Epic Destinies Final

Homer Iliad Quote 1 Context

Hector speaking to his wife Andromache before returning to the battlefield and warns her troy will fall, she will be enslaved, adn he will be killed

Homer Iliad Quote 1 Comparison

Gilgamesh:

Both Hector and Gilgamesh confront the inevitabillty of loss but they respond differently to mortality. Hector accepts death as the cost of social duty and herioc honor as he chooses responsibility over private happiness. Gilgamesh initially rejects mortality altogether and seeks immortality after Enkidu’s death.

Homer Iliad Quote 2 Context

Priam goes to Achilles tent to retrieve hos son’s Body, Hector. Achilles and Priam cry together over their losses of a loved one,

Homer Iliad Quote 2 Comparison

Gilgamesh:

The shared grief of Priam and Achilles reveals an understanding that suffering and death unite all mortals, even enemies. Similarly, Gilgamesh’s grief for Enkidu strips him of his kingly arrogance and forces recognition of shared human vulnerability. Grief is a catalyst for moral insight, though the Ilaid resolves it through human compassion rather than solitary quest.

Homer Iliad Quote 3 Context

Achilles returns Hecotr’s body and the Trojans hold a funeral for Hector. This is the end of the epic. Not ending with a victory for anyone but shared loss and mourning on both sides.

Homer Iliad Quote 3 Comparison

Gilgamesh:

Hector’s funreal shows acceptance of death through communal ritual and remembrance, In contrast, Gilgamesh initally repsonds to death with denial, as Gilgamesh seeks immortality after Enkidu’s loss, Both works ultimately suggest that meaning comes not from escaping mortality, but from honoring human bonds and shared memory.

Medea Quote 1 Context

Medea speaks to the chorus and critics men’s belief of women’s life and what they go through. the belief that women’s suffering is more dangerous and painful than men’s battlefield heroics.

Medea Quote 1 Comparison

Lysisstrata:

Both plays critique male-centered definition of heroism, but they do so in very differnt tones. Medea exposes the hidden suffering of women within a tragic story centered around gender injustices as a cause for rage and destruction. Lyistrata in contrast uses comedy and collective action to imagine reform without violence. The works reveal tragedy’s pessism about gender power structures versus comdey’s belief in social correction.

Medea Quote 2 Context

Medea is addresing the Chorus and describing her isolation and how Jason essetially stripped her of any identity, Medea associates personal injustice with cosmic injustice to justify her yearn for revenge

Medea Quote 2 Comparison

Aenied (Dido):

Medea and Dido were both abandonded by men pursuing other goals or social status, Jason and Aeneas justify betrayal/abandoment through ambition and destiny, reducing women to collateral damage. While Dido internalizes her suffering Medea externalizes it though revenge. Different responses to patriarchal injustice within epic and tragedy.

Medea Quote 3 Context

Medea is delivering a monlogue of the decison to kill her chlidren. Destroying Jason’s lineage is the only to inflict irreparable harm, Medea is calculated but also impulsive and vengeful.

Medea Quote 3 Comparison

Lysistrata:

In tragedy plays like Medea when women take control everything ends in violence and death. Lysistrata gets women to refuse sex until men stop the war. In comedy women can actually change things peacefully and everyone reconciles at the end. Medea has to destory to feel powerful while Lysistrata just has to say no.

Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics Quote 1 Context

to understand the highest human good (happiness) must identify the unique function of human beings. Happiness consists of reason in accordance with virtue.

Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics Quote 1 Comparison

Plato’s Symposium:

Aristotle defines happiness as a rational activity in accordance to virtue, grounded in practical action and civic life. In contrast Plato’s Symposium presents eros as a ladder beyond humans toward eternal beauty and truth. While both seek the highest good, Aristotle emphasizes fullfillment within human limits, whereas Plato imagines trasnsendsance beyond them.

Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics Quote 3 Context

Considering whether human happiness can be affected after death by descendants. Family legacy can reflect honor or dishonor on the dead, Reveals his concern with stabilty and reputation

Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics Quote 3 Comparison

Iliad:

Both Aristotle and Homer grapple with whether a life can be judged completely before death. Hector’s lasting honor and burial rite suggest that reputation and memory contribute to life’s value beyond death. Aristotle cautiously argues, acknowledging that descendants’ fortunes can reflect upon dead, though without overturning the stabilty of virtue

Virgil’s Aeneid Quote 1 Context

During Aeneas’ journey to the underworld, his father Achises reveals the furture of Rome. Reframes Aeneas’ personal suffering as necessary sacrifice for imperial destiny and provides the ideological core of the epic.

Virgil’s Aeneid Quote 1 Comparison

1 Corinthians:

Virgil reframes Roman imperial power as divinely ordained and morally disciplined, presenting conquest as a civilizing duty. Paul radically overturns this worldview by proclaiming that god choses weakness over strength and faith over domination. The comparison exposes a clash between imperial theology and christian humility.

Virgil’s Aeneid Quote 2 Context

Cupid causes Dido to fall in love with Aeneas. Virgil uses a simile to a dear to emphasize Dido’s innocence and vulnerability to foreshadow her abandoment and suicide adn eposes the collateral damage caused by Rome’s identity.

Virgil’s Aeneid Quote 2 Comparison

1 Corinthians:

Dido’s destruction reveals the human cost of Roman destiny, as her life is sacrificed to Aeneas’ historical mission. In 1 Corinthians, Paul rejects identity rooted in earthly attachment and passion, offering spiritual rebirth instead, Dido embodies the tragedy of history-driven purpose, while Paul offers escape from history’s demands

Virgil’s Aeneid Quote 3 Context

Sibyl explains the system of judgement overseen by Rhadamanths to Aeneas as she guides him through the underworld. Establishes a moral universe in which divine justice trascends earthly life

Virgil’s Aeneid Quote 3 Comparison

1 Corinthians:

Virgil’s underworld operates as a moral bureaucracy, judging souls according to civic virute and earthly conduct, Paul reframes judgement through grace and resurrection, prioritizing faith over merit. Roman justice is earned; Christian salvation is given.

Ovid’s Metamorphoses Quote 1 Context

Ovid beigns the poem by telling it will be about transfomrations from the beginning of time up to his present day. He described history as a continuous change, drivien by divine whim, desire, and violence

Ovid’s Metamorphoses Quote 1 Comparison

Thucydides:

Both works begin with description giving insight to the work and their writing methods. Ovid presents reality and perptually unstable with identities constantly trasnformed by desire and power. Thucydides in contrasts insists that while circumstances change human nature especially ambition and fear remain constant, Ovid emphasizes fluldity of form; Thucydides emphasizes continuity of behavior,

Ovid’s Metamorphoses Quote 2 Context

Cupid stirkes Apollo with an arrow and falls in love with Daphne who was struck with repulsion. As Apollo pursues her she prays for escape and is transformed into a laurel tree.

Ovid’s Metamorphoses Quote 2 Comparison

Thucydides:

Daphne’s transformation and Apollo’s pursuit exposes the world in which power does not persuade, it takes, and the weak retain agency only though disappearance. Thucydides describes this same logic in the Melian Dialogue the strong explicitily reject moral arguments. Like Daphne Melos can protest, reason, and appeal to fairness but none of these matter once Athens decides to act. Both works reveal that when power is absolute, morality becomes ornamental and survival itself may require submission, transfomration, or destruction.

Ovid’s Meatmorphoses Quote 3 Context

During a weaving contest with Athena, Arache shows scenes of acts of sexual violence committed by the gods, Athena destorys the tapestry and punishes Archne for her sotry telling on the tapestry.

Ovid’s Metamorphoses Quote 3 Comparison

Thucydides:

Athena punishing and tearing up the tapestry demonstrates that truth does not protect the weak when it threatens authority, Thucydides repeatedly shows that moral arguements collapse when confronted with power. In both eposure od injustice leads not to refomr but to repression.

Marcus Aurelius Meditations Quote 1 Context

A reminder to not be corrupt by power and stay humble. Have stoic resistance to vanity and tyranny

Marcus Aurelius Meditations Quote 1 Comparison

Book of Job:

Marcus Aurelius urges that virtue resides in inner character rather than rank or public authority, Job demonstrates this as he is stripped of wealth, family, and social standings, despite total loss, he maintains righteousness and integrity. Both texts argue that status does not determine virtue: showing that humility and ethical steadiness define moral excellence.

Marcus Aurelius Meditations Quote 2 Context

Regret only applies to missing someting truly good, since virtuous people do not regret missing pleasure, it cannot be good. Stoic ethics grounded in rational benefit rather than sensation

Marcus Aurelius Meditations Quote 2 Comparison

Book of Job:

Pleasure is not good and happiness must be grounded in rational action. Job’s suffering show this as every source of comfort is removed yet he continues to act justly, proving virtue does not require reward or ease. Both highlight that genuine moral integrity must stand apart from pleasure, demonstrating that human excellence persists even under deprivation and trial

Marcus Aurelius Meditations Quote 3 Context:

Considers whether the universe is governed by random atoms or divine providence. If order exist the trust it if chaos reigns concern is pointless

Marcus Aurelius Meditations Quote 3 Comparison

Book of Job:

Marcus affirms a rational, providential cosmos while Job struggles against apparent injustice but ultimately submits to divine order. Stoic accpetance and biblical submission converge in recognizing limits of human understanding

Latrines at Ostia Context

The communal toilets were part of a major city’s infrastructure, emphasizing Roman engineering, hygeine, and shared civic life. The design reflects Roman pramatism and social equality in bodily needs

Latrines at Ostia Comparison

Aristotle:

Public latrines reflect Aristotle’s belief that human flourishing depends on participation in civic life. Even basic needs are organized communally, showing how the polis supports a complete and functional human life

Pantheon, Rome Context

Rebuilt under Hadrian, a massive dome and oculus symbolize cosmic order and the relationship between gods, empire, and universe, The structure visually communicates unity and harmony.

Pantheon, Rome Comparison

Meditations:

The Pantheon’s harmonious proportions and open dome express a Stoic vison of cosmic order. This architectural unity Marcus Aurelius‘ belief that the universe is governed by rational structures and providence.

Augustus of Prima Porta Context

Staute presents Augustus as eternally youthful, armored, and divinely sanctioned. The images blends pollitcal authority with mythic legitimacy, reinforcing imperial ideology (Roman propaganda)

Augustus of Prima Porta Comparison

Aeneid:

The statue of Augustus embodies the Aeneid’s ideals of pietas and destiny, presenting the emperor as divinely sanctioned ruler and bringer of order, Like Aeneas, Augustus appears as the agent through whom Rome’s fate is fulfilled

1 Corinthians Quote 1 Context

Paul addresses doubts about the resurrection by distinguishing between perishable early bodies and trasnformed spiritual bodies

1 Corinthians Quote 1 Comparison

Iliad:

In the Iliad death is final, and Achilles accepts mortality by choosing lasting fame as his only compensation. Paul rejects this tragic frame work by teaching resurrection and the transformation into spiritual body, Christianity resolves the epic problem of mortality by offering eternal life than remembrance.

1 Corinthians Quote 2 Context

Confronts pride and Greek philosophy by arguing human wisdom cannot access divine truth. Salvation comes through faith which is indifferent to the beliefs of the past with values in intellect and status

1 Corinthians Quote 2 Comparison

Iliad:

In condemming worldly wisdom, Paul directly challenges the value system that governs the Iliad. Achilles represents world wisdom in the Iliad through strength, honor, and reputation earned in war. Paul calls this kind of wisdom foolish, arguing that human power cannot lead to true understanding. The comparison reveals a moral revolution that overturns heroic values.

1 Corinthians Quote 3 Context

Women could be seen a distracting in church especially in the church of Corinth that was struggling morally. Some aspects like chapter 14 of 1 Corinthians are included to help provide a outline for proper church etiquette that are not in practice at the church

1 Corinthians Quote 3 Comparison

Iliad:

In the Iliad Homer gives women like hecuba and Andromache emtionally powerful voices, even within a patriachal society. Paul however, commands women to remian silent in church. this contrast reflects differing cultural approaches to gender, authority, and social order.