He carefully separates the base of the vase from the rest of the bowl with a fillet or a band of rolled clay, using all the space wisely. ... This shows that Exekias has continued to maximise all of the available space on the interior of the vase also. ... Yet amid all of this action the artist has attempted to portray some artistic innovation. ... Side B depicts the return of the Dioskouri, or the heavenly twins Castor and Polydueces, to the home of their parents King Tyndareus and Queen Leda of Sparta. ... Side A depicts the arming of the Trojan hero hector in the presence of his father, K...

• Word Count: 2963
• Approx Pages: 12
• Grade Level: High School

The epic of Gilgamesh, the king of Uruk, and the Iliad, with its focus on the menis of Achilles, provide a look at heroic life and its relationship with death and immortality. ... This unified epic, where the several episodes are linked together, provides a picture of a heroic king who undergoes development and comes to some sort of understanding of the world where he lives. ... Each is the son of a goddess and a mortal man, a king, who happens to be far away from the action in the epic. ... Gilgamesh begins by outwardly stating that Gilgamesh travels far and sees all, and that his adventures ...

• Word Count: 4256
• Approx Pages: 17
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

These all partake a immense role in the way the story is set up, stemming from the purpose of each character's journey, their personal challenges, and the difficulties that surround them. ... As Ithaca approached, the crew not knowing the contents of the "skin", opened it up and released all of the winds, depositing the ships back at the island of Aeolus, who refused to help them any further. ... There he saw Nausikaa, daughter of king Alkinoos. ... She first took him to the inhabitants of the island, the Phaiakians, and then Alkinoos, the king. ... Telemachos agrees with her orde...

• Word Count: 2524
• Approx Pages: 10
• Grade Level: High School

Greek mythology has one god Zeus who is the highest of all the gods but he has many sons, daughters, brothers, sisters and wife's who make up the rest of the deities.   ... Years went on and no one had written any stories down, but later two men Homer and Hesiod transmitted all the stories they knew into one, they had transmitted stories, poems, songs, and beliefs into one book called the Lliad. The lliad is very similar to the bible in which all the stories and beliefs are compiled into 24 books of literature. ... These oracles were considered the mediator between man and god, they were...

• Word Count: 2584
• Approx Pages: 10
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

And, it is there that we find the earliest traces of heroic epic as well as the concept of a "hero", which "came to mean a superhuman or semi-divine being whose special powers were put forth to save or help all mankind or a favored part of it" (Bloomfield in Jokinen 1996). ... A friend was to be respected at all costs, "the respect one held for a friend was considered equal to the reverence one showed for the gods. ... The main character Beowulf engages in the battle with two monsters Grendel and his mother in order to save the King Hrothgard and his subjects. ... Beowulf fought for his...

• Word Count: 2885
• Approx Pages: 12
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The great attributes of Roman Apollo included divination, healing, music and archery, which all manifest to the sun in some way. ... For this action, Apollo was banished from heaven and endured much suffering on earth, as he was turned into a shepherd for Admetus, king of Thessaly. ... In the future, Cassandra became filled with visions of importance yet no one saw truth in her predictions, specifically the Chorus in "Agamemnon ", who did not believe her cautionary words about the imminent death of her and King Agamemnon. ...

• Word Count: 3073
• Approx Pages: 12
• Has Bibliography

Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy (Ilium) by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles. ... In the second half of the epic, King Latinus offers the hand of his daughter, Lavinia, to Aeneas in marriage, and Juno responds by inciting rage in the hearts of Queen Amata and Turnus and then opening the Gates of War. ... For all this, a goddess near to Jupiter favored them above all the men around them. These goddesses had another motivation, however, for favoring ...

• Word Count: 8864
• Approx Pages: 35
• Grade Level: High School