Mikunia89's Blog

mikunia89 — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:29:36 +0000

The more Antigone I read the more interesting it gets. This play makes me wonder what is greater the God’s or man’s rule? Antigone admits to committing the crime and they began the discussing about the moral law. Soon Ismene enters and admits to helping Antigone with the crime. Ismene begs Creon for forgiveness on her behalf and on Antigone’s but he is too stubborn. Heamon (Creon’s son and Antigone’s future husband) tries to convince his father to change his judgment and to forgive Antigone. But Creon refuses too and he orders his guards to bury Antigone alive. Teiresias (blind prophet) disapproves of Creons judgment and tells him that Haemon will die as well. Creon does not believe the blind prophet and says he probably got paid to say those things. Creon changes his mind and tells his servants to dig out Antigone. The messengers inform Creon that his son has committed suicide because he was not able to deal with the fact that his love got killed by his father. When Creon’s wife finds out the news that her son committed suicide she kills herself as well. It seems that the whole family got punished by the gods because of King Creon and his law.

mikunia89 — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 04:40:10 +0000

I read a couple of pages of Antigone and the first thing I found interesting is that Antigone’s mother is also her grandmother that’s incest! Maybe that is why she was messed up in the head and that maybe one of the reasons why she committed suicide.

The Antigone starts in the middle of a chat betw een Antigone(the brat) and her sister, Ismene(the beautiful good girl of the family). Antigone is convinced that it is her job to bury her brother Polynices who King Creon (the powerful king of Thebes) forbids the corpse burial. Later on I read that Polynices was a traitor to Thebes and enemy of the city and that is why Creon said he is a disgrace to the family and did not want to bury him. Ismene thinks Antigone is wrong and she just wants to follow Creons order. She does not think it is necessary to break the king’s command for a religious reason. Creon makes an announcement that whoever buries Polynices will be killed. Creons guard tells him that it seems that someone has been burying and blessing Polynices body. Creon gets mad and thinks that the guard himself has buried the corpse for money. Then finally the guard returns to King Creon bringing Antigone and saying that the guards caught her burying Polynices. Antigone admits to burying and blessing Polynices. Creon and Antigone get into a discussion about the moral law.

mikunia89 — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:05:48 +0000

For our next class we have to read a new interesting book called “Sophocles’Antigone”. I am glad we already had an introduction to this book. I learned that “Antigone” is work of Greek tragedy. Tragic plays and comedies were played on three successive days from dusk till dawn. They were sponsored by wealthy Greek families. They happened once a year during the Dionysia (annual Greek festival). In the tragic competition each of three tragic poets wrote, produced and acted in three tragedies on a single theme. Each poet also presented a satyr play (comic relief). Judges chosen by people would pick out the best poet and award them. The purpose of the festival was to honor an ancient God Dionysus. Just like Americans dye the Chicago River green every year on St. Patrick’s Day, Greeks celebrated Dionysia by drinking wine. Dionysus: god of intoxication (wine), fertility and irrationality.

The etymology of the word “tragedy” is “tragos” which means goat in Greek and “ode” which means hymn, song. During the festival, a goat was sacrificed and the satyrs would sing a song for the sacrificed song. I am not sure why Greeks sacrificed goats maybe because they damaged crops or ate grape leaves?

Interesting Picture

(”’Description:”’ Hermes leading a goat to the sacrifice, side A of a red-figure bell crater by Python, ca. 360 BC–350 BC. Terracotta, Paestum, Campania, Italy.
”’Location:”’ Louvre, Department of Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities, Sull)

mikunia89 — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:36:45 +0000

On Wednesday Joseph did a presentation about the famous Queen of Egypt: Cleopatra. She was an interesting individual. She had amazing persuasion powers. By using those powers she won her kingdom from her brother by using Caesars help. She was the last Egyptian queen because after her death Rome took over. Cleopatra and her family were really from Macedonia. Cleopatra spoke 9 languages. She was born in 69 B.C Alexandria, Egypt and died in 12, 30 B.C. The great pharaoh Ptolemy XII Auletes was her father. Cleopatra married many times. When she was seventeen she married her first husband who was her brother Ptolemy VIII and after he died she married the youngest brother Ptolemy XIV. As you can see it was okay to marry your siblings. Later on she married Caesar and Mark Anthony. She had twins with Mark Anthony Ptolemy Philadelphus and Cleopatra Selene. She also had two sons with Caesar named Ptolemy Caesar and Alexander Helios. Everyone in the world sees her as being beautiful but according to coins from back then, she had a hooked nose and some masculine features. After Mark Anthony killed himself, Cleopatra used an asp (an Egyptian cobra snake) to kill herself as well.

My 5th blog entry

mikunia89 — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 01:05:28 +0000

Our class had its first EXAM this week. The questions were relatively easy, except for the essay question, which was worth 60 percent majority of the grade. There were only a couple questions I wasn’t sure of. For instance, I forgot about the Rosetta stone and if the language was changed in 350 BCE or 550 BCE. After some time, I made my way to the essay question. I misread the question and confused immortal with mortal, so I wrote how the gods were supernatural because of their immortality.
Thursday, I was hoping to get the results from the test, but to my surprise Mr. Anderson hadn’t finished grading. We were learning about Socrates and from what I hear he was perhaps the smartest man of his time. However, all the accounts of his life are based on Plato’s books.
Socrates was one of the world’s greatest philosophers. He did something that only a handful of people throughout history have been able to do, and that is to change the whole course of human thought. Socrates was unlike many philosophers because for him the aim of philosophy was not to write down great works of intellectual magnificence. Socrates was primarily interested in searching for and living the real meaning of life. He was not paid of course, and was despised by many sophists because he would have intellectual battles which would leave the sophists speechless.

mikunia89 — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 19:13:44 +0000

I find Herodotus to be one of most important people in history. He was known as the “Father of History” because he was the first historian in world history. He believed in gods. He was an excellent writer. He would always try to make a point in his writing but he did not write poetry. He would always present his sources in his writing or story telling. He would go around different places and interview people about their habits, interests and beliefs. He is best known for his work called “Historians”. The story was about the rise of Persian authority and the war between Persia and Greece. The story contained a lot of information about Egypt’s history, ethnography and geography. He found Egypt to be fascinating because it was so much different then Greek culture. In his story he wrote about Egyptians doing some things backwards for example they would write from right to left instead of left to right. He also wrote about the Egyptian priests had shaven heads and Greeks had long hair on their head. He wrote that Egyptians were the most religious civilization he had ever known. Some skeptics say that he was a liar because some of his stories were by word of mouth.

These are some quotes by Herodotus.

Most of the quotes are about men I wonder why?!?!

Circumstances rule men; men do not rule circumstances.

Great things are won by great dangers.

In soft regions are born soft men.

Men trust their ears less than their eyes.

mikunia89 — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 19:17:07 +0000

I found Wednesdays lecture to be very important and helpful to me for studying Ancient Greek history. So I found out that democracy originated from Athens, Greece. The Athenian democracy (political and agricultural) was supported on its citizens’ capability to have others do its physical work. Wow, they seem pretty lazy. Slavery became very popular to Greeks, and the slaves were the barbarians (non-Greek speaking people) not African-American slaves. Nearly every Greek citizen had at least one slave to do their work.

The Polis also came to my attention which was the Greek city-state or community that formed the cultural life. There was two parts to it. The acropolis (the top of the city) was the fort of a Greek city that took part as a fortification or religious center. The lower part was the agora. Agora took part as a public meeting place, market place and a community center. Greek poleis are remembered by their segregation from one another and their independence. They would always rival with other Greek poleis but they would get together if they were going to rival another country. Sparta was the most powerful of the early Greek city states. They controlled every move of the Spartan people.

mikunia89 — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 02:02:38 +0000

I am so glad the QUIZ is over! Usually, before each quiz, I get really anxious and stress out. I feel like I am going to perform badly. Even if I study, the anxiety does not go away.

I also can’t stand the wait in between handing in the test and the outcome of my grade. However, Mr. Anderson went over the answers right after the class was finished with the test, and I was thrilled to find out I passed with a 100 percent.

I read books 4-6 after Mr. Anderson stated that the class should be completed up to book 6.

The Iliad is finally starting to get interesting. In book 4 the wars get worse. The gods make the Trojans instigate the Greeks. Athena provokes a Trojan to shoot an arrow at a Greek to break the truce. I am greatly interested in knowing why people in this poem think that issues and conflicts can be addressed by killing each other. And I am also interested in knowing the reason behind Diomedes’ cruelty to Aphrodite when she only wanted to help her son.

The sixth book narrates the subject of courage and motherly love. Paris decides to participate in the battle again for a noble purpose of saving his brother. The god are absent in this book which is why the Trojans are weaker. I want to know why Homer did not use the gods in this book, when they are somehow instrumental why the fighting became more serious.

mikunia89 — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 05:10:29 +0000

Few days ago, in my humanities class, I learned a couple remarkable facts about Homer. I found out that Homer lived during 700B.C.E but he his epic poem “Iliad” takes place around 1200B.C.E. Many people were skeptical about Homer writing his epic poems such as the Iliad and Odyssey. Many people thought it was written by more then one person. Several people thought the Trojan War never happened. I also learned about the rhythm Homer uses to write his poem which is dactylic hexameter. It is referred to heroic meter.

I finally got my topic for my presentation which will count for 15 percent of my grade. I picked Mt.Olympus, because it seems pretty interesting to learn about the home to the Gods of Mythology. I am planning on making a power point presentation hoping it will be the easiest way to teach the class. So far the only facts I know about my topic is; where the mountain is located and that it is the highest mountain in Greece. I look forward to learn more about Mt.Olympus. I am very happy the presentation can not be longer then ten minutes. I do not know what I would talk about for ten minutes!