Western Literature 2016/10/13(Week5)

▲Adam and Eve

Adam and Eve, according to the creation myth of the Abrahamic religions, were the first man and woman and the ancestors of all humans. The story of Adam and Eve is central to the belief that God created human beings to live in a paradise on earth, although they fell away from that state and formed the present world full of suffering and injustice. It provides the basis for the belief that humanity is in essence a single family, with everyone descended from a single pair of original ancestors. It also provides much of the scriptural basis for the doctrines of the fall of man and original sin that are important beliefs in Christianity, but which are not generally held in Judaism or Islam.

▲Adam's apple

The Adam's apple, or laryngeal prominence is a feature of the human neck, and is the lump or protrusion that is formed by the angle of the thyroid cartilage surrounding the larynx.

▲Garden of Eden

The Garden of Eden or often Paradise is the biblical "garden of God", described most notably in the Book of Genesis chapters 2 and 3, and also in the Book of Ezekiel. The "garden of God", not called Eden, is mentioned in Genesis 13, and the "trees of the garden" are mentioned in Ezekiel 31. The Book of Zechariah and the Book of Psalms also refer to trees and water in relation to the temple without explicitly mentioning Eden.

▲Forbidden fruit

Forbidden fruit is a phrase that originates from Genesis concerning Adam and Eve in Genesis 2:16–17. In the narrative, Adam and Eve ate the fruit of good and evil in the Garden of Eden, which they had been commanded not to do by God. As a metaphor, the phrase typically refers to any indulgence or pleasure that is considered illegal or immoral.

▲Original sin
Original sin, also called ancestral sin, is the Christian doctrine of humanity's state of sin resulting from the fall of man, stemming from Adam and Eve's rebellion in Eden, namely the sin of disobedience in consuming from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. This condition has been characterized in many ways, ranging from something as insignificant as a slight deficiency, or a tendency toward sin yet without collective guilt, referred to as a "sin nature", to something as drastic as total depravity or automatic guilt of all humans through collective guilt.

▲Seven deadly sins

The seven deadly sins, also known as the capital vices or cardinal sins, is a grouping and classification of vices of Christian origin. Behaviors or habits are classified under this category if they directly give birth to other immoralities. According to the standard list, they are pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth, which are also contrary to the seven virtues. These sins are often thought to be abuses or excessive versions of one's natural faculties or passions (for example, gluttony abuses one's desire to eat).

▲Aphrodite and Ares (Love and War)

In The Odyssey of Homer , the singer, Demodokos, tells the tale of how Aphrodite and Ares secretly laid together in the bed of her husband, Lord Hephaestus, the smith of the gods. Helios (the Sun) secretly observed the lovers and told Hephaestus. The smith went to his work and devised clever fastenings that would ensnare and hold the lovers in an unbreakable trap. The careless lovers fell into the trap and Hephaestus stood before the other Olympians and demanded his gifts of courtship be returned. Only after Poseidon (Lord of the Sea) offered to pay the adulterer’s damages if Ares defaulted would Hephaestus loose the bonds. After being freed, Aphrodite went to her sacred precinct on the island of Kypros where she was bathed by the Graces and Ares went Thraceward. Seeing the two lovers in the indignity of the snare, Apollon asked Hermes how he would feel in such a situation. Hermes answered that he would suffer thrice the number of bonds if only he could share the bed of Aphrodite the Golden .

▲Satan

Satan (Hebrew: satan, meaning "enemy" or "adversary"; Arabic: shaitan, meaning; "astray", "distant", or sometimes "devil") is a figure appearing in the texts of the Abrahamic religions who brings evil and temptation, and is known as the deceiver who leads humanity astray. Some religious groups teach that he originated as an angel, or something of the like, who used to possess great piety and beauty, but fell because of hubris, seducing humanity into the ways of falsehood and sin, and has power in the fallen world. In the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, Satan is primarily an accuser and adversary, a decidedly malevolent entity, also called the devil, who possesses abhorrent qualities.

▲Homeric Epithet

Usually called an epithet or an Homeric epithet, but sometimes called an Homeric epitaph, it is one of the most noticeable features of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. Epithet comes from the Greek for putting (something) on (something). It is a tag or nickname that can be used on its own or together with the real name, depending on other features of the Greek language.

▲Prefix

◆fra- break

For example: fragile, frailty, fragment

▲Definition

◆clay: stiff, sticky earth, also forming words with a sense of "to stick together"

◆ash: powdery remains of fire

◆phoebus: bright, shining, radiant