Topic Essay (History) 3

Topic: Why was the Peloponnesian War fought? What was its long-term significance?

The Peloponnesian War was a war fought between the main Greek powers, Athens and Sparta, through 431 to 404 BC. The war was started because of Sparta was scared of Athens becoming too powerful.

It was a significant war, and it ended up shaping the Greek state. Athens, prior to the war, was a strong city, but it ended up becoming completely powerless after this war, and Sparta became the strongest. Poverty was common after this war, as it completely destroyed the Greek economy.

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Cyclopes in The Odyssey (Topic Essay H 2)

Topic 1: Read Homer’s description of the Cyclopes (plural) in Book 9 of The Odyssey. Would you describe them as having a civilization?

Topic 2: What happens between the Cyclops and Odysseus and his men? How does the story end?

The Cyclopes, as Homer describes, are a lawless race, who have a taste for any humans they can get their hands on. Homer describes the species to have goats/sheep, so it might be possible they feast on them, too. The Cyclopes are implied to have caves which they recognize as housing. I believe that despite being lawless, the Cyclopes have a civilization, albeit a very primitive one.

The specific Cyclops the second topic refers to is a Cyclops named Polyphemus, who after closing his cave with a giant rock, finds and gets enraged at Odysseus for invading his cave and eating the food and drink they found, so he smashes two of his men’s heads into rock, and eats them. After doing this, Polyphemus falls asleep, and Odysseus knows not to attack him, simply because he’s too powerful.

After the Cyclops awakens, he takes two more of Odysseus’s men’s heads and eats them for breakfast. Then, he opens his cave and herds out the sheep he brought in prior. Odysseus thinks of a plan during this time, and makes a large spear of leftover wood they found. When the Cyclops returned, he took two more men and ate them, but this time, Odysseus spoke, offering Polyphemus some wine.

Polyphemus, who has never drank wine, became drunk and thanked Odysseus before asking his name. Odysseus replied with “No man”. When Polyphemus passed out soon after, Odysseus and his men took the spear, and lit it above one of the fires until the tip of it was red. Then, with all their might, they pierced into the eye of the Cyclops, blinding him. Polyphemus woke up screaming, and the other Cyclopes rushed to learn who did this. Polyphemus promptly answered, “No man!” And the other Cyclopes laughed, returning to their caves.

Next day, Odysseus’s men clinged to the underbellies of Polyphemus’s sheep in order to escape. Polyphemus awoke, moved the rock covering the entrance to his cave, and before herding the sheep, he rubbed each sheep’s back, ensuring no one was on them. When no one was found, the Cyclops herded his sheep outside, to which then Odysseus and his men escaped to his boat. Then, before departing, Odysseus yelled at Polyphemus, saying that he was deceived, and revealing Odysseus blinded him.

The History of the Minoan Crete

The island Crete has been historically known for residing many inhabitants, however, the Minoans who ruled it at a time are what I’ll be focusing on today.

There isn’t that much we know of of the Minoans, other than what Greek legend has provided. According to it, there used to be a king who ruled over the island named Minos. This man’s name is where the term of the tribe came from, though no one is actually sure of what the Minoans called themselves.

Topic Essay (History) 1

Topic: What was the disagreement Socrates had with the Sophists?

Socrates and the Sophists had many conflicting beliefs. For one, Socrates believed in absolute truth for every person, while the Sophists believed that there was no such thing. Another disagreement was regarding morality. The Sophists believed that there are different morals for everyone, where as Socrates believed that there was only one truth, and one set of morals to follow.

Topic Essay 14

Topic: “Why Posting My Essays on My Own Blog Site Every Week Will Benefit Me in the Long Run”

Now, I think it can help a lot when it comes to posting your essays. Here’s some ways I think it can help.

First off, your writing will get better over time. If you write consistently, you will get better at creating more polished articles and essays, with noticeably fewer grammar mistakes. And with that, your essays will get more pleasant to read to viewers. As with anything, writing requires practice. And posting writing assignments with a consistent schedule will help with making your words clearer.

Next, regarding posting it on a website, you can use your blog as a portfolio when it comes to potential jobs. After practicing, you’ll be able to write more persuasive essays, and you’ll be able to use those for jobs in journalism.

And finally, posting essays can help you remember the things that are being discussed in it. After all, many people say writing something down will help you remember it. So, in the chance you need to write a huge writing assignment, you can start by writing down smaller bits of it, regarding one topic or another. It might help you remember it for when that due date is near.

Topic Essay 13

Topic: “What should Virginia have done before giving editor Norman $500,000?”

I talked about this topic a bit in my previous essay, but I’ll just do a review and add a couple more other things that I think should’ve been done. As I have started, giving someone 500,000$ on the whim is a bad idea. So, here’s what I think Virginia should’ve done before giving the newspaper that much money.

First, I believe she should’ve looked into the newspaper a bit more. Seen the statistics of sales, and the overall background behind the people making the newspaper. My statement does not intend to say that in order to make a big donation, you need every little detail regarding the company. But, I believe that at least learning more about the company would and should be a must before donating that amount of money.

I understand that by the time this book was published, it wasn’t as easy to learn about something as it is now. But, Virginia could’ve asked Norman about the newspaper.

She could’ve asked more about the topics the newspaper covers. The design of it. How many pages are there in an issue? Are there any primary topics? What topics are deemed ‘important’ to them? She should have asked a little more before giving that much.

Topic Essay 12

This topic essay is regarding the story In His Steps by Charles Sheldon, which is why it may not make sense for those who haven’t read the book. I will be posting a summary of this book soon, but until then, you can review the plot of this book here and read it here.

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Topic: “Which aspect of the plot so far sounds most implausible? Explain.”

So far, the most implausiable part of the plot is the whole newspaper plot line.

The newspaper is a daily newspaper run by the editor Edward Norman. Now, our friend Edward makes a bunch of wrong decisions regarding it, such as not working on Sundays. Not working on Sundays not only means Mondays get have no newspaper, which means decline in sales.

Keep in mind, sales and subscriptions have already been declining, and this wouldn’t help it in anyway. In fact, the newspaper almost went bankrupt. However, Virginia Page, a young woman who is very rich, saves this newspaper, by blindly donating 500,000$ to the newspaper.

And by ‘saves this newspaper’, I mean saves it. Apparently, the newspaper gets popular again after this donation, but that’s it. Now, for the explanations.

First, with Edward. He knew newspaper sales were declining. I’m not positive how it was back in 1896, but it made absolutely no sense to release no Sunday editions, business wise. The newspaper was already declining, and I’m sure anyone with half a brain would know that having a day without a newspaper for a daily newspaper would make thing worse.

Next, with Virginia. Even if you’re rich, blindly giving 500,000$ is a really bad decision. By blindly, I mean Virginia had no background provided to her about the newspaper. No statistics, nothing. She just gave them 500,000$. Now, personally, I’d be sure to do a through inspection of the company before giving that much money to something.

Finally, with the rapid succession of the newspaper. That part doesn’t make any sense to me. It’s more of the author’s fault for this, for he barely provided anything other than ‘it was successful again’. It wasn’t ever explained how after Virginia’s donation the newspaper had more sales, or what they did with that money. I would suggest that with that money they got more advertising which then boosted sales, but the author didn’t explain it, so anything’s possible.

In the end, the whole newspaper plotline was a big flop to me. The rest of the book isn’t bad, but this was the part that didn’t make sense to me.