The Villa of Mysteri essays

The Villa of Mysteri essays ...they heard the crash of falling roofs; an instant more and the mountain-cloud seemed to roll towards them, dark and rapid, like a torrent; at the same time, it cast forth from its bosom a shower of ashes mixed with vast fragments of burning stone! Over the crushing vines- over the desolate streets- over the amphitheatre itself- far and wide- with many a mighty splash in the agitated sea- fell that awful shower... Even though destroyed by Mt. Vesuvius August 24, 79AD, The Villa of Mysteries is full of Pompeian artifacts. The famous mural featuring the cult of Dionysus is amongst this 55room villa. Villa of Mysteries was once flourishing with plant life, bronzed statues, and people working and living in and around the villa. The frescoes in the Villa of Mysteries provide us the opportunity to glimpse something important about the rites of passage for these privileged women of Pompeii. The interior design of the homes or villas were not paintings hanging from nails, but they were painted actually onto the wall. The cult of Dionysus is one of these painted murals founded in the Villa of Mysteries, the frieze is 10 ft high and 56 ft long. The term "mysteries" refers to secret initiation rites of the Classical world. The mural exploits the Initiation rites, which; were originally ceremonies to help individuals grow up. This ceremony was designed to bring women into the marrying stage of life. Occasionally a priest or priestess guided the initiate through the ritual; and at the end of the ceremony the initiate was welcomed into the group with open arms. Villa of Mysteries seem to be aimed at preparing privileged, protected girls for the psychological transition to life as married women. The frescoes in the Villa of Mysteries provide us the opportunity to glimpse something important about the rites of passage for these privileged women of Pompeii. Their bodies seem to be very relaxed, i...

On-tap Inspiration Online

On-tap Inspiration Online On-tap Inspiration Online On-tap Inspiration Online By Ali Hale Do you ever find that you have an hour or two free to write, but you just can’t get inspired? Whether you want a compelling idea for your next short story, a topic for your blog or a starting prompt for a poem, your brain just seems to be blank. If only there were some way to get inspiration on-tap†¦ Thankfully there is! It’s called the Internet, and it’s jam-packed with ways to find your next great idea†¦ Twistori Twistori finds Twitter feeds which contain certain words: love, hate, think, believe, feel and wish. To use it, just click on one of the words on the left-hand side, then watch text stream up your screen. If you click rapidly on several words, you can come up with some brilliant juxtapositions – often, putting together two very different thoughts can result in a great piece of writing. These are just some of the lines I saw. Any of these spark off some (maybe slightly crazy) ideas? I think Im inheriting a cat tomorrow I feel like Im riding my exercise bike to nowhere. Why cant I get frequent rider miles and fly to Italy with them? I can tell its already going to be a crazy super long week. I wish I could duplicate myself!! I hate birthdays and i hate signing cards and celebrating them at work. Imagination prompt generator The Imagination prompt generator gives you a random prompt every time you click. Good for non-fiction writers, especially personal essayists. Just click on the ‘Next prompt’ button. If you find writing on one prompt two easy, pick two to combine in the same piece. Here’s a few it came up with for me, and my thoughts on how they could be used. â€Å"List five books that youve read this year.† – If you’re a blogger, pick books on your topic and write a review of them for your blog. â€Å"Without my life partner, Id† – This would be a personal, reflective piece, perhaps something for your journal. It could even be suitable to send to a magazine. â€Å"Can you live without electricity for a month?† – Questions like this one could lead to an article on how dependant we are on electricity, or even a piece of fiction about a TV-and-computer-addicted teenager being taken on a very â€Å"low-tech† family holiday†¦ Random Word Generator combined with Flickr Open these two sites in different tabs or browser windows. The Random Word Generator will give you a word – and Flickr will find you an image. Get your word by hitting ‘New Word’ (it’s easiest to use nouns, but other types of word can yield interesting results.) Then type that word into the search box on Flickr. Pick one of the images that comes up – to get the best of the lot, sort by ‘Most interesting’. Don’t spend too long choosing your image, just pick one, click on the thumbnail in the search results to see the big version, and gaze at it for a while. This could yield ideas for a poem, story, article, even a letter or journal entry. We Feel Fine We Feel Fine asks the question â€Å"What are you feeling?† and finds answers from thousands of blogs. It is a rich source of emotions and ideas, and lots of fun to play with. Give it a minute to load, then click on one of the floating coloured blobs. (You can also change mode to ‘Murmurs’ to see a list of streaming text – try out the different options in the bottom left corner.) You’ll get thoughts like these: â€Å"i sometimes tend to dwell on not having the life i wish i had and then i hear stories like these and it makes me very grateful for everything i have† – This could be a great starting point for a blog post on gratitude, or perhaps for a story where a character undergoes a complete shift in their state of mind when they learn about someone else’s troubles. ‘i feel like for the first time my outlook on life has vastly improved’ – This raises a lot of questions: why has the speaker’s outlook improved? How were things different before? This could make a good start – or even a whole theme – for a story. ‘i don’t feel too guilty about it because i don’t cook breakfast for people who don’t get out of bed before nine thirty’ – You could take this in several directions; perhaps a short story about a mother exasperated with her layabout teenagers, an article about sleeping habits and waking-up times, or a blog post on how to become an early riser (though that topic’s been fairly well covered.) What are your favourite sites for online inspiration? Those are just a few sites that I love, and I’m sure there’s dozens of great ones I’ve not even discovered yet. Share your favourites in the comments below (and if you’re willing, let us know what they’ve inspired you to write!) Or if you try out one of the above sites, tell us what you come up with†¦ Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the General category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:36 Adjectives Describing LightThe Parts of a WordPresent Participle as Adjective