Holmers influence on literature and civilization - Essay Example

Task Topic: Who is Holmer? Discuss Holmer’s influence on literature and civilization. Introduction Homer was the son of Epikaste and Telemachus and born around 8th or 9th century B.C. Not much information is available about him. Many people think that he was blind but at the same time he was a great story teller. His place of abode is also not clear. However based on the dialect and the description of the poems written by him, it can be concluded that he lived in Ionia. Body As we think of the work of the so called “blind poet” Homer, especially with reference to Ancient Greece, the first impression that we get is the lovely epic poems Iliad and Odyssey.

( Rubino 1983)There is a dispute on whether Homer wrote these poems on his own, or was it a combined effort of people living in that era. In any case, these poems were an extremely vital part of the Greek culture prevailing at that point of time, coinciding with the Trojan War. There is a great controversy about the original write of the epics but evidence shows that the style adopted in writing Odyssey was consistent and flow of thought was uniform. Hence the assumption that it is written by several authors proves to be false one.

The style of both Iliad and Odyssey is also different, which leads people to believe that they were written by different people. Another school of thought says that both were written by Homer only, the only difference being that Iliad was written when he was young and Odyssey was written when he was old. Therefore, the style seems to be different. The manner in which such long poems were composed is the subject matter of debate. However it is a well known fact that lengthy works can be composed in an oral manner by those poets who can recite well.

They are also great storytellers. A poet, who recited orally, first constructs the poem in his mind, mixes up words and recites them in a recurring manner. Homer’s work has influenced the culture and civilization of that time to a great extent. Some scholars are of the view that Iliad and Odyssey have undergone changes and have been improvised during the 8th century B.C. from what had been written originally. The use of canonical written text was one of the effects on the civilization of that time.

Even at a later stage, people used to recite his poems in their conversations to prove their point to others. Conclusion Even while Iliad and Odyssey have earned a big name for themselves, the Homeric Hymns have also been very popular. Hymns are basically short poems sung in praise of the Gods. They have the same style as Iliad and Odyssey as both are composed by the same person that is Homer. Works Cited Rubino Carl A., Cynthia W. Shelmerdine. Approaches to Homer. University of Texas Press, 1983 Homer, Samuel Butler (Translator).

The Iliad and the Odyssey. MoileReference 2007 Task 2 To what degree is gender essential to an interpretation of a text and to what degree is it incidental? How might the themes in Aileen’s story be different if genders are changed? Introduction The story of Aileene Wuornos is that of a person who child hood was trouble some from the beginning. As per the story, she was born as Aileen Carol Wuornos on February 29, 1956 in Rochester Michigan. She had a troubled childhood and had seen shocking incidents in her home during her growing years.

Her father was a psychopath and this left indelible impression on the mind of young Aileen. Body It is very important to understand the concept of gender in a story. From her early childhood days she had only seen violence and extreme sexual behavior of her father and mother. She had an incestuous relation with her own brother at the age of 14 and a child was born out of this illicit relation, which she gave away for adoption to an agency. This was the turning point of her life as she moved out of her home and started working as a prostitute (Ramsland, 2006).

At the same time, she formed a relationship with another woman Tyria whom she supported with her income from prostitution (Niemi, 2006).The story of Wuornos is interpreted by looking at the relationship of two women, one of whom earned a living by prostitution and later on killing the clients and robbing them of their money. Since the story deals with two women, the text has to be looked at from this point of view. This is the case of a woman who hooks people and plays with them, killing them after having fun and then robbing them of their belongings.

The text is not incidental but deliberately created and turns out to be a true story, which may be hard to believe. Conclusion The serial killer Wuornos showed a pattern in her killing of her clients. She also confessed later on about her killing people. No one could pinpoint the reason for her behavior. Perhaps it was her delinquent behavior in her childhood or her observing violence during her growing years that put her on this path of violence. It is said that the story took a turn because Wuornos had a lesbian relations with Moore.

However the story would have been the same if the genders had been reversed. If this were a man in place of a woman, his behavior also would have been the same, in which case, instead of killing men, the person would be killing women in fake encounters. The story does not change with the gender. It is the delinquent behavior of the person which can be attributed to this kind of aberrant nature. Works Cited Niemi, Robert. History in the Media:. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2006 Ramsland, Katherine M.

Inside the Minds of Serial Killers:. Westport: Greenwood Group, 2006