Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
How to Approach Close Reading Content Theme refers to the overarching meaning, message, or motif that the author explores or develops throughout the literary work. For example, a book that traces a solitary characters perilous journey through the wilderness may wish to convey the theme of: 1. mankinds futility in the face of natures might; 2. mans resourcefulness in unfamiliar situations; 3. the inexorable power and superiority of primal nature to urbane or cosmopolitan settings; 4. the importance of maintaining ones humanity in the wilderness, etc. While reading, it is important to analyze plot, character, and other elements of the content that might point to the authors underlying message or purpose. What are the major themes that the author tries to convey through the literary work? Instead of taking characters actions and plotted events at face value, critical thinking requires analyzing why characters may feel, act, or think a certain way. What kind of mentality or belief system lies at the core of each character? If the character evolves or changes during the course of the book, what exactly is this change, what causes the change, and what overall effect does the change have on the literary work as a whole? To an extent, close reading requires being willing to empathize with a character or aspects of a character while maintaining a critical objectivity; in addition, a deeper analysis of content should offer some kind of insight into human nature, society, or the world. Language Language refers to the authors use of rhetoric and style. Language can be elevated, meaning that it is extremely literary, poetic, or full of literary devices and techniques. It can be colloquial, meaning that it resembles everyday conversational language, or that it makes use of slang. It can use short, declarative sentences typical of a minimalist style, or use lush, syntactically complex sentences to cultivate a more Romantic air. Some writers may prefer to use very abstract language, while others may choose to use language that is much more straightforward and practical. Language can include tone and mood as well. The diction (word choice) and syntax (sentence structure) of the literary work inevitably contributes to its overall tone. The tone of a work can be humorous, grave, pained, pleading, lighthearted, didactic, ironic, or intimate, to identify just a few examples of commonly found tones in literature. It is particularly important to pay attention to the tone of the beginning and end of the book, as shifts in tone are key in understanding how the author wishes to express his or her theme. Note that tone, and even style, does not necessarily remain consistent throughout a literary work; the author may deliberately change both tone and style to reflect differences in characters voices, for example.
Literary Techniques The term literary techniques refers to the various literary devices the author uses throughout the work, including but not limited to imagery, symbolism, metaphor, simile, alliteration, deus ex machina, apostrophe, etc. Some techniques may be more dominant than others, and it is important to consider why this might be so. Literary techniques can be analyzed superficially in terms of what they may mean within the context of a sentence, paragraph or chapter but it may be more meaningful to consider how they affect the work as a whole, and how they contribute to any identified themes. Structure Structure refers to the way in which the book or literary work is organized. Structure can encompass many different kinds of organization from the works chronology to the point of view it is written in. It may also refer to the form and/or genre of the work. Many older British novels are epistolary that is, they consist of a collection of letters written by one or more characters in the novel. Questions to consider when reading an epistolary novel may include: What effect might this have on the way the characters of the work are developed by the author? Does what the character decides to reveal in the letters change according to whom the letter is addressed? In contemporary literature, authors have often experimented with form, blurring the line between poetry and prose, and even going so far as to toy with the physical organization of the book. For example, one author from the sixties chose to present his reader with a collection of loose chapters that are not bound in book form. The reader is expected to choose his or her own method of reading the chapters. In fact, the author recommends scattering the pages and reading them in a random order. A choose-your-own-adventure book is also a classic example of literature that experiments with the predetermined structure of a novel.
discussion Question Assignments Good discussion questions are designed to encourage critical thinking and push readers to go beyond the surface. This means that questions should not ask what happens as much as why does this happen? Questions should avoid asking What does the character do, and be geared more towards What motivates the character to do what s/he does? Discussion Question Exercise: Legend has it that Hemingway once won a bet by declaring that he could write a short story using fewer than ten words. Here is the alleged result: For sale: baby shoes, never worn. Despite being six words long, the story contains a multitude of narratives. Good discussion questions will take these narratives as a starting point and attempt to initiate a dialogue among readers about their possible meanings. Good discussion questions: 1. This story clearly emulates a classifieds ad in a newspaper or other kind of publication. Why do you think the poster of this ad chose to sell the new baby shoes instead of throwing them away? 2. Why do you think the author chose to word the last half of this ad as never worn instead of new? What is the difference, and why does this matter to the story? 3. What kinds of emotions are expressed by this simple ad? What does this ad tell you about the characters involved, and their relationship(s) with each other? Poor discussion questions: 1. What kind of baby shoes is the author talking about? 2. What happened in this story? 3. What happened to the baby? The good discussion questions stimulate dialogue and are open-ended, while the poor discussion questions tend to limit or restrict discussion, because they aim to arrive at a definite answer of sorts instead of encouraging a debate or a discussion.
Vocabulary - Mythologies
1. eon
Context: Nothing is clearer than the fact that primitive man, whether in New Guinea today or eons ago in the prehistoric wilderness, is not and never has been a creature who peoples his world with bright fancies and lovely visions. eon
2.
embroider
Context: The winds flee before her and the storm clouds; sweet flowers embroider the earth; the waves of the sea laugh; she moves in radiant light.
3.
devastate
He trusted her to carry the awful aegis, his buckler, and his devastating weapon, the thunderbolt.
4.
ambrosia
Within were the god' dwellings, where they lived and slept and feasted on ambrosia and nectar and listened to Apollo's lyre.
5.
nemesis
The same was true of two personified emotions esteemed highest of all feelings in Homer and Hesiod: NEMESIS, usually translated as Righteous Anger, and AIDOS, a difficult word to translate, but in common use among Greeks.
6.
venerate
7.
elysian
On his arrival each one is brought before three judges, Rhadamanthus, Minos, and Aeacus, who pass sentence and send the wicked to everlasting torment and the good to a place of blessedness called the Elysian Fields.
8.
aegis
His breastplate was the aegis, awful to behold; his bird was the eagle, his tree the oak.
9.
centaur
The satyrs are goat-men and the centaurs are half man, half horse.
10. circumvent
Hera kept silence then, but her thoughts were busy as to how she might help the Greeks and circumvent Zeus.
11. demoniac
The demoniac wizards and the hideous old witches who haunted Europe and America, too, up to quite recent years, play no part at all in the stories.
12. bestial
In Mesopotamia, bas-reliefs of bestial shapes unlike any beast ever known, men with birds' heads and lions with bulls' heads and both with eagles' sings, creations of artists who were intent upon producing something never seen except in their own minds, the very consummation of unreality.
13. omniscient
14. trident
He was commonly called "Earth-shaker" and was always shown carrying his trident, a three-pronged spear, with which he would shake and shatter whatever he pleased.
15. compendium
16. zephyr
The four chief Winds were BOREAS, the North Wind, in Latin AQUILO; ZEPHYR, the West Wind, which had a second Latin name, FAVONIUS; NOTUS, the South Wind, also called in Latin AUSTER; and the East Wind, EURUS, the sam in both Greek and Latin.
17. paralyze
That is the miracle of Greek mythology--a humanized world, men freed from theparalyzing fear of an omnipotent Unknown.
18. invulnerable
His mother Thetis when he was born had intended to make him invulnerable by dipping him into the River Styx, but she was careless and did not see to it that the water covered the part of the foot by which she was holding him.
19. displace
Gradually this Zeus displaced the others, until he occupied the whole scene.
20. topple
An entire tower standing on the roof of Priam's palace was lifted from its foundation andtoppled over.
21. prate
He wrote, I prate of ancient poets' monstrous lies, Ne'er seen or now or then by human eyes.
22. redoubtable
He never was to them the mean whining deity of the Iliad, but magnificent in shining armor, redoubtable, invincible.
23. revere
Chief among them in beauty, the glorious lady All the blessed in high Olympus revere, Honor even as Zeus, the lord of the thunder.
24. colossus
In Egypt, a towering colossus, immobile, beyond the power of imagination to endow with movement, as fixed in the stone as the tremendous temple columns, a representation of the human shape deliberately made inhuman.
25. beguile
APHRODITE (VENUS) The Goddess of Love and Beauty, who beguiled all, gods and men alike; the laughter-loving goddess, who laughed sweetly or mockingly at those her wiles had conquered; the irresistible goddess who stole away even the wits of the wise.
26. nectar
Within were the god' dwellings, where they lived and slept and feasted on ambrosia andnectar and listened to Apollo's lyre.
27. uninjured
28. concise
The capture of Troy is the subject of the second book of the Aeneid, and it is one of the best, if not the best, story Virgil ever told--concise, pointed, vivid.
29. satyr
The satyrs are goat-men and the centaurs are half man, half horse.
30. anthropologist
31. discomfit
Hera was that stock character of comedy, the typical jealous wife, and her ingenious tricks to discomfit her husband and punish her rival, afar from displeasing the Greeks, entertained them as much as Hera's modern counterpart does us today.
32. suppliant
It is not very high, certainly, and seems chiefly applicable to others, not to himself; but he does punish men who lie and break their oaths; he is angered by any ill treatment of the dead; and he pities and helps old Priam when he goes as a suppliant to Achilles.
33. annihilate
Exulting the defenders saw it fall and annihilate a great band who were forcing the palace doors.
34. indisputable
The Iliad is, or contains, the oldest Greek literature; and it is written in a rich and subtle and beautiful language which must have had behind it centuries when men were striving to express themselves with clarity and beauty, and indisputable proof of civilization.
35. discerning
At this crisis a brother of Hector's, wise in discerning the will of the gods, urged Hector to go with all speed to the city and tell the Queen, his mother, to offer to Athena the most beautiful robe she owned and pray her to have mercy.
36. bane
She urged her horses to Olympus and asked Zeus if she might drive that bane of men, Ares, from the battlefield.
37. clarity
The Iliad is, or contains, the oldest Greek literature; and it is written in a rich and subtle and beautiful language which must have had behind it centuries when men were striving to express themselves with clarity and beauty, and indisputable proof of civilization.
38. prehistoric
Nothing is clearer than the fact that primitive man, whether in New Guinea today or eons ago in the prehistoric wilderness, is not and never has been a creature who peoples his world with bright fancies and lovely visions.
39. incarnate
Homer calls him murderous, bloodstained, the incarnate curse of mortals; and, strangely, a coward, too, who bellows with pain and runs away when he is wounded.
40. diffuse
No wind, Homer says, ever shakes the untroubled peace of Olympus; no rain ever falls there or snow; but the cloudless firmament stretches around it on all sides and the white glory of sunshine is diffused upon its walls.
41. omnipotent
That is the miracle of Greek mythology--a humanized world, men freed from the paralyzing fear of an omnipotent Unknown.
42. voluminous
Apollodorus, also a Greek, is, next to Ovid, the most voluminous ancient writer on mythology, but, unlike Ovid, he is very matter-of-fact and very dull.
43. bewail
Then Hector's soul flew forth from his body and was gone to Hades, bewailing his fate, leaving vigor and youth behind.
44. trinket
While the girls flocked around the trinkets, Achilles fingered the swords and daggers.
45. upbraid
"The other Trojans upbraid me," she said, "but always I had comfort from you through the gentleness of your spirit and your gentle words.
46. appropriately
47. buccaneer
48. confuse
She was the sister of Helios, the sun-god with whom Apollo was confused.
49. erupt
A volcano erupts because a terrible creature is imprisoned in the mountain and every now and then struggles to get free.
50. mythical
51. primeval
52. irrational
It may seem odd to say that the men who made the myths disliked the irrational and had a love for facts; but it is true, no matter how wildly fantastic some of the stories are.
53. appease
One of her beloved wild creatures, a hare, had been slain by the Greeks, together with her young, and the only way to calm the wind and ensure a safe voyage to Troy was toappease her by sacrificing to her a royal maiden, Iphigenia, the eldest daughter of the Commander in Chief, Agamemnon.
54. reassure
If the mixture seems childish, consider how reassuring and how sensible the solid background is as compared with the Genie who comes from nowhere when Aladdin rubs the lamp and, his task accomplished, returns to nowhere.
55. prologue
Prologue: THE JUDGMENT OF PARIS The evil goddess of Discord, Eris, was naturally not popular in Olympus, and when the gods gave a banquet they were at to leave her out.
56. zenith
This second story is the better known, because of Milton's familiar lines: Mulciber was Thrown by angry Jove Sheer o'er the crystal battlements; from morn To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve, A summer's day, and with the setting sun Dropt from the zenith like a falling star, On Lemnos, the Aegean isle.
57. inflexible
Or a rigid figure, a woman with a cat's head suggesting inflexible, inhuman cruelty.
58. onset
At the first onset of this new band of warriors the Trojans wavered; they thought Achilles led them on.
59. fleece
Neither has the Quest of the Golden Fleece, nor Orpheus and Eurydice, nor many another.
60. raiment
They clad her in raiment immortal, And brought her to the gods.
61. wily
62. allegory
63. jovial
He was a jovial fat old man who usually rode an ass because he was too drunk to walk.
64. animate
And we for a moment can catch, through the myths he made, a glimpse of that strangely and beautifully animated world.
65. inexorable
66. incarnation
Except in a story Homer and Hesiod tell, that Aglaia married Hephaestus, they are not treated as separate personalities, but always together, a triple incarnation of grace and beauty.
67. pinnacle
But only a little further on he says that if he willed he could hang earth and sea from apinnacle of Olympus, clearly no longer a mountain.
68. rustle
The god's will was revealed by the rustling of the oak leaves which the priests interpreted.
69. amorous
So, back of the stories of an amorous Zeus and a cowardly Zeus and a ridiculous Zeus, we can catch sight of another Zeus coming into being, as men grow continually more conscious of what life demanded of them and what human beings needed in the god they worshiped.
70. respite
71. ascribe
But Hesiod has much to say about the gods, and a second poem, usually ascribed to him, the Theogony, is entirely concerned with mythology.
72. implacable
73. pallid
Around it are wide wastes, wan and cold, and meadows of asphodel, presumably strange,pallid, ghostly flowers.
74. inconceivable
Laughter in the presence of an Egyptian sphinx or an Assyrian bird-beast wasinconceivable; but it was perfectly natural in Olympus, and it made the gods companionable.
75. pestilence
The Iliad, however, begins after the Greeks have reached Troy, when Apollo sends thepestilence upon them.
76. repute
When her suitors assembled in her home to make a formal proposal for her hand they were so many and from such powerful families that her reputed father, King Tyndareus, her mother's husband, was afraid to select one among them, fearing that the others would unite against him.
77. crafty
78. laboring
Their longing for them was great enough to make them never give up laboring to see them clearly, until at last, the thunder and lightning were changed into the Universal father.
79. dupe
80. havoc
But Diomedes raged on, working havoc in the Trojan ranks until he came face to face with Hector.
81. astronomy
Astronomy is what the Greek mind finally made out of the stars.
82. stratagem
The result of this new determination and new vision was the stratagem of the wooden horse.
83. discourage
The wooden horse had been made, he said, as a votive offering to Athena, and the reason for its immense size was to discourage the Trojans from taking it into the city.
84. waft
This sea-birth took place near Cythera, from where she was wafted to Cyprus.
85. preposterous
Hercules, whose life was one long combat against preposterous monsters, is always said to have had his home in the city of Thebes.
86. beneficent
Apollo at Delphi was purely a beneficent power, a direct link between gods and men, guiding men to know the divine will, showing them how to make peace with the gods; the purifier, too, able to cleanse even those stained with the blood of their kindred.
87. cleft
The trance was supposed to be caused by a vapor rising from a deep cleft in the rock over which her seat was placed, a three-legged stool, the tripod.
88. debris
Over the debris of the tower and the crushed bodies they battered the doors with it.
89. contrive
The story was clever enough to have had by itself, in all probability, the desired effect; but Poseidon, the most bitter of all the gods against Troy, contrived an addition which made the issue certain.
90. dissension
91. calculate
His plan was to leave a single Greek behind in the deserted camp, primed with a talecalculated to make the Trojans draw the horse into the city--and without investigating it.
92. slacken
Terror and Destruction and Strife, whose fury never slackens, all friends of the murderous War-god, were there to urge men on to slaughter each other.
93. conceivable
The story of Pygmalion and Galatea is an example; it has no conceivable connection with any event in nature.
94. abhor
They were tree, Clotho, the Spinner, who spun the thread of life; Lachesis, the Disposer of Lots, who assigned to each man his destiny; Atropos, she who could not be turned, who carried "the abhorred shears" and cut the thread at death.
95. contradictory
96. dubious
It does not mention the sacrificed of Iphigenia, and makes only a dubious allusion to the judgment of Paris.
97. ruthless
In the earliest account of her, the Iliad, she is a fierce and ruthless battle-goddess, but elsewhere she is warlike only to defend the State and the home from outside enemies.
98. chaste
It is a strange transformation from the lovely Huntress flashing through the forest, from the Moon making all beautiful with her light, from the pure Maiden-Goddess for whom Whoso is chaste of spirit utterly May gather leaves and fruits and flowers.
99. semblance
100. exult
101. frivolous
He and three other Alexandrians, who also wrote about mythology, the pastoral poets Theocritus, Bion and Moschus, have lost the simplicity of Hesiod's and Pindar's belief in the gods, and are far removed from the depth and gravity of the tragic poets' view of religion; but they are not frivolous like Ovid.
102. august
As the idea of Zeus became loftier, two august forms sat beside him in Olympus.
103. devise
With this great encouragement the Greeks determined to wait no longer, but devise some way to put an end to the endless war.
104. investigating
His plan was to leave a single Greek behind in the deserted camp, primed with a tale calculated to make the Trojans draw the horse into the city--and without investigating it.
105. boar
They took part in the Calydonian boar-hunt; they went on the Quest of the Golden Fleece; and they rescued Helen when Theseus carried her off.
106. pierce
107. fuse
When his worship spread to a town where there was already a divine ruler the two were slowly fused into one.
108. quench
When all was burned they quenched the flame with wine and gathered the bones into a golden urn, shrouding them in soft purple.
109. avenge
Zeus had by now remembered his promise to Thetis to avenge Achilles' wrong.
110. invincible
He never was to them the mean whining deity of the Iliad, but magnificent in shining armor, redoubtable, invincible.
111. allude
He wrote Odes in honor of the victors in the games at the great national festivals of Greece, and in every one of his poems myths are told or alluded to.
112. renown
The warriors of the great Latin heroic poem, the Aeneid, far from rejoicing to escape from him, rejoice when they see that they are to fall "on Mars' field of renown."
113. plausible
114. counterpart
Hera was that stock character of comedy, the typical jealous wife, and her ingenious tricks to discomfit her husband and punish her rival, afar from displeasing the Greeks, entertained them as much as Hera's modern counterpart does us today.
115. labored
The Odyssey speaks of "the divine for which all men long," and hundreds of years later Aristotle wrote, "Excellence, much and hundreds of years later Aristotle wrote, "Excellence, much labored for by the race of mortals."
116. taunt
The gods by now were fighting, too, as hotly as the men, and Zeus sittig apart in Olympus laughd pleasantly to himself when he saw god matched against god: Athena felling Ares to the ground; Hera seizing the bow of Artemis from her shoulders and boxing her ears with it this way and that; Poseidon provoking Apollo with taunting words to strike him first.
117. malicious
In later poems she is usually shown as treacherous and malicious, exerting a deadly and destructive power over men.
118. aloof
119. volcano
A volcano erupts because a terrible creature is imprisoned in the mountain and every now and then struggles to get free.
120. translate
The other notable Titans were OCEAN, the river that was supposed to encircle the earth; his wife TETHYS HYPERION, the father of the sun, the moon and the dawn; MNEMOSYNE, which means Memory; THEMIS, usually translated by Justice; and IAPETUS, impor
121. provoke
The gods by now were fighting, too, as hotly as the men, and Zeus sittig apart in Olympus laughd pleasantly to himself when he saw god matched against god: Athena felling Ares to the ground; Hera seizing the bow of Artemis from her shoulders and boxing her ears with it this way and that; Poseidon provoking Apollo with taunting words to strike him first.
122. apparition
In front of the Scaean gates stood an enormous figure of a horse, such a thing as no one had ever seen, an apparition so strange that it was vaguely terrifying, even though there was no sound or movement coming from it.
123. assemble
When her suitors assembled in her home to make a formal proposal for her hand they were so many and from such powerful families that her reputed father, King Tyndareus, her mother's husband, was afraid to select one among them, fearing that the others would unite against him.
124. revive
Apollo had revived the fainting Hector and breathed into him surpassing power.
125. discord
His sister is there, Eris, which means Discord, and Strife, her son.
126. dire
Of course the mythical monster is present in any number of shapes, Gorgons and hydras and chimaeras dire, but they are there only to give the hero his meed of glory.
127. wan
Around it are wide wastes, wan and cold, and meadows of asphodel, presumably strange, pallid, ghostly flowers.
128. ail
They met at Aulis, place of strong winds and dangerous tides, impossible to ail from as long as the north wind blew.
129. detest
ARES (MARS) The God of War, son of Zeus and Hera, both of whom, Homer says, detested him.
130. tranquil
But when he drove in his golden car over the waters, the thunder of the waves sank into stillness, and tranquil peace followed his smooth-rolling wheels.
131. forlorn
She led the young shepherd, with never a thought of Oenone left forlorn, straight to Sparta, where Menelaus and Helen received him graciously as their guest.
132. overseas
Odysseus, who was one of th shrewdest and most sensible men in Greece, did not want to leave his house and family to embark on a romantic adventure overseas for the sake of a faithless woman.
133. deprive
They succeeded in stealing the bow and arrows, but when it came to leaving the poor wretch alone there deprived of them, they could not do it.
134. interpreted
The god's will was revealed by the rustling of the oak leaves which the priestsinterpreted.
135. transformation
It is a strange transformation from the lovely Huntress flashing through the forest, from the Moon making all beautiful with her light, from the pure Maiden-Goddess for whom Whoso is chaste of spirit utterly May gather leaves and fruits and flowers.
136. rapture
What rapture to see the places empty, nothing in them now to fear.
137. oblige
When Calchas declared that Chryseis must be given back to her father, he had all the chiefs behind him and Agamemnon, greatly angered, was obliged to agree.
138. triple
Except in a story Homer and Hesiod tell, that Aglaia married Hephaestus, they are not treated as separate personalities, but always together, a triple incarnation of grace and beauty.
139. envelop
Apollo enveloped him in a cloud and carried him to sacred Pergamos, the holy place of Troy, where Artemis healed him of his wound.
140. treacherous
In later poems she is usually shown as treacherous and malicious, exerting a deadly and destructive power over men.
141. orbit
Heraclitus says, "Not even the sun will transgress his orbit but the Erinyes, the ministers of justice, overtake him."
142. investigate
His plan was to leave a single Greek behind in the deserted camp, primed with a tale calculated to make the Trojans draw the horse into the city--and without investigating it.
143. shroud
When all was burned they quenched the flame with wine and gathered the bones into a golden urn, shrouding them in soft purple.
144. cleave
The trance was supposed to be caused by a vapor rising from a deep cleft in the rock over which her seat was placed, a three-legged stool, the tripod.
145. ensure
One of her beloved wild creatures, a hare, had been slain by the Greeks, together with her young, and the only way to calm the wind and ensure a safe voyage to Troy was to appease her by sacrificing to her a royal maiden, Iphigenia, the eldest daughter of the Commander in Chief, Agamemnon.
146. vanquish
147. accurately
148. pastoral
He and three other Alexandrians, who also wrote about mythology, the pastoral poets Theocritus, Bion and Moschus, have lost the simplicity of Hesiod's and Pindar's belief in the gods, and are far removed from the depth and gravity of the tragic poets' view of religion; but they are not frivolous like Ovid.
149. destructive
In later poems she is usually shown as treacherous and malicious, exerting a deadly anddestructive power over men.
150. presumably
Around it are wide wastes, wan and cold, and meadows of asphodel, presumably strange, pallid, ghostly flowers.
151. define
The later poets define the world of the dead more and more clearly as the place where the wicked are punished and the good rewarded.
152. ferry
An aged boatman named Charon ferries the souls of the dead across the water to the farther bank, where stands the adamantine gate to Tartarus (the name Virgil prefers).
153. exceeding
He felt shame before them and he told them he saw his own exceeding folly in allowing the loss of a mere girl to make him forget everything else.
154. rout
155. celebrate
Except for Aeschylus' Persians, written to celebrate the victory of the Greeks over the Persians at Salamis, all the plays have mythological subjects.
156. cavern
In later poets there are various entrances to it from the earth through caverns and beside deep lakes.
157. satire
In Lucian's little satire, Apollo asks Hermes: "I say, why do we never see Castor and Pollux at the same time?"
158. reluctant
It made no difference to Hera how reluctant any of them were or how innocent the goddess treated them all alike.
159. frenzy
160. kindred
Apollo at Delphi was purely a beneficent power, a direct link between gods and men, guiding men to know the divine will, showing them how to make peace with the gods; the purifier, too, able to cleanse even those stained with the blood of their kindred.
161. mirth
THE GRACES were three: Aglaia (Splendor), Euphrosyne (Mirth) and Thalia (Good Cheer).
162. vigor
Then Hector's soul flew forth from his body and was gone to Hades, bewailing his fate, leaving vigor and youth behind.
163. lurk
164. contradiction
Nevertheless, with one of those startling contradictions so common in mythology, she kept the Greek Fleet from sailing to Troy until they sacrificed a maiden to her.
165. epic
Clio was Muse of history, Urania of astronomy, Melpomene of tragedy, Thalia of comedy, Terpsichore of the dance, Calliope of epic poetry, Erato of love-poetry, Polyhymnia of songs to the gods, Euterpe of lyric poetry.
166. sentimental
And he does, often very prettily indeed, but in his hands the stories which were factual truth and solemn truth to the early Greek poets Hesiod and Pindar, and vehicles of deep religious truth to the Greek tragedians,become idle tales, sometimes witty and diverting, often sentimental and distressingly rhetorical.
167. applaud
All applauded the advice and Agamemnon confessed that he had acted like a fool.
168. hoof
He was Hermes' son; a noisy, merry god, the Homeric Hymn in his honor calls him; but he was part animal too, with a goat's horns, and goat's hoofs instead of feet.
169. splendor
There cannot be a greater contrast than that between his poem, the Works and Days, which tries to show men how to live a god life in a harsh world, and the courtly splendorof the Iliad an the Odyssey.
170. inspire
Yet he has a train of attendants on the battlefield which should inspire anyone with confidence.
171. dismay
172. monstrous
173. identified
There is no doubt that at first it was held to be a mountain top, and generally identifiedwith Greece's highest mountain, Mt. Olympus in Thessaly, in the northeast of Greece.
174. infinitely
In that infinitely remote time primitive man could Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.
175. classical
Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes by Edith Hamilton Introduction to Classical Mythology Of old the Hellenic race was marked off from the barbarian as more keen-witted and more free from nonsense.
176. rational
177. orphan
Hesiod, not much later than the Odyssey if at all, says of a man who does evil to the suppliant and the stranger, or who wrongs orphan children, "with that man Zeus is angry."
178. rejoice
Occasionally the heroes "rejoice in the delight of Ares' battle," but far oftener in having escaped "the fury of the ruthless god."
179. quest
Neither has the Quest of the Golden Fleece, nor Orpheus and Eurydice, nor many another.
180. animated
And we for a moment can catch, through the myths he made, a glimpse of that strangely and beautifully animated world.
181. banquet
They knew just what the divine inhabitants did there, what they ate and drank and where they banqueted and how they amused themselves.
182. strife
His sister is there, Eris, which means Discord, and Strife, her son.
183. shrewd
Of all the gods he was the shrewdest and most cunning; in fact he was the Master Thief, who started upon his career before he was a day old.
184. surpass
Circe and Medea are the only witches and they are young and of surpassing beauty--delightful, not horrible.
185. devour
He wrote, "Fishes and beasts and fowls of the air devour one another.
186. awe
Homer says that he felt awe to slay a man who had been taught his divine art by the gods.
187. tragic
Aeschylus, the oldest of the three tragic poets, was a contemporary of Pindar's.
Vocabulary - Definitions
1. eon
2.
embroider
3.
devastate
4.
ambrosia
a mixture of nectar and pollen prepared by worker bees and fed to larvae
5.
nemesis
6.
venerate
regard with feelings of respect and reverence; consider hallowed or exalted or be in awe of
7.
elysian
8.
aegis
9.
centaur
(classical mythology) a mythical being that is half man and half horse
10. circumvent
11. demoniac
12. bestial
13. omniscient
infinitely wise
14. trident
15. compendium
16. zephyr
17. paralyze
18. invulnerable
19. displace
20. topple
21. prate
22. redoubtable
inspiring fear
23. revere
24. colossus
25. beguile
influence by slyness
26. nectar
27. uninjured
28. concise
31. discomfit
32. suppliant
33. annihilate
34. indisputable
35. discerning
36. bane
37. clarity
free from obscurity and easy to understand; the comprehensibility of clear expression
38. prehistoric
39. incarnate
40. diffuse
move outward
41. omnipotent
42. voluminous
43. bewail
regret strongly
44. trinket
45. upbraid
46. appropriately
in an appropriate manner
47. buccaneer
someone who robs at sea or plunders the land from the sea without having a commission from any sovereign nation
48. confuse
49. erupt
start abruptly
50. mythical
51. primeval
52. irrational
53. appease
54. reassure
55. prologue
an introduction to a play
56. zenith
the point above the observer that is directly opposite the nadir on the imaginary sphere against which celestial bodies appear to be projected
57. inflexible
incapable of change
58. onset
59. fleece
60. raiment
61. wily
62. allegory
63. jovial
64. animate
heighten or intensify
65. inexorable
66. incarnation
67. pinnacle
68. rustle
69. amorous
70. respite
71. ascribe
attribute or credit to
72. implacable
73. pallid
74. inconceivable
totally unlikely
75. pestilence
a serious (sometimes fatal) infection of rodents caused by Yersinia pestis and accidentally transmitted to humans by the bite of a flea that has bitten an infected animal
76. repute
77. crafty
78. laboring
79. dupe
fool or hoax
80. havoc
81. astronomy
the branch of physics that studies celestial bodies and the universe as a whole
82. stratagem
83. discourage
84. waft
85. preposterous
incongruous;inviting ridicule
86. beneficent
87. cleft
88. debris
89. contrive
90. dissension
91. calculate
92. slacken
93. conceivable
94. abhor
find repugnant
95. contradictory
of words or propositions so related that both cannot be true and both cannot be false
96. dubious
97. ruthless
98. chaste
99. semblance
100. exult
101. frivolous
102. august
of or befitting a lord
103. devise
come up with (an idea, plan, explanation, theory, or principle) after a mental effort
104. investigating
105. boar
Old World wild swine having a narrow body and prominent tusks from which most domestic swine come; introduced in United States
106. pierce
107. fuse
an electrical device that can interrupt the flow of electrical current when it is overloaded
108. quench
satisfy (thirst)
109. avenge
110. invincible
111. allude
112. renown
113. plausible
114. counterpart
115. labored
116. taunt
117. malicious
118. aloof
remote in manner
119. volcano
a fissure in the earth's crust (or in the surface of some other planet) through which molten lava and gases erupt
120. translate
121. provoke
122. apparition
123. assemble
124. revive
125. discord
126. dire
127. wan
128. ail
be ill or unwell
129. detest
130. tranquil
131. forlorn
132. overseas
133. deprive
134. interpreted
135. transformation
a qualitative change
136. rapture
137. oblige
138. triple
139. envelop
140. treacherous
141. orbit
the (usually elliptical) path described by one celestial body in its revolution about another
142. investigate
investigate scientifically
143. shroud
144. cleave
145. ensure
make certain of
146. vanquish
147. accurately
148. pastoral
of or relating to a pastor
149. destructive
150. presumably
by reasonable assumption
151. define
152. ferry
a boat that transports people or vehicles across a body of water and operates on a regular schedule
153. exceeding
154. rout
155. celebrate
156. cavern
157. satire
158. reluctant
159. frenzy
160. kindred
161. mirth
great merriment
162. vigor
forceful exertion
163. lurk
164. contradiction
165. epic
166. sentimental
167. applaud
168. hoof
169. splendor
170. inspire
heighten or intensify
171. dismay
172. monstrous
abnormally large
173. identified
174. infinitely
without bounds
175. classical
of or relating to the most highly developed stage of an earlier civilisation and its culture
176. rational
177. orphan
178. rejoice
179. quest
180. animated
181. banquet
182. strife
183. shrewd
184. surpass
distinguish oneself
185. devour
destroy completely
186. awe
187. tragic