Review- Egypt, and more

•  The Ankh- stands for eternal life and the infinite- it is a shape. 
• The jar with the heart in it is weighted against a feather after someone dies. The feather was called the feather of Maat. 
• The book of the Dead---
• The six major historians of ancient Greece-  Herodotus wrote about the Persian wars, which was between the greeks and the Persians. He wrote the first history in western civilizations. 
• Thucydides wrote the second half of the fifth century, and writes about the Peloponnese was between the Athens and the Spartans. 
• Xenophon- an Athenian that wrote about what occurred during the time of Socrates
• Aristotle- Wrote history, and worked with logic and philosophy. He was the first guy to write an encyclopedia.
• Plutarch- Known for his biographies. 
• Pausanias- wrote the first travel guide, which was to all of the cites in Greece. 

• The Persian wars take place just as the fifth century is unfolding. (the 400's, BCE)
• The straight that comes out of the ? is called the bosphorus, or the Istanbul straight. The Persians crossed this. 
• Thessalonika is to Greece like Baltimore is to Maryland. 
• The Persians come down from Thrace, and enter Macedonia, and then Thessaly, and then Epirus, and then Attica. 
• They get stopped for a little at Thermopylae. 
• When the Persians got there, Athens was evacuated, so they burned the Acropolis. Then they battlesd and the Persians were destroyed. 
• They then rebuilt everything. 
• You can see everything form the top of the acropolis. 
• The Parthenon- Doric architecture. It was the temple of the city, to the virgin Athena, and it was the most sacred temple in all of Athens. It was built with the funds that came through the Athenian league. 
• The Persians battle the Athenians at Salamis, the Athenians win, and the Persians are kicked back....

Extra Credit- Why do we know so much about Michelangelo and so little about Shakespeare?

Michelangelo was much more well known than Shakespeare. Some people  even doubt Shakespeare's existence. But why do we know so much more about Michelangelo than about Shakespeare? Michelangelo worked on his paintings and works of art out in the open. People knew what he was doing, and they watched him, mentored him, gave him hints or tips while he was working. They could see this genius hard at work while he created things that no one had ever accomplished before. But Shakespeare's works were a little more private. Writing a play is not really something as big and open as painting the ceiling of a cathedral, for example.  Michelangelo sometimes had people work with him, so they may have recorded information about him, but Shakespeare, on the other hand, mostly worked alone. Also, Michelangelo was recognized for his talents at a very young age, which gave people more itme to get to know of him. Shakespeare was a genius, but was not recognized until his later years. Overall, we do know a lot about these great artists, but as long as we are fascinated with them, the knowledge we have will never be enough.

Sources:

"Michelangelo." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 25 May 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelangelo>.

"William Shakespeare." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 25 May 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare>.

Photographs from:

Photograph. Wikimedia Commons. Wikipedia, 21 Dec. 2004. Web. 25 May 2010. <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Michelangelo.jpg>.

Photograph. Wikimedia Commons. Wikipedia, 10 Dec. 2008. Web. 25 May 2010. <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shakespeare.jpg>.

Extra Credit Daily- Did Shakespeare Exist?

I think that Shakespeare did exist. Although all of his accomplishments seem like they may have been impossible for one man to complete, I think that he did in fact do all that he is said to have done. Because history is not recorded as well back then as it is today, some people have doubts about Shakespeare's existence. But if he didn't write all of those plays and sonnets, who did? The reason why many people doubt Shakespeare because they cannot believe that he was so brilliant. There have been other brilliant people in history however, so why do they doubt Shakespeare? Leonardo da Vinci was a brilliant painter, inventor, and much more. He accomplished so many "impossible" feats in his time, so why do people think that Shakespeare is not capable of doing the same? Da Vinci created many inventions that only came to be hundreds of years after his life. People even thought he may have been crazy. But today we recognize that there are always some people who exceed what is thought possible of a human being. This also stays true in the case of Shakespeare, and although our records of him are not 100% clear, the story of his life is something that probably did indeed happen.

Source:

"William Shakespeare." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 21 May 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare>.

Photograph from:

Photograph. Wikimedia Commons. Wikipedia, 12 Mar. 2009. Web. 21 May 2010. <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shakespeare_Flower.jpg>.

The Medici- Notes 5-20

• Michaelangelo was consulted by the Medici. 
• Florence, 1501 home of the Italian renaissance. It is the heart of an artistic revolution. 
• Michaelangelo- he got so into his work he never ate, or sometimes never slept.... 
• The huge project he was doing would take him three years to complete
• Michaelangelo had moved in with the Medici 15 years before this project. 
• He was raised alongside the heirs to the Medici dynasty. 
• A bloody civil war was sparked in the streets of Florence because of jealousy of Medici wealth. The heirs of the once great dynasty were cast into exile. 
• Julio the Medici had remained a priest, and his cousin Giovanni was already a cardinal. 
• On the 25th of January 1504, felt ready to expose his work to the scrutiny of the outside world. 
• "The David" is what he was working on. 
• Everyone agreed that it was such a monumental step forward, that they decided to put it outside the town hall. 
• Michaelangelo started to see the Medici as contrary to the good of Florence. 
• The Medici finally returned from exile, and took their case to the highest level of the church. 
• The pope helped the Medici assemble an army, which headed back for Florence. 
• Against the wishes of the church, the artists were venturing into new ground. They were looking at corpses for their own knowledge and studied the complexity of the human body. 
• Leonardo and Michaelangelo were each given a wall to decorate, almost like a contest to see who is better. However, they both have very different styles. 
• By 1512, thousands of heavily armed soldiers were inside the borders of Tuscany and heading for Florence, shadowed by the Medici cousins. The people of Florence prepared for their coming. But they knew they were hopelessly outnumbered. 
• The leaders called on their chief advisor, a political genius, Nicolo Maccereli (not the right spelling..)
• Giovanni sent the progress report to his master, because lots of people were killed, blood was everywhere....
• The leaders of the Republic of Florence surrendered. The Medici regained control, but not the loyalty of the people. 
• Giovanni received news one day that his mentor and master, the pope, was dead. 
• The cardinals were still undecided about a new pope for over a week. Giovanni cast the deciding vote. 
• Giovanni voted himself pope. 
• This changed everything, and Florence welcomed back their old enemy with open arms.
•  Being the pope was an unbelievable powerful position. 
• He hosted elaborate dinners night after night. 
• Giovanni had risen higher than any of his ancestors. 
• Michaelangelo was forced into painting the roof of the Sistine Chapel, and he thought he was being made do it by people who wanted to see him fail. He resented every minute he spent on it. 
• He covered the ceiling with over 300 stories from the bible. 
• He had created maybe the greatest work of the renaissance. 
• The Medici ordered Michaelangelo to make tombs for their dead fathers. 
• After all of his spending for one year, he owed money to every bank. 
• Leo sold indulgences, which would forgive the person's sins that bought it. 
• He sold A LOT.
• Martin Luther was horrified by what the church was doing. 
• He wrote a book that traveled everywhere with all of his thesis'.
• No one had ever dared to use such language against the church. Luther was just trying to reform the church, but things kind of snowballed. 
• But Luther's complaints mattered little to the pope. 
• The pope died in 1521, very suddenly by a simple winter chill. His cousin was left to deal with the problems with Luther and such. He became pope Clement the seventh
• About 8000 people died on the first day of the massacre, and The pope ran to safety. after 7 months, clement finally finished his plan for escape.
• He bribed his was out of Rome, and went to find safety in Florence. 
• A bench was thrown off of city hall, and broke "The David."
• Michaelangelo finally finished the tombs for the Medici. 
• Katherine the Medici was the only heir left of the Medici line. 
• She was only eleven though. 
• Katherine was married off at age 14. 
• Michaelangelo chose to portray the last judgment as his last project for the Medici popes. 
• Clement, however, he did not live to see that work finished. It was the end of an era. 

Extra notes that I got from a friend: 

1. Two cousins are all that is left of the Medici family
2. The Medici split the Church in two and almost brought Florence, Europe, and Rome to a collapse
3. France 1501 - Michelangelo was starting on the statue of David
4. It took him 3 years to complete this
5. He made a cast of it in wax
6. 15 years before that he has moved in with the Medici
7. Michelangelo watched as Giovanni was getting ready for the Church
8. They had hits on both of them
9. On the 25 of January 1504 he released his work to the outside world
10. He turned on the Medici family
11. Giovanni took this to court with the Pope
12. The Pope helped them create an army to take back Florence
13. Leonardo da Vinci would take bodies apart and study them for better details on his artwork
14. They told Michelangelo and Leonardo to compete against each other
15. 1512 they arrive in Florence with their army
16. Nicalo was a dingle minded patriot determined to fight the Medici
17. He got thousands of men from different towns to fight in this battle
18. They took control of the city once again
19. Giovanna got the news that the Pope was dead
20. Pope Leo the tenth was Giovanni
21. The city of Florence now welcomed back Giovanni to their city
22. This is the first time that the current Pope was born in Florence
23. Julio is made arch bishop in Florence and then a cardinal later that year
24. Pope Julias the 2nd told Michelangelo to paint the Sistine chapel
25. He was a true master of Fresco
26. He covered it with 300 stories from the Bible
27. They ordered Michelangelo to build excellent tombs in marble for Giovanni's fallen fathers
28. Nicalo wanted a job inside Leo's regime now
29. He was thrown into jail and tortured to the worst that Florence could do to them
30. He wrote a book called the Prince and was an opinionated book about politics
31. A group of cardinals got together and planned the assassination of the Pope
32. However he was warned about this and had a decoy
33. Leo the tenth owed money to every bank in Florence
34. Leo started selling indulgences to people
35. They costed money but were freedom from an eternity in hell
36. This brought in lots of money for the Pope
37. You could even buy indulgences for dead ones
38. For Martin Luther indulgences were a step to far
39. In 1517 published a book for change
40. He had it printed, circulated, and translated
41. This was a direct attack to the Pope
42. Those who bought indulgences would be internally damned
43. This was a start of a revolution
44. Pope Leo did not care because he is a poor monk and he is the Pope
45. The Pope condemned Luther to Hell
46. He was denied access to heaven by the Pope
47. He refused to repent and this caused a battle between the Catholics and the Protestants
48. In 1521 Leo the tenth suddenly died
49. He died from a simple window chill
50. Julio was crowned Pope 2 years later
51. People started gathering around Rome and having riots because they were inflamed by the words of Martin Luther
52. Clement fled to the safety of a fort
53. For the next day Rome was torn apart without mercy
54. They kill, rape, hold people to ransom, and destroy buildings
55. About 8,000 people died on the first day
56. This was called the sack of Rome
57. He had all the gold melted down and all his treasures sewn into his clothes
58. He bribed his way out of Rome to the safety of Florence

Is Shakespeare worth studying?

Shakespeare is indeed worth studying. He wrote such an array of pieces in his lifetime, it was just unbelievable. He wrote numerous plays and sonnets, and much more. All of his plays were extraordinary, written in such a way that one might think that they would take a lifetime to write. But not for Shakespeare. He wrote all of his plays in iambic pentameter, which is a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. Each line of his play was written with ten syllables, every other one either stressed or unstressed, and he still managed to have the play make sense. His wordings of the plays are beautiful to listen to, and have many different meaning hidden within them. These factors make the plays worth studying, because one can learn a lot. Shakespeare also wrote sonnets. One hundred fifty-four of them. One may wonder how this is possible, how he has time after he has written so many plays. But Shakespeare continues to amaze. His sonnets are not just regular poems. He came up with his own way of writing sonnets, which became a completely new form of sonnet writing. As you can see, Shakespeare is very complex. He is not an easy subject to study, and when one does, it is very worth it. There is so much that Shakespeare has created, and it may be hard to understand because we do not speak like that today, but one can realize that the ideas and thoughts in his works are still ones we have today. Overall, no one could regret studying Shakespeare.

Sources:

"Iambic Pentameter." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 17 May 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iambic_pentameter>.

"William Shakespeare." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 17 May 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare>.

Photograph from:

 Photograph. Wikimedia Commons. Wikipedia, 10 Dec. 2008. Web. 16 May 2010. <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shakespeare.jpg>. 

Monarch or Democracy- Which is More Effective?

                There are many ways to govern a country. Forms of government vary from monarchies, to democracies, to actually having no government whatsoever. A monarchy is a type of government that consists of all the power being in one individual, or monarch. On the other hand, a democracy is carried out by the people, either directly or by having representatives. Both of these forms of government have their pros and cons; but which is better or more effective? This is not only a matter of different types of government, but also the person that is in power and the people that are being governed. Democracy is a much more effective method of pleasing a larger majority of the people, and Monarchy is great for making quick decisions that need not be argued against, so they both are good forms of government in different ways.

Monarchies have occurred numerous times throughout history, including the reign of Henry VIII of England. He had complete power over England, and when he found that he did not have quite as much power as he wanted, he passed an act to give him even more power. The Act of Supremacy gave him supreme rule over the entire church. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acts_of_Supremacy). In the Act, he stated that the king:

shall be taken, accepted and reputed the only supreme head in earth of the Church of England called Anglicana Ecclesia, and shall have and enjoy annexed and united to the imperial crown of this realm as well the title and style thereof, as all honours, dignities, preeminences, jurisdictions, privileges, authorities, immunities, profits and commodities, to the said dignity of supreme head of the same Church belonging and appertaining. (King Henry VIII).

In a monarchy, the king makes the end all be all decisions. No one can argue, or the king may just decide to have them banished or executed. While this is not human, and can cause many people to dislike or turn against the king, it does provide a fast way of getting things done. Some people may title monarchy as the most effective form of government, but others may argue.

                A democracy is a newer form of government that also has many positives. Unlike monarchy, democracy has a much better chance of satisfying more people in a country. Democracies started a very long time ago and still continue to appear in our world today. One example is the government of the United States. While we do have one president in charge, we have a fair way of choosing them and voting on decisions. The constitution states that when choosing the president, “The Electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President.” These electors are people who have also been elected to represent each state. When more people are represented in the government, more people are happy. But is this type of government really the most effective?

                A democracy may seem nice, but it may not be as effective as a monarchy in some circumstances. It takes time to allow each of the representatives to vote, and it takes even more time to count up the votes. “The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted.” (The United States Constitution). If the decision at and were, for example, whether or not to go to war, then this is not good. In the time it takes to decide, the opposing group may get impatient and simply attack. If a monarchy was also faced with this predicament, the King may decide to go to war at once, but all citizens may not agree and may not back him up in the war. Deciding which government functions better is a tough choice.

                While a form of government is one of the most important parts of a country, it is not an easy thing to decide on. Maybe sometime in the future, a new form of government will develop that combines the good things about the forms of government that we have today. But while we wait, we must stick with what we have, and know that although it may not seem it, each government has its pluses.

Sources:

"Acts of Supremacy." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 15 May 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acts_of_Supremacy.

"The Act of Supremacy." TudorHistory.org. Web. 15 May 2010. http://tudorhistory.org/primary/supremacy.html.

                "The United States Constitution - The U.S. Constitution Online - USConstitution.net." Index Page - The U.S. Constitution Online - USConstitution.net. Web. 15 May 2010. http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html#Am12.

                Photographs from:

                Photograph. Wikimedia Commons. Wikipedia, 27 Apr. 2009. Web. 15 May 2010. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:King_Henry_VII.png.

                 Photograph. Wikimedia Commons. Wikipedia, 09 Dec. 2006. Web. 15 May 2010. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Constitution.jpg. 

Notes 5-14- video on Martin Luther

• German 1483- a time of desolation and disease. Where the plague could wipe out entire towns in days and a quarter of all children died before they were five. There was one consolation- the church and its promise of heaven.
• It made the church the most powerful institution on earth, very rich, but also corrupt and tyrannical.
• Martin Luther- The idea that we should stand up fir what we believe in, and that all people are precious- things he fought for. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_luther
• He took on the Catholic Church. He said "you are wrong, let us now come to the right." 
• Martin Luther grew up in a tiny town in Germany. 
• The church stood at the center of Luther's childhood world. 
• If you followed the church's rules and rituals, you would escape the horrors of the world. 
• It governed every aspect of human life. 
• The young Luther embraced the church, served as an alter boy and sang in the choir. 
• His father, Hans, was a copper smelter. He held fierce ambitions for his son and intended for him to become a lawyer. 
• Luther's mother was not any more sympathetic than his father. 
• He did not follow his father's ambitions. He followed it at first and went to the best schools in the area.
• He became a great musician at the University of Erfurt. 
• In 1505, Plague struck and Luther's life and plans were shattered. 
• The epidemic killed three of Luther's friends, and this glimpse of human mortality and the fear of God's wrath made a turning point in Luther's life. 
• Luther, now 23, returned to Erfurd after a visit to a family and he was caught in a massive thunderstorm. 
• No one knows exactly what happened that night, but it struck his soul. He struck a bargain with God, and vowed to become a monk. 
• It was a moment when he took charge of his own life. 
• His father was really really mad. 
• Life as a monk, life was extremely regulated. 
• Luther joined one of the most strict monasteries in the country, 
• The monks tried to imitate the sufferings of Christ. 
• He eventually left, saying that he would have killed himself if he stayed there. 
• Luther did everything 100%, so when he wanted to be a monk, he did it all. 
• He was increasingly concerned that he would not make it to heaven. 
• "God's word is too high and too hard for anyone to fulfill it."
• He was sent to Rome by his monastery thing.
• This was an important pilgrimage, because Rome was the home of the Catholic Church. 
• It took Luther and his companion two months to get to Rome. 
• He arrived in Rome just as the renaissance was reaching its height. 
• The city was a revelation to Luther. 
• He was criticized when he was there and it was a disappointment. 
• After everything he had gone through, he wondered if it was really bringing him closer to God. He broke down, questioning the teachings of the church. Rome did not reflect Christianity as he understood it. 
• His trip to Rome had only brought doubt. He still wanted to get salvation though. He spent the rest of his days in endless confession.