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Spoudaiogeloion
Spoudaiogeloion () denotes the mixture of serious and comical elements stylistically. The word comes from the Greek σπουδαῖον ''spoudaion'', "serious", and γελοῖον ''geloion'', "comical". The concept of the word, but not the word itself, first appears in Aristophanes's ''The Frogs'' (405 BC) lines 389–393, in a scene where the Chorus, who are devoted to Demeter, pray for victory: καὶ πολλὰ μὲν γελοῖά μ’ εἰπεῖν, πολλὰ δὲ σπουδαῖα, καὶ τὴς σὴς ἑορτὴς ἁείως παίσαντα καὶ σκώψαντα νικήσαντα ταινιούσθαι. (Allow me to say many things in jest and many things in seriousness, and, having sported and lampooned in a manner worthy of your feast, let me, victorious, win the victor's wreath.) The word was first coined in the Old Comedy period. Spoudaiogeloion was often used in satirical poems or folktales, which were funny, but had a serious, often ethical, theme ...
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Menippus
Menippus of Gadara (; ''Menippos ho Gadareus''; fl. 3rd century BC) was a Cynic satirist. The Menippean satire genre is named after him. His works, all of which are lost, were an important influence on Varro and Lucian, who ranks Menippus with Antisthenes, Diogenes of Sinope, Diogenes, and Crates of Thebes, Crates as among the most notable of the Cynicism (philosophy), Cynics. Life Little is known about the life of Menippus. He was of Phoenicia, Phoenician descent, from the Greek city of GadaraBlank, David"Philodemus" The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2019 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), accessed 3 June 2020. in Coele-Syria.Strabo's Geography]16.2.29/ref> He was originally a Slavery in Ancient Greece, slave, in the service of a citizen of Pontus (region), Pontus, but in some way obtained his freedom and relocated to Thebes, Greece, Thebes. Diogenes Laërtius relates a dubious story that he amassed a fortune as a usury, money-lender, lost it, and committed suici ...
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Meleager Of Gadara
Meleager of Gadara ( ; fl. 1st century BC) was a poet and collector of epigrams. He wrote some satire, satirical prose, now lost, and some sensual poetry, of which 134 epigrams survive. Life Meleager was the son of Eucrates, born in the city of Gadara, now Umm Qais in Jordan, then part of the Hasmonian Kingdom, which was then a partially Hellenized community noted for its "remarkable contribution to Greek culture". He was educated in Tyre and spent his later life in Cos where he died at an advanced age, perhaps at 70. According to short autobiographical poems he wrote, Meleager was proud of his hometown and identified himself as cosmopolitan, being both "Attic" (i.e. Hellenistic) and Syrian, and also praised Tyre for having "made ima man" and Cos for taking "care of imin isold age". The scholiast to the Palatine manuscript of the ''Greek Anthology'' says he flourished in the reign of Seleucus VI Epiphanes (95 – 93 BC). The uppermost date of his compilation of th ...
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Literary Concepts
Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, plays, and poems. It includes both print and digital writing. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include oral literature, much of which has been transcribed.; see also Homer. Literature is a method of recording, preserving, and transmitting knowledge and entertainment. It can also have a social, psychological, spiritual, or political role. Literary criticism is one of the oldest academic disciplines, and is concerned with the literary merit or intellectual significance of specific texts. The study of books and other texts as artifacts or traditions is instead encompassed by textual criticism or the history of the book. "Literature", as an art form, is sometimes used synonymously with literary fiction, fiction written with the goal of artistic merit, but can also include works in various non-fiction ...
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Greek Words And Phrases
Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all known varieties of Greek **Mycenaean Greek, most ancient attested form of the language (16th to 11th centuries BC) **Ancient Greek, forms of the language used c. 1000–330 BC **Koine Greek, common form of Greek spoken and written during Classical antiquity ** Medieval Greek or Byzantine Language, language used between the Middle Ages and the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople **Modern Greek, varieties spoken in the modern era (from 1453 AD) *Greek alphabet, script used to write the Greek language *Greek Orthodox Church, several Churches of the Eastern Orthodox Church *Ancient Greece, the ancient civilization before the end of Antiquity * Old Greek, the language as spoken from Late Antiquity to around 1500 AD *Greek mythology, a body of myths ...
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Cynicism
Cynic or Cynicism may refer to: Modes of thought * Cynicism (philosophy), a school of ancient Greek philosophy * Cynicism (contemporary), modern use of the word for distrust of others' motives Books * ''The Cynic'', an 1875 book by James Gordon Stuart Grant * '' The Cynic: The Political Education of Mitch McConnell'', a 2014 book by Alec MacGillis Music * Cynic (band), a progressive rock/technical death metal band from Miami, Florida * The Cynics, a rock band from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania * ''The Cynic'' (album), by Zoe Rahman, 2001 * ''The Cynic'', a 2010 album by Monte Cazazza * "The Cynic", a single by Kashmir featuring David Bowie, from their 2005 album ''No Balance Palace'' Other * Cynic epistles, an assorted collection of Roman era letters concerning Cynic philosophy * Cynical realism, a contemporary movement in Chinese art * ''Cynics'' (film), a 1991 Soviet film * ''The Vermont Cynic ''The Vermont Cynic'', also known as ''The Cynic'', is the award-winning, editori ...
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Ancient Greek Poetry
Ancient Greek literature is literature written in the Ancient Greek language from the earliest texts until the time of the Byzantine Empire. The earliest surviving works of ancient Greek literature, dating back to the early Archaic period, are the two epic poems the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', set in an idealized archaic past today identified as having some relation to the Mycenaean era. These two epics, along with the '' Homeric Hymns'' and the two poems of Hesiod, the ''Theogony'' and '' Works and Days'', constituted the major foundations of the Greek literary tradition that would continue into the Classical, Hellenistic, and Roman periods. The lyric poets Sappho, Alcaeus, and Pindar were highly influential during the early development of the Greek poetic tradition. Aeschylus is the earliest Greek tragic playwright for whom any plays have survived complete. Sophocles is famous for his tragedies about Oedipus, particularly '' Oedipus the King'' and '' Antigone''. Eu ...
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Ancient Greek Comedy
Ancient Greek comedy () was one of the final three principal dramatic forms in the theatre of classical Greece; the others being tragedy and the satyr play. Greek comedy was distinguished from tragedy by its happy endings and use of comically exaggerated character archetypes, the latter feature being the origin of the modern concept of the comedy. Athenian comedy is conventionally divided into three periods; Old Comedy survives today largely in the form of the eleven extant plays of Aristophanes; Middle Comedy is largely lost and preserved only in relatively short fragments by authors such as Athenaeus of Naucratis; New Comedy is known primarily from the substantial papyrus fragments of Menander. A burlesque dramatic form that blended tragic and comic elements, known as phlyax play or hilarotragedy, developed in the Greek colonies of Magna Graecia by the late 4th century BC. The philosopher Aristotle wrote in his '' Poetics'' (c. 335 BC) that comedy is a representation of l ...
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Satires 1
Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of exposing or shaming the perceived flaws of individuals, corporations, government, or society itself into improvement. Although satire is usually meant to be humorous, its greater purpose is often constructive social criticism, using wit to draw attention to both particular and wider issues in society. Satire may also poke fun at popular themes in art and film. A prominent feature of satire is strong irony or sarcasm—"in satire, irony is militant", according to literary critic Northrop Frye— but parody, burlesque, exaggeration, juxtaposition, comparison, analogy, and double entendre are all frequently used in satirical speech and writing. This "militant" irony or sarcasm often professes to approve of (or at least accept as natural) the very things ...
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Aristophanes
Aristophanes (; ; ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek Ancient Greek comedy, comic playwright from Classical Athens, Athens. He wrote in total forty plays, of which eleven survive virtually complete today. The majority of his surviving plays belong to the genre of comic drama known as Old Comedy and are considered its most valuable examples. Aristophanes' plays were performed at the religious festivals of Athens, mostly the City Dionysia and the Lenaia, and several of them won the first prize in their respective competitions. Also known as "The Father of Comedy" and "the Prince of Ancient Comedy", Aristophanes wrote plays that often dealt with real-life figures, including Euripides and Alcibiades, and contemporary events, such as the Peloponnesian War. He has been said to recreate the life of ancient Athens more convincingly than any other author. His plays are characterized by preposterous premises, explicit language, wordplays, and political satire. His powers of ridicule ...
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The Frogs
''The Frogs'' (; , often abbreviated ''Ran.'' or ''Ra.'') is a comedy written by the Ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes. It was performed at the Lenaia, one of the Festivals of Dionysus in Athens, in 405 BC and received first place. The play features the comical katabasis of the god of theater Dionysus, with his slave Xanthias, in order to revive the late tragedian Euripides. Dionysus is frustrated with tragedy's decline in quality after the playwright's recent passing, and concerned about theatre's future as the city of Athens struggles in the Peloponnesian War. During the pair's journey through the underworld, the god cravenly and unsuccessfully attempts to evade trouble after masquerading as Heracles, still infamous for his prior kidnapping of the guard-dog Cerberus. At the palace of Pluto, Dionysus then adjudicates a fierce debate between Euripides and Aeschylus for the underworld's throne of tragic drama. Aeschylus wins due to his pragmatism, and Dionysus ends up reviv ...
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Satires Of Juvenal
The ''Satires'' () are a collection of satirical poems by the Latin author Juvenal written between the end of the first and the early second centuries A.D. Juvenal is credited with sixteen poems divided among five books; all are in the Roman genre of satire. The genre is defined by a wide-ranging discussion of society and social in dactylic hexameter. The sixth and tenth satires are some of the most renowned works in the collection. *Book I: Satires 1–5 *Book II: Satire 6 *Book III: Satires 7–9 *Book IV: Satires 10–12 *Book V: Satires 13–16 (Satire 16 is incompletely preserved) In a tone and manner ranging from irony to rage, Juvenal criticizes the actions and beliefs of many of his contemporaries, providing insight into value systems and questions of morality as opposed to the realities of Roman life. The author makes constant allusion to history and myth as a source of object lessons or exemplars of particular vices and virtues. Coupled with his dense and elliptica ...
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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 ...
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