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Eidolons
In ancient Greek literature, an eidolon (; 'image, idol, double, apparition, phantom, ghost'; plural: eidola or eidolons) is a spirit-image of a living or dead person; a shade or phantom look-alike of the human form. In the Homeric epic, it plays two functions: one as an image of the dead; and, as the deceased ''in propria persona''. Literary use The concept of Helen of Troy's eidolon was explored both by Homer and Euripides. Homer uses the concept as a free-standing idea that gives Helen life after death. Euripides entangles it with the idea of '' kleos'', the one being the product of the other. Both Euripides and Stesichorus, in their works concerning the Trojan Horse, use the concept of the eidolon to claim that Helen was never physically present in the city at all. The concept of the eidola of the dead has been explored in literature regarding Penelope, who in later works was constantly laboring against the eidola of Clytemnestra and later of Helen herself. Homer's use o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Odyssey
The ''Odyssey'' (; ) is one of two major epics of ancient Greek literature attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest surviving works of literature and remains popular with modern audiences. Like the ''Iliad'', the ''Odyssey'' is divided into 24 books. It follows the heroic king of Ithaca, Odysseus, also known by the Latin variant Ulysses, and his homecoming journey after the ten-year long Trojan War. His journey from Troy to Ithaca lasts an additional ten years, during which time he encounters many perils and all of his crewmates are killed. In Odysseus's long absence, he is presumed dead, leaving his wife Penelope and son Telemachus to contend with a group of unruly suitors competing for Penelope's hand in marriage. The ''Odyssey'' was first written down in Homeric Greek around the 8th or 7th century BC; by the mid-6th century BC, it had become part of the Greek literary canon. In antiquity, Homer's authorship was taken as true, but contemporary sch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vardøger
Vardøger, also known as ''vardyvle'' or ''vardyger'', is a spirit predecessor in Scandinavian folklore. Stories typically include instances that are nearly déjà vu in substance, but in reverse, where a spirit with the subject's footsteps, voice, scent, or appearance and overall demeanor precedes them in a location or activity, resulting in witnesses believing they have seen or heard the actual person before the person physically arrives. This bears a subtle difference from a doppelgänger, with a less sinister connotation. It has been likened to being a phantom double, or form of bilocation. In Finnish folklore, the concept is known as '' etiäinen''. Originally, vardøger was considered a fylgja and/or vǫrð, a sort of guardian spirit. Thus, a vardöger is the representation of a human's inner essence, which manifests as an animal that most closely resembles the personality of the human. Etymology Vardøgr is a Norwegian word defined as ‘‘premonitory sound or sight ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fetch (folklore)
A fetch is a supernatural double or an apparition of a living person. The sighting of a fetch is regarded as an omen, usually for impending death. Description The fetch is described as an exact, spectral double of a living human, whose appearance is regarded as ominous. A sighting of a fetch is generally taken as a portent of its exemplar's looming death, though John and Michael Banim report that if the double appears in the morning rather than the evening, it is instead a sign of a long life in store. As such, it is similar to the Germanic doppelgänger and to some conceptions of the British wraith. Francis Grose associated the term with Northern England in his 1787 ''Provincial Glossary''. Origins and etymology The etymology of ''fetch'' is obscure and the origin of the term is unknown. It may derive from the verb "fetch"; the compound "fetch-life", evidently referring to a psychopomp who "fetches" the souls of the dying, is attested in Richard Stanyhurst's 1583 translatio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Etiäinen
In Finnish folklore, all places and things, and also human beings, have a haltija (a genius, guardian spirit) of their own. One such haltija is called etiäinen—an image, doppelgänger, or just an impression that goes ahead of a person, doing things the person in question later does. For example, people waiting for someone at home might hear the door close, as if the one they're waiting for arrived, or even see their shadow or a silhouette, only to realize that they haven't arrived yet after all. When the person finally comes home, they would repeat the actions of their etiäinen that the people waiting witnessed earlier. Etiäinen can also refer to some kind of a feeling that something is going to happen. Sometimes it could, for example, warn of a bad year coming.Virtanen, Leea, and DuBois, Thomas Andrew. Finnish folklore. Finland, Finnish Literature Society, 2000. In modern Finnish, the term has detached from its shamanistic origins and refers to premonition. Unlike clairv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Doppelgänger
A doppelgänger ( ), sometimes spelled doppelgaenger or doppelganger, is a ghostly double of a living person, especially one that haunts its own fleshly counterpart. In fiction and mythology, a doppelgänger is often portrayed as a ghostly or paranormal phenomenon and usually seen as a harbinger of bad luck. Other traditions and stories equate a doppelgänger with an evil twin. In modern times, the term twin stranger is occasionally used. Spelling The word "doppelgänger" is a loanword from the German noun , literally meaning "double-walker". The singular and plural forms are the same in German, but English writers usually prefer the plural "doppelgängers". In German, there is also a feminine form, (plural ). The first-known use, in the form , occurs in the novel '' Siebenkäs'' (1796) by Jean Paul, in which he explains his newly coined word in a footnote; the word also appears in the novel, but with a different meaning. In German, the word is written (as is usual with Ge ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sandeep Parmar
Sandeep Parmar is a contemporary poet, who was born in Nottingham, England, and raised in Southern California. She currently lives in London. Parmar is a Professor of English Literature at the University of Liverpool. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the Royal Society of Arts. Her poetry collections include ''The Marble Orchard'' (Shearsman 2012), ''Eidolon'' (Shearsman 2015) and ''Faust'' (Shearsman 2022). She is also the author of ''Reading Mina Loy's Autobiographies: Myth of the Modern Woman'' (Bloomsbury 2013), and the editor of ''The Collected Poems of Hope Mirrlees'' (Carcanet 2011) and Nancy Cunard's ''Selected Poems'' (Carcanet 2016). See also * British Poetry Revival * Nancy Cunard * Hope Mirrlees * Mina Loy Mina Loy (born Mina Gertrude Löwy; 27 December 1882 – 25 September 1966) was a British-born artist, writer, poet, playwright, novelist, painter, designer of lamps, and bohemian. She was one of the last of the first-generation modern ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walt Whitman
Walter Whitman Jr. (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist, and journalist; he also wrote two novels. He is considered one of the most influential poets in American literature and world literature. Whitman incorporated both transcendentalism and literary realism, realism in his writings and is often called the father of free verse. His work was controversial in his time, particularly his 1855 poetry collection ''Leaves of Grass'', which was described by some as obscene for its overt sensuality. Whitman was born in Huntington, New York, Huntington on Long Island and lived in Brooklyn as a child and through much of his career. At age 11, he left formal schooling to go to work. He worked as a journalist, a teacher, and a government clerk. Whitman's major poetry collection, ''Leaves of Grass'', first published in 1855, was financed with his own money and became well known. The work was an attempt to reach out to the common person with an American epi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe (; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales involving mystery and the macabre. He is widely regarded as one of the central figures of Romanticism and Gothic fiction in the United States and of early American literature. Poe was one of the country's first successful practitioners of the short story, and is generally considered to be the inventor of the detective fiction genre. In addition, he is credited with contributing significantly to the emergence of science fiction. He is the first well-known American writer to earn a living exclusively through writing, which resulted in a financially difficult life and career.. Poe was born in Boston. He was the second child of actors David Poe Jr., David and Eliza Poe, Elizabeth "Eliza" Poe. His father abandoned the family in 1810, and when Eliza died the following year, Poe was taken in by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Poems By Edgar Allan Poe
This article lists all known poems by American author and critic Edgar Allan Poe (January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849), listed alphabetically with the date of their authorship in parentheses. An Acrostic (1829) An unpublished 9-line poem written circa 1829 for Poe's cousin Elizabeth Rebecca Herring (the acrostic is her first name, spelled out by the first letter of each line). It was never published in Poe's lifetime. James H. Whitty discovered the poem and included it in his 1911 anthology of Poe's works under the title "From an Album". It was also published in Thomas Ollive Mabbott's definitive ''Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe'' in 1969 as "An Acrostic". The poem mentions "Endymion", possibly referring to an 1818 poem by John Keats with that name. The "L. E. L." in the third line may be Letitia Elizabeth Landon, an English artist known for signing her work with those initials. "Zantippe" in line four is actually Xanthippe, wife of Socrates. The spelling of the name ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theoclymenus
In Greek mythology, Theoclymenus (; Ancient Greek: Θεοκλύμενος) was a prophet from Argos. He is a character in the '' Odyssey'', in which he accompanies Telemachus from Pylos back to Ithaca. In the ''Odyssey'', he foresees Odysseus' return to Ithaca and the death of Penelope's suitors, but he is not believed when he reveals these visions. Family Theoclymenus was the son of Polypheides and Aechme, daughter of Haemon, and brother of Harmonides. In some accounts, his parents were Thestor and possibly Polymele, and thus, the brother of Leucippe, Theonoe and Calchas. Mythology In the '' Odyssey'', he escaped from Argos after killing one of his relatives. He fled to Pylos and sought refuge aboard the ship of Telemachus, who had come to inquire about the fate of his father, Odysseus. Telemachus obliged, and Theoclymenus accompanied him back to Ithaca. There, Theoclymenus interpreted the auspices of the birds, predicting that Telemachus would become head of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Suitors Of Penelope
In Greek mythology, the suitors of Penelope (also known in Latin as the ) are one of the main subjects of Homer's ''Odyssey''. Role in the ''Odyssey'' In the ''Odyssey,'' Homer describes Odysseus' journey home from Troy. Prior to the Trojan War, Odysseus was King of Ithaca, a Greek island known for its isolation and rugged terrain. When he departs from Ithaca to fight for the Greeks in the war, he leaves behind a newborn child, Telemachus, and his wife, Penelope. Although most surviving Greek soldiers return shortly after the end of the fighting, Odysseus does not return to Ithaca until ten years after the end of the Trojan War. During Odysseus' long absence, unmarried young men start to suspect that Odysseus died in Troy or on the journey home. Under the pretense of courting Penelope, these youths, called "the suitors", take up residence in Odysseus' home and vie for her hand in marriage. Rather than simply rejecting the suitors, Penelope devises a plan to delay their courts ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
