Inho+Hwang

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After the Greeks have ravaged Troy, Aeneas leads his companions, family with great determination to survive and to continue the lineage and the culture of Trojans, hoping one day he would be able to establish a new empire that is made by Troy descendents. He works painstakingly hard with so much respect for his country and values of Trojan cultures, beliefs, and religion—the Greek gods. Later he is able to find a mighty Rome, and his success reflects upon his hard works and dedications for his country. ======

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In //Macbeth//, Malcolm has to escape out of his country Scotland because Macbeth has murdered, Malcolm’s father and also a beloved King, Duncan. Macbeth wanted to become a king and he would have killed Duncan’s successors/sons shortly after the Duncan’s murder. Therefore, Malcolm flees to England. Being alone and realizing what enormous responsibility he has as Duncan’s son as to retrievethe crown and continue on the kingdom’s lineages, cultures, and values, he becomes strong and determined, from what he seemed before a weak character.With patriotism, for people of Scotland, he decides to fight off Macbeth andget his country back. How Malcolm intension to continue the nation’s customs, values, and culture is similar to Aeneas’s intension to continue his Trojan linage, values as he flees out of Troy. They are both left alone in responsibility level, as leaders, to decide what is right and what to do as for their duty of their country. They both became strong, determined, and serious now that they experienced hardships: Aeneas with rages of Juno, and Malcolm with being totally left alone (having no companions even though Aeneas had some). When Aeneas’ companions are in despair from rampaging storm from Juno, Aeneas makes a speech of encouragement to his companions, which reflects his patriotism and strong determination to persuade his companions to work harder and to establisha new empire. “Through different perils, through so many perilous fortunes, we go into Latium habitations where fates show… Endure, watch over yourselves for happier days.” Malcolm’s strong determination was clearly shown when he begins to behave and talk differently, in a more serious and forte manner than before. For example, naïve, weak Malcolm later says to Macduff, a Scotland nobleman who intents on helping Malcolm, this, “Be this the whetstone of your sword: let grief Convert to anger; blunt not the heart, enrage it.” His word choices “anger,enrage, blunt heart, whetstone, grief” and his demanding statement suggest that he now became serious and strong. He is fully aware of his authority and duty for his country that he is very determined and serious with the matter of retrieving his country and traditions back from evil Macbeth. ======

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Aeneas has to ultimately leave his wife lost in the city and hurry his way away from Troy after the Greeks had conquered it, for the safety of the few people who could continue on the Trojan culture and linage. Basically, he gave up his wife for patriotism toTroy. Malcolm has a similar story, except for that he lost all of his family: both his son and his wife. After he leaves he does not come back because he is planning to have a revenge against Macbeth. Knowing this, Macbeth slaughters Malcolm’s family. If Malcolm brought his family with him and took care of them, he would not have been able to successfully remove Macbeth off the throne with short amount of time, efficiently, and possibly. He too sacrificed his family for his country, for greater goods of his country-people. ======

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It is also similar that both of their patriotisms see the light of reward. Aeneas’s patriotism isrewarded when he finds the mighty Rome which is composed mainly of Trojans’descendent and Trojan cultures and values. Malcolm’s patriotism is showed when,with the help of Macduff and England king, he take back the crown back from Macbeth and ruled Scotland as it has been ruled past years with its customs and traditions intact. ======

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Malcolm and Aeneas show great amount of pride of their country, and when they were faced with hardship of their country, they both stood up and found ways to solve the problem,s to continue countries’ traditions, values, religions, and cultures. They loved their country dearly and when they had to work/help their countries, they showed great determinations and seriousness and saved their country. Their patriotism clearly resembles one another. ======



There is a Korean children’s book that tells a story of a person named Jung-Sung. Long story short, Jung-Sung had a magic paper-made fan that, when a he fans himself, makes him fly up. In order to come down to the ground, he just had to fold the paper fan one by one. (If you see the picture, you know what I mean by folding one by one.) No one knew he had such a magical object. But one day, he went to China and spread rumors that he can fly and he will fly in front of the Chinese Emperor with exchange of lots of money. Chinese Emperor heard the rumor, ordered to bring Jung Sung, dared Jung-Sung to fly, and told him Jung Sung will be executed for causing disturbances if he can’t fly. So Jung Sung started to fan himself and slow rose to the air. Chinese Emperor saw this and was very impressed. Suddenly he wanted to fly too. So the emperor politely borrowed the fan and flew as Jung-Sung directed. When he got up very high, the emperor did not know how to come down. Jung-Sung did not tell him how. Everyone in the palace waited for him to come down days, weeks, and months. But the emperor did not come down. Since Chinese needed a ruler, they brought this interesting man, Jung Sung, with the magic object to the throne. Then Jung Sung became the emperor of China. The book ends by telling that because the emperor had great future vision and intelligence, he became a bird and still flies the entiresky of China and governs Chinese people by heart, but he does not go near his palace. This story, “A Worker Became the Emperor of China” (in Korean, 중국 임금이 된 머슴) is similar to the story of Talos. The skillful craftsman Daedalus wanted to take the power by being the smartest, and the most skilled person in the country. So he pushed Talos, who become smarter than Daedalus, off the cliff in order to eliminate his future competitor. But like in the story “A Worker Became the Emperor of China” people who are worthy of talent do not easily become dead. The Chinese Emperor and Talos both became birds by supernatural sources (Talos from Minerva, the emperor from the sky god), and they both survived the fall. Just leaving them to die is so wasteful because of their unusual talents. After the transformation into a bird, Talos does not perch, build nests, and fly in high altitudes because he is afraid he might fall again and die. Jung-Sung does not go near his palace because he is afraid of what bad might happen to him again. Both Talos and the Chinese Emperor have skills they had before their transformations. For example, the Chinese Emperor still has his vision to his people; Talos can build nests skillfully with his intelligence. I believe the transformations from human to a type of animal in modern literature like this Korean children’s book all derived from Ovid’s story. Ovid wrote so many transformations of humans and affected later generation’s authors not only with the stunning story-telling-ability but also with the concept of transformation as well. In Harry Potter, people use their magic to transform themselves to other people or animals. In Shakespearean plays, fairies transform people to animals like Bottom to a donkey. This concept of human to animal transformation is common in the modern day arts, literatures, and films and this story, “A Worker Became the Emperor of China” is just one of many examples.

====  The Midsummer night’s Dream has many transformations that exist in Ovid’s metamorphoses. Transformations are caused by supernatural sources. In Ovid’s writings, Gods are powerful with control over nature and men. In The midsummer night’s dream, fairies can do magic to control over too nature and men. In Ovid’s book 10, the story of Myrrha tells that Venus gets mad that Myrrha does not choose a husband, and Venus sends Cupid to shoot an arrow to make her love his father. Gods can control people. In this case, Cupid is able to transform Myrrha’s emotions and thoughts into madly in love with her father. So madly in love that Myrrha’s father almost kills her in which she flees away from home. In the midsummer night’s dream King of fairies Oberon sees Demetrius act cruelly toward Helena in the forest. (The beginning storyline goes like this: Hermia loves Lysander. Demetrius loves Hermia. Helena loves Demetrius.) Oberon orders Puck, just like Venus ordered Cupid, to obtain a magical flower and spread some of the juice on the eyelids of Demetrius, who will them fall in love with whoever he sees upon waking. However, Puck thinks that Lysander was Demetrius and spread the juice on him. He sees Helena upon awaking and falls deeply in love with her. Puck realizes that he did something wrong, put juice on Demetrius too. Demetrius then falls in love with Helena. Hermia is left alone and Helena has suddenly two men, who did not love her before. The power of the flower of the fairies is so strong, Demetrius and Lysander completely forget who they loved before and become madly in love with the new girl, Helena. Even when Hermia cries and plea to Lysander to come back to her, Lysander is no longer friendly and loving and he becomes cruel to Hermia. The power of the fairies changes men’s preferences and thoughts completely. The fairies control the men and men have no control over themselves when they are encountered with the fairies. ==== ==== At the end of the Midsummer night’s dream Oberon figures out what went on wrong and restores the order. Lysander now loves Hermia and Demetrius now loves Helena. Everything becomes as peaceful as it can be. Supernatural power restoring order is also present in Ovid’s stories: The Flood and The Human Race is Recreated. When Pandora opens the box given from the gods, all the good qualities that make a good person spread out. People then become evil and aggressive. They become out of control. The box was made by Zeus, and the god caused all these problems in the first place by creating those magical objects. But it is the god again who cleans up the mess. Poseidon brings giant tsunami and Zeus the lightnings. The great flood kills every men and women (except for living things in one boat, which is not really important this case). Then, the human race is recreated from rocks. The gods make a mess and clean them. To clean the mess, Roman gods can use their magnificent power, like how fairies in the Midsummer Night’s Dream can. Gods and fairies easily make transformation of men/women and the nature. ==== 

** The Ant & the Grasshopper ** and Horace 2.3 The Horace’s poem 2.3 makes me think immediately if what the grasshopper says to the ants in the tale, The Ants and the Grasshopper. Horace’s main point is that since people are destined to die someday, they should enjoy the limited time they got “moriture Delli” (Dellius destined to die someday). If you think about it, insects have even shorter life span – one year life – and the grasshopper seems to know this. Instead of working hard in the hot, penetrating summer’s days, the Grasshopper enjoys his time singing happily. “ Why do you work so hard, dear ant? Come, rest awhile, and listen to my song. Summer is here, the days are long and bright. Why waste the sunshine in labour and toil?” the grasshopper says, “'What a silly little ant you are! 'Come, come and dance with me! Forget about work! Enjoy the summer! Live a little!” This grasshopper’s saying resembles with Horace’s saying very closely. Just like the grasshopper, Horace warns people to live mainly happily, not working hard in toil all the time. Horace would describe the Ants to be lives sad for all time ( seu maestus omni tempore uixeris ) because their main purpose is to prepare the food for winter for the next generation, and they are most likely to die without having much fun outside of the work (Ants dies within a year usually. But some of the ants have the life of 3 months). For Grasshopper, Horace would describe him as happy as it enjoys his time singing on grass – just the thing it likes to do; this is parallel to one of the phrases in 2.3: being happy on a secluded grass through the festive days with the inner vintage of Falernian Wine, “ seu te in remoto gramine per dies festos reclinatum bearis interiore nota Falerni.” In addition, Horace advices people to achieve their own happiness through any means, even they have to cause people’s misfortunes, as to emphasize how important it is to live happily. He once says “command the boy” (iube) – who is most likely a slave - to bring wines, flowers, perfume to make him happy. Horace does not care about slave’s unhappiness as long as he is happy. “As youth and black threads of three sisters allow” (dum res et aetas et sororum fila trium patiuntur atra) which means as long as you live, Horace warns people achieve and express their excessive happiness (insolenti laetitia). Like how Grasshopper romanticizes the summer, Horace romanticizes life using beautiful imageries: how huge pine and white poplar love to join friendly shade with the branches and how hurrying clear water work to rush along the winding channel (Quo pinus ingens albaque populous umbram hospitalem consociare amant ramis? Quid liquo laborat lympha fugax trepidare riuo?). To lessen the worry and to add feeling of happiness, Horace says with enthusiasm that your heir will gain possession of riches piled into the heavens after you die. He is trying to make the main purpose of life to be full of happiness, and it is foolish to instead pursue hard works and toil for a long time. The grasshopper and the ants will both die in the winter despite how much they try. However, the grasshopper lived a joyful life while ants were working its pants off. The grasshopper was definitely happier than the ants in life time, and this is precisely Horace’s point. At the end of the 2.3 poem he concludes that “we're all driven to the same end, sooner or later our [death] ticket will come out of the upturned jar” (Omnes eodem cogimur, omnium uersata urna serius ocius). Sooner or later people would die and it is good to spend time wisely with things you like, Horace warns.



Catullus 77 resembles what Harvey Dent said to Bruce Wayne, the Batman, at the end of the movie, “The Dark Knight.” In the middle of the movie, Batman falls into the Joker’s trap and gets into a situation where he has to choose to save between Harvey Dent and Rachel, Harvey’s lover. Batman decides to free Harvey and leave Rachel to death, because he thinks that the citizens need Harvey more than Rachel, a regular citizen, to stay as their district Attorney to keep their city safe. However, Harvey gets into a terrible accident in the process and damages half of his body; half of his face becomes ruin and he is also in a tremendous sadness in the lost of his beloved future wife Rachel. After the accident, he quits his job and becomes a madman, thinking he lost everything: his wife, job, face, health. When Harvey talks to Batman and Gordon, the head of the police of the city, at the end of the movie, Harvey blames everything on them, saying that they should have stopped Joker before he planned such trap. Harvey also blames Gordon for killing Rachel and tries to kill Gordon’s son to make Gordon to feel same pain as he has experienced. Until Batman stops Harvey and finally kills him before Harvey kills Gordon’s family and Batman himself, Harvey bitterly scorns them with hatreds. They get into a serious fight and serious arguments. The tone and the materials of this conversation are very similar to Catullus 77. Catullus is angry that Rufus took everything he possessed, “ei misero eripuisti omnia nostra bona?” (alas, you snatched away all our good things from miserable me?) Rufus took Catullus’s girl friend Lesbia and may have hurt Catullus physically or financially – like what Harvey thinks Batman and Gordon has done to him. Throughout the poem, Catullus’s anger and frustration is well expressed. He uses rhetorical questions and chooses serious words, for example Catullus uses “Eripuisti” which means snatch away instead of a simple word like “took”. Catullus also says “sicine subrepsti mi atque intestina perurens” (Thus you crept under me and consuming my intestines); the consuming my intestines gives reader the sense that Catullus is suffering in a big pain. Harvey also uses many rhetorical questions to Gordon to show his anger. He asks, “do you know what hard is it to lose a person you love?”, “you think you will be fine making me like this?” etc. .. He also uses harsh words like Catullus to describe how misuable he is as to how he lost everything. Catullus and Rufus were “trusted friends” (credite amice) before but their friendship has shattered. Harvey once worked closely with Gordon and Batman to keep his people safe. They were trusted partners; however, their friendship has also shattered and they are in bitter hatred towards each other. The seriousness of the tone and the situations are so similar between the poem 77 and the Dark Knight.



The Catullus 43 made me search for the story I had in my mind but forgot what it was called. At first I knew a similar story to the Catullus 43 in which a man lover compares other women to his own, perfect lover. After a quick search in my basemen library in my house, I found it. It is about Pymalion in Greek Mythology. Pygmalion has a clear image of the woman he wants to marry and love. But after looking around the island of Cipro, he scorns other women about their physical appearences and says, “that woman isn’t it… no, not that one either…no…no…no.” Pygmalion becomes very sad as he realizes that there is no women alike to the one perfect woman he has been imagining. He gives up the search for his imaginative love, and starts to sculpt a woman. He decides to only love the sculpture in his entire life. After finishing the work, he looks at the female sculpture in pleasure, and says, “Yes, this is the woman I was always thinking in my head.” Every day, as soon as he gets up, he went to her and looked at her, touched her, hugged her, and kissed her. He later put her on make ups, pretty dress, and jewelries. However, as time pass, he becomes so frustrated that his lover is a mere art work and is cold, hard, and motionless all the time. So he goes to the temple of Aphrodite and prays with all of his heart. One morning, he goes to her as usual and does the usual love things he does every day. But this time, instead of hard, cold sculptor, when he hugs and touches her, he feels warmth and softness of the skin. The women came to alive and they could live happily ever after with Aphrodite’s blessings. Now you know the both stories, you will understand the connection I make now. Well, Catullus has a lover he loves so much, and so does Pygmalion. They both look at other women with criticizing feelings because they always compare them with their perfect beauty of the lovers. After Phygmalion finished his sculptor, he goes around the island again and criticizes other women’s physical character like Catullus did to a “girl” in poem 43. It is also same that they both look at women about her physical character rather than her emotions and thoughts. There is also a joy with the criticisms they make because they are so joyful of their lovers, it is fun for them to scorn other women as not beautiful, because they want to brag about how beautiful their lovers are. When Catullus says, “The girlfriend of bankrupt Formio. Does the province say that you are beautiful? Is our Lesbia being compared with you? O unwise and dull age!” I could feel his superiority over other women and his happiness. Catullus thinks Lesbia is the best of all and he does not care about other women, as if they are totally okay to be treated bad. Pygmalion is also happy to have his perfect love in his house, and he thinks all the other women aren’t as beautiful. They are both passionate lovers and are not willing to marry any other women because they think that their lover are the most beautiful of all.