From the exile of the poet Ovid arose the epic poem Metamorphoses, a story that follows the creation of the Roman Empire from the beginning of time. Leading up to book XV Ovid continues to paint the gods in an unfavorable manner for their outrageous behaviors. Ovid exhibits a greater respect for those who exert intelligence than those who exceed in battle. Augustus Caesar, the adoptive son of Julius Caesar, was responsible for the exile of Ovid, in an attempt to implement censorship. For these reasons, Ovid disapproves of the deification of Julius Caesar, and, in fact
Firstly, the gods are distinguished from the humans strictly by their immortality, which is made clear throughout the epic. The gods often punish the humans when they do not act in the way that the gods wish, though the gods act in the same way (and sometimes even worse still.) It is apparent that Ovid his little respect for the gods because of this, which is why he does not agree with the deification of Julius Caesar. When Jupiter brings together a council of the gods to discuss the removal of the human race, he speaks of Lycaon, a man who was meant to kill Jove, but instead murdered another and ate his flesh (I.216-251). Lycaon was turned into a wolf, though Jupiter describes the man as maintaining the same beast-like spirit and tendencies, of which Jupiter states, ‘“Let them all/ Pay quickly the price they deserve- this is my edict”’ (I.250-251). This description compares to Jove’s own beast-like nature when he chased down Io who refuted his advances. When Io refused to lay with him, Jove took advantage of her and then transformed her into a cow to avoid ridicule from his wife Juno. This sort of hypocrisy makes it understandable why Ovid had little respect for the gods, and why he disapproved of Julius Caesar’s deification. There is no purpose for another god if the gods themselves contain the same human-like traits that they so very often condemn.
Another example of this inconsistency with the god's behaviors and their words is when immortal Minerva held a weaving contest with Arachne which ended with her transformation into a spider. The gods originally erased the human race because of the human’s savage doings such as vicious battles and
more than just dominators over the elements. Gods that expressed a plethora of emotions toward
In Shakespeare's tragedy Julius Caesar, Portia uses repetition, rhetorical questions, and parallelism in order to persuade Brutus to tell his secret. Portia uses repetition to get Brutus’ attention and to show him how much she wants to know the secret. Pleading, Portia urges, “I should not need, if you were gentle Brutus. / Within the bond of marriage, tell me, Brutus” (2.1.301,302). By using repetition she gets Brutus’ attention so he knows she is talking to him. If Portia did not repeat his name, Brutus would not be as inclined to listen to her. With Portia stating his name more than once he is focused on her and knows that what she is saying is vital. In this part of Portia’s speech she uses pathos. She persuades Brutus by bringing up their
In both stories, the gods are respected and feared in some way, but this was not always the case. To enforce His authority over all living creatures, the god in Genesis “saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth,” so He created a flood to rid the world of the evil that He created (King James Version, Gen. 6.5). However, not all humans were wicked; He spared Noah and his family because he remained so devoted to God, then later made a promise that “waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh” (Gen. 9.15). Likewise in The Epic of Gilgamesh, the
The tragedy of Julius Caesar is a story of struggle and betrayal; however, in it, Shakespeare conveys messages about human nature. Three of the main characters in the play convey the ways that power corrupts and changes people. Brutus’ attitude towards killing Caesar and rising to power, along with his personality, change throughout the first three acts. Cassius’ need for power makes him lose himself and his humanity. Mark Antony, changed by Caesar's death, rises to power after taking it away from those that killed him. In Shakespeare’s play, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, he conveys notions regarding human nature and the ways that power changes and corrupts people; he does this through his characters Brutus, Cassius, and Antony.
In ancient times, gods were a holy image in people’s mind. Each god had its own role in the universe. Such as the role of creation, the controller of the nature, and the role of the destiny control. The gods had extreme powers, and controlled everything in the world. Worshiped gods became a daily routine for ancient people. In the minds of people in ancient times, worshiped their gods were to prevent these gods became furious, and punished them with their extreme power. Even though the gods were extremely powerful, in many epic texts we could see they also had emotions and characteristics that were just like humans. However, there were still some major differences between the gods and humans.
The complex pagan religious system of the Romans mirrored that of the Greeks, but what Ovid sought to create
In the tragic play Julius Caesar there is a leader everybody looked up to named Caesar. Although people looked up to him he was not always loyal,trustworthy, or honorable. Some seen it before others and want to make a change and within that change Caesar had to be kilt. Brutus being Caesar friend knew the games that he played and became one of the ones that put an end to his games. With him being his friend he honoured him for all the good but as he was ambitious Brutus slew him. Maybe Caesar knew he was no good to Roman because once he seen Brutus standing upon the conspiracy something switched in him he no longer fought for his life. Caesar last words were “Et tu, Brutus(you too Brutus)then falls Caesar”.
In the Tragedy Of Julius Caesar, Caesar was soon to be crowned king, after defeating Pompey. Caesar becoming king wasn’t the best idea and interest in some of the people eyes in Rome because they don’t think he is worthy enough to hold that type of power. Cassius was mad at the idea of Caesar becoming king, so he began to plot a plan to kill Caesar. His plan to kill Caesar involved a good friend of Caesar, Brutus and other loyal men and conspirators to make his plan work. So Cassius began plotting by convincing Brutus to join him and it worked, which was all Cassius needed to get close to Caesar. When the day actually arrives for Caesar to be crowned king their planned worked as Casca was the first to stab Caesar, and Brutus being the last person to stab Caesar and to hear the last words spoken from Caesar. After all this went down, Brutus went and spoke to the crowd and explained what happened and why they killed Caesar before being crowned king. The crowd agreed at first about Caesar needing to be killed until Antony spoke which changed everything and the crowds reaction. Now that the crowd had heard Antony, they want to kill the conspirators and who ever had a part in Caesar’s death. So now that you know the moral of “ Tragedy Of Julius Caesar” I will now discuss some examples of ethos, logos, and pathos.
One example of the tension between the gods and humans is when Ishtar is rejected by Gilgamesh, and tries to destroy Uruk. Unlike any other person who had been refused, Ishtar used her relationship with the gods to demand the Bull of Heaven kill Gilgamesh and cause famine in Uruk for seven years. She ordered, “Give me the Bull of Heaven, just for a little while. I want to bring it to earth, I want it to kill that liar Gilgamesh and destroy his palace. If you say no, I will smash the gates of the underworld, and a million famished ghouls will ascend to devour the living, and the living will be outnumbered by the dead”
Julius Caesar is a play that revolves and is driven around the idea of persuasion. Antony and Brutus both used the same rhetorical devices to express their thoughts to the crowd. Both using ethos, which is an appeal to credibility; pathos, which is an appeal to the emotion of the audience; and logos, which is an appeal using logic. Brutus was able to persuade the crowd at first used logical appeals and reasons. As for Antony's speech, he abides by his agreement with Brutus not to slander the conspirators names and manages use the mob to turn against the conspirators using more of an ethos and pathos approach. Even though having the same structure, Antony speech was much more powerful than Brutus’. Shakespeare portrays persuasion
Ovid, the author of the Fasti, was a Roman poet active during the age of Augustus, and was famously exiled by the emperor under mysterious circumstances. Born in Sulmo, Italy in the year 43 BCE, Ovid was a contemporary of the historian Livy and the esteemed poet Virgil. After being exiled by the emperor for “A poem and an error” , he continued to write in his reluctant new home of Tomis on the Black Sea, and this is where he penned Fasti. Due to his exile, Ovid had no access to the many resources provided in Rome, which likely impacted his work ability and probably left parts of the Fasti unfinished. The Fasti was an entertaining retelling of stories that had influenced and shaped Rome so as to be included in tradition and holidays. In this sense it
“Gods can be evil sometimes.” In the play “Oedipus the King”, Sophocles defamed the gods’ reputation, and lowered their status by making them look harmful and evil. It is known that all gods should be perfect and infallible, and should represent justice and equity, but with Oedipus, the gods decided to destroy him and his family for no reason. It might be hard to believe that gods can have humanistic traits, but in fact they do. The gods, especially Apollo, are considered evil by the reader because they destroyed an innocent man’s life and his family. They destroyed Oedipus by controlling his fate, granting people the power of prophecy, telling Oedipus about his fate through the oracle of Apollo, and finally afflicting the people of
The clang of the swords on the shields pierced General Julius Caesar’s ear. He couldn’t wait till the war against the Greeks was over and he could return home to his wife. He slaughtered 113 enemy soldiers and was still on the hunt to find one. He stepped over 47 bodies, some of which were still breathing and groaning their last breaths on the eastern shore of the river Acheron. Caesar's nemesis was General Brutus,the leader of the greek army, and his old best friend. After the battle at the River of Acheron, General Julius Caesar rode back to his camp, Gleaming in his Ice-white armour, shining in his glory after his victory vs the Greeks.
Julius Caesar is a work of art by William Shakespeare in 1599. Within this play Julius Caesar is portrayed as a tragic hero. A tragic hero is defined as “the main character of a tragedy [who is] usually dignified, courageous, and high ranking” (novel study guide). Also vital to defining a tragic hero is that, “the hero’s downfall is caused by a tragic flaw” ( novel study guide). It is very evident that Julius Caesar in William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar is a tragic hero given that he is of noble stature, has a fatal flaw and comes to an unhappy end.
On Wednesday 10th September 2014, I witnessed the Oratory Foundation’s presentation of William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. The production was held at Naparima bowl at San Fernando. It began promptly at 9:30 am. This tale closely follows the rise to province and the ultimate demise of Roman icon and revolutionary politician Julius Caesar. The themes shown in this story are love, honour, betrayal, patriotism, selfishness and selflessness. This enticing tale also has its fair share of action such as murder, suicide, vengeance and conspiracy.