検索キーワード： 古代・古典・中世の文学

As the Enlightenment movement was gathering strength in the early 18th century, various challenges to established religious faith were launched. In response, a number of celebrated commentators produced defences of religion and morality, and among these was Alexander Pope, who was inspired to write "some pieces on Human Life and Manners." The result was a collection of poems in rhyming couplets, designated "Epistles", which were published in instalments.

What is the purpose and essence of things? How does society work? What is the form of society? Are social ranks, laws, and orders dictated by law or by nature? In these fundamental questions, ancient Greek philosophers have first tried to give their answers.

"Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die". A lament of airman, soldier, sailor, and marine throughout history from Lord Tennyson's 1854 poem based upon a charge of British light cavalry led by Lord Cardigan against Russian forces during the Battle of Balaclava on 25 October 1854 in the Crimean War.

Balancing a lighthearted approach with profound psychological insight, Ovid tells a thrilling tale of male and female and of divinity and humanity.

The Theogony (composed c. 700 BC) is a poem by Hesiod (8th-7th century BC) describing the origins and genealogies of the Greek gods. A theogony is a part of Greek mythology which attempts to articulate reality as a whole. Hesiod's work is a synthesis of various local Greek traditions concerning the gods, organized as a narrative that tells of their origin and how they established control over the Cosmos.

Xenophon was an ancient Greek philosopher, historian, soldier, and student of Socrates. In the dialogue between the poet Simonides and Hiero, tyrant of Syracuse, Xenophon discusses the burdens of being an absolute dictator and the superior happiness of the private individual.

This simplistic and ingenious allegory from one of the fathers of Western philosophy casts light on society’s naiveté and ignorance.

The great scientists Louis Pasteur (1822-1893) and Joseph Lister (1827-1912) revolutionized medical practice in the 19th century. Pasteur's discovery of the cause of fermentation formed the basis of modern germ theory while Lister developed antiseptic surgical methods based on that. The book contains a description of the theory, and accounts of their work and experiments.

First published in 1711, An Essay on Criticism was one of Pope's earliest major poems. As the title suggests, it is an exploration of what Pope considered to be the essential aspects of good critical writing.

Kurukshetra is a Hindi classic. It gives an extraordinary account of the Kurukshetra war mentioned in the Mahabharata. It describes in vivid details the armed confrontation that took place between the Pandavas and the Kauravas. This bloody war lasted eighteen days. The author's own views on war are showcased in this work. He criticizes war but also admits that it is a necessary evil. It describes the demerits of war and the damage it does to mankind, through the medium of poetry.

I first read Edward Fitzgerald’s celebrated, if controversial, version of Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat when I happened upon it in my father’s extensive library when I was a sophomore at Notre Dame High School. While there is much debate about Omar Khayyam’s philosophical outlook (is his message Sufi-oriented or existentially hedonistic?), there is no doubting its beauty and its profundity of thought.

Oedipus Rex, by Sophocles, is a tragedy that has been enjoyed for centuries. This drama is an absolute must for any scholar, student, drama lover, or classical literature fan. Here, you will find the unabridged and complete version of the work.

En aquesta novel·la l’amor s’explora des de tota les seves varietats i matisos, tant físics com psicològics, des de les formes deutores de l’amor cortès fins a les conductes més novedoses i eròtiques. Aquesta és la selecció dels episodis de lectura obligatòria pels alumnes de batxillerat, en adaptació moderna i amb propostes de treball.

Hi ha una manera de definir El misantrop: el món contra mi, i, si convé, jo contra el món. Si algú em porta un sonet que és més dolent que el pebre, en nom de què podria afalagar-lo? Si em jutgen perquè he dit allò que havia de dir, per què hauria de buscar algú que recomanés la meva innocència al tribunal? Que tinc raó és clar: que em jutgin, doncs, i demostrin si són al costat de la veritat o amb l'interès que sembla moure-ho tot en el món dels homes. O amb mi o contra mi, amb la raó o contra la raó.

Plato's dialogue, Critias, recalls the story of Atlantis attempting to conquer Athens. In ancient times, the Earth was divide by the gods - and gods tended the humans in their allotment as shepherds. Atlantis, allotted to Poseidon, becomes corrupt over time, and Zeus must take matters into his own hands.

In the Greek legend, a sculptor, Pygmalion, created a statue of a woman so beautiful that he fell in love with it. Later the goddess Aphrodite responded to his earnest prayers and brought the statue, named Galatea, to life. Shaw's Pygmalion is a fussy unmarried professor of phonetics, Henry Higgins, who claims that he could train an uneducated person off the street to speak so that he or she could pass as a member of the aristocracy. His Galatea is Eliza Doolittle, who sells flowers at Covent Garden and whose father is a dissipated but cunning vagrant.

Molts crítics consideren Èdip rei l'obra mestra de Sòfocles. Èdip és l'heroi tràgic per antonomàsia: l'home just, intel·ligent, pietós envers els déus, que vol conèixer la veritat pel bé del seu poble, costi el que costi; i que no defalleix en l'intent de descobrir-la,malgrat que, a mesura que s'hi apropa, ja intueix que serà la causa de la seva ruïna. La solució diversa amb què Iocasta i Èdip afrontaran el coneixement de la veritat és també el reflex de dues maneres d'encarar les dificultats vitals.

Though best known now for his collection of lively and vivid Parallel Lives from ancient Greece and Rome, Plutarch (c46 CD-120 CE) was, for centuries, more respected for his Moralia, a remarkable and wide-ranging collection of essays and speeches. No fewer than 78 in total, they range over a broad list of topics in which Plutarch observes, dispenses wisdom, admonishes, entertains and informs: covering social issues and politics, manners and religion - in short, life in general.

The Peloponnesian War drags on and on with no end in sight, and the tough-minded Lysistrata has had enough. Men! - always making stupid decisions that affect everyone. Women's opinions are never listened to. Taking matters into her own hands, Lysistrata convenes a meeting of women from warring city-states across Greece and calls for a sex strike. It's a hard sell, but in the end, it is agreed: They will withhold sex until the war is brought to hasty a close.

This play forms part of a tetralogy which focuses on one of Wedekind's obsessive themes: the destructive interplay between primal sexual urges and social convention. Each play revolves around a powerful young female character, who has the power to control and captivate men, but who in turn is destroyed by the exercise of that power. In this play, the dominant female is Fräulein Elfriede von Malchus, an idealistic crusader who visits a brothel operated by the cynical impresario Casti-Piani in order to rescue a young woman who has fallen into his clutches.