On the subject on self-serving bias, the poet Virgil was slightly biased towards the Greeks. The website hope.edu gave more background upon Virgil than Belleville West’s literature textbooks. Virgil desired to create a war epic, and because he had such an immense capacity for storytelling, it granted a poet “to do for Rome what Homer had done for Greece.” It appears as if Virgil set out to write The Aeneid to bring a sense of victory to Rome, to bring a sense of righteousness to Rome’s citizens. The epic displays the Greeks easily as awful, brutal people, whilst the Trojans are showcased as the victims.
In the play, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, Brutus has just killed Caesar for being what he considers ambitious, and he has spoken to the people of Rome about why he did it. He uses ethos, pathos, and logos to try and persuade the citizens to not punish him for what he has done. He uses ethos by himself being a very honorable and noble person. He was one of Caesar’s closest friends, so he of all people would be the first to find a reason not to kill him. His nobility and honorability showed that he will always do what is best for his country, even if he didn’t want to.
Just because two people are a different race, that does not mean that there can not be similarities between them. A good example of this is in the story To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee, and In the Heat of the Night, by Norman Jewison with the characters Virgil Tibbs and Atticus Finch. Even though Virgil and Atticus appear to be different on the surface, there are many things that link these characters. One thing that links Virgil and Atticus together is that they are very intelligent. In the story To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus shows he is intelligent when he says, “If you'll concede the necessity of going to school, we'll go on reading every night just as we always have” (Lee 3).
The Fourth Bolgia: The Soothsayers: Virgil Reproaches Dante's Pity:- Dante and Virgil descend to the Fourth Bolgia, reserved for the Soothsayers, and Virgil reproaches Dante for his pity. In this Bolgia, Dante meets Amphiaraus, Tiresias, Aruns, Manto, Eryphylus, Michael Scott, Guido Bonatti, and Asdente. The Soothsayers: are punished in the Fourth Bolgia for attempting to predict the future, a power reserved for God. Dante portrays the Soothsayers as walking with their heads turned backwards, preventing them from seeing their path. The punishment is fitting as the Soothsayers attempted to predict the future, but are now compelled to reflect on the past.
Homer compares Sarpedon’s death to a slain bull in order to help the reader understand that his death is essential in weakening the Lycians by sending them into grief. Homer writes in The Iliad, “...spirited bull a lion has killed…” The word “spirited” reminds the reader of life and relates to the religious views of having
In Dante’s Inferno, the character of Virgil acts as a guide through Hell and Purgatory. In addition to this, it is almost universally agreed that Virgil is a depiction of the full extent of human intellect and that he also acts as a microcosm of how a good government should act. There are many reasons for this belief, such as how helpful he is throughout the two books he is in and where he is located in hell. The author Dante does something extra with Virgil and the character Dante though. Virgil is a representation of the Empire like Rome that Dante wanted to be established, and his relationship with Dante is a microcosm of the Church and the State.
One way of how Creon represents the problematic nature of man-made laws is through his character. One characteristic of Creon that leads to his problematic man-made laws is that he is ruthless. Although Polyneices is said to have brought war on the State, he is still considered family. Even then he still shows no pity toward Polyneices. Creon leaves the boys body out for shame and to be eaten by wild animals.
When the poet Virgil wrote the national epic The Aeneid between 29 and 19 BC, all written works and conduits for creative expression were monitored by Roman ruler Augustus Caesar – a real-life contention between passion and control. Throughout the excerpt on pages 139 and 140 of Fagle’s translation (which covers themes such as fate, the gods, and divine intervention, and piety), Virgil explores the underlying theme of conflict between desire and duty, emotion, and reason. Exploring irony, the comparison of Dido and Aeneas’ traits, and pietas being a decision, Virgil shows Aeneas to be a flawed, enigmatic epic Roman hero who personifies the human conflict – passion versus control – of the Aeneid and the Roman empire itself. To begin with, it’s
“Not so self-centered that you never listen to other people” (Hugh Hefner). In the story of Antigone, Creon shows the characteristics of a tragic hero, as he is the king he shows his self-confident and he does not recognize his flaws until the end of the story. All of this leads into his downfall in the tragedy and causes him to realized what he had done. Creon is a tragic hero because of his self-righteousness, his excessive pride, and he does not listen to the opinion of others.
Throughout the Divine Comedy, Virgil served an essential role in guiding and teaching the Pilgrim. By having Virgil be the pilgrims guide, Dante (the author) illustrates how important Virgil is in providing a pagan perspective to the poem. In spite of Virgil’s pagan view, this is seemingly altered through the course of the poem. At multiple points in the inferno and purgatorio Virgil shows signs of change, through actions like confession to his sins and reflecting on why he was placed in Hell. Comparatively though, through Virgil’s actions in other parts of the poem, he also demonstrated not changing in slightest.
The Pursuit of Happiness Who I am today has primarily been dictated by the environment in which I have been raised. I will continue to be molded throughout my life, but now I am entering a period of my life where I will be the one deciding who I am. Today, I am not the person I want to be and not the person who many perceive me to be, but am striving to become the man I want to be. In my life, I constantly find myself trying to balance friends, family, school, and sports.
The Iliad by Homer The Iliad was a really good representation of the chaotic war-torn times of the area surrounding the Mediterranean Sea; this includes the countries Rome and Greece. It was a time where nations were trying to expand their power and influence and warriors were claiming their spoils of war. I mean the beginning of book I of The Iliad, Achilles and Agamemnon are arguing over the rewards and the spoils of war. Agamemnon didn’t want to give up his prize girl Chryses in order to please the God Apollo and stop the plague and the rain of arrow falling from Olympus.
The character Antigone is the protagonist in Antigone, the second play out of the Oedipus Rex trilogy. Out of the trilogy she is apart of she is the most tragic figure, though other claims say that Creon is a more tragic figure. A tragic figure in Greek plays, according to Aristotle, is a fictional character in a story or play that has an error in judgment, known as hamartia. This error of judgment causes his or her own misery, known as peripeteia. In Greek plays, such as the one Antigone premiers in, this person is must be of nobility.
Proving a Tragic Hero A character who makes a judgement or error that inevitably leads to his or her own destruction, defines a tragic hero, according to Aristotle. In William Shakespeare’s writings, one character generally identifies as a tragic hero. Shakespeare’s play, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, comes from the true events that took place in Rome during the time that Caesar rose and gained power as dictator. After Pompey’s death in Egypt; caused by each of their power-hungry desires, Caesar declared himself dictator of Rome.
Moreover, the outcome of the relativism of the faith was the relativism of behavior. When rock solid mores, moral absolutes, give way to relativism, you end up with twentieth-century situation ethics, where morality is dictated by the situation and the subject. Also out of relativism came twentieth-century world-come-of age theology, where the secularity of the world is celebrated. University professors can debate whether relativism is relative, but when wrong becomes right people become confused and disillusioned. 6
