Emily+Benjamin

Assignment 7: Aeneid

In the comic-turned-movie V for Vendetta, the vigilante character known as V attempts to save his people from their corrupt government and bring them into freedom, just as Aeneas leads his people to safety in Vergil's Aeneid. media type="youtube" key="6rRn8kM4-ds" height="242" width="389" align="right"

Set in a parallel world where socialism has taken hold of Britain (in the modern day), V for Vendetta tells of how a masked man, the product of testing within concentration camps, tries to dismantle the ineffective government by following a 1 year vendetta; over the course of the year, V wins the hearts of the people as he removes government officials while instilling a sense of nationalism back into the country. By chance, he comes across a girl named, coincidentally, Evey, who helps him achieve his goal of freedom for Britain, as well as regain his ability to love another person. At the climax of the story, V kills the ruthless High Chancellor Sutler, and dies from the injuries he sustained during the confrontation. However, V proved that "ideas are bulletproof" as Evey goes through with his plan to destroy the Parliament building, which symbolized the beginning of a new era of freedom for Britain.

In the Aeneid, Aeneas, along with his father Anchises and his son Ascanius, escape the city of Troy as it is being destroyed, and set off on a potentially 10 year journey to found a new city with his fellow Trojans. Faced with daunting obstacles, Aeneas struggles to find a new land for his people, however he is guided by the Gods during his quest. No matter the challenge, Aeneas stuck to his course, which made his Trojan followers feel pride in their cause. Eventually Aeneas reaches Latium, where his people find safety.

In both stories, the men are faced with the challenge of saving their people, however they approach it in different ways. Aeneas was told to save his people by the Gods, and his method of doing so was to flee their homeland and find a new land. In V's case, he brought it upon himself to save the people, and instead of taking his followers elsewhere, V decides to fix the problem from the inside out. Even though they followed different paths, the two heroes bring hope to their weary people and bring back the nationalism and patriotism they once felt for their countries.

__**Assignment 6: (Ovid 2)**__

In the movie, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, the protagonist Benjamin Barker experiences the same unfathomable grief as Hecuba does in Ovid's Metamorphoses, and both are transformed by it.

media type="youtube" key="L_hgrfZVlJA" height="269" width="438" align="right" In Sweeney Todd, which is set in London in 1846, Benjamin Barker, a well-off barber with a beautiful wife and daughter, is wrongfully convicted of a crime by the deceitful Judge Turpin, and is sent away to a deserted island prison; Turpin only accused Barker so that he could pursue Barker's wife, Lucy. After 15 years in jail, Barker escapes and returns home, only to find that his wife had killed herself and that his daughter has been adopted by Judge Turpin. Aided by Mrs. Lovett, the owner of a meat shop where Barker's house used to be, Benjamin Barker takes on the persona of Sweeney Todd, a barber who kills his victims with the flick of his razor, and plots his revenge to kill Turpin.

In Metamorphoses, Hecuba, the wife of King Priam, is the queen of Troy during the Trojan War; Hecuba was known for having many children. However, as the war progressed, Hecuba's children died off, whether in battle as her son Hector, or as a sacrifice as her daughter Polyxena. Polyxena was sacrificed due to her affiliation with the Greek Achilles, who wanted her dead either because of his love for her (he asked for her sacrifice as he died, and therefore he wanted her in the afterlife with him) or because of revenge (she had told Paris to shoot Achilles in the heel). Either way, after Polyxena's death, Hecuba was left with her youngest son, Polydorus. However, Hecuba found the corpse of Polydorus, and, with unbridled rage, decides to take revenge on his killer.

In both of the stories, the main characters exact their vengeance, however, they are both punished for their actions. Over the course of the movie, Todd reopens his barbershop and eventually starts to kill people in order to supply meat for Mrs. Lovett's meat pies. Slowly Todd loses his sanity, and riddled with anxiety, kills a beggar woman as he waited for the Judge. After the Judge's death, Todd goes to the basement where the meat grinder and the furnace were kept to help Mrs. Lovett, and finds that the beggar had not been ground up yet. Upon closer inspection, Todd realizes that the beggar woman was actually his wife, who indeed attempted suicide via posion, but had wound up insane instead. After realizing this, Todd kills Mrs. Lovett for lying to him about his wife's condition, and allows for himself to be killed by a boy who had helped Mrs. Lovett in the shop. In Hecuba's case, she brutally kills the murderer of her son by gouging his eyes out with her own nails, and is transformed by the gods into a dog.

Hecuba was psychologically transformed from a happy parent to a ruthless killer, just as Benjamin Barker was.



__**Assignment 5: (Ovid 1)**__ In Hayao Miyazaki's film, Howl's Moving Castle, the main character Sophie undergoes many of the similar trials and tribulations that Echo does in Ovid's poem, The Transformation of Echo, within Book 3 of his Metamorphoses.



In Howls Moving Castle, Sophie, an extremely self conscious young lady, works overtime at her mother's hat shop. When trying to safely get to her sister's restaurant, Sophie is cornered by two men in a dark alley. Thankfully, a seemingly random passerby comes to her rescue by (literally) whisking her away into the comfort of the sky. The apparent stranger is revealed to be the handsome wizard Howl, the local heartthrob, who is known for taking beautiful women away to his legendary castle. However, Howl reveals that not all rumors are true, and leads Sophie to her sister's restaurant.



Later on while Sophie is in her home, she confronted by the Witch of the Waste, who claims that Howl's heart belongs to her. Upon her exit, the Witch of the Waste puts a curse on Sophie which turns her into an old lady. However, the main conflict concerning the curse is that Sophie cannot tell anyone that she is actually a young woman, and that the Witch of the Waste was the one who cursed her.



In Ovid's tale, Jupiter, the ever-cheating husband of Juno, decides to pursue Narcissus, a recently turned 16 year-old boy of unparalleled beauty. In order to cover up his affair, Jupiter asks the nymph Echo to distract Juno. Despite Echo's careful planning, Juno discovers Jupiter's treachery and she curses Echo, by making Echo only able to repeat the last thing another person said.

Faced with a similar fate, the two heroines set out to achieve their goals. While Sophie decides to get rid of her curse by trying to get to the Witch of the Waste and to ask for her to remove the curse, Echo decides to go after Narcissus and confess her love for him.

In Sophie's case, on her way to the Witch's residence, she is intercepted by Howl's strange, yet wondrous, Moving Castle. Over the course of the story, Sophie falls in love with Howl, even though she appears to be an old lady. Eventually, Sophie's curse is lifted because she no longer cared about her outward appearance, and she and Howl live happily ever after.

Echo, on the other hand, meets a more timely end. When she tries to talk to Narcissus, she cannot speak to him, she can only repeat what he says. Narcissus turns her down, and Echo, full of shame, runs away into the woods. There, she finds a cave and stays there until her death. It is said that today, when one shouts into a cave, Echo's voice will shout back. media type="youtube" key="Rb1g3sF_CGo" height="281" width="456" align="center"

__**Assignment 4:**__

(Another Spongebob :D)

In the sixth season of Spongebob Squarepants, the episode "A Life in a Day" demonstrates how Horace's famous catchphrase, "carpe diem" (sieze the day) from Ode 1.11 is often misinterpreted.

In the episode, Spongebob and Patrick are tanning at the beach when Larry, a vivacious, bodybuilding lobster, disturbs them with his motorcycle. Larry claims that in order to live life to the fullest, one cannot be like Spongebob and Patrick: "spineless","weak", and "afraid of their own shadows"; he also puts great emphasis on the motto, "Livin' Like Larry." Patrick, who has an empty room for a brain, takes his words to heart and starts to live life on the edge, by disregarding his personal safety.

In Ode 1.11, Horace is urging Leuconoe, as well as mankind, to find joy in each day of life. By using images such as "liques" (you must strain) and "pati" (to suffer), Horace conveys the message of how things that are seen as tedious should be seen as enjoyable, because they may be the last things one might do. In "A Life in a Day", Patrick initially liked the little things in life, like blowing bubbles and jellyfishing, but he was convinced that in order to lead a less "worthless life" he had to do dangerous stunts.

Eventually Patrick realizes that he "has gone too far" and runs to Spongebob, hoping that he will save him from a group of bikers that he had irritated. When Spongebob tries to reason with the bikers, he feels an adrenaline rush and adopts Patrick's crazed mental state of "Livin' Like Larry." Back at the beach, Spongebob and Patrick, who is now aware of imminent danger, attempt to catapult themselves while riding upon a giant arrow. Larry catches sight of the pending stunt and sees that the angle of trajectory of the arrow would send the daredevils into "Ripper's Reef." Larry, who is also the lifeguard, throws a lifesaver at the arrow in an attempt to stop it, but he is dragged along with the other two. While they plummet to their doom, it is revealed that Larry never wanted Spongebob and Patrick to risk their lives, he just wanted them to be satisfied with them. Even though Horace says that suffering through the "pluris hiemis" (many winters) bestowed by Jupiter is necessary, by using the phrase " spem longam recesces" (you must prune the long hope), Horace is putting emphasis on how each day is important.

_ __**Assignment 3:**__

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The Spongebob Squarepants episode, "Dumped", is similar to Catullus 77, because both of the protagonists were betrayed by their closest friends. Spongebob represents the overemotional Catullus, Patrick represents deceitful Rufus, and Gary represents Catullus' lover, Lesbia.

In "Dumped", Spongebob is playing with his beloved pet snail, Gary. Eventually, Spongebob's friend, Patrick, comes along and joins them. By the end of the day, it is evident that Gary had taken a liking to Patrick, and Spongebob lets Gary sleep over Patrick's house. The next morning however, Gary refuses to come home and it is decided that Patrick is Gary's new owner. In response to Patrick's treachery, Spongebob lashes out them with, "Okay fine, if that's the way you want to thank me. For all that I've done!" This act of sedition is almost exactly the same as what happened all those years ago when Catullus' friend, Rufus, decided to steal Catullus' lover, Lesbia, from him; even Catullus' response to Rufus actions are similar: "mihi frustra ac nequiquam credite amice... magno cum pretio atque malo"" (trusted friend in vain and to no purpose... with a big price and trouble)

In Catullus 77, Catullus describes the deceit as "subrepsti mi atque intestine perurens" ([you] crept under me and consuming my intestines). However, since Spongebob Squarepants is a children's television show, devouring internal organs would be a gruesome sight for a small child. Therefore, in "Dumped", Spongebob's grief is shown by his denial that Gary himself had left him. Spongebob attempts to replace Gary with other pets, including a worm (equivalent to a dog) named Rex, and a snail that he imaginatively names Lary. Instead of trying to cope with his loss, Catullus continues to blame his troubles on Rufus, by saying "ei misero eripuisti omnia nostra bona" (alas you have snatched away all our good things), and by refusing to accept that he himself had also caused the conflict. If Catullus had not been so emotionally attached to Lesbia, then he would have realized that as a prostitute, one cannot be faithful to a single person, and therefore he would not have been so enraged when Lesbia "betrayed" him.

At the climax of "Dumped", Patrick decides to go to Spongebob's house and do some laundry with Gary. Upon the sight of Gary, Spongebob loses his resolve and breaks down and admits, "I'm a wreck without you!". He then continues to plead with Gary, showing off all the possibilities of a happy life with him, until Patrick decides to continue with his laundry. As Patrick takes off his shorts, it is revealed that Gary was only with Patrick because he had a cookie in his pocket. Gary returns to Spongebob, and they merrily go off for a walk. Lesbia was with Rufus because she was, indeed, a prostitute, and did not value her relationship with Catullus as Catullus himself did (he saw it as a commitment, as all-encompassing); Lesbia does not reunite with Catullus

As Spongebob leaves his home with Gary, he does not regard Patrick being there. It is possible that Spongebob might have lost his friendship with Patrick, as Catullus did with Rufus. Catullus could not see past Rufus' betrayal, which is why he concluded Catullus 77 with, "eheu nostrae crudele venenum/vitae, eheu nostrae pestis amicitiae." (alas cruel poison of our life, alas plague of our friendship)

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 * Assignment 2:**

__ The song, "Overs" by Simon & Garfunkel, resonates with Catullus 8 because both talk of how their relationship is over, but they cannot truly accept that it is. In both works, the narrator is telling himself that he must leave his partner, however both have a considerable amount of doubt behind their wishes. In "Overs", he asks himself, "Why don't we stop fooling ourselves?", just as in line one of Catullus 8, where he says "...you must stop playing the fool" (desinas ineptire); both of the statements show that he realizes that something is wrong with their relationship. __

__ Catullus and "Simon & Garfunkel" recognize that they each had a brief happy period with their partners, however both also realize that the happy period was shallow, that it was nothing that would contribute to a healthy relationship. In Catullus' case, he points out that, "Then when many fun jokes were made/ which you were wanting and the girl didn't not want." (ibi illa multa cum iocosa fiebant/quae tu volebas nec puella nolebat) His use of litotes, a double negative, shows that his good times weren't passionate, but that they were average. In "Overs", "Simon & Garfunkel" says that there were "no good times, no bad times" and " we laughed them all/ in a very short time", which shows, like Catullus, how even though his times with his love were "happy" there was no love between them. __

__ A difference between the two pieces is that in "Overs", doubt is consistently present throughout the whole song, while in Catullus 8, doubt is exemplified in the last lines of the poem, when Catullus asks a series of questions about Lesbia's possible future love life. The fact that Catullus went into such detail when he worded the questions for Lesbia, like "Who will you approach you now?" (Quis nunc te adibit) and "Whose lips will you bite?" (cui labella mordebis), shows that he still has passion for her, and how he isn't ready to let go of his fantasy love. I think that "Simon & Garfunkel" views his relationship as more of a necessity for stability rather than for love; I think he finds comfort in the ordinary. Throughout the song it is evident that they had been together for quite a while, because he tells his story by using phrases like "Sitting on the windowsill/ near the flowers", which only a person who was living with him would understand, which gives me the impression that he wants to stay, just not in the current situation. __

"Overs" by Simon & Garfunkel __Why don't we stop fooling ourselves?__ __The game is over,__ __Over,__ __Over.__

__No good times, no bad times,__ __There's no times at all,__ __Just The New York Times,__ __Sitting on the windowsill__ __Near the flowers.__

__We might as well be apart.__ __It hardly matters,__ __We sleep separately.__

__And drop a smile passing in the hall__ __But there's no laughs left__ __'Cause we laughed them all.__ __And we laughed them all__ __In a very short time.__

__Time__ __Is tapping on my forehead,__ __Hanging from my mirror,__ __Rattling the teacups,__ __And I wonder,__ __How long can I delay?__ __We're just a habit__ __Like saccharin.__

__And I'm habitually feelin' kinda blue.__

__But each time I try on__ __The thought of leaving you,__ __I stop...__ __I stop and think it over__

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 * Assignment 1:**

__ The song, Silvia, by Miike Snow, relates to Catullus' Poem 5, because Catullus stated how he wanted a commitment from Lesbia just as "Miike Snow" wants a commitment from his Silvia. Even though Catullus says earlier in Poem 5 that he wants Lesbia and himself to "value all of the rumors of the strict men at a penny", Catullus is still aware of Lesbia's status as a prostitute. It is blatantly obvious obvious that Catullus wants commitment from Lesbia when he says, "we must sleep one continuous night." "Miike Snow" expresses the same feelings of devotion when says "I know I can't have you here / with someone else on your skin." __

__"Silvia" lyrics:__