classicsinconversation

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confession

In junior highschool a girl in my school Rashidah Combs used  to bully me every single day to a point that it would drive me nuts. One day in class she decided to yell at me during a math quiz and publicly embarrass me so I hopped over a desk and got in her face like I was going to beat her up. After school I met her on "the bridge" which was a little bridge that got us to the subway so we could fight. So I took my name belt wrapped it around my knuckles and punched her in the face so my name was bruised in her face for a week. When I got to school the next day I found out I had an in school suspension this made me realize that i probably should have handled things another way I just had gone through three years of her bullying me and was really frustrated. It was a sign that I wasn't going to take that nonsense from anyone anymore because I always knew that if I wanted to I could beat her up I just didn't because I knew it was wrong it showed me that I tend to bottle things up and need to just deal with issues right away. 

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This song is a modern rendition of what the artist believes the sirens would sound like in song. This piece is the genre of electronica, and hints at the sirens with chirp-like sounds in the background. The sirens in Homer's epic are considered evil creatures, and so the electronica has a kind of ominous, dark sound to it. The artist did a good job of portraying the personalities of the sirens in this song, using the dark beat to emphasize their true nature.

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This photo, titled Bertran De Born, is my favorite of all the artwork affiliated with Dante's Inferno.  In this piece of artwork, Bertran De Born, a poet and a warrior, is in the ninth ditch of Malebolge. He was placed here for being what Dante calls a schismatic. These schismatics are tortured for their sins by having parts of them ripped off by demons, but Bertran's punishment seems to be the worst, as he has had his head decapitated. This requires Bertran to carry his head for the rest of eternity because he was the cause of a division between King Henry II and his son, therefore, he must be divided from his head for the rest of existence.

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This picture is from an advertisement for the movie The Perfect Storm. In a way, this movie is similar to Homer's The Odyssey because it is about fishermen embarking on a long journey out at sea to harvest their catch for the season when a catastrophic storm hits them and leaves them in mortal danger. This situation happened to Odysseus and his crew as well, when Odysseus cursed the god of the sea, Poseidon.

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The photo shown here is of an Amphitheater in Greece. The architectural features of this amphitheater include various sized arches, one of the strongest architectural features when dealing with support during construction, this is significant because the Greeks were one of the first cultures to use arches in their construction, learning its significance from the Romans.

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This movie clip is from my favorite movie, The Boondock Saints. It is about two Irish brothers and their Italian friend who are wronged by members of a Russian crime syndicate. This wrongdoing creates a domino effect of the brothers periodically taking out members high up in the syndicate, and when their Italian friend hears about their work, he decides to join. This creates a problem, however, because this friend is part of the Italian mafia in Boston, where the movie takes place. This scene is of the brothers and their father executing the Don of the Italian Mafia because of his involvement in the murder of the brothers Italian friend and many other people. When you watch the movie, you realize that, even though they are murdering other men, these brothers are heroes because they are taking out only evil men. There are parts in the movie where they even debate whether certain men are evil enough to deserve the punishment of death. This selection of who they will and will not harm is actually quite heroic, because they are doing good by clearing the world of bad men and making it a safer place.

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This picture, to me, is a direct representation of wisdom in artwork. The painting depicts God reaching out and touching the finger of Adam, the first man ever created. God created Adam with his divine power and wisdom, and this portrait shows you how powerful God really is, as he is in the sky, reaching out for man, surrounded by cherubs. God is the definition of divinity, wisdom, and power, and for him to create man in the direct image of himself, shows that we were created out of wisdom.

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This is the Parthenon. Whenever we would read The Odyssey, when Homer would talk about the suitors being in Odysseus' palace i would picture this in my head. The architecture of this building represents Odysseus in a way, because of certain features in it's style. The Parthenon was constructed using orders, also known as columns or pillars, in the Doric fashion. Doric orders were used to give the feeling of masculinity and power, similar to Odysseus. Odysseus is a hero and a highly respected soldier, so he is often thought of as a very masculine, powerful man. The Parthenon is also one of the few buildings in the world built using what is called the "golden ratio". This ratio in architecture is the use of shapes to create a building who's proportions are perfectly harmonious and gives the viewer the highest aesthetic pleasure. This is also related to Odysseus, because it seems as if he is created almost in perfect harmony. He is a king, a warrior, and a hero, making him seem almost like the perfect man.

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This is a poet of the Roman poet Virgil. Virgil wrote many famous works, like The Aeneid, and appeared in Dante's Inferno. Virgil was often referred to as one of the greatest Roman poets of all time, and his epic, Aeneid, is considered ancient Rome's national epic. Virgil made an appearance in Dante's inferno as Dante's guide through the realm of hell. Virgil is often thought of as the representation of human reason in the Inferno. He is regarded as this because, unlike Dante who feels sorrowful for some of the tortured souls, Virgil understands the sinful things these souls have committed and knows that, no matter how horrible they punishment is, they deserve what they are getting and it is needed for them to learn a lesson. Virgil does however, call upon an angel at the gates of the city of Dis, which shows he is not all powerful, and that reason is nothing without faith. Virgil is represented as a strong and wise character in this book, knowing what is right and necessary, without feeling sorrow for the tortured souls.

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Midway on our life's journey I found myself in dark woods the right road lost.

This quote from Dante's Inferno is the first sentence from the book. This quote is significant because it sets the stage for the plot of the book and can also apply to any person's life. After you read all of Dante's Inferno, you can see how this quote applies to the rest of the book and life as a whole. When Dante refers to "journey" he is talking about the journey that he makes with Virgil through hell. This is more of an extreme and fictional journey compared to what the average would make but the point is that the pursuit of God's faith is a process and does not just happen over night. The "dark woods" could be what Dante is referring to hell as since he is going on this journey through hell in order to help him find God in a world full of sin and evil. The "dark woods" could also be times in life when you question God's love and hope.Therefore when Dante says "right road" he is discussing heaven and the right belief and faith in God. Something else that I found to be noteworthy in this quote is that Dante does not make it solely about him. Instead he says the word "our" which shows that this journey to find faith in God in a corrupt world applies to all humans and Dante is aware of that. At some point in life all humans go through a journey where they either find faith in God or they fail to find faith in God.

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One night when I was a sophomore in high school I egged this kids house in my neighborhood. I did not like this kid and he lived up the street up from. I was bored and with a couple of my other friends. We drove to his house, unloaded the eggs, and drove right back to my house. Unfortunately his father saw us get in the car and head in the direction to my house. The cops came about a half hour later and questioned us like crazy and naturally, we lied like crazy. That night I learned that what I did was wrong and just because you don’t like someone doesn’t mean you can violate their property. I learned and grew from this event and it makes me a better person today.

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In accordance to my last post I found that the picture of Cerberus guarding the underworld was very similar to the image of Lucifer. Seeing that Cerberus is guarding the underworld, I began to wonder if Dante had taken the idea of the Lucifer from the description of Cerberus in the Aeneid. Being that Virgil is essentially the narrator in Dante's Inferno it draws the question of whether Dante may have taken ideas from the Aeneid. I personally think that this image of Cerberus was something Dante used as an idea for Lucifer, but I have yet to do any research to find any truth behind my hypothesis.

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Once getting to the end of *Dante's Inferno *I had a particular image of Lucifer instilled in my mind. The image I have posted is almost the exact way I had pictured Lucifer being from the story. The massive size of just the upper torso surrounded by ice, the images of three heads with nothing except the look of evil and unhappiness, with giant winds, and hands like claws couldn't have been more accurate to my own personal image. My only critique is the picture lacks the devil chewing Brutus, Cassius, and Judas.

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When looking at Augustine during his conversion I found it very interesting that he had been in a garden. Augustine had been sitting in the garden contemplating whether he would ever be able to make his conversion or not when all of a sudden it all came to him, that this is his final test from God. Temptation is what led Adam and Eve to their fall (in the Garden) and Augustine realizes this is what God is trying to show him. If Augustine is able to overcome the temptation of sex, which he is genuinely having a nervous breakdown over, he would be able to make his full conversion. It's ironic that he is sitting in the garden when God finally reaches out to him and gives Augustine the proof he needs to make his full conversion. 

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After reading about St. Aguistine's incident with the pear tree i thought back to when I had been younger, and why I too had done things just for the sake of being mischievous. I looked back on a particular moment in my life where I had been with friends (as was Augustine) and found it necessary to rings someones doorbell and run away. I asked myself, why did we find so much amusement in doing this? We didn't need the person for any sort of reason other than waking them from their sleep to answer a door with nobody there. I began to wonder if Augustine would consider this as an act of sin, and I came to the conclusion that he would. Comparing the situation to the "Pear Tree" incident, and Augustine being so hard on himself for his actions, I made a direct comparison between them because the only reason for both actions were to create mischief.

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Is it possible Tim Tebow would have a free pass through hell according to Dante? Looking through the always watching eyes of the public, it seems that Tim Tebow makes no mistakes unless it's making an incomplete pass. Looking at the life of Tim Tebow your able to see that every action he has taken, in his life, seems to carry the image that everything he does is for God. At birth, Tebow's mother had been at risk of losing her life if she attempted to give birth to her son, but did not see abortion as an option due to her strong faith. Tebow and his mother both survived the pregnancy, from then on Tebow has been active achieving greatness in his faith, football, and life. Is it possible that in this current state of the world with so many temptations and opportunities to sin that Tim Tebow had managed to resist and be the current age Figure of God? The question has been brought up more than once on Television, and on several occasions when discussing this heroic athlete. At every interview he dedicates all he accomplishes to the Lord, and when not on the field or practicing he is doing something affiliated with the church. I'm not Tim Tebow and I don't know what may go on behind closed doors, but with the reputation he has with the public, and with every move he makes being under surveillance I don't know how much there is to not know about him. I don't believe that Dante would be able to find a place in hell to place Tebow if going by how he is presented by the media. I would be interested to know whether Dante would agree or not.

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Does Evil exist?

In the Confessions, Augustine struggled in pertaining the cause of Evil. He went about reading various books and he finally ended up disagreeing with the Manicheans that evil exits. Augustine used the hypothesis that if God was omnipotent, it was therefore impossible for evil to exist. Therefore Augustine came to the conclusion that evil does not exist. I personally think that evil exist because it all goes back to the book of Genesis when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit of Eden and God punished them for their behavior. Evil exist from our human free will to do what we desire, and thats why we still find people in our society today committing various crimes.