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The perennial human predicament, if the passage turns on one. 0-2 per passage.
Odysseus demands the release of his companions, and Circe transforms them from swine back into human men with charms, then orders him to return to his ship and eventually seek Teiresias in the underworld.
sat thus, and that I put not forth my hands to the meat, and that I was mightily afflicted, she drew near to me and spake to me winged words: “‘Wherefore thus, Odysseus, dost thou sit there like a speechless man, consuming thine own soul, and dost not touch meat nor drink? Dost thou indeed deem there is some further guile? Nay, thou hast no cause to fear, for already I have sworn thee a strong oath not to harm thee.…
God tests Abraham by commanding him to sacrifice Isaac on Mount Moriah; Abraham proceeds to the altar, but an angel stops him, provides a ram, and promises descendants who will bless all nations.
After these deeds, God did prove Abraham and said unto him: Abraham. And he answered: here am I. And he said: take thy only son Isaac whom thou lovest, and get thee unto the land of Moria, and sacrifice him there for a sacrifice upon one of the mountains which I will shew thee. Then Abraham rose up early in the morning and saddled his ass, and took two of his meiny with him, and Isaac his sonne: and clove wood for th…
In Bethany, Jesus is anointed by a woman at Simon the leper’s house, Judas agrees to betray him for thirty pieces of silver, and during the Passover meal Jesus institutes the bread and cup as his body and blood.
of him: but woe be to that man, by whom the son of man shall be betrayed. It had been good for that man, if he had never been born. Then Iudas which betrayed him, answered and said: is it I master? He said unto him: thou hast said. As they did ate, Iesus took bread and gave thanks, brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said: Take, eat, this is my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it them, sa…
In Bethania, Jesus is anointed by a woman, Judas agrees to betray him, they prepare and eat the Passover, and Jesus institutes the bread and cup as his body and blood.
said: what needed this waste of ointment? For it might have been sold for more than two hundred pence, and been given unto the poor. And they grudged against her. And Iesus said: let her be in rest, why grieve ye her? She hath done a good work on me. Yea, and ye shall have poor with you all ways: and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye shall not have always. She hath done that she could: she came afore…
Paul sails from Tyre toward Jerusalem via Caesarea, receives prophecies from Agabus that he will be bound, insists he is ready to die there, then meets James and the Jerusalem elders.
The .xxj. Chapter. And it chanced that as soon as we had launched forth, and were departed from them, we came with a straight course unto Choon, and the day following unto the Rhodes, and from thence unto Patara. And we found a ship ready to sail unto Phenices, and went aboard and set forth. Then appeared unto us Cyprus, and we left it on the left hand, and sailed unto Syria, and came unto Tyre. For there the ship u…
In the fight at Sentinum, Romans under Fabius hold longer on the right while Decius’s cavalry charge collapses amid Gallic chariots; Decius devotes himself and enemy legions to infernal gods, dies, and victory shifts.
had the Etrurians and Umbrians been present, either in the field or at the camp, in whichever place they might have employed their force, the Romans must have been defeated. 28. However, although the victory was still undecided, fortune not having declared in favour of either party, yet the course of the fight was by no means similar on both right and left wings. The Romans, under Fabius, rather repelled than offere…
A fierce battle begins at Aquilonia: angry Romans press forward while Samnites hesitate due to their secret rite, then dust deception and cavalry charge cause Samnite rout and conquest of camps and cities.
hand the imprecations expressed in the oath sworn in contradiction to those treaties, swore with reluctance, abhorred the oath, and feared at once the gods, their countrymen, and their enemies." 40. When the consul had recounted these particulars, ascertained from the information of the deserters, to the soldiers already enraged of themselves, they then, filled with confidence in both divine and human aid, with one …
Douglass closes the work by presenting a parody portrait of Southern religion as practiced with slaveholding, then pledges faith in truth, love, and justice for abolition.
and south, calling themselves Christian churches, and yet in union with slaveholders. It is against religion, as presented by these bodies, that I have felt it my duty to testify. I conclude these remarks by copying the following portrait of the religion of the south, (which is, by communion and fellowship, the religion of the north,) which I soberly affirm is “true to the life,” and without caricature or the slight…
Evander and priests conduct Hercules’ rites in a sacrificial procession, sing Hercules’ labors, then the celebrants retire and Aeneas tours the local sacred places of Evander’s city.
deserts, and this high virtue shown, Ye warlike youths, your heads with garlands crown: Fill high the goblets with a sparkling flood, And with deep draughts invoke our common god.” This said, a double wreath Evander twin’d, And poplars black and white his temples bind. Then brims his ample bowl. With like design The rest invoke the gods, with sprinkled wine. Meantime the sun descended from th…
Venus brings healing dittany, cures the wound miraculously, and the recovered Aeneas arms and recites moral instruction to his son Ascanius before rushing back into the battle.
fill’d with terror and affright: The hissing shafts within the trench alight; An undistinguish’d noise ascends the sky, The shouts of those who kill, and groans of those who die. But now the goddess mother, mov’d with grief, And pierc’d with pity, hastens her relief. A branch of healing dittany she brought, Which in the Cretan fields with care she sought: Rough is the stem, which woolly leafs…
The text tells Israelite and broader audiences about covenantal obligations and the judgment day, then narrates Abraham and Ishmael building and purifying the Ka‘ba, asking for guidance and for a prophet to teach the Book and wisdom.
O children of Israel! remember my favour wherewith I have favoured you, and that high above all mankind have I raised you: And dread the day when not in aught shall soul satisfy for soul, nor shall any ransom be taken from it, nor shall any intercession avail, and they shall not be helped. When his Lord made trial of Abraham by commands which he fulfilled, He said, "I am about to make thee an Imâm to mankind:" he s…
He explains Tuskegee’s industrial-education plan that students erect their own buildings using the newest methods and learning to find dignity in labor rather than merely drudgery.
A Harder Task Than Making Bricks Without Straw From the very beginning, at Tuskegee, I was determined to have the students do not only the agricultural and domestic work, but to have them erect their own buildings. My plan was to have them, while performing this service, taught the latest and best methods of labour, so that the school would not only get the benefit of their efforts, but the students themselves would…
Washington describes relief in leaving crowds and handshaking, then praises Tuskegee’s evening chapel devotional meetings as an inspiring privilege to guide hundreds of students toward a better life.
is such a rest and relief to get away from crowds of people, and handshaking, and travelling, to get home, even if it be for but a very brief while. Another thing at Tuskegee out of which I get a great deal of pleasure and satisfaction is in the meeting with our students, and teachers, and their families, in the chapel for devotional exercises every evening at half-past eight, the last thing before retiring for the …
Machiavelli urges a new prince to liberate Italy from foreign rule, portraying Italy as desperate and promising that a just necessary war and God’s support still require human action.
AN EXHORTATION TO LIBERATE ITALY FROM THE BARBARIANS Having carefully considered the subject of the above discourses, and wondering within myself whether the present times were propitious to a new prince, and whether there were elements that would give an opportunity to a wise and virtuous one to introduce a new order of things which would do honour to him and good to the people of this country, it appears to me tha…
The poor man and his wife receive provisions and money by the waterman’s call system from the river boat, prompting the narrator’s tears, charity, and reflections on faith during the plague.
‘Oh, sir!’ says he, ‘it is infinite mercy if any of us are spared, and who am I to repine!’ ‘Sayest thou so?’ said I, ‘and how much less is my faith than thine?’ And here my heart smote me, suggesting how much better this poor man’s foundation was on which he stayed in the danger than mine; that he had nowhere to fly; that he had a family to bind him to attendance, which I had not; and mine w…
In an allegory, a princess in the Hither Isles longs to join a golden sunlit Yonder Kingdom, but her encounter with a beggar and the king’s racist contempt culminates in her being drawn toward him despite his deathward procession.
*The Princess of the Hither Isles* Her soul was beautiful, wherefore she kept it veiled in lightly-laced humility and fear, out of which peered anxiously and anon the white and blue and pale-gold of her face,-beautiful as daybreak or as the laughing of a child. She sat in the Hither Isles, well walled between the This and Now, upon a low and silver throne, and leaned upon its armposts, sadly looking upward toward th…
When the princess reveals herself as offering her bleeding heart to reach the sun, the king rejects her as “a nigger,” slashes her and causes a chasm between Here and There, prompting her despair and a leap toward the light.
white flowers of her breast and snatching forth her own red heart held it with one hand aloft while with the other she gathered close her robe and poised herself. The king of Yonder Kingdom looked upward quickly, curiously, still fingering the earth, and saw the offer of her bleeding heart. "It's a Negro!" he growled darkly; "it may not be." The woman quivered. "It's a nigger!" he repeated fiercely. "It's neither…
In the allegory, a Black woman answers the King’s call after hesitating, declares herself black, and the King reveals his face as black before she goes to battle for him on a hostile day.
pans; and the woman straightway left her chatting and gossiping and the sewing of garments, and the woman stood before the King, saying: "The servant of thy servants, O Lord." Then the King smiled,--smiled wondrously, so that the setting sun burst through the clouds, and the hearts of the King's men dried hard within them. And the low-voiced King said, so low that even they that listened heard not well: "Go, smite m…
Du Bois profiles Harriet Tubman’s Underground Railroad work and Sojourner Truth’s revolutionary faith, then expands to other Black women’s art, education, and humanitarian sacrifices in freedom and uplift.
my poor children; they do not know where I be and I don't know where they be. I look up at the stars and they look up at the stars!'" Her determination was founded on unwavering faith in ultimate good. Wendell Phillips says that he was once in Faneuil Hall, when Frederick Douglass was one of the chief speakers. Douglass had been describing the wrongs of the Negro race and as he proceeded he grew more and more excite…
Brutus’s anxiety troubles Porcia, daughter of Cato; she proves her constancy by wounding herself, suffering fever, and telling Brutus she will share their hidden griefs and endure pain for the cause.
and held it so silently among themselves, that, though by prophecies and apparitions and signs in the sacrifices the gods gave warning of it, yet could it not be believed. Now Brutus, feeling that the noblest spirits of Rome for virtue, birth, or courage were depending upon him, and surveying with himself all the circumstances of the dangers they were to encounter, strove indeed as much as possible, when abroad, to …
He explains marriage as a voluntary compact aimed at procreation and lasting until children are supported, noting that longer conjugal bonds in humans reflect extended dependency of offspring.
of the young brood) whose young needing food in the nest, the cock and hen continue mates, till the young are able to use their wing, and provide for themselves. Sect. 80. And herein I think lies the chief, if not the only reason, why the male and female in mankind are tied to a longer conjunction than other creatures, viz. because the female is capable of conceiving, and de facto is commonly with child again, and b…
At a secluded meadow among mountains, Don Quixote chooses the spot for his penance, gives an elaborate invocation to natural deities and Dulcinea, and dismisses Rocinante while Sancho jokes about stripping Dapple.
the Rueful Countenance fixed his choice for the performance of his penance, and as he beheld it exclaimed in a loud voice as though he were out of his senses: “This is the place, oh, ye heavens, that I select and choose for bewailing the misfortune in which ye yourselves have plunged me: this is the spot where the overflowings of mine eyes shall swell the waters of yon little brook, and my deep and endless sighs sha…
Dorothea kneels to Don Quixote and requests a boon—his aid to avenge a traitor and restore her kingdom—then Don Quixote grants it, equips himself, and they set out at once on horseback.
with great ease of manner advanced to kneel before the feet of Don Quixote; and though he strove to raise her up, she without rising addressed him in this fashion: “From this spot I will not rise, valiant and doughty knight, until your goodness and courtesy grant me a boon, which will redound to the honour and renown of your person and render a service to the most disconsolate and afflicted damsel the sun has seen; …
Andres explains his master re-tied and flogged him after Don Quixote left, leaving him injured in a hospital, and Don Quixote vows to find the master and force payment despite Dorothea’s insistence on waiting for her own quest to conclude.
“How! the opposite?” said Don Quixote; “did not the clown pay thee then?” “Not only did he not pay me,” replied the lad, “but as soon as your worship had passed out of the wood and we were alone, he tied me up again to the same oak and gave me a fresh flogging, that left me like a flayed Saint Bartholomew; and every stroke he gave me he followed up with some jest or gibe about having made a fool of your worship, and…
Teresa Panza questions why Sancho is unusually happy, and Sancho explains he will return to Don Quixote’s service, comforts her with God’s will and prayers for his safety, and hints at his hope of becoming governor of an island.
“God grant it,” said Don Quixote; “we shall see when the government comes; and I seem to see it already.” He then begged the bachelor, if he were a poet, to do him the favour of composing some verses for him conveying the farewell he meant to take of his lady Dulcinea del Toboso, and to see that a letter of her name was placed at the beginning of each line, so that, at the end of the verses, “Dulcinea del Toboso” mi…
Amy Post, a Quaker in New York, testifies that she knew Linda in 1849, urged publication, explains Linda’s suffering and secret midnight writing, and cites Linda’s view that “God” granted freedom while “man” priced it at three hundred dollars.
“The author of this book is my highly-esteemed friend. If its readers knew her as I know her, they could not fail to be deeply interested in her story. She was a beloved inmate of our family nearly the whole of the year 1849. She was introduced to us by her affectionate and conscientious brother, who had previously related to us some of the almost incredible events in his sister’s life. I immediately beca…
Durkheim argues that initiation rites enact a literal metamorphosis from the profane world to the sacred, implying a break of continuity and often antagonism between the two realms, producing monasticism and asceticism.
world, while the material world is left in full possession of the others. But howsoever much the forms of the contrast may vary,[69] the fact of the contrast is universal. This is not equivalent to saying that a being can never pass from one of these worlds into the other: but the manner in which this passage is effected, when it does take place, puts into relief the essential duality of the two kingdoms. In fact, i…
Blancandrin argues that if Charlemagne is deceived with peace promises, he will slice the hostages’ heads later, so it is better that their captives die than that Spain be lost and the pagans be reduced to beggary.
XVI And after him came Neimes out, the third, Better vassal there was not in the world; And to the King: "Now rightly have you heard Guenes the Count, what answer he returned. Wisdom was there, but let it well be heard. King Marsilies in war is overturned, His castles all in ruin have you hurled, With catapults his ramparts have you burst, Vanquished his men, and all his cities burned; Him who entr…
After the pagan rout, Charles’s army chases survivors to Sarraguce, takes the city, orders destruction of idols and forced Christianization, baptizes tens of thousands, and spares the queen only to seek her conversion later.
CCLXII Charles, hearing how that holy Angel spake, Had fear of death no longer, nor dismay; Remembrance and a fresh vigour he's gained. So the admiral he strikes with France's blade, His helmet breaks, whereon the jewels blaze, Slices his head, to scatter all his brains, And, down unto the white beard, all his face; So he falls dead, recovers not again. "Monjoie," cries Charles, that all may know the…
Gibbon argues that religion in Germany inflamed war more than it restrained it: standards and curses sanctified battle, soldiers feared cowardice, and beliefs about afterlife supported fighting and dying.
this gross but alluring doctrine of the Edda, see Fable xx. in the curious version of that book, published by M. Mallet, in his Introduction to the History of Denmark.] The immortality so vainly promised by the priests, was, in some degree, conferred by the bards. That singular order of men has most deservedly attracted the notice of all who have attempted to investigate the antiquities of the Celt…
Gibbon continues by describing the “tribute” practice in which Chinese maidens were sent to the Huns, portraying victims through the laments of a Chinese princess who dreams of returning home.
strain of pathetic simplicity, the natural wish, that she were transformed into a bird, to fly back to her dear country; the object of her tender and perpetual regret. 37 27 (return) [ M. de Guignes (tom. ii. p. 1—124) has given the original history of the ancient Hiong-nou, or Huns. The Chinese geography of their country (tom. i. part. p. lv.—lxiii.) seems to comprise a part of their conquests. * …
Cortés orders destroyed idols and demands Christian conversion, condemning human sacrifice and “unnatural crimes,” but receives resistance from Sempoalla chiefs; he has the new priests and altar prepared, and mass/baptism follows for seven named women.
after the fashion of the country: they wore beautiful shifts, had golden chains about their necks, golden rings in their ears, and had other Indian females to wait upon them. When the fat cazique presented these, he said to Cortes, "*Tecle*, (which signifies sir, in their language,) these seven women are intended for your chief officers, and this my niece, who herself holds dominion over a country and a people, I ha…
The Norman conquest expands from Sicily against the Saracens, with Roger and Robert Guiscard establishing a durable Kingdom of Puglia and Sicily, while Urban II’s actions launch the First Crusade and orders such as the Knights Templars and Hospitallers.
Robert, called Guiscard. When the principality was governed by William, the troubles of Italy were in some measure abated; but the Saracens still held Sicily, and plundered the coasts of Italy daily. On this account William arranged with the princes of Capua and Salerno, and with Melorco, a Greek, who governed Puglia and Calabria for the Greek emperor, to attack Sicily; and it was agreed that, if they were victorious…
Thetis joins Achilles after Patroclus is killed, explains that Achilles’ prayer to keep Achaeans at the ships has been fulfilled, and Achilles vows to die unless Hector is slain by his spear.
I cannot help him. Nevertheless I will go, that I may see my dear son and learn what sorrow has befallen him though he is still holding aloof from battle.” She left the cave as she spoke, while the others followed weeping after, and the waves opened a path before them. When they reached the rich plain of Troy, they came up out of the sea in a long line on to the sands, at the place where the ships …
Achilles insists divine will required Priam’s safe approach, has Hector washed and wrapped for burial, places him on a bier and wagon, and tells Patroclus he will share the ransom equitably.
May you prosper with the ransom and reach your own land in safety, seeing that you have suffered me to live and to look upon the light of the sun.” Achilles looked at him sternly and said, “Vex me, sir, no longer; I am of myself minded to give up the body of Hector. My mother, daughter of the old man of the sea, came to me from Jove to bid me deliver it to you. Moreover I know well, O Priam, and yo…
The chorus continues that Artemis’s jealousy and Apollo’s appeals shape the campaign, while it emphasizes that wisdom comes through affliction and that Agamemnon was forced into killing his daughter by Fate and divine wrath.
of Heaven she prayeth still, “Nay. if it must be, be the omen true! Yet do the visioned eagles presage ill; The end be well, but crossed with evil too!”_ _Healer Apollo! be her wrath controll’d, Nor weave the long delay of thwarting gales, To war against the Danaans and withhold From the free ocean-waves their eager sails!_ _She craves, alas! to see a second life Shed forth, a curst unhallowed sacrifice— ’…
In extensive notes, the editor compares Polo’s institutions to sati-like or vow-bound self-sacrifice in South and Southeast Asia and elsewhere, discussing terms like Amuki and related analogues, and cites classical and travel sources.
Tod, “that even men devoted themselves on his pyre” (I. 744). The same thing occurred at the death of the Sikh Gúrú Hargovind in 1645. (_H. of Sikhs_, p. 62.) Barbosa briefly notices an institution like that described by Polo, in reference to the King of Narsinga, *i.e.* Vijayanagar. (*Ram.* I. f. 302.) Another form of the same bond seems to be that mentioned by other travellers as prevalent in Malabar, where …
Strabo describes Cathaia’s beauty-based kingship selection and a marriage-and-burn custom among the Cathaei, then reports on mining claims, courageous fighting dogs given to Alexander, and details of Alexander’s movement directions by river stages.
It is admitted by those who maintain the resemblance of India to Egypt and Ethiopia, that the plains which are not overflowed do not produce anything for want of water. Nearchus says, that the old question respecting the rise of the Nile is answered by the case of the Indian rivers, namely, that it is the effect of summer rains; when Alexander saw crocodiles in the Hydaspes, and Egyptian beans in the Acesines, he th…
Portia (Abigail Adams) prays for a “houseless child of want,” then tells her husband she remains calm despite uncertainty and alarms, ending with a brief farewell tied to breakfast duties.
"To the houseless child of want, Our doors are open still; And though our portions are but scant, We give them with good will." My best wishes attend you, both for your health and happiness, and that you may be directed into the wisest and best measures for our safety and the security of our posterity. I wish you were nearer to us; we know not what a day will bring forth, nor what distress one hour may throw us into…
John Adams writes from Philadelphia to John Q. Adams, praising the preservation of Boston through providence, urging the young to remember losses and fight rather than surrender liberties.
Philadelphia, 18 April, 1776. I thank you for your agreeable letter of the 24th of March. I rejoice with you that our friends are once more in possession of the town of Boston; am glad to hear that so little damage is done to our house. I hope you and your sister and brothers will take proper notice of these great events, and remember under whose wise and kind Providence they are all conducted. Not a sparrow falls,…
Abigail Adams writes about a crisis between the armies, her hopes for a decisive battle and peace, her moral horror at bloodshed, and includes illustrative reflections on leadership and learning from others’ mistakes.
instruction: first, by one's own experience, and secondly, by that of other men. It is much more wise and useful to improve by other men's miscarriages than by our own." We have not yet received any intelligence from the southern army since the account of the engagement on the 11th,[181] which must have been very severe upon both sides. You now experience what we suffered when the army lay this way. I feel very anxi…
Dated 23 December 1782, Abigail Adams writes that the northern climate offers few diversions, argues for sacrificing private feelings to the general good, and reports the voyage of the Iris with letters.
misery to have doubted. Yet a cruel world too often injures my feelings by wondering how a person possessed of domestic attachments can sacrifice them by absenting himself *for years*. "If you had known," said a person to me the other day, "that Mr. Adams would have remained so long abroad, would you have consented that he should have gone?" I recollected myself a moment, and then spoke the real dictates of my heart…
Freud treats the vulture phantasy’s kissing and nursing elements as memory of erotic childhood relations, then argues Leonardo could channel repressed childhood impressions into art.
it as follows: My mother has pressed on my mouth innumerable passionate kisses. The phantasy is composed of the memories of being nursed and of being kissed by the mother. A kindly nature has bestowed upon the artist the capacity to express in artistic productions his most secret psychic feelings hidden even to himself, which powerfully affect outsiders who are strangers to the artist without their being able to sta…
During the Roman siege of Falerii, a schoolmaster offers his best-born students to ransom the city, but Camillus instead humiliates and scourges him; the citizens are moved to surrender from Camillus’s humane integrity.
When the besieging army of the Romans lay round Falerii, the master of a school wherein the best-born youths of the city were taught, thinking to curry favour with Camillus and the Romans, came forth from the town with these boys, on pretence of giving them exercise, and bringing them into the camp where Camillus was, presented them to him, saying, “_To ransom these that city would yield itself into your hands._” Cam…
Augustine responds to claims that persecuted saints avoided rape by drowning themselves, allowing that Samson may have been divinely ordered, but insisting most people are forbidden voluntary self-killing unless they are sure God commanded it.
26. _That in certain peculiar cases the examples of the saints are not to be followed._ But, they say, in the time of persecution some holy women escaped those who menaced them with outrage, by casting themselves into rivers which they knew would drown them; and having died in this manner, they are venerated in the church catholic as martyrs. Of such persons I do not presume to speak rashly. I cannot tell whether th…
Augustine turns to Christian humility, comparing Roman sacrifices for liberty and human praise (like Brutus) with Christian willingness to distribute wealth and endure hardship for faith and righteousness.
they should not vaunt themselves, because they do that to obtain the society of angels, when those men did well-nigh the same thing to preserve the glory of the Romans? How could these, and whatever like things are found in the Roman history, have become so widely known, and have been proclaimed by so great a fame, had not the Roman empire, extending far and wide, been raised to its greatness by magnificent successe…
It explains Johnson’s principles for a charity relief for prisoners of war, describing the distress of French prisoners in Britain and how subscriptions and clothing were quickly raised after sermons and visits.
oppose laziness, by doing what is to be done tomorrow. Rise as early as I can. Send for books for Hist. of War. Put books in order. Scheme of life.' [1056] See *post*, Oct. 19, 1769, and May 15, 1783, for Johnson's measure of emotion, by eating. [1057] Mr. Croker points out that Murphy's *Epistle* was an imitation of Boileau's *Epître à Molière*. [1058] The paper mentioned in the text is No. 38 of the second serie…
Tacitus continues mapping tribes north and eastward—Cimbri, Suevi, Semnones, Langobardi, and others—describing specific dress customs, religious rites, and the worship of Hertha.
wisdom. The ruin of the Cherusci involved that of the Fosi, [189] a neighboring tribe, equal partakers of their adversity, although they had enjoyed an inferior share of their prosperity. 37. In the same quarter of Germany, adjacent to the ocean, dwell the Cimbri; [191] a small [192] state at present, but great in renown. [193] Of their past grandeur extensive vestiges still remain, in encampments and lines on eithe…
Progne begins a Bacchic festival at night, theatrically seizes Philomela, and vows armed revenge; she kills Itys, serves him at a banquet to Tereus, and reveals the corpse by throwing Itys’ head.
kept imprisoned in the woods, I will fill the woods, and will move the conscious rocks. Let Heaven hear these things, and the Gods, if there are any in it.” After the wrath of the cruel tyrant was aroused by such words, and his fear was not less than it, urged on by either cause, he drew the sword, with which he was girt, from the sheath, and seizing her by the hair, her arms being bent behind her back, he compelled…
The passage adds further scholarly arguments that Hercules personifies Dorian power, then transitions to Ovid’s story: Fable IV, the transformation of Lotis and Dryope into trees and the renewed youth of Iolaüs.
while the divine portion himself (αὐτὸς) mounts from the pyre in a thunder-cloud, and the object of Hera’s persecution being now accomplished, espouses youth, the daughter of his reconciled foe. “Muller (Dorians, vol. i. part ii. ch. 11, 12) is also disposed to view in Hercules a personification of the highest powers of man in the heroic age. He regards him as having been the national hero of the Dorian race, …
While the story continues, Antenor reports a calamity: a wolf monster from a marsh near a sea temple ravages herds; Peleus prays for divine help, receives it through Thetis, and the wolf is turned into stone.
{in proportion} than his body; and, now {become} a hawk, sufficiently benignant to none, he rages {equally} against all birds; and grieving {himself}, becomes the cause of grief to others.” While the son of Lucifer is relating these wonders about his brother, hastening with panting speed, Phocæan Antenor, the keeper of his herds, runs up to him. “Alas, Peleus! Peleus!” says he, “I am the messenger to thee of a great…
Achilles’s ghost demands Polyxena’s sacrifice after the Greeks’ landing on the Thracian shore; Polyxena offers herself with dignity, pleads for her mother’s grief, and is executed at Achilles’s tomb.
than {an ordinary} woman, torn from the bosom of her mother, which she now cherished almost alone, was led to the tomb, and became a sacrifice at his ruthless pile. She, mindful of herself, after she was brought to the cruel altar, and had perceived that the savage rites were preparing for her; and when she saw Neoptolemus standing {by}, and wielding his sword, and fixing his eyes upon her countenance, said-- “Quick…
Polyxena, at the altar, urges the burial of her weapons and seeks to conceal her death from her mother; afterward the narrative shifts to Hecuba’s grief and her account of family losses and exile after Troy’s fall.
her breast {now} accustomed to it; and trailing her grey hairs in the clotted blood, many things indeed did she say, but these as well, as she tore her breast: “My daughter, the last affliction (for what now remains?) to thy mother: my daughter, thou liest prostrate, and I behold thy wound {as} my own wounds. Lo! lest I should have lost any one of my children without bloodshed, thou, too, dost receive thy wound. Sti…
He adds tenderness as the other element of friendship, rejects both commercialized friendship and overly delicate romantic substitutes, and frames friendship as steady aid through life and death.
now the semblance of my being, in all its height, variety, and curiosity, reiterated in a foreign form; so that a friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature. The other element of friendship is tenderness. We are holden to men by every sort of tie, by blood, by pride, by fear, by hope, by lucre, by lust, by hate, by admiration, by every circumstance and badge and trifle,—but we can scarce believe that so m…
The marquis orders Griseldis’s daughter to be seized and killed, while Griseldis remains steady, blesses the child, asks for secrecy of burial, and later the marquis arranges that the child be taken to Bologna to be fostered.
have slain it ere he went. Griseldis must all suffer and consent: And as a lamb she sat there meek and still, And let this cruel sergeant do his will Suspicious* was the diffame** of this man, *ominous **evil reputation Suspect his face, suspect his word also, Suspect the time in which he this began: Alas! her daughter, that she loved so, She weened* he would have it slain right tho,** *thought **then Bu…
After peace is arranged through a Neapolitan nobleman, Luigi survives the initial wounds but later dies when he falls from his black horse while visiting Pantasilea, fulfilling his earlier vow.
Then we made peace, and I returned to my shop, where I could not stay an hour without that Neapolitan nobleman either coming to see me or sending for me. Meanwhile Luigi Pulci, having recovered from his wound, rode every day upon the black horse which was so well trained to heel and bridle. One day, among others, after it had rained a little, and he was making his horse curvet just before Pantasilea’s door, he slipp…
Comparing noble-impulse ideals with indispensable duty, Kant argues duty alone can command obedience beyond inclination, illustrated by self-sacrifice examples culminating in duty as the higher spring.
and with unceasing apprehension of a relapse. In a word, the moral law demands obedience, from duty not from predilection, which cannot and ought not to be presupposed at all. Let us now see, in an example, whether the conception of an action, as a noble and magnanimous one, has more subjective moving power than if the action is conceived merely as duty in relation to the solemn law of morality. The action by which a…
Veturia and Volumnia lead Roman matrons to Coriolanus’ camp; their tears and his family’s recognition break his resolve, and he withdraws his troops, after which he dies in later tradition.
the priests also, arrayed in the vestments of their office, went as suppliants to the enemy's camp, but that they did not influence his mind any more than the ambassadors. Then the matrons assembled in a body around Veturia, the mother of Coriolanus, and his wife, Volumnia: whether that was the result of public counsel, or of women's fear, I can not clearly ascertain. Anyhow, they succeeded in inducing Veturia, a wo…
Matthathias (son of Asamoneus) rejects the king, defeats Antiochus’s generals, and after his death his son Judas becomes the successor and goes up to purify the Temple.
The Laws Of Their Country Mattathias, The Son Of Asamoneus, Alone Despised The King, And Overcame The Generals Of Antiochus's Army; As Also Concerning The Death Of Mattathias, And The Succession Of Judas. Killed The Generals Of Their Armies Themselves; And How When, A Little While Afterwards Lysias And Gorgias Were Beaten He Went Up To Jerusalem And Purified The Temple.
God tests Abraham by commanding Isaac’s sacrifice on the mountain Moriah; Abraham is willing to obey, takes Isaac and servants to the site, and Isaac is told God can provide the oblation.
1. Now Abraham greatly loved Isaac, as being his only begotten 27 and given to him at the borders of old age, by the favor of God. The child also endeared himself to his parents still more, by the exercise of every virtue, and adhering to his duty to his parents, and being zealous in the worship of God. Abraham also placed his own happiness in this prospect, that, when he should die, he should leave this his son in a…