San Jose Community College

San Jose, Malilipot, Albay

PRELIM MODULE

Course Code:

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

This course surveys literature from all parts of the world--including Asia, Africa,
the Americas, Europe, and the Middle East--from the 1600's up to the present. The literary
selections, serving as vehicles for understanding the experiences of the human family, are
studied for appreciation of their artistic and cultural value. It is also the continuation of the
study of literary forms or genres, exemplified this time by selected literary pieces from various
countries, written at different periods in history.

OBJECTIVES:
After finishing this course, the students should be able to:
a. Identify about some of the world’s greatest masterpieces;
b. gain understanding of the lives of the different writers of different
nationalities;
c. give intelligible insights and perception on the specific writing that has been
read;
d. Demonstrate the values learned in the study of literature to real life
situations.

COURSE CONTENT/TOPIC

I. LITERATURE: ITS RELEVANCE AND COMPONENTS

A. Definitions and Meanings of Literature
B. Purpose of Studying Literature
C. Values of Literature
d. Major Divisions of Literature
e. Approaches/Methods of Studying Literature
f. Elements of Story

II. GREEK LITERATURE

a. The God and Goddesses

a. Olympians
b. Chthonians
c. The Titans
d. Free Spirits
2. How the World and Mankind Were Created
3. The Earliest Heroes
(Flower-Myths: Narcissus, Hyacinth, Adonis)

4. Stories of Love and Adventure

i. Cupid and Psyche
ii. Pyramus and Thisbe
MODULE
in

World
Literature
 MODULE 1

WORLD LITERATURE

Module Outcomes:
Upon completing this topic, you will be able to:
1. Define literature
2. Classify the literary genre
3. Identify about some of the world’s greatest masterpieces;
4. Gain understanding of the lives of the different writers of
different nationalities;
5. give intelligible insights and perception on the specific
writing that has been read;
6. Demonstrate the values learned in the study of literature to
real life situations.

MODULE OVERVIEW:

This module surveys literature from all parts of the world--including Asia, Africa, the
Americas, Europe, and the Middle East--from the 1600's up to the present. The literary
selections, serving as vehicles for understanding the experiences of the human family, are
studied for appreciation of their artistic and cultural value. It is also the continuation of the
study of literary forms or genres, exemplified this time by selected literary pieces from various
countries, written at different periods in history.

MODULE INTRODUCTION:
This module will introduce you to a wide variety of literature. You will read stories,
poems, play and other forms written by world-famous authors. Some of the works may make
you laugh and others may make you cry. All of them should make you think.
Literature is your inheritance. Great writers of the past and present have left you a
wealth of ideas, experiences, and feelings. Through reading, you can share and enjoy these
riches. It can stretch your mind, sharpen your sense, and enrich your life. Most of all you will
have the thrill of losing yourself in literature and finding there the wondrous challenge that is
life.
PRE-ASSESSMENT

Answer the following questions without going through the learning content. This is to determine
how much you already know of the subject. You will also be asked to complete a post-
assessment after you have worked through the learning content.

Question Self-assessment
Low High
1. I can explain what the term literature means. 1 2 3 4 5
2. I understand why literature is important to study.
3. I am familiar with the classification/genre of literature.
4. I can describe the qualities and characteristics of

literature according to form and classification.

5. I am familiar with different literary pieces in different

places in the world.

6. I can easily identify the elements in the story.
7. I can give analysis from the story I read with ease.
8. I can explain the importance of literature in our lives.

CHAPT
ER 1
Literature:
Its Definitions and Relevance
Introduction

Literature is literally “acquaintance with letters.” It has its Latin derivation “litera” which
means individual written character (letter). The term generally come to identify a collection of
texts or work of art, which in Western culture are mainly prose, fiction and non-fiction, drama
and poetry. Literature is a branch of aesthetics, a branch of philosophy that deals with question
“What is art”.

Webster defines literature as “all writing in pose or verse, especially those of an

imaginative or critical character.” It seems incomplete but it highlights the existence of two
major features of literature: its language and its imaginative character. With their mixture,
these elements produce a fictional world that reflects and evokes reality.

The world “literature” has different meanings depending on who is using and in what
context. It could be applied broadly to mean any symbolic record encompassing everything
from images and sculptures to letters. In a more narrow sense the term could mean only text
composed of letters, or other examples of symbolic written language, but in a broader sense,
literature is “life” itself for it has in its scope mean’s feelings and emotions. In other words, it is
about experiences records of man’s everyday struggle for life.

Imaginative or creative writing, especially of recognized artistic value, literature must be

an analysis of experience and a synthesis of the findings into a unity. It is the collective body of
literary productions, embracing the entire results of knowledge and fancy preserved in writing a
body of written works produced in a particular language, country, or age.

Definitions and Meanings of Literature

Arnold: Literature is the best of what has been thought and written. Poetry at
least, is an imitation of a noble action and ought to impart pleasure by permitting a
“vent action” of emotions which would otherwise be stifling. (Preface to the Poems”)
 Aristotle: Literature is an imitation of a sequence of events. Literature can be
categorized and, thereby, understood according to the method of operation and
execution of each category. Viewing or reading literature facilitates the expression
(pushing out) of undesirable emotions. (“Poetics”)

Corneille: Literature is the execution in language of a number of rules that

govern how to render an imitation of events gracefully and according to form and
verisimilitude. (“Three Discourses on Dramatic Poetry”)
Horace: Literature is an imitation of events or objects or objects in such a
manner as to render a “golden” world, improved over the real object in nature (which
Sidney calls “brazen”). Literature ought to delight, instruct, and inspirit the reader. (An
Apology for Poesy”)

Del Castillo and Medina: Literature is a faithful reproduction of life, executed

in an artistic pattern. It is the orchestration of the manifold but elemental experiences
of man, blended into harmonious and desired patterns of expressions. (Phil. Literature
from Ancient Times to the Present”)

Johnson: Literature is an imitation which has been judged to have value a

period of centuries as a true but general reflection of human nature in a variety of real
or imaginary circumstances. (Preface to Shakespeare”)

Longinus: Literature is written work that causes or fails to cause experience of

sublime – awe attached to terror. (On the Sublime”)

Mukarovsky: Literature is language that draws attention to the mode of

expression itself and thereby goes beyond merely describing or communicating ideas.

Plato: Literature is an imitation (in words) of an imitation (In matter or material

existence) of an idea that exists originally in the mind of God. As an imitation twice
removed from the true reality, it is inferior, deceptive, and dangerous, largely because
audiences imitate what they see and read.

Pope: Literature is an imitation of a nature that is executed not by copying

nature directly but rather by imitating the works and techniques of previous writers who
are somehow “close to nature and to the original. (An Essay on Criticism”)

Wordsworth: Literature is a creative expression of Platonic ideas that is cast in

a form that affects readers by operating upon their sympathies and antiphathies,
thereby affording an emotional experience of ideas that Plato had believed could be
apprehended logically. (Preface to the Cenci,” Defence of Poetry)
 Shlovsky: Literature defamiliarizes the familiar; that is, it caused us to see the
ordinary in a way that jolts us out automatic ways of perceiving and acting. (Art as
Techniqe”)
 Purpose of Studying Literature

1. Studying literature involves reading, discussing, thinking and writing,

helping students to improve in those areas. It also encourages
students to think critically, specifically for the discussing and thinking
components.
2. Those people studying literature look at poems, plays, essays, stories
and novels. Reading and learning about these helps people to
sympathize with others and see how complex humans truly are.
3. It aids in broadening a person's intellectual horizons and it stimulates a
more active imagination.
4. Literature explores different human beliefs, ideas and societies.
5. This allows people to learn about where they came from and how past
events work to shape the different cultures.

Values of Literature

The phrase "values of literature" refers to those qualities of poems, stories,

novels, etc. that make them worthwhile to read. If we feel our time reading is well
spent, we can say that a work has value for us. If reading the work was a complete
waste, then we might say it has no value for us. And there is a spectrum between the
two extremes. Of course, if you simply do not like reading, then you really have no say
in the matter, right?

What is there to value?

A work of literature can be valuable in several ways. Open your mind:

 Entertainment value

Literature has entertainment value if reading it gives occasion to enjoy yourself.

This type of value is inherently subjective because not everyone will enjoy the same
kinds of stories, styles, or themes. Being entertained is important, but being bored does
not give anyone license to reject a work outright. I can put the book down and not read
it anymore, but I should be careful not to assume that my boredom is somehow a
characteristic of the work I tried to read. Rather, I was bored, plain and simple.
Someone else might not be. At the same time, if a work is awesome to me, exciting,
intriguing, etc., I should not assume that my interest is somehow a characteristic of the
work I enjoyed reading. Rather, I was interested, plain and simple. Someone else might
not be.

 Political value

Literature has political value if reading it gives occasion to change how a person

thinks or acts. Politics is about the management and flow of power. And power, like
electricity, flows from one end of a circuit to another to make things happen. Reading a
work can jolt someone into action. It can reveal an injustice, outrage its readers, give
voice to the oppressed, ridicule those who are corrupt, etc. The main idea here is to
think about what the work of literature is trying to do. It has political value if it attempts
to persuade people or the world to start acting and thinking in "this" way. We can see
the political leanings of a work without necessarily being persuaded ourselves. But most
of the time, we will like a work for its political leanings if we are in fact persuaded to
align ourselves with the author.

 Artistic value

Literature has artistic value if reading it gives occasion to contemplate the nature

of beauty and human creativity. There are many works of literature that experiment
with the limits of language and its expressive power. If I like how words can be
manipulated to create beautiful works of art, then a work that tries to use words that
way in a new and unique way will have artistic value for me. I would say that every
work of literature that we read in this course has artistic value because they are all
works that have remained important over the years for the way they extended the
power of language in a new direction. If you don't like words, it will be difficult to see
the artistic value of any poem or story. The value will still be there even if you don't see
it, however.

 Cultural value

Literature has cultural value if reading it gives occasion to think about the place
and time of the author at the time the work was written. Authors might seems like
supernatural beings or at least people who are way above us, transcending the world
down here to live among the heavens with their artistic visions, but they are actually
regular people like the rest of us. They care about what is happening in the world
around them, and they have experiences in life that shape their attitudes toward
various issues. If their work addresses the attitudes, customs, and values of their time
(or another time), then the work has cultural value. The work becomes a window into a
world that is unfamiliar, and we are encouraged to compare cultural differences.

 Historical value

Literature has historical value if reading it gives occasion to think about the past,
how things changes overtime, and how the world has evolved into what it is today.
Historical value sometimes overlaps with cultural value; if a work is really old, then it
can give us insight into a culture so far back that we can also think about how that
culture might be a foundation for our own. The cliché about history is true--the less we
now about how things were, the more likely we are to relive them. Of course, some
things might be worth reliving, and we might regret some of the history we have left
behind, but other things we want to avoid repeating. Works of literature can help us
learn about the past, process the past, and use the past to our advantage. Sometimes
the historical value of a work is that it shows us what we have gained and what we
have lost.

 Philosophical value

Literature has philosophical value if reading it gives occasion to explore the

nature of human knowledge, how we know and what we can know. These questions
are central to the production of art because any artist must interact with the world in
order to represent it, whether lyrically in a poem or through storytelling in fiction; he
must, to some extent, know the world. But it is hard to be certain about what we know
or even whether we can know anything at all. Some writers explore philosophical issues
pretty deeply because they are often a source of crisis that can create great drama and
raise intriguing questions. If a work invites us to think about perception, making sense
of our place in the world, or self-awareness, then we can say that it has philosophical
value. In response to such works, we tend to look inward and wonder, "who am I?"

 Moral value

Literature has moral value if reading it gives occasion to learn a lesson. If a story

or poem TEACHES us how to live, or attempts to teach us, then it has a moral
dimension. Is the work still valuable if we do not like the lesson it teaches? Perhaps so.
The best readers will see the moral value of a work even if the morals it endorses are
somehow distasteful to them. Moral value is a dangerous value to measure. The history
of censorship, for instance, is based on the idea that if a work teaches the "wrong"
thing, it should not be read at all. This idea goes all the way back to Plato, one of the
earliest philosophers to explore the moral dimension of stories and poetry. We have to
be careful, I think, not to hold moral value as the most important one. If we reduce a
story or poem to a moral lesson, or require that a story or poem BE a moral lesson that
we can endorse, then we are USING literature to back up our own beliefs. To avoid this
mistake, we must learn to appreciate works of literature for its various kinds of value.
"To appreciate" means "to measure the value of something," and we need to try to find
value in a work if we are inclined to reject it simply because we think it teaches the
wrong lesson. Here is where ethical value comes into play.

 Ethical value

Literature has ethical value if reading it gives occasion to think about ethical

questions. If a story dramatizes conflicts and dilemmas, it is not necessarily teaching us
how to live, but it encourages us to contemplate the codes that the characters live by.
If a poem has a speaker who promotes a particular world view or seems conflicted
about the world he lives in, the reader can try to look through the eyes of that speaker
and see what he or she sees. We may not agree with a speaker's or character's
morality, but seeing that morality in action can shed light on what it means or how it
changes the world. If we reflect on a moral code, instead of simply rejecting it or
embracing it, then we are thinking ethically, and literature that promotes such thinking
is ethically valuable. Here are some important ethical questions: What is the good life?
What is the excellent life? Where do the definitions of good and excellent come from?
Why do different definitions come into conflict? On what basis do they
conflict? Remember: works that raise questions do not always answer them. To
measure the ethical value of a work of literature, we need to ask the following
questions:
 Do the characters make choices in the work? What are those choices?
 Do the characters or speakers defend particular beliefs or points of view? What
are they?
 What motivates those choices or beliefs or points of view in the work?
 Where does the confidence in that motivation come from in the work?
 Is there a crisis in that confidence in the work? Why?
 To what place do those choices or beliefs or points of view lead in the work?

Yes, we can appreciate literature in the negative: we CAN decide that it holds
little to no value for us, ethically speaking. But we must be able to explain WHY it holds
no value, the same way we have to explain WHY it does. Your goal this semester is to
learn how to explain your evaluation one way or the other. Before you accept or reject
a work of literature based on its ethical value for you, you must first
actually MEASURE that value.
 Activity
A. Answer the following questions with true or false: Write True if the
statement is true False if the statement if false:
____true___ 1. If a story dramatizes conflicts and dilemmas, it is not
necessarily teaching us how to live, but it encourages us to contemplate the
codes that the characters live by is called Ethical value.
____false___ 2. If their work addresses the attitudes, customs, and values
of their time (or another time), then the work has Moral value.
____false___ 3. If a story or poem TEACHES us how to live, or attempts
to teach us, then it has a Cultural dimension.
__true_____ 4. Literature has entertainment value if reading it gives
occasion to enjoy yourself
____false___ 5. If a work invites us to think about perception, making
sense of our place in the world, or self-awareness, then we can say that it
has political value.
___true____ 6. Literature has artistic value if reading it gives occasion to
contemplate the nature of beauty and human creativity.
____true___ 7. Literature has cultural value if reading it gives occasion
to think about the past, how things changes overtime, and how the world
has evolved into what it is today.
____true___ 8. It has political value if it attempts to persuade people or
the world to start acting and thinking in "this" way.
___false____9. To measure moral value of a work of literature, we need
to ask this question: Do the characters make choices in the work? What are
those choices?
_____true__10. In response to philosophical value, we tend to look
inward and wonder, "who am I?"
 Lesson
2
Major Divisions of Literature

We may differentiate prose from poetry according to the following points of

comparison:

POINT OF PROSE POETRY

COMPARISON
Form Paragraph Verse
Language Words and rhythms of Metrical, rhythmical, figurative
ordinary and everyday language
language
Appeal Intellect Emotions
Aim Convince, Inform, Instruct Stirs the readers imagination,
present an ideal of how life should
be and how life can be
 
To understand these works better, we need to look at them by studying the
Divisions of Literature. Gleaning from the table above, we can see the various divisions
and the corresponding Literary Genres.

A. PROSE 

- is a division of literature which covers a literary work that is spoken or written

within the common flow of language in sentences and in paragraphs which gives
information, relate events, express ideas, or present opinions.

Under this division, we have two sub-divisions: the Fiction and Non-Fiction.

1. Fiction is a sub-division of prose which covers a literary work of imaginative

narration, either oral or written, fashioned to entertain and to make readers think
and more so, to feel. It normally came from the writer’s imagination.
 Some Literary Genres that fall under fiction include:

A. Legend is a prose fiction which attempts to explain the origin of things,

places, objects that we see around us. Example: The Legend of Makahiya,
Why the Sea is Salty.
B. Short story is a short prose fiction narrative depicting a simple
characterization and plot conveying a moral which can be read in one
sitting. Example: The Diamond Necklace  by Guy de Maupassant, Footnote to
Youth  by Jose Garcia-Villa.

C. Novel is a very long prose narrative depicting complex characterization

and plot which is usually divided into chapters. Example: Les Miserables  by
Victor Hugo, War and Peace  by Leo Tolstoy.

D. Novella is a long prose narrative similar to but shorter than a novel but
longer than a short story. It is also known as novelette.  Example: Treasure
Island  by Robert Louis Stevenson, The Call of the Wild by Jack London.

E. Fable is a short prose fiction narrative depicting animal characters which

espouses a lesson in life. Example: The Lion and the Mouse, The Monkey and
the Turtle.

F. Parable is a short prose allegorical narrative which presents a

philosophical outlook in life. Example: The  Parable of the Sower, The Prodigal
Son.

2. Non-Fiction is a sub-division of prose which covers a literary work of “real life”

narration or exposition based on history and facts whose main thrust is intellectual
appeal to convey facts, theories, generalizations, or concepts about a particular
topic.

Some literary genres that fall under non-fiction include:

A. Biography is a prose non-fiction detailing the life of a person written by

another person. Example: The Great Malayan about the Life of Jose Rizal
 written by Carlos Quirino. Sometimes, a biography may be written by the same
person, hence, it is called autobiography. Example: Memoirs written by Juan
Ponce Enrile was a lengthy narrative about his own life.

B. History is a prose non-fiction record of events that transpired in the

past. Example: The History  of Filipino People written by Gregorio Zaide.

C. News is a prose non-fiction narrative of events that happen everyday.

The newspapers are written for this purpose. Example: Philippine Daily
Inquirer.

D. Diary  is a personal account of significant events that happen in the life of

a person.

E. Anecdote is a prose non-fiction narrative that depicts a single incident in

a person’s life. Example: The Moth and the Lamp.

F. Essay is prose non-fiction which is a formal treatment of an issue written

from the writer’s personal point of view. Example: On the Indolence of the
Filipinos written by Jose Rizal.

B. POETRY

- is a division of literature works which covers a literary work expressed in verse,

measure, rhythm, sound, and imaginative language and creates an emotional
response to an experience, feeling or fact. Traditionally, it has three sub-divisions
namely: Narrative poetry, Lyric poetry, and Dramatic poetry.

1. Narrative Poetry is a sub-division of poetry which tells or narrates a story. It

may be lengthy as an epic, or short as a ballad and typically measured as
a metrical tale.

A. Epic is a narrative poem which accounts the heroic exploits of a

community’s hero, usually involving superhuman
abilities. Example: Hudhod hi Aliguyon is an Ifugao epic.
 B. Ballad is a narrative poem which depicts a single incident that transpired
in a  person’s life. It is usually recited during gatherings in the past but it
may be sung in the present days. Example: Forevermore by Side A Band.

C. Metrical Tale is a narrative poem which narrates a story in a “metered”

or “measured” number of syllables hence it was called metrical. There are
two popular variations in Philippine Literature, the Awit and Corrido.

i. Awit is a romance metrical tale of dodecasyllabic measure which is

recited during formal performances or informal
gatherings. Example: Florante at Laura  by Francisco “Balagtas”
Baltazar.
ii. Corrido is a martial or adventure metrical tale of octosyllabic
measure which is recited for recreational purposes. Example: Ibong
Adarna by Jose Corazon dela Cruz.
2. Lyric Poetry is a sub-division of poetry which features poems intended to be
sung with the accompaniment of the musical instrument called “lyre” hence, lyric
poetry. The following are the types of lyric poems.

A. Song is a lyric poem of various theme which is meant to be sung in its

entirety. Example: Bayan Ko written by Jose De Jesus, arranged by
Constancio De Guzman, and sung by Freddie Aguilar.
B. Ode is a lyric poem of noble and exalted emotion which has dignified
countenance. Example: Ode to the West Wind by Percy Bysshe Shelley.
C. Elegy is a lyric poem of sad theme such lamentation for the dead, longing
for a missing love, and a grief for things beyond one’s
control. Example: Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard by Thomas Gray.
D. Sonnet    is a lyric poem of 14 iambic pentameter lines usually about love
and beautiful themes. Example: Sonnet to Laura by Francesco Petrarch.
E. Idyll is a lyric poem celebrating the tranquil and beautiful landscapes of
rural and country settings. Example: Beside the Pasig River by Jose Rizal.

3. Dramatic Poetry is a sub-division of poetry which features poems meant to be

performed on stage. Theater plays and dramatic presentations belong to this
type.

A. Tragedy is a dramatic poetry which features a hero whose hubris or

shortcoming eventually causes his downfall or defeat often ending in a very
sad conclusion.  Example: Hamlet by William Shakespeare and The Three
Rats by Wilfrido Ma. Guerero.
B. Comedy is a dramatic poetry which is similar with tragedy except that the
hero triumphs and overcomes the odds towards the end and emerges
victoriously. Example: The Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare.
C. Melodrama is a dramatic poetry which is a combination of the elements
of tragedy and comedy yet ends in a happy note. Example: A Midsummer
Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare
D. Farce is a dramatic poetry which is an exaggerated comedy that aims to
elicit laughter hence, relaxation. Examples: Importance of Being Earnest by
Oscar Wilde.
E. Social Play is a dramatic poetry which tackles social issues and problems
such as poverty, corruption, discrimination, racism, sexism, among others,
with an aim to bring awareness and bring about positive
change. Example: Zsazsa Zaturnah by Carlo Vergara.

Activity
On the space below list down at least 10 titles of novels, short stories,
songs, plays and poems.

1. The Great Gatsby 9. The Farewell

2. A Passage To India 10. More Than Words
3. Dust 11. ____________________
4. The Box 12. ____________________
5. Monsters 13. ____________________
6. Prayer 14. ____________________
7. I Believe I Can Fly 15. ____________________
8. The Good Life
B. Categorize the titles you have listed above in the grill below.

Novels Short Plays Epic Poems Songs

stories
 Lesson
3
Approaches/Methods of Studying Literature

1. Biographical Approach

Analyzes the literary work by focusing on the author. It looks at the

author’s background and how it impacted the literature.Considers the
following:the author’s stated beliefsthe author’s personal life and experiencesthe
values of the author’s contemporaries

Questions for Literary Analysis

 What aspects of the author’s personal life are related to or important in this
story?

 Which of the author’s stated beliefs are shown?

 Does the writer challenge or reflect the values of his/her contemporaries?

 What appear to be the author’s major concerns?

 Do you see any of the writer’s personal experiences in the text?

 Do any of the events or characters in the story correspond to real events or

people?

2. Historical Approach

Analyzes the literary work based on the historical time period in which the
work was written. Considers the historical conditions and how this context
impacted the literature.Considers the following:time period of the writing and/or
settingliterature of the timeattitudes and beliefs of a society, especially related to
race, religion, politics, gender, society, and philosophymajor historical events,
influences, or movementsprevailing societal values (and opposition to the values)
QUESTIONS FOR LITERARY ANALYSIS

 How does the work (and how accurately) reflect the time in which it was
written?

 What literary or historical influences helped to shape the form and content
of the work?

 How does the story reflect the attitudes and beliefs of the time in which it
was written or set? (race, religion, politics, gender, society, philosophy,
etc.)

 What literary works, historical events, or movements might have

influenced this writer?

 How would the writer’s contemporaries view characters and events in the
story?

 Does the story show or contradict prevailing values of the time period?

3. Formalistic Approach

Analyzes the literary work with its form, structure, and literary elements in
focus. The critic looks at the structure and elements of the entire literary
work.Considers the following:structure, elements, meaninghow the entire
structure is unifiedliterary elements (including repetition, theme, motif, imagery,
diction, syntax, plot, figures of speech, paradox, irony, symbol, characterization,
plot, style of narration, tone, mood, etc.)

QUESTIONS FOR LITERARY ANALYSIS

C. How is the work’s structure unified?What are the recurring patterns of

words or images?

D. What is the effect?How does repetition reinforce the theme(s)?

E. How does the writer’s diction reveal or reflect the work’s meaning?

F. What is the plot, and how do its parts produce a certain effect?

G. What figures of speech are used? (metaphors, similes, etc.)Note the

writer’s use of paradox, irony, symbol, plot, characterization, and style of
narration.
 H. What effects are produced?

I. Do these relate to one another or to the theme?

J. Is there a relationship between the story’s beginning and end?

K. How does the author create tone and mood? How do tone and mood
affect the story at various parts?

4. Psychological Approach

Analyses literature by focusing on the psychology of the writer and characters.

This approach evaluates the thoughts, motives, actions, development and subconscious
of the characters. Considers the following: motivating forces, emotions, and dimensions
of the mind conscious and unconscious behaviours internal and external conflicts
application of Freudian or other psychological theories tripartite self: id (basic desires),
superego (morality), and ego (balance of id and superego)psychological disorders and
dreams

Questions for Literary Analysis

 What forces motivate the characters?

 Which behaviors or conflicts are conscious and unconscious?

 Given their backgrounds, how believable are the characters’ behaviors?

 Are Freudian or other psychological theories applicable?

 Do any of the characters correspond to the tripartite self? (Id, ego, superego)

 What roles do psychological disorders and dreams play?

 What do the characters’ emotions and behaviors reveal about their psychological
states?

 How is the writer’s personal psychology or unconscious dimensions of his/her

mind reflected?

5. Philosophical Approach
 Analyzes literature by focusing on themes, view of the world, moral
statements, and the author’s philosophy. Considers the following: Human nature
Mankind’s relationships with God and with the universe Morality, good vs. evil
Reward and punishment

Questions for Literary Analysis

 What view of life does the story present?

 Which character best articulates this?

 What moral statement does this story make?

 Is it explicit or implicit?What is the author’s attitude toward his world?

Toward fate? Toward God?

 What does the work say about the nature of good or evil?

 What does the work say about human nature?

 Is good rewarded? Is evil punished?Is the world ordered or random?

Sociological Approach

Analyzes literature by focusing on man’s relationship to others in society, politics,

religion, and economics.Considers the following:Economic power and moneyUrban,
rural, and suburban valuesSocietal, race, gender, and class issuesSocial power and
forcesGovernment structures and systems, such as dictatorship, democracy,
communism, socialism, fascism, Marxism, etc.

Questions for Literary Analysis

 What is shown about economic or social power?

 Who has it and who doesn’t?

 What is the impact on characters’ lives?

 What role does money play?

 How are urban, rural, or suburban values shown?

  Are societal forces or issues (race, gender, and class) addressed?

 How do they shape power relationships between groups or classes?

 Who has power, and who doesn’t? Why?

 What is the relationship between the characters and society?

 Does it challenge or affirm the social order presented?

 Is the protagonist’s struggle symbolic of a larger class struggle?

 How does the story’s small world (microcosm) reflect the larger world
(macrocosm) of the society in which it was composed?

 Do any of the characters correspond to government structures?

 What are the attitudes toward these political structures/systems?

6. Archetypal Approach

Archetypal criticism depends heavily on symbols and patterns operating on a

universal scale. It is based on Carl Gustav Jung’s (1875-1961) psychological theory.
Jung believed in a collective unconscious that lay deep within all of us and contained
the “cumulative knowledge, experiences, and images of the entire human
race” (Bressler, 1994, p. 92).

Jung identified certain archetypes, which are simply repeated patterns and

images of human experience found in literature, such as the changing seasons;
the cycle of birth, death, rebirth; the hero and the heroic quest; the beautiful
temptress.

 The basis of archetypal criticism is that all literature consists of variations

on a great mythic cycle within the following pattern:

1.  The hero begins life in a paradise (such as a garden)

2.  The hero is displaced from paradise (alienation)
3.  The hero endures time of trial and tribulation, usually a wandering (a
journey)
 4.  The hero achieves self-discovery as a result of the struggles on that journey
5.  The hero returns to paradise (either the original or a new and improved
one)

 The journey motif is very common in children’s stories and usually takes one
of the two forms:
1.  The linear journey: The hero moves away from home, encounters
adventures, and finds a new home better than the first.
2.  The circular journey: The hero moves away from home, encounters
adventures, and returns home a better person.

 Strength: It allows us to see the larger patterns of literature

 Limitation: It tends to ignore the individual contributions of the author and the
specific cultural and societal influences.

7. Feminist Approach

Feminist criticism places its focus on the questions of how gender

affects a literary work, writer, or reader through a critical approach.

 Questions to ask from the feminist approach:

1.  How are women portrayed in the work? As stereotypes? As individuals?
2.  How is the woman’s point of view considered?
3.  Is male superiority implied in the text?
4.  In what way is the work affected because it was written by a woman? Or a
man?

 A major concern of feminist criticism is the masculine bias in literature.

Historically, most works were written from a masculine point of view and for
male audiences. The feminist critic looks for societal misconceptions that treat
the masculine viewpoint as the norm and the feminine viewpoint as a
deviation.
 The feminist approach questions a text’s underlying assumptions about
differences between men and women that usually posit women as inferior. It
makes the reader more aware of the complexity of human interaction.

Activsit
y
a. Describe and explain the different literary criticism.
 Lesson
3
Elements of Story

These are the basic elements of a story that you should learn:

1. Setting: Where and when is the story set? Setting represents both the physical
location but also the time (i.e. past, present, future) and the social and cultural
conditions in which the characters exist.
2. Character: A person or animal or really anything personified. There can be one
main character or many, and often there are secondary characters, but not
always.

3. Plot: The plot consists of the events that happen in the story. In a plot you
typically find an introduction, rising action, a climax, the falling action, and a
resolution. Plot is often represented as an arc. 

a) Exposition/Introduction: In the exposition stage of the plot of a story,

the setting and characters (especially the main character, known as
the protagonist) are introduced, as well as the main problem, conflict or
goal of the story.
b) Rising Action: The rising action stage involves an inciting incident. The
inciting incident pushes the plot into motion, events begin to build, the
protagonist takes action, and the storyline becomes more complex. During
this phase, there is often a sense of tension.
 c) Climax: The climax is the turning point in the plot of a story. It involves a
“climax” (hence the name) – the central struggle. The protagonist faces
the main challenge which will eventually lead to the outcome or goal of
the story. Typically, this is the most emotional part of the storyline and it
often involves the most action.
d) Falling Action: During this stage, the action winds down, loose ends get
tied up, events are resolved and we learn the results of the protagonists’
actions.
e) Denoument/Conclusion: In the denoument stage, the goal is resolved
and the conflict ends (could be positive, negative or neutral). This is the
end of the story.

4. Conflict: Every story must have a conflict, i.e. a challenge or problem around
which the plot is based. Without conflict, the story will have no purpose or
trajectory.

5. Theme: Idea, belief, moral, lesson or insight. It’s the central argument that the
author is trying to make the reader understand. The theme is the “why” of the
story.

6. Point-of-view: “Who” is telling the story? First person (“I”) or third person
(“he/she/it”). Limited (one character’s perspective), multiple (many characters’
perspectives) or omniscient (all knowing narrator). Second person (“you”) is not
often used for writing stories.

7 . Tone: The overall emotional “tone” or meaning of the story. Is it happy, funny,
sad, depressed? Tone can be portrayed in multiple ways, through word and
grammar choices, choice of theme, imagery and description, symbolism, and the
sounds of the words in combination (i.e. rhyme, rhythm, musicality).

8. Style: This is how things are said. Word choices, sentence structure, dialogue,
metaphor, simile, hyperbole. Style contributes significantly to tone.
Activsit
y
1. Look for a sample of story and identify its elements.

Example the story of Romeo and Juliet there is the Beginning or

Exposition-this is when characters and problems are introduced to
the reader. Example: Romeo and Juliet's families are enemies, but
Romeo and Juliet meet at a party and like each other. And next , the
Rising Action-this is where the problem and characters are
developed through a series of actions that builds to the . . .
Example: Romeo visits Juliet on a balcony one night, and then she
sends a message to him through her nurse. They meet and secretly
wed without their families' knowledge. Romeo kills Juliet's cousin
Tybalt, and he is exiled. Juliet's father orders her to marry someone
else. Juliet fakes her death, sending a message to Romeo to let him
know, but he hears of her death and doesn't get the message
Climax-this is where the problem (or conflict) is resolved in one
way or another. The climax is often called the "turning point" in a
story.Example: Romeo kills himself, and Juliet wakes from her
sleep, sees him, and kills herself. Falling Action or Denoument-
this is where the reader learns what happens as a result of the
climax-or the way in which the problem was solved.Example: The
two families mourn Romeo and Juliet.Resolution-where the entire
plot is wrapped up and there is a sense of closure for the
reader.Example: Romeo and Juliet's deaths have ended their
families' feud and there is peace in Verona.e.
 CHAPT
GreekER 1
Literature

Introduction

Greek literature, body of writings in the Greek language, with a

continuous history extending from the 1st millennium BC to the present day. From the
beginning its writers were Greeks living not only in Greece proper but also in Asia
Minor, the Aegean Islands, and Magna Graecia (Sicily and southern Italy). Later, after
the conquests of Alexander the Great, Greek became the common language of the
eastern Mediterranean lands and then of the Byzantine Empire. Literature in Greek was
produced not only over a much wider area but also by those whose mother tongue was
not Greek. Even before the Turkish conquest (1453) the area had begun to shrink
again, and now it is chiefly confined to Greece and Cyprus .

Of the literature of ancient Greece only a relatively small proportion survives. Yet

it remains important, not only because much of it is of supreme quality but also
because until the mid-19th century the greater part of the literature of the Western
world was produced by writers who were familiar with the Greek tradition, either
directly or through the medium of Latin, who were conscious that the forms they used
were mostly of Greek invention, and who took for granted in their readers some
familiarity with Classical literature.
 The Periods

The history of ancient Greek literature may be divided into three periods: Archaic (to
the end of the 6th century BC); Classical (5th and 4th centuries BC); and Hellenistic and
Greco-Roman (3rd century BC onward).

A. ARCHAIC PERIOD, to the end of the 6th century BC

The Greeks created poetry before they made use of writing for literary

purposes, and from the beginning their poetry was intended to be sung or recited.
(The art of writing was little known before the 7th century BC. The script used in
Crete and Mycenae during the 2nd millennium BC [Linear B] is not known to have
been employed for other than administrative purposes, and after the destruction of
the Mycenaean cities it was forgotten.)

Its subject was myth—part legend, based sometimes on the dim memory of

historical events; part folktale; and part religious speculation. But since
the myths were not associated with any religious dogma, even though they often
treated of gods and heroic mortals, they were not authoritative and could be varied
by a poet to express new concepts.

Thus, at an early stage Greek thought was advanced as poets refashioned

their materials; and to this stage of Archaic poetry belonged the epics ascribed
to Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey, retelling intermingled history and myth of the
Mycenaean Age. These two great poems, standing at the beginning of Greek
literature, established most of the literary conventions of the epic poem.
The didactic poetry of Hesiod (c. 700 BC) was probably later in composition than
Homer’s epics and, though different in theme and treatment, continued the epic
tradition.

The several types of Greek lyric poetry originated in the Archaic period

among the poets of the Aegean Islands and of Ionia on the coast of Asia
Minor. Archilochus of Paros, of the 7th century BC, was the earliest Greek poet to
employ the forms of elegy (in which the epic verse line alternated with a shorter
line) and of personal lyric poetry. His work was very highly rated by the ancient
Greeks but survives only in fragments; its forms and metrical patterns—the elegiac
couplet and a variety of lyric metres—were taken up by a succession of Ionian
poets. At the beginning of the 6th century Alcaeus and Sappho, composing in
the Aeolic dialect of Lesbos, produced lyric poetry mostly in the metres named after
them (the alcaic and the sapphic), which Horace was later to adapt to Latin poetry.
No other poets of ancient Greece entered into so close a personal relationship with
the reader as Alcaeus, Sappho, and Archilochus do. They were succeeded
by Anacreon of Teos, in Ionia, who, like Archilochus, composed his lyrics in the Ionic
dialect. Choral lyric, with musical accompaniment, belonged to the Dorian tradition
and its dialect, and its representative poets in the period were Alcman in Sparta
and Stesichorus in Sicily.

Both tragedy and comedy had their origins in Greece. “Tragic” choruses are

said to have existed in Dorian Greece around 600 BC, and in a rudimentary dramatic
form tragedy became part of the most famous of the Dionysian festivals, the Great,
or City, Dionysia at Athens, about 534. Comedy, too, originated partly in Dorian
Greece and developed in Attica, where it was officially recognized rather later than
tragedy. Both were connected with the worship of Dionysus, god of fruitfulness and
of wine and ecstasy.

Written codes of law were the earliest form of prose and were appearing by
the end of the 7th century, when knowledge of reading and writing was becoming
more widespread. No prose writer is known earlier than Pherecydes of
Syros (c. 550 BC), who wrote about the beginnings of the world; but the earliest
considerable author was Hecataeus of Miletus, who wrote about both the mythical
past and the geography of the Mediterranean and surrounding lands. To Aesop, a
semi-historical, semi-mythological character of the mid-6th century, have been
attributed the moralizing beast fables inherited by later writers.

B. CLASSICAL PERIOD, 5th and 4th centuries BC

True tragedy was created by Aeschylus and continued

with Sophocles and Euripides in the second half of the 5th century. Aristophanes,
the greatest of the comedic poets, lived on into the 4th century, but the Old
Comedy did not survive the fall of Athens in 404.

The sublime themes of Aeschylean tragedy, in which human beings stand

answerable to the gods and receive awe-inspiring insight into divine purposes, are
exemplified in the three plays of the Oresteia. The tragedy of Sophocles made
progress toward both dramatic complexity and naturalness while remaining orthodox
in its treatment of religious and moral issues. Euripides handled his themes on the
plane of skeptical enlightenment and doubted the traditional picture of the gods.
Corresponding development of dramatic realization accompanied the shift of vision:
the number of individual actors was raised to three, each capable of taking several
parts.

The Old Comedy of Aristophanes was established later than tragedy but

preserved more obvious traces of its origin in ritual; for the vigour, wit, and
indecency with which it keenly satirized public issues and prominent persons clearly
derived from the ribaldry of the Dionysian festival. Aristophanes’ last comedies show
a transition, indicated by the dwindling importance of the chorus, toward the Middle
Comedy, of which no plays are extant. This phase was followed toward the
beginning of the 3rd century by the New Comedy, introduced by Menander, which
turned for its subjects to the private fictional world of ordinary people.
Later adaptations of New Comedy in Latin by Plautus and Terence carried the
influence of his work on to medieval and modern times.

In the 5th century, Pindar, the greatest of the Greek choral lyrists, stood
outside the main Ionic-Attic stream and embodied in his splendid odes a vision of
the world seen in terms of aristocratic values that were already growing obsolete.
Greek prose came to maturity in this period. Earlier writers such as Anaxagoras the
philosopher and Protagoras the Sophist used the traditional Ionic dialect, as
did Herodotus the historian. His successors in history, Thucydides and Xenophon,
wrote in Attic.

The works of Plato and Aristotle, of the 4th century, are the most important
of all the products of Greek culture in the intellectual history of the West. They were
preoccupied with ethics, metaphysics, and politics as humankind’s highest study
and, in the case of Aristotle, extended the range to include physics, natural history,
psychology, and literary criticism. They have formed the basis of Western
philosophy and, indeed, they determined, for centuries to come, the development of
European thought.

This was also a golden age for rhetoric and oratory, first taught by Corax of

Syracuse in the 5th century. The study of rhetoric and oratory raised questions of
truth and morality in argument, and thus it was of concern to the philosopher as
well as to the advocate and the politician and was expounded by teachers, among
whom Isocrates was outstanding. The orations of Demosthenes, a statesman of 4th-
century Athens and the most famous of Greek orators, are preeminent for force and
power.

C. HELLENISTIC AND GRECO-ROMAN PERIODS

In the huge empire of Alexander the Great, Macedonians and Greeks

composed the new governing class; and Greek became the language of
administration and culture, a new composite dialect based to some extent on Attic
and called the Koine, or common language. Everywhere the traditional city-state
was in decline, and individuals were becoming aware of their isolation and were
seeking consolidation and satisfaction outside corporate society. Artistic creation
now came under private patronage, and, except for Athenian
comedy, compositions were intended for a small, select audience that admired
polish, erudition, and subtlety.

An event of great importance for the development of new tendencies was the
founding of the Museum, the shrine of the Muses with its enormous library,
at Alexandria. The chief librarian was sometimes a poet as well as tutor of the heir
apparent. The task of accumulating and preserving knowledge begun by
the Sophists and continued by Aristotle and his adherents was for the first time
properly endowed. Through the researches of the Alexandrian scholars, texts of
ancient authors were preserved.

The Hellenistic period lasted from the end of the 4th to the end of the 1st
century BC. For the next three centuries, until Constantinople became the capital of
the Byzantine Empire, Greek writers were conscious of belonging to a world of which
Rome was the centre.
 Lesson
1
The God and Goddesses

The Greek did not believe that the gods created the universe. It was the other way about:
the universe created the gods. Before there were gods heaven and earth had been formed.
They were the first parents. The Titans were their children, and the gods were their
grandchildren.
 Lesson
2
The Titans

Titan, in Greek mythology, any of the children of Uranus (Heaven)

and Gaea (Earth) and their descendants. According to Hesiod’s Theogony, there were
12 original Titans: the brothers Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus,
and Cronus and the sisters Thea, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, and Tethys. At
the instigation of Gaea the Titans rebelled against their father, who had shut them up in
the underworld (Tartarus). Under the leadership of Cronus they deposed Uranus and
set up Cronus as their ruler. But one of Cronus’ sons, Zeus, rebelled against his father,
and a struggle then ensued between them in which most of the Titans sided with
Cronus. Zeus and his brothers and sisters finally defeated the Titans after 10 years of
fierce battles (the Titanomachia). The Titans were then hurled down by Zeus and
imprisoned in a cavity beneath Tartarus.

Atlas

Atlas, in Greek mythology, son of the Titan Iapetus and

the Oceanid Clymene (or Asia) and brother
of Prometheus (creator of humankind). In Homer’s Odyssey,
Book I, Atlas seems to have been a marine creature who
supported the pillars that held heaven and earth apart. These
were thought to rest in the sea immediately beyond the most
western horizon, but later the name of Atlas was transferred to
a range of mountains in northwestern Africa. Atlas was
subsequently represented as the king of that district, turned
into a rocky mountain by the hero Perseus, who, to punish
Atlas for his inhospitality, showed him the Gorgon’s head, the sight of which turned
men to stone. According to Hesiod’s Theogony, Atlas was one of the Titans who took
part in their war against Zeus, for which as a punishment he was condemned to hold
aloft the heavens. In many works of art he was represented as carrying the heavens (in
Classical art from the 6th century BCE) or the celestial globe (in Hellenistic and Roman
art).
 Prometheus, in Greek religion, one of the Titans,
the supreme trickster, and a god of fire.
His intellectual side was emphasized by the
apparent meaning of his name, Forethinker. In
common belief he developed into a master
craftsman, and in this connection he was associated
with fire and the creation of mortals.
The Greek poet Hesiod related two
principal legends concerning Prometheus. The first
is that Zeus, the chief god, who had been tricked by
Prometheus into accepting the bones and fat of
sacrifice instead of the meat, hid fire from mortals.
Prometheus, however, stole it and returned it to
Earth once again. As the price of fire, and as
punishment for humankind in general, Zeus created
the woman Pandora and sent her down to
Epimetheus (Hindsight), who, though warned by
Prometheus, married her. Pandora took the great lid
off the jar she carried, and evils, hard work, and disease flew out to plague humanity.
Hope alone remained within.

Hesiod relates in his other tale that, as vengeance on Prometheus, Zeus had him nailed
to a mountain in the Caucasus and sent an eagle to eat his immortal liver, which
constantly replenished itself; Prometheus was depicted in Prometheus
Bound by Aeschylus, who made him not only the bringer of fire and civilization to
mortals but also their preserver, giving them all the arts and sciences as well as the
means of survival.

Themis, (Greek: “Order”) in Greek religion, personification

of justice, goddess of wisdom and good counsel, and the
interpreter of the gods’ will. According to Hesiod’s Theogony,
she was the daughter of Uranus (Heaven) and Gaea (Earth),
although at times she was apparently identified with Gaea,
as in Aeschylus’s Eumenides and Prometheus Bound. In
Hesiod she is Zeus’s second consort and by him the mother
of the Horae (see Hora), the Moirai, and, in some traditions,
the Hesperides. On Olympus, Themis maintained order and
supervised the ceremonial. She was a giver of oracles;
Aeschylus relates in Eumenides that she once owned
the oracle at Delphi but later gave it to Apollo. In the lost epic Cypria, she plans
the Trojan War with Zeus to remedy overpopulation.

Phoebe, in Greek mythology, a Titan, daughter of Uranus (Sky)

and Gaea (Earth). By the Titan Coeus she was the mother of Leto and grandmother
of Apollo and Artemis. She was also the mother of Asteria and Hecate. The family
relationships were described by Hesiod (Theogony). Her epithet was Gold-Crowned, but
her name, like Apollo’s forename Phoebus, signified brightness.
In Aeschylus’s Eumenides (458 BC) she is said to have given Apollo the rite of his oracle
in Delphi. In later mythology she was identified with the moon, as were Artemis and her
Roman counterpart Diana.

Cronus, also spelled Cronos or Kronos, in

ancient Greek religion, male deity who was worshipped by
the pre-Hellenic population of Greece but probably was not
widely worshipped by the Greeks themselves; he was later
identified with the Roman god Saturn. Cronus’s functions
were connected with agriculture; in Attica his festival, the
Kronia, celebrated the harvest and resembled the Saturnalia.
In art he was depicted as an old man holding an implement,
probably originally a sickle but interpreted as a harpē, or
curved sword. In Greek mythology Cronus was the son
of Uranus (Heaven) and Gaea (Earth), being the youngest of
the 12 Titans. On the advice of his mother he castrated his
father with a harpē, thus separating Heaven from Earth. He
now became the king of the Titans, and took for his consort his sister Rhea; she bore
by him Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon, all of whom he swallowed because
his own parents had warned that he would be overthrown by his own child.
When Zeus was born, however, Rhea hid him in Crete and tricked Cronus into
swallowing a stone instead. Zeus grew up, forced Cronus to disgorge his brothers and
sisters, waged war on Cronus, and was victorious. After his defeat by Zeus, Cronus
became, according to different versions of his story, either a prisoner in Tartarus or king
in Elysium. According to one tradition, the period of Cronus’s rule was a golden age for
mortals.

Leto, Latin Latona, in classical mythology,

a Titan, the daughter of Coeus and Phoebe,
and mother of the god Apollo and the
goddess Artemis. The chief places of
her legend were Delos and Delphi. Leto,
pregnant by Zeus, sought a place of refuge
to be delivered. She finally reached the
barren isle of Delos, which, according to
some, was a wandering rock borne about by
the waves until it was fixed to the bottom of
the sea for the birth of Apollo and Artemis.
The wanderings of Leto were ascribed to
the jealousy of Zeus’s wife, Hera, who was
enraged at Leto’s bearing Zeus’s children. The foundation of Delphi followed
immediately upon the birth of Apollo.

Gaea, also called Ge, Greek

personification of the Earth as a goddess.
Mother and wife of Uranus (Heaven), from
whom the Titan Cronus, her last-born
child by him, separated her, she was also
mother of the other Titans, the Gigantes, the
Erinyes, and the Cyclopes
(see giant; Furi es; Cyclops). Gaea may have
been originally a mother goddess worshipped
in Greece before the Hellenes introduced
the cult of Zeus. Less widely worshipped in
historic times, Gaea was described as the
giver of dreams and the nourisher of plants and
young children. Gaea is often shown as being
present at the birth of Zeus, but in some legends she is his enemy because she is the
mother of the giants and of the 100-headed monster Typhon.
b.

Lesson
3
The Chthonians

Chthonic, of or relating to earth, particularly the Underworld. Chthonic figures

in Greek mythology included Hades and Persephone, the rulers of the Underworld, and
the various heroes venerated after death; even Zeus, the king of the sky, had earthly
associations and was venerated as Zeus Chthonius. Oracles (prophecies) delivered
through incubation (that is, whereby the inquirer slept in a holy precinct and received
an answer in a dream) were believed to come from chthonian powers. In the symbolism
and iconography of chthonic deities, snakes are often associated with such deities in
world mythology; thus, divinities are often portrayed entwined with serpents.
Lesson
3
FREE SPIRITS
Activsit
y
1. Answer the following questions below:
a. Who is the king of the Gods? ...
Zeus
b. What two gods were twin brother and sister?
Apollo and Artemis
c. Who were the Titans?
The brothers oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, and
Cronus and the sisters Thea, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne,
Phoebe, and Tethys.
d. Which of the following best describes Aphrodite?
The Greek Goddess of sexual love and beauty.
e. What powerful god lived in the Underworld, rather than on
Mount Olympus?
Hades who rules the Land of the dead called Underworld, And
Poseidon god of the sea lived their but often preferred to dwell
in the ocean
f. What Greek hero was killed by an arrow to his heel?
Achilles the god Apollo is said to have guided the arrow to his
valuarable spot,his heel.
g. Who is Cyclops' father?
Uranus the father of the Cyclops’
h. What is the god of war and peace?
In Greek mythology, the god of war is Ares. He is one of the
twelve main Olympians and he appears in many Greek myths.
He is not the god of peace, however. Eirene, a minor
goddess, is the personification of peace. She is the daughter
of Zeus and Themis, and is related to other minor goddesses
of time and the seasons.
 Lesson
4
How the World and Mankind Were
Created

As she does through the rest of the book, Hamilton begins the chapter with a
note explaining and evaluating its sources—an important note, as the various sources
can tell radically different stories. Chapter III comes mostly from Hesiod, one of the
earliest Greek poets.

In the beginning of the universe there is only Chaos. Chaos somehow gives birth to two
children, Night and Erebus (the primeval underworld) out of the swirling energy. Love is
born from these two, who in turn gives birth to Light and Day. Earth appears; its
creation is never explained, as it just emerges naturally out of Love, Light, and Day.
Earth gives birth to Heaven. Father Heaven and Mother Earth then create all other life,
first producing a host of terrible monsters—the one-eyed Cyclopes and creatures with a
hundred hands and fifty heads. Then the Titans are born. One of them, Cronus, kills
Father Heaven, and the Titans rule the universe. From the blood of Heaven spring both
the Giants and the avenging Furies.

Next comes a dramatic coup. Powerful Cronus, learning that one of his children is fated
to kill him, eats each one as he or she is born. His wife Rhea, upset, hides one baby by
replacing it with a stone for Cronus to eat instead. This infant eventually grows up and
becomes Zeus, who forces Cronus to vomit up his brothers and sisters. The siblings
band together against the Titans. With the help of one sympathetic Titan, Prometheus,
and the monsters whom the Titans had enslaved, Zeus and his siblings win. They chain
up the Titans in the bowels of the earth, except for Prometheus and Epimetheus, his
brother. Prometheus’s other brother, Atlas, is sentenced to forever bear the weight of
the world on his shoulders as punishment.
The Greeks viewed Earth as a round disk divided into equal parts by the Mediterranean
(the Sea) and the Black Sea (first called the Unfriendly, then the Friendly Sea). Ocean,
a mystical river, flowed around the entire disk, and mysterious peoples—the
Hyperboreans in the north, the Ethiopians in the far south and the Cimmerians in parts
unknown—lived outside Ocean’s perimeter.

There are three stories about the creation of humankind. In one, wise Prometheus and
his scatterbrained brother Epimetheus are put in charge of making humans. Epimetheus
bungles the job and gives all the useful abilities to animals, but Prometheus gives
humans the shape of the gods and then the most precious gift of all—fire, which he
takes from heaven. Later, Prometheus helps men by tricking Zeus into accepting the
worst parts of the animal as a sacrifice from men. Zeus tortures Prometheus to punish
him for stealing fire and to intimidate him into telling a secret: the identity of the
mother whose child will one day overthrow Zeus (as Zeus had Cronus). Zeus chains
Prometheus to a rock in the Caucasus, and every day an eagle comes to tear at his
insides. Prometheus never gives in, however.

In the second creation myth, the gods themselves make humans. They use metals,
starting with the best but using ones of progressively worse quality. The first humans
were gold and virtually perfect; the next were silver; then brass, each worse than the
last. The humans now upon the earth are the gods’ fifth and worst version yet—the iron
race. Full of evil and wickedness, each successive generation worsens until, one day,
Zeus will wipe it out. There is also an explanation for how the perfect creatures of the
Golden Age grew wicked. Zeus, outraged at Prometheus’s treachery in giving humans
fire and helping them cheat the gods with their offers of sacrifice, decides to punish
men. He creates Pandora, the first woman, who, like the biblical Eve, brings suffering
upon humanity through her curiosity. The gods give Pandora a box and tell her never to
open it. She foolishly does, however, allowing all the evils of the universe pent up inside
to rush out. The one thing she manages to retain in the box is Hope, humans’ only
comfort in the face of misfortune.

The third creation myth also starts with humans fashioned out of inanimate
material. This time, Zeus, angry at the wickedness of the world, sends a great flood to
destroy it. Only two mortal beings survive: Prometheus’s son, Deucalion, and
Epithemeus and Pandora’s daughter, Pyrrha. After the flood, a voice in a temple orders
the two to walk about and cast stones behind them. These stones become the first
ancestors of the humans now inhabiting the earth.
Activsit
y
1. What literary criticism is applicable in that story?
2. Why?
3. What literary value does this story depicts?
4. Give the different elements of the story?

1. Mythological Criticism
2.
 Lesson
5 The Earliest Heroes

Prometheus and Io

These next stories come from a wide variety of Greek and Roman sources. We
pick up again with Prometheus, who, chained up in the Caucasus, has occasion to
comfort a dazzling white heifer. It turns out to be no ordinary cow but a woman named
Io whom the perpetually unfaithful Zeus has seduced and then transformed into a cow
to hide his transgression from Hera. Not so easily deceived, Hera asks Zeus to give her
the cow and then imprisons her. Hermes, sent by Zeus, frees Io. Hera retaliates by
sending a gadfly to annoy Io endlessly, forcing her to wander all over the world. At last
encountering Prometheus, weary Io learns she will soon be turned back into a human,
will bear Zeus a son, through whom she will be the ancestress of Hercules—the hero
who eventually frees Prometheus.

Europa

Europa is another victim of Zeus’s lust. He spies the lovely maiden in the fields
one day and then transforms himself into a beautiful, friendly bull. Charmed, she climbs
on the bull’s back, but he suddenly becomes frenzied and charges over the sea. Taking
Europa to Crete, away from Hera’s watchful eye, Zeus returns to his form and seduces
her. Her descendants include two of Hades’ judges—Minos and Rhadamanthus—and
the continent of Europe is named for her.
The Cyclops Polyphemus

Another famous casualty of justice is Polyphemus, one of the Cyclopes, the one-eyed
monsters who were the only original children of Earth not banished by the Olympians
after their victory. They are also the forgers of Zeus’s thunderbolts. Best known for his
encounter with Odysseus, Polyphemus is also the victim of a tragic infatuation, as
Galatea, the beautiful, cruel sea nymph, never returns his feelings.
Activsit
y

Make a reflection paper about the earliest heroes.

 Lesson
6 Flower-Myths

In Greece there most lovely wild flowers. They would be beautifully anywhere,
but Greece is not a rich and fertile country of wide meadows and fruitful fields where
flowers seem at home. It is land of rocky ways and stony hills and rugged mountains,
and in such places the exquisite vivid bloom of the wild flowers. The first storytellers in
Greece told story after story about them, how they had been created and why they
were so beautiful.

Narcissus
Narcissus is the most beautiful boy whom many have ever seen, but he does not
return anyone’s affections. One of the disappointed nymphs prays to the god of
anger, Nemesis, that "he who loves not others love himself." Nemesis answers this
prayer. Narcissus looks at his own reflection in a river and suddenly falls in love with
himself. He can think of nothing and no one else. He pines away, leaning perpetually
over the pool, until finally he perishes.
The story of Narcissus includes the story of Echo, a nymph who falls in love with
him. Echo falls under an unfortunate spell cast by Hera, who has suspected that Zeus is
interested in her or, at least, in one of her nymph friends. Hera determines that Echo
will always have the last word but never have the power to speak first. That is, she only
can repeat other people's utterances. When the dying Narcissus calls "farewell" to his
own image, Echo can only repeat the words—a final good-bye. In the place where
Narcissus dies, a beautiful flower grows, and the nymphs call it Narcissus.

Hyacinth
Apollo and Hyacinthus are best friends. They compete to see who can throw a
discus the farthest. In the competition, Apollo accidentally throws his discus into
Hyacinthus, killing him. As Apollo holds the body of his best friend, he wishes that he
himself would stop living so that the beautiful, young Hyacinthus could live on. As he
speaks those words, the blood spilling from the dying youth turns the grass green, and
a beautiful flower grows—the hyacinth.

Adonis
Adonis is an extremely handsome young man, and Aphrodite falls in love with him. She
puts him in Persephone's care, but she also falls in love with him. Finally, Zeus
intervenes and decides that Adonis shall spend half the year with Persephone and half
the year with Aphrodite. One day, Adonis hunts a wild boar and thinks he killed it. But
the boar was only wounded, and it fiercely lunges at Adonis as he approaches.
Aphrodite flies to him and holds him, dying, in her arms. Flowers grow where the blood
wets the ground.

Activsit
y What literary criticism is applicable in each story?
1.
2. Why?
3. What literary value does each story depicts?
4. Give the different elements of the story?
Stories
Lesson of Love and Adventure
7

Cupid and Psyche

Lucius Apuleius

A certain king and queen had three daughters. The charms of the two elder were
more than common, but the beauty of the youngest was so wonderful that the poverty
of language is unable to express its due praise. The fame of her beauty was so great
that strangers from neighboring countries came in
crowds to enjoy the sight, and looked on her with
amazement, paying her that homage which is due
only to Venus herself. In fact Venus found her altars
deserted, while men turned their devotion to this
young virgin. As she passed along, the people sang
her praises, and strewed her way with chaplets and
flowers.

This homage to the exaltation of a mortal gave

great offense to the real Venus. Shaking her
ambrosial locks with indignation, she exclaimed,
"Am I then to be eclipsed in my honors by a mortal
girl? In vain then did that royal shepherd, whose
judgment was approved by Jove himself, give me the palm of beauty over my illustrious
rivals, Pallas and Juno. But she shall not so quietly usurp my honors. I will give her
cause to repent of so unlawful a beauty."

Thereupon she calls her winged son Cupid, mischievous enough in his own
nature, and rouses and provokes him yet more by her complaints. She points out
Psyche to him and says, "My dear son, punish that contumacious beauty; give your
mother a revenge as sweet as her injuries are great; infuse into the bosom of that
haughty girl a passion for some low, mean, unworthy being, so that she may reap a
mortification as great as her present exultation and triumph."

Cupid prepared to obey the commands of his mother. There are two fountains in
Venus's garden, one of sweet waters, the other of bitter. Cupid filled two amber vases,
one from each fountain, and suspending them from the top of his quiver, hastened to
the chamber of Psyche, whom he found asleep. He shed a few drops from the bitter
fountain over her lips, though the sight of her almost moved him to pity; then touched
her side with the point of his arrow. At the touch she awoke, and opened eyes upon
Cupid (himself invisible), which so startled him that in his confusion he wounded himself
with his own arrow. Heedless of his wound, his whole thought now was to repair the
mischief he had done, and he poured the balmy drops of joy over all her silken ringlets.

Psyche, henceforth frowned upon by Venus, derived no benefit from all her
charms. True, all eyes were cast eagerly upon her, and every mouth spoke her praises;
but neither king, royal youth, nor plebeian presented himself to demand her in
marriage. Her two elder sisters of moderate charms had now long been married to two
royal princes; but Psyche, in her lonely apartment, deplored her solitude, sick of that
beauty which, while it procured abundance of flattery, had failed to awaken love.

Her parents, afraid that they had unwittingly incurred the anger of the gods,
consulted the oracle of Apollo, and received this answer, "The virgin is destined for the
bride of no mortal lover. Her future husband awaits her on the top of the mountain. He
is a monster whom neither gods nor men can resist."

This dreadful decree of the oracle filled all the people with dismay, and her
parents abandoned themselves to grief. But Psyche said, "Why, my dear parents, do
you now lament me? You should rather have grieved when the people showered upon
me undeserved honors, and with one voice called me a Venus. I now perceive that I am
a victim to that name. I submit. Lead me to that rock to which my unhappy fate has
destined me."

Accordingly, all things being prepared, the royal maid took her place in the
procession, which more resembled a funeral than a nuptial pomp, and with her parents,
amid the lamentations of the people, ascended the mountain, on the summit of which
they left her alone, and with sorrowful hearts returned home.

While Psyche stood on the ridge of the mountain, panting with fear and with
eyes full of tears, the gentle Zephyr raised her from the earth and bore her with an
easy motion into a flowery dale. By degrees her mind became composed, and she laid
herself down on the grassy bank to sleep.

When she awoke refreshed with sleep, she looked round and beheld nearby a
pleasant grove of tall and stately trees. She entered it, and in the midst discovered a
fountain, sending forth clear and crystal waters, and fast by, a magnificent palace
whose august front impressed the spectator that it was not the work of mortal hands,
but the happy retreat of some god. Drawn by admiration and wonder, she approached
the building and ventured to enter.
 Every object she met filled her with pleasure and amazement. Golden pillars
supported the vaulted roof, and the walls were enriched with carvings and paintings
representing beasts of the chase and rural scenes, adapted to delight the eye of the
beholder. Proceeding onward, she perceived that besides the apartments of state there
were others filled with all manner of treasures, and beautiful and precious productions
of nature and art.

While her eyes were thus occupied, a voice addressed her, though she saw no
one, uttering these words, "Sovereign lady, all that you see is yours. We whose voices
you hear are your servants and shall obey all your commands with our utmost care and
diligence. Retire, therefore, to your chamber and repose on your bed of down, and
when you see fit, repair to the bath. Supper awaits you in the adjoining alcove when it
pleases you to take your seat there."

Psyche gave ear to the admonitions of her vocal attendants, and after repose
and the refreshment of the bath, seated herself in the alcove, where a table
immediately presented itself, without any visible aid from waiters or servants, and
covered with the greatest delicacies of food and the most nectareous wines. Her ears
too were feasted with music from invisible performers; of whom one sang, another
played on the lute, and all closed in the wonderful harmony of a full chorus.

She had not yet seen her destined husband. He came only in the hours of
darkness and fled before the dawn of morning, but his accents were full of love, and
inspired a like passion in her. She often begged him to stay and let her behold him, but
he would not consent. On the contrary he charged her to make no attempt to see him,
for it was his pleasure, for the best of reasons, to keep concealed.

"Why should you wish to behold me?" he said. "Have you any doubt of my love?
Have you any wish ungratified? If you saw me, perhaps you would fear me, perhaps
adore me, but all I ask of you is to love me. I would rather you would love me as an
equal than adore me as a god."

This reasoning somewhat quieted Psyche for a time, and while the novelty lasted
she felt quite happy. But at length the thought of her parents, left in ignorance of her
fate, and of her sisters, precluded from sharing with her the delights of her situation,
preyed on her mind and made her begin to feel her palace as but a splendid prison.
When her husband came one night, she told him her distress, and at last drew from
him an unwilling consent that her sisters should be brought to see her.

So, calling Zephyr, she acquainted him with her husband's commands, and he,
promptly obedient, soon brought them across the mountain down to their sister's
valley. They embraced her and she returned their caresses.
 "Come," said Psyche, "enter with me my house and refresh yourselves with
whatever your sister has to offer."

Then taking their hands she led them into her golden palace, and committed
them to the care of her numerous train of attendant voices, to refresh them in her
baths and at her table, and to show them all her treasures. The view of these celestial
delights caused envy to enter their bosoms, at seeing their young sister possessed of
such state and splendor, so much exceeding their own.

They asked her numberless questions, among others what sort of a person her
husband was. Psyche replied that he was a beautiful youth, who generally spent the
daytime in hunting upon the mountains.

The sisters, not satisfied with this reply, soon made her confess that she had
never seen him. Then they proceeded to fill her bosom with dark suspicions. "Call to
mind," they said, "the Pythian oracle that declared you destined to marry a direful and
tremendous monster. The inhabitants of this valley say that your husband is a terrible
and monstrous serpent, who nourishes you for a while with dainties that he may by and
by devour you. Take our advice. Provide yourself with a lamp and a sharp knife; put
them in concealment that your husband may not discover them, and when he is sound
asleep, slip out of bed, bring forth your lamp, and see for yourself whether what they
say is true or not. If it is, hesitate not to cut off the monster's head, and thereby
recover your liberty."

Psyche resisted these persuasions as well as she could, but they did not fail to
have their effect on her mind, and when her sisters were gone, their words and her
own curiosity were too strong for her to resist. So she prepared her lamp and a sharp
knife, and hid them out of sight of her husband. When he had fallen into his first sleep,
she silently rose and uncovering her lamp beheld not a hideous monster, but the most
beautiful and charming of the gods, with his golden ringlets wandering over his snowy
neck and crimson cheek, with two dewy wings on his shoulders, whiter than snow, and
with shining feathers like the tender blossoms of spring.

As she leaned the lamp over to have a better view of his face, a drop of burning
oil fell on the shoulder of the god. Startled, he opened his eyes and fixed them upon
her. Then, without saying a word, he spread his white wings and flew out of the
window. Psyche, in vain endeavoring to follow him, fell from the window to the ground.

Cupid, beholding her as she lay in the dust, stopped his flight for an instant and
said, "Oh foolish Psyche, is it thus you repay my love? After I disobeyed my mother's
commands and made you my wife, will you think me a monster and cut off my head?
But go; return to your sisters, whose advice you seem to think preferable to mine. I
inflict no other punishment on you than to leave you for ever. Love cannot dwell with
suspicion." So saying, he fled away, leaving poor Psyche prostrate on the ground, filling
the place with mournful lamentations.

When she had recovered some degree of composure she looked around her, but
the palace and gardens had vanished, and she found herself in the open field not far
from the city where her sisters dwelt. She repaired thither and told them the whole
story of her misfortunes, at which, pretending to grieve, those spiteful creatures
inwardly rejoiced.

"For now," said they, "he will perhaps choose one of us." With this idea, without
saying a word of her intentions, each of them rose early the next morning and
ascended the mountain, and having reached the top, called upon Zephyr to receive her
and bear her to his lord; then leaping up, and not being sustained by Zephyr, fell down
the precipice and was dashed to pieces.

Psyche meanwhile wandered day and night, without food or repose, in search of
her husband. Casting her eyes on a lofty mountain having on its brow a magnificent
temple, she sighed and said to herself, "Perhaps my love, my lord, inhabits there," and
directed her steps thither.

She had no sooner entered than she saw heaps of corn, some in loose ears and
some in sheaves, with mingled ears of barley. Scattered about, lay sickles and rakes,
and all the instruments of harvest, without order, as if thrown carelessly out of the
weary reapers' hands in the sultry hours of the day.

This unseemly confusion the pious Psyche put an end to, by separating and
sorting everything to its proper place and kind, believing that she ought to neglect none
of the gods, but endeavor by her piety to engage them all in her behalf. The holy
Ceres, whose temple it was, finding her so religiously employed, thus spoke to her, "Oh
Psyche, truly worthy of our pity, though I cannot shield you from the frowns of Venus,
yet I can teach you how best to allay her displeasure. Go, then, and voluntarily
surrender yourself to your lady and sovereign, and try by modesty and submission to
win her forgiveness, and perhaps her favor will restore you the husband you have lost."

Psyche obeyed the commands of Ceres and took her way to the temple of
Venus, endeavoring to fortify her mind and ruminating on what she should say and how
best propitiate the angry goddess, feeling that the issue was doubtful and perhaps
fatal.

Venus received her with angry countenance. "Most undutiful and faithless of
servants," said she, "do you at last remember that you really have a mistress? Or have
you rather come to see your sick husband, yet laid up of the wound given him by his
loving wife? You are so ill favored and disagreeable that the only way you can merit
your lover must be by dint of industry and diligence. I will make trial of your
housewifery." Then she ordered Psyche to be led to the storehouse of her temple,
where was laid up a great quantity of wheat, barley, millet, vetches, beans, and lentils
prepared for food for her pigeons, and said, "Take and separate all these grains,
putting all of the same kind in a parcel by themselves, and see that you get it done
before evening." Then Venus departed and left her to her task.

But Psyche, in a perfect consternation at the enormous work, sat stupid and
silent, without moving a finger to the inextricable heap.

While she sat despairing, Cupid stirred up the little ant, a native of the fields, to
take compassion on her. The leader of the anthill, followed by whole hosts of his six-
legged subjects, approached the heap, and with the utmost diligence taking grain by
grain, they separated the pile, sorting each kind to its parcel; and when it was all done,
they vanished out of sight in a moment.

Venus at the approach of twilight returned from the banquet of the gods,
breathing odors and crowned with roses. Seeing the task done, she exclaimed, "This is
no work of yours, wicked one, but his, whom to your own and his misfortune you have
enticed." So saying, she threw her a piece of black bread for her supper and went
away.

Next morning Venus ordered Psyche to be called and said to her, "Behold yonder
grove which stretches along the margin of the water. There you will find sheep feeding
without a shepherd, with golden-shining fleeces on their backs. Go, fetch me a sample
of that precious wool gathered from every one of their fleeces."

Psyche obediently went to the riverside, prepared to do her best to execute the
command. But the river god inspired the reeds with harmonious murmurs, which
seemed to say, "Oh maiden, severely tried, tempt not the dangerous flood, nor venture
among the formidable rams on the other side, for as long as they are under the
influence of the rising sun, they burn with a cruel rage to destroy mortals with their
sharp horns or rude teeth. But when the noontide sun has driven the cattle to the
shade, and the serene spirit of the flood has lulled them to rest, you may then cross in
safety, and you will find the woolly gold sticking to the bushes and the trunks of the
trees."

Thus the compassionate river god gave Psyche instructions how to accomplish
her task, and by observing his directions she soon returned to Venus with her arms full
of the golden fleece; but she received not the approbation of her implacable mistress,
who said, "I know very well it is by none of your own doings that you have succeeded
in this task, and I am not satisfied yet that you have any capacity to make yourself
useful. But I have another task for you. Here, take this box and go your way to the
infernal shades, and give this box to Proserpine and say, 'My mistress Venus desires
you to send her a little of your beauty, for in tending her sick son she has lost some of
her own.' Be not too long on your errand, for I must paint myself with it to appear at
the circle of the gods and goddesses this evening."

Psyche was now satisfied that her destruction was at hand, being obliged to go
with her own feet directly down to Erebus. Wherefore, to make no delay of what was
not to be avoided, she goes to the top of a high tower to precipitate herself headlong,
thus to descend the shortest way to the shades below. But a voice from the tower said
to her, "Why, poor unlucky girl, do you design to put an end to your days in so dreadful
a manner? And what cowardice makes you sink under this last danger who have been
so miraculously supported in all your former?" Then the voice told her how by a certain
cave she might reach the realms of Pluto, and how to avoid all the dangers of the road,
to pass by Cerberus, the three-headed dog, and prevail on Charon, the ferryman, to
take her across the black river and bring her back again. But the voice added, "When
Proserpine has given you the box filled with her beauty, of all things this is chiefly to be
observed by you, that you never once open or look into the box nor allow your curiosity
to pry into the treasure of the beauty of the goddesses."

Psyche, encouraged by this advice, obeyed it in all things, and taking heed to her
ways traveled safely to the kingdom of Pluto. She was admitted to the palace of
Proserpine, and without accepting the delicate seat or delicious banquet that was
offered her, but contented with coarse bread for her food, she delivered her message
from Venus. Presently the box was returned to her, shut and filled with the precious
commodity. Then she returned the way she came, and glad was she to come out once
more into the light of day.

But having got so far successfully through her dangerous task a longing desire
seized her to examine the contents of the box. "What," said she, "shall I, the carrier of
this divine beauty, not take the least bit to put on my cheeks to appear to more
advantage in the eyes of my beloved husband!" So she carefully opened the box, but
found nothing there of any beauty at all, but an infernal and truly Stygian sleep, which
being thus set free from its prison, took possession of her, and she fell down in the
midst of the road, a sleepy corpse without sense or motion.

But Cupid, being now recovered from his wound, and not able longer to bear the
absence of his beloved Psyche, slipping through the smallest crack of the window of his
chamber which happened to be left open, flew to the spot where Psyche lay, and
gathering up the sleep from her body closed it again in the box, and waked Psyche with
a light touch of one of his arrows. "Again," said he, "have you almost perished by the
same curiosity. But now perform exactly the task imposed on you by my mother, and I
will take care of the rest."

Then Cupid, as swift as lightning penetrating the heights of heaven, presented

himself before Jupiter with his supplication. Jupiter lent a favoring ear, and pleaded the
cause of the lovers so earnestly with Venus that he won her consent. On this he sent
Mercury to bring Psyche up to the heavenly assembly, and when she arrived, handing
her a cup of ambrosia, he said, "Drink this, Psyche, and be immortal; nor shall Cupid
ever break away from the knot in which he is tied, but these nuptials shall be
perpetual."
Activsit
y
1. How does Psyche compare in beauty with her sisters?

- Psyche is so beautiful that one cannot even begin to describe her beauty.
People come from all over just to see Psyche and they refer to her as
Venus herself.

2. What plan does Venus have for Psyche?

- Venus plans to have her son, Cupid, shoot Psyche with a love arrow, so
that Psyche will fall in love with a hideous creature. Venus' plan fails because
Cupid himself falls in love with the beautiful Psyche

3. What happens when Cupid meets Psyche?

When Cupid meets Psyche he is stunned by her beauty and touches her with his
arrow. When he touches her side with his arrow she wakes up startled and Cupid
accidentally pokes himself with his own arrow, making himself fall in love with
Psyche and not an unworthy man.

4. How does “the mildest of winds” help Psyche?

“The mildest of winds” helps Psyche because she believes her parents when they consult
the oracle of Apollo and goes up to the mountain and comes across a beautiful place.
Psyche is surrounded by servants and has a husband without even having to do anything.

5. When and why does Cupid appear to Psyche?

Cupid would only appear in the hours of darkness and he would flee before dawn of the
morning because he did not want Psyche to see him.

6. How do her sisters create doubts about Psyche’s future husband?

Her sister’s find out that Psyche had never seen her husband so they plant in her mind that
he must be a monster. They tell her if she doesn’t believe them that she should find out
herself in the middle of the night with a lamp and a sharp knife and if he is a monster to cut
off his head.

7. What are the consequences of Psyche’s betrayal?

 Thus Psyche became at last united to Cupid, and in due time they had a
daughter born to them whose name was Pleasure.

Pyramus and Thisbe

“Pyramus was the most handsome of young men and Thisbe was the fairest
beauty of the East.” ~Ovid in Metamorphoses Pyramus and Thisbe lived in Babylonia
and from the time they were young, were neighbors. They played together daily as
children and fell in love as they grew older.
Although neighbors, their families were hostile to one another so the love
between Pyramus and Thisbe remained a secret. They had a special meeting place at a
wall between their houses. This particular wall bore a scar. A large crack marred its
smooth surface as a result of an earthquake long ago. Pyramus and Thisbe
communicated through this crack when it was risky to see one another. One particularly
magnificent day, they arrived at their usual meeting place. The beauty of the day made
them lament their situation all the more. They cried as they watched two hummingbirds
fly over the wall together.
Suddenly they came to the decision that they would not be stopped from being
together any longer. They decided to meet that night outside the city gates under a
mulberry tree filled white fruit. This particular tree grew near a stream next to the local
cemetery. Thisbe, hidden by a veil, arrived at the appointed spot first and waited
patiently for Pyramus to come.
All of a sudden, a lioness fresh from a kill, her jaws covered in blood, slunk out
of the brush to satisfy her thirst at the stream. Thisbe, frightened by this disturbance,
ran to a nearby cave. In her haste, she dropped her veil and the lioness grabbed it and
shredded it with her bloody jaws. Meanwhile, Pyramus had arrived at the meeting
place. As he approached the tree he could not help but notice the large paw prints of
the lioness. His heart beat faster. As he approached the stream, his fears were
confirmed upon seeing Thisbe’s veil torn and bloodstained. Unable to find Thisbe and
fearing that she was dead, Pyramus was unable to contain his sorrow. He drew his
sword and plunged it deeply into his side. As he removed the sword from his side,
blood sprayed the white fruit on the tree, turning it a dark purple color.
Meanwhile, Thisbe, recovered from her fright, came back to the meeting place
by the stream. There she saw Pyramus’ body lying in a crumpled heap on the ground.
Racked with uncontrollable agony, she took his sword and threw her body onto it. With
her dying breath, she pleaded with the gods that their bodies be buried in a single tomb
and that the tree in the special meeting place would always bear fruit in the color of a
dark and mournful color in memory of their unrequited love. To this day, the berries of
the mulberry tree always turn dark purple in color when they are ripe. Story Location
Clue: The story of Pyramus and Thisbe is remembered in the mosaic displays of
Paphos. This city is located west of the Troodos Mountains on the coast of Cyprus.
Activsit
y
1. What is the problem that Pyramus and Thisbe face from their families?

2. What is the solution they came up with to solve their problem?

3. What three objects are located in the area where they decide to meet?

4. What incident happens to Thisbe as she is waiting under the tree for
Pyramus?

5. What is the name of the item Thisbe dropped on the ground?

6. What action does Pyramus perform when he thinks Thisbe is dead?

7. What continues happen even to today to the white fruit of the mulberry tree
as a result of the lovers’ tragedy?

8. What proposal would you make to improve Pyramus and Thisbe’s situation?

9. What other story do the Story of Pyramus and Thisbe resemble?

10. What is the story location clue in the Story of Pyramus and Thisbe?
REFERENCES:

http://english2112horton.blogspot.com/2010/08/values-of-literature.html

https://teacherjohnportfolio.wordpress.com/literature/divisions-of-
literature/#:~:text=There%20are%20two%20divisions%20of,prosa%20which
%20literally%20means%20straightforward.

https://salirickandres.altervista.org/divisions-of-literature/

https://greekgodsandgoddesses.net/

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Greek-mythology

https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/mythology/section3/page/3/

https://www.pitt.edu/~dash/cupid.html

https://www.google.com/search?
q=pyramus+and+thisbe&rlz=1C1CHBD_enPH886PH886&sxsrf=ALeKk02fdzv7cDCi
5sJ5ZLjdjX382SjahQ:1600249891310&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUK
Ewj2zMqys-
3rAhUhGqYKHamDAK4Q_AUoAXoECBUQAw&biw=1366&bih=657#imgrc=UnzrF9tu
3HC_dM