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Ludwig Van Beethoven
Portrait of Beethoven in 1804, by which point he had been working on the 6th Symphony for two years. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770-1827) was a German composer born in Bonn. Generally regarded as one of the greatest classical composers of all time, Beethoven bridged the tight classical form he was born into with the emergent and wildly emotional romanticism that would follow.
Beethoven slowly became deaf and conducted his final performance while entirely deaf. He hoped to study under Mozart in Vienna in 1787 but it’s unclear whether or not this connection was ever made. While Mozart wrote symphonies relatively quickly, Beethoven worked on several belabored drafts before finding the best combination of notes. Although we don’t know if the two musical giants ever met, it’s clear that Mozart had a profound influence on Beethoven.
The opening of Beethoven’s 5th symphony, “da da da da”, is one of the most familiar, if not the most familiar of classical passages known to mankind. Beethoven wrote it while mostly deaf.
The fourth movement of his 9th symphony, “Ode to Joy,” was featured in the Stanley Kubrick film, A Clockwork Orange and was played during an official birthday celebration for Adolf Hitler. It’s also become something of a cult classic in Japan.
Music historians are quick to point out that Beethoven could not have foreseen the many contradictory uses and abuses of his work, as outlined here: “‘Ode to Joy,’ Followed by Chaos and Despair” by Slavoj Zizek in The New York Times, December 24, 2007.
Beethoven’s piano sonatas display a complexity and range of emotion rarely found in that genre, the “Moonlight Sonata” perhaps being the most moving and memorable. He also penned and arranged many other types of music, from folk songs, opera, chamber music, choral, and, of course, symphonic music.
His life and death are dramatized in the film, Immortal Beloved (1994).
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Xenophanes
Xenophanes (c. 570 BCE)
Greek thinker born in Colophon, an Ionian Greek coastal city.
Xenophanes critiqued the cosmology of Homer, Hesiod and the popular pre-Socratic take on religion and mythology.
From his surviving fragments – and from others commenting on his work – it’s clear that Xenophanes satirized the anthropomorphic nature of the Greek pagan gods, arguing that God must be unmoving and changeless.
5. But mortals suppose that the gods are born (as they themselves are), and that they wear man’s clothing and have human voice and body. [Zeller, 524, n. 2. Cf Arist. Rhet. ii. 23; 1399 b 6.]
6. But if cattle or lions had hands, so as to paint with their hands and produce works of art as men do, they would paint their gods and give them bodies in form like their own-horses like horses, cattle like cattle. [Zeller, 525, n. 2. Diog Laer. iii. 16; Cic. de nat. Deor. i. 27.]
Arthur Fairbanks, ed. and trans. “Xenophanes: Fragments and Commentary,” The First Philosophers of Greece (London: K. Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1898), p. 67.
Likewise, the early Christian writer Clement of Alexandria (2nd – 3rd CE) wrote in his Miscellanies 5. 109:
Xenophanes of Colophon puts it well indeed in teaching that god is one and without a body (asomatos): “There is one god, greatest among gods and men, who is not like human beings either in form (demas) or in thought (noema).”
Source » “XENOPHANES of Colophon” http://www.csun.edu/~hcfll004/xenophanes.html
Offering piercing criticisms of the pre-Soctratic mindset, Xenophanes nevertheless believed that we cannot be certain about anything. As such, he said that his observations were necessarily conjecture.
E. L. Hussey says that Xenophanes made the “first known attempt at philosophical theology”–i.e. thinking about faith instead of glossing over and mindlessly reproducing its cultural and historical aspects (Ted Honderich, ed., Oxford Companion to Philosophy, 1995, p. 920).
» Comparative Religion
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Achilles
Achilles The ancient Greek warrior and hero who, in Homer‘s Iliad, fought in the Trojan wars.
The son of Peleus and Thetis, at birth Achilles’ mother held him by the heel and dipped him in the fiery river Styx to obtain magical protection from his enemies.
Achilles’ heel remained dry, becoming his vulnerable spot.
Often savage, Achilles killed Hector and mangled his body. Achilles also offered human sacrifices.
The violent aspect of the Achilles legend brings to mind historical killers who find temporary satisfaction by expressing turbulent psychological forces.
Achilles could also be seen as a brilliant, if undisciplined, military commander.
Antonio Balestra’s (1666-1740) oil on canvass depicts Thetis dipping Achilles, head-first, into a cauldron of water, presumably drawn from the river Styx.
More recently Brad Pitt played a convincing Achilles in the film, Troy.
Achilles was eventually killed by Paris‘ poisoned arrow to the heel. » Balder, Olympus, Shadow, Wotan, Zeno
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Acropolis
Acropolis [Greek akron = point, summit + polis = city]
Initially, an acropolis was simply a fortified hill serving as a stronghold for Greek city-states.
Later, the acropolis took on a religious function. It became a sacred citadel built on high ground within or near a town.
The most famous but by no means only acropolis contains the Parthenon and the Erechtheum at Athens, connected with Athena worship.
In 447 BCE a massive statue of Athena stood within its center, the patron goddess of Athens. Although the original is gone, a reconstruction stands in Nashville, Tennessee, within a full-size replica of the Parthenon.
In the 6th century the famed Parthenon was converted into a Christian church.
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Aeneas
In Homer’s Illiad Poseidon prophesizes that Aenas and his descendants will rule the Trojans.
Other writers portray Aeneas as the founder of several Greek centers, such as Delos and Crete.
Aeneas has also been described as the founder of Lavinium and the head of the Latin League.
The poet Vergil in his Aeneid furthers Homer’s emphasis on Aeneas’ piety by representing him, in keeping with fashionable Roman ideals, as a symbol of filial, societal and spiritual devotion–i.e. devotion to parents, to the glory of Rome and its deities.
Henry Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas draws from the Fourth Book of the Aeneid, dramatizing the destroyed marriage of Queen Dido of Carthage and prince Aeneas.
A sorceress had convinced Aeneas that Jove expected him to leave Carthage. The stricken Dido’s sorrowful When I am laid in earth reminds us of the price we might have to pay for listening to dark sorcerers instead of trusting in God and our own good judgment.
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Alexander the Great
Alexander The Great (356-323 BCE)
Third Macedonian king from 336-323 BCE, born in Pella as the son of Philip II and conqueror of most of the old world, including Egypt and Greece.
Tutored by Aristotle, in Egypt he founded the city of Alexandria.
After consulting an oracle of Ammon, he was convinced that his formidable abilities derived from divine power–that is, he felt chosen.
After seizing the capitals of Babylon, Susa, Persepolis and Ecbatana, in the following three years he took the eastern part of the empire and in 327 BCE set his sights on India.
He took the Punjab but his overburdened troops mutinied, leaving him no choice but to retreat. Soon after he died in Babylon.
At the height of his fame, Alexander rose in popularity to the point of nearly being hailed as a god.
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Apollo
Apollo In Greek mythology Apollo – also called Phoebus – is the twin brother of Artemis, born of Zeus and the Titaness Leto.
He is associated with strength, order, youthfulness, beauty and reason, as opposed to the emotional and sometimes drug-induced frenzies relating to Dionysius.
Apollo’s chief temple and oracle was at Delphi, over which the expression, “Know Thyself” was inscribed.
He obtained the rights to this temple by first killing Pytho, a serpent guarding it. There he allegedly spoke through a priestess known as the Pythia.
Said to create and stop plagues, he was also worshipped by the Etruscans, as indicated by his statue at Veii.
At Rome he was venerated as a god of healing.
Fittingly enough, NASA named one of its most successful space programs after him. From 1969 to the 1970s, Apollo, like the rational and powerful god he was once believed to be, took mankind to the moon and back several times.
The lunar landing of July 20th 1969 saw Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin take the first historic steps.
Apollo is also the name of small asteroids crossing the Earth’s orbit. In 1991 an Apollo asteroid came within 170,000 km of Earth, the nearest observed asteroid known to mankind.
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“Daphne pursued by Apollo changes into a tree” by Wonderlane at http://www.flickr.com/photos/wonderlane/282565343/, Creative Commons License
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Ariadne
Ariadne In Greek mythology Ariadne is the daughter of King Minos of Crete.
After Theseus had defeated the Minotaur, Ariadne helped him to escape from a labyrinth by giving him a ball of thread that he unrolled while entering and retraced while exiting, thus finding his way out.
Theseus went with Ariadne to Naxos but he didn’t remain there. Ariadne then married Dionysus. » Hero
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Resized from “Wall or Ceiling Fragments with a Maenad, Bacchus and Ariadne, and a Satyr Roman 1-75 CE Plaster and pigment Fresco (6)” by mharrsch http://www.flickr.com/photos/44124324682@N01/436701192/, Creative Commons License
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Aristophanes
Aristophanes (c 448 BCE-380 BCE) Greek satirical and comedic playwrite about whom we know very little.
His surviving works amount to eleven plays and 32 titles and fragments. He is often regarded as the father of comedy, using subtle puns and distorted literary allusions.
But most of his humor is lost not only through translation but also through the passing of the complicated literary, philosophical, social and political world in which wrote and often lampooned.
His plays variously won first and second prize at ancient dramatic festivals.
Among his more memorable works are The Frogs, The Clouds, The Wasps and The Birds.
In The Clouds Aristophanes writes about Socrates as if he were just another corrupt sophist. Thus Plato suggests in his Apology that Aristophanes contributed to the denigration of Socrates.
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Resized and cropped from original “Aristophanes” by Alun Salt http://www.flickr.com/photos/alun/38029348/, Creative Commons License
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Artemis
Artemis The daughter of Zeus and Leto and twin sister of Apollo.
Artemis is the Greek Olympian who parallels the Roman goddess Diana.
Both share an association with the moon. In pre-Hellenic Greece, Asia Minor and Crete Artemis originally was a deity of the earth, the wild and animals.
Before becoming a virgin huntress in Homeric religion, she was a fertility goddess associated with childbirth. Her best known place of worship was at Ephesus but smaller shrines dotted the landscape.
As a huntress, she’s often represented with bow and arrows.
Artemis appears throughout Greek and Roman literature.
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Resized from original, “Artemis close up” by Great Beyond at http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonyjcase/2139845445/, Creative Commons License
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