New Era, New Art

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a little light for your worries. _____________________ motion by @theglitch.og

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During unit 5 we learned about modern art and how it took a turn from what we would traditionally see. Paintings started looking less realistic, the subjects in these new modern painting didn’t feel like they where real, you didn’t feel like you where part of the painting. Instead this new era of paintings reminded the viewer that they where just looking at a painting nothing more. This drawing I found on Instagram is called a little light for your worries by the Instagram artist @james.r.eads.art, it’s of a girl sitting in front of a window looking out but as you can see it’s not a very realistic window or realistic background. You can see each individual stroke and different colors, you can tell this work is not suppose to look realistic.

This new style that strayed away from academic paintings started with Édouard Manet’s painting Olympia(1863). Mamet challenged the idea of the Renaissance his painting of Olympia was not perfect or of a ideal women. She was not a “Venus” or a “goddess” but she was blunt and specialized something you wouldn’t normally see. Showing that this art was not made to be perfect but to be seen as a painting. Paul Cézanne’s painting The Basket of Apples (1893) another painting that defied the academy. The perspectives, colors, and lighting made this painting less realistic.

As you can see in the old and new art works that they are both just a drawing they are not suppose to be looked at as something that is perfect and ideal. There is not proportion background or lighting you would see in the Baroque and Renaissance. However a major difference between painting such as Olympia and The Basket of Apples to @james.r.eads.art and so many other artist now a day is that they have the internet. Artist in our current era in 2017 have so many different outlets for art. With every new era their are new art forms, with the era of technology we see animation, we can draw on our computers using art tablets or even paint tool. This has introduced to us so many more opportunities to express so many art forms to being realistic or modern to everything in between.

Francesca Faiello,Team Cronos

The Shepherd and the Babies

Nicholas Mignard, French, 1606 – 1668. The Shepherd Faustulus Bringing Romulus and Remus to His Wife. 1654. Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas, USA, Dallas Museum of Art, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Algur H. Meadows and the Meadows Foundation, Incorporated, 1970.25, http://www.dallasmuseumofart.org/. http://library.artstor.org.ez-proxy.brooklyn.cuny.edu:2048/asset/AMICO_DALLAS_103842291. Web. 9 Dec 2017.

This painting was created in 1654 in the Renaissance period. It has a lot of classical imagery, regarding to the idealistic figures. The women have soft skin and curvy bodies. The man, who is Faustrulus has a muscular body. It also has chiaroscuro lighting. You can see the lighting shown on the skin and drapery of the women, the man, and the two babies. The babies are Romulus and Remus. You can see the darkness and shadows inside the house and in the background.

Quote: “According to the story, his name was Faustulus. He took the children to his hut and gave them to his wife Larentia to bring up”(Vergil’s Aeneid, Book 1. Page 11). There are a lot of similarities between the quote and the painting. Faustulus is the man carrying the babies. He is bring them to his wife, Larentia, who is also in the painting and is reaching out to the babies. The quote is basically describing what’s happening in the painting. Though, the quote did not mention the names of the two other women in the picture, it also did not mention that there is a dog and two doves.

The artist might have added the dog into the painting to represent that Larentia was known as the “she-wolf”. Dogs are closely related to wolves. Though the story is a Roman Myth, there are some biblical sayings in the painting. The two white doves are symbols of the holy spirit. Faustulus is a shepherd, which is a figure used a lot in the Bible.

What most interests the artist is the classical tradition and idealized bodies. The artist seemed more interest in his work than the myth itself. As an artist in the renaissance, they want to do their best work to bring out the symbols and realism. The artist did a good job making the roman myth come to life in a painting, so yes, it is important.

Caroline, Team Cronos

The Abduction

Nicolas Poussin, French, 1594-1665. The Abduction of the Sabine Women. probably 1633-34. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, http://www.metmuseum.org. http://library.artstor.org.ez-proxy.brooklyn.cuny.edu:2048/asset/MMA_IAP_1039651425. Web. 8 Dec 2017.

This painting “The Abduction of the Sabine Women” by Nicolas Poussin depicts the story of the rape of the Sabine Women. This is the moment where Roman men abducted Sabine Women to take as wives and start family, as the Romans are fighting off the women’s husbands and fathers. This art work was painted in 1633-34 which would have been during the Baroque period. Professor Simon has taught us that with a new era come a different type of art style. How during the Baroque period new methods such as chiaroscuro lighting which created more emotion to the subject came into play. The painting uses methods such as chiaroscuro lighting and you can see the constraint between the light and the dark that the shadows are creating, making the piece more dramatic. The artist is also trying to play with linear perspective by showing the people father away in the background fighting by making them smaller, creating depth.

The quote I choose was from Book one of Vergil’s Aeneid that says ”Then it was that the Sabine women, whose wrongs had led to the war, throwing off all womanish fears in their distress, went boldly into the midst of the flying missiles with disheveled hair and rent garments. Running across the space between the two armies they tried to stop any further fighting” like the quote the image is showing the throwing of women, you can see the destress in their bodies and how it looks like they are fighting back to get away. You can see the intensity of the men fighting just the the quote is describing. I think the artist added a lot of details to the Romans muscles making them seem stronger to show their power over the women and men. The artist also added children and it really shows that these women are being taken away from their families. However in the quote they make it seem as it was the Sabine’s fault for not giving the women to Romans in the first place. In the art you see more ofthe brutality of abducting these women.

Francesca Faiello, Team Cronos

Julius Caesar in Coding?

Imagine my surprise when I saw that you can find relation to the Ides of March in a coding book. This was the case in Java for Dummies by Barry Burd. Within the first part alone you find a quote that contains the term “Ides of March”.

“Now consider the sentence ‘Julius Caesar is a person.’ If you utter this sentence, you’re probably talking about the fellow who ruled Rome until the Ides of March. Although the name Julius Caesar isn’t hard-wired into the English language, almost everyone uses the name to refer to the same person. If English were a programming language, the name Julius Caesar would be an API identifier..”

Now to a lack of my surprise, the connection wasn’t as deep as I expected it to be. If anything they were using the term as a mere example of what an identifier in java would be. They are basically saying that if you hear the name Julius Caesar, then you know who is being talked about, that even though it wasn’t hard-wired into the English language almost everyone connects the name to one person. In this case he’d be like the many other identifiers in the programming language, such as integers that are intended to represent whole numbers within the code. That if you mention the term, people will be able to connect it to just that, whole numbers.

Now there really isn’t much of a quote within the Cassius Dio to really add to the way the phrase was used, except for the whole bit where he “ruled Rome until the Ides of March” as the reading was just about that, Julius Caesar’s fall during the Ides of March. “Thereupon they attacked him from many sides at once and wounded him to death, so that by reason of their numbers Caesar was unable to say or do anything, but veiling his face, was slain  with many wounds.”

 

Burd, Barry. Java for Dummies, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2014. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/brooklyn-ebooks/detail.action?docID=1688015.
Created from brooklyn-ebooks on 2017-11-30 13:45:36.

Screensavers

This is a picture of my friends computer background, he has his background for his computer randomized with googles art and culture images so through the day his background changes to different art such as paintings from different time periods to photography of landscapes or building. This art can be old or new but each image is vey beautiful and unique. This very image is of an art work named “festival of the twelve months” by Miyagawa Choshun from around 1682-1752. It might be an old painting but it is used in a new way; as someone’s screensaver. This is similar to Chibusani Eishi’s art work we learned about it class “three types of beauties in edo” 1770-1829. Both painting came from around the same time period and have similar flat art style with visible lines of each individual. Eishi’s art work was made to show these three beautiful women that represented pleasure. But this can be compared to how Choshun’s art is viewed in the twentieth century because we are using “festival of the twelve months” Choshun’s art work and screensavers because of its visual appeal. We still find beauty in the same images just as they did back then and we are using them in modern and different ways.

Francesca, Team Cronos

What a Nightmare

Book I found: Dreams and Experience in Classical Antiquity

Quote from Book: “Calpurnia’s on the night before the Ides of March for instance, or the dream of Dido in the Aeneid, can easily be described as nightmares. Ovid tells us that he dreamt terrifying dreams, as well as wish-fulfilments, as an exile.”

Summarization of quote: According to some research, Ovid was a roman poet and Calpurnia was Julius Ceasar’s wife. Instead of talking about a calendar, this quote talks about dreams or nightmares, to be specific. Ovid also says how some of his nightmares is about banishment or being expelled.

Q&A: The author is referring to the Ides of March, since it is a Roman Calendar, could be because he is trying to explain which time the story took place when Calpurnia had her nightmares, which is the night she had nightmares before the Ides of March. The author expects the reader to know that it is a Roman Calendar and also that it marks Julius Ceasar’s death which is March 15, 44 BC. The author describes it as a bad thing, because Calpurnia is having nightmares and then her husband gets killed the next day.

Quote from reading: “This is the truest account, though some have added that to Brutus, when he struck him a powerful blow, he said: ‘Thou, too, my son?’”

Summarization of quote: This quote compliments the attitudes and ideas in the book that I read, because just that one simple sentence can be a nightmare. Ceasar asks “You too, my son?”, meaning that Brutus is another person who became Ceasar’s enemy and you can tell that Ceasar felt betrayed in that simple question. It is also a nightmare, because getting murdered is one of the things that most people fear.

MLA citation: Harris, William V.. Dreams and Experience in Classical Antiquity, Harvard University Press, 2009. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/brooklyn-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3300816.

Caroline, Team Cronos

Caesar and salad aren’t that different?

(Image by @adamtots)

CassiusDio

7 some actually ventured to suggest permitting him to have intercourse with as many women as he pleased, because even at this time, though fifty years old, he still had numerous mistresses.

11 he no longer restrained his wrath but showed great irritation, as if these very officials were really stirring up sedition against him.

Lives of Illustrious Men

Pompey ordered Caesar to disband his army but was driven from the city when Caesar approached prepared for battle.

Caesar could not keep back tears, and he took care that the head was burned with many very costly perfumes

Julius Caesar had a extremely mixed reputation. At times the people loved him and at times he was rather questionable which overall leads to his death. In the quotes from Cassius it really shows the questionable side of Caesar. How he would sleep with many women and his temper. However these traits made some people like him and praise him even more. In the quotes from “Lives of Illustrious Men” we see a good portray of Caesar. How he was prepared to defend and fight back and his more sensitive side in honoring Pompey even though he did not actually like him. These two passages show very different sides of Caesar and how some people loved his characteristics as a ruler but others did not.

This is Creamy Caesar dressing you put on the famous Caesar salad that many enjoy and love. However many people don’t like salad as well. Just like Julius Caesar it has qualities about it many people like and dislike. But in all seriousness Caesar salad wasn’t named after the dictator Caesar but rather after Caesar Cardini who invested in Tijuana, Mexico in 1924. He threw together a salad last minute from the ingredients he had and it was a hit. You can argue that Caesar Cardini’s name origin was from Julius Caesar considering Cadini who is from Italian decent. However the salad wasn’t originally named after Julius Caesar but it does has some qualities that the dictator has. Such as it’s popularity and people’s mixed opinions about the salad we can relate to Julius Caesar’s popularity and the mixed opinions he got from his people.

Francesca, Team Cronos

Gothic Churches in the Renaissance

This is the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, it is a Russian orthodox church in Brooklyn. It’s located on 2016 Voorhies avenue in Brooklyn, New York. I always pass this church while driving and never thought much of it but it really reminds me more of a gothic style church. From other churches that we have previously seen this church gives off more of a gothic look. This is because of its roof and how it is pointed. As we discussed in class the gothic style was all about this space and lighting. The pointed roof makes a illusion that the church has more space and the huge window with a similar pointed shape in the front for light to shine through. This church St. John reminds me of st. Denis’ ambulatory at east end and Amiens cathedral because those church’s has similar designs and how they have very elegant exterior designs and how their roofs looked pointed. Which is similar to Filippo Brunelleschi, dome of Florence cathedral, it’s dome is stretches upwards making it look less of a dome but more pointed and elongated. 

Francesca, Team Cronos 

The Fall of Democracy

Return

“Democratization and development”

What is the appropriate MLA citation of your search return?

Barsh, Russel Lawrence. “Democratization and Development.” Human Rights Quarterly, vol. 14, no. 1, 1992, pp. 120–134.

Who is the primary intended audience of the publication?

The primary intended audience seems to be politicians.

How (if at all) does the author connect the search terms one to another?  Use one to two short quotes to illustrate your point.

This article whole article speaks of specifically the democracy and constitution in the United States, examples being

“New democracies have succeeded in imposing macroeconomic measures on their constituents.(54) Remmer interprets this as proof of the vitality and resilience of democracy as a political system.(55) She ignores another possibility, however: that transitional regimes are still largely authoritarian in practice, and that this very fact illustrates their macroeconomic dilemma.(56)

A microcosm of this problem can be found within the United States, where indigenous peoples have enjoyed a degree of autonomy since 1934. ” The Greek historian, Polybius, who witnessed the erosion of the Republic, concluded that democracy is born as a response to oligarchy but eventually tends to collapse back into oligarchy due to increasing wealth, inequality, and social conflict.”

Now this isn’t the only connection as the author uses Polybius in their argument, in the section labeled “De-Democratization” where they write,

“The Greek historian, Polybius, who witnessed the erosion of the Republic, concluded that democracy is born as a response to oligarchy but eventually tends to collapse back into oligarchy due to increasing wealth, inequality, and social conflict.”

 

Select a quote from the ancient texts assigned as home work that seems relevant to your selected publication.  Insert the quotation and explain its relevance.

As mentioned above, there is a section in the article that mentions the fall of democracy, mentioned topics similar to what Polybuis had brought up, even using his words in the text.  This is very similar to what we were going over in class when we discussed just this kind of topic, oligarchy (or mob-rule). An exact quote in full representing this would be “But when a new generation arises and the democracy falls into the hands of the grandchidren of its founders, they have become so accustomed to freedom and equality that they no longer value them, and begin to aim at pre-eminence; and it is chiefly those of ample fortune who fall into this error. So when they begin to lust for power and cannot attain it through themselves or their own good qualities, they ruin their estates, tempting and corrupting the people in every possible way.”

• Yekaterina Ignatyeva , Team Cronos

Slavery Throughout Time

The search term I looked up on OneSearch was Sicily Rome “Slave rebellion” “United States” and I found the article “Origins of American Slavery” by Philip D. Morgan. His primary audience for this article was probably historians since it was published in the Magazine of History. In the article he talks about slavery through time which is why he talks about Ancient Rome and the slavery that took place in Sicily and how it influenced slavery that went on in the “new world” or rather America. Morgan talks about slave societies where slaves are most of the population and be say “Classical Greece and Rome fit this definition and can be considered models for slavery’s expansion in the New World.” The article then talks about some of the horrible parallels seen between slavery in Ancient Rome and the new world “from the dehumanizing device of addressing male slaves of any age as “boy,” the use of branding and head-shaving as modes of humiliation, the comic inventiveness in naming slaves.” Then we look at the ancient text Diodorus, The Library, fragments from book 34/35 and it talks about the slavery that was going on in Italy. The text explains “The Italians, who had large estates in Sicily, bought many slaves, every one of whom they branded with marks on their cheeks, and oppressed them with hard labour, and yet failed to give them sufficient subsistence.”(line 32)We see here what Philip Morgan was talking about in his article and how the cruel and terrible treatment that slaves had to endure during Ancient Rome and how it is similar treatment to the slaves in America. 
Citation:

Morgan, Philip D. Magazine of History; Bloomington Vol. 19, Iss. 4, (Jul 2005): 51-56

Francesca, Team Cronos 

Churches Now and Then

This image is saint marks church located on ocean avenue and east 19th street in Brooklyn, NY. Saint marks is a Roman Catholic Church established in 1861. You can see how churches from 400 C.E. might have influenced some design and aspects of churches in today’s age. Like the Basilica of Santa Sabina, Rome (422-432 CE) both of the inside of the churches are narrow and have this dome and when you walk in form the front of the church you see an apse which is the dome roof above the alter which depicts art of God and Jesus on the thrown in heaven and all the angels and apostles next to him it shows his divinity. You also see some Corinthian capitals to columns and on the outside you see kind of Doric columns. Some differences is that it doesn’t really have a dome on the outside rather the outside reminds me of a Roman temple. Their are not many arches decorating the outside even though arches where very big architectural feature for Rome, you can only really find arches on the inside of the church. 

Team Cronos, Francecsa Faiello

George’s Fasce

George Washington was standing in front of this fasces, This statue is located in front of Federal Hall. The fasce was put in the statue with George Washington our first president was to show the power he represented as our first presidential figure that would represent the start of a new nation.

Francecsa, Team cronos 

Alexander The Conqueror

Alyssa D. (18 years old, friend, I asked over the phone, she was in her dorm at Stony Brook University)Do you know who Alexander the Great was? Yes, I do!

What do you know about him? I know he conquered large areas of Asia in a short time, which connected different parts of the world and created the Hellenistic period and culture. He was from Macedonia though, not Greece.

Where did you learn about him? Crash course on YouTube and AP Euro in high school
Gianna M. (18 years old, friend, in my house, sheepshead bay)
Do you know who Alexander the Great was? Yeah

What do you know about him?  He was a famous leader of Greece, fairly young I think, he conquered a lot

Where did you learn about him? In a text book from high school, I was a freshmen I think
Anthony D. ( 16 years old, best friend, I asked over the phone, he was at home)

Do you know who Alexander the Great was? Yes

What do you know about him? I don’t exactly remember much about him though, he was a ruler right?

Where did you learn about him? Uh, I learned about him in global in sophomore and freshman year
In all of my answers the biggest similarities were that they all learned about Alexander the Great during school and in a textbook, one of my friends that had researched him through videos outside of learning about him in school knew more about him and what he did. The common answer I’ve revived is that he conquered a large amount of places, in the reading the Alexander Romance a specific quote appears a lot which would be “A boy child who shall be your avenger and become world conquering king’ of the whole civilized universe.” (Page 3,10). While he didn’t actually conquer the “whole universe” he did conquer many areas between Macedonia all the way to The Indus River. So it was true about what we have learned and what the text says to some extent he has conquered many areas in a relatively short amount of time, Alexander’s march to these different areas started in 335 (BCE) and ended around 323 (BCE) which is a relatively short time to take over so many areas. What none of my friends mentioned was that Alexander was sort of like the god figure in the text the Alexander Romance it was said “He is white haired and has the horns of a ram above his jaws. Now then prepare yourself as a queen and a woman, for you shall see a dream concerning this and the god mated with you.” (Page 3,9) in this part they are talking about how Alexander’s mother is going to mate with a god and have a child that “god like” with white hair and horns. Many interpreted Alexander to have similar attributes to Heracles and said that he is a dependence of him. Which made many look at Alexander as this amazing ruler/ conqueror.

What do you know about Alexander the Great?

 

Lauren Henrich, 23, good friend, her house

Do you know who Alexander the Great was?: “Yes”

What do you know about him?: “He was a King in the BC era; he conquered lots of land”

Where did you learn about him?: “School/Egypt documentaries on tv”

Steph Dirani, 22, friend from high school, Facebook

Do you know who Alexander the Great was?: “Yes, hopefully”

What do you know about him?: “He was a War General of some sort”

Where did you learn about him?: “High school”

Amelia Richter, 11, best friend’s little sister, in the park

Do you know who Alexander the Great was?: “Yes”

What do you know about him?: “Alexander the Great was a King in Greece in Macedon”

Where did you learn about him?: “Middle school”

In these answers, two people have said that he was a king and one person said that he was a General. In everyone’s answers though, they have indicated that he was an important person like a King or War General. Alexander the Great was both a king and war general. Lauren said that he was a king in the BC era which is true according to other resources and to this quote; “The diadem, a ribbon or band worn high on the head, was a symbol of kingship adopted by Alexander from Dionysus, or, perhaps, from the Persians whom he conquered” (Line 7 page 11). In this quote, it says that Alexander conquered the Persians meaning that was involved with a battle of some sort. Amelia said that was a king in Greece in Macedon, which is also true; “Called hetairoi rather than the usual word philoi as a reference to the hetairoi of the kings of Macedon, and especially of Alexander” (Line 40, page 13). This quote and the quote from line 7 from the story proves that Alexander was king of Macedon. I have realize during this research, Alexander is also similar to Augustus whom I’ve learned about from art history. Augustus is also known to be a king. Alexander was a king of Ancient Greece, while Augustus was a king of the Roman Empire. They both lead in wars and were very powerful Kings.They were also both young; born in the BC era. Alexander was born before Augustus. The difference between them was that Augustus started the Pax Romana and Alexander just conquered Egypt, Persia, India, etc. Augustus created laws, Alexander fought against enemies to get money and take over their countries. Alexander was more powerful in a way that he took over countries, while Augustus stayed in one place trying to make peace and to expand the place. Though, Augustus was also known to be a brilliant leader.

 

Caroline, Team Cronos

 

Team Cronos Study Meet

 

Team Cronos

Francesca Faiello

Caroline Snyder

Yekaterina Ignatyeva

Fernando Martinez

(At the library)

Center of Attention

“Muse, tell me the things done by the golden Aphrodite, the one from Cyprus, who arouses sweet desire for gods and who subdues the races of mortal humans, and birds as well, who fly the sky, as well as all beasts – all those that grow on both dry land and the sea.”

This quote is enough to tell you that Aphrodite is the goddess of love, affection, fondness. A goddess that can even make the other gods/goddesses fall for another, even a mortal. Alongside that she would be called the goddess of beauty as no other can match her looks.  Passing through Flatbush (specific location including in the above images) , I found a statue of two beautiful woman carrying fruits of sorts. My reasoning for picking this statue of all the others out there? Well ironically enough this statue is centered between two beauty-esque departments. One is a tooth whitening clinic and the other a cosmetic clinic. Both these are things you go to improve your own appearance. Not only that but the appearance of the two women are of a “ideal” appearance (also known as the canon) as they would have in the classical era. In fact, it also includes other things that the classical period introduced such as contrapposto or the mid action pose. Even the style of clothing mimics that of the classical and Hellenistic era, as it has the appearance of wet drapery; which can also be found within the “Nike (Winged Victory) of Samothrace, and more apparent within the “Three Goddesses from east pediment of Parthenon”. The other reason this statue makes me think of Aphrodite is the nudity one of the women presents. While it was not seen as appropriate to sculpt a woman nude within the classical era, there is an introduction of the nude female form in the Hellenistic period, one of the first few examples being Aphrodite in “Aphrodite of Knidos”, although even then it was seen as disrespectful and immodest to do sculpt a woman in such a way which would be the difference between this statue and the statues you may find of other women in the older times. Although one thing I can say for certain is that the way this piece was placed definitely makes the the center of attention.

The Ancient and The New

This is the Brooklyn Municipal Building which is located at the southwest corner of Joralemon and Court Streets. It houses many City offices including the City Clerk where marriage licenses are obtained, offices for the Departments of Buildings, Probation, Finance, and Environmental Protection. I choose this building and found it relevant because of its pillars lining the outside. The type of pillars being Doric because of its simplicity, the columns have a simple capital, shaft, and then a stylobate at the bottom. These type of columns back in Ancient Greek and Rome were used for temples or court houses an official building. We see that in 2017 this official building have those same types of columns. While the building do have similarities they do have differences as well such as we see in Ancient Greek temples we see frieze which tell us basically stories of mythical creatures, or a story honoring the gods. Also a different would be the temples were used and places of worship. For example Aphrodite was one of the many gods worshiped and there was a specific island called Cyprus where you can find an Ancient cult object made of stone this was called “Mistress of the beast” and it was Aphrodite surrounded by animals which represents how she could make them act like animals using their sexual instincts, considering she was the goddess of love. I find it interesting that around ever corner you can see a building with different types of columns and pillars that can remind us of building and temples from Ancient Rome and Greek and while they aren’t used for exactly the same purpose such as worshiping they are their for other important uses. 

Francesca, Team Cronos

Utopia Throughout Time

The majority’s conditions of a Utopia seems to change with every generation. We may even find human interference with history just so we can sate our desires in the belief that a Utopia is possible.  For example there was this big idea spread throughout postwar that the Mayans were more peaceful and seemed to live in a “perfect society”, one that wasn’t run by “messy human emotion”. This was explained by Michiko Kakutani in New York Times’ Book of the Times when they wrote “No doubt that earlier view of the Mayas – articulated by such scholars as Sylvanus G. Morley and Eric S. Thompson more than three decades ago – gained currency because it appealed to the modern, postwar desire to believe in a perfect society of people untainted by messy human emotions, and it remained cemented in place by researchers’ simple inability to decipher the Mayan hieroglyphics.” As the author stated, this idea came from a pair of scholars who did not have the translations of the hieroglyphics as we did not have the ability to decipher them at the time, and many seemed to accept this study with ease. The study of the Mayans was thought to be accepted because of the desire for a possible Utopia. To cut it short, we cut the bad part of the Mayan world because we wanted our ideals to be real, that the perfect society was possible.

Doesn’t the idea seem almost silly? I mean it isn’t possible to make everyone in the world happy, so for a Utopia to be possible everyone would have to be one in the same and I think more people are understanding that now in modern society. If you ask ten people what their Utopia is, each answer will be different one way or another. Especially with the shift in times, what was seen as a perfect world back then would definitely not be a perfect world today. Even then, the bad would be pushed aside and the good would be brought out because of that desire for perfection. Back around Xenophon’s time people would quite literally breed for the sake of a stronger offspring, not out of love. A man who hadn’t felt his wife was strong enough to bear his child could impregnate a woman he saw as greater if he were given the consent to. “[8] On the other hand, in case a man did not want to cohabit with his wife and nevertheless desired children of whom he could be proud, he made it lawful for him to choose a woman who was the mother of a fine family and of high birth, and if he obtained her husband’s consent, to make her the mother of his children.” Xenophon saw this as one of the reasons the Spartans were raising closer to being a greater society, when in today’s world it is anything but that.

Kakutani, Michiko. “BOOKS OF THE TIMES.” New York Times, 6 Aug. 1986. New York State Newspapers, login.ez-proxy.brooklyn.cuny.edu/login?url=http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=SPN.SP01&sw=w&u=nysl_me_brookcol&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA176336830&it=r&asid=adb2cf73250359d27f7f43ffe929539a. Accessed 16 Sept. 2017.

-Yekaterina Ignatyeva

Hispanic American Society

In this article, Mark says “We are far from a perfect society, but each day millions of everyday Americans strive to make our country better through diversity and inclusion”. This article talks about how the Hispanic society in America is good for them. They explained the opportunities they got in America that they wouldn’t be able to get anywhere else. These opportunities include getting an education, careers, rights, etc. Mark believes that these values in today’s society is lacking, because society in America think that people from other countries are just going to do bad things in America and Mark is trying to prove that Hispanic people are good, which they are. I do and do not think that I live in the same society as the Hispanic society that are in America, because everyone else here also has the same opportunities as them and I don’t think so because some people tend to proceed that Hispanic people don’t deserve these opportunities. I do agree with the author of this article, because we are far from a perfect society and some people don’t realize that America gives opportunities that other countries don’t give. In Xenophon, it says “In order that the boys might never lack a ruler even when the Warden was away, he gave authority to any citizen who chanced to be present to require them to do anything that he thought right, and to punish them for any misconduct.” In this quote, it explains that they agree with the article and that the police in America also punish those who disobey the law. For example, people get arrested for doing racist things like writing racist slurs on the walls or punching/killing someone that is from another country.

 

Vargas, Mark. “This month, celebrate all the ways Hispanic Americans boost our country.” Washington Examiner 15 Sept 2017: 1 page. Opinion Contributors. http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/this-month-celebrate-all-the-ways-hispanic-americans-boost-our-country/article/2634467. Accessed 16 Sept 2017.

Corrupt Society

“If you think that human nature is good and powerful, then you go around frustrated because the perfect society has not yet been achieved.” A quote from the article The Structure of Gratitude by David Brooks. This article was basically talking about how in a perfect world everyone would be nice to each other. In their ideal society everyone one would would be treated fairly and everyone would help people with their problems and be grateful but in reality in our society that does really happen. We live in a world we’re bad things happen all the time, not everyone will treat you fairly, and not everyone will be thankful for what you did. This ideal society seen by Brooks is that everyone and everything would be fair and everyone would get what they deserved is not the society we live in and he acknowledges that we don’t live in this perfect happy society. I agree that the world we live in has terrible people that get much more than they deserve, that those who do good will sometimes go unrecognized but this is not the case all the time their are plenty of helpful, grateful, and kind people out there. Plato would have agreed with the article in that there are corrupt people in society. This is because Plato shows us an example of if a man was invisible he would abuse his power he goes on saying the man that was invisible would “seduced the king’s wife, attacked the king with her help, killed him, and in this way took over the kingdom.” Another quote Plato says is “No one believes justice to be a good thing when itis kept private.” In these quotes he is saying how people aren’t fair or just, when given the opportunity people are power hungry and self serving.
Brooks, David. “The Structure of Gratitude.” New York Times, 28 July 2015, p. A23(L). New York State Newspapers, login.ez-proxy.brooklyn.cuny.edu/login?url=http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=SPN.SP01&sw=w&u=nysl_me_brookcol&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA423329914&it=r&asid=9f8d2da4a8d3b3b05ceea871e73c0874. Accessed 15 Sept. 2017.

All They Hear is ‘Bar’

Our views of barbarians shifted from people who didn’t share our language and our land to people who don’t share our belief and views. We could share the same ancestry, we could share the same language, however if we do not hold the same views then we are seen as barbarians or that our methods are barbaric and or uncivilized.  Even those in the same home or household would call each other barbarians from something like a political dispute.

Before I begin, first I must present what would be seen as barbaric then within ancient times in the Greek’s eyes. We can see an example of this within the first book of Herodotus: The History where the Hellenic are seen as barbarians just because of the change in speech. “The Hellenic race has never, since its first origin, changed its speech. This at least seems evident to me. It was a branch of the Pelasgic, which separated from the main body, and at first was scanty in numbers and of little power; but it gradually spread and increased to a multitude of nations, chiefly by the voluntary entrance into its ranks of numerous tribes of barbarians. The Pelasgi, on the other hand, were, as I think, a barbarian race which never greatly multiplied.” Within the first book alone the term ‘Barbarian’ is repeated 8 times at the least, and at least 40 times throughout the whole collection.

Now to current time, there are many different sides to a wide spectrum of topics, and many sides that oppose each other. For the sake of simplicity, let’s take the common known generalization/label of the many groups, the Right and the Left. Generally the Right is more conservative and leans more towards structure and stronger government. The Left on the other hand is more on the liberal side and strives for opportunity and equality. Both would name each other awful things based on the extremists that lie on each side. The Left would see the Right as a group of neo-Nazis and supremacists while the Right would see the Left as bleeding hearts and keyboard warriors also known as SJWS (Social Justice Warriors). Now the names aren’t locked to those options obviously, as Kemi Badenoch would say. In her own experience her own side’s views were labeled barbaric.  As for who she feels is to blame, she feels the social media is to blame as can be seen per this quote in her article, “How did we get here? Who is to blame? Social media is a prime culprit. Online, disagreement is frequently expressed on a spectrum ranging from mere outrage to outright hysteria. The greater the disagreement, the more extreme the language. Keyboard warriors are thankfully armed only with their laptops and as much invective as their vocabulary permits, but this virtual behaviour is spilling over into the real world. At a hustings this year a 16-year-old boy approached me, trembling and with fists clenched, to snarl about the Conservative Party’s “barbaric” grammar schools policy.”

Now on the other side is Deana Uppal who feels that our ways of reforming criminals is barbaric and that in addition we should also focus on bettering our police and administration. “Second, instead of merely concentrating on barbaric and exemplary punishments – which too undoubtedly act as a deterrent by putting fear in the oppressors’ mind – we should also focus on reforming our police and administration, who, currently mired by their social stigmas, , who, currently mired by their social stigmas, increase the trauma of the victims.”

These are two different sides, two different views on the same topic. One feels people have become too fragile and will find themselves outraged way too easily and jump to conclusions way too quickly. In turn attempting to ruin careers and reputations which she elaborates more within her article. The other side feels that we aren’t doing enough, that there is too much bias floating around and our current methods are not working, that there needs to be change as stated within her quote and is elaborated more on within her article. They are both targeting to strengthen their own cause and give ideas as to what can be done to correct the issues they speak about. Although I will say the first one addresses a solution that deals more with the community that shares her view points while the second article mentioned tries to speak of a solution that stretches to officials.

Yekaterina Ignatyeva, Team Cronos

 

Citations

Herodotus. The Landmark Herodotus : The Histories. New York :Pantheon Books, 2007. Print.

Badenoch, Kemi. “The Tories must put an end to divisive identity politics.” The Telegraph, Telegraph Media Group, 10 Aug. 2017, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/08/10/tories-must-put-end-divisive-identity-politics/. Accessed 10 Sept. 2017.

LexisNexis Link

Uppal, Deana. “No country for women? Sadly, yes!” The Pioneer, 11 Aug. 2017, dailypioneer.com/vivacity/no-country-for-women-sadly-yes.html. Accessed 10 Sept. 2017.

LexisNexis Link

 

The Barbarian in Mumbai

(Statue found in my backyard of a face which has the characteristics of a barbaric man)

In Mumbai there was this barbaric man who beat his dog to the extent of fracturing his skull. “There are some barbaric people who have shed every ounce of their humanity and are just downright cruel.” said Akancha Miharia in her article Mumbai Man Mercilessly Beat Up A Dog Fracturing His Skull. Yes, Monsters Like These Do Exist. The man attacking the dog was completely unprovoked, the dog was harmlessly passing by when the man decided to beat it. This cruel and uncivilized nature of Animal abusers is what makes us considered then as the barbarian.  The target audience is the general people to show how wrong animal cruelty is, this article is here to inform that situations like this still happen and maybe to prevent people from harming animals.

The use of the work “barbaric” is extremely different from the way it was used in Herodotus. In the reading it states “Croesus, son of Alyattes, by birth a Lydian, was lord of all the nations to the west of the river Halys…he was the first of the barbarians who had dealings with the Greeks.” (Book 1 chapter 6). As you can see here the word is being used because Croesus was not Greek he was considered an outside or a foreigner which is why they used the word “barbarians” to describe him.

In Art history we looked at a statue named “Dying Gaul”(220 B.C.E) it was made in Ancient Greece and was remade into a marble copy by the Romans. The sculpture of the head in my backyard reminded me of the statue because of many similarities they shared. They both share a rugged face, the hair in both look slightly messy, with rugged facial hair with a full grown beard, also their facial expressions both look stern with a furrowed brow kind of like they are suppose to be aggressive in some sort of way. Which can lead to how we think of he word barbarian in today’s terms.

When we think of a barbarian you think of a human who is uncivilized, primitive, or overall just a bad person. In reality barbarian was just a word to describe people from a different culture other  than the Greeks. This is because when the Greeks heard different languages all they would hear is “bar bar bar…” so they created the word barbarians. The word developed over time into a negative connotation for people. Overtime words from Greek culture has evolved and became what we know in modern time.

Francesca , team Cronos

Miharia, Akancha “Mumbai Man Mercilessly Beat Up A Dog Fracturing His Skull. Yes, Monsters Like These Do Exist”, Scoop Whoop, Sep 05, 2017, https://www.scoopwhoop.com/mumbai-man-beat-dog-fracturing-his-skull/#.aa0te04uz

Barbaric Killing

In this article, they tell a story of two girls who were stabbed in a town called Botshabelo in South Africa. In the story, the girls were being treated as the ‘other’. The target audience for this article could be teenage girls and/or boys in south Africa; to tell them be careful when going out at midnight. The social value that is being shared value for teenage girls in South Africa is that girls (and boys too) are looked to be weak and “easy”, so they could get raped and/or stabbed if they are not careful. In this article the deputy police commissioner for crime detection, Major-General Jones Qhobosheanehas, has said “To have such young vulnerable women killed in this barbaric manner is appalling and cannot be tolerated”. This quote from the article is similar to our readings for the use of the word barbarian is that people in the readings are being killed or stabbed barbarically during battles; the girls from the article were stabbed to death in the news story. In Herodotus, it says “Then these men, with cheers encouraging one another, drew their daggers, and stabbing those who strove to withstand them, rushed forward to the apartment of the males”. This quote from the reading tells how these men cheer encouraging one another before they were killing the ‘other’ men. In the article, they did not say what the killer or killers did before they stabbed these girls, but in some way they were probably encouraged by their minds or other people to kill them.

Etheridge, Jenna. “Two teenage girls stabbed to death in ‘barbaric manner’.” 10 Sept. 2017: 1 page. News24. http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/two-teenage-girls-stabbed-to-death-in-barbaric-manner-20170910. Accessed 10 Sept 2017.

The Parallels of Masculinity and Gods

God of War 3 – Zeus Final Boss Scene

As time changes so do our views and portrayals of deities. One prime example would be Zeus. Back when Homer’s epic of Iliad first came about, Zeus was portrayed in a more fatherly way. He had more of a paternal interest when it came to other mortals. He was more rewarding of truth, charity and fairness. He had even gone as far as to send someone to tell Achilles, his son, to release a mortal’s body so that he may be buried honorably. This can be seen in the Iliad epic, the 24^th book specifically, in lines 65 and 75 where it states, “Hera, be not thou utterly wroth against the gods; the honour of these twain shall not be as one; howbeit Hector too was dearest to the gods of all mortals that are in Ilios. So was he to me at least, for nowise failed he of acceptable gifts. For never was my altar in lack of the equal feast,” and “’…that I may speak to her a word of wisdom, to the end that Achilles may accept gifts from Priam, and give Hector back.’ So spake he, and storm-footed Iris hasted to bear his message, and midway between Samos and rugged Imbros she leapt into the dark sea, and the waters sounded loud above her.” In this scene he is basically sending someone to tell Achilles to release Hector’s (the mortal’s) body so that he may be buried with honor and in return he would receive tribute and offerings. This shows his care for the mortals, his fairness.

This is unlike how he is portrayed in a more recent setting, such as in a game known as “God of War”. God of war mains a spartan man named Kratos who within the game is the son of Zeus while originally Kratos was supposed to represent strength and power in Greek mythology beside his siblings who represented victory(Nike), force(Bia), and zeal(Zelus). The four siblings were seen as the enforcers of Zeus. The other difference within the game is that Zeus was more antagonistic. Rather than supporting Kratos after he was mistreated and misuded by Ares, Zeus betrays him and uses Kratos all the while seeing him as an evil. He basically saw the vengeance in Kratos and used that to further his control on other mortals. He had little to no care for mortal life and saw them more as creatures, as tools that were below him, compared to old Greek mythology where he looked upon mortals as his own children. The video is an example of that.

This also shows us how our idea of masculinity had shifted. Back when Iliad was first made, when Zeus wasn’t just a fictional character but was still considered a deity, as a living breathing god there was more to masculinity. There was more of the paternal figure/father figure, fairness and compassion. Of course, he had his flaws, such as his many affairs/infidelity yet he also had his merits as mentioned before. While in a more contemporary setting, he is portrayed in a way that focuses on what is now known as toxic masculinity, an idea where we see men as more prone to violence rather than reason, that they believe they are higher among others. Basically, any merit is gone or there is less importance put around it, all that’s left is that toxicity. He would treat woman as tools or as a weakness in the game, “a downfall” as the video mentioned.

Point being that in our efforts within the battle of equality, we have vilified masculinity over femininity to the point that we are forgetting that masculinity used to have its own merits. The portrayal of Zeus in God of War shows a man of little to no merit, a man with an ego who only cared for what he owned, a man who solved his issues with violence and led with violence. Even the main character, Kratos, went through his journey with a vengeful and violent drive. Although in the end what he wanted more than anything was redemption for taking his family’s life through a fit of rage. The next game that has yet to come out showed that Kratos, who was one of the prime examples of this “toxic masculinity” is learning to be a father to his son, a son he wants to show affection to but does not yet know how. He now has a responsibility and is letting go some of that blood rage to raise this child. He still preforms violent acts, but now it’s not so much for vengeance as it is for survival. This shows that we may be moving to an age that is slowly beginning to acknowledge those merits once.

“https://www.greekmythology.com/Olympians/Zeus/zeus.html

Zeus: GreekMythology.com – Sep 03, 2017

“https://www.greekmythology.com/Other_Gods/Kratos/kratos.html”

Kratos: GreekMythology.com – Sep 03, 2017

Homer, , Robert Fagles, and Bernard Knox. The Iliad. , 1998. Print.

Santa Monica Studio. Stig Asmussen, Todd Papy. God of War III. Sony Computer Entertainment, 2010. PlayStation 4.

“Exito Aqui”

Exit here…

Spanish tends to be the one that ends up with a bad translation. The “Exit only” sign, has the Spanish translation be “Exit here”. A subtle change, where this sign only tells those leaving the Subway counter to exit here, Spanish-speakers would be very confused here, in that it would say that the exit is located here. Exit to what? The store? The line? The counter? Even more so, the Spanish translation isn’t even accurate, the word “Exit” in English isn’t “Exito” in Spanish. It is “Salida”. The translation is borderline hilarious, showcasing some truth in the stereotype of English speakers adding an o at the end of a word to make it sound Spanish. Such examples include “Caro, Entrero, and Telephono”.

The translations being completely different can be seen in the readings we had as well. For example, in Oedipus Rex, there’s a text, that states “Sweet-voiced daughter of Zeus from thy gold-paved Pythian shrine. Wafted to Thebes divine,What dost thou bring me. My soul is racked and shivers with fear. (Healer of Delos, hear!)”, (line 296-300). The translation of the same lines reads as follows, “As you have held me to my oath, I speak: I neither killed the king nor can declare the killer; but since Phoebus set the quest
it is his part to tell who the man is.” (ii). The translation completely omits any sign of Gods, and goes straight to the point of what happened, showing how in the times of the translation, the idea of Gods being the ones to look to has decreased. The low impact of Gods has made texts such as Oedipus become more like modern tales, meant to also illustrate lessons, but without any divine intervention, rather, flaws and consequences occurring due to the direct result of the mortal, and not the Gods at hand.

#translation #CLAS2 #Team Cronos #Oedipus

Showing What is Right From Wrong

 

In the Harry Potter series, Hermione is known to be a very smart woman and is sacred to get in trouble. She is not afraid to show how she feels about certain topics. She tends to do things for the goodness of them. In their society, Draco Malfoy is usually a source of some problems in the school.In one of the scenes in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Hermione sees Draco and his friends making fun and waiting for Hagrid’s pet to be executed. Hermione sees them and she believed what they were doing were wrong. So, she goes to put a spell on Draco, but she decided not to. She, instead, punches him showing how she is standing up for what she thinks is right. In all schools, they have a rule where you would get suspended or expelled if you punch someone. So, Hermione basically sacrificed herself to getting suspended or expelled to show how wrong Draco and his friends are. Hermione actually ends up not getting expelled nor suspended.

In comparison to Antigone, in Sophocles’ Antigone, the society show how men think that women don’t stand up for themselves because they think they cannot. Antigone buried her brother herself, which is a crime to bury someone. Antigone’ sister, Ismene was going to confess the crime that she did not do. Antigone does not want her sister to confess it so she sacrifice herself to go confess the crime and she did. Antigone was trying to prove that she has buried her brother to Creon, but Creon wouldn’t believe it because she was a female. Antigone was then sent to prison where she killed herself.

#OldisNew #CLAS2 #Sophocles #Antigone #Team Cronos

Fighting for What’s Right

Women were often looked down upon by men, the more you go back in time the more you see how women were often treated as less than equals often saw taking care of the babies and cleaning. You go even farther back you see how women had no say or no power on what happens to them, they had no vote and no voice. But if you look more recently women have been fighting for equality and have been for a long time they are succeeding little by little so now what use to be is changing. Women don’t have to stay home with a baby she can go and work, get an education, speak for themselves, and fight for themselves.

In this scene in the movie Wonder Women you see her walk across a battlefield even though she was told not too. She walked right in the middle of a battle to fight for what she believed was the right thing to do because she couldn’t just watch people suffering. Most people couldn’t imagine women on the battlefield let alone fighting back. Now we look at the play Antigone by Sophocles. One of Antigone’s brothers were not buried properly and this meant he couldn’t go to heaven so she did what she believed in and sprinkled dirt on him it wasn’t a proper burial but it would at least let him rest peacefully. Similar to Wonder Woman she didn’t listen to what others said. Antigone followed her own morels and did what she thought was right. But Unlike Wonder Woman who was praised and celebrated after standing up for what she believed was right, Antigone was punished the king Creon said to her “Go below now…While I am alive, no woman will rule me”( Antigone, lines 524-525). We can see from the play that women were treated differently and punished for acting out of line and not listening. In the movie though we see a total difference response to a women fighting alongside men. We can see how society has been changing and how issues from back then are getting better and the progress society is making on equality.

Francesca, Team Cronos