Following the Senecan model of revenge tragedy, each of the play's five acts is preceded by a Prologue that features Atë, the ancient Greek goddess of folly and ruin.

Atë, Greek for ' ruin, folly, delusion ', is the action performed by the hero, usually because of his / her hubris, or great pride, that leads to his / her death or downfall.

Atë, Até or Aite ( or ; ) is the Greek goddess of mischief, delusion, and folly.

In the Greek tragedies Nemesis appears chiefly as the avenger of crime and the punisher of hubris, and as such is akin to Atë and the Erinyes.

* Atë, in Greek mythology, the personification of ruin, folly, and delusion

Hesiod's Theogony identifies her as the daughter of Eris (" strife "), and the sister of Ponos (" toil "), Limos (" starvation "), the Algea (" pains "), the Hysminai (" fightings "), the Makhai (" battles "), the Phonoi (" murders "), the Androktasiai (" man-slaughters "), the Neikea (" quarrels "), the Pseudologoi (" lies "), the Amphilogiai (" disputes "), Dysnomia (" lawlessness "), Atë (" ruin "), and Horkos (" oath ").

The Litae (" Prayers ") follow after her but Atë is fast and far outruns them.

In Hesiod's Theogony ( l. 230 ) the mother of Atë is Eris (" Strife "), with no father mentioned.

The Bibliotheca ( 3. 143 ) claims that when thrown down by Zeus, Atë landed on a peak in Phrygia called by her name.

In Nonnus ' Dionysiaca ( 11. 113 ), at Hera's instigation Atë persuades the boy Ampelus whom Dionysus passionately loves to impress Dionysus by riding on a bull from which Ampelus subsequently falls and breaks his neck.

In her book The March of Folly, Barbara Tuchman notes that the earth has been called The Meadow of Atë.

In anger Zeus threw Atë down to earth forever, forbidding that she ever return to heaven or to Mt.

Atë then wandered about, treading on the heads of men rather than on the earth, wreaking havoc on mortals.

In the play Julius Caesar, Shakespeare introduces the goddess Atë as an invocation of vengeance and menace.

From this action sprang the idea of somehow uniting Greek and Shakespearean drama into a new total form, capable of restoring to life the ancient moral and poetic responses.

Discoveries recently made of old Biblical manuscripts in Hebrew and Greek and other ancient writings, some by the early church fathers, in themselves called for a restudy of the Bible.

The new `` Phedre '' was done in 17th century setting, instead of ancient Greek ; ;

With the loss of the study of ancient Greek in the early medieval Latin West, Aristotle was practically unknown there from c. AD 600 to c. 1100 except through the Latin translation of the Organon made by Boethius.

The genus Amoeba and amoeboids in general both derive their names from the ancient Greek word for change.

Apollo ( Attic, Ionic, and Homeric Greek:, Apollōn ( gen .: ); Doric:, Apellōn ; Arcadocypriot:, Apeilōn ; Aeolic:, Aploun ; ) is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in ancient Greek and Roman religion, Greek and Roman mythology, and Greco – Roman Neopaganism.

In ancient times, navigation through the sea was easier than travelling across the rough terrain of the Greek mainland ( and to some extent the coastal areas of Anatolia ).

During World War I, the Armenian Genocide, the Greek genocide ( especially in Pontus ), and the Assyrian Genocide almost entirely removed the ancient communities of Armenian and Assyrian populations in Anatolia, as well as a large part of its ethnic Greek population.

The word is from the ancient Greek ἀνάλυσις ( analusis, " a breaking up ", from ana-" up, throughout " and lysis " a loosening ").

Raphael's School of Athens, depicting an array of ancient Greek philosophers engaged in discussion.

In the ancient Greek myth about the Labours of Hercules, the hero Hercules had to travel to the underworld to capture Cerberus, the three-headed guard dog, as one of his tasks.

Classical-Relating to or from ancient Roman or Greek architecture and art.

It sought to revive the ideals of ancient Greek and Roman art.

In the 6th century BC, the ancient Greek philosopher Pythagoras wanted to know why some musical intervals seemed more beautiful than others, and he found answers in terms of numerical ratios representing the harmonic overtone series on a string.

In ancient Greek mythology, ambrosia () is sometimes the food or drink of the Greek gods ( or demigods ), often depicted as conferring ageless immortality upon whomever consumed it.

Abydos ( Greek: Άβυδος ), an ancient city of Mysia, in Asia Minor, situated at Nara Burnu or Nagara Point on the best harbor on the Asiatic shore of the Hellespont.

It was also considered the greatest sin of the ancient Greek world.

Crucial to this definition are the ancient Greek concepts of honor ( timē ) and shame.

Even though the stone had been around centuries and was known to both the Sumerians and the Egyptians, both who used the gem for decoration and for playing important parts in their religious ceremonies, any agate of this color from Sicily, once an ancient Greek colony, is called Greek agate.

* Agis of Argos, an ancient Greek poet

As a boy in a local school he was shy and solitary, absorbed in his fondness for nature and his visions of Sweden's ancient glory.

My own stern hand has rent the ancient bond, And thereof shall the ending not have end: But not for me, that loved her, to be fond Lightly to please me with a newer friend Then hold it more than bravest-feathered song, That I affirm to thee, with heart of pride, I knew not what did to a friend belong Till I stood up, true friend, by thy true side ; ;

It remained, however, for Mando to teach me that Doric symbolized strength, Ionic wisdom, and Corinthian beauty, the three pillars of the ancient world.

The Sequoia Grove presents another unique aspect of Yosemite, for these ancient giant trees are a sight never to be forgotten.

You can relive history and follow, in fancy, the Crusaders in their quest for the Holy Grail as they sail out from Brindisi, an ancient town in the heel of Italy's boot.

The John Harvey arrived in Bari, a port on the Adriatic, on November 28th, making for Porto Nuovo, which, as the name indicates, was the ancient city's new and modern harbor.

The site of the oblong piazza is Domitian's ancient stadium, which was probably used for horse and chariot races.

There is an ancient and venerable tradition in the church ( which derives, however, from the heritage of the Greeks rather than from the Bible ) that God is completely independent of his creation and so has no need of men for accomplishing his work in the world.

A Tibetan swami from Palermo, Sicily, announced in Beverly Hills a newly discovered, ancient yoga discipline for ripple breathing which increased both pranha and cosmic attraction between sexes.

They lay months away from the nearest Earth star by jump drive, and no one knew what they were good for, although it was felt that they would probably be good for something if it could only be discovered -- much like the continent of Antarctica in ancient history.

Some ancient cultures used lime-based cement for the plaster to protect against rain damage.

The ancient history of Asia Minor is very important for the history of the Western civilization because it was the region where the mythic way of thought changed gradually to the rational way of thought.

The term allocutio was used by the ancient Romans for the speech made by a commander to his troops, either before a battle or during it, to animate and encourage them.

In ancient times, there were various explanations for the name Aegean.

By ancient common law it might be required of all persons above the age of 12, and it was repeatedly used as a test for the disaffected.

Antimony compounds have been known since ancient times and were used for cosmetics ; metallic antimony was also known, but it was erroneously identified as lead.

As for the term " Compositae ", more ancient but still valid, it obviously makes reference to the fact that the family is one of the few angiosperms that have composite flowers.

The larger rivers were less important to the ancient culture, as smaller streams were more easily diverted or controlled for irrigation.

The ancient population centers such as Chaco Canyon ( outside Crownpoint, New Mexico ), Mesa Verde ( near Cortez, Colorado ), and Bandelier National Monument ( near Los Alamos, New Mexico ) for which the Ancestral Pueblo peoples are renowned, consisted of apartment-like complexes and structures made from stone, adobe mud, and other local material, or were carved into the sides of canyon walls.

The archaeological record indicates that it was not unusual for ancient Pueblo peoples to adapt to climatic change by changing residences and locations.

While there are ancient relations between the Indian Vedas and the Iranian Avesta, the two main families of the Indo-Iranian philosophical traditions were characterized by fundamental differences in their implications for the human being's position in society and their view on the role of man in the universe.

Meteoric iron was very rare and valuable, and difficult for ancient people to work.