.
You write that "a man is his ancestry." As well as being the author Adam Nicolson, you're also the 5th Baron Carnock. To what extent has your noble ancestry shaped your love for Homer?
I don't love Homer because it's about warriors striding the world in a manly, baronial way. I love Homer because Homer dramatizes the shared human condition of struggle and competitiveness and pain. The incredible honesty and courage with which Homer looks at those aspects of life is what makes it exciting. And the only reason I have that title, which I never use by the way, is because my great grandfather was a civil servant and ended up head of a British government department. In those days they gave people peerages for that kind of thing. I'm not from some ancient, knightly world. I'm from a professional world. It's just a weird chance of history.
[Laughs] I'm glad we've put that one to rest. Tell us about the poets of the Scottish Hebrides and how they may hold the key to the composition of Homer's work.
We have a modern assumption that something only has meaning if it's written down. But the literate world is minimal compared to the depths of human history. We're essentially oral. And in a funny way the modern, electronic communicative world is making orality take on a new significance.

In traditional societies, the person who can learn and perform the stories has been treasured. That's true not only in the European world but across Africa and the Americas too. We've only got a few fragments of that left. And one of those fragmentary remains is in Gaelic Scotland, where certain families still preserve storytelling traditions that draw on ancient roots. Some of these bards have dazzling capacities of memory. They can remember stories that last hours and hours, nearly word-perfect. Some of them have been recorded over a period of 20 years, and they've told the same story in almost the same words.

Most of us can't remember a single phone number nowadays, because they're all in the phone memory. Yet buried deep in us is this ability to remember important things. And one of the things about poetry and the rhythmic, heightened language of poetry is that it makes it easy to remember. You can sing a story more easily than you can tell it.
You traveled to many of the sites associated with Homer for your research. Tell us about some of the high five moments.
In my mind this book is called Homer By Easy Jet [laughs]. It's fantastic the way you can fly off to different spots, very cheaply, like the Trojan plain, in the northwest corner of Turkey, where the Dardanelles comes out of the Sea of Marmara.

It's still astonishingly like Homer describes it. There's this incredible Bronze Age tumulus where Achilles is buried, with a white, limestone cap, which makes it visible from the sea. It was visited by all sorts of people: Xerxes, Alexander the Great, and the Romans, like Mark Antony. They all went there to pay homage to Achilles. But today almost nobody visits it-so it's as if you're discovering it for yourself.
How did writing this book change your life?
In a way it made me grow up. Homer's look at the truly bad aspects of life, in The Iliad especially, is a deeply sobering thing. And he doesn't hold out any kind of consolation. There's no heaven waiting for the warriors when they're killed, most of them in the most horrible way. They all go down to Hades.

But the point Homer wants to make is that in this world of difficulty and suffering, the really beautiful thing is love-that despite the realities of violence, love is a possibility.
Simon Worrall curates Book Talk. Follow him on Twitter or at simonworrallauthor.com.

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Author Says a Whole Culture-Not a Single 'Homer'-Wrote 'Iliad,' 'Odyssey'

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The Iliad and The Odyssey are two of the key works of Western civilization. But almost nothing is known about their author and the date and manner of their creation.

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Just like Cinderella....or not

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Parents of a "blended family" face plenty of challenges, but there are things you can do to make communication easier and help children adjust to their new reality.

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THE....Collections, Unit 6, What Tales Tell

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THE....Collections, Unit 6, What Tales Tell

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Types of Candle Wax & Wax Ingredients | NCA

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Types of Candle Wax & Wax Ingredients | NCA

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Over the centuries, candle waxes have been developed from a variety of fats, oils and waxy-like substances derived from animals, insects, plants and rocks.

Scientists consider "wax" to be a generic term for classifying materials that have the following characteristics:

Solid at room temperature; liquid at higher temperatures

Primarily hydrocarbon in structure

Water repellent; insoluble in water

Smooth texture; buffable under slight pressure

Low toxicity; low reactivity

Low odor

Waxes are widely used throughout the world for a range of applications, including packaging, coatings, cosmetics, foods, adhesives, inks, castings, crayons, chewing gum, polishes and - of course - candles.

Development of Candle Waxes

Early civilizations depended largely on the raw materials at hand to create candle wax. Ancient Egyptians and the Early Romans relied largely on tallow rendered from animals.

"A tallow candle, to be good, must be half Sheep's Tallow and half Cow's; that of hoggs mekes 'em gutter, give an ill smell, and a thick black smoak"
- Anonymous, 18th Century

In China, beeswax was used for candles as early as the Tang Dynasty (618-907 A.D.), and candle wax derived from the Coccos pella insect had been developed by the 12th century. Extracts from tree nuts were used to make candle wax in early Japan, while in India they boiled the fruit of the cinnamon tree for candle wax.

Beeswax was introduced to Europe in the Middle Ages, but was rarely used in homes because of its great expense.

Over the centuries, the development of new waxes for candles has hinged on the availability of the raw material, the ease and economy of processing the raw material into a wax suitable for candle use, and the desirability of the wax in comparison to other available candle waxes.

Tallow was the typical everyday candle wax used in Europe and the Americas until the 18th century, when the whaling industry stimulated the development of spermaceti wax, a clean-burning, low-odor wax derived from the head oil of the sperm whale.

Spermaceti remained the primary candle wax until the mid-1800s, when stearin wax and then paraffin wax were developed. Stearin wax, based on extracting stearic acid from animal fatty acids, was widely used in Europe. Paraffin wax, developed after chemists found a way to remove the naturally-occurring waxy substance from petroleum during refining, became the standard candle wax in the Western Hemisphere.

During the latter half of the 20th century, several synthetic and chemically synthesized waxes, including gels, were developed largely for specialty candle uses. Two vegetable-based candle waxes - soy wax and palm wax - were developed for commercial use in the candle market during the late 1990s by hydrogenating soybean and palm oils, respectively.

Paraffin is by far the most frequently used candle wax on a worldwide basis today. Beeswax is also used around the globe, although in significantly smaller quantities. Stearin candle wax is largely limited to European use. Soy wax, palm wax, gels, synthetic waxes, and synthesized waxes are also now used in candles, as are a variety of wax blends and customized wax formulations.

Candle Wax Facts

Prior to the 19th century, a "wax" candle typically referred to a beeswax candle.

All waxes are primarily hydrocarbons, whether the wax is of animal, vegetable, or petroleum origin. The chemical composition of all waxes used for candle-making is similar, and all candle waxes burn in the same manner.

An estimated 1 billion pounds of wax are used in the candles sold each year in the United States.

Candles account for the second largest use of waxes in North America, after packaging and package coatings.

Paraffin is the most commonly used candle wax today. Beeswax, soy wax, palm wax, gels, and synthesized waxes are also used in candle-making for the U.S. market, as are blends of waxes.

Waxes burn with a yellow flame due to the presence of carbon.

No specific type of wax or wax blend is considered "best" for candlemaking. All candle waxes - when provided in high-quality format - have been shown to burn cleanly, safely and in the same manner.

No candle wax has ever been shown to be toxic or harmful to human health.

There is no such thing as a soot-free wax. All organic compounds when burned will emit some carbon (soot) due to incomplete combustion. Sooting is primarily a factor of wick length and flame disturbance.

Reputable candle manufacturers use only high-quality waxes in their formulations.

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Types of Candle Wax & Wax Ingredients | NCA

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Over the centuries, candle waxes have been developed from a variety of fats, oils and waxy-like substances derived from animals, insects, plants and rocks.

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Giant banana spiders are hanging out in a tree near you - tribunedigital-sunsentinel

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Giant banana spiders are hanging out in a tree near you - tribunedigital-sunsentinel

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A giant banana spider weaves its web in a tree along Surf Road near Hollywood... (Susannah Bryan / Sun Sentinel )

They are creepily large and spinning their webs in a park near you.

It is, after all, banana spider season.

During late summer, the ladies of this native spider grow bodies up to 2 inches long, not counting their legs, and weave webs as wide as 15 feet. Both genders love wooded areas with dense canopies, all the better to spin their webs.

They're hanging out in the tree branches along Surf Road in Hollywood and near the boardwalk at Atlantic Dunes Park in Delray Beach.

They're greeting kayakers who venture through mangrove trails throughout South Florida.

They're waiting, silently, for you to run across their path.

Fort Lauderdale resident Janine Babich spotted legions of banana spiders recently during a walk near Hollywood beach.

"My husband and I drive down to Hollywood sometimes to check out the cats," she said. "We went down on Sunday and we were treated to a new spectacle. It was just thick with them. We were amazed at the spectacle and thought it was neat."

Banana spiders, also known as the golden silk orb weaver, are more easily seen at this time of year because the females have gotten big enough for us to notice them,says Adrian Hunsberger, an entomologist and Urban Horticulture Agent for the University of Florida/IFAS Miami-Dade County Extension in Homestead.

"What's really cool about this spider, the silk has a golden color to it," Hunsberger said. "That's why it's called the golden orb weaver."

Don't let their size fool you. Banana spiders are harmless.

Their bite might hurt, but it won't kill you, say local biologists.

"I've heard it described as between a bee sting and a mosquito bite on pain level," said Callie Sharkey, naturalist at the Daggerwing Nature Center in Boca Raton.

The males are smaller and more inconspicuous, with bodies measuring no more than half an inch.

"People may think it's the baby," Hunsberger said. "But a lot of times, it's the guy hanging out."

The banana spider, in spite of its size, striking coloring and elaborate web, is a "relaxed" critter, Sharkey said.

"They're not aggressive spiders," she said. "Brown recluses and even crab spiders are going to be aggressive and bite you. Banana spiders are not prone to biting. You can go right through their webs, and they'll just look at you and make a new one that night."

Banana spiders will even share webs, she said, an unusual trait among spiders and another indication that they are not aggressive.

"The people who get bitten are usually trying to swat the animal away, and the spider is trying to protect itself," Hunsberger said. "The best thing to do is not panic."

Sharkey counts the banana spider as being among the coolest of arachnids.

"I love them," she said. "I'm not a spider-hugger, but they're pretty mellow, pretty cool spiders."

They're beneficial too, feasting as they do on mosquitoes and other small insects.

The fact that they're bigger means they can eat more mosquitoes and other insects that get trapped in their giant web, said Joanne Howes, a naturalist for the Anne Kolb Nature Center in Hollywood.

Looking to avoid them anyway?

Steer clear of wooded areas, especially those with dense canopies. Avoid hiking trails, and don't go out first thing in the morning. You may run into a parade of spiders touching up their webs.

Sam Howatt, a wildlife enthusiast from Fort Lauderdale, ran into hordes of them while kayaking on Thursday at Hugh Taylor Birch State Park.

"They're huge, and there's a lot of them," she said. "Every time I walk somewhere, I run through one of their webs and the babies get all over my face."

Howatt marveled over the spiders' ability to spin their webs between treetops along the park's roadways.

She was not at all comforted to hear that they are a relatively shy and docile spider. Nonetheless, she wouldn't want to see them destroyed.

"It's just because they look intimidating," she said. "You don't want to get rid of them."
sbryan@tribune.com or 954-356-4554

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Giant banana spiders are hanging out in a tree near you

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A giant banana spider weaves its web in a tree along Surf Road near Hollywood... (Susannah Bryan / Sun Sentinel ) They are creepily large and spinning their webs in a park near you. It is, after all, banana spider season.

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Spiders found in Florida include 39 unique species from 300 confirmed sightings based on contributions made by Spider ID members. It is important to remember that spiders seen in Florida are not bound by the territorial lines decided on by humans, therefore their distribution is subject to change.

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Yeh-Shen and Cinderella

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Article 10884

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Listenwise: Greek Influence in Modern Culture

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Listenwise - Lesson Plan: Greek Influence in Modern Culture

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What is beauty?  Find out in this easy-to-read poem.

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What is beauty?  Find out in this easy-to-read poem.

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Actress Audrey Hepburn authored a pithy list of beauty tips.

FALSE

This is wonderful, especially coming from Audrey Hepburn, who was a carrier for the Belgian Underground Anti-Nazi Movement in World War II when she was only a teenager. She was a very brave and good woman, whose advice is sterling.

For attractive lips, speak words of kindness.

For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.

For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.

For beautiful hair, let a child run his or her fingers through it once a day.

For poise, walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone.

People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed and redeemed; never throw out anyone.

Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of each of your arms. As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.

The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure she carries, or the way she combs her hair. The beauty of a woman must be seen from in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides.

The beauty of a woman is not in a facial mode, but the true beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul. It is the caring that she lovingly gives and the passion that she shows.

The beauty of a woman grows with the passing years.

Proving that even the famous go in for glurge, although Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993) did not write the quoted list of beauty tips, she claimed it as one of her favorites and quoted it in public a number of times. Its true author is humorist Sam Levenson (he who said "Insanity is hereditary: You can get it from your children").

However this confusion started over who wrote the piece, it's clear Hepburn never had a hand in any of it beyond repeating a favorite essay in public, always carefully crediting its author. That some have now come to think of this as

"her" list is a regrettable misattribution.

Biographies of Audrey Hepburn maintain that as a 13-year-old she did indeed serve as a courier and occasional secret messenger for the Resistance (like many other children in Holland), carrying messages and illegal leaflets stuffed into her socks and shoes.

In addition to her fabled acting career (which included the 1953 Best Actress Oscar for Roman Holiday), Hepburn was a long-time activist for charitable causes and in 1988 was named the official spokesperson for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

When asked in January 1992 if she had any personal beauty secrets besides Levenson's philosophical tips, she said, "If I had them, I'd make a fortune. But I know what helps - health, lots of sleep, lots of fresh air, and a lot of help from Estee Lauder."

Barbara "golitely on the calories too" Mikkelson

24 May 2012

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Actress Audrey Hepburn authored a pithy list of beauty tips. FALSE This is wonderful, especially coming from Audrey Hepburn, who was a carrier for the Belgian Underground Anti-Nazi Movement in World War II when she was only a teenager. She was a very brave and good woman, whose advice is sterling.

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Learn allusions.

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Comparing and Contrasting Myths, legends, etc.

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Comparing and Contrasting Myths, legends, etc.

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What are myths, legends and folktales?

Storytelling is common to every culture. Most people enjoy listening to stories. Storytellers have catered for the need for a 'good story' since the beginning of civilization.

Most people have their own favourite story from childhood and, often, these tales are both fascinating and frightening. These stories include legends, myths and folktales.

What are legends?

A legend is a semi-true story, which has been passed on from person-to-person and has important meaning or symbolism for the culture in which it originates. A legend usually includes an element of truth, or is based on historic facts, but with 'mythical qualities'. Legends usually involve heroic characters or fantastic places and often encompass the spiritual beliefs of the culture in which they originate.

What are myths?

A myth is a story based on tradition or legend, which has a deep symbolic meaning. A myth 'conveys a truth' to those who tell it and hear it, rather than necessarily recording a true event. Although some myths can be accounts of actual events, they have become transformed by symbolic meaning or shifted in time or place. Myths are often used to explain universal and local beginnings and involve supernatural beings. The great power of the meaning of these stories, to the culture in which they developed, is a major reason why they survive as long as they do - sometimes for thousands of years.

What are folktales?

A folktale is a popular story that was passed on in spoken form, from one generation to the next. Usually the author is unknown and there are often many versions of the tale. Folktales comprise fables, fairy tales, old legends and even 'urban legends'. Again, some tales may have been based on a partial truth that has been lost or hidden over time. It is difficult to categorize folktales precisely because they fit into many categories.

What is the difference between legends, myths and folktales?

Myths, legends and folktales are hard to classify and often overlap. Imagine a line (or continuum) as illustrated below, with an historical account based on facts at one end and myths or cultural folktales at the other; as you progress towards the mythical/folktale end of the line, what an event symbolises to people, or what they feel about it, becomes of greater historical significance than the facts, which become less important. By the time you reach the far end of the spectrum, the story has taken on a life of its own and the facts of the original event, if there ever were any, have become almost irrelevant. It is the message that is important.

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Storytelling is common to every culture. Most people enjoy listening to stories. Storytellers have catered for the need for a 'good story' since the beginning of civilization. Most people have their own favourite story from childhood and, often, these tales are both fascinating and frightening. These stories include legends, myths and folktales.

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Definition of Myth

Myth is a legendary or a traditional story that usually concerns an event or a hero, with or without using factual or real explanations. These particularly concern demigods or deities, and describes some rites, practices, and natural phenomenon. Typically, a myth involves historical events and supernatural beings. There are many types of myths, such as classic myths, religious myths, and modern myths.

Characteristics of Myth

Myth usually features ruling gods, goddesses, deities, and heroes having god-like-qualities, but status lower than gods. Often, the daughter or son of a god (such as Percy Jackson) is fully mortal, and these characters have supernatural abilities and powers that raise them above average human beings.

Myths are mostly very old, and happen to have ruled the world when science, philosophy, and technology were not very precise, as they are today. Therefore, people were unaware of certain questions, like why the sky is blue, or why night is dark, or what are the causes of earthquakes. Thus, it was myths that explained natural phenomena, and described rituals and ceremonies to the people.

Examples of Myth in Literature

Example #1: Romeo and Juliet (By William Shakespeare)

Roman and Greek myths, though originally not available in English, have deeply influenced English works. During the times of the ancient Greeks, they had a belief that some invisible gods, such as Zeus, had created this world. We read in such Greek stories that passions for humans controlled the gods, and hence gods fought for them. Likewise, Romans had beliefs in such deities.

Due to mythological influences, many literary authors refer to the Greek and Roman myths in order to add meanings to their works. For instance, Shakespeare, in his play Romeo and Juliet, uses Greek mythology when Juliet cries out saying that,

" Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds Towards Phoebus' lodging."

In Greek mythology, Phoebus was god of the sun, and here Juliet urges that god to bring him home quickly, so that night could come, and she may meet her lover Romeo.

Example #2: No Second Troy (By William Butler Yeats)

In another Greek myth, Greeks devastated the city of Troy in an outburst of the Trojan War, when Helen - the wife of king Menelaus - ran away with the prince of Troy. Apparently, Helen was a very beautiful woman from Greece, and was ultimately held responsible for the devastation of Troy.

Yeats also tried to use this Greek mythology in his poem, No Second Troy, by creating a similarity between Helen and Maud Gonne. He also brought a similarity between the Trojan War and revolutionary and anti-British activities of the Irish. Just like Helen, Yeats blamed and held Maud responsible for creating hatred in the hearts of Irishmen, and consequently they caused destruction and bloodshed.

Example #3: Paradise Lost (By John Milton)

Biblical stories and myths have also played an important role in shaping English literary works. John Milton, in his poem Paradise Lost, plays out the Genesis story about the Fall of Man, and subsequent eviction, from the Garden of Eden.

Both John Steinbeck and William Golding, in their respective novels, East of Eden, and Lord of the Flies, played on the same idea in which they have presented Eve as a seducer responsible for bringing sin into this world. We can clearly see this allusion in medieval literature. We also have seen that many feminist literary critics of the twentieth century have made use of this myth in their research.

Example #4: The Waste Land (By T. S. Eliot)

T. S. Eliot uses two underlying myths to develop the structure of his long poem The Waste Land. These myths are of the Grail Quest and the Fisher King, both of which originate from Gaelic traditions, and come to the Christian civilization. Though Eliot has not taken these myths from the Bible, both were significant for Europeans, as they incorporated them into European mythology, and these stories focused on the account of the death and resurrection of Christ.

Function of Myth

Myths exist in every society, as they are basic elements of human culture. The main function of myths is to teach moral lessons and explain historical events. Authors of great literary works have often taken their stories and themes from myths. Myths and their mythical symbols lead to creativity in literary works. We can understand a culture more deeply, and in a much better way, by knowing and appreciating its stories, dreams, and myths. Myths came before religions, and all religious stories are, in fact, retellings of global mythical themes. Besides literature, myths also play a great role in science, psychology, and philosophy.

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Myth is a legendary or a traditional story that usually concerns an event or a hero, with or without using factual or real explanations. These particularly concern demigods or deities, and describes some rites, practices, and natural phenomenon. Typically, a myth involves historical events and supernatural beings.

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The Iliad - Homer - Ancient Greece - Classical Literature

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A basic level guide to some of the best known and loved works of prose, poetry and drama from ancient Greece - The Iliad by Homer

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Poetry Out Loud encourages the nation's youth to learn about great poetry through memorization and recitation.

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"We all have our own life to pursue, our own kind of dream to be weaving, and we all have the power to make wishes come true, as long as we keep belie..." - Louisa May Alcott

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What are the different types of Weaving?

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Weaving is the art of interlacing yarn (threads) to make a piece of fabric called a web. The lengthwise yarn are known as warp threads and the crosswise or filler yarn, weft threads.

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Weaving is acknowledged as one of the oldest surviving crafts in the world. The tradition of weaving traces back to Neolithic times - approximately 12,000 years ago. Even before the actual process of weaving was discovered, the basic principle of weaving was applied to interlace branches and twigs to create fences, shelters and baskets for protection.

is one of the primary methods of textile production and it involves interlinking a set of vertical threads with a set of horizontal threads. The set of vertical threads are known as wrap and the set of horizontal threads are known as weft.

Weaving can be done by hand or by using machines. Machines used for weaving are called looms.
Loom originated from crude wooden frame and gradually transformed into the modern sophisticated electronic weaving machine. Nowadays weaving has become a mechanized process, though hand weaving is still in practice.

20,000 - 30,000 years ago early man developed the first string by twisting together plant fibers. Preparing thin bundles of plant material and stretching them out while twisting them together produced a fine string or thread.

The ability to produce string and thread was the starting place for the development of weaving, spinning, and sewing.

Stone Age Man's early experiments with string and thread lead to the first woven textiles. Threads and strings of different sizes were knotted and laced together to make many useful things.

Finger weaving, lacing and knotting together of threads by hand, is still used today by many weavers.

During the Neolithic Era mankind developed great skill in weaving cloth. Every household produced cloth for their own needs.

Weaving cloth remained an activity associated with the family unit for thousands of years.

By the 11th century many of the weaving patterns used today had been invented. Skilled weavers developed highly specialized cloth.

During this time the task of weaving cloth began slowly to move away from the family unit into specialized work places.

Cloth weaving became a mechanized industry with the development of steam and water powered looms during the Industrial Revolution (1760 - 1815). The invention of the fly shuttle removed the need to have a weaver place the weft thread into the warp by hand.

John Kay of Bury, England, first discovered flying shuffle in 1733 which speeded the process of weaving and the production was almost doubled. A fly shuttle is a long, narrow canoe-shaped instrument, usually made of wood, which holds the bobbin.

The Jacquard Machine was developped in the early 1800s. This revolutionary machine used a punch card mechanism to operate the loom and is credited as the basis of modern computer science. A textile woven on a loom with a Jacquard Machine can have very complicated patterns.

The technological innovations in cloth production made during the Industrial Revolution dramatically changed the role of the weaver. Large volumes of inexpensive cloth were now readily available. Weaving had been changed to a manufacturing industry. Textile workers were among the founders of the modern labour movements.

Today most of our textile needs are supplied by commercially woven cloth. A large and complex cloth making industry uses automated machines to produce our textiles.

However, there are artisans making cloth on hand looms, in home studios or small weaving businesses, who keep alive the skills and traditions of the early weavers.

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Weaving is acknowledged as one of the oldest surviving crafts in the world. The tradition of weaving traces back to Neolithic times - approximately 12,000 years ago. Even before the actual process of weaving was discovered, the basic principle of ... Continue reading →

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Spiders

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Since graduating university, Paul has worked as a bookseller, librarian, and educator. Born in the UK, he now lives in Florida.

Deciding which type of spider is the biggest in Florida is not as straightforward as it sounds.

That's because there are different ways of judging how big a spider is.

You can do it according to:

The size of its body.

The size of its leg span.

The weight of the spider.

With the above in mind, I have listed below the six spiders that are generally considered to be Florida's largest.

The 6 Biggest Spiders in Florida

1. Golden Silk Orb-Weaver (Banana Spider)

2. Wolf Spider

3. Black and Yellow Argiope Spider

4. Widow Spider

5. "Daddy Long Legs" (Harvestmen and Cellar Spiders)

6. Huntsman Spiders

Note: If you are bitten by any spider that you believe to be venomous, or experience an allergic reaction to any spider bite, seek medical attention immediately.

#1 Golden Silk Orb-Weaver (Banana Spider)

Sometimes called a " banana spider" by local Floridians, the Golden orb-weaver (Nephila clavipes) is most famous for the impressive webs that it builds.

These large spiders build their webs in wooded areas, their webs are three-dimensional, orb-shaped and built using bright yellow silk.

Although the male of the species is small (1/4 inch), the female can be just under 3 inches across (including leg span). Brightly colored, with stripy legs, these spiders are difficult to miss.

They look intimidating, but their venom is generally far too weak to be dangerous if you are a healthy adult, unless you are unlucky enough to have an allergic reaction.

Golden Silk Orb-Weaver at a Glance

Size: Females are up to 2.7 inches across.

Appearance: Brightly colored, with stripy legs.

Habitat: Areas of dense vegetation, urban areas.

Bite Danger: Bites will cause a mark but aren't dangerous.

Banana Spider Confusion?

The relatively harmless North American Orb-weaver, which is often called a "banana spider", should not be confused with the Brazilian "banana spider", which is far more aggressive and dangerous.

#2 Wolf Spider

These large, hairy spiders are common in Florida and cause a great deal of worry for those with arachnophobia. They have heavy-looking bodies and long thick legs. You will see them on walls both inside and outside buildings, as well as out in the yard.

Wolf Spiders don't build webs, they hunt by running, which they do extremely fast. They can even outrun cockroaches, which are one of their main food sources.

Florida Wolf Spiders can grow up to two inches in size, although their heavy bodies and thick legs can make them appear bigger.

These spiders are quick to bite if they feel threatened. The bite can be painful and cause redness and swelling. Sometimes the fangs will also cause one or two punctures in the skin.

They are sometimes mistaken for the much more dangerous brown recluse.

Wolf Spider at a Glance

Size: Up to 2 inches, but their hair and limbs can make them appear larger.

Appearance: Brown in color. Very large and hairy, robust-looking bodies and long thick legs. Sometimes mistaken for the more dangerous brown recluse.

Habitat: On inside or outside walls, in yard areas.

Bite Danger: These spiders will bite if they feel threatened.Bites can be painful and cause redness and swelling.

Interesting Facts About Wolf Spiders

Most spiders have two rows of eyes, but wolf spiders have three.

The spiders are also unusual in that they carry their young upon their back until they are ready to hunt for themselves. The female can carry over 100 eggs at a time.

Wolf spiders are able to see at night and are more active during the dark hours.

The biggest enemy of the wolf spider is the hunting wasp.

#3 Black and Yellow Argiope Spider

Black and Yellow Argiope ( Argiope aurantia) spiders can be up to an inch in size and are easily identified by their characteristic silver carapace and yellow-and-black markings.

Their webs are large and normally seen along the outskirts of woodlands. Argiope spiders typically hang head down in the center of their webs.

These spiders have poor sight, but are sensitive to vibrations and wind currents. The male of the species tries to impress potential female mates by plucking and vibrating her web.

Black and Yellow Argiope Spider at a Glance

Size: Up to an inch.

Appearance: Black and yellow with stripey legs.

Habitat: Woodlands.

Bite Danger: These spiders are essentially harmless.

Are Black and Yellow Argiopes Venomous?

Argiope venom is only mildly toxic, the equivalent to a bee sting, causing redness and swelling.

Argiopes are not aggressive and will only bite if they feel threatened in some way.

#4 Widow Spiders

There are four species of widow spider who call Florida their home:

The Southern Black Widow

The Northern Black Widow

The Brown Widow

The Red Widow.

Unlike the other spiders in the list, the widow packs some serious venom in its bite and can hurt you, so you should certainly seek medical attention as soon as possible if bitten.

The Southern Black Widow and the Brown Widow are the ones that you are most likely to encounter as they live around buildings. The Northern Black Widow is only found in the Panhandle area of the state and makes its web on low tree branches. The Red Widow prefers scrub ground for its habitat.

Only the female widow is dangerous. She is also bigger than the male and can be up to 1.5 inches across at full leg span.

Widows at a Glance

Size: Females are up to 1.5 inches across.

Appearance: Glossy black body, usually with red hourglass shape on underside.

Habitat: Varies according to species.

Bite Danger: Bites are a serious matter and you should seek medical attention immediately.

What If I'm Bitten by a Widow Spider?

Widow bites are usually easy to identify, as severe symptoms will generally begin within 30 to 60 minutes of being bitten.

Symptoms of a Widow Bite:

Mild to intense pain.

Swelling and redness at the bite site.

Fang marks (one or two tiny red spots).

Symptoms of a SEVERE Widow Bite:

Muscle cramps and spasms that begin at or near the bite site and then radiate outwards and increase in severity for 6 to 12 hours.

Fever and chills.

Sweating.

Nausea and vomiting.

Headache.

Restlessness or stupor.

Severe stomach, back, or chest pain.

Extremely high blood pressure.

What to Do If You're Bitten by a Widow Spider:

Call 911 or your local emergency number immediately.

Do not apply a tourniquet.

Stay calm to minimize the flow of venom in your blood.

Try to identify the spider or safely catch it to confirm its type.

Apply a cool, wet cloth to the bite site, or cover the site completely with a cloth and an ice bag.

Why are They Called Widows?

The widow spider gets its name because the female of the species can sometimes eat the male after mating.

Scientists speculate that this so that she gets a good source of protein to help her developing young.

The practice may well also explain why the female widow lives for around three years, whereas the male lives for just one or two months.

#5 "Daddy Long Legs" (Harvestmen and Cellar Spiders)

The term "Daddy Long Legs" is used by people to refer to two different species of arachnid with small bodies and very long legs (it is also sometimes used to refer to crane flies too, but that's another story!)

The two species are harvestmen (Opiliones) and cellar spiders (Pholcidae). Although these are separate species, many people struggle to tell them apart.

Harvestmen

Harvestmen are actually not spiders at all, although they are arachnids. They are more closely related to mites and scorpions than they are to spiders. They have tiny bodies but huge leg spans.

Cellar Spiders

Cellar spiders also have tiny bodies and big leg spans, which is why they get confused with harvestmen. Unlike harvestmen, however, this species are actually spiders. Their legs can be up to 2 inches long.

Both harvestmen and cellar spiders are completely harmless.

An Urban Legend about Daddy Long Legs

The urban legend says that Daddy Long Legs are the most venomous animals on the planet, but they are unable to bite humans because their fangs are too small and short. The arachnids are therefore essentially harmless.

The urban legend is false for a number of reasons. One being that there is no known species of Daddy Long Legs with venom glands. Another being that their chelicerae are not actually fangs but grasping claws that are usually tiny and not powerful enough to pierce human skin.

#6 Huntsman Spiders

These spiders are actually an invasive species from Asia, rather than indigenous to Florida. They are sometimes called the giant crab spider

They are generally found down towards the southern end of the state, where the climate suits them best.

The type found in Florida, Heteropoda venatoria, has a body length of around an inch and a leg span that can stretch to five inches. As with many spiders, the females are larger than males.

This spider does not build webs, but instead relies on sheer speed and the strength of its jaws to hunt prey. They can walk on walls and ceilings.

Their bite is venomous, but so weak it's virtually harmless to humans, causing only localized pain.

Huntsman Spiders at a Glance

Size: Body length of about an inch and a leg span of up to five inches.

Appearance: Very large and brown. Sometimes mistaken for an oversized brown recluse.

Habitat: Crevices of tree bark, but frequently wonder into homes, sheds, barns, and vehicles.

Bite Danger: Generally harmless, but bites will cause some localized pain.

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Since graduating university, Paul has worked as a bookseller, librarian, and educator. Born in the UK, he now lives in Florida. Deciding which type of spider is the biggest in Florida is not as straightforward as it sounds. That's because there are different ways of judging how big a spider is.

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Origins of Arachne the Spinner

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What is the story about?

This beautiful, fascinating and layered story is about many things. At its heart it is about the pride humans have in their own capabilities, and how this can undermine their relationship with the Gods.

The story first appears in written form in the work of the Roman poets, Ovid and Virgil, both writing at the start of the Roman Empire.

The myth is never represented on Greek vases or in Greek statues. Nevertheless, it has all the hallmarks of a Greek myth, and, like many other stories which first appear in Latin literature, almost certainly dates back to Greek times.

The apparent purpose of the story is to tell us why spiders came to be. As such, it fits into other myths explaining natural phenomena, such as the story of Demeter and Persephone, which explains the seasons. Many cultures have similar myths. For example, there is a Hebrew account of why snakes slither on the ground.

The Greek and Latin word for spiders is "arachna", and the modern scientific classification for the family of animals to which spiders belong is "arachnida". In the myth the girl Arachne is the original spider.

What is its geographical and historical background?

This map of the Mediterranean world was taken from the TimeMaps Free Atlas of World History. Arachne lived in the country of Lydia, shown on the map.

Interestingly, Lydia was not part of Greece; it was not even a Greek-speaking country. It was in modern day Turkey (ancient Asia Minor), and its people were related to the Hittites. At one stage the Hittites ruled a powerful empire in the Middle East, but by Greek times this had long since passed into history. Nevertheless, modern scholars sometimes speak of Lydia as a "Neo-Hittite" kingdom.

In fact, many people of non-Greek origin appear in Greek myths. This reminds us that, although we speak of "Ancient Greek" civilization, it is more accurate to think of an ancient Mediterranean-wide civilization in which many different peoples shared: Greeks, Lydians, Phoenicians, Etruscans, Carthaginians, Romans, to name but a few.

The Greeks themselves were keenly aware of their debt to non-Greek peoples, an awareness which they expressed in their myths. For example, Europa - who was abducted from a beach by the god Zeus pretending to be a bull - was the daughter of Agenor, king of Tyre, the great Phoenician trading city on the coast of Syria. Agenor was himself the son of the king of Egypt.

Indeed many elements of civilisation including the alphabet, shipbuilding, and knowledge of astronomy, engineering and artistic techniques were brought to Greece from the ancient civilizations of Egypt and Mesopotamia, via the Phoenicians and other peoples of the Mediterranean. Lydia was particuarly known for weaving.

Where did spinning and weaving come from?

In this picture, - known as "The Spinners" or "The Fable of Arachne". the foreground shows the contest between Athena and Arachne. The tapestry at the back depicts the moment when Athena punishes Arachne.

But how did spinning and weaving come to Lydia?

Lydia, Arachne's native land, was a powerful kingdom in western Asia Minor. Not only powerful, it was very wealthy. It had a large metal mining industry and many important trade routes running through its territory. Given these two features, it is not surprising that Lydia was the first kingdom in history to mint metal coins. The last king of Lydia, Croesus, was fabled for his wealth, and his capital, Sardis, was known for its beauty.

Weaving and spinning were one of the many technologies which came to Lydia from the Ancient East, invented thousands of years before Greek civilization flourished.

The Greeks were clearly fascinated by the origins of different technologies, as is shown in their mythology. The titan Prometheus brought mankind fire; Daedelus, the father of human flight, was known as a famous inventor, as well as a sculptor whose statues were so lifelike they seemed to move.

This element too appears in the story of Arachne: like Daedelus' sculptures, Arachne's tapestries were so lifelike that they seemed real. This shows the link between technology and art in the Greek mind. They were both seen as reflections of human 'cleverness'; indeed the word 'art' used to mean skill, or craft, before it narrowed to its modern meaning.

Why are there dangers in being too clever?

In her tapestry Arachne was disrespectful. She showed the gods behaving badly and Athena, was furious.

The Greek gods did behave badly (although the outcome was often positive - a new royal line or city founded). However the Greeks believed that if mere humans choose to laugh at the gods, to demean their behaviour, or not to trust in them, then they invited their anger.

Arachne had great pride in her own ability; she trusted in this to the point where she denied the power of the gods and laughed at them, too late she realised the truth and was ashamed.

Arachne's story also reveals the uncertain attitude which the Greeks had towards technology and skill. They strived for skill, for perfection - but they were also suspicious of it. Why was this so?

The answer is partly that 'cleverness' makes humans a little too much like the gods for comfort, and excites their jealousy. As in the Arachne story, our capabilities can also make us less respectful of the gods and less dependent upon them, trusting more upon our own skills and less on their favour.

It was felt human pride and independence from the gods would not be tolerated; there would come a day of reckoning. We can only go so long on this course before an act of divine judgement brings all our cleverness to nothing and we find ourselves shamed.

Exactly the same theme can be seen in the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel. Even today, warnings of global warming reminded us that although our cleverness has enriched our lives, it may also be destroying our world.

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What is the story about? This beautiful, fascinating and layered story is about many things. At its heart it is about the pride humans have in their own capabilities, and how this can undermine their relationship with the Gods.

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Flight Of Icarus by Iron Maiden Songfacts

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Flight Of Icarus by Iron Maiden song meaning, lyric interpretation, video and chart position

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Arachne was a girl who lived in Greece a long long time ago (in the story; this is a story). She was a very good weaver and spinner. She wove all sorts of beautiful pictures into her cloth, and people came from all around to see her beautiful cloth. But Arachne was too proud; she had what the Greeks called hubris.

Arachne began telling people she was better at spinning and weaving than the goddess Athena was. Athena was also known as a good spinner and weaver.

Athena was mad that Arachne would say that, and she challenged Arachne to a weaving contest. The two of them set up their looms in the same room and they wove from early in the morning until it got too dark to see (remember there were no electric lights then!). Then they compared what they had done.

Athena had woven a beautiful cloth showing the gods and goddesses sitting together on Mt. Olympus and doing good deeds for people. But Arachne thought she was so smart, she wove a cloth making fun of the gods and goddesses, showing them getting drunk and falling down and making a mess of things. Still it was clearly better weaving than Athena had done.

When Athena saw it she was even more angry than she had been before. Even though Arachne's weaving was better, Athena didn't care. She pointed her finger at Arachne and suddenly Arachne's nose and ears shrank up, her hair all fell out, her arms and legs got long and skinny, and her whole body shrank until she was just a little tiny spider (Arachne means spider in Greek). "You want to spin," cried Athena, "go ahead and spin!"

No matter how skilled people are, they are never any match for the gods. People need to remember their place, and not try to be stronger or wiser or smarter than the gods, or bad things will happen to them. And good women, because that is their fate, should always be spinning.

(This version of Arachne's story is from Ovid's Metamorphoses. Read about Ovid's life, and then ask yourself whether Ovid really thought people should know their place.)

To read another myth about hubris, check out the story of Niobe or the story of Tantalus. Hubris also plays a big part in the Iliad.

Bibliography and further reading about Arachne:

D'aulaire's Book of Greek Myths, by Edgar and Ingri D'Aulaire. (Look under Athena).

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Greek women weaving at a warp-weighted loom - Athens, 500s BC Arachne was a girl who lived in Greece a long long time ago (in the story; this is a story). She was a very good weaver and spinner. She wove all sorts of beautiful

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"The destiny of the world is determined less by the battles that are lost and won than by the stories it loves and believes in."

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"The destiny of the world is determined less by the battles that are lost and won than by the stories it loves and believes in."

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~Harold Goddard