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Pentalogy
A pentalogy (from Greek πεντα- '' penta-'', "five" and -λογία ''-logia'', "discourse") is a compound literary or narrative work that is explicitly divided into five parts. Although modern use of the word implies both that the parts are reasonably self-contained and that the structure was intended by the author, historically, neither was necessarily true: in fact, a ''pentalogia'' could be assembled by a later editor, just as Plotinus's ''Enneads'' were arranged in nines by Porphyry in order to create an overarching structure of six which would express the idea of perfection. Overview In Western literature, the oldest quinary structure with great influence is the Torah or Pentateuch; in the Far East, it is the Five Classics. The most famous pentalogy in medieval literature is Nizami Ganjavi's ''Panj Ganj'', or ''Khamsa'' ("Five Treasures"), a collection of five epics which was composed in the latter half of the 12th century. They were '' Makhzan al-Asrar'', '' Khusraw o S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Penta-
Numeral or number prefixes are prefixes derived from numerals or occasionally other numbers. In English and many other languages, they are used to coin numerous series of words. For example: * unicycle, bicycle, tricycle (1-cycle, 2-cycle, 3-cycle) * dyad, triad (2 parts, 3 parts) * biped, quadruped (2 legs, 4 legs) * September, October, November, December (month 7, month 8, month 9, month 10) * decimal, hexadecimal (base-10, base-16) * septuagenarian, octogenarian (70-79 years old, 80-89 years old) * centipede, millipede (around 100 legs, around 1000 legs) In many European languages there are two principal systems, taken from Latin and Greek, each with several subsystems; in addition, Sanskrit occupies a marginal position. There is also an international set of metric prefixes, which are used in the metric system and which for the most part are either distorted from the forms below or not based on actual number words. Table of number prefixes in English In the following p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic period (), and the Classical period (). Ancient Greek was the language of Homer and of fifth-century Athenian historians, playwrights, and philosophers. It has contributed many words to English vocabulary and has been a standard subject of study in educational institutions of the Western world since the Renaissance. This article primarily contains information about the Epic and Classical periods of the language. From the Hellenistic period (), Ancient Greek was followed by Koine Greek, which is regarded as a separate historical stage, although its earliest form closely resembles Attic Greek and its latest form approaches Medieval Greek. There were several regional dialects of Ancient Greek, of which Attic Greek developed into Koi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lawrence Durrell
Lawrence George Durrell (; 27 February 1912 – 7 November 1990) was an expatriate British novelist, poet, dramatist, and travel writer. He was the eldest brother of naturalist and writer Gerald Durrell. Born in India to British colonial parents, he was sent to England at the age of eleven for his education. He did not like formal education, but started writing poetry at age 15. His first book was published in 1935, when he was 23. In March 1935 he and his mother and younger siblings moved to the island of Corfu. Durrell spent many years thereafter living around the world. His most famous work is '' The Alexandria Quartet,'' published between 1957 and 1960. The best-known novel in the series is the first, '' Justine''. Beginning in 1974, Durrell published ''The Avignon Quintet,'' using many of the same techniques. The first of these novels, '' Monsieur, or the Prince of Darkness,'' won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1974. The middle novel, '' Constance, or Solitary ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quincunx
A quincunx () is a geometric pattern consisting of five points arranged in a cross, with four of them forming a square or rectangle and a fifth at its center. The same pattern has other names, including "in saltire" or "in cross" in heraldry (depending on the orientation of the outer square), the five-point stencil in numerical analysis, and the five dots tattoo. It forms the arrangement of five units in the pattern corresponding to the five-spot on six-sided dice, playing cards, and dominoes. It is represented in Unicode as or (for the die pattern) . Historical origins of the name The quincunx was originally a coin issued by the Roman Republic c. 211–200 BC, whose value was five twelfths (''quinque'' and ''uncia'') of an as, the Roman standard bronze coin. On the Roman quincunx coins, the value was sometimes indicated by a pattern of five dots or pellets. However, these dots were not always arranged in a quincunx pattern. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lodovico Castelvetro
Lodovico Castelvetro (ca. 1505–1571) was an important figure in the development of neo-classicism, especially in drama. It was his reading of Aristotle that led to a widespread adoption of a tight version of the Three Unities, as a dramatic standard. Castelvetro was born in Modena, Italy, and died in Chiavenna. Works His ''Poetica d'Aristotele vulgarizzata e sposta'' ("The Poetics of Aristotle translated in the Vulgar Language and commented on") was called the most famous Italian Renaissance commentary on Aristotle's ''Poetics.''Preminger, Alex and T. V. F. Brogan, et al., ''The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics'', 1993. New York: MJF Books/Fine Communications His supposed involvement in translation of Protestant texts caused him trouble with the Church. He was labelled a heretic in 1557, and lived in exile from his native Italy (he was born near Modena). His ''Giunta,'' a commentary on the '' Prose della volgar lingua'' by Pietro Bembo, is one of the earl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Antonio Minturno
Antonio Sebastiano Minturno (1500–1574) was an Italian poet and critic, and Bishop of Ugento. His influential literary theories were largely Aristotelian. He was born at Minturno, then part of the Kingdom of Naples. Biography The name Minturno, by which alone Sebastiano is remembered, is said to have been taken from an old city in the Kingdom of Naples named Minturna, which had existed near Traetto where he was born. He studied philosophy with Agostino Nifo in Naples, and followed him to Sessa and Pisa. In 1521 he went to Rome, where he was protected by the Colonnas. In their castle of Genazzano he learned Greek from a certain maestro Paolo, and made some progress in Hebrew. In order to escape the plague he left Rome in 1523 and returned to Sessa, where he studied mathematics, and thence to Naples. At this time he took up the composition of vernacular verse. The wars caused him to remove to Sicily, where the viceroy Monteleone welcomed him and granted him a pension of 2 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Julius Caesar Scaliger
Julius Caesar Scaliger (; April 23, 1484 – October 21, 1558), or Giulio Cesare della Scala, was an Italian scholar and physician, who spent a major part of his career in France. He employed the techniques and discoveries of Renaissance humanism to defend Aristotelianism against the New Learning. In spite of his contentious disposition, his contemporary reputation was high. Jacques Auguste de Thou claimed that none of the ancients could be placed above him and that he had no equal in his own time. Biography Scaliger's father, Benedetto Bordone, was a miniaturist and illuminator. Scaliger himself was known in his youth by the family name Bordone, but later insisted that he was a scion of the house of La Scala, for a hundred and fifty years lords of Verona. He was born in 1484 at the Rocca di Riva, on Lake Garda. There are two accounts of his life, his own and that of his critics. His own account When he was twelve, his kinsman the emperor Maximilian placed him among his pages ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seneca The Younger
Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger (; 65 AD), usually known mononymously as Seneca, was a Stoic philosopher of Ancient Rome, a statesman, dramatist, and, in one work, satirist, from the post-Augustan age of Latin literature. Seneca was born in Córdoba in Hispania, and raised in Rome, where he was trained in rhetoric and philosophy. His father was Seneca the Elder, his elder brother was Lucius Junius Gallio Annaeanus, and his nephew was the poet Lucan. In AD 41, Seneca was exiled to the island of Corsica under emperor Claudius, but was allowed to return in 49 to become a tutor to Nero. When Nero became emperor in 54, Seneca became his advisor and, together with the praetorian prefect Sextus Afranius Burrus, provided competent government for the first five years of Nero's reign. Seneca's influence over Nero declined with time, and in 65 Seneca was forced to take his own life for alleged complicity in the Pisonian conspiracy to assassinate Nero, in which he was probably ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Euripides
Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to him, but the '' Suda'' says it was ninety-two at most. Of these, eighteen or nineteen have survived more or less complete ('' Rhesus'' is suspect). There are many fragments (some substantial) of most of his other plays. More of his plays have survived intact than those of Aeschylus and Sophocles together, partly because his popularity grew as theirs declinedMoses Hadas, ''Ten Plays by Euripides'', Bantam Classic (2006), Introduction, p. ixhe became, in the Hellenistic Age, a cornerstone of ancient literary education, along with Homer, Demosthenes, and Menander.L.P.E.Parker, ''Euripides: Alcestis'', Oxford University Press (2007), Introduction p. lx Euripides is identified with theatrical innovations that ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theodore Martin
Sir Theodore Martin (16 September 1816 – 18 August 1909) was a Scottish poet, biographer, and translator. Biography Martin was the son of James Martin, a solicitor in Edinburgh, where Theodore was born and educated at the Royal High School and University. He practised as a solicitor in Edinburgh 1840–45, after which he went to London and became head of the firm of Martin and Leslie, parliamentary agents. His first contribution to literature was the humorous '' Bon Gaultier Ballads'', written along with W.E. Aytoun, which remained popular for a long time; originally contributed to a magazine, they appeared in book form in 1845. Martin's translations include Dante's ''Vita Nuova'', Oehlenschläger's ''Correggio'' and ''Aladdin'', Heinrich Heine's '' Poems and Ballads'', Friedrich Schiller's ''Wilhelm Tell'', and Hertz's ''King René's Daughter''.Martin, Theodore. ''King René's daughter: a Danish lyrical drama'', W. Crosby and H.P. Nichols, 1850. He also published a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Dryden
'' John Dryden (; – ) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England's first Poet Laureate. He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden. Romanticist writer Sir Walter Scott called him "Glorious John". Early life Dryden was born in the village rectory of Aldwincle near Thrapston in Northamptonshire, where his maternal grandfather was the rector of All Saints. He was the eldest of fourteen children born to Erasmus Dryden and wife Mary Pickering, paternal grandson of Sir Erasmus Dryden, 1st Barone t (1553–1632), and wife Frances Wilkes, Puritan landowning gentry who supported the Puritan cause and Parliament. He was a second cousin once removed of Jonathan Swift. As a boy, Dryden lived in the nearby village of Titchmarsh, where it is likely that he received his first education. In 1644 he was sent to Westm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Horace
Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 – 27 November 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his '' Odes'' as just about the only Latin lyrics worth reading: "He can be lofty sometimes, yet he is also full of charm and grace, versatile in his figures, and felicitously daring in his choice of words."Quintilian 10.1.96. The only other lyrical poet Quintilian thought comparable with Horace was the now obscure poet/metrical theorist, Caesius Bassus (R. Tarrant, ''Ancient Receptions of Horace'', 280) Horace also crafted elegant hexameter verses ('' Satires'' and ''Epistles'') and caustic iambic poetry ('' Epodes''). The hexameters are amusing yet serious works, friendly in tone, leading the ancient satirist Persius to comment: "as his friend laughs, Horace slyly puts his finger on his every fault; once let in, he plays about the heartstrin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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