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Pentalogies
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 Shi ... [...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 classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek Dark Ages, Dark Ages (), the Archaic Greece, Archaic or Homeric Greek, Homeric period (), and the Classical Greece, Classical period (). Ancient Greek was the language of Homer and of fifth-century Athens, fifth-century Athenian historians, playwrights, and Ancient Greek philosophy, 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 Homeric Greek, Epic and Classical periods of the language, which are the best-attested periods and considered most typical of Ancient Greek. From the Hellenistic period (), Ancient Greek was followed by Koine Greek, which is regar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amir Khusro
Abu'l Hasan Yamīn ud-Dīn Khusrau (1253 – 1325 AD), better known as Amīr Khusrau, sometimes spelled as, Amir Khusrow or Amir Khusro, was an Indo-Persian culture, Indo-Persian Sufi singer, musician, poet and scholar, who lived during the period of the Delhi Sultanate. He is an iconic figure in the cultural history of the Indian subcontinent. He was a mysticism, mystic and a spiritual disciple of Nizamuddin Auliya of Delhi, India. He wrote poetry primarily in Persian language, Persian, but also in Hindustani language, Hindavi and Punjabi language, Punjabi. A vocabulary in verse, the ''Ḳhāliq Bārī'', containing Arabic, Persian and Hindavi terms is often attributed to him. Khusrau is sometimes referred to as the "voice of India" or "Parrot of India" (''Tuti-e-Hind''). Khusrau is regarded as the "father of qawwali" (a devotional form of singing of the Sufis in the Indian subcontinent), and introduced the ghazal style of song into India, both of which still exist widely in I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quincunx
A quincunx ( ) is a geometry, geometric pattern consisting of five points arranged in a cross, with four of them forming a Square (geometry), 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 (coin), quincunx was originally a coin issued by the Roman Republic , whose value was five twelfths (''quinque'' and ''uncia'') of an as (coin), as, the Roman standard aes grave, 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. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lodovico Castelvetro
Lodovico Castelvetro (23 March 1556) 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. Biography Castelvetro was born into a noble family of Modena. He was carefully educated, attended the universities of Bologna, Ferrara, Padua, and Siena - in that order - and to please his father took the degree of Doctor of Laws at Siena. Poor health compelled him to retire to Modena, where he became an active encourager of literature. In 1553 began his bitter quarrel with Annibale Caro, arising out of Castelvetro's criticism of Caro's canzone: ''Venite a l'ombra de gran gigli d'oro''; in the course of this controversy each was charged with attempting to get the other murdered. The Roman inquisition became a force in Modena during the papacy of Pope Paul IV, who opposed ... [...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 (; 23 April or August 1484 – 21 October 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 Padua on 23 April or August 1484, though his son later claimed that he was born at the Rocca di Riva, on Lake Garda. There are two accounts of his life, his own and that of his critics. His own acc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seneca The Younger
Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger ( ; AD 65), usually known mononymously as Seneca, was a Stoicism, Stoic philosopher of Ancient Rome, a statesman, a dramatist, and in one work, a satirist, from the post-Augustan age of Latin literature. Seneca was born in Córdoba, Spain, Colonia Patricia Corduba in Hispania, and was trained in rhetoric and philosophy in Rome. 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 executed by forced suicide for alleged complicity in the Pisonian conspiracy to Assassination, assassinate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Euripides
Euripides () was a Greek tragedy, 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 (play), 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 have profoundly influ ... [...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 born in Edinburgh, the only son of Mary, the daughter of James Reid, a shipowner from Fraserburgh and James Martin, a solicitor. He was educated at the Royal High School (Edinburgh), Royal High School and attended the University of Edinburgh from 1830-1833. 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 ''The Bon Gaultier Ballads, 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 Alighieri, Dante's ''Vita Nuova'', Adam Oehlenschläger, Oehlenschläger's ''Correggio (play), Correggio'' and ''Aladdin'', Heinrich Heine's ''Poems and Balla ... [...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 of the United Kingdom, Poet Laureate. He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration (England), Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden. Romantic era, Romantic 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 Church, Aldwincle, All Saints. He was the eldest of fourteen children born to Erasmus Dryden and wife Mary Pickering, paternal grandson of Sir Erasmus Dryden, 1st Baronet, Sir Erasmus Dryden, 1st BaroneSir Erasmus Dryden, 1st Baronet, 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 Jonath ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Horace
Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 BC – 27 November 8 BC), Suetonius, Life of Horace commonly 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 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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brander Matthews
James Brander Matthews (February 21, 1852 – March 31, 1929) was an American academic, writer and literary critic. He was the first full-time professor of dramatic literature at Columbia University in New York and played a significant role in establishing theater as a subject worthy of formal study by academics. His interests ranged from Shakespeare, Molière, and Ibsen to French boulevard comedies, folk theater, and the new realism of his own time. Early life Matthews was born to a wealthy family in New Orleans and grew up in New York City. He attended Columbia College of Columbia University, Columbia College, graduating in 1871. There, he was a member of the Philolexian Society and the fraternity of Delta Psi (St. Anthony Hall). He graduated from Columbia Law School in 1873.Negus, W. H. (1900).Delta Psi". In Maxwell, W. J. (ed.). ''Greek Lettermen of Washington''. New York, New York: The Umbdenstock Publishing Co. pp. 231–234. However, he demonstrated no real interest in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
