Jobs of the Future

Employments of the Future In The Economist, there is an article called Into the Unknown (November 13, 2004. ) This article likewise shows up in the book Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum. The creator of Into the Unknown is unconfirmed. In this article, the writer discusses how the employments of things to come will come to change. Machines and mechanical gadgets are assuming control over the occupations of physical laborers and the work power requests are ever evolving. â€Å"Mechanical gadgets are as of now removing gifted administrative laborers and supplanting them with operators†¦ Opportunity in the clerical administrations is as a rule consistently unsure. â€Stuart Chase, an American essayist. This statement was distributed in his book, Men and Machines in 1929. Our interests about assembling employments vigorously identifies with the worries that Stuart Chase had. As more innovation is delivered more employments are being lost, albeit new openings are being mad e. This is increasingly predominant with creation innovation. This new innovation returns lower cost and higher benefits. This thus lifts interest for new merchandise and enterprises. The realities express that new openings are being made, yet there is consistently stress over the employments that are to come in the future.America has a lot of innovation occupations to India in the previous scarcely any years. In actuality, the quantity of mechanical salaried occupations in the U. S has risen. This demonstrates when positions are lost, as a general rule new ones are made. The supervisor of Wipro, Azim Premji, says â€Å"IT experts are hard to come by in America, inside the following barely any months, we will have a work shortage† (177. ) This can additionally confound us Americans about lost positions. Some say that regarding 14 million Americans (about 11% of the workforce) hold employments that are at the danger of redistributing (177. A portion of these employments incorp orate paralegals, lawful colleagues, PC experts and PC administrators. Ashok Bardhan, a financial expert at the University of California at Berkely, says that a portion of this work should be possible somewhere else now. This might possibly affect occupations and income. This obviously vigorously relies upon gracefully and request in the market of work and the exertion of the American laborers to re train in various fields. PC experts have been seeing that specific support employments are no longer in as much interest in America.Indian software engineers are happy to accomplish this work considerably more inexpensively. This causes organizations, for example, IBM re train their representatives in these abilities. A considerable lot of these employments face both remote AND computerized rivalry. As new innovation surfaces, it ceaselessly makes representatives re train and even in some cases change occupations Although it might appear as though these employments will be taken, the emp loyments of things to come are ever evolving. As employments are killed, new ones rise and this cycle will keep on occurring.

Traits Most Admired by the Ancient Greeks Essay Essays

Attributes Most Admired by the Ancient Greeks Essay Essays Attributes Most Admired by the Ancient Greeks Essay Attributes Most Admired by the Ancient Greeks Essay Anecdotal characters, for example, Achilles and Odysseus were the most very respected of saints. The Greeks appreciated numerous highlights in the characters and legends of their folklore. be that as it may, the 1s generally respected by them were quality. specialty and excellence. The Gods and goddesses of Mt. Olympus encapsulated every one of these qualities and highlights generally respected by the Greeks. Quality in strife was significantly respected by the old Greeks. The most grounded warriors were a most loved subject of legends. The Gods of their legends are known for their gigantic quality and are every now and again delineated with enormous musculuss and an arm and protection demoing the Greeks incredible love of solidarity. Indeed, even the King of Troy. Priam says to Achilles. â€Å"Great divine Achilles† after he crushes the best warrior of Troy. Hector. This shows Achilles was such an incredible warrior, that he was viewed as at a heavenly level of solidarity. Furthermore, the Iliad was a most loved account to Greece ; consequently quality must be an appreciated characteristic to them. Shrewdness was a most loved attribute of the Greeks each piece great. In a significant number of their stories the legend would hold to figure out a cagey way to achieve their modifier. for delineation Odysseus was a sweetheart saint who was known for his specialty alongside being an extraordinary warrior. He picked up this notoriety after he entered the Trojan guards. which were supposed to be unbreakable. by thinking of the shrewd program of developing a major wooden Equus caballus to give them as a blessing. what's more, filled it with is work powers. His imagination is the thing that made him celebrated and that is on the grounds that it was an attribute the Greeks held to the most noteworthy honor. Excellence was extremely of import to the Greeks. From their accounts to their beliefs and even their craft it is apparent that magnificence was an amazingly respected quality to hold. All the goddesses were known for being great and holding unexcelled excellence. Indeed, even in the Iliad character Helen of Troy is known as â€Å"The face that propelled a 1000 ships† . which is expressing that her excellence was so incredible it began the Trojan War. The Greeks unmistakably thought of excellence as an extraordinary start of intensity and an incredible characteristic to hold. Qualities, for example, imagination. quality and magnificence were all incredibly respected by the Greeks and was constantly appeared in their legends and craftsmanship. What's more, such attributes were exemplified in their Gods and legends to demo the individuals of the clasp what to walk for. so these highlights must hold been extremely of import to their general public.

Online Congruency

Online Congruency I am seated at a booth in a diner outside Birmingham, Alabama, the smell of freshly ground, over-roasted coffee beans wafting around me, sifting through emails from friends. One in particular stands out. A close friend is amid the tedious med-school application process, and she’s worried about her Facebook account being used against her by the folks who review applications. I don’t even have an undergraduate degree, so I’m likely an unfit advisor for grad-school matters; but, then again, I don’t really see this as a collegiate affairâ€"rather, it’s a matter of congruency. For the longest time, I, myself, led two separate lives: professional JFM and personal JFM. There was Corporate Meâ€"prim and proper, ostensibly flawless. And there was Creative Meâ€"flawed but beautiful (beautiful because of the flaws, perhaps?). For obvious reasons, the two mixed about as well as glass rubbing against concrete. So I kept them segregated: Corporate Me didn’t talk about his love for writing, and Creative Me loathed himself for hiding his creativity from the world. It was almost as though both sides were ashamed of each other. Over time, this internal tug of war took its toll, until eventually I realized that living two separate lives was exhausting, and even disingenuous. So instead of hiding one half from the other, I decided to change my activity to align both halves. In my friend’s case, she wanted to go as far as changing her name on social media. My advice: Do you do anything online you’re not proud of in real life? If so, I wouldn’t change my nameâ€"I’d change my online activity. Your online persona should be a mirror of you, and nothing to be ashamed of. For me, there isn’t an online self and a real-life self these daysâ€"just myself. Whether I write a blog post, speak to a crowd, or converse with a friend, my life is congruent. Don’t get me wrong, I still have a private life. Like most people, I enjoy having sex, sending tarty text messages, and walking around the house nakedâ€"I just don’t share those details publicly. Not because I’m ashamed, but because they are private (and because they don’t contribute to the greater good). There’s a big difference between a public online profile (an extension of one’s self) and a private intimate conversation (personal interactions not meant for public consumption). Deciding what’s private and what’s public is a personal matter; share whatever you’d like. Just don’t be ashamed of who you are: shame is ugly, and you’re far too beautiful for that. Read this essay and 150 others in our new book, Essential. Subscribe to The Minimalists via email.

Cortical Hyperarousal and Adolescent Insomnia - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 2 Words: 577 Downloads: 8 Date added: 2019/03/13 Category Sociology Essay Level High school Tags: Childhood Essay Did you like this example? Children who have abnormal tracing patterns measured by an EEG and show signs of apparent cortical hyperarousal will most likely develop insomnia as an adolescent. Insomnia is a common sleep disorder that can arise from multiple issues including anxiety, PTSD, and depression. Children who experience cortical arousal can encounter persistent problems falling asleep leading to deficient sleeping patterns. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Cortical Hyperarousal and Adolescent Insomnia" essay for you Create order By measuring a childs brain activity using an EEG, a neurologist can discover unusual tracing patterns pertaining to cortical hyperarousal; therefore; predicting early signs of insomnia (Fernandez-Mendoza et al., 2018). If a child has early onset symptoms of insomnia, treatments such as behavioral therapy, benzodiazepines, or cognitive behavioral therapy can be used as treatments and preventative strategies. Fernandez-Mendoza et al. (2018) had performed an EEG on two groups of children (sleeping problems or no sleeping problems) during their non-REM sleep to then be studied and see who has higher levels of cortical hyperarousal in association with poor sleeping habits. Childhood Adversity and Adolescent Insomnia Children who have been exposed to at least one adversity in their life are more likely to have insomnia as an adolescent than ones who havent. Childhood maltreatment such as abuse and neglect have been studied in correspondence to children with sleeping issues but children exposed to violence are not considered victims (Wang, Raffeld, Slopen, Hale, Dunn, 2018). This is yet still an adversity that can easily occur during ones childhood because they are much more sensitive during this stage of their life. Adversities during childhood can play a major role in a persons adolescent life and can lead to higher levels of stress and anxiety causing them to develop sleeping problems such as insomnia. Patients with psychiatric disorders such as PTSD, major depression, and generalized anxiety disorder are excluded from this theory. Childhood Insomnia During the Day Insomnia is not only an issue at night when a person is sleeping, it is a 24-hour disorder and effects people all day long. One cannot dismiss cortical hyperarousal during the day. Treatments for insomnia should be focused on improving life quality during the day in addition to at night. Impairment of day time functions are typically shown in patients with insomnia which will affect the way their cortical hyperarousal throughout the day altering in high functioning EEG waves (Cortoos, Verstraeten, Cluydts, 2006). This piece of information is vital because if a child is affected daily due to lack of sleep, it can be crucial when detecting insomnia. High Frequency EEG and Cortical Hyperarousal Cortical hyperarousal can lead to insomnia which puts those individuals at risk for psychiatric disorders (Fernandez-Mendoza et al., 2018). When monitoring children during non-REM sleep, if they have an increased beta EEG power it can be a significant predictor of insomnia symptoms in adolescents. Fernandez-Mendoza et al. (2018) conducted a study was conducting with 45 children aged 6-11 years old; 25 were reported by their parents as having sleeping problems and 20 were reported no sleeping problems. After 8 years, they followed up with the children to see if they were reported as having insomnia or not. The children were set up to EEG machines and were monitored from 22:00-7:00. After the EEG tests were observed, it is apparent that if a child was reported as having cortical hyperarousal, he/she showed increased EEG beta activity while in non-REM sleep. These children were then followed up with 8 years later and reported as having insomnia. Prior to insomnia diagnosis, cortical hyperarousal was present and may be and early onset sign of insomnia.

Socrates a revolutionary thinker - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 4 Words: 1117 Downloads: 2 Date added: 2019/08/06 Category People Essay Tags: Socrates Essay Did you like this example? Socrates was known as the father of western philosophy. His new ways of thinking had brought a revolutionary change in ancient Greece; His studies had transformed people view of philosophy. Socrates radical ways of thinking had made him both popular and unpopular among the citizens of Athens. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Socrates a revolutionary thinker" essay for you Create order After his death, philosophers debated if Socrates theory were ever the act of a wise man spreading logic and reason or was he a madman spreading false wisdom. According to the article Twilight of idols Fredrich Nietzsche, he criticizes Socrates traditional philosophy. Friedrich Nietzsche was a 19th-century German philosopher who throughout his career, he has published numerous works of philosophy including the two principal articles Twilight of Idols and Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Nietzsche tries to attempt to reveal the motives that underlie traditional western philosophy in the twilight of idols. He uses Twilight of idols to debates Socrates last words, comparing his ideal of health to Plato/Socrates, and his critique of metaphysics. Nietzsche Twilight of idols to debates Socrates last words. Before Socrates death, he said: to livethat means to be sick a long time: I owe Asclepius the Savior a rooster (Socrates 1). Asclepius is the god of healing and one pays with the rooster after being cure of illness. In his last words, Socrates implies that life is a disease only cured by death. Socrates concluded that he was tormented by sickness of living. However, Nietzsche argues that such a perspective on life is only revealing different kind of life but not life itself. He believed that Socrates sickness played a factor in his search for the value of life as opposition to give value to his life. Nietzsche states we should give value to our lives based on our passions compared to an objectively set standard for the need good is what we should go for since Nietzsche explains value of life cannot be estimated(Socrates 2). He also claims that objective judgement that concern life made by Socrates are false accusations influ enced by symptoms of his condemned life. According to Nietzsche, Socrates has lived a life of such decadent. A corrupt leader who instinct of decadent was a natural impulse. That is to say it would be better to live a life not worth living such as the one Socrates had lived . Overall Nietzsche views Socrates as a sick unhappy man that wished for death. In Twilight of idols Nietzsche criticizes his perspective of health versus Socrates/Plato of health. Socrates last words defined his idea of the health and virtue of the human soul. According to Socrates to contain the health of the soul, one must fight against all bodily pleasures and urges. So, when Socrates stated that to live means to be sick a long time (Socrates 2) he was implying that throughout his life he had to fight consistently for the purification of his soul until death. Socrates believed that the soul was immortal, so he explained that death is not the end of the soul existence, but soul separating from the body. Throughout the centuries many philosophers have debated Socrates theory on purification of the soul. For instance, following in his teachers footsteps, Plato fully believed in the soul being immortal and argued the importance of keeping the soul pure. He believed that we would be reward not only in life but reward after death if we followed purification of the soul. Plato also argue how our bodily pleasures taints the purification of our soul. However, some philosophers like Nietzsche would disagree with Socrates theory about the health of the human soul. Philosopher Nietzsche claims Socrates to be a sick man who went against the instinct of life. He states Socrates as a sick corrupt leader that tries to estimate the value of life by labeling it good. Nietzsche also concluded that all philosophers who say life is useless shows a sickness that has clouded their judgment (Socrates 2). He believes that we cannot estimate the value of life; therefore, we cannot judge the value of life for it is meaningless. So, while Plato and Socrates agree to keep the soul healthy one must spend their life resisting their bodily urges until cured by death. Nietzsche disagrees with both philosophers saying Socrates theory of the soul will only spread sickness among philosophers and is foolish. Nietzsches uses the article Twilight of Idols to express his critique of metaphysics. Nitezchs claim that Socrates last dying words were based more on reason oppose to instinct. He believed that through the power of reason he could gain control over his body .Socrates belief in the authority of reason came from his idea of being. This idea of being came from the belief in the metaphysical world versus the physical world. Metaphysical world is the invisible world of mind and ideas compare to the physical world that is a visible world of sight and things seen. Metaphysicians made a moral judgment against these two different. They believed the metaphysical world to be good and immortal because of its goodness. But metaphysicians judge the visible world to be evil and flawed. Nietzsches question why the physical world should be degraded compared to the metaphysical world. He stated the metaphysical world was thought to be permanent and stable enteral reality with no change. Compared to the physical world which was constantly changing and transforming known as the becoming. Nietzsche concluded that since the metaphysical world was stable and permanent reality that it was consider good because the physical world was always changing it was considered to be consider evil. Nietzsche only believed there to be physical world that is true and logical compare to Metaphysical world that is just an illusion. He believes the invisible world was created for one to secret escaped from the pain and suffering of visible world. Socrates was a revolutionary thinker that had changed the ways of common beliefs in western philosophy. Socrates philosophy has caused many philosophy to debate over his theories. Philosopher Fredrich Nietzsche used this article Twilight of the Idols to debate Socrates traditional western philosophy. Based on his last words, Nietzsche believed Socrates was a sick man who truly believed that life was a disease only cured by death. Socrates last word also indicate his idea of the virtue and health of the human soul. He believed that fighting his instincts would keep his soul healthy and pure. However, Nietzsche argues that fighting our instinct goes against our human nature, therefore, making it an unhealthy belief. Besides criticizes the health of the human soul, Nietzsche also points out that the metaphysical world is an illusion for people like Socrates to escape reality because the physical world is only the actual real world.

Do We Need Mass Immigration Free Essays

According to the author Anthony Brown (â€Å"1Britain does not have a declining workforce, but the fastest growing workforce in Europe. This is largely due to the increase in retirement age of women from 60 to 65between 2010 and 2020. The Government Actuary Service predicts that, with zero net immigration, the workforce will grow by 1. We will write a custom essay sample on Do We Need Mass Immigration? or any similar topic only for you Order Now 2m by 2020, from 36.89m in2000 to 38.127 in 2020†.)   In his point of view immigrations currently configured increases inequality-ties in the UK because it causes a massive redistribution of wealth from those who compete with immigrants in the labor market (who tend to be poor, and suffer lower wages), to those who employ them (who tend to be rich, and enjoy lower costs and bigger profits). This effect swell documented in the US. In addition, in the UK, with its tight property market, those who win are those who already own property, particularly those who rent it out; and those who lose are those who rent their homes and those trying to get on the property ladder. Again, this is generally a redistribution of wealth from poor to rich Immigration. in allowing people to move to where the can maximize their welfare and get maximum return on their skills, is a definite force for good in the world, so longs it doesn’t lead to unbalanced, unsustainable and destabilizing population flows. Therefore, the UK government should aim at policies that allow as free a movement of people as is compatible with having balanced and sustain-able migration, as has been achieved within the EU. Britain 1. This is taken from the book of Do We Need Mass Immigration by Anthony Browney. Should initiate negotiations on having an open border policy with other high-income countries such as Japan, where migration flows are likely to be limited, balanced and beneficial. The Human Rights Principles that Underlie this Work: The author assumes that in this book certain human rights principles,Which I believe should be inalienable and should not beCompromised for political expediency. †¢ Everyone has the right not to be subjected to discrimination of any sort, including racial discrimination. †¢ Everyone has the right to be accepted as a full and equal citizen in the country they were born and grew up in.Ethnic minorities born in the UK are as British as a white person whose family has been here for centuries. It is deeply unjust that in certain Middle East states, and formerly in Germany, immigrant workers’ children who are born in the country and have lived in it all their lives are denied citizenship. White Zimbabweans who were born there, and indeed whose families emigrated there generations ago, have a right to be considered full Zimbabweans. †¢ Every nation has the right to decide who can move there and who can’t. States have a fundamental right to protect the integrity of their borders. †¢ Everyone with a genuine fear of persecution by their government should have the right  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   to asylum. The result is that Immigration is more characterized by distortion, denial and hostility to debate than any other public issue. Such a distorted, one-sided debate would be Inconceivable in any other area of such national importance, whether economics, law and order, or defence.As public concern about immigration has grown, so the Pro-immigrationists imperative to promote more immigration has meant that all counter arguments have had to be neutralized, even if that means a complete U-turn on Previously held positions. (â€Å"2In the late 1990s, governments of all major industrialized nations signed passionate communiquà ©s about how mass unemployment was the biggest problem facing modern society†). Then immigration reared its head, and suddenly it is mass   labor shortages that are the biggest problem of our time. From labor surplus to labor shortage in a few short years—how intellectual fashions flutter in the political wind. In the US, there is an anti-immigration group made up explicitly of ethnic minorities, called the Diversity Alliance, founded by an immigrant from Vietnam who worked in the immigration industry before concluding it was getting out of hand. They conducted an opinion poll which showed that 65 per cent of black Americans favour a moratorium on legal immigration. One of the leading immigration reform journalists in the US is Michelle Malkin, an Asian-American, and author of Invasion. Many of the founders of the black rights movement in the US were anti-immigrant,because of the effect immigration was having in undermining African-Americans in the labour market There are many other motives to oppose immigration which are honourable and nothing to do with racism. Samuel Gompers, the founder of the American Federation of Labor, was a Jewish immigrant who supported the early twentieth-century immigration cut-off in the US. In a 1924 letter to Congress, Gompers wrote(â€Å"Every effort to enact immigration legislation must expect to meet a number of hostile forces and, in particular, two hostile forces of considerable strength†). One of these is composed of corporation Employers who desire to employ physical strength at the lowest possible wage and who prefer a rapidly revolving labor supply at low wages to a regular supply of American wage-earners at fair wages. The other is composed of racial groups in the United States who oppose all restrictive legislation because they want the doors left open for an influx of their countrymen. The brief description in his point of view   is not anti-immigration or anti-immigrant, but argues that the current record wave of immigration is unsustainable and both detrimental to the interests of many people in Britain and against the wishes of the majority of people in Britain. It argues that Britain does not have a moral duty to accept immigration, and that immigration is ineffective as a global development policy. It argues for immigration that is balanced, with equal numbers of people coming and going and that is in the interests of people in Britain rather than Justin the interests of potential immigrants, recent immigrants and businesses that like cheap labor. The immigration system should command the acceptance and confidence of the people of Britain. It also argues that the government should pursue an open borders policy in so far as this is compatible with balanced and sustainable migration, such as negotiating an open border policy with Japan. The UK is experiencing the highest levels of net immigration in its history, quadrupling the rate of population growth and adding 543,000 to the population in the last three years, and 1.02m to the population between 1992 and2000.The level of net legal immigration has grown from 35,000in 1993 to 183,000 in 2000 (the difference between 482,000 (  Ã‚   2. This is also from the same source as above mentioned page no 23) arriving and 299,000 leaving). On top of this is an unknown amount of illegal immigration .Unless immigration declines, it will add more than two million people every ten years. The Government Actuary Service estimates that with immigration of 195,000 a year(very close to the present level of legal immigration), the UK population will grow from 59.8m in 2000 to 68.0m in 2031.On present trends, around 6m of the 8m increase in population will move to London and the South East. This is a completely different phenomenon from earlier waves of immigration, such as Huguenots, Jews and Ugandan Asians, all of whom were forced to leave their Bibliography 1. Brittain, A.W. (1991) ‘Anticipated Child Loss to Migration and Sustained High Fertility in an East Caribbean Population’, Social Biology Vol. 38 No. 1-2 pp. 94-112 2. Coleman, D. (November 2000) ‘Migration to Europe: critique of the new establishment consensus’, speech to Workshop on Demographic Specificity and Integration of Migrants, Federal Institute of Population Research, Germany. 3. By James Antle:   ‘The Myth Of Mynority Natural Republicans.† 4. Shaw, C. (2001) ‘United Kingdom Population Trends in the 21st Century’, Population Trends 103 London: The Stationery Office. 5. Webs.       How to cite Do We Need Mass Immigration?, Essay examples

Sound and Purely Physiological Activity free essay sample

How do hearing and listening differ? Hearing differs from listening in that hearing is a purely physiological activity, while listening also involves the psychological processing of sounds. †¢ When we hear what is being said, those words are transferred from our ears to our brain and then we often nod in agreement or disagreement or do nothing at all. Hearing is passive, only involves our ears and involves little to no passion. We simply take in what has been said and then go on from there. In addition, hearing is often emotionless, involuntary and shows little feeling for another. Basically, hearing is the way we understand the meaning of sound, the vibrations that come from it. Hearing is also having the ability to perceive and interpret sound. It is a special kind of sensation that delivers to us, what is being said, no matter where or who is giving off the sound. We will write a custom essay sample on Sound and Purely Physiological Activity or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page To clarify, hearing is a bodily element of listening and happens when sounds waves approach our ears at a certain loudness and frequency. †¢ Listening is the absorption of the meanings of words and sentences by the brain. Listening leads to the understanding of facts and ideas. But listening takes attention, or sticking to the task at hand in spite of distractions. It requires concentration, which is the focusing of your thoughts upon one particular problem. A person who incorporates listening with concentration is actively listening. # 3/ What are three major elements that complicate listening? Give customer service related examples of each. The three elements that complicate listening: †¢ the internal elements within the listener’s mind, †¢ environmental elements surrounding the communication, †¢ interactional elements that arise especially from listener self-centeredness and self-protection.

Manyoshu and Kokinshu Interpretive Essay Essays

Manyoshu and Kokinshu Interpretive Essay Essays Manyoshu and Kokinshu Interpretive Essay Paper Manyoshu and Kokinshu Interpretive Essay Paper Essay Topic: Poetry In his famous Kana Preface to the Kokinshu, Ki no Tsurayuki, one of the editors of the anthology, introduces the aesthetic value and core functions of Japanese poetry. As the seed that grows into a flower, Japanese songs, or waka, take human heart and flourish as myriad leaves of words. (Shirane 148) As the master poet, Tsurayuki advises his successors to appreciate the beauty of life, rather than understanding it. One of the functions of waka, Tsurayuki asserts, lies in consoling the hearts of the departed and the living, as the beauty of the song has the mysterious power to assuage even the troubled souls of fierce warriors. Despite the lexical parsimony of waka, the master poets of ancient Japan have honored this legacy and strived to bestow poetic beauty even upon the topic of death. In the Manyoshu and Kokinshu, parting with the loved ones is juxtaposed with mysterious cycles of nature to mediate the emotional burden of loss. Nonetheless, the poeticization of death in two anthologies contrasts in poetic deliverance as well as in narrative structure, as the Manyoshu poet focuses on the poetic deliverance of the protagonist’s emotions, while the Kokishu poem respectively focuses on the transience and emptiness of life. The poeticization of death in Manyoshu is characterized by the protagonist’s emotional confession of continued longing and inability to let go the departed. Upon his wife’s death, the master poet Kakinomoto no Hitomaro composes the following poem, â€Å"crying tears of blood in his grief.† After recollecting his nostalgic romance with his wife in the openning lines, Hitomaro sings, Like the sky-crossing sun sets in the evening Like the light of the moon is obscured by the clouds, My girl, who like the deep seaweed had slept beside me, Had passed away like the autumn leaves†¦ †¦and all I could do was call out her name As I waved my sleeves. I searched for my girl who has lost her way In the thick yellow leaves of the autumn hill But do not know the mountain path. (84-85) By imbuing his wife’s â€Å"passing away† with the rich imageries of cyclical nature, Hitomaro avoids the crude proclamation of death and elevates their parting with elegance and beauty. Never do words meaning death, such as shinu, appear in the original text or the translation of the poem. Like the sun, the moon, and the seasons, his wife, who has now become a fabric of nature, passes away (sugite) from him. Consequent lines with makurakotoba, catalpa gem and catalpa bow, allow the readers to further relate to and vicariously experience his emotions, amplifying the conveyance of grief. It is also important to note that juxtaposition of the loss and imageries of cyclical nature reflects Hitomaro’s hope for his wife to return, as sun rises again and the autumn returns every year. Later in his short poem, the wife is described as having â€Å"lost her way† in the mountain. Despite the mountain symbolizing the insurmountable and unfathomable divide between the two lovers, Hitomaro still yearns for her return believing that he can bring her back if only he had known the mountain path (yamaji shirazu mo). Yet as he cannot venture across the mountain into the forbidden realm, he laments that he can only call out her name and wave his sleeves (sode so furitsuru), a ritual to summon the departed back to life. An unknown poet of Kokinshu also uses nature as a medium for poeticizing death and conveying emotions of loss. After the Horikawa chancellor died and his remains were interred near Mount Fukakusa, the poet composes in Heian style of lexical parsimony, Poem #832 If cherry trees indeed Have feelings, may those Of the fields of Fukakusa This year, at least, Shround themselves in black blossoms. (162) Unlike Hitomaro, the Kokinshu poet neither confesses his lingering feelings nor hopes for the departed to return. However, through a simple imagery of black, mourning blossoms, instead of an emotional narrative, the poet elegantly conveys the burden of his grief. The waka is almost addressed to the cherry blossoms, as the last line ends in volitional form. Furthermore, the essence of the poem is encapsulated in the word sumizome of the cherry blossoms. As if to prepare them for the burial, the poet invokes the cherry blossoms to bloom in â€Å"dyed black (sumizome ni sake).† The word also reminds the reader the word sumu, meaning â€Å"to live.† The prosopopoeia is further intensified by the use of the word, kokoro. Although it is translated as â€Å"feelings† in the text, it may also be read as â€Å"heart†or â€Å"soul.† The poet’s impossible demand for the cherry blossoms not only reflects his remorse, but also informs the reader of the tr ansience and emptiness of life. As one cannot suppress the promised beauty of the cherry blossoms, one can never escape the passing of life. As Tsurayuki opined in his Kana Preface, the cares and deeds of men and women are endless. Yet there is an end to each and every man and woman and the ancient Japanese poets continued to find beauty in death through their myriad leaves of words. Though the autumn leaves will surely fall, the promised mists of spring will come and the fair hills of Yoshino will be adorned, once again, with cherry blossoms. Likewise, though the departed will go across the â€Å"mountain path† and the living will be in â€Å"dyed black,† the songs will live on until the end of time, shedding light into the Japanese heart of kokoro.

Tips for Reducing Glare and Eyestrain

Tips for Reducing Glare and Eyestrain Glare is caused by the reflection of light off of surfaces and is a primary cause of eyestrain. You can get rid of glare by controlling the light source, adapting the surface reflecting it, or by filtering it before it reaches your eyes. Significant causes of eyestrain are staring at the same distance for a long period of time, such as at a computer monitor or other electronic device or because of driving long distances without a break. These environments can be adapted to be better for your eyes.   Adjust the Light Source Direct light causes the most glare. Examine whether lighting thats overhead or behind is shining on your computer monitor and take steps to reduce it. Use a desk lamp for directed, diffused task lighting when needed instead of bright overhead light.   Use curtains or translucent plastic blinds on windows. Closing these will diffuse the incoming sunlight  light instead of reflecting it, like  metal or wood blinds do.   You dont want to strain to see in dim light, though, either. Light thats too dim can lead to eyestrain as well.   Adjust the Surface Shininess is measured by reflection and glare. That means the duller the surface, the less glare there will be. Use work surfaces that have matte finishes. Some items, like computer screens, are inherently smooth and therefore glossy. Use a glare filter over them.​ Place your work surface at a right angle to the direct light source, such as a window. Items 90 degrees to the light have the least amount of reflection  and glare. In addition, dont position your monitor in front of a bright white wall.  Ã‚   Keep your monitor clean of dust, as having a dirty monitor will lower its contrast, making it harder to read. Dark text on a light background is the easiest to read, so opt for that environment rather than funky color schemes for daily work. And dont feel like youre a codger if you blow up text on your page to make it easier to read. Your eyes will thank you. Adjust your brightness and contrast on your computer  monitor, following Wireds advice when looking at a white background on your display: If it looks like a light source in the room, its too bright. If it seems dull and gray, its probably too dark.  Ã‚   Shield Your Eyes If you cannot eliminate the glare, then stop it before it gets to your eyes. Polarized lenses on sunglasses eliminate a lot of glare. Prescription lenses can be polarized as well. This is the best option when driving, because  you cannot control the light source or the surface. Anti-glare coatings for prescription lenses are  worth the money for people who stare at computer screens all day. Even if you do not need corrective lenses but suffer from eyestrain, you can get all the benefits of anti-glare lenses without them being ground to a prescription. Consult your eye doctor for more information on this. Sporting equipment offers another alternative. Shooting and hunting glasses dramatically reduce glare as well, may wrap around your face to keep out dust and wind, and have some impact resistance, more than normal sunglasses.

Bio-statistics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Bio-statistics - Essay Example It can be either additive or subtractive. In case of additive procedure, the significant predictive variables are included in the regression model one after another. In case of subtractive approach all the expected variables are included in the model and then those which do not show statistically significant association with the predicted variable are dropped from the equation. In univariate analyses each variable is analysed separately for its statistics like mean, median, mode, standard deviation, range, skewness etc. Association on the other hand comes by looking at trend between two variables. If values of two variables show a tandem movement, then there exists significant association between the two variables. Though it looks very similar to correlation, it is completely different as in case of association, there may not be any causal relationship between two variables, which is there in case of correlation. What has been stated in the quoted sentence is that univariate analysis resulted in significant association between ‘allogeneic transfusion’ and ‘older age’; ‘allogeneic transfusion’ and ‘female sex’; ‘allogeneic transfusion’ and ‘hip procedure’ and so on. It means that instances of allogeneic transfusion were more in older people, females and so on. But it does not necessarily mean that this relationship was causal as well, it may be or may not be. g) ‘Revision hip’ was associated with the highest probability of transfusion as ‘Risk ratio’ is highest for this procedure. This means that those going for â€Å"Revision hip’ are at the greatest risk for allogeneic transfusion than those going for other procedures. h) The older person (aged 77) is at greater risk of requiring a transfusion after operation than the younger one. This comes from the fact that the multivariate regression model throws up risk ratio of 1.77 for those aged from 70 – 80 as compared to that of those aged below 70.

Analysis of a Business Narrative Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Analysis of a Business Narrative - Essay Example There is renewed realization of the fact that organizations are continuously seeking a means of communication that synthesizes and not that which analyzes information (Sole & Wilson, 2004). Story telling offers an ideal answer to this quest, which explains the increasing use of narratives by many organizations today. Knowledge by itself serves no purpose to organizations. However it is by application that such knowledge becomes useful to an organization. Therefore, all stories in organizations have the basic intent to share knowledge, which helps in promoting effective actions in the behaviors of all the involved stakeholders or in achieving a specific task within the organization. One importance of narratives in organizations is in informing the clientele â€Å"who we really are† (Dunning, 2005). In this attempt, for the narrative to be effective, executives have to do something that may at first appear uncomfortable, which mostly involves talking about the failures involved and the down times that the company has experienced in coming to being (Dunning, 2005). Self-disclosure in narratives is one of the best ways to accomplish trust and to inspire others. For instance, in the narrative about Baidu invention, though the company does not narrate about their down times and failures, the narrative clearly indicates that the brand was formed with the Chinese people in mind and had specific tools that accommodated the diverse needs of the Chinese users. The company draws its identity from its intention to serve the Chinese clientele and thus was designed with this customer segment in mind. This is portrayed by the fact that the search engine recognizes 38 ways in which a Chinese can say I. Recognizing such user specific features defines a clear identity of the company in relation to its clientele. On the other hand, Google in its invention offers a captivating narrative of the failures and the downtimes that haunted the young company. For instance, BackRub w as discontinued for taking a high bandwidth than necessary, and that the young Google Company had to start from a garage and not an office. Stories that disclose failure and hardships within a company in its years of operations have a paradoxical effect of instilling trust and encourage openness among its audience (Dunning, 2005). Google offers a simple story about its startup, which elicits both humor and confidence in all their operations. Such a story enhances confidence, courage and inspires others within the company and outside to be confident in their operations. Narratives in organizations do share values and norms. The norms and values are passed through different generations within the organization, and are derived from the organization’s past to describe its intended future (Sole & Wilson, 2004). Leadership theories empathize on the need to offer a robust context and vision of a firm. This objective is better accomplished using stories that have more emphasis on the strong qualities of the organization in the past; narratives place organizational qualities in future’s context, while at the same time helping in identifying possible future opportunities in an organization (Sole & Wilson, 2004). For instance, during Baidu’s design and launch, the detailed knowledge of Chinese language and culture was instrumental in

Using and applying mathematics to different problems

Using and applying mathematics to different problems Traditionally in the United Kingdom, mathematical problems have been treated as contexts in which young learners can apply exiting knowledge. This is reflected in the use of the term using and applying mathematics within the National curriculum. Problem-solving in the Netherlands is viewed somewhat differently. Problem-solving contexts are used as a starting point from which mathematical strategies and conceptual understanding are developed. The second part of this report gives ideas of teaching strategies that can be employed to promote problem solving and mathematical thinking in the developing children of the United Kingdom. Part 1: Analysis of the progression of problem solving between the primary years from years 1 to 6 Solving problems is one of the strands in the Using and applying mathematics strand. According to the 1999 Framework for teaching mathematics, numeracy is a proficiency that requires a child to incline to and have an ability to solve problems when given different contexts. This numeracy results in children who are have the confidence to tackle mathematical problems without immediately asking their teachers and friends to help them. To become problem solvers, children need to solve problems, meaning that children have to be given the space and time to tackle mathematical problems during lessons is they are to become competent and confident problem solves. In realisation of this, problem solving for the children from primary years one to six has been embedded into mathematics teaching and learning, thereby becoming an integral part of the childrens work. The renewed Primary Framework focuses on children solving problems that are set in wider ranging contexts because the children become more confident and skilled. This progression analysis highlights the increasing complexity of the mathematical problems that the children tackle as they move from one year to the next. Through years one to six Block A covers counting, partitioning and calculating. Block B covers securing number facts, understanding shape, Block C covers handling data and measures, Block D covers calculating, measuring and understanding shape and Block E covers securing number facts, relationships and calculating. Year one During their first year, children are supposed to solve problems involving counting, adding, subtracting, doubling and halving in the context of numbers, measures and money. In block A of year one, children concentrate on solving problems involving counting and they extend their counting and calculation skills. The children estimate a number of objects that can be checked by counting, begin to understand place value in two-digit numbers, read and write numerals to 20 and beyond, relate addition to counting on and to combining groups and use an increasing range of vocabulary related to addition. In block B of year one, children consolidate their use of patterns and relationships to solve number problems and puzzles. In block C, children take greater responsibility for posing and answering questions. In block D, Children continue to make direct comparison of the length, weight or capacity of two objects without any counting. The children begin to use uniform non-standard units to estim ate and then measure length. The children continue to work with money as well as continue to develop the concept of time by ordering the months of the year and reading time to the hour and half hour on a clock. In block E, children continue to solve practical problems involving addition or subtraction, doubling or halving and they record their solutions on a number line or in a number sentence. Year two During their second year, children are supposed to solve problems involving addition, subtraction, multiplication and division in contexts of numbers, measures and pound and pence. Block A does not cover any problem solving. In block B, children use their knowledge and experience of counting to learn the 2, 5 and 10 multiplication facts. The children solve one and two-step word problems involving money and measures, using all four operations. In block C, the children solve problems such as finding which soft drink is most popular with children in the class, and later make a block graph and explain what it shows to others. In block D, children continue to count in ones, twos, fives and tens. These skills come in handy in helping them to tot up a mixed set of 10p, 5p, 2p and 1p coins. The children develop the understanding of number lines to enable them read a range of scales. In block E, the children consolidate counting on from zero in steps of 2, 5 and 10 and build up times-tables, describing what they notice about numbers in the tables. They use this knowledge to predict some other numbers that would be in the count. The children understand that repeated addition can be represented using the multiplication symbol. The children use a number line to support repeated addition, recording the equal jumps on the line and writing the repeated addition statement and the matching multiplication statement. The children identify the operation(s) needed to solve a problem and explain their reasoning. Year three During their third year, children are supposed to solve one-step and two-step problems involving numbers, money or measures, including time, choosing and carrying out appropriate calculations. In block A, Children solve problems involving counting, solve number puzzles and organise and explain their written responses to problems and puzzles in a systematic way. The children identify relevant information and select the appropriate operations in order to solve word problems. In block B, the children use patterns, properties and relationships between numbers to solve puzzles. In block C, the Children pose a problem and suggest systematic and appropriate approaches to collecting, organising and representing data in order to solve the problem. In block D, children add or subtract multiples of 10 or 100 and near-multiples to solve word problems and then use practical and informal written methods to solve problems involving multiplication and division. The children recognise that finding fr actions of amounts involves division and find a fifth of a quantity. In block E, the children apply their skills when they solve practical measuring problems. Year four During their fourth year, children are supposed to solve one-step and two-step problems involving numbers, money or measures, including time; choose and carry out appropriate calculations, using calculator methods where appropriate. In block A, the children continue to derive and practise recalling multiplication and division facts to 10 10. The children consolidate multiplying and dividing numbers to 1000 by 10 and 100. The children develop written methods for multiplying and dividing. In block C, the children evaluate the effect of different scales on interpretation of the data. In block D, Children learn the relationships between familiar units of measurement. Practical activities help children to increase their accuracy of measurement and estimation as well as choosing appropriate instruments and units. In block E, children investigate patterns and relationships. In block E, children count in fractions along a number line from 0 to 1 and establish pairs of numbers that total 1. The children are introduced to the vocabulary of ratio and proportion Year five During their fifth year, children are supposed to solve one-step and two-step problems involving whole numbers and decimals and all four operations, choosing and using appropriate calculation strategies, including calculator use. In block C, children test a hypothesis by deciding what data is needed and discussing how they will collect the data. The children use ICT to help them present graphs and charts quickly, and interpret their graphs and charts to draw their conclusion. In block D, when the children measure weight, they use a range of scales. In block E, children use multiplication and division to solve problems involving ratio and proportion. Year six During their sixth year, children are supposed to solve multi-step problems, and problems involving fractions, decimals and percentages; choose and use appropriate calculation strategies at each stage, including calculator use. In block A, children use a calculator to explore the effect of brackets in calculations. They decide whether or not to use a calculator to solve problems. In block D, children solve practical problems by estimating and measuring using standard metric units from a range of scales. The children draw on a range of mathematics to solve problems involving estimating and measuring. The children communicate clearly how a problem was solved and explain each step and comment on the accuracy of their answer. The children explore area and perimeter of rectilinear shapes. They estimate the size of angles and use a protractor to measure acute and obtuse angles. The children describe the patterns and relationships that they discover. In block E, children solve problems in d ifferent contexts, using symbols where appropriate to explain their reasoning. The children identify and record the calculations needed, interpreting the solutions back in the original context and checking the accuracy of their answers. Part 2: Ideas of teaching strategies to be employed to promote problem solving and mathematical thinking. Teaching mathematics students how to solve problems is important. These students should be taught how to apply the mathematical problems to problems in everyday life. The students should be in a position to do investigational work on the mathematics problem. A problem is a task that does not provide the learner with a clear route to the solution. If the solution to a problem can be arrived at through different approaches, then that problem has some degree of openness. The term investigation is used to describe such an open problem that can be solved through different solutions. An investigation is a good way to enable young learners to use and apply their abilities in mathematical knowledge. There are different levels of openness that are offered by application tasks. Exploratory problem solving is another means by which Application tasks exist with different levels of openness. Besides investigations, problems that have some degree of openness can be solved by exploratory problem solving. This gives the learner a chance to solve real-life problems using a mathematical approach. As a result, exploratory and investigative problem-solving offer children greater chances for developing the mathematical thinking of young learners. Word problems on the other hand are usually closed problems that have a defined solution and a standard method of calculations is applied. An example of such a problem is: How much change would I receive from a 10 pound note if I bought items costing 2.59 pounds and 3.99 pounds? Once the problem has been rewritten using symbols and numbers in a mathematical format, there is usually a standard method carrying out the resulting calculations. Word problems can still offer valuable opportunities for young learners mathematical thinking. A delicate balance is required between sensitive questioning which develops a childs thinking, and allowing the child time and some level of freedom to develop his own approach and strategy to problem solving. In this sense, the teachers role is somewhat different from that when teaching other aspects of the mathematics curriculum. In such contexts, the understanding of the likely consequences of intervention and non-intervention and flexibility of approach by the teacher are critical. Word problems can be solved by either a horizontal or vertical mathematising process (reference). The horizontal mathematising process is the easier of the two and is a strategy commonly used by children to solve word problems. Horizontal mathematising is whereby symbols are used to represent items in a mathematical word problem. Vertical mathematising is whereby the model created in vertical mathematising needs to be adapted in order for the answer to the mathematical word problem to be figured out. Askew gives two questions that are used to demonstrate the complexities surrounding word problems. The first question is: Mrs. Chang bought five video tapes that cost the same amount. If she spent 35 pounds, how much did each tape cost? The second question is: Mr. Chang bought some tapes that cost 7 ponds each. How many tapes did he buy? The first question is easier for children to solve because they can use fingers as a symbol of the number of tapes. The use of symbols supports the chil drens thinking within the purely mathematical context and enables them to arrive at an answer by trial-and-improvement techniques (reference). Research findings show that children make use of a wide range of informal strategies to solve word problems (reference). However, mere use of models is not sufficient for many children to solve a word problem. This is because word problems require children to translate between the real world context and the world of mathematics and back again. Switching between the physical world and the mathematical world is difficult because there exists a mismatch between these two worlds. When the teacher is made aware of this issue it provides a way forward. In the example above, children should be asked to compare the problems in order to help them appreciate more deeply the complexities of solving such problems. Children should also be helped to categorize word problems in order to help them appreciate structural similarities and differences. Categorising problems will require children to use reasoning skills in order for them to make generalisations about solution strategies for particular cl asses of problems. In the Netherlands, a different attitude to problem-solving has been adopted. This approach, known as realistic mathematics education, is based upon Freudenthals (1968) belief that children should be given guided opportunities to reinvent mathematics through doing it. Thus, the focus of realistic mathematics education is childrens mathematisation of contexts which are meaningful to them, and through this participation in the learning process, children develop mathematical understanding and strategies. Instead of using problem-solving as a vehicle for context-based application of earlier learning as a tradition in England, realistic mathematics education uses context problems as a source for the learning process. A good example of a context building up mathematical knowledge is taking the context of a city bus. The teaching starts with a real life situation where the students have to act as the driver of the city bus. The passengers are getting on and off the bus, and at each stop the students have to determine the number of passengers in the bus. Later the same is done on paper. The development of mathematical language is elicited by the need to keep track of what happened during the ride of the bus. Initially, the language is closely connected to the context, but later on it is used for describing other situations. This way, childrens conceptual understanding of related strategies from within the contexts of the problem is developed from the realistic mathematics education principle. Conclusion A consideration of some different approaches to teaching problem-solving will inevitably lead to a consideration of the purpose of teaching problem-solving. A problem-solving approach has clear benefits for pupils in helping them to approach mathematical problems of all kinds in a more structured way. Practice in identifying the main features of a problem and rejecting redundant information, and looking for relationships and strategies in a problem-solving situation, are all transferable skills that can be used in all area of mathematics. Such transferability of skills, knowledge and understanding is however not trivial. A key challenge, therefore, is to determine how best to ensure that children learn mathematics in ways that enable them to transfer knowledge and understanding gained in one context to other contexts they encounter subsequently. The role of the teacher is important in supporting childrens learning through problem-solving.

Greek Mythology

Greek mythology in western art and literature With the rediscovery of classical antiquity in Renaissance, the poetry of Ovid became a major influence on the imagination of poets and artists and remained a fundamental influence on the diffusion and perception of Greek mythology through subsequent centuries. [2] From the early years of Renaissance, artists portrayed subjects from Greek mythology alongside more conventional Christian themes.Among the best-known subjects of Italian artists are Botticelli's Birth of Venus and Pallas and the Centaur, the Ledas of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, and Raphael's Galatea. 2] Through the medium of Latin and the works of Ovid, Greek myth influenced medieval and Renaissance poets such as Petrarch, Boccaccio and Dante in Italy. [1] In northern Europe, Greek mythology never took the same hold of the visual arts, but its effect was very obvious on literature. Both Latin and Greek classical texts were translated, so that stories of mythology becam e available. In England, Chaucer, the Elizabethans and John Milton were among those influenced by Greek myths; nearly all the major English poets from Shakespeare to Robert Bridges turned for inspiration to Greek mythology.Jean Racine in France and Goethe in Germany revived Greek drama. [2] Racine reworked the ancient myths — including those of Phaidra, Andromache, Oedipus and Iphigeneia — to new purpose. [3] The 18th century saw the philosophical revolution of the Enlightenment spread throughout Europe and accompanied by a certain reaction against Greek myth; there was a tendency to insist on the scientific and philosophical achievements of Greece and Rome.The myths, however, continued to provide an important source of raw material for dramatists, including those who wrote the libretti for Handel's operas Admeto and Semele, Mozart's Idomeneo and Gluck's Iphigenie en Aulide. [3] By the end of the century, Romanticism initiated a surge of enthusiam for all things Greek, including Greek mythology. In Britain, it was a great period for new translations of Greek tragedies and Homer, and these in turn inspired contemporary poets, such as Keats, Byron and Shelley. 4] The Hellenism of Queen's Victoria poet laureate, Alfred Lord Tennyson, was such that even his portraits of the quintessentially English court of King Arthrur are suffused with echoes of the Homeric epics.The visual arts kept pace, stimulated by the purchase of the Parthenon marbles in 1816; many of the â€Å"Greek† paintings of Lord Leighton and Lawrence Alma-Tadema were seriously accepted as part of the transmission of the Hellenic ideal. [5] The German composer of the 18th century Christoph Gluck was also influenced by Greek mythology. 1] American authors of the 19th century, such as Thomas Bulfinch and Nathaniel Hawthorne, believed that myths should provide pleasure, and held that the study of the classical myths was essential to the understanding of English and Americal literatu re. [6] According to Bulfinch, â€Å"the so-called divinities of Olympus have not a single worshipper among living men; they belong now not to the department of theology, but to those of literature and taste†. [7] In more recent times, classical themes have been reinterpreted by such major dramatists as Jean Anouilh, Jean Cocteau, and Jean Giraudoux in France, Eugene O'Neill in America, and T.S. Eliot in England and by great novelists such as the Irish James Joyce and the French Andre Gide. Richard Strauss, Jacques Offenbach and many others have set Greek mythological themes to music. [1]References 1. ^ a b c d â€Å"Greek Mythology†. Encyclopaedia Britannica. 2002. 2. ^ a b c â€Å"Greek mythology†. Encyclopaedia Britannica. 2002. * L. Burn, Greek Myths, 75 3. ^ a b l. Burn, Greek Myths, 75 4. ^ l. Burn, Greek Myths, 75-76 5. ^ l. Burn, Greek Myths, 76 6. ^ Klatt-Brazouski, Ancient Greek and Roman Mythology, 4 7. ^ T. Bulfinch, Bulfinch's Greek and Roman Mythol ogy, 1 Greek Mythology Greek Mythology,  set  of  diverse  traditional tales told by the ancient Greeks about the exploits of gods and heroes and their relations with ordinary mortals. The  ancient  Greeks  worshiped many gods within a culture that tolerated diversity. Unlike other belief systems, Greek culture recognized no single truth or code and produced no sacred, written text like the Bible or the Qur’an. Stories about the origins and actions of Greek divinities varied widely, depending, for example, on whether the tale appeared in a comedy, tragedy, or epic poem.Greek mythology was like a complex and rich language, in which the Greeks could express a vast range of perceptions about the world. A  Greek  city-state  devoted itself to a particular god or group of gods in whose honor it built temples. The temple generally housed a statue of the god or gods. The Greeks honored the city’s gods in festivals and also offered sacrifices to the gods, usually a domestic animal such as a goat. Stories about the gods varied by geographic location: A god might have one set of characteristics in one city or region and quite different characteristics elsewhere. II A A1PRINCIPAL FIGURES IN GREEK MYTHOLOGY Greek  mythology  has  several distinguishing characteristics, in addition to its multiple versions. The Greek gods resembled human beings in their form and in their emotions, and they lived in a society that resembled human society in its levels of authority and power. However, a crucial difference existed between gods and human beings: Humans died, and gods were immortal. Heroes also played an important role in Greek mythology, and stories about them conveyed serious themes. The Greeks considered human heroes from the past closer to themselves than were the immortal gods. GodsGiven  the  multiplicity of myths that circulated in Greece, it is difficult to present a single version of the genealogy (family history) of the gods. However, two accounts together provide a genealogy that most ancient Greeks would have recognized. One is the account given by Greek poet Hesiod in his Theogony (Genealogy of the Gods), written in the 8th century BC. The other account, The Library, is attributed to a mythographer (compiler of myths) named Apollodorus, who lived during the 2nd century BC. The Creation of the Gods According  to  Greek  myths about creation, the god Chaos (Greek for â€Å"Gaping Void†) was the foundation of all things.From Chaos came Gaea (â€Å"Earth†); the bottomless depth of the underworld, known as Tartarus; and Eros (â€Å"Love†). Eros, the god of love, was needed to draw divinities together so they Greek Mythology might produce offspring. Chaos produced Night, while Gaea first bore Uranus, the god of the heavens, and after him produced the mountains, sea, and gods known as Titans. The Titans were strong and large, and they committed arrogant deeds. The youngest and most important Titan was C ronus. Uranus and Gaea, who came to personify Heaven and Earth, also gave birth to the Cyclopes, one-eyed giants who made thunderbolts.See also Creation Stories. A2 A3 A4 Cronus and Rhea Uranus  tried  to  block any successors from taking over his supreme position by forcing back into Gaea the children she bore. But the youngest child, Cronus, thwarted his father, cutting off his genitals and tossing them into the sea. From the bloody foam in the sea Aphrodite, goddess of sexual love, was born. After  wounding  his  father and taking away his power, Cronus became ruler of the universe. But Cronus, in turn, feared that his own son would supplant him. When his sister and wife Rhea gave birth to offspring—Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon—Cronus swallowed them.Only the youngest, Zeus, escaped this fate, because Rhea tricked Cronus. She gave him a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes to swallow in place of the baby. Zeus and the Olympian Gods When  ful ly  grown,  Zeus forced his father, Cronus, to disgorge the children he had swallowed. With their help and armed with the thunderbolt, Zeus made war on Cronus and the Titans, and overcame them. He established a new regime, based on Mount Olympus in northern Greece. Zeus ruled the sky. His brother Poseidon ruled the sea, and his brother Hades, the underworld.Their sister Hestia ruled the hearth, and Demeter took charge of the harvest. Zeus married his sister Hera, who became queen of the heavens and guardian of marriage and childbirth. Among their children was Ares, whose sphere of influence was war. Twelve  major  gods  and goddesses had their homes on Mount Olympus and were known as the Olympians. Four children of Zeus and one child of Hera joined the Olympian gods Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Hades, Hestia, Demeter, and Ares. Zeus’s Olympian offspring were Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, and Athena. Hera gave birth to Hephaestus. The Offspring of ZeusZeus  had  numerous   children by both mortal and immortal women. By the mortal Semele he had Dionysus, a god associated with wine and with other forms of intoxication and ecstasy. By Leto, a Titan, Zeus fathered the twins Apollo and Artemis, who became two of the most important Olympian divinities. Artemis remained a virgin and took hunting as her special province. Apollo became associated with music and prophecy. People visited his oracle (shrine) at Delphi to seek his prophetic advice. By the nymph Maia, Zeus became father of Hermes, the Olympian trickster god who had the power to cross all kinds of boundaries.Hermes guided the souls of the dead down to the underworld, Greek Mythology carried messages between gods and mortals, and wafted a magical sleep upon the wakeful. Two  other  Olympian  divinities, Hephaestus and Athena, had unusual births. Hera conceived Hephaestus, the blacksmith god, without a male partner. Subsequently he suffered the wrath of Zeus, who once hurled him from Olympus for coming to the aid of his mother; this fall down onto the island of Lemnos crippled Hephaestus. The birth of Athena was even stranger. Zeus and Metis, daughter of the Titan Oceanus, were the parents of Athena.But Gaea had warned Zeus that, after giving birth to the girl with whom she was pregnant, Metis would bear a son destined to rule heaven. To avoid losing his throne to a son, Zeus swallowed Metis, just as Cronus had previously swallowed his own children to thwart succession. Metis’s child Athena was born from the head of Zeus, which Hephaestus split open with an axe. Athena, another virgin goddess, embodied the power of practical intelligence in warfare and crafts work. She also served as the protector of the city of Athens. Another  of  Zeus’s  children was Persephone; her mother was Demeter, goddess of grain, vegetation, and the harvest.Once when Persephone was gathering flowers in a meadow, Hades, god of the underworld, saw and abducted her, taking her do wn to the kingdom of the dead to be his bride. Her grief-stricken mother wandered the world in search of her; as a result, fertility left the earth. Zeus commanded Hades to release Persephone, but Hades had cunningly given her a pomegranate seed to eat. Having consumed food from the underworld, Persephone was obliged to return below the earth for part of each year. Her return from the underworld each year meant the revival of nature and the beginning of spring.This myth was told especially in connection with the Eleusinian Mysteries, sacred rituals observed in the Greek town of Elevsis near Athens. The rituals offered initiates in the mysteries the hope of rebirth, just as Persephone had been reborn after her journey to the underworld. Many  Greek  myths  report the exploits of the principal Olympians, but Greek myths also refer to a variety of other divinities, each with their particular sphere of influence. Many of these divinities were children of Zeus, symbolizing the fact that they belonged to the new Olympian order of Zeus’s regime.The Muses, nine daughters of Zeus and the goddess of memory, Mnemosyne, presided over song, dance, and music. The Fates, three goddesses who controlled human life and destiny, and the Horae, goddesses who controlled the seasons, were appropriately the children of Zeus and Themis, the goddess of divine justice and law. Far different in temperament were the Erinyes (Furies), ancient and repellent goddesses who had sprung from the earth after it had been impregnated with the blood of Uranus’s severed genitals. Terrible though they were, the Erinyes also had a legitimate role in the world: to pursue those who had murdered their own kin.A5 Disruptive Deities Human  existence  is  characterized by disorder as well as order, and many of the most characteristic figures in Greek mythology exert a powerfully disruptive effect. Satyrs, whom the Greeks imagined as part human and part horse (or part goat), led liv es dominated by wine and lust. Myths depicted them as companions of Dionysus who drunkenly pursued nymphs, spirits of nature represented as young and beautiful maidens. Many of the jugs used at Greek symposia (drinking parties) carry images of satyrs. Equally  wild,  but  more threatening than the satyrs, were the savage centaurs.These monsters, Greek Mythology depicted as half-man and half-horse, tended toward uncontrolled aggression. The centaurs are known for combat with their neighbors, the Lapiths, which resulted from an attempt to carry off the Lapith women at a wedding feast. This combat was depicted in sculpture on the Parthenon, a temple dedicated to Athena in Athens. The  Sirens,  usually  portrayed as birds with women’s heads, posed a different sort of threat. These island-dwelling enchantresses lured mariners to their deaths by the irresistible beauty of their song.The seafaring Greek hero Odysseus alone survived this temptation by ordering his compani ons to block their own ears, to bind him to the mast of his ship, and to ignore all his entreaties to be allowed to follow the lure of the Sirens’ song. B B1 B2 Mortals The  Greeks  had  several myths to account for the origins of humanity. According to one version, human beings sprang from the ground, and this origin explained their devotion to the land. According to another myth, a Titan molded the first human beings from clay. The Greeks also had a story about the destruction of humanity, similar to the biblical deluge.The Creation of Human Beings Conflicting  Greek  myths tell about the creation of humanity. Some myths recount how the populations of particular localities sprang directly from the earth. The Arcadians, residents of a region of Greece known as Arcadia, claimed this distinction for their original inhabitant, Pelasgus (see Pelasgians). The Thebans boasted descent from earthborn men who had sprung from the spot where Cadmus, the founder of Thebes, had sown the ground with the teeth of a sacred dragon. According to another tale, one of the Titans, Prometheus, fashioned the first human being from water and earth.In the more usual version of the story Prometheus did not actually create humanity but simply lent it assistance through the gift of fire. Another  tale  dealt  with humanity’s re-creation. When Zeus planned to destroy an ancient race living on Earth, he sent a deluge. However, Deucalion, a son of Prometheus, and his wife Pyrrha—the Greek equivalents of the biblical Noah and his wife—put provisions into a chest and climbed into it. Carried across the waters of the flood, they landed on Mount Parnassus. After the waters receded, the couple gratefully made sacrifices to Zeus.His response was to send Hermes to instruct them how to repopulate the world. They should cast stones behind them. Stones thrown by Deucalion became men; those thrown by Pyrrha, women. The Greek People According  to  myth,à ‚  the various peoples of Greece descended from Hellen, son of Deucalion and Pyrrha. One genealogy related that the Dorian and the Aeolian Greeks sprang from Hellen’s sons Dorus and Aeolus. The Achaeans and Ionians descended from Achaeos and Ion, sons of Hellen’s other son, Xuthus. These figures, in their turn, produced offspring who, along with children born of unionsGreek Mythology between divinities and mortals, made up the collection of heroes and heroines whose exploits constitute a central part of Greek mythology. C C1 C2 C3 Heroes Myths  about  heroes  are particularly characteristic of Greek mythology. Many of these heroes were the sons of gods, and a number of myths involved expeditions by these heroes. The expeditions generally related to quests or combats. Scholars consider some of these myths partly historical in nature—that is, they explained events in the distant past and were handed down orally from one generation to the next.Two of the most important of the semihistorical myths involve the search for the Golden Fleece and the quest that led to the Trojan War. In other myths heroes such as Heracles and Theseus had to overcome fearsome monsters. Jason and the Golden Fleece Jason  was  a  hero  who  sailed in the ship Argo, with a band of heroes called the Argonauts, on a dangerous quest for the Golden Fleece at the eastern end of the Black Sea in the land of Colchis. Jason had to fetch this family property, a fleece made of gold from a winged ram, in order to regain his throne.A dragon that never slept guarded the fleece and made the mission nearly impossible. Thanks to the magical powers of Medea, daughter of the ruler of Colchis, Jason performed the impossible tasks necessary to win the fleece and to take it from the dragon. Afterward Medea took horrible revenge on Pelias, who had killed Jason’s parents, stolen Jason’s throne, and sent Jason on the quest for the fleece. She tricked Peliasâ€⠄¢s daughters into cutting him up and boiling him in a cauldron. Medea’s story continued to involve horrific violence.When Jason rejected her for another woman, Medea once more used her magic to avenge herself with extreme cruelty. Meleager Jason  and  the  same  generation of heroes took part in another adventure, with Meleager, the son of King Oeneus of Calydon and his wife Althea. At Meleager’s birth the Fates predicted that he would die when a log burning on the hearth was completely consumed. His mother snatched the log and hid it in a chest. Meleager grew to manhood. One day, his father accidentally omitted Artemis, the goddess of the hunt, from a sacrifice. In revenge Artemis sent a mighty boar to ravage the country.Meleager set out to destroy it, accompanied by some of the greatest heroes of the day, including Peleus, Telamon, Theseus, Jason, and Castor and Polydeuces. The boar was killed. However, Meleager killed his mother’s brothers in a quarr el about who should receive the boar skin. In her anger Althea threw the log on to the fire, so ending her son’s life; she then hanged herself. Heroes of the Trojan War The  greatest  expedition of all was that which resulted in the Trojan War. The object of this quest was Helen, a beautiful Greek woman who had been abducted by Paris, son of King Priam of Troy.Helen’s husband Menelaus and his brother Agamemnon led an army of Greeks to besiege Troy. After ten Greek Mythology years, with many heroes dead on both sides, the city fell to the trick of the Trojan Horse—a giant wooden horse that the Greeks built and left outside the gates of Troy while their army pretended to withdraw. Not knowing that Greek heroes were hiding inside the horse, the Trojans took the horse into the city. The hidden Greeks then slipped out, opened the city gates and let their army in, thus defeating Troy. The Iliad, an epic poem attributed to Greek poet Homer, tells the story of the T rojan War.The story continued with the Odyssey, another long poem attributed to Homer, in which the Greek hero Odysseus made his way home after the Trojan War. Odysseus returned to his faithful wife, Penelope, whereas Agamemnon returned to be murdered by his faithless wife, Clytemnestra, and her lover. Historians  considered the Trojan War entirely mythical until excavations in Turkey showed that there had been cities on the site of Troy and that fire had destroyed one of these cities at about the time of the Trojan War, sometime from 1230 BC to 1180 BC. C4 C5 Heracles and TheseusThe  deeds  of  the  heroes Heracles (see Hercules) and Theseus exemplify a central theme in Greek mythology: the conflict between civilization and wild savagery. Each hero confronted and overcame monstrous opponents, yet neither enjoyed unclouded happiness. Heracles  had  been  an  Argonaut but left the expedition after being plunged into grief at the loss of his companion Hylas. In anoth er story, a fit of madness led Heracles to kill his own wife and children. But he is best known for his feats of prowess against beasts and monsters, which began soon after his birth.The most difficult of these feats are known as the 12 labors, which are believed to represent efforts to conquer death and achieve immortality. Although Heracles died, his father, Zeus, gave him a place on Mount Olympus. Theseus  successfully  slew the Minotaur, a monster that was half man and half bull. On his voyage home to Athens, however, he forgot to hoist the white sails that would have signified the success of his adventure. According to one tale, Theseus’s heartbroken father Aegeus, seeing black sails, believed his son had died, and committed suicide. The Aegean Sea in which he drowned is presumably named after Aegeus.Oedipus No  hero  of  Greek  mythology has proved more fascinating than Oedipus. He destroyed a monster, the Sphinx, by answering its riddle. Yet his ultimate do wnfall served as a terrifying warning of the instability of human fortune. As a baby, Oedipus had been abandoned on a mountainside by his parents, King Laius and Queen Jocasta of Thebes, because of a prophecy that the child would grow up to kill his father and marry his mother. Saved by the pity of a shepherd, the child—its identity unknown—was reared by the king and queen of the neighboring city of Corinth.In due course, Oedipus unwittingly fulfilled the prophecy, matching the horrific crimes he had committed with the equally ghastly self-punishment of piercing his own eyes with Jocasta’s brooch-pins. Greek Mythology III A Gods and Goddesses B THE NATURE OF GREEK GODS AND HEROES In  many  respects  the  gods and goddesses of Greek mythology resembled extraordinarily powerful human beings. They experienced emotions such as jealousy, love, and grief, and they shared with humans a desire to assert their own authority and to punish anyone who flouted it.How ever, these emotions and desires took supernaturally intense form in gods and goddesses. As numerous literary descriptions and artistic representations testify, the Greeks imagined their gods to have human shape, although this form was strongly idealized. The  Greeks,  moreover, modeled relationships between divinities on those between human beings. Apollo and Artemis were brother and sister, Zeus and Hera were husband and wife, and the society of the gods on Mount Olympus resembled that of an unruly family, with Zeus at its head. The gods could temporarily enter the human world.They might, for example, fall in love with a mortal, as Aphrodite did with Adonis; Apollo with Daphne; and Zeus with Leda, Alcmene, and Danae. Or they might destroy a mortal who displeased them, as Dionysus destroyed King Pentheus of Thebes for mocking his rites. Not  all  Greek  divinities resembled human beings. They could also be uncanny, strange, and alien, a quality made visible in artistic re presentations of monsters. For example, the snake-haired Gorgon Medusa had a stare that turned her victims to stone. The Graeae, sisters of the Gorgons, were gray-haired old crones from birth.They possessed but a single tooth and a single eye between them. Typhoeus was a hideous monster from whose shoulders grew a hundred snakeheads with dark, flickering tongues. Even  the  major  deities of Olympus showed alien characteristics at times. A recurrent sign of divine power is the ability to change shape, either one’s own or that of others. Athena once transformed herself into a vulture; Poseidon once took the form of a stallion. This ability could prove convenient such as when Zeus assumed the form of a swan to woo Leda. Zeus turned Lycaon, a disrespectful king, into a wolf to punish him for his wickedness.The ability to exercise power over the crossing of boundaries is a crucial feature of divine power among the Greeks. Heroes Greek  mythology  also  told how divini ties interacted with heroes, a category of mortals who, though dead, were believed to retain power to influence the lives of the living. In myths heroes represented a kind of bridge between gods and mortals. Heroes such as Achilles, Perseus, and Aeneas were the products of a union between a deity and a mortal. The fact that the gods often intervened to help heroes—for example, during combat—indicated not the heroes’ weakness but their special importance.Yet heroes were not the equals of the gods. With  a  logic  characteristic of Greek myth, heroes typically possessed a defect to balance out their exceptional power. For example, the warrior Achilles, hero of the Trojan War, was invulnerable except in the heel. The prophet Cassandra, who warned the Trojans of dangers such as the Trojan Horse, Greek Mythology always prophesied the truth but was never believed. Heracles constituted an extreme example of this paradox: His awesome strength was balanced by his t endency to become a victim of his own excessive violence.Nevertheless, the gods allowed Heracles to cross the ultimate boundary by gaining admission to Olympus. IV A B THE FUNCTIONS OF GREEK MYTHOLOGY Like  most  other  mythological traditions, Greek myths served several purposes. First, Greek myths explained the world. Second, they acted as a means of exploration. Third, they provided authority and legitimacy. Finally, they provided entertainment. Explanation Greek  myths  lent  structure and order to the world and explained how the current state of things had originated. Hesiod’s Theogony narrated the development of the present order of the universe by relating it to Chaos, the origin of all things.By a complex process of violence, struggle, and sexual attraction, the regime led by Zeus had eventually taken over. Another poem by Hesiod, Works and Days, explained why the world is full of trouble. According to the poem the first woman, Pandora, opened a jar whose lid she had been forbidden to lift. As a result of her disobedience all the diseases and miseries previously confined in the jar escaped into the world. Such a myth also makes a statement about relationships between the sexes in Hesiod’s own world.Scholars assume that he composed the poem for a largely male audience that was receptive to a tale that put women at the root of all evil. One  of  the  commonest  types of explanation given in myths relates to ritual. Myths helped worshipers make sense of a religious practice by telling how the practice originated. A prime example is sacrifice, a ritual that involved killing a domesticated animal as an offering to the gods. The ceremony culminated in the butchering, cooking, and sharing of the meat of the victim. Hesiod recounts the myth associated with this rite.According to this myth, the tricky Titan Prometheus tried to outwit Zeus by offering him a cunningly devised choice of meals. Zeus could have either an apparently unappetizing dish—an ox paunch, which had tasty meat concealed within—or a seemingly delicious one, gleaming fat on the outside, which had nothing but bones hidden beneath. Zeus chose the second dish, and ever since human beings have kept the tastiest part of every sacrifice for themselves, leaving the gods nothing but the savor of the rising smoke. Exploration Myths  charted  paths  through difficult territory, examining contradictions and ambiguities.For instance, Homer’s Iliad explores the consequences during the Trojan War of the Greek leader Agamemnon’s decision to deprive the warrior Achilles of his allotted prize, a female slave. Achilles feels that Agamemnon has assailed his honor or worth but wonders how far he should go in reaction. Is he right to refuse to fight, if that means the destruction of the Greek army? Is he justified in rejecting Agamemnon’s offer of compensation? One of this poem’s themes explores the limits of ho nor. Greek Mythology The  dramatic  genre  of tragedy provides the clearest example of mythical exploration (see see Greek Literature; Drama and Dramatic Arts).The great Athenian playwrights of the 5th century BC— Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides—wrote tragedies that explored social questions by placing them, in extreme and exaggerated form, in a mythical context. Sophocles’s tragic play Antigone concerns just such an extreme situation. Two brothers have killed each other in battle: Eteocles defending his homeland, and Polynices attacking it. Their sister Antigone, in defiance of an edict by the city’s ruler, attempts to bury her ostensibly traitorous brother Polynices. Sophocles raises several moral issues. Is Antigone justified in seeking to bury her brother?Which should prevail, a religious obligation to tend and bury a corpse, or a city’s well-being? The answers to these moral issues are far from clear-cut, as we might expect from a wo rk whose subtlety and profundity have so often been admired. C D V A Legitimation Myths  also  had  the  function of legitimation. A claim, an action, or a relationship acquired extra authority if it had a precedent in myth. Aristocratic Greek families liked to trace their ancestry back to the heroes or gods of mythology. The Greek poet Pindar, who wrote in the early 5th century BC, offers ample evidence for this preference. In his songs Pindar raised the exploits of current victors in the Olympian Games by linking them with the deeds of their mythical ancestors. In addition, two Greek city-states could cement bonds between them by showing that they had an alliance in the mythological past. Entertainment Finally,  myth  telling was a source of enjoyment and entertainment. Homer’s epics contain several descriptions of audiences held spellbound by the songs of bards (poets), and recitations of Homer’s poems also captivated audiences. Public performances of tr agic drama were also hugely popular, regularly drawing some 15,000 spectators. ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT OF GREEK MYTHOLOGYOur  knowledge  of  Greek mythology begins with the epic poems attributed to Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey, which date from about the 8th century BC even though the stories they relate probably have their origins in events that occurred several centuries earlier. Scholars, however, know that the origins of Greek mythology reach even farther back than that. Origins of Greek Mythology Linguists  (people  who study languages) have concluded that some names of Greek deities, including Zeus, can be traced back to gods worshiped by speakers of Proto-Indo-European, the common ancestor of the Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit languages.But it would be misleading to regard the people who may have spoken this language as originators of Greek mythology because many other elements contributed. Greek Mythology Archaeologists  have  shown that many of the places where mythical events presumably took place correspond to sites that had historical importance during the Mycenaean period of Greek history (second half of the 2nd millennium BC). Scholars thus consider it likely that the Mycenaeans made a major contribution to the development of the stories, even if this contribution is hard to demonstrate in detail.Some scholars have argued that the Minoan civilization of Crete also had a formative influence on Greek myths. The myth of the Minotaur confined in a labyrinth in the palace of King Minos, for example, might be a memory of historical bull-worship in the labyrinthine palace at Knossos on Crete. However, there is little evidence that Cretan religion survived in Greece. Nor have any ancient inscriptions confirmed that Minos ever existed outside of myth. Scholars  can  demonstrate influence on Greek mythology from the Middle East much more reliably than influence from Crete.Greek mythology owed much to cultures in Mesopotamia and Anatolia, e specially in the realm of cosmogony (origin of the universe) and theogony (origin of the gods). To take one example, a clear parallel exists in an early Middle Eastern myth for Greek poet Hesiod’s story about the castration of Uranus by his son Cronus and the subsequent overthrow of Cronus by his son Zeus. The Middle Eastern myth tells of the sky god Anu who was castrated by Kumarbi, father of the gods. The weather and storm god Teshub, in turn, displaced Anu. Scholars continue to bring to light more and more similarities between Greek and Middle Eastern mythologies.B Development of Greek Mythology Our  knowledge  of  Greek myths comes from a mixture of written texts, sculpture, and decorated pottery. Scholars have reconstructed stories that circulated orally by inference and guesswork. Homer’s  epics,  the  Iliad and the Odyssey, stand at the beginning of Greek literary tradition (see Greek literature), even though they almost certainly depended on a lengt hy previous tradition of oral poetry. The Iliad is set during the Trojan War; it focuses on the consequences of a quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles, two of the leading Greek warriors.The Odyssey is about the aftermath of the Trojan War, when the Greek hero Odysseus at last returns to his home on the island of Ithaca following years of wandering in wild and magical lands. The Trojan War later provided subject matter for many tragic dramas and for imagery on countless painted vases. Hesiod’s  Theogony,  composed in the 8th century BC at about the same time as the Homeric epics, gave an authoritative account of how things began. The creation of the world, described by Hesiod in terms of passions and crimes of the gods, is a theme that later Greek philosophers such as Empedocles and Plato developed but took in new directions.This connection serves as a reminder that mythology was not a separate aspect of Greek culture, but one that interacted with many other fields of ex perience, particularly the writing of history. For example, in the 5th century BC Greek historian Herodotus employed numerous themes and story patterns from Greek epics and tragedies in writing his historical account of the war between Greeks and Persians (see Persian Wars). Although  the  authority of Homer and Hesiod remained dominant, the poetic retelling of myths continued throughout antiquity.Myths were constantly remade in the light of new social and political circumstances. The Hellenistic period of Greek history (4th century to 1st century BC) saw many new trends in the treatment of myths. One of the most important was the development of mythography, Greek Mythology the compilation and organization of myths on the basis of particular themes (for example, myths about metamorphosis). Such organization corresponded to a wish of newly established Hellenistic rulers to lend legitimacy to their regimes by claiming that they continued a cultural tradition reaching back into a g reat past.Artists,  too,  portrayed myths. Statues of gods stood inside Greek temples, and relief sculptures of scenes from mythology adorned pediments and friezes on the outside of these temples (see Greek Art and Architecture). Among the best-known examples are the Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon in Athens. These reliefs include depictions of combat between centaurs and Lapiths. Other  visual  representations of mythology were more modest in size and scope. The best evidence for the use of mythology in Greek painting comes from painted ceramic vases.The Greeks used these vases in a variety of contexts, from cookery to funerary ritual to athletic games. (Vases filled with oil were awarded as prizes in games. ) In most cases scholars can securely identify the imagery on Greek vases as mythological, but sometimes they have no way of telling whether the artist intended an allusion to mythology because myth became fused with everyday life. For example, does a representation of a woman weaving signify Penelope, wife of Odysseus who spent her days at a loom, or does it portray someone engaged in an everyday activity?The  Greeks  retold  myths orally, as well as preserving them in literary and artistic works. The Greeks transmitted to children tales of monsters and myths of gods and heroes. Old men gathered to exchange tales in leschai (clubs or conversation places). Storytelling, whether in writing, art, or speech, was at the heart of Greek civilization. VI A THE LEGACY OF GREEK MYTHOLOGY Mythology  formed  a  central reference point in Greek society because it was interwoven with ritual and other aspects of social existence.Yet the question of how far people believed the myths is a difficult and probably unanswerable one. Some intellectuals, such as Greek writer Palaephatus, tried to interpret the myths as having figurative (nonliteral) meanings. Writing in the 4th century BC, Palaephatus interpreted the stories of Diomedes, a king devoured by his own mares, and of Actaeon, a hunter torn apart by his own hounds, as concealing perfectly credible accounts of young men who had spent too much money on their animals and so been figuratively eaten alive by debt.Other  thinkers,  such  as the 4th-century-BC philosopher Plato, objected to some myths on moral grounds, particularly to myths that told of crimes committed by the gods. Yet such skepticism seems hardly to have altered the imaginative power and persistence of Greek myths. As late as the 2nd century AD, the Greek traveler and historian Pausanias described the myths and cults in the places he visited as if they constituted a still-living complex of religious discourse and behavior. Ancient Rome and Early ChristianityThe  ancient  Romans  eventually took over Greek civilization and conquered Greece. In the process, they adapted Greek mythology, and myths remained a vehicle for reflecting on and coping with the Greek Mythology world. In his poem the Aeneid, wri tten in the 1st century BC, Roman poet Virgil used the theme of the wandering Trojan hero Aeneas and his eventual foundation of a settlement that became Rome. The Aeneid not only continues story patterns developed in Homer’s epics, but it also makes frequent and detailed allusions to the texts of Homer and other Greek writers.The long poem Metamorphoses by Roman poet Ovid embraces an enormous number of Greek myths, reworked into a composition that later had unparalleled influence on European culture of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Greek  mythology  survived during Christian antiquity by its interpretation as allegory (expressive of a deeper or hidden meaning). Early Christians incorporated pagan stories into their own worldview if they could reinterpret the story to express a concealed, uplifting meaning.In the 5th century AD, for example, Latin mythographer Fulgentius gave an allegorical reading of the Judgment of Paris. The Greek myth told of a young Trojan shepherd faced with a choice between the goddesses Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite. Each goddess tried to bribe Paris to name her the most beautiful: Hera offering power, Athena offering success in battle, and Aphrodite offering a beautiful woman. Fulgentius explained that the choice was actually a moral one, between a life of action, a life of contemplation, and a life dominated by love.The allegorical approach to the myths has never died out; we find it today in the writings of those who regard myths as expressions of basic, universal psychological truths. For example, Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, borrowed from Greek mythology in developing his ideas of human psychosexual development, which he described in terms of an Oedipus complex and an Electra complex. Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung believed that certain psychic structures he called archetypes were common to all people in all times and gave rise to recurring ideas such as mythological themes. BEuropean Art, Music, and Lite rature The  influence  of  Greek mythology on Western art, music, and literature can hardly be exaggerated. Many of the greatest works of painting and sculpture have taken myths as their subject. Examples include the Birth of Venus (after 1482) by Italian Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli, a marble sculpture of Apollo and Daphne (1622-1625) by Italian baroque sculptor Gianlorenzo Bernini, a terrifying Cronus Devouring One of His Children (1820-1823) by Spanish painter Francisco de Goya, and Landscape with the Fall of Icarus (about 1558) by Flemish painter Pieter Bruegel.In the Bruegel painting peasants continue with their daily toil oblivious of the mythological drama being played out in the sky above. Musicians  too,  especially composers of opera and oratorio, have found inspiration in ancient myths. Operatic dramatizations of these stories begin with Orfeo (Orpheus, 1607) and Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria (The Return of Ulysses to His Homeland, 1641) by Italian comp oser Claudio Monteverdi.They continue into the 20th century with Elektra (1909) by German composer Richard Strauss and Oedipus Rex (1927) by Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. The  impact  of  Greek  mythology on literature has been incalculably great. In the 20th century the story of the murderous revenge of Orestes on his mother Clytemnestra (for killing his father, Agamemnon) has inspired writers as diverse as American dramatist Eugene O’Neill (in Mourning Becomes Electra, 1931), American-born poet and playwright T. S.Eliot (in The Family Reunion, 1939), and French philosopher and playwright Jean-Paul Sartre (in Les Mouches [1943; The Flies, 1946]). Among the Greek Mythology most notable of all literary works inspired by Greek mythology is Ulysses by Irish writer James Joyce. In this intricate novel, Ulysses (Odysseus) becomes Dublin resident Leopold Bloom, while Bloom’s wife, Molly, combines characteristics of faithful Penelope (wife of Odysseus) and seducti ve Calypso (a sea nymph who holds Odysseus captive on his journey home).The  influence  of  Greek mythology shows no sign of diminishing. Computer games (see Electronic Games) and science fiction frequently use combat- or quest-oriented story patterns that have clear parallels in classical mythology. Greek myths developed in a specific ancient society, but the emotional and intellectual content of the stories has proved adaptable to a broad range of cultural contexts.