AP comp gov unit 1-2

he crushed two serpents, slew a lion, but was quick tempered and in a fit he slew his music teacher. he is very masculine and bore 51 sons in 1 night. hera cursed him with a moment of insanity and he killed 3 of his sons. he made up for it by acomplishing 12 superhuman tasks. he died when his wife was tricked into giving him a poisoness robe, he couldn’t be killed but the suffering caused him to ask to be burned on a pyre.

herculean backstory (hur-cue-lee-un)

herculean— pt of speech/meaning

adjective/tremendous in size, strength, difficulty, or effort

thomas bowdler thought Shakespeare was naughty and couldn’t be read in front of family. he drastically edited the plays, committing literary butchery. he acted as a censor, believing that he was uncontaminated

bowdlerize backstory (bohd-luh-rize)

bowdlerize—pt of speech/meaning

verb/to remove or change parts considered vulgar or immoral

john Milton coined this term in his poem, paradise lost, that described the fall of Adam and eve and the casting of Satan into hell. Milton named the capital of hell “_____”.

pandemonium backstory (pan-de-moh-nee-um)

pandemonium— pt of speech/meaning

noun/utter confusion or wild uproar

chaucer (canterbury tales author) wrote a poem, troilus and Criseyde, about the trojan war. troilus, prince of Troy, fell in love with Criseyde, a young and beautiful widow. troilus asked her uncle, Pandarus, to get them acquainted and arranged for them to make love in his home. because of his manipulation gave us the word ____

pander backstory (pan-der)

pander— pt of speech/meaning

verb/to play up to another’s desires or weaknesses

a Spanish novelest, Cervantes, created a world famous novel called don ___. don q imagines himself to be a knight who must defend the weak, accompanied by his faithful companion Sancho panza. he engages in wildly impractical feats. the tall, gaunt, middle-aged, and loveable knight has become related to romantic and impractical

quixotic backstory (kwik-sot-ik)

quixotic— pt of speech/meaning

adjective/idealistic but not practical

greek philosopher, Antisthenes, shared the teachings of his master, Socrates. he had to conduct his studies outside of Athens, at cynosarges, because his mother wasn’t born in Athens. he taught that virtue was the greatest good and that pleasure, power, and wealth should be scorned. one of his famous pupils used a tub for shelter and sleep, then was offered a wish, but just replied that Alexander the great was blocking the sun. he believed that an honest man was impossible to find

cynical backstory (sin-ih-kul)

cynical—pt of speech/meaning

adjective/doubting the goodness and sincerity of human motives

a pupil of the cynic philosophers founded a school in Athens. he met his students at a place known for its trojan war painting. Zeno believed that one should cultivate wisdom by accepting both fortune and misfortune

stoical backstory (stoh-ih-kul)

stoical—pt of speech/meaning

adjective/indifferent to pain and pleasure

in ancient Greece, captured runaway slaves were branded on the forehead with a stigma (tattoo) to make future escape more difficult. when a criminal was stigmatized in the 17th century, he was branded with a hot iron. slaves in the US were also branded. in the future former slaves were sigmatized by white society

stigma backstory (stig-muh)

stigma—pt of speech/meaning

noun/mark of disgrace

slaves/convicts in ancient Rome were shackled with leg irons. im=in, pedis=foot, == in foot

pedis=foot, ex=out, ==foot out

impede (im-peed) and expedite (ek-spuh-dite) backstory

impede—pt of speech/meaning

verb/hinder, obstruct, slow down the process of

expedite—pt of speech/meaning

verb/speed up; hasten or help the accomplishment of

achilles’s mother dipped him in the river styx as a boy which made his body invulnerable, but she missed his heel. this was his one weak spot. in the final year of the Trojan war, started by his parents marriage ceremony and the goddess of discord, Paris shot an arrow at his heel.

achilles’ heel (uh-kill-eez heel) backstory

achilles’ heel—pt of speech/meaning

noun/weak point

an official announcer of the Trojan war had a voice so loud he didn’t need a megaphone. but he ended up dying after trying to beat Hermes in a vocal contest, but he did shout loud enough that his name can still be heard in the English language

stentorian backstory (sten-tor-ee-un)

stentorian—pt of speech/meaning

adjective/very loud

zues lay 9 nights with the goddess of memory, mnemosyne. from this came the 9 muses, the goddesses of art and sciences. mnemosyne was the right mother because all knowledge depended on memory

mnemonic backstory (nih-mon-ik)

mnemonic—pt of speech/meaning

adjective (or noun)/assisting memory

“___” derives from the old English faethm, a measure of the length of 6 outstretched arms. by extension, this measurement (which was used to find water’s depth) came to mean “to get to the bottom of”

fathom backstory (fath-um)

fathom—pt of speech/meaning

verb/to understand, figure out, penetrate the meaning of

horace Walpole, in addition to originating the gothic novel, coined the word “____” based upon a fairytale with 3 heroes who always made discoveries of things they weren't looking for.

serendipity backstory (ser-un-dip-uh-tee)

serendipity—pt of speech/meaning

noun/the ability to make lucky discoveries by chance or accident

“_____s” were ancient Roman acrobats who leapt from a galloping horse to another. today, anyone who jumps from one thing to another without any design or purpose acts ___

desultory backstory (des-ul-tor-ee)

desultory—pt of speech/meaning

adjecive/random, unmethodical, aimless

aryan invaders imposed a caste system on india, dividing the population into permanent social groups. lowest of all were the outcasts. the caste you’re born in is the one you stay in, and you cannot marry someone from another caste. within this the paraiyar, who beat drums, became a lowly caste. when the British came, they took many of their household servants from him and began to pronounce his name “___”. they looked down on him and used his name to describe low castes.

pariah backstory (puh-rye-uh)

pariah—pt of speech/meaning

noun/a social outcast

a woman named etheldreda fled from an unwanted marriage and became a nun. she enjoyed ornamental chains and laces around her neck and later had a throat tumor because of this. after she died, her name became shortened to Audrey and she attained sainthood. an annual fair arose to honor her fashionable behavior. these ornaments became lesser and lesser quality as time went on, associating Audrey/___ with inferior product

tawdry backstory (taw-dree)

tawdry—pt of speech/meaning

adjective/showy and cheap

before money was common, livestock was a measure of wealth. pecu= latin for cow became associated with wealth.

im= without, pecu=cow would mean without cow and that person would be considered poor

pecuniary (pih-cue-nee-er-ee) and impecunious (im-pih-cue-nee-us) backstory

pecuniary—pt of speech/meaning

adjective/relating to money

impecunious—pt of speech/meaning

adjective/having little or no money; poor