WEEK 07 西概筆記(Western Literature)

1. extension of quiz and orientation

a. Homer's Ithaca

  

 

Ithaca as featured in Homer's Odyssey, is a matter for debate. There have been various theories about its location, although Modern Ithaca is generally accepted to be Homer's island by most scholars.
The central characters of the epic such as Odysseus, Achilles, Agamemnon and Hector are generally believed to be fictional characters. Yet there are many claims that some Homeric hero long ago had inhabited a particular contemporary region or village. This, and the extremely detailed geographic descriptions in the epic itself, have invited investigation of the possibility that Homer's heroes might have existed and that the location of the sites described therein might be found.

b. Agamemnon's dead → Iphigenia' s death is an important reason

In Greek mythology, Agamemnon was the brother of Menelaus, the husband of Clytemnestra and the father of Iphigenia, Electra, Orestes and Chrysothemis.Mythical legends make him the king of Mycenae or Argos, thought to be different names for the same area. When Helen, the wife of Menelaus, ran off with Paris of Troy, Agamemnon commanded the united Greek armed forces in the ensuing Trojan War.
Upon Agamemnon's return from Troy, he was murdered (according to the oldest surviving account, Odyssey 11.409–11) by Aegisthus, the lover of his wife. In old versions of the story, the scene of the murder, when it is specified, is usually the house of Aegisthus, who has not taken up residence in Agamemnon's palace, and it involves an ambush and the deaths of Agamemnon's followers as well. In some later versions Clytemnestra herself does the killing, or they do it together, in his own home.

c. Electra

In Greek mythology, Electra was the daughter of King Agamemnon and Queen Clytemnestra, and thus princess of Argos. She and her brother Orestes plotted revenge against their mother Clytemnestra and stepfather Aegisthus for the murder of their father, Agamemnon.
Electra is one of the most popular mythological characters in tragedies. In psychology, the Electra complex is named after her.

2.Other stories

a. Cornell university → Ithaca

Ithaca is home to Cornell University, an Ivy League school of over 20,000 students, most of whom study at its local campus. Ithaca College is located just south of the city in the Town of Ithaca, adding to the area's "college town" atmosphere. Nearby is Tompkins Cortland Community College.

b. Just for a handful of silver he left us

The Lost Leader is an 1845 poem by Robert Browning first published in his book Dramatic Romances and Lyrics. It berates William Wordsworth, for what Browning considered his desertion of the liberal cause, and his lapse from his high idealism. More generally, it is an attack on any liberal leader who has deserted his cause. It is one of Browning' s "best known, if not actually best, poems".
Part of the text :

Just for a handful of silver he left us,

  Just for a ribbon to stick in his coat—

Found the one gift of which fortune bereft us,

  Lost all the others she lets us devote;

They, with the gold to give, doled him out silver,

  So much was theirs who so little allowed:

How all our copper had gone for his service!