According to Jerry Nash, Petron was a Pythagorean philosopher who believed in many worlds, specifically 183, formed in the shape of a triangle with 60 in each point (Nash 9). In the center was the idea of Parolles Degelées which translates to unfrozen words, hence the name of the chapter “How Pantagruel, being at sea, heard various unfrozen words.”

Nash argues that Rabelais used the idea of Parolles Degelées to further humanism, a philosophy that highlights the use human beliefs, feelings, and values to solve problems rather than relying on supernatural ideals. Using Petron’s theory, Rabelais makes the notion that to be able to excel and move forward, human kind must look to the past in order to pave way for the future.

Nash, Jerry C. “Interpreting ‘Parolles Degelées’: The Humanist Perspective of Rabelais and His Critics.” L’Esprit Créateur, vol. 21, no. 1, 1981, pp. 5–11. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/26283861. Accessed 1 Apr. 2023.

Orpheus was the son of Apollo and a muse who had an extraordinary gift with music. After losing his wife, Eurydice, to a snake bite, he enchants and sings his way to the underworld where he strikes a deal with Hades that as long as Orpheus doesn’t look back to make sure Eurydice is following him as he leads her back to the surface, they may leave. Right before returning to the surface, Orpheus looks back, and Eurydice is returned to the underworld.

Because of the loss of his wife, twice, Orpheus never recovers and travels the world singing about her. The Thracian women, who likes to party with Bacchus/Dionysus became so enraged that Orpheus wouldn’t party with them, they tore him apart and killed him.

Graf, Fritz. “Orpheus.” Oxford Classical Dictionary, 7 Mar. 2016, https://oxfordre.com/classics/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.001.0001/acrefore-9780199381135-e-4611.

The river Acheron, during ancient times, was often called the river of woe or pain. In some stories, including Dante’s Inferno, the Acheron was the river Charon used to ferry souls to the Underworld (so long as they had payment). It is one of the five rivers of the Underworld and said to be where the other rivers come from. However, only three out of five are mentioned in by Dante: Acheron, Styx, and Cocytus.

https://www.greeklegendsandmyths.com/rivers-of-the-underworld.html

At the end of his speech, Gawain makes a point to state that he is not only replaceable as a knight, but he is just Arthur’s nephew, and the fight isn’t worth Arthur risking his life. William Woods notes that Gawain’s entire speech is a metaphor for the “interlocking chivalric virtues that appear later, an emblem, on Gawain’s shield” (213). In other words, Gawain’s speech is the how Gawain’s, and by extension, all of the knights’ reputations are perceived because he invokes the virtues that the pentangle represents rather than boasting or allowing his King to partake in the challenge.

Woods, William F. “Nature and the Inner Man in ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.’” The Chaucer Review, vol. 36, no. 3, 2002, pp. 209–27. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25096166. Accessed 11 Mar. 2023.

Here, the magistrate essentially asks why the women have made it their mission to interfere with man’s responsibility: money, war, politics, etc. and Lysistrata basically explains that it is to save them all from warring disaster. John Vaio, who was a professor at the University of Illinois, expounds on the Magistrate’s question by arguing that the men, who he refers to as being chauvinistic, “woefully misunderstands both the women's purpose and methods. Not revolution, but restoration. Not lewdness, but a rigid control of sexuality. The failure to understand this is part and parcel of the men's inability to deal with political and military crises in this play” (Vaio, 373). In other words, because the men cannot see past their own views of women, they are doubtful that anything can be done by them, which, by the end of the play, is proven incorrect as the women bring peace.

Vaio, John. “The Manipulation of Theme and Action in Aristophanes’ Lysistrata.” Greek Roman and Byzantine Studies 14 (1973): 369-380.

https://www.worldhistory.org/uploads/images/1417.jpg?v=1637622902

I chose this part of the text because of the intense imagery it provides on what Krishna looked like as he showed his true form to Arjuna. While trying to find an image, I came across an article that discusses Krishna's role in Bhagavad Gita with a picture from the the Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple in Singapore. Looking at the statue, it is easy to see why Arjuna would want Krishna to go back to his human form as each face is completely different from the others and each hand holds something different. Krishna was a vessel for the all of the gods and immortal beings and even though the statue only shows 12 faces, its easy to recognize the overwhelming scene Arjuna witnessed.

Cartwright, Mark. “Krishna.” World History Encyclopedia, 1 Oct. 2015, https://www.worldhistory.org/Krishna/. Accessed Feb 2, 2023