Comparison and Contrast Paper: Medieval Characteristics

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Comparison and Contrast Paper: Medieval Characteristics Shawna Macauley ENG 106: Survey of Literary Masterpieces August 19, 2013 Jason Faulkner, Facilitator Comparison and Contrast Paper: Medieval Characteristics The belief between fate and gods intertwines. A person’s perception of him or herself in relation to his or her God can determine how an individual responds to and controls his or her own fate. In the poems Theogony, Oedipus, and Inferno, readers glimpse at three different views between the gods and humanities vision of who controls fate. These three poems show an illustration of fate controlled exclusively by the gods, fate foretold by the gods therefore controlled by the gods, versus fate determined by an individual’s choice but judged by God. A development influenced by culture, circumstance, and understanding. In Hesiod’s Theogony he described the creation of heaven, earth, and the gods. Hesiod’s reflections are those of the limited knowledge of his time. The lack of understanding between science and humanity contributes to his idea that an outside source controls fate. Hesiod describes the gods as separate entities. Each of the gods takes on a different physical or psychological aspect of humanity. Hesiod’s gods create one another, “Great Heaven came, and with him brought the night. Longing for love, he lay around the Earth” (Hesiod, n.d., p. 58). Great Heaven and Earth bore Kottos and Gyes and Briarues, for example. Hesiod’s heaven is for the gods, born of Earth, “starry Heaven, first, to be an equal to herself, to cover her all over, and to be a resting-place, always secure, for all the blessed gods” (Hesiod, n.d., p. 56). Hesiod’s hell was not a place to go because of sin and therefore punishment but a place the Titans were sent to when they lost the war. Hesiod describes the gods as squabbling and fighting one

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