Brief history of the Trojan War

The war originated from a quarrel between the goddesses Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite, after Eris, the goddess of discord, gave them a golden apple, sometimes known as the Apple of Discord, marked for the fairest. Zeus sent the goddesses to Paris, who judged that Aphrodite was the fairest (who promised him the most beautiful woman), should receive the apple. In exchange, Aphrodite made Helen, the most beautiful of all women and wife of Menelaus, fall in love with Paris, who took her to Troy. Gods and goddesses are self-centered, selfish and corrupt. They are self-centered because each goddess believes she deserves the golden apple. They are selfish because they will do anything to be chosen and they're corrupt because they try to bribe Paris. If these were my gods and goddesses, I would be rather disappointed. They should be the ones to set the moral and ethical code and conduct. I think Gerard Butler would have played a good Achilles because is buff, can kick butt, and looks like he is from the Mediterranean.
Helen of Troy
  






























Gerard Butler

Story of Joseph King James Verison/Koran

 Israel's favoritism toward Joseph caused his half brothers to hate him, and when Joseph was seventeen years old he had two dreams that made his brothers plot his demise. In the first dream, Joseph and his brothers gathered bundles of grain. Then, all of the grain bundles that had been prepared by the brothers gathered around Joseph's bundle and bowed down to it. In the second dream, the sun (father), the moon (mother) and eleven stars (brothers) bowed down to Joseph himself. When he told these two dreams to his brothers, they despised him for the implications that the family would be bowing down to Joseph. They became jealous that their father would even ponder over Joseph's words concerning these dreams. While serving in Potiphar's household Yahweh was with Joseph so that he prospered in everything he did. Joseph found favor in the sight of Potiphar and so he became his personal servant. Then Joseph was promoted to oversee Potiphar's entire household as a superintendent. After some time, Potiphar's wife began to desire Joseph and sought to have an affair with him. Despite her persistence, he refused to have sex with her for fear of sinning against God. After some days of begging for him, she grabbed him by his cloak, but he escaped from her leaving his garment behind. Angered by his running away from her, she took his garment and made a false claim against him by charging that he tried have sex with her. This resulted in Joseph being thrown into prison. Joseph is an epic hero because he over comes all kinds of trials and, through Yahweh, is able to predict the future through the Pharoh's dreams. Joseph said to store grain for seven years while crops were plentiful and this would let the people of Egypt to survive for the seven years of famine to follow. All the people of Egypt and all the people of the surrounding areas are affected by Joseph's decision. People from the surrounding areas are coming to Egypt to buy grain because they're in famine too. Jacob sends his sons to Egypt to buy grain and they are unaware of who they are talking to you until Joseph tells them. They are shocked to see their brother doing so well in Egypt and that he is to see over all the land of Egypt.

The King James Verison of the Story of Joseph is 340 or so versus and approximately 8000 words. The Koran verison is 100 versus and has less than 1200 words. The Koran does not leave anything important out but it doesn't use any formal names except for Joseph and Jacob.

Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics books VIII & IX

There are three kinds of friendship. The first is friendship based on utility, where both people derive some benefit from each other. The second is friendship based on pleasure, where both people are drawn to the other’s wit, good looks, or other pleasant qualities. The third is friendship based on goodness, where both people admire the other’s goodness and help one another strive for goodness. The first two kinds of friendship are accidental because these friends are motivated by their own utility and pleasure, not by anything essential to the nature of the friend. Both of these friendships are short-lived because one’s needs and pleasures are apt to change over time. Goodness is an enduring quality, so friendships based on goodness tend to be long lasting. This friendship encompasses the other two, as good friends are useful to one another and please one another. The song Crash and Burn by Savage Garden can be compared to the first type of friendship where both people derive some benefit from each other. It talks about two people who are lonely and use each other for company. "Let me be the one you call/If you jump I'll break your fall/Lift you up and fly away with you into the night/If you need to fall apart/I can mend a broken heart/If you need to crash then crash and burn/You're not alone" Aristotle says "Between friends there is no need for justice, but people who are just still need the quality of friendship; and indeed friendliness is considered to be justice in the fullest sense. It is not only a necessary thing but a splendid one."

"Crash And Burn"

When you feel all alone
And the world has turned its back on you
Give me a moment please to tame your wild wild heart
I know you feel like the walls are closing in on you
It's hard to find relief and people can be so cold
When darkness is upon your door and you feel like you can't take anymore

Let me be the one you call
If you jump I'll break your fall
Lift you up and fly away with you into the night
If you need to fall apart
I can mend a broken heart
If you need to crash then crash and burn
You're not alone

When you feel all alone
And a loyal friend is hard to find
You're caught in a one way street
With the monsters in your head
When hopes and dreams are far away and
You feel like you can't face the day

Let me be the one you call
If you jump I'll break your fall
Lift you up and fly away with you into the night
If you need to fall apart
I can mend a broken heart
If you need to crash then crash and burn
You're not alone

'Cause there has always been heartache and pain
And when it's over you'll breathe again
You'll breath again

When you feel all alone
And the world has turned its back on you
Give me a moment please
To tame your wild wild heart

Let me be the one you call
If you jump I'll break your fall
Lift you up and fly away with you into the night
If you need to fall apart
I can mend a broken heart
If you need to crash then crash and burn
You're not alone

www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjGSXGCi4Fc

Socrates Apology by Plato

The Apology is Plato's version of the speech given by Socrates as he unsuccessfully defended himself against the charges of "corrupting the young, and by not believing in the gods in whom the city believes". He did believe in the gods but questioned their abilities. “I am that gadfly which God has attached to the state, and all day long …arousing and persuading and reproaching…You will not easily find another like me.” A gadfly is a person who upsets the status quo by posing upsetting or novel questions, or just being an irritant. The term has been used to describe many politicians and social commentators. It describes Socrates'' relationship of uncomfortable goad to the Athenian political scene, which he compared to a slow and dimwitted horse. During his defense when on trial for his life, Socrates, according to Plato's writings, pointed out that dissent, like the gadfly, was easy to swat, but the cost to society of silencing individuals who were irritating could be very high. "If you kill a man like me, you will injure yourselves more than you will injure me."  Socrates interpreted his life's mission as proof that true wisdom belongs to the gods and that human wisdom and achievements have little or no value. Socrates states clearly that a lawful superior, whether human or divine, should be obeyed. If there is a clash between the two, however, divine authority should take precedence. "Gentlemen, I am your grateful and devoted servant, but I owe a greater obedience to God than to you; and as long as I draw breath and have my faculties I shall never stop practicing philosophy". Since Socrates has interpreted the Delphic Oracle as singling him out to spur his fellow Athenians to a greater awareness of moral goodness and truth, he will not stop questioning and arguing should the people forbid him to do so. He is not afraid of death, because he is more concerned about whether he is acting rightly or wrongly. Socrates argues that those who fear death are showing their ignorance: death may be a great blessing, but many people fear it as an evil when they cannot possibly know it to be such. He will not break down in tears, nor will he produce his three sons in the hope of swaying the judges. He does not fear death; nor will he act in a way contrary to his religious duty.

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner's Prologue and Tale/Chaucer's Retraction

Pardoner: 1) one who pardons. 2) (during the middle ages) an ecclesiastical official authorized to sell indulgences.
Indulgence: the act or practice of indulging; gratification of desire.
Relic: a surviving memorial of something past.


The Pardoner's Tale is an exemplum, a moral anecdote, brief or extended, real or fictitious, used to illustrate a point. The tale is about three men, who after a night of drinking, decide to kill Death for taking their friend and all the good people away. An old man tells them that he has asked Death to take him but has failed. He then says they can find Death at the foot of an oak tree. When the men arrive at the tree, they find a large number of gold coins and forget about their quest to kill Death. They decide that they would sleep at the oak tree over night, so they can take the coins in the morning. The three men draw straws to see who among them should fetch wine and food while the other two wait under the tree. The youngest of the three men drew the shortest straw. The older two plot to stab the other one when he returns, while the one who leaves for the town plots to lace the wine with rat poison. When he returns with the food and drink, the other two kill him and drink the poisoned wine, dying painful deaths. All three have found death under the oak tree.
Radix malorum est cupiditas means covetousness is the root of evil. In the prologue, the Pardoner acknowledges that he is full of sin "My mind is fixed on what I stand to win and not at all upon correcting sin. I do not care, when they are in the grave, if souls go berry-picking that I could save. . .For by this text I can denounce, indeed, the very vice I practice, which is greed." He tells the host and the other people that he is greedy, doesn't care about the people he pardons, and sells fake relics. At the end of his tale, the Pardoner tells the host and the people to come forward with their pennies and he will pardon them. The Pardoner mentioned "a draughte of corny strong ale", which could mean he is drunk. If drunk, it explains why he tells about his faulty sin and in the end asks everyone to come be pardon; everyone already knows that the pardons would be lies and he would keep the money out of greed.
Jeweled Cross and Pigs bones, relics of the Pardoner.

Chaucer's Retraction is the final section of The Canterbury Tales. It is written as an apology, where Geoffrey Chaucer asks for forgiveness for the vulgar parts of this and other works, and seeks absolution for his sins. It is not clear whether these are sincere declarations of remorse on Chaucer's part, a continuation of the theme of penitence from the Parson's Tale, or simply a way to advertise the rest of his works. It is also unclear if the retraction was an integral part of the Canterbury Tales or if it was the equivalent of a death bed confession which became attached to this, his most popular work.

The Merchants Tale

Fabliaux is a short metrical tale, usually ribald and humorous, popular in medieval France. The Merchants Tale and Lyin' Eyes are the same. Both talk about a young woman with an older man. Both talk about a young woman who ends up having an affair with a young man. In the Merchants Tale, May tells her husband, January, that she did to get his eye sight back. This story is a didactic. It instructs older men to be aware of young brides, for they may go astray.

Imperatrix/Introduction to Geoffrey Chaucer

According to Aelfric, the three medieval estates are the laboratores (those who labor for our living), the oratores (those who plead for our peace with God), and the bellatores (those who battle to protect our towns and defend our land against an invading army).
In the Frame tale, Chaucer doesn't describe the stories but describes the people who tells their tales. The frame tale is an estates satire because it's a genre that satirizes the corruption that happens within the three medieval social estates (clergy, nobility, and peasantry). However, the general prologue provides an ideal member of each estate as a model with which the others can be compared and contrasted, giving examples of their faults and virtues.