The Miser- Moliere

The Miser by Moliere is one of the great plays from the French world. Moliere was well known for his playwriting ability, specially in tragedies and comedies. The Miser is loosely based on a Latin book made by Plautus.

Harpagon is the main character and the greedy old man that refuses to share a penny. Moliere uses him to identify anti-values of a man such as the innecesary love for money and how this can make you turn your back on your kids. Harpagon is cruel to his servants and does not give proper attention to his offspring,

Valerio, Elisa, Santiago, and Mariana are entangled into a romantic havoc that happens inside Harpagon´s house. Alon the play we can identify the true nature of every character and discover what are their desires.

A rich family is not a symptom that the family is okay. Harpagon´s family may be very wealthy, but we can see as we read the play, that Harpagon failed to educate his children and give them the care that they deserve. Moliere´s great ability in character depth is crucial for the turning points of The Miser. Undoubtedly, this is a real classic for anyone that is interested in learning the basic structure of a comedy.

Fuenteovejuna- Lope de Vega

Another important character from the spanish golden age is Lope de Vega. Along with Calderón de la Barca, he established the most celebrated binomial in spanish medieval literature. Lope de Vega was also a playwriter and he succeeded in creating a book that would last many centuries: Fuenteovejuna,

This play is perhaps the first appearence of the typical in-town scenario where suddenly a tyranic figure emerges. This evil entity will try to bend the town to his will and slowly the population will secretly  device a plan in which they will evenually overthrow the usurper.

Fuenteovejuna´s story starts with a malicious governor in the town of fuenteovejuna that rapes a young little girl. He tries to cover his acts, but he is discovered and punished. He is killed, and when the other authorities ask who did it, the town simply responds: Fuenteovejuna.

I can relate this play to many movies i have watched. The play set the tone for a recurring storyline that scriptwriters love. The underdog town beats the evil chief. How about Footloose, where the police chief prohibits the town to dance. Then there is V for Vendetta, in which a small brotherhood makes justice concealed behind an ideology. The Rock´s steller "Walking Tall" movie is perhaps the most adecuate example of this type of stories.

Life is a Dream- Pedro Calderón de la Barca

During the golden age of spanish literature, Pedro Calderón de la Barca emerged as one of the key figures that would eventually shape the western cannon. His most important book, Life is a Dream, narrates the story of a polish king that takes astrology to seriously and therefore imprisions his only son.

Basilio believes the prophecy that his son will be a tyrant and has him chained in a dungeon throughout all his life. Segismundo never knows that he is a king and lives his life boringly, just talking to the servants of his fathers.

But eventually, Basileo unchains Segismundo and gives him a chance to rule. This is the first time that Segismundo tastes freedom and freewill. He behaves like the tyrant of the prophecy, being a bad ruler and killing innocents.

Segismuno abused of his freewill and thus, was condemned to live again chained. But Basileo gives his son another shot. Go on and be king again. This time Segismundo proved himself to be a fantastic ruler, fair, and magnanimous.

With his freewill, Segismundo beat destiny, emphasized the importance of freewill in human beings, and proved that a prophecy can be defeated.

Macbeth

In this piece of blog writing, I will talk about a very special character from the infamous play, Macbeth by William Shakespeare.

This is of course, Sir Banquo!

They say that Banquo is in fact a borrowed character bu Shakespeare. His true identity lies in the Macbeth story of Raphael Holinshed. Nevertheless, I think Banquo is one of the most complete characters in this play. 

In the beginnin of the tale, Banquo is with Macbeth when the three Weird Sisters make their predictions. Banquo is sentenced to live a king-less life, but the Sisters emphasize that his kin will later be kings. This first revelation that Banquo´s children will inherir the Scottish throne will determine the outcome of the play through Macbeth´s actions. 

Let us state that Banquo is also a very ambitious character. But what makes him different from Macbeth? That Banquo never acts. He refrains himself from doing stupid things and keeps in mind that his children will someday be kings. 

Poor Banquo never realised how dangerous Macbeth could be. The main character of the play is overdriven by his desire an lust for power and kills one of his best friends and noble men. 

Because of Macbeth´s atrocious actions, he is haunted until his death by the ghost of Banquo. He appears during the return of Macbeth to the Sisters and also on the banquet. 

It will never be known if Banquo´s ghost was actually real or just a product of Macbeth´s imaginations. But one thing we can assert, it was real FOR Macbeth. 

The Canterbury Tales

What is irony?

It is a rethorical technique that implies a double audience. The person that employs the irony makes or says something that implies a certain shallow meaning but in reality he is implying something more deep or with another meaning. Irony is the art of making fun of someone without loosing class and without them realizing it. 

What is comicallity?

It is caused when we are entertained. We laugh, we enjoy images and words being given to us. Comicallity relies on making the subject laugh and entertained through the language or acting. 

What is a satire?

Satire is the literary genre in which irony lies therein. A satire basically makes fun of another work, governmen or situation through the use of characters and motifs that make folly of that event. 

Difference between satire and comedy?

The purpose of a comedy is to make the audience laugh an have a good time. Satires have a much deeper meaning, they make social criticism through a comedy. 

Differences in satires from english speaking canon and spanish speaking.

English speaking satires tend to rely on the use of irony, there are more images, characters and symbolism. In hispanic satires, we can find the use of direct criticism such as the actual importance of the term "carrilla" in Mexican society. English society is often more subtle in the use of satires and employs a better set of characters. Hispanic satires are far more direct and less gentle. 

Petrarca

We will compare the famous "Laura" poem by Petrarca to Edmund Sepnser´s Sonnet VII

Sonnet VII
Fayre eyes, the myrrour of my mazed hart,
what wondrous vertue is contaynd in you
the which both lyfe and death forth fro[m] you dart
into the obiect of your mighty view?
For when ye mildly looke with louely hew,
then is my soule with life and loue inspired:
but when ye lowre, or looke on me askew
then doe I die, as one with lightning fyred.
But since that lyfe is more then death desyred,
looke euer louely, as becomes you best,
that your bright beams of my weak eies admyred,
may kindle liuing fire within my brest.
Such life should be the honor of your light,
such death the sad ensample of your might

Soneto a Laura

Paz no encuentro ni puedo hacer la guerra,

y ardo y soy hielo; y temo y todo aplazo;

y vuelo sobre el cielo y yazgo en tierra;

y nada aprieto y todo el mundo abrazo.

Quien me tiene en prisión, ni abre ni cierra,

ni me retiene ni me suelta el lazo;

y no me mata Amor ni me deshierra,

ni me quiere ni quita mi embarazo.

Veo sin ojos y sin lengua grito;

y pido ayuda y parecer anhelo;

a otros amo y por mí me siento odiado.

Llorando grito y el dolor transito;

muerte y vida me dan igual desvelo;

por vos estoy, Señora, en este estado.

We can contemplate the use of the 11 syllable verse by Petrarca, compared to the 10 or 9 syllable verses by Spenser. The use of images is heavily used by both writers. They tend to give the reader the image of the sky, ice, the earth, so that they can compare it as a metaphor to the real meaning the author implies. 

Dante´s Inferno

Compare Canto 1 to the opening of the Iliad or the Aeneid.  How is it different?

The odyssey starts with the cry of Homer to the muses so that they talk to him about Odysseus. In Dante´s Inferno, the writer, as well as the main character are the same person. He starts the book by having a mental breakdown in a lonely forest, wandering through it feeling lonely. 

Compare Dante's journey to the journeys taken by characters in Gilgamesh, the Odyssey, the Aeneid, and Augustine's Confessions.  How does Dante's appearance as the central character in the poem make it a different kind of epic?

Because it will be an epic that will be only told through the eyes of the man that makes the action. In the others, we had an outsider as a narrator, and that helped us gather different points of view, for example, Penelope when she was not near her husband. 

Dante encounters a leopard, a lion, and a she-wolf in Canto 1.  What do you think these beasts symbolize, if anything?  Which animal seems to pose the greatest problem for Dante?

I think they are the first representations of a motif in the story, which is the sin. He recognizes the she-wolf as the deadliest, and when he meets Vergil, he asks for advice on how to shake her away.

What is the role of classical literature and culture in the Inferno?  Why does Dante have a pagan, Vergil, guide him through Hell, and not a Christian, like St. Paul or St. Augustine (who certainly has actual experience with many of the sins described in the poem)?

That is why this epic defies the other epics we have seen. There is no divine guide for Dante like the Greek gods and Odysseus. Maybe that is why the title is referred as the Divine Comedy. It stars pagan people making a journey through hell, without any type of spiritual guide. 

Who are the women discussed in Canto 2?  What is their historical or symbolic significance?  What is their function in the poem?

The Virgin Mary and Beatrice. Their function in the poem is simple. Beatrice is the engine that keeps Dante alive, while the Virgin Mary is the spiritual manifestation of women that will appear in the book. 

The "neutral angels" (Canto 3) are the product of Dante's poetic imagination, not orthodox Christian theology.  Why do you think he created them?

He wanted to provide a character that was not ultimately bound to hell because they did not support any side. This way Dante can provide an examplo to non-belivers that they wil be sent to hell but that they will not be fully punished. 

Compare Dante's Underworld to Vergil's Underworld.  How is Dante's Charon different from Vergil's Charon in Aeneid 6?

In Dante´s, Charon is a far more precautious character. He is very keen upon not letting Dante cross the Acheron until Vergil tells him that they have a divine mission to carry. 

What kind of souls are in Limbo? (Canto 4) What is their defect (difetto)?

Souls that were good but died before Christianity was settled or that they never baptized

Why do you think Dante makes lust a lesser sin than gluttony?  (NB: the sins encountered at the top of the slope are less horrible or offensive than the ones at the bottom, and the ones in between are arranged in a corresponding hierarchy from one to the other.)

Because Dante himself feels a little sympathy towards the lustful. He explains that they are damned by love and he even talks to Francesca. He judges that lust depends upon love and that gluttony only depends on yourself

Paolo and Francesca (Canto 5) are some of the most attractive sinners in Hell.  What does Dante do, in a very short space, to make them real to us?  Why do you think he makes them so sympathetic (they are, after all, sinners)?

Dante deposits a very human and relatable scenario between those two lovers. They fall hopelessly in love and there is nothing for them to do. When Francesca husband kills both, Dante even faints from pity and that feeling is infatuated to the reader. 

What is the political theme of Canto 6?  How does it relate to Dante's own political experiences?

Dante talks with the man from Florence about the political situation that they are living nowadays. Dante is dissapointed about the outcome that political situations have brought to his life. 

Look up "epicurean" in a good dictionary.  What kind of sin is this?

A pleasure sin, adultery or lust. 

Describe the relationship between Farinata and Cavalcante.  What do you learn about Florentine politics from the exchange between Farinata and Dante?

Dante and Farinata have opposite political ideals, that is very clear. We can see that Farinata is a supporter of the system that reigned in that time and that Dante was somehow living uncomofrotably in his city. Farinata tells him that he will be ordered to leave Florence when the time comes. Dante does not understand this, but then realizes that the persons from Hell can see the remote future. 

Why are the Violent against Themselves (suicides) punished the way they are?  Remember that in Dante's system the sin itself is a form of punishment.

The punishment is horrible for the suicidal people, because of the way they treated their body while they lived. On the day of judgement they will be able to return to their bodies but they will be suspended in the tree branches and will never be able to move again. Dante deeply regrets suicidal people because they are wasting the gift of a healthy body. Having that sin is unspeakable. 

Does Pier della Vigne use language in a way that seems peculiar to you?  What does his manner of speaking tell you about him as a person?

Yes, he uses loads of literary figures and he never identifies himself as a speaker. He is a very studied man that reveals who he is when he gives the reader a monologue.

How is Dante's Ulysses different from Homer's Odysseus?

Dante never read the Odyssey, so he had a different perspective about Odysseus. He kind of judges him for leaving his son and wife. In the Odyssey, the main character is described as a very intelligent man, a virtuous leader, and with great physical strength.

Guido da Montefeltro is guilty of the same sin as Ulysses--but how is he a different kind of person?
They both had to make war in order to mantain peace, with the difference that Ulysses wanted to go home immediately.

Arab Literature

One of the most important areas to explore in ancient literature, is of course the arab. Taking in account wonderful works as the Ramayana and the Thousand and One Nights, one can thoroughly understand that the literary works deviced by the arabs is a carefuly crafted one. Now it is time to talk about the presence of arab literature in Spain during the Middle Ages.

It is true that I have already made an entry of El Mio Cid, which is  heavily influenced by the arab context. In despite of that, this entry focuses a little bit on the long lost poet, Ibn Suhayd.

A native of Córdoba, Suhayd was a gifted child that converted into a poet during his growth.  Living beneath the shadow of the celebrated Averroes, Suhayd has his own specific and well built poetry. This is a brief passage of one of his poem, i was not able to find an english translation:

Cuando, llena de su embriaguez, se durmió, y se durmieron los ojos de la ronda, me acerqué a ella tímidamente, como el amigo que busca el contacto furtivo con disimulo. Me arrastré hacia ella insensiblemente como el sueño; me elevé hacia ella dulcemente como el aliento. Besé el blanco brillante de su cuello; apuré el rojo vivo de su boca. Y pasé con ella deliciosamente, hasta que sonrieron las tinieblas, mostrando los blancos dientes de la aurora.

 

"After the Orgy" explores the type of arab literature similar to the one in The One Thousand and One Nights. Before the contemporary context of conservative islam that prohibites erotic works, this was a very recurring topic. 

We can perceive some glimpses of beauty, sex, and romance in the verses of Suhayd´s poem. A beautiful text that somehow has never been very coveted by modern critics. In conclusion, Arab literature offers a brilliant alternative to the rigidness of the Western Canon. 

Mío Cid Sequence

The storyline of El Cantar de Mío Cid will be represented in 12 images.

Nezahualcóyotl

The fasting coyote developed fantastic literature in the prehispanic period in México. I shall analyze this segment of a poem he once wrote.

"¡Qué sea para bien!
¡que sea en buen momento!Donde están erguidas las columnas de jade,Donde están ellas en fila,Aquí en México,Donde en las obscuras aguasSe yerguen los blancos sauces,Aquí te merecieron tus abuelos,Aquel Huitzilíhuitl, aquel Acamapichtli.¡Por ellos llora, oh Moctezuma!Por ellos tú guardas su estera y su solio.El te ha visto con compasión, Él se ha apiadoado de ti, ¡oh Moctezuma!A tu cargo tienes la ciudad y el solio."

Areas:
Human dimension- "Abuelos" "Moctezuma" His poetry always underlined the presence of the human above society. Our dimension is tangible, warm with the essence of humans. 

Mortal man- Every man will meet his end, that is a maxim that Nezahualcóyotl understands in his thinking. There is an end called death, which curiosly also represent the next beginning.

Destiny- "México" Our ancestors were destined to live here. Determinism is key in this type of poetry, Nezahualcóyotl emphasizes that we shall follow a straight argumentative line in our destinies and that the efforts to change it will be in vain. 

Social man- A man must interact with other men to be a complete being. The tasks of a social man can vary but mainly focuses on education and spirituality. 

Everyday´s life- Each day we must carry a schedule that will be valued. Nezahualcóyotl offers a pessimistic view regarding the everyday´s life. 

Life is a Dream- "Aquí te merecieron tus abuelos" A candid interpretarion of how our past life ancestor´s cherished the land in the Valle de México. Our grandaprens are the key that once in a lifetime interacted with the world we see today. Intertextuality between both world. 

Art- "Jade". We can gather from many poems, that the element of the precious stone, jade, is regularly included as a symbol of beauty. Esthetic value is important for Nezahualcóyotl. 

Retrieved from: http://www.los-poetas.com/netz1.htm#Estoy embriagado

Wirrarika Literature

European culture is mostly praised because of its contribution to the modern canon. Regardless of that, Mesoamerican indigenous communities, such as the Wirrarikas, have established a substantial influence in the development of actual Latinamerican people.

The presence of the huicholes tribe in México, particularly in Jalisco, is a clear evidence that the culture of the natives is still respected. The myth of fire is one of the most important ones, and therefore, it will be the center of this day´s blog entry.

Tatewari was born when the earth shook for the fifth time. Before him, it is said that in the Middle World darkness ruled. There was no light for the animal kingdom until Tatewari spread his flames all over the place.

After his grand entrance, Tatewari brought good omens to the huichol tribe. He eventually sacrificed Masha the deer and offered his meat to the other animals. The animals didn´t like the cooked meat and since then preferred their food raw.

Tatewari left the animals, but those who remained where urged by The Wind to kill Tatewari for his actions against Masha. The animals proved to be no match for Tatewari for he dodged all of the arrows that were released against him. Only The Morning Light was able to lodge an arrow into Tatewari. For his actions, The Morning Light was sentenced to guard Hell for an eternity.
A huge fire soon was made by the Tlacuache, an animal that stole fire which was created by Tatewari.

I think there is a very big Greek style in these myths in some things: the oppulence of the gods vs mortals, the explanation of natural phenomena through myths, and the distinction of the virtues of a warrior.

Creation is another key point for the huicholes. There is a constant thought about what triggered the beginning of the world, and because of this they make stories about the creation.

Odes

Horace, a distinguished Roman poet, is widely known by his contribution to poetry in the Roman empire. He is a key figure in the latin process of writing because he was one of the first guys to try and rediscover the Greek way of writing and thinking that was once lost through the decline of the Greek hegemony. Horace proved to be an outstanding student, and would eventually consolidate himself as one of the best poets of his time.

Our poet wrote in a style of free verse the arquetype of the wise man. Horace wanted to create a role model to Roman society through his poems. But what made him so famous? Horace was the only guy that could imitate the Greek style, and by now we know that the Romans would give up their entire empire to be the Greeks.

The poetical language used is of great complexity, Horace uses difficutl words and witful transitions because his poetry was not designed for the normal man. He wanted to be read by nobles and to be inspected by the wise. Regarding the themes that the poems undertake, it is all again about Greece and Rome, the parallels that the Romans artificially constructed, the presence of Apollo and Venus, family, duty, honor, and the intrinsic pride that comes from being a Roman.

The warning tone this poem has is that it tells us about spirituality. For Horace, this was the most important characteristic a man should have, and he is not blind, because he understands that Rome is not a very spiritual empire. He depicts in his poems the images of great lords that achieve recognition and satisfaction but that settle with carnal needs, he insists upon searching for the real thing that satisfy us, which are the intangibles of this life.

There are great morals behind the teachings of Horace. He underlines the virtue of the civil role in Romans. That whom is a citizen should have a specific set of moral traits that will function as an example to the others. Civil awareness is of key importance for this author, he underlines the importance of family and political hierarchy.

Beauty for Horace, is reaching that inner state of plentitude. By being a full self sustained individual, a man could achieve beauty. Identity came from Greece, and identity formed plentitude. In a way Horace wants the Romans to remember their lost and forgotten romance with the Greek world that is the missing link for a better Roman society.

In his poems we can find certain things that really make Pindar´s work come into mind; gods, honor, willpower, attitude towards greatness. Horace is a fantastic poet that set the tone for the Latin canon. Without him, the link of Rome and Greece would probably had never been reignited again, which would have been a great trouble to the great Virgil.

Aeneid

Spoiler alert, if you are a virgin to the Aeneid, all shall be cleared with the fantastic Aeneid Rap

If you thought that the universe of great epics ended with the Greeks you are so very wrong. The Roman world dominated Europe in the days of our lord Jesus Christ. Its 400 years of ruling declined steadily with the sacking of the city. But don´t fool yourself, the Romans were not the Greeks, they simply were a civilization that basically acquired all their power by force. The Aeneid is the Roman Odyssey, a great epic that tells the tale of a wise hero in look for a promised land. Let´s talk about it.

Troy is the starting point of the plot. Virgil, our author, decides to make it the origin because it will eventually link the Roman world with the Greek. The Romans envied the Greeks for their intellect and wanted to have a past similar to them. By choosing Troy as the starting point, these two worlds collide.

After all, it is not an epic entirely composed by humans. Just like the Odyssey, gods played a particular role in aiding or trying to destroy a certain character. This is just another way to use Greek infleunce in a text. Also, by doing this, Virgil secured the divine connection between gods and men. In spite of that, the Romans were never really known for their beliefs.

The Aeneid contains another version of the Trojan horse scene. In this one, we are given the Trojan´s point of view. The scene is very well crafted by Virgil: he makes almost all Trojan nobles like the horse, but the only one to see the treachery is the priest, Laocoon. He says that they should not trust a Greek and above all their gifts, the Greeks were a proud civilization that very seldomly gave prizes, so he thought that very probably it was just a tactic to destroy them. He was right

But what does Aeneas search in the Acheronte? I think that he is looking for his destiny. Aeneas was a man that did not have a determined purpose in life and so Virgil gives him that; the divine command that he will have to create an empire and dominate above all other. This quest for identity through Greek means underlines the theory that the Romans were a faceless culture.

In his adventure to conquere the Latium, Aeneas must defeat the warrior Turnus. This is another reference from the Greek world, because from deduction we can infer that Turnus is just the Roman version of Achilles; a fierce and bold warrior that apparently is invincible but had a weak point and human flaw.

Just like Medea, Camilla is the feminist warrior that appears in the Aeneid. She never gives up in her journey to be independent and she also takes a huge place in the war. Camilla represents that woman that appart from independent, can cause big problems to men.

Virgil was entrusted to do this epic by the authorities of the government when he lived. It is a fantastic creation because the author fantastically justified the expansion and creation of the Roman empire through the means of an epic that could generate a patriot feeling. The Aeneid is a socio-political work whose mission is to convince the Roman that he is divine, that he has an origin, and that it is also okay for him to rule above all.

Concept Map

Aesop´s Fables

Since you were a little kid, parents filled you with little stories full of morals. The fable is an extremely short story of animals whose mission is to instruct kids in a moral and intelligent way. Aesop, a Greek writer, became famous by developing many fables that contributed to this didactical manner of teaching.

How are the characters in these fables? Generally the fables only include two or three characters, most characters speak and have human intelligence. Their role in the fable is that they all act as principal characters, this attribute distinguishes fables from other literary works because there is just one scene.

How do the animals talk? They talk in a human manner, with human thoughts, feelings, and reactions. They usually dialogue with another animal, they speak in a very direct manner using simple language.

The most important characteristic of the fable is that it can´t be long. Take in account a kid, if he has to read a big volume of a book, he will refrain from it. But if you give him a small text, he will read it because it is easy and that is a starting point so the kids can start to read.

The moral chararacter is crucial for the animals in the fables because that is the essence of it. If they had no moral conciousness, the animals would just continue to be the irrational creatures they are, nonetheless, Aesop includes the animals as moral entities that have feelings and thanks to that, the fables can be used to shape a society.

Of course all this morality is made because there is a conduct model to follow. The model implies that we should always be good, intelligent, humble, and patient. Why? Because since ancient Greece, the people in power have had the need of vehicles for implanting in a secret way the moral conduct they expect from their citizens.

Which animal do I prefer? I like the mouse because i´ve always been a little kid. The mouse is a symbol for that cunningness that does not need a big body to exist. The little rodent is intelligent and is very aware of his physical limitations. Because he is aware of what he has and what he doesn´t, the mouse can twist things into his way with his intelligence.

Fables that I remember I can really count very ferw. One that I still remember pretty well is the one between the turtle and the hare. This in setting and characters is very similar to Aesop´s fable, the only difference is that this fable is a little longer than the ones read. Their common link is the instructive nature of the text, the animals, and their voices.

If you have a little kid, don´t pass the opportunity to show him Aesop´s work. Recently in youtube, there is a channel that has made a cartoon of every fable... don´t forget to check it out.

Fables are fundamentals to virtue, virtue is necessary for society. This three elements interrelate to create a perfect way of living in which the youth learns proper behavior from adults that have a clear idea of what is good and what is bad.

Pindar´s Poems

Pindar, a lonely boy with a very blurry past created one of the best sets of poems in Greek culture; In this entry we shall analyze his poems regarding sporting events which generated a sense of honor in the Greeks. 

What is the form of the poems? Verse, a structure different from prose but with no apparent metric sequence.

In poetical language, which literary figures can be found? 

"Pero sobre ti la lira de grata voz"

Personification by attributing the capacity of voice to a musical intrument.

We can also find extended metaphors, and an hiperbaton in the text about Aphrodite.

Are there metaphors?

Hades, the final destination for the athletes. This is the place in which they are rewarded. But why Hades? Because it represents the least desired place in which to be. Hades will test the athletes will and tenancy, and will make them reconsider if they will have the strength necessary to enter themselves into the infra-world.

The theme of the poems is definitely honor. This quality is of vital importance in Ancient Greece. Losing your honor meant that you were no longer a complete one self, but a man that is missing his most important mask. Honor represents the virtue and well behavior of the athletes. They participate in sporting events because they want to bring honor, recognition, to their family names. Obtaining the favor of the gods is the ultimate prize. Being oneself with divinity.

Regarding the tone and symbols, the majority of the voice in Pindar´s Poems is a voice of exaltation. The duty of him is to create knowledge of the actions performed by the athlete through his poems. The symbols are very easy to understand. The athlete represents the human composition of the universe: fatal, capable of blunder, but also full of will and effort. On the other hand we can find the gods: the perfect beings that will give a judgement of the athletes’ performance. 

Why sports? Sports were not solely an activity to exercise the body, but a social and athletic way to demonstrate virtue. The sport was not the important thing, but the honor of participating and competing with fellow athletes to prove who is really the supreme being above them all.

Pindar´s fantastic work helps the present worldview to incorporate the universe of sports. he was, in a way, the first sport´s journalist that recorded the adventures of those who with dignity gave their bodies to the gods. 

Medea

We know for a fact that the most dangerous thing in this world is a women in a jealous rage. Beware, they turn nasty and make some actions that are above anything you´ve ever thought. This is the case of a once nice lady called Medea. The wife of the powerful Jason was tricked by his wife after she discovered that he wanted to marry another girl. Boys, don´t ever make a girl jealous for they will eventually take revenge and take everything from you.

The following  represents an in-depth analysis of the key characters of the play.

Medea:

Physically:  Beautiful. She was not Greek, but a slav that was acquired by Jason in the war

Morally: Rational, cold, meticulous.

Type of character: Symbolic and Human

Due to its role: protagonist

Due to its importance: Principal

Jason:

Physically:  A warrior of fearsome strength. Greek.

Morally: Weak, egoist, a very amitious person that is determined to do anything for power.

Type of character: Arquetypical

Due to its role: the prime antagonist

Due to its importance: principal character

Creon:

Physically:  Old but still with vestiges of the athletic warrior body he once had

Morally: Innocent, naive, a devoted father

Type of character: Symbolic

Due to its role: secondary character

Due to its importance: secondary character

It is time to reach the core of the problem. Who is guilty of the tragedy? I´d say that Jason and his selfishness. He already had a good life and a beautiful devoted wife, but that was not enough for him and he cherished the position in Corinth. The betrayal of Jason occurs because he is offered and position and thus, becomes tempted by power.

Is it a punishment or a vengeance the actions performed by Medea? I think that it is vengeance because she organizes everything in a calculated manner so that his actions can inflict psychological damage to his husband. The most shocking scene involves Medea killing his own children. Why would she do this? To communicate that she can do anything to make Jason feel guilty, to state that she is independent and that she also has power in her force. 

Medea marks the first appearence of a feminist figure in Greek literature. She breaks the chains imposed by men and makes bold actions that converted her into one of the key figures in the movement of women power.

Aegeus represents the figure of a devoted father that wants to be the middle ground between two opposing parties. Without a balance, the two counterparts could not have had delivered such a wonderful tragedy.

Could there had been another ending to this literary work? Why, of course there could have been, but the ending scene is so dynamic and deep that I can´t imagine Medea as a wife that would endure the actions of a selfish husband. Medea acted because she had to defend her dignity, an though her actions were harsh, her feeling is in a way, justified. 

The Wasps

Aristophanes was a Greek author that achieved recognition by his satirical works. In this entry we will analize his most famous book, The Wasps, an introspective of the Greek political and justice system by a wealthy family, their servants, and dogs.

What kind of author is Aristophanes? He was a well educated Greek kid that had a clear view of the flaws in the system that he lived in. Thus, Aristophanes decided that the central theme of the majority of his plays would be destined to communicating these flaws in a satirical manner.

Taking this in account we can expect Aristophanes to direct himself into a sophisticated segment of the Greek population that had at least a general idea of their political background and ruling system. The people that read The Wasps, are often in the search of the meaning of justice and the platonic state of fairness. There is a hidden contract behind the plot: by reading this book your inner political dogmas can be challanged, you may be put to justice, you may doubt of the stand you made the day before. It implies an educated reader.

First of all let´s establish that The Wasps has a very strong historical and political foundation. In the middle of the Pelopennisian War, Greece had gotten the upper hand against a weakened Sparta, now, sensing the opportunity to finish the war, Greece supported the reckless King Cleon to go in an all out offensive against their neighbours. The old corrupt king spread his evil seed through Athens, forcing Pericles out of the fray and installing a reign of utter chaos and corruption.


The plot is also heavily influenced by the personal affairs between Philocleon and Bdelycleon. The relationship of father and son limits Aristophanes to use certain endings and also forces him to expand upon their relationship so that the reader can grasp the dichotomy of justice and family. The paradigm to be broken in here is the "father teaches the son". In this case, the son has a wiser an clearer conception of rightfulness.

Of course, the center of the argument relies on justice. What is justice? Can it be relative or is it absolut? Bdelycleon want to unravel the truth about justice to his father and also make him realize that he is an old man obsessed with putting people to trial. The characters are simple intruments employed by Aristophanes to teach a moral play about justice.

The wit behind The Wasps is the absurdity of using a comedy as a lesson about justice. Why a comedy though? A cynical tactic deployed by our playwriter. He is so enraged and frustrated by the regime of Cleon and the corruption in the polis that he decides to mock them by using an often low valued literary form (the comedy) as a bridge to communicate his discomfort.

Justice was absolutely everything to the Greeks in those days. I mean, land and system were the key  to achieve such a great status. Justice meant that the ones in power could condemn those that they despised. Justice was the key that unlocked the door to corruption, that is why it was so cherished by the Greeks. This brings us to another important thought about Philocleon and Bdelycleon...¿is it a love-hate relationship or a justice-injustice one? I would ammend this sentence and state that it  is a love for justice relationship in which Philocleon has a distortioned image of justice because he is obsessed with it. The love of justice is the converging point between the two characters. The problem resides in the ambiguity of the term "justice"; Bdelycleon must drag his father down from the clouds and teach him again the basics of justice.The structure of The Wasps is odd for a comedy, many tragedies have followed this template and it is something to note by Aristophanes. The mise-en-scene used in this play is very sober: very few characters, an animal, and two characters that are surrounded by props such as the house and the jury room.

We can find many examples of Aristophane´s The Wasps in modern culture because he placed the first brick in the creation of the parody. This type of satirical creation focuses on using irony to demonstrate the flaws of a system, person, or thing. Irony has been well used by key figures in the world, most of them well read and outspoken, have mocked institutions and people through parody. Aristophane´s comedy becomes the fixed structure of parody thanks to the importance and repercussion it had on Greek society.

What if the play was published today? It definitely would not have the same impact because the plot is outdated. Cleon is gone from this world and nobody literally gives any attention to the events that happened in the past. But we can take the idea from the comedy and adapt it into a modern justice dilemma with characters that live today. Imagine having The Wasps criticizing the Mexican political system, that would certainly be a very strong card in the fight against our actual government.

The author has given himself a free reign in the structure for this comedy. The Wasps follows a simple linear plot that never mingles itslef with analepsis or prolepsis. Aristophanes had the choice of using this resources but he went straight into the point, a decision that I applaud.

A narrative technique used by our narrator is lyrical poetry. Why did he use it? Because it was the hot thing in Greece at that moment, if you did not use lyrical poetry in your plays, oh boy, you were in trouble. This technique emphasizes on the expression of emotions by the charactes so that the reader can get a bigger picture of the emotional state of mind of that person.

Athens is Greece, that much is known. Athens is the city of wisdom and any other city is not as majestic as it. And this great city, Athens, is a foreshadowing of our actual world. Corruption, vanity, and wealth were in that time the pillars that supported the political regime. We have a brief but complete grasp of Ancient Greece by looking through the eyes of Bdelycleon and by reading the lines of Aristophanes. Th book itself is an expanded metaphor of the lost values and the apalling ways of living that the Athenians so excitedly supported.

I´ve never been a fan of the chorus in plays. They disappeared because in a way it diminished the importance of the character´s roles. By adding a chorus, many loose ends and previously unknown information by the reader is revealed. The Chorus represents a narrator that is an outsider but is always there in the action.

Let´s move on to the characters. Protagonist: Philocleon, Antagonist: Bdelycleon, Principal characters: the servants, the dog, the chorus (wasps). In this play, we have a protagonist that is the father, an old guy obsessed with putting people (and animals) through trials. The antagonist is a good guy, the son of Philocleon, a young man that will inherit Philocleon´s political rights but sees the need to restitute his father with the correct vision of justice before he dies. The other characters are the servants, whom always ten to be of use to their masters.

How are dialogues performed in the play? We see a new movement in dialogue structure in The Wasps. It distances itself from the technicality of the dialogues of the Odyssey in which epithets and airy language is employed, and executes a simple two-way dialogue that makes the play very user friendly. These dialogues between father and son are in fact a metaphor of a dialogue between the just and the unjust, they symbolically represent these attributes.

It is important to underline the different ideas this text contains, from religious to artistic, social and ethic, but most important political. This is the core of the work by Aristophanes, to communicate a political message disguised by a seemingly simple play.

The audacity in which Aristophanes places symbols is one virtue we have to acknowledge him. The dog as a non-human entity with a trial represents the path of doom that Greece would eventually approach. The figure of the father is the most important figure in Greek culture and because of that Bdelycleon is so determined to save his father.

This work is important to our actual literature because it represent the turning point of play writing with the introduction of the first parody. The Wasps is a comedy that will live on because it is timeless. Change the time, change the setting, and change the characters, but the idea of an evil corrupted regime and a small rightful figure will never cease to exist.