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Talk:Battle of Salamis

Removed text
I removed this text, since I found it not very informative (when did it take place) and hardly an encylopedia entry ("most stupendous moment in history"). The second part of the article isn't actually that bad, but I removed it anyway. I replaced it with a short article, which needs a lot of work, perhaps with some of this text in edited form. jheijmans

"From the Story of the Greatest Nations and the World's Famous Events (1913).

The Greek Victory of Salamis is on of the most stupendous moments of history, a battle which was to decide the fate of all the future ages. Greece overthrew Persia. Europe snatched from Asia that rulership of the world which Europe has held ever since.Asia had been the first home of all wealth and splendor and empire; but Asia had surrendered itself to the power of one man, the Persian tyrant Xerxes I. His people were his servants, almost his slaves. Had he conquered the Greeks also, mankind might have continued slaves forever.

But the Greeks, though few in number, were free men and strong of soul, and they defied the tyrant. Xerxes sent his whole mighty navy to crush them. So sure was he of victory that he had a throne erected on the sea-shore in order that he might watch, like a theatrical performance, the downfall of the Greeks. He also brought with him the lords and ladies of his court to enjoy the spectacle. But the ships of the Greeks, with their sharp prows, crushed the Persian vessels. The Greeks said their gods fought for them, and that these visionary gods hovered in the air directing the strife, while priests offered sacrifice to them, and the Greek commander, Themistocles, stood above his men with folded arms, in triumph. Xerxes, in despair and fury, beholds the unforeseen destruction of his navy. He fled back to Persia, and shutting himself in his palace spent the rest of his life in idle pleasure. Never again did he appear in battle."

Minor error?
I know nothing of greek history, and was just browsing when under "preparations" I noted this apparent contradiction:

"The Spartans had no ships and only hoplites to contribute [...]", and further down

"There were 180 ships from Athens, 40 from Corinth, 30 from Aegina, 20 from Chalcis, 20 from Megara, 16 from Sparta, 15 from Sicyon, [...]"

Maybe I misunderstood? --Teeks 13:55, 17 Oct 2004 (UTC)

 * Well, Herodotus says Sparta had 16 ships, so I assume the anon who added that sentence was just mistaken. Maybe Herodotus isn't 100% trustworthy but there must have been a tradition of Sparta having ships for him to report (I don't think he would have made it up entirely). Whatever Sparta's military dominance, I doubt the rest of the city-states would have agreed to let them be in charge if they didn't have any ships at all. The rest of that sentence was "The Spartans had no ships and only hoplites to contribute (who would not be of much use on board a trireme)," which is also not true, because, as mentioned later, "The Greek and Persian ships rammed each other and something similar to a land battle ensued." The Greeks (and Romans) tended to fight naval battles like land battles with ships. It's fixed now. Adam Bishop 18:46, 17 Oct 2004 (UTC)

The Spartans did contribute some triremes; they maintained a nominal fleet merely out of obligation, as Spartan territory was contiguous w/ the sea. The original statement, that they had merely hoplites to contribute, is an exaggeration based on the fact that the Spartans valued infantrymen over naval ships.

Before the Persian Invasion, Earth and Water (greek: ΓΗ ΚΑΙ ΥΔΩΡ)
Before the Persians attacked Greece, Xerxes send messengers. First the Messengers arrived in Athens and announced that Xerxes and the Persians wanted only "earth and water", after this request the Athenias brute smacked them and send them away. Then the messengers visited the city of Sparta, the Spartans where not so polite as the Athenians and the next thing they did was to throw them in a water well so that the messengers could from now on receive "as much earth and water" they need.

After the Battle of Salamis
The oars of the greek ships where operated by free men in contrast to the persian ships which where operated by slaves. So after the battle the remaining persian ships had tried to flee in the coasts of Asia over the Aegean see. The rage of the greeks was so huge that they hunted them over the Aegean sea so that "no one left alive". Note: In the specific battle nowhere is mentioned the word "prisoners", because simply there where none. All persians should die because of the aggresive policy of Persia those days to attack Greece every 2 to 5 years.

The persian fleeing fleets would also atempt to flee to the island of psyttalea, where a persian garrison was station there. Luckily Aristides (the Athenian exile) assembled hoplites to siege to fort and eliminated the persian resistance. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.185.44.36 (talk) 13:06, 18 October 2007 (UTC)

What was the Number of Ships?
I read on a site called Hellas:net that the Persians only had 450-485 Triremes. Are you talking about all ships not just Triremes and is their claim historically accurate? --Ben Goldman 15:19, Apr 6, 2005 (UTC)

 * That's the number Herodotus gives, and it should probably be mentioned more explicitly that there was probably not that many (for me, it is always implicit that numbers given by Herodotus are exaggerated). I've never been to the Saronic Gulf but I can't imagine 1600 ships would fit in there :) I don't think all 1200 Persian ships were triremes, according to Herodotus, but neither were the 400 Greek ships - he just says "ships", at least in the English translation. Adam Bishop 23:30, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)

You know I have some problems with the barbaric view of Perisa. People continue to call citizens of Peria servants or slaves. Under the Cyrus cylinder arguably the first charter of rights. Everyone in Persia had the right to compensation for work. Persepolis was built with paid labour unlike Athens which was made by slaves. Ironic how Persia is undemocratic while we have the charter and Sparta has the Helots and Athens' in 430 BCE has 80 000 slaves of their total 150 000 population, 53% of population (JUST DISGUSTING) [By the way Greeks will be furious, I know, but I'm English I don't mind]. Oh yeah, also in Athens that does include 60 000 women which were treated like garbage. Unlike in Persia, my good friends.

Hey Adam, that site you show looks believable (professional) however, from the best of my knowledge, the persians never deployed triremes. I thought they had larger and harder to maneuver ships by the phoenecians. But the numbers make more sense, in terms of battleships I think that after Artemisium and the storms Xerxes could not have that many ships. Because Herodotus I think claims 2000 ships were on xerxes' exhbedition, however modern historians claim roughly 1200, coincidentally the same amount at salamis, catch my drift this does not seem to work. Also if we think logically if xerxes truely had 1200 ships at the seige, and 200 casualties (17% of starting fleet) would not seem like a lot to cocky xerxes considering Greece losing 40 ships to 370 making a 11% loss of fleet. xerxes would have continued the assault. However had the number of battleships been near 400 like you said then half of his fleet would have been wiped out. This makes more sense because he needs a few ships to get back to persia along with a small regiment. Also this would show that salamis was a lot more catastrophic for xerxes.

As a Greek, I can say this. The word 'Barbarian' used by the ancient Greeks to describe more or less everybody else, did not at the time have the meaning that it does today. Because their language sounded in the ears of the Greeks like 'bar bar bar', the terms barbarian was used for those speaking other languages (I know Greek might sound the same to you too). Therefore, it did not have the meaning it has today. Of course when somebody is attacking you, you will use all you bitterness against them. All races use their own arguments (mostly to justify their actions) to  describe their enemies.But I do not think that anybody can argue that the Persian civilization and empire was not an important civilization in history. On the contrary. Other than that, the use of slaves was widespread at the time. Everybody used them, although some (slaves) were more lucky than others. In Athens for example the slaves had better treatment, it  was not allowed to their masters to mistreat them or kill them and in general they had it ok for slaves. In Sparta on the other hand it was not so good. Let us not forget that this was almost 2.500 years ago. Slaves existed in other parts of the world less than 200 years ago.

Persians had heavier ships?
According to Strauss's account ("The Battle of Salamis"), the Greeks stayed within the narrows because their ships were heavier, and would be less affected by the wind than the lighter Persian triremes. For this reason I am deleting the terms "heavier" and "lighter" from the description of "the battle" on the main page. Correct me if I'm wrong???

I would like to see some evidence or sources for this Persian ship casualties of up to 500. I am not aware of any sources claiming that, how about we keep it at the previous sourced 200 casualties. And when there are some reliable sources presented here we can change it back to a range 200-500. --Arsenous Commodore 18:00, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

WP:MilHist Assessment
An excellent excellent start. There's an infobox, pictures and maps, and extensive details. I wonder if there is anything more to be added on such an incredibly famous battle? In addition, just a few minor stylistic improvements - (1) the introduction does not state, or even imply, the incredible fame and importance of this battle. If I came across this article, somehow having never heard of Salamis, I'd read the intro and think "oh, this is just another one of those battles from those Greek wars that I never understood anything about", and I'd move on. As it stands now, you have to scroll all the way to the bottom in order to see anything about the importance and fame of the battle. (2) I wonder if there is any better way to organize the listing of the numbers of ships. Obviously, regular paragraph form will look quite confusing and ugly, and a table would likely take up just as much space as the list... can anything be done here? Maybe a table with multiple columns? Otherwise, a very nice article for a very major topic. Not, unfortunately, up to FA status, which is where I think we'd all like to see Salamis, but it's on the way there. LordAmeth 13:10, 10 August 2006 (UTC)

Artemisia
I hate to ruin feminist revisionist plans - but way it is written is clearly planned to pump Artemisia into some kind of Xena warrior princess. The fact is she wrecklessly smashed ships from both Greek and Persian side - in fact this is in text but not made clear. From http://www.sarissa.org/war/persian_wars/per_fig.php - Artemisia was a Greek princess who ruled Harlicarnassus. She fought at Salamis on behalf of the Persians, but seemed to change allegiances as the situation demanded.

To expand on the previous authors' post, the citation for the Xerxes quote regarding Artemisia is wrong. It is listed as Herodotus VII, 88. Herodotus VII only recounts the battle of Thermopolye, not the battle of Salamis. I think that passage should be removed unless it can be correctly sourced.

Song
I think in the translation of the battle song "motherland" should be "fatherland". D. Fletcher

Who Bumped up the Casualty Figures
C'mon folks the least you could do when adding 300 ships to the Persian casualties is offer a source or reasoning explanation in the discussion board. No one is undermining the importance of Salamis for Hellas, but at Wikipedia we need to try to maintain an NPOV at all times. I'm taking the figure back to its original status until somebody posts a resonable and authoratative source for this significantly higher figure. --Arsenous Commodore 16:15, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

Revamp of the Significance section
I rewrote the significance section because it was inaccurate and extremely biased. "The Greek victory protected the nascent and singular traditions of democracy and individual rights" is inaccurate, as the Persians wrote the first declaration of human rights, and the Greeks were much more guilty of human rights abuses than the Achaemenids. Also, this: " This meant the eventual flowering of Western culture, which would have been snuffed out completely, had the Persians overrun Greece." is without basis. There is no evidence to show that the Persians routinely "snuffed out" cultures: considering their policy of religious tolerance and government through satraps, it is very likely that, had Greece been conquered, Grecian culture would have flourished. (Look, for example, to the Jews, Babylonians, and Egyptians for examples.) And finally: "Due to the enormous and wide-ranging influence of Western culture on all of human civilization, as well as the huge success of Western culture in its own right, some claim that the world today would be fundamentally different had the Greeks lost at Salamis." doesn't have any place in the article: it is one thing to say that the battle fundamentally changed human history (it did) and another to spend a sentence or two glorifying Western civilization. Spectheintro 18:51, 12 March 2007 (UTC)spectheintro

 * Totally agree with this. I suspect that had the Persians won, there would have been no major difference in the development of modern democracy. when they won the Peloponnesian War, the Spartans got rid of Athens' democracy anyway. Granted, their replacement government didn't last long, but I think that illustrates how such a powerful idea can never die. Had Daruius or Cyrus conquered Greece, democracy may have continued, just to a lesser degree. Canislupisbarca 16:34, 12 November 2007 (UTC)

 * I updated the Significance section to reflect more accurately the actual significance of the battle, so that the general reader has a proper idea of its meaning and eventual significance. Spectheintro's paragraph was not untrue, but needed a bit more explaining (such as how the Greeks contributed to Western civilization, for instance, which was well understated). Given the importance of Western culture in the world we live in today and in the modern history of the world, it needs to be properly stated and adequately explained how significant this battle is in the grand scheme. While you believe the much earlier article may have overdone it, I believe that Spectheintro's article underdid it, or at the very least failed to explain why the battle was so significant. Fairerversion, 22 November2007.

 * Significance section contained some broad, unverifiable comments, such as "However, it is equally possible to state the reverse case" - whatever the "reverse" is isn't explained and is unjustifiable. Another quote: "Even in the case of a Greek defeat at Salamis, the Persian conquest still might not have been completed; and even if it had, Persian domination might have proved fleeting, or might not have had a dramatic effect on Greek culture" - the Significance section should explain the significance of the battle as to how historians believe it may have been significant - that we will never know for 100% sure is self evident - however the significance section should simply point out what many historians believe MAY be the case, which it does, it does not need to say "also this may not be the case after all".  Another quote: "The point has also been made that Persian domination may even have been of benefit to some conquered territories; for instance, the oppressed neighbours of Sparta may have known more 'freedom' under a Persian regime than otherwise" - this misses a subtle but very significant point - that the idea of Greek democracy, rights, and especially freedom, refers to the *individual citizens* of the particular city-states. That the Persians instead of Sparta may have been the overseers of certain city-states doesn't alter the CONCEPT of individual rights and freedoms WITHIN a state, which is what the west has inherited from Ancient Greece.  The main difference of course is that in modern Western democracies there is a much higher portion of the population who are considered citizens with rights, compared to ancient Greek states.   Fairerversion, 16 December 2008 (UTC)  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Fairerversion (talk • contribs)
 * It's not just about long-term military factors (number of armed men etc). Democracy, in the sense of a republic based on suffrage and participation of the free citizens, not monarchy or tyranny, was still very young at the time. Athens had made the decisive shift to a republican constitution about thirty years earlier, same with other key cities, and the Persians were presumably not interested in having city republics as vassals. they would very likely have preferred subject princes who could keep order. So a Persian victory would have led to reinstatement of monarchs or pseudo-monarchs (tyrants) and it would have robbed the Greek cities of control of their own affairs. But besides, Persia was a much more powerful military presence than Sparta once it had been allowed to settle and place its garrisons. Sparta was limited in number of warriors, even though they were an elite company. It's dumb to imagine that battles like Thermopylae or Marathon could have been fought on repeat in an indefinite number of later liberation wars. They could only be fought if the Greeks were still in control of the hinterland and of the support lines.

 * That side of the argument - the control and confidence of a city in shaping its course and its future- is as vital as a given number of political and literary innovations. If Athens, Thebes, Sparta and others had been ruled by Persian subject kings, if their wealth had been siphoned off into taxes and tributes to Persepolis and their artists, writers and thinkers had not found opportunities and patronage within their own city communities, voicing the concerns of their own societies and their won minds, it would have stifled the confidence they felt in their own work, their power to innovate and rise to new challenges, their own spirit. The point that some Greek sculptoirs (Ionians, already living under Persian control) did work at Persepolis and that we can detect their style is not a counter-argument here: the styling details at some figures there are nowhere near as inventive and far-reaching as the main stream of 5th century Greek sculpture. In the same sense, people like Socrates and Sophocles felt themselves to be articulating the concerns of the Athenian people - they developed in dialogue with their city. Their art and thought are simply not conceivable if they had been living in a city ruled by an autocrat obeying a faraway Great King. You only have to read Phaedo or Antigone to see it.
 * The view that "Salamis saved Western civilization" has been overstated sometimes but it's actually hard to escape that it was decisive - not the only decisive battle though. You don't have to claim that Athens was a democracy in our sense to see that it is justifiable. Strausszek (talk) 03:51, 17 March 2010 (UTC)

Spectheintro you must be joking
Spectheintro ,human rights as we know and mean them is a modern idea,a modern construct. The origin - among others - of modern western democratic values is ancient greece via renaissance and enlightment.Note the word I used origin.the modern status isn't equivalent to the ancient one,but the former is derived from and founded on the latter.

The post Persian Wars in general and post battle of Salamis in particular, acme of Greece in both geopolitical and cultural sense is crucially relevant and almost totally based on the victory of the Greeks over the Persians in the aforementioned wars.

'' " This meant the eventual flowering of Western culture, which would have been snuffed out completely, had the Persians overrun Greece." is without basis''

your words above and of your post in general are at least naive.and saying naive is my understatemental way of being polite.

political correctness isn't history.

Thanatos|talk 21:41, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

Mmm...
''human rights as we know and mean them is a modern idea,a modern construct. The origin - among others - of modern western democratic values is ancient greece via renaissance and enlightment.Note the word I used origin.the modern status isn't equivalent to the ancient one,but the former is derived from and founded on the latter.''

Of course ! Human rights is, for us, a great "invention" of humanity but do you have proof, it's a real progress ? No one can be sure of that and no one can be sure that persian victory would have stopped democratic values ! It's history ! On wikipedia we have to write about fact and not to speak about if democratic values are a great progress for humanity or not. political correctness isn't history. Anyway it's a fact that a persian victory would have significatively changed the history. So the use of "important" seems me more correct in this context. :)

Victory of Persians would have been a dramatic loss for democratic values Ok, but not for Xerxes for exemple; so you cannot say "dramatic consequences for the humans" :) The mind of some modern historians can be the truth or not. In these situations we have to write facts ! Only facts. For exemple you can quote "Green Peter" but you have to say that it's his own mind and not every historian's one. :)

Mrpouetpouet 23:01, 15 April 2007 (UTC)

I believe that I nowhere used the term progress or regress...In pure objective reasoning ,imo at least, ethics,values,ideas etc are more or less subjective.I cannot see though how is this related to my answer to Spectheintro.So non sequitur dear Mrpouetpouet.

the classical and then hellenistic and grecoroman boom of greek culture and civilisation has such a colosseal importance (something that most modern anglosaxons seem not to have any idea of) in world history that the impact of a persian victory would not be only on democratic values. (in fact imo ancient greek democracy is secondary compared to the birth,acme and perhaps deification,there and then, of reason and science.when I reflect on things such as this I pose my one what ifs and then wheep. :) )

the use of the word important is not wrong .nevertheless it is an understatement.

dramatic consequences seems hyperbolic to you.ok.I simply disagree.

anyway ,you may call me prejudiced but I simply don't like (understatement) the political correctness of modern anglosaxonia.

( the same way I'm totally opposed to a war against the Iranians,the same way I don't like (understatement again :-)) G.W.Bush ,the American Creationist Evangelical Kingdom and God save America and Americans the second chosen people of God.but again nevertheless both the former(political correctness) and the latter, in historical sense have huge impact on modern affairs.)

I simply don't see why should we not glorify the Western Civilisation.glorifying the west doesn't mean that the Great Persian Empire  wasn't Great.

ci vediamo

Thanatos|talk 01:44, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

GA on hold
There are several issues that need to be addressed before this article can pass its GA nomination:

 * The lead section needs to be expanded as per Lead section, the lead should be capable of standing alone as a concise overview of the article. An extra paragraph should be enough to meet this requirement.
 * In the infobox there are two notes. Note "a" refers to the number of ships in the Greek side. Note "b" is not linked to any part of the infobox.
 * In the "Background" section:
 * The section lacks background! There's no mention of the Greco-Persian Wars and the wider context of the Battle of Salamis. A reader with little knowledge of the subject will get lost easily in this section.
 * What's the source is used for the article's account of actions prior to the battle? Currently, this is not clear because the first and second paragraphs (excluding the quote by Herodotus) lack references. This is also the case in the last paragraph of this section
 * The table of Greek ships by polis lacks a source.
 * Claims by different historians as to the number of Greek ships should be sourced. Currently only the Hyperides claim is referenced.
 * Where does the average of 200 men per Persian ship comes from? It needs a reference.
 * The claim that Persians were so confident of their victory that Xerxes set up a throne on the shore needs a reference

 * In the "Battle" section:
 * No sources are provided for the discussion on the date of the battle
 * The quote from Aeschylus needs to be properly referenced. This also applies to all other quotes in this section, for instance, the words of a female ghost quoted from Herodotus
 * The use of the word "marines" in the "Battle begins" section seems anachronic
 * In large parts of the account of the battle it is unclear what sources have been used.

 * In the "Consequences" section:
 * There's a citation needed tag
 * There are no sources for what happened in the aftermath of the battle
 * In the "Significance" section, the claim that this is the single most significant battle in human history needs to be references to the relevant books including the page numbers where such claims are made.
 * The quote by Lord Byron seems irrelevant in this section and is not connected to the previous paragraph. It should be removed or relocated.

 * I think the main problem of the article is sourcing not just because some paragraphs lack references but mainly because of the type of sources used. The article has been written mainly using ancient Greek sources. These are not reliable sources for several reasons. First, they are clearly biased sources as their authors wrote from a Greek POV. For instance, it is widely accepted by historians that numbers from Herodotus should not be taken literally as he tended to exaggerate, specially regarding the size of the Persian armies and navies. Second, this are primary sources, as such, they should be used with care and replaced by modern scholarly books when they are available. Judging from the "Further references" section it seems clear that there are plenty of modern sources on the Battle of Salamis. This should be used to replace primary sources except for direct quotes.
 * A related point is that the battle is mainly described from a Greek point of view. An effort should be made to make this a more balanced account of the battle

There are seven days to deal with these objections. If you have any doubt or question, please drop me a note. Good luck, --Victor12 05:30, 18 October 2007 (UTC)

 * Thanks for your thorough review, Victor. I will get on it right away.  Argos '  Dad  06:40, 20 October 2007 (UTC)

 * Eleven days have passed and most issues are still unresolved. Thus, the article has failed it's GA nomination. Please resubmit the article at WP:GAN after these issues have been resolved. Good luck, --Victor12 16:06, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

Question
I think that the persians lost in these reasons:

Attack by persians was provoked too easily so persians swarmed to quickly to the narrow cape. there was also a promontory which gave the persians even less space to move. Therefore, all the persian fleet had no manouvrebility in the narrow cape.

The strait had huge waves that drifted the persian fleet apart, disorganising them.

Since the persian fleet could not move they had to fight the marines (hoplites) of the Greeks. Since the Greek hoplite is heavy armored and the persians weren't, the Greeks had easily won.

The persians were so crouded they ran into each other and had also beached to the promontory.

The persians weren't good at tactic movement. I guess they were too confident for success since their numbers. This proves that the excessive amounts of troops or fleet could disbenifit you, since you would be more disorganised.

Am i correct? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.185.44.36 (talk) 13:14, 18 October 2007 (UTC)

Verifying Herodotus citations
I checked these Herodotus citations in this revision - A=article version, G=G. C. Macaulay translation, S=Shlomo Felberbaum translation, Fact=tagged requesting a preciser citation: I skipped the ship number cites but I added a few extra cites, for example Herodotus VIII, 85 reports the reproach of the ghost of a woman. -Wikianon 15:44, 15 November 2007 (UTC)
 * Herodotus, VIII, 22 - Themistocles' inscriptions - A="women of Ionia...", G="Ionians...", S="Men of Ionia...". Fact.
 * Herodotus, VIII, 88 - "My men have become women, and my women men." - fixed the book number and quote.
 * Herodotus, VIII, 89-90 - Phoenicians beheaded - agrees with Macaulay translation.

Lock
Is this page still prone to vandalism? I think it would be safe to remove the lock. 24.65.164.230 (talk) 19:08, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Appropriate to have picture of Serpentine Column?
The serpentine column in Constantinople is a monument commemorating the Battle of Plataea. It doesn't seem to me that an image of this column belongs in an article about Salamis. 143.229.44.127 (talk) 17:46, 30 April 2009 (UTC)

Lysias
"Lysias II, 27" has not any mean. What speech of Lysias or at least what edition ? ---Pagaeos (talk) 23:23, 26 January 2012 (UTC)

It's Lysias Funeral Oration (I thing is the English translation of Ἐπιτάφιος τοῖς Κορινθίων βοηθοῖς), 27 - where Lysias says that Persians had 1200 ships (διακοσίαις μὲν καὶ χιλίαις ναυσὶν ἀφίκετο) Nataly8 (talk) 16:48, 27 January 2012 (UTC)

Scyllias of Scione
Although somewhat incidental to the battle, the Greek diver in Persian service named Scyllias, a native of Scione, is mentioned in many "reliable" sources relating to this battle - or more specifically, the aftermath. (e.g.:, a Google Scholar search will find many more). Note: he is briefly mentioned in the Battle of Artemisium article. Perhaps he deserves a mention here? (And/or an article: Scyllias of Scione)  ~E:74.60.29.141 (talk) 16:49, 23 February 2013 (UTC)

Dispute
Hula Hup has tagged this page with 'neutrality disputed' template, but no attempt to actually state why they believe this to be the case has been made on this page. So I'm removing the template: if the user wants to restore it, please state your arguments here as to why you believe the article is not neutral. 22:03, 11 May 2013 (UTC)

Image "Depiction of the naval battle"
...is most probably a depiction of the battle between Venetians and Ottomans at Lepanto (see related article, as well as printed sources on the battle of Lepanto, which present the same painting).Ivan Marinov (talk) 11:16, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

Reference Errors
The article has reference errors. Can someone try to fix them? Robert McClenon (talk) 19:39, 26 December 2015 (UTC)

✅ Thank you. Robert McClenon (talk) 20:17, 26 December 2015 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the. —Community Tech bot (talk) 22:52, 3 April 2021 (UTC)
 * Salamina monument.JPG

Distinguish template added on a 25 July edit
As of a 25 July edit, the article has a distinguish template directing to the page frot, which is an off-topic link and possibly a joke edit. The name "Battle of Salamis" could be humorously read aloud as a "battle of salamis (cured sausage)" and serve as a euphemism for frotting. So, assuming a good-faith edit, the link would be used to clarify things with shared names. However, despite this reasoning, I do not see any prevalence or noteworthy instances of this euphemism for frotting. Even assuming that the edit is in good faith and not a joke, I do not believe the distinguish template is justified because of lack of notability. SollenPerry (talk) 03:26, 6 August 2021 (UTC)SollenPerry

title: Talk:Battle of Salamis


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User:ChristianWBrock

Christian W Brock

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I'm currently occupied with defensive programming, design pattern, mountain climbing, german beer, ...

What I would like todo: - Writing a (partial evaluation) (c++)++ parser/interpreter - get even moor german beer und drink it while taking off for 6 month and spending the time walking thru the mountains

-- CWB

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: User:ChristianWBrock


text:
Hallucination

A hallucination is a perception in the absence of an external stimulus that has the compelling sense of reality. Hallucination is a combination of two conscious states of brain wakefulness and REM sleep. They are distinguishable from several related phenomena, such as dreaming (REM sleep), which does not involve wakefulness; pseudohallucination, which does not mimic real perception, and is accurately perceived as unreal; illusion, which involves distorted or misinterpreted real perception; and mental imagery, which does not mimic real perception, and is under voluntary control. Hallucinations also differ from "delusional perceptions", in which a correctly sensed and interpreted stimulus (i.e., a real perception) is given some additional significance.

Hallucinations can occur in any sensory modality—visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactile, proprioceptive, equilibrioceptive, nociceptive, thermoceptive and chronoceptive. Hallucinations are referred to as multimodal if multiple sensory modalities occur.

A mild form of hallucination is known as a disturbance, and can occur in most of the senses above. These may be things like seeing movement in peripheral vision, or hearing faint noises or voices. Auditory hallucinations are very common in schizophrenia. They may be benevolent (telling the subject good things about themselves) or malicious, cursing the subject. 55% of auditory hallucinations are malicious in content, for example, people talking about the subject, not speaking to them directly. Like auditory hallucinations, the source of the visual counterpart can also be behind the subject. This can produce a feeling of being looked or stared at, usually with malicious intent. Frequently, auditory hallucinations and their visual counterpart are experienced by the subject together.

Hypnagogic hallucinations and hypnopompic hallucinations are considered normal phenomena. Hypnagogic hallucinations can occur as one is falling asleep and hypnopompic hallucinations occur when one is waking up. Hallucinations can be associated with drug use (particularly deliriants), sleep deprivation, psychosis, neurological disorders, and delirium tremens. Many hallucinations happen also during sleep paralysis.

The word "hallucination" itself was introduced into the English language by the 17th-century physician Sir Thomas Browne in 1646 from the derivation of the Latin word alucinari meaning to wander in the mind. For Browne, hallucination means a sort of vision that is "depraved and receive[s] its objects erroneously".

Classification
Hallucinations may be manifested in a variety of forms. Various forms of hallucinations affect different senses, sometimes occurring simultaneously, creating multiple sensory hallucinations for those experiencing them.

Auditory
Auditory hallucinations (also known as paracusia) are the perception of sound without outside stimulus. Auditory hallucinations can be divided into elementary and complex, along with verbal and nonverbal. These hallucinations are the most common type of hallucination, with auditory verbal hallucinations being more common than nonverbal. Elementary hallucinations are the perception of sounds such as hissing, whistling, an extended tone, and more. In many cases, tinnitus is an elementary auditory hallucination. However, some people who experience certain types of tinnitus, especially pulsatile tinnitus, are actually hearing the blood rushing through vessels near the ear. Because the auditory stimulus is present in this situation, it does not qualify it as a hallucination.

Complex hallucinations are those of voices, music, or other sounds that may or may not be clear, may or may not be familiar, and may be friendly, aggressive, or among other possibilities. A hallucination of a single individual person of one or more talking voices is particularly associated with psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia, and hold special significance in diagnosing these conditions.

In schizophrenia, voices are normally perceived coming from outside the person, but in dissociative disorders they are perceived as originating from within the person, commenting in their head instead of behind their back. Differential diagnosis between schizophrenia and dissociative disorders is challenging due to many overlapping symptoms, especially Schneiderian first rank symptoms such as hallucinations. However, many people who do not have a diagnosable mental illness may sometimes hear voices as well. One important example to consider when forming a differential diagnosis for a patient with paracusia is lateral temporal lobe epilepsy. Despite the tendency to associate hearing voices, or otherwise hallucinating, and psychosis with schizophrenia or other psychiatric illnesses, it is crucial to take into consideration that, even if a person does exhibit psychotic features, they do not necessarily have a psychiatric disorder on its own. Disorders such as Wilson's disease, various endocrine diseases, numerous metabolic disturbances, multiple sclerosis, systemic lupus erythematosus, porphyria, sarcoidosis, and many others can present with psychosis.

Musical hallucinations are also relatively common in terms of complex auditory hallucinations and may be the result of a wide range of causes ranging from hearing-loss (such as in musical ear syndrome, the auditory version of Charles Bonnet syndrome), lateral temporal lobe epilepsy, arteriovenous malformation, stroke, lesion, abscess, or tumor.

The Hearing Voices Movement is a support and advocacy group for people who hallucinate voices, but do not otherwise show signs of mental illness or impairment.

High caffeine consumption has been linked to an increase in likelihood of one experiencing auditory hallucinations. A study conducted by the La Trobe University School of Psychological Sciences revealed that as few as five cups of coffee a day (approximately 500 mg of caffeine) could trigger the phenomenon.

Visual
A visual hallucination is "the perception of an external visual stimulus where none exists". A separate but related phenomenon is a visual illusion, which is a distortion of a real external stimulus. Visual hallucinations are classified as simple or complex:
 * Simple visual hallucinations (SVH) are also referred to as non-formed visual hallucinations and elementary visual hallucinations. These terms refer to lights, colors, geometric shapes, and indiscrete objects. These can be further subdivided into phosphenes which are SVH without structure, and photopsias which are SVH with geometric structures.
 * Complex visual hallucinations (CVH) are also referred to as formed visual hallucinations. CVHs are clear, lifelike images or scenes such as people, animals, objects, places, etc.

For example, one may report hallucinating a giraffe. A simple visual hallucination is an amorphous figure that may have a similar shape or color to a giraffe (looks like a giraffe), while a complex visual hallucination is a discrete, lifelike image that is, unmistakably, a giraffe.

Command
Command hallucinations are hallucinations in the form of commands; they appear to be from an external source, or can appear coming from the subject's head. The contents of the hallucinations can range from the innocuous to commands to cause harm to the self or others. Command hallucinations are often associated with schizophrenia. People experiencing command hallucinations may or may not comply with the hallucinated commands, depending on the circumstances. Compliance is more common for non-violent commands.

Command hallucinations are sometimes used to defend a crime that has been committed, often homicides. In essence, it is a voice that one hears and it tells the listener what to do. Sometimes the commands are quite benign directives such as "Stand up" or "Shut the door." Whether it is a command for something simple or something that is a threat, it is still considered a "command hallucination." Some helpful questions that can assist one in determining if they may have this includes: "What are the voices telling you to do?", "When did your voices first start telling you to do things?", "Do you recognize the person who is telling you to harm yourself (or others)?", "Do you think you can resist doing what the voices are telling you to do?"

Olfactory
Phantosmia (olfactory hallucinations), smelling an odor that is not actually there, and parosmia (olfactory illusions), inhaling a real odor but perceiving it as different scent than remembered, are distortions to the sense of smell (olfactory system), and in most cases, are not caused by anything serious and will usually go away on their own in time. It can result from a range of conditions such as nasal infections, nasal polyps, dental problems, migraines, head injuries, seizures, strokes, or brain tumors. Environmental exposures can sometimes cause it as well, such as smoking, exposure to certain types of chemicals (e.g., insecticides or solvents), or radiation treatment for head or neck cancer. It can also be a symptom of certain mental disorders such as depression, bipolar disorder, intoxication, substance withdrawal, or psychotic disorders (e.g., schizophrenia). The perceived odors are usually unpleasant and commonly described as smelling burned, foul, spoiled, or rotten.

Tactile
Tactile hallucinations are the illusion of tactile sensory input, simulating various types of pressure to the skin or other organs. One subtype of tactile hallucination, formication, is the sensation of insects crawling underneath the skin and is frequently associated with prolonged cocaine use. However, formication may also be the result of normal hormonal changes such as menopause, or disorders such as peripheral neuropathy, high fevers, Lyme disease, skin cancer, and more.

Gustatory
This type of hallucination is the perception of taste without a stimulus. These hallucinations, which are typically strange or unpleasant, are relatively common among individuals who have certain types of focal epilepsy, especially temporal lobe epilepsy. The regions of the brain responsible for gustatory hallucination in this case are the insula and the superior bank of the sylvian fissure.

Sexual
Sexual hallucinations are the perception of erogenous or orgasmic stimuli. They may be unimodal or multimodal in nature and frequently involve sensation in the genital region, though it is not exclusive. Frequent examples of sexual hallucinations include the sensation of being penetrated, experiencing orgasm, feeling as if one is being touched in an erogenous zone, sensing stimulation in the genitals, feeling the fondling of one's breasts or buttocks and tastes or smells related to sexual activity. Visualizations of sexual content and auditory voices making sexually explicit remarks may sometimes be included in this classification. While it features components of other classifications, sexual hallucinations are distinct due to the orgasmic component and unique presentation.

The regions of the brain responsible differ by the subsection of sexual hallucination. In orgasmic auras, the mesial temporal lobe, right amygdala and hippocampus are involved. In males, genital specific sensations are related to the postcentral gyrus and arousal and ejaculation are linked to stimulation in the posterior frontal lobe. In females, however, the hippocampus and amygdala are connected. Limited studies have been done to understand the mechanism of action behind sexual hallucinations in epilepsy, substance use, and post-traumatic stress disorder etiologies.

Somatic
Somatic hallucinations refer to an interoceptive sensory experience in the absence of stimulus. Somatic hallucinations can be broken down into further subcategories: general, algesic, kinesthetic, and cenesthopathic.

 * Cenesthopathic- Effecting the cenesthetic sensory modality, cenesthopathic hallucinations are a pathological alteration in the sense of bodily existence, caused by aberrant bodily sensations Most often, cenesthopathic hallucinations will refer to sensation in the visceral organs. Therefore, it is also known as visceral hallucinations. Manifestations are often subjective, hard to describe and unique to the sufferer. Common manifestations include pressure, burning, tickling, or tightening in various body systems. While these hallucinations can be experienced by a variety of psychiatric and neurological disorder, cenesthopathic schizophrenia is recognized by the ICD as a subtype of schizophrenia marked by primarily cenesthopathic hallucinations and other body image aberrations.
 * Kinesthetic- Kinesthetic hallucinations, effecting the sensory modality of the same name, are the sensation of movement of the limbs or other body parts without actual movement.
 * Algesic- Algesic hallucinations, effecting the algesic sensory modality, refers to a perceived perception of pain.
 * General- General somatic hallucination refers to somatic hallucinations not otherwise categorized by the above subsections. Common examples include when an individual feels that their body is being mutilated, i.e. twisted, torn, or disemboweled. Other reported cases are invasion by animals in the person's internal organs, such as snakes in the stomach or frogs in the rectum. The general feeling that one's flesh is decomposing is also classified under this type of this hallucination.

Multimodal
A hallucination involving sensory modalities is called multimodal, analogous to unimodal hallucinations which have only one sensory modality. The multiple sensory modalities can occur at the same time (simultaneously) or with a delay (serial), be related or unrelated to each other, and be consistent with reality (congruent) or not (incongruent). For example, a person talking in a hallucination would be congruent with reality, but a cat talking would not be.

Multimodal hallucinations are correlated to poorer mental health outcomes, and are often experienced as feeling more real.

Cause
Hallucinations can be caused by a number of factors.

Hypnagogic hallucination
These hallucinations occur just before falling asleep and affect a high proportion of the population: in one survey 37% of the respondents experienced them twice a week. The hallucinations can last from seconds to minutes; all the while, the subject usually remains aware of the true nature of the images. These may be associated with narcolepsy. Hypnagogic hallucinations are sometimes associated with brainstem abnormalities, but this is rare.

Peduncular hallucinosis
Peduncular means pertaining to the peduncle, which is a neural tract running to and from the pons on the brain stem. These hallucinations usually occur in the evenings, but not during drowsiness, as in the case of hypnagogic hallucination. The subject is usually fully conscious and then can interact with the hallucinatory characters for extended periods of time. As in the case of hypnagogic hallucinations, insight into the nature of the images remains intact. The false images can occur in any part of the visual field, and are rarely polymodal.

Delirium tremens
One of the more enigmatic forms of visual hallucination is the highly variable, possibly polymodal delirium tremens. It is associated with withdrawal in alcohol use disorder. Individuals with delirium tremens may be agitated and confused, especially in the later stages of this disease. Insight is gradually reduced with the progression of this disorder. Sleep is disturbed and occurs for a shorter period of time, with rapid eye movement sleep.

Parkinson's disease and Lewy body dementia
Parkinson's disease is linked with Lewy body dementia for their similar hallucinatory symptoms. The symptoms strike during the evening in any part of the visual field, and are rarely polymodal. The segue into hallucination may begin with illusions where sensory perception is greatly distorted, but no novel sensory information is present. These typically last for several minutes, during which time the subject may be either conscious and normal or drowsy/inaccessible. Insight into these hallucinations is usually preserved and REM sleep is usually reduced. Parkinson's disease is usually associated with a degraded substantia nigra pars compacta, but recent evidence suggests that PD affects a number of sites in the brain. Some places of noted degradation include the median raphe nuclei, the noradrenergic parts of the locus coeruleus, and the cholinergic neurons in the parabrachial area and pedunculopontine nuclei of the tegmentum.

Migraine coma
This type of hallucination is usually experienced during the recovery from a comatose state. The migraine coma can last for up to two days, and a state of depression is sometimes comorbid. The hallucinations occur during states of full consciousness, and insight into the hallucinatory nature of the images is preserved. It has been noted that ataxic lesions accompany the migraine coma.

Charles Bonnet syndrome
Charles Bonnet syndrome is the name given to visual hallucinations experienced by a partially or severely sight impaired person. The hallucinations can occur at any time and can distress people of any age, as they may not initially be aware that they are hallucinating. They may fear for their own mental health initially, which may delay them sharing with carers until they start to understand it themselves. The hallucinations can frighten and disconcert as to what is real and what is not. The hallucinations can sometimes be dispersed by eye movements, or by reasoned logic such as, "I can see fire but there is no smoke and there is no heat from it" or perhaps, "We have an infestation of rats but they have pink ribbons with a bell tied on their necks." Over elapsed months and years, the hallucinations may become more or less frequent with changes in ability to see. The length of time that the sight impaired person can have these hallucinations varies according to the underlying speed of eye deterioration. A differential diagnosis are ophthalmopathic hallucinations.

Focal epilepsy
Visual hallucinations due to focal seizures differ depending on the region of the brain where the seizure occurs. For example, visual hallucinations during occipital lobe seizures are typically visions of brightly colored, geometric shapes that may move across the visual field, multiply, or form concentric rings and generally persist from a few seconds to a few minutes. They are usually unilateral and localized to one part of the visual field on the contralateral side of the seizure focus, typically the temporal field. However, unilateral visions moving horizontally across the visual field begin on the contralateral side and move toward the ipsilateral side.

Temporal lobe seizures, on the other hand, can produce complex visual hallucinations of people, scenes, animals, and more as well as distortions of visual perception. Complex hallucinations may appear to be real or unreal, may or may not be distorted with respect to size, and may seem disturbing or affable, among other variables. One rare but notable type of hallucination is heautoscopy, a hallucination of a mirror image of one's self. These "other selves" may be perfectly still or performing complex tasks, may be an image of a younger self or the present self, and tend to be briefly present. Complex hallucinations are a relatively uncommon finding in temporal lobe epilepsy patients. Rarely, they may occur during occipital focal seizures or in parietal lobe seizures.

Distortions in visual perception during a temporal lobe seizure may include size distortion (micropsia or macropsia), distorted perception of movement (where moving objects may appear to be moving very slowly or to be perfectly still), a sense that surfaces such as ceilings and even entire horizons are moving farther away in a fashion similar to the dolly zoom effect, and other illusions. Even when consciousness is impaired, insight into the hallucination or illusion is typically preserved.

Drug-induced hallucination
Drug-induced hallucinations are caused by hallucinogens, dissociatives, and deliriants, including many drugs with anticholinergic actions and certain stimulants, which are known to cause visual and auditory hallucinations. Some psychedelics such as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and psilocybin can cause hallucinations that range in the spectrum of mild to intense.

Hallucinations, pseudohallucinations, or intensification of pareidolia, particularly auditory, are known side effects of opioids to different degrees—it may be associated with the absolute degree of agonism or antagonism of especially the kappa opioid receptor, sigma receptors, delta opioid receptor and the NMDA receptors or the overall receptor activation profile as synthetic opioids like those of the pentazocine, levorphanol, fentanyl, pethidine, methadone and some other families are more associated with this side effect than natural opioids like morphine and codeine and semi-synthetics like hydromorphone, amongst which there also appears to be a stronger correlation with the relative analgesic strength. Three opioids, Cyclazocine (a benzormorphan opioid/pentazocine relative) and two levorphanol-related morphinan opioids, Cyclorphan and Dextrorphan are classified as hallucinogens, and Dextromethorphan as a dissociative. These drugs also can induce sleep (relating to hypnagogic hallucinations) and especially the pethidines have atropine-like anticholinergic activity, which was possibly also a limiting factor in the use, the psychotomimetic side effects of potentiating morphine, oxycodone, and other opioids with scopolamine (respectively in the Twilight Sleep technique and the combination drug Skophedal, which was eukodal (oxycodone), scopolamine and ephedrine, called the "wonder drug of the 1930s" after its invention in Germany in 1928, but only rarely specially compounded today) (q.q.v.).

Sensory deprivation hallucination
Hallucinations can be caused by sensory deprivation when it occurs for prolonged periods of time, and almost always occurs in the modality being deprived (visual for blindfolded/darkness, auditory for muffled conditions, etc.)

Experimentally-induced hallucinations
Anomalous experiences, such as so-called benign hallucinations, may occur in a person in a state of good mental and physical health, even in the apparent absence of a transient trigger factor such as fatigue, intoxication or sensory deprivation.

The evidence for this statement has been accumulating for more than a century. Studies of benign hallucinatory experiences go back to 1886 and the early work of the Society for Psychical Research, which suggested approximately 10% of the population had experienced at least one hallucinatory episode in the course of their life. More recent studies have validated these findings; the precise incidence found varies with the nature of the episode and the criteria of "hallucination" adopted, but the basic finding is now well-supported.

Non-celiac gluten sensitivity
There is tentative evidence of a relationship with non-celiac gluten sensitivity, the so-called "gluten psychosis".

Dopaminergic and serotonergic hallucinations
It has been reported that in serotonergic hallucinations, the person maintains an awareness that they are hallucinating, unlike dopaminergic hallucinations.

Neuroanatomy
Hallucinations are associated with structural and functional abnormalities in primary and secondary sensory cortices. Reduced grey matter in regions of the superior temporal gyrus/middle temporal gyrus, including Broca's area, is associated with auditory hallucinations as a trait, while acute hallucinations are associated with increased activity in the same regions along with the hippocampus, parahippocampus, and the right hemispheric homologue of Broca's area in the inferior frontal gyrus. Grey and white matter abnormalities in visual regions are associated with hallucinations in diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, further supporting the notion of dysfunction in sensory regions underlying hallucinations.

One proposed model of hallucinations posits that over-activity in sensory regions, which is normally attributed to internal sources via feedforward networks to the inferior frontal gyrus, is interpreted as originating externally due to abnormal connectivity or functionality of the feedforward network. This is supported by cognitive studies of those with hallucinations, who have demonstrated abnormal attribution of self generated stimuli.

Disruptions in thalamocortical circuitry may underlie the observed top down and bottom up dysfunction. Thalamocortical circuits, composed of projections between thalamic and cortical neurons and adjacent interneurons, underlie certain electrophysical characteristics (gamma oscillations) that are associated with sensory processing. Cortical inputs to thalamic neurons enable attentional modulation of sensory neurons. Dysfunction in sensory afferents, and abnormal cortical input may result in pre-existing expectations modulating sensory experience, potentially resulting in the generation of hallucinations. Hallucinations are associated with less accurate sensory processing, and more intense stimuli with less interference are necessary for accurate processing and the appearance of gamma oscillations (called "gamma synchrony"). Hallucinations are also associated with the absence of reduction in P50 amplitude in response to the presentation of a second stimuli after an initial stimulus; this is thought to represent failure to gate sensory stimuli, and can be exacerbated by dopamine release agents.

Abnormal assignment of salience to stimuli may be one mechanism of hallucinations. Dysfunctional dopamine signaling may lead to abnormal top down regulation of sensory processing, allowing expectations to distort sensory input.

Treatments
There are few treatments for many types of hallucinations. However, for those hallucinations caused by mental disease, a psychologist or psychiatrist should be consulted, and treatment will be based on the observations of those doctors. Antipsychotic and atypical antipsychotic medication may also be utilized to treat the illness if the symptoms are severe and cause significant distress. For other causes of hallucinations there is no factual evidence to support any one treatment is scientifically tested and proven. However, abstaining from hallucinogenic drugs, stimulant drugs, managing stress levels, living healthily, and getting plenty of sleep can help reduce the prevalence of hallucinations. In all cases of hallucinations, medical attention should be sought out and informed of one's specific symptoms. Meta-analyses show that cognitive behavioral therapy and metacognitive training can also reduce the severity of hallucinations. Furthermore, there are recovery movements all around the world that advocate for individuals with schizophrenia or voice-hearers (individuals that hear voices). The Hearing Voices Movement, starting in Europe, is a great example of utilizing the knowledge and experience of voice hearers and combining it with experts in disorders such as schizophrenia, such as psychiatrists.

Epidemiology
Prevalence of hallucinations varies depending on underlying medical conditions, which sensory modalities are affected, age and culture. auditory hallucinations are the most well studied and most common sensory modality of hallucinations, with an estimated lifetime prevalence of 9.6%. Children and adolescents have been found to experience similar rates (12.7% and 12.4% respectively) which occur mostly during late childhood and adolescence. This is compared with adults and those over 60 (with rates of 5.8% and 4.8% respectively). For those with schizophrenia, the lifetime prevalence of hallucinations is 80% and the estimated prevalence of visual hallucinations is 27%, compared to 79% for auditory hallucinations. A 2019 study suggested 16.2% of adults with hearing impairment experience hallucinations, with prevalence rising to 24% in the most hearing impaired group.

A risk factor for multimodal hallucinations is prior experience of unimodal hallucinations. In 90% cases of psychosis, a visual hallucination occurs in combination with another sensory modality, most often being auditory or somatic. In schizophrenia, multimodal hallucinations are twice as common as unimodal ones.

A 2015 review of 55 publications from 1962 to 2014 found 16–28.6% of those experiencing hallucinations report at least some religious content in them, along with 20–60% reporting some religious content in delusions. There is some evidence for delusions being a risk factor for religious hallucinations, with and 61.7% of people having experienced any delusion and 75.9% of those having experienced a religious delusion found to also experience hallucinations.

title: Hallucination


text:
Talk:843

[Untitled]
Hi Karen -- sorry to remove your Charlemagne bit, but it wasn't really correct, plus it repeated the first entry for the year. The kingdom was called Lotharingia, and NOT Lorraine -- although modern Lorraine is the French-language version and the departement is based on the duchy/previously kingdom. Anyway, by reducing it to Lorraine, I think it encourages a false viewpoint.JHK

title: Talk:843


text: Talk:Silvio Berlusconi

title: Talk:Silvio Berlusconi


text:
Damon Knight

Damon Francis Knight (September 19, 1922 – April 15, 2002) was an American science fiction author, editor, and critic. He is the author of "To Serve Man", a 1950 short story adapted for The Twilight Zone. He was married to fellow writer Kate Wilhelm.

Biography
Knight was born in Baker City, Oregon, in 1922, and grew up in Hood River, Oregon. He entered science-fiction fandom at the age of eleven and published two issues of a fanzine titled Snide.

Knight's first professional sale was a cartoon drawing to a science-fiction magazine, Amazing Stories. His first story, "The Itching Hour", appeared in the Summer 1940 number of Futuria Fantasia, edited and published by Ray Bradbury. "Resilience" followed in the February 1941 number of Stirring Science Stories, edited by Donald A. Wollheim. An editorial error made the latter story's ending incomprehensible; it was reprinted in a 1978 magazine in four pages with a two-page introduction by Knight.

At the time of his first story sale he was living in New York and was a member of the Futurians. One of his short stories describes paranormal disruption of a science fiction fan group and contains cameo appearances of various Futurians and others under thinly-disguised names; for instance, non-Futurian SF writer H. Beam Piper is identified as "H. Dreyne Fifer".

Knight's forte was the short story; he is widely acknowledged as having been a master of the genre. To the general public he is best known as the author of "To Serve Man", a 1950 short story adapted for The Twilight Zone. It won a 50-year Retro-Hugo in 2001 as the best short story of 1950. Knight was also a science fiction critic, a career which began when he wrote in 1945 that A. E. van Vogt "is not a giant as often maintained. He's only a pygmy who has learned to operate an overgrown typewriter." He ceased reviewing when Fantasy & Science Fiction refused to publish his review of Judith Merril's novel The Tomorrow People. These reviews were later collected in In Search of Wonder.

Algis Budrys wrote that Knight and "William Atheling Jr." (James Blish) had "transformed the reviewer's trade in the field", in Knight's case "without the guidance of his own prior example". The term "idiot plot", a story that only functions because almost everyone in it is an idiot, became well known through Knight's frequent use of it in his reviews, though he believed the term was probably invented by Blish. Knight's only non-Retro-Hugo Award was for "Best Reviewer" in 1956.

Knight was the founder of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), cofounder of the National Fantasy Fan Federation, cofounder of the Milford Writer's Workshop, and cofounder of the Clarion Writers Workshop. The SFWA officers and past presidents named Knight its 13th Grand Master in 1994 (presented 1995). After his death, the associated award was renamed the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award in his honor. The Science Fiction Hall of Fame inducted him in 2003.

Until his death, Knight lived in Eugene, Oregon, with his second wife, author Kate Wilhelm. His papers are held in the University of Oregon Special Collections and University Archive.

Novels

 * Hell's Pavement (1955)
 * A for Anything (1961) (original version titled The People Maker, 1959)
 * Masters of Evolution (1959)
 * The Sun Saboteurs (1961)
 * Beyond the Barrier (1964)
 * Mind Switch (1965)
 * Double Meaning (1965)
 * The Earth Quarter (1970)
 * World without Children (1970)
 * The World and Thorinn (1980)
 * The Man in the Tree (1984)
 * CV (1985)
 * The Observers (1988)
 * A Reasonable World (1991)
 * God's Nose (1991)
 * Why Do Birds (1992)
 * Humpty Dumpty: An Oval (1996)

Short stories and other writings

 * "The Third Little Green Man" (1948)
 * "PS's Feature Flash" (1948)
 * "Not with a Bang" (1949)
 * "The Star Beast" (1949)
 * "To Serve Man" (1950)
 * "Ask Me Anything" (1951)
 * "Don't Live in the Past" (1951)
 * "Cabin Boy" (1951)
 * "Catch that Martian" (1952)
 * "The Analogues" (1952)
 * "Beachcomber" (1952)
 * "Ticket to Anywhere" (1952)
 * "Anachron" (1953)
 * "Babel II" (1953)
 * "Four in One" (1953)
 * "Special Delivery" (1953)
 * "Natural State" (1954)
 * "Rule Golden" (1954)
 * "The Country of the Kind" (1955)
 * "Dulcie and Decorum" (1955)
 * "You're Another" (1955)
 * "This Way to the Regress" (1956)
 * "Extempore" (1956)
 * "The Last Word" (1956)
 * "Stranger Station" (1956)
 * "Dio" (1957)
 * "The Dying Man" (1957)
 * "An Eye for a What?" (1957)
 * "The Enemy" (1958)
 * "Be My Guest" (1958)
 * "Eripmav" (1958)
 * "Idiot Stick" (1958)
 * "Thing of Beauty" (1958)
 * "To Be Continued" (1959)
 * "The Handler" (1960)
 * "Time Enough" (1960)
 * "Auto-Da-Fe" (1961)
 * A Century of Science Fiction (1962) (editor)
 * "The Visitor at the Zoo" (1963)
 * "The Big Pat Boom" (1963)
 * "An Ancient Madness" (1964)
 * God's Nose (1964)
 * Maid to Measure (1964)
 * "Shall the Dust Praise Thee?" (1967)
 * "Masks'" (1968)
 * "The Star Below" (1968)
 * I See You (1976)
 * Forever (1981)
 * O (1983)
 * Point of View (1985) (illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg)
 * Strangers on Paradise (1986)
 * Not a Creature (1993)
 * Fortyday (1994)
 * Life Edit (1996)
 * "Double Meaning"
 * "In the Beginning"

Literary criticism and analysis

 * In Search of Wonder (1956) (collected reviews and critical pieces)
 * Creating Short Fiction (1981) (advice on writing short stories)
 * Turning Points (editor/contributor: critical anthology)
 * Orbit (editor)
 * The Futurians (1977, memoir/history)

Short story collections

 * Far Out (1961) (contains "To Serve Man")
 * In Deep (1963) (contains "The Country of the Kind")
 * Off Center (1965) (contains "Be My Guest")
 * Turning On (1966)

title: Damon Knight


text:
Penelope

Penelope (Ancient Greek: Πηνελόπεια, Pēnelópeia, or Πηνελόπη, Pēnelópē) is a character in Homer's Odyssey. She was the queen of Ithaca and was the daughter of Spartan king Icarius and Asterodia. Penelope is known for her fidelity to her husband Odysseus, despite the attention of more than a hundred suitors during his absence. In one source, Penelope's original name was Arnacia or Arnaea.

Etymology
Glossed by Hesychius as "some kind of bird" (today arbitrarily identified with the Eurasian wigeon, to which Linnaeus gave the binomial Anas penelope), where (-έλωψ) is a common Pre-Greek suffix for predatory animals; however, the semantic relation between the proper name and the gloss is not clear. In folk etymology, (Πηνελόπη) is usually understood to combine the Greek word  (πήνη), "weft", and  (ὤψ), "face", which is considered the most appropriate for a cunning weaver whose motivation is hard to decipher. Robert S. P. Beekes believed the name to be Pre-Greek and related to (πηνέλοψ) or  (πηνέλωψ).

Role in the Odyssey
Penelope is married to the main character, the king of Ithaca, Odysseus (Ulysses in Roman mythology), and daughter of Icarius of Sparta and Periboea (or Polycaste). She only has one son with Odysseus, Telemachus, who was born just before Odysseus was called to fight in the Trojan War. She waits twenty years for Odysseus' return, during which time she devises various cunning strategies to delay marrying any of the 108 suitors (led by Antinous and including Agelaus, Amphinomus, Ctessippus, Demoptolemus, Elatus, Euryades, Eurymachus and Peisandros).

On Odysseus's return, disguised as an old beggar, he finds that Penelope has remained faithful. She has devised cunning tricks to delay the suitors, one of which is to pretend to be weaving a burial shroud for Odysseus's elderly father Laertes and claiming that she will choose a suitor when she has finished. Every night for three years, she undoes part of the shroud, until Melantho, a slave, discovers her chicanery and reveals it to the suitors.

Penelope's efforts to delay remarriage is often seen as a symbol of marital fidelity to her husband, Odysseus. But because Athena wants her "to show herself to the wooers, that she might set their hearts a-flutter and win greater honor from her husband and her son than heretofore", Penelope does eventually appear before the suitors Irene de Jong wrote

"As so often, it is Athena who takes the initiative in giving the story a new direction ... Usually the motives of mortal and god coincide, here they do not: Athena wants Penelope to fan the Suitors’ desire for her and (thereby) make her more esteemed by her husband and son; Penelope has no real motive ... she simply feels an unprecedented impulse to meet the men she so loathes ... adding that she might take this opportunity to talk to Telemachus (which she will indeed do)."

It is important to consider the alternate perspective of Penelope entertaining, and even enjoying the attention of, her suitors. Italian philosophy historian Giula Sissa offers a unique perspective which supports this idea. The Odyssey allows room for Penelope’s identity free of being Ulysses’ wife. As she awaits his return, she makes a plan to deal with her suitors while also responding to her desires. Sissa discusses how Penelope gives her suitors the opportunity to demonstrate themselves as the best candidate for her attention. Sissa writes,

"'Penelope innovates. And she does so because she responds in the same register to the desires of the men who have been awaiting her verdict for three years. This is an erotic desire to which she reacts, first, with seductive wiles of messages and promises, and then by inviting them to demonstrate their excellence, not in terms of wealth and social prestige, but in terms of something extremely personal and physical. In order to please Penelope, they have to be on par with Ulysses in showing the might of their bodies.'"

She is ambivalent, variously asking Artemis to kill her and apparently considering marrying one of the suitors. When the disguised Odysseus returns, she announces in her long interview with him that whoever can string Odysseus's rigid bow and shoot an arrow through twelve axe heads may have her hand. "For the plot of the Odyssey, of course, her decision is the turning point, the move that makes possible the long-predicted triumph of the returning hero".

There is debate as to whether Penelope knows that it is Odysseus. Penelope and the suitors know that Odysseus (were he in fact present) would easily surpass them all in any test of masculine skill, so she may have started the contest as an opportunity for him to reveal his identity. On the other hand, because Odysseus seems to be the only person (except, perhaps, Telemachus) who can actually use the bow, she could just be further delaying her marriage to one of the suitors.

When the contest of the bow begins, none of the suitors are able to string the bow, except Odysseus who wins the contest. Having done so, he proceeds to slaughter the suitors – beginning with Antinous whom he finds drinking from his cup – with help from Telemachus, Athena and the slaves Eumaeus the swineherd and Philoetius the cowherd. Odysseus has now revealed himself in all his glory (with a little makeover by Athena); yet Penelope cannot believe that her husband has really returned – she fears that it is perhaps some god in disguise, as in the story of Alcmene – and tests him by ordering her slave Eurycleia to move the bed in their bridal-chamber. Odysseus protests that this cannot be done, since he made the bed himself and knows that one of its legs is a living olive tree. Penelope finally accepts that he truly is Odysseus, a moment that highlights their homophrosýnē ($ὁμοφροσύνη$, "like-mindedness"). Homer implies that from then on Odysseus would live a long and happy life together with Penelope and Telemachus, wisely ruling his kingdom, and enjoying wide respect and much success.

Role in other myths
Penelope also appears in the lost Greek epic Telegony. that does not survive except in a summary, but that was attributed to Eugamon or Eugammon of Cyrene and written as a sequel to the Odyssey. According to this epic, Odysseus had a son called Telegonus with Circe when he was in her island. When Telegonus had grown to manhood, Circe sent him in search of Odysseus. Shipwrecked on Ithaca by a storm, Telegonus misidentified the island and, assailed by hunger, began plundering it. Odysseus and his oldest son, Telemachus, defended their city and, in the ensuing melée, Telegonus accidentally killed his father with a lance tipped with the venomous spine of a stingray. After discovering the identity of his father, Telegonus brought Telemachus and Penelope to Circe's island. Here, Athena ordered the marriage of Telemachus to Telegonus' mother, the enchantress Circe, while Telegonus married the new widowed Penelope. After burying Odysseus, Circe made the other three immortal. According to Higinius, Penelope and Telegonus had a son called Italus who, according to some accounts, gave his name to Italy. This legend inspired Sophocles lost tragedy Odysseus Acanthoplex.

In some early sources such as Pindar, Pan's parents are Apollo and Penelope. Herodotus, Cicero, Apollodorus, and Hyginus all describe Hermes and Penelope as his parents. Pausanias records the story that Penelope had in fact been unfaithful to Odysseus, who banished her to Mantineia upon his return. In the 5th century AD Nonnus names Pan's mother as Penelope of Mantineia in Arcadia. Other sources report that Penelope had slept with all 108 suitors in Odysseus' absence, and gave birth to Pan as a result. This myth reflects the folk etymology that equates Pan's name ($Πάν$) with the Greek word for "all" ($πᾶν$). The Odyssey carefully suppresses this variant tradition.

Iconography
Penelope is recognizable in Greek and Roman works, from Attic vase-paintings—the Penelope Painter is recognized by his representations of her—to Roman sculptures copying or improvising upon classical Greek models, by her seated pose, by her reflective gesture of leaning her cheek on her hand, and by her protectively crossed legs, reflecting her long chastity in Odysseus' absence, an unusual pose in any other figure.

Latin tradition
Latin references to Penelope revolved around her sexual loyalty to the absent Odysseus. It suited the marital aspect of Roman society representing the tranquility of the worthy family. She is mentioned by various classical authors including Plautus, Propertius, Horace, Ovid, Martial and Statius. The use of Penelope in Latin texts provided a basis for her ongoing use in the Middle Ages and Renaissance as a representation of a chaste wife. This was reinforced by her being named by Saint Jerome among pagan women famed for their chastity.

title: Penelope