Western Literature(Week3)

• Golden Apple Event

The goddess Eris(the goddess of Discord) wasn't invited to the wedding of the Thessaly king Peleus and the sea-nymph Thetis . She was angry. She tossed in the midst of the feast of the gods at the wedding as a prize of beauty, thus sparking a vanity-fueled dispute among Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite that eventually led to the Trojan War .

• Achilles' heel

Meaning:a fatal weakness

origin:In Greek mythology, when Achilles was a baby, it was foretold that he would die young. To prevent his death, his mother Thetis took Achilles to the River Styx, which was supposed to offer powers of invulnerability, and dipped his body into the water. But as Thetis held Achilles by the heel, his heel was not washed over by the water of the magical river. Achilles grew up to be a man of war who survived many great battles. But one day, a poisonous arrow shot at him was lodged in his heel, killing him shortly after.

• The origin of four seasons

Ceres(Rome:Demeter): the goddess of agriculture

Persepone(Rome:Cora): the daughter of Ceres/the wife of Hades

Hades(Rome:Pluto): the god of the underworld

  Story: Demeter's virgin daughter Persephone was abducted to the underworld by Hades. Demeter searched for her ceaselessly, preoccupied with her loss and her grief. The seasons halted; living things ceased their growth, then began to die. Faced with the extinction of all life on earth, Zeus sent his messenger Hermes to the underworld to bring Persephone back. Hades agreed to release her if she had eaten nothing while in his realm; but Persephone had eaten a small number of pomegranate seeds. This bound her to Hades and the underworld for certain months of every year.When Persephone's time in the underworld corresponds with the unfruitful seasons, and her return to the upper world with springtime.

*Pomegranate:a fruit-bearing deciduous shrub or small tree growing between 5 and 8 m (16 and 26 ft) tall.

•  Plot