document_title: Ancient Egyptian technology

question_text: what are three things other than the nile that are related to ancient egypt

text: Ancient Egyptian technology

text: Technology in Dynastic Egypt[edit]

text: Significant advances in ancient Egypt during the dynastic period include astronomy, mathematics, and medicine. Their geometry was a necessary outgrowth of surveying to preserve the layout and ownership of farmland, which was flooded annually by the Nile river. The 3,4,5 right triangle and other rules of thumb served to represent rectilinear structures, and the post and lintel architecture of Egypt. Egypt also was a center of alchemy research for much of the western world.

text: Paper and writing[edit]

text: The word paper comes from the Greek term for the ancient Egyptian writing material called papyrus, which was formed from beaten strips of papyrus plants. Papyrus was produced as early as 3000 BC in Egypt, and sold to ancient Greece and Rome. The establishment of the Library of Alexandria limited the supply of papyrus for others. As a result, according to the Roman historian Pliny (Natural History records, xiii.21), parchment was invented under the patronage of Eumenes II of Pergamon to build his rival library at Pergamon. This however is a myth; parchment had been in use in Anatolia and elsewhere long before the rise of Pergamon.

text: Egyptian hieroglyphs, a phonetic writing system, served as the basis for the Phoenician alphabet from which later alphabets were derived. With this ability, writing and record keeping, the Egyptians developed one of the —if not the— first decimal system.[1][2][3]

text: The city of Alexandria retained preeminence for its records and scrolls with its library. That ancient library was damaged by fire when it fell under Roman rule,[4] and was destroyed completely by 642 CE.[5][6] With it, a huge amount of antique literature, history, and knowledge was lost.

text: Structures and construction[edit]

text: Tools[edit]

text: Some of the older tools used in the construction of Egyptian housing included reeds and clay. According to Lucas and Harris, “reeds were plastered with clay in order to keep out of heat and cold more effectually”. [7] Other tools that were used were "limestone, chiseled stones, wooden mallets, and stone hammers". [8] With these tools, ancient Egyptians were able to create more than just housing, but also sculptures of their gods, goddesses, pyramids, etc.

text: Buildings[edit]

text: Many temples from Ancient Egypt are not standing today. Some are in ruin from wear and tear, while others have been lost entirely. The Egyptian structures are among the largest constructions ever conceived and built by humans. They constitute one of the most potent and enduring symbols of Ancient Egyptian civilization. Temples and tombs built by a pharaoh famous for her projects, Hatshepsut, were massive and included many colossal statues of her. Pharaoh Tutankamun's rock-cut tomb in the Valley of the Kings was full of jewellery and antiques. In some late myths, Ptah was identified as the primordial mound and had called creation into being, he was considered the deity of craftsmen, and in particular, of stone-based crafts. Imhotep, who was included in the Egyptian pantheon, was the first documented engineer.[9]

text: In Hellenistic Egypt, lighthouse technology was developed, the most famous example being the Lighthouse of Alexandria. Alexandria was a port for the ships that traded the goods manufactured in Egypt or imported into Egypt. A giant cantilevered hoist lifted cargo to and from ships. The lighthouse itself was designed by Sostratus of Cnidus and built in the 3rd century BC (between 285 and 247 BC) on the island of Pharos in Alexandria, Egypt, which has since become a peninsula. This lighthouse was renowned in its time and knowledge of it was never lost. A 2006 drawing of it created from the study of many references, is shown at the right.

text: Monuments[edit]

text: The Nile valley has been the site of one of the most influential civilizations in the world with its architectural monuments, which include the pyramids of Giza and the Great Sphinx—among the largest and most famous buildings in the world.

text: The most famous pyramids are the Egyptian pyramids—huge structures built of brick or stone, some of which are among the largest constructions by humans. Pyramids functioned as tombs for pharaohs. In Ancient Egypt, a pyramid was referred to as mer, literally "place of ascendance." The Great Pyramid of Giza is the largest in Egypt and one of the largest in the world. The base is over 13 acres (53,000 m2) in area. It is one of the Seven Wonders of the World, and the only one of the seven to survive into modern times. The Ancient Egyptians capped the peaks of their pyramids with gold and covered their faces with polished white limestone, although many of the stones used for the finishing purpose have fallen or been removed for use on other structures over the millennia.

text: The Red Pyramid of Egypt (c.26th century BC), named for the light crimson hue of its exposed granite surfaces, is the third largest of Egyptian pyramids. Menkaure's Pyramid, likely dating to the same era, was constructed of limestone and granite blocks. The Great Pyramid of Giza (c. 2580 BC) contains a huge granite sarcophagus fashioned of "Red Aswan Granite." The mostly ruined Black Pyramid dating from the reign of Amenemhat III once had a polished granite pyramidion or capstone, now on display in the main hall of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo (see Dahshur). Other uses in Ancient Egypt,[10] include columns, door lintels, sills, jambs, and wall and floor veneer.

text: The ancient Egyptians had some of the first monumental stone buildings (such as in Sakkara). How the Egyptians worked the solid granite is still a matter of debate. Archaeologist Patrick Hunt[11] has postulated that the Egyptians used emery shown to have higher hardness on the Mohs scale. Regarding construction, of the various methods possibly used by builders, the lever moved and uplifted obelisks weighing more than 100 tons.

text: Obelisks and pillars[edit]

text: Obelisks were a prominent part of the architecture of the ancient Egyptians, who placed them in pairs at the entrances of various monuments and important buildings, such as temples. In 1902, Encyclopædia Britannica wrote, "The earliest temple obelisk still in position is that of Senusret I of the XIIth Dynasty at Heliopolis (68 feet high)". The word "obelisk" is of Greek rather than Egyptian origin because Herodotus, the great traveler, was the first writer to describe the objects. Twenty-nine ancient Egyptian obelisks are known to have survived, plus the unfinished obelisk being built by Hatshepsut to celebrate her sixteenth year as pharaoh. It broke while being carved out of the quarry and was abandoned when another one was begun to replace it. The broken one was found at Aswan and provides the only insight into the methods of how they were hewn. The obelisk symbolized the sky deity Ra and during the brief religious reformation of Akhenaten, was said to be a petrified ray of the Aten, the sun disk. It is hypothesized by New York University Egyptologist Patricia Blackwell Gary and Astronomy senior editor Richard Talcott that the shapes of the ancient Egyptian pyramid and Obelisk were derived from natural phenomena associated with the sun (the sun-god Ra being the Egyptians' greatest deity).[12] It was also thought that the deity existed within the structure. The Egyptians also used pillars extensively.

text: It is unknown whether the Ancient Egyptians had kites, but a team led by Maureen Clemmons and Mory Gharib raised a 5,900-pound, 15-foot (4.6 m) obelisk into vertical position with a kite, a system of pulleys, and a support frame.[13] Maureen Clemmons developed the idea that the ancient Egyptians used kites for work.[13] Ramps have been reported as being widely used in Ancient Egypt. A ramp is an inclined plane, or a plane surface set at an angle (other than a right angle) against a horizontal surface. The inclined plane permits one to overcome a large resistance by applying a relatively small force through a longer distance than the load is to be raised. In civil engineering the slope (ratio of rise/run) is often referred to as a grade or gradient. An inclined plane is one of the commonly-recognized simple machines. Maureen Clemmons subsequently lead a team of researchers demonstrating a kite made of natural material and reinforced with shellac (which according to their research pulled with 97% the efficiency of nylon), in a 9 mph wind, would easily pull an average 2-ton pyramid stone up the 1st two courses of a pyramid (in collaboration with Cal Poly, Pomona, on a 53-stone pyramid built in Rosamond, CA).

text: Navigation and ship building[edit]

text: The Ancient Egyptians had knowledge to some extent of sail construction. This is governed by the science of aerodynamics.[14] The earliest Egyptian sails were simply placed to catch the wind and push a vessel.[15] Later Egyptian sails dating to 2400 BCE were built with the recognition that ships could sail against the wind using the lift of the sails.[15][16] Queen Hatshepsut oversaw the preparations and funding of an expedition of five ships, each measuring seventy feet long, and with several sails.[dubious – discuss][citation needed]Various others exist, also.

text:
Egyptian ship with a loose-footed sail, similar to a longship. From the 5th dynasty (around 2700 BC)

Model ship from the Old Kingdom (2686–2181 BC)

Stern-mounted steering oar of an Egyptian riverboat depicted in the Tomb of Menna (c. 1422–1411 B.C.) Note that the sail is stretched between yards.

Loading Egyptian vessels with the produce of Punt. Shows folded sails, lowered upper yard, yard construction, and heavy deck cargo.

text: Ancient Egyptians had experience with building a variety of ships.[17][18][19] Some of them survive to this day as Khufu Solar ship.[20] The ships were found in many areas of Egypt as the Abydos boats[21][22][23] and remnants of other ships were found near the pyramids.[22][24][25]

text: Sneferu's ancient cedar wood ship Praise of the Two Lands is the first reference recorded to a ship being referred to by name.[26]

text: Although quarter rudders were the norm in Nile navigation, the Egyptians were the first to use also stern-mounted rudders (not of the modern type but center mounted steering oars).

text: Irrigation and agriculture[edit]

text: Irrigation as the artificial application of water to the soil was used to some extent in Ancient Egypt, a hydraulic civilization (which entails hydraulic engineering).[27] In crop production it is mainly used to replace missing rainfall in periods of drought, as opposed to reliance on direct rainfall (referred to as dryland farming or as rainfed farming). Before technology advanced, the people of Egypt relied on the natural flow of the Nile River to tend to the crops. Although the Nile provided sufficient watering survival domesticated animals, crops, and the people of Egypt, there were times where the Nile would flood the area wreaking havoc amongst the land. [28] There is evidence of the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Amenemhet III in the twelfth dynasty (about 1800 BCE) using the natural lake of the Fayûm as a reservoir to store surpluses of water for use during the dry seasons, as the lake swelled annually with the flooding of the Nile.[29] Construction of drainage canals reduced the problems of major flooding from entering homes and areas of crops; but because it was a hydraulic civilization, much of the water management was controlled in a systematic way. [30]

text: Glassworking[edit]

text: Egyptian knowledge of glassmaking was advanced.[31] The earliest known glass beads from Egypt were made during the New Kingdom around 1500 BC and were produced in a variety of colors. They were made by winding molten glass around a metal bar and were highly prized as a trading commodity, especially blue beads, which were believed to have magical powers. The Egyptians made small jars and bottles using the core-formed method. Glass threads were wound around a bag of sand tied to a rod. The glass was continually reheated to fuse the threads together. The glass-covered sand bag was kept in motion until the required shape and thickness was achieved. The rod was allowed to cool, then finally the bag was punctured and the sand poured out and reused . The Egyptians also created the first colored glass rods which they used to create colorful beads and decorations. They also worked with cast glass, which was produced by pouring molten glass into a mold, much like iron and the more modern crucible steel.[32]

text: Astronomy[edit]

text: The Egyptians were a practical people and this is reflected in their astronomy[33] in contrast to Babylonia where the first astronomical texts were written in astrological terms.[34] Even before Upper and Lower Egypt were unified in 3000 BCE, observations of the night sky had influenced the development of a religion in which many of its principal deities were heavenly bodies. In Lower Egypt, priests built circular mud-brick walls with which to make a false horizon where they could mark the position of the sun as it rose at dawn, and then with a plumb-bob note the northern or southern turning points (solstices). This allowed them to discover that the sun disc, personified as Ra, took 365 days to travel from his birthplace at the winter solstice and back to it. Meanwhile, in Upper Egypt a lunar calendar was being developed based on the behavior of the moon and the reappearance of Sirius in its heliacal rising after its annual absence of about 70 days.[35]

text: After unification, problems with trying to work with two calendars (both depending upon constant observation) led to a merged, simplified civil calendar with twelve 30-day months, three seasons of four months each, plus an extra five days, giving a 365-year day but with no way of accounting for the extra quarter day each year. Day and night were split into 24 units, each personified by a deity. A sundial found on Seti I's cenotaph with instructions for its use shows us that the daylight hours were at one time split into 10 units, with 12 hours for the night and an hour for the morning and evening twilights.[36] However, by Seti I's time day and night were normally divided into 12 hours each, the length of which would vary according to the time of year.

text: Key to much of this was the motion of the sun god Ra and his annual movement along the horizon at sunrise. Out of Egyptian myths such as those around Ra and the sky goddess Nut came the development of the Egyptian calendar, time keeping, and even concepts of royalty. An astronomical ceiling in the burial chamber of Ramesses VI shows the sun being born from Nut in the morning, traveling along her body during the day and being swallowed at night.

text: During the Fifth Dynasty six kings built sun temples in honour of Ra. The temple complexes built by Niuserre at Abu Gurab and Userkaf at Abusir have been excavated and have astronomical alignments, and the roofs of some of the buildings could have been used by observers to view the stars, calculate the hours at night and predict the sunrise for religious festivals.[citation needed]

text: Claims have been made that precession of the equinoxes was known in Ancient Egypt prior to the time of Hipparchus.[37] This has been disputed however on the grounds that pre-Hipparchus texts do not mention precession and that "it is only by cunning interpretation of ancient myths and images, which are ostensibly about something else, that precession can be discerned in them, aided by some pretty esoteric numerological speculation involving the 72 years that mark one degree of shift in the zodiacal system and any number of permutations by multiplication, division, and addition." [38]

text: Note however that the Egyptian observation of a slowly changing stellar alignment over a multi-year period does not necessarily mean that they understood or even cared what was going on. For instance, from the Middle Kingdom onwards they used a table with entries for each month to tell the time of night from the passing of constellations. These went in error after a few centuries because of their calendar and precession, but were copied (with scribal errors) long after they lost their practical usefulness or the possibility of understanding and use of them in the current years, rather than the years in which they were originally used.

text: Medicine[edit]

text: The Edwin Smith Papyrus is one of the first medical documents still extant, and perhaps the earliest document which attempts to describe and analyze the brain: given this, it might be seen as the very beginnings of neuroscience. However, medical historians believe that ancient Egyptian pharmacology was largely ineffective.[39] According to a paper published by Michael D. Parkins, 72% of 260 medical prescriptions in the Hearst Papyrus had no curative elements.[40] According to Michael D. Parkins, sewage pharmacology first began in ancient Egypt and was continued through the Middle Ages,[39] and while the use of animal dung can have curative properties,[41] it is not without its risk. Practices such as applying cow dung to wounds, ear piercing, tattooing, and chronic ear infections were important factors in developing tetanus.[42] Frank J. Snoek wrote that Egyptian medicine used fly specks, lizard blood, swine teeth, and other such remedies which he believes could have been harmful.[43]

text: Mummification of the dead was not always practiced in Egypt. Once the practice began, an individual was placed at a final resting place through a set of rituals and protocol. The Egyptian funeral was a complex ceremony including various monuments, prayers, and rituals undertaken in honor of the deceased. The poor, who could not afford expensive tombs, were buried in shallow graves in the sand, and because of the arid environment they were often naturally mummified.

text: The Wheel[edit]

text: Evidence indicates that Egyptians made use of potter's wheels in the manufacturing of pottery from as early as the 4th Dynasty.[44] Chariots, however, are only believed to have been introduced by the invasion of the Hyksos in the Second Intermediate period;[45] during the New Kingdom era, chariotry became central to Egypt's military.

text: Other developments[edit]

text: The Egyptians developed a variety of furniture. There in the lands of ancient Egypt is the first evidence for stools, beds, and tables (such as from the tombs similar to Tutenkhamen's). Recovered Ancient Egyptian furniture includes a third millennium BC bed discovered in the Tarkhan Tomb, a c.2550 BC. gilded set from the tomb of Queen Hetepheres I, and a c. 1550 BC. stool from Thebes.

text: Some have suggested that the Egyptians had some form of understanding electric phenomena from observing lightning and interacting with electric fish (such as Malapterurus electricus) or other animals (such as electric eels).[46] The comment about lightning appears to come from a misunderstanding of a text referring to "high poles covered with copper plates" to argue this[47] but Dr. Bolko Stern has written in detail explaining why the copper covered tops of poles (which were lower than the associated pylons) do not relate to electricity or lightning, pointing out that no evidence of anything used to manipulate electricity had been found in Egypt and that this was a magical and not a technical installation.[48]

text: Those exploring fringe theories of ancient technology have suggested that there were electric lights used in Ancient Egypt. Engineers have constructed a working model based on their interpretation of a relief found in the Hathor temple at the Dendera Temple complex.[49] Authors (such as Peter Krassa and Reinhard Habeck) have produced a basic theory of the device's operation.[49] The standard explanation, however, for the Dendera light, which comprises three stone reliefs (one single and a double representation) is that the depicted image represents a lotus leaf and flower from which a sacred snake is spawned in accordance with Egyptian mythological beliefs. This sacred snake sometimes is identified as the Milky Way (the snake) in the night sky (the leaf, lotus, or "bulb") that became identified with Hathor because of her similar association in creation.

text: Later technology in Egypt[edit]

text: Greco-Roman Egypt[edit]

text: Under Hellenistic rule, Egypt was one of the most prosperous regions of the Hellenistic civilization. The ancient Egyptian city of Rhakotis was renovated as Alexandria, which became the largest city around the Mediterranean Basin. Under Roman rule, Egypt was one of the most prosperous regions of the Roman Empire, with Alexandria being second only to ancient Rome in size.

text: Recent scholarship suggests that the water wheel originates from Ptolemaic Egypt, where it appeared by the 3rd century BC.[50][51] This is seen as an evolution of the paddle-driven water-lifting wheels that had been known in Egypt a century earlier.[50] According to John Peter Oleson, both the compartmented wheel and the hydraulic Noria may have been invented in Egypt by the 4th century BC, with the Sakia being invented there a century later. This is supported by archeological finds at Faiyum, Egypt, where the oldest archeological evidence of a water-wheel has been found, in the form of a Sakia dating back to the 3rd century BC. A papyrus dating to the 2nd century BC also found in Faiyum mentions a water wheel used for irrigation, a 2nd-century BC fresco found at Alexandria depicts a compartmented Sakia, and the writings of Callixenus of Rhodes mention the use of a Sakia in Ptolemaic Egypt during the reign of Ptolemy IV in the late 3rd century BC.[51]

text: Ancient Greek technology was often inspired by the need to improve weapons and tactics in war. Ancient Roman technology is a set of artifacts and customs which supported Roman civilization and made the expansion of Roman commerce and Roman military possible over nearly a thousand years.

text: Arabic-Islamic Egypt[edit]

text: Under Arab rule, Egypt once again became one of the most prosperous regions around the Mediterranean. The Egyptian city of Cairo was founded by the Fatimid Caliphate and served as its capital city. At the time, Cairo was second only to Baghdad, capital of the rival Abbasid Caliphate. After the fall of Baghdad, however, Cairo overtook it as the largest city in the Mediterranean region until the early modern period.

text: Inventions in medieval Islam covers the inventions developed in the medieval Islamic world, a region that extended from Al-Andalus and Africa in the west to the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia in the east. The timeline of Islamic science and engineering covers the general development of science and technology in the Islamic world.


document_title: Dragon Ball

question_text: when did the first episode of dragonball air

root

text: Dragon Ball

text: Plot summary[edit]

text: On a version of Earth in Universe 7, a monkey-tailed boy named Goku befriends a teenage girl named Bulma, whom he accompanies to find the seven Dragon Balls (ドラゴンボール, Doragon Bōru), which summon the dragon Shenlong to grant the user one wish. The journey leads them to the desert bandit Yamcha, who later becomes an ally; Chi-Chi, whom Goku unknowingly agrees to marry; and Emperor Pilaf, an impish man who seeks the Dragon Balls to fulfill his desire to rule the world. Goku then undergoes rigorous training regimes under the martial arts master Kame-Sen'nin in order to fight in the Tenkaichi Budōkai (天下一武道会, "Strongest Under the Heavens Martial Arts Tournament"). A monk named Kuririn becomes his training partner and rival, but they soon become best friends. After the tournament, Goku searches for the Dragon Ball his grandfather left him and almost single-handedly defeats the Red Ribbon Army and their hired assassin Taopaipai. Thereafter Goku reunites with his friends to defeat the fortuneteller Baba Uranai's fighters and have her locate the last Dragon Ball to revive a friend killed by Taopaipai.

tag: p

text: At the Tenkaichi Budōkai three years later Goku and his allies oppose Kame-Sen'nin's rival and Taopaipai's brother, Tsuru-Sen'nin, and his students Tenshinhan and Chaozu. Kuririn is killed after the tournament and Goku tracks down and is defeated by his killer, Piccolo Daimao. The samurai Yajirobe takes Goku to the hermit Karin, where he receives healing and a power boost. Meanwhile, Piccolo fights Kame-Sen'nin and Chaozu, leading to both their deaths, and uses the Dragon Balls to regain his youth before destroying Shenlong. Goku then kills Piccolo Daimao, who, just before dying, spawns his son/reincarnation Piccolo. Karin then directs Goku to Kami-sama, the original creator of the Dragon Balls, to restore Shenlong and revive his slain friends. Goku trains under Kami for the next three years, once again reuniting with his friends at the Tenkaichi Budōkai, where he narrowly wins against Piccolo before leaving with Chi-Chi to keep his promise to marry her.

text: Five years later, Goku is a young adult and father of Gohan, when Raditz arrives on Earth, identifies Goku as his younger brother 'Kakarrot' and reveals to him that they are members of a nearly extinct extraterrestrial race called the Saiyans (サイヤ人, Saiya-jin), who sent Goku to conquer Earth for them, until he suffered a severe head injury and lost all memory of his mission. Goku refuses to continue the mission, sides with Piccolo, and sacrifices his life to defeat Raditz. In the afterlife Goku trains under the North Kaiō until he is revived by the Dragon Balls to save the Earth from the invading Nappa and Vegeta. In the battle Yamcha, Chaozu, Tenshinhan, and Piccolo are killed, and the Dragon Balls cease to exist. Kuririn and the galactic tyrant Freeza learn of another set of Dragon Balls on planet Namek (ナメック星, Namekku-sei), whereupon Bulma, Gohan, and Kuririn search for them to revive their friends and subsequently the Earth's Dragon Balls, leading to several battles with Freeza's minions and Vegeta, the latter standing alongside the heroes to fight the Ginyu Force, a team of mercenaries. The long battle with Freeza himself comes to a close when Goku transforms into a Super Saiyan (超サイヤ人, Sūpā Saiya-jin) of legends and defeats him, with Namek being destroyed in the process.

text: Sometime after, Frieza is revealed to have survived after the fight in Namek and have traveled to Earth with his father King Cold, to face Goku. Instead, he is encountered by a mysterious person who came from the future who is none other than Vegeta and Bulma's son, Trunks. Trunks had defeated both Frieza and King Cold, also having the ability to turn to a Super Saiayn. Trunks gave the Z warriors the medicine for the virus that would be fatal to Goku and a warning to train for an upcoming threat that will appear in the near future. Three years later, a group of Androids (人造人間, Jinzōningen, "Artificial Humans") created by a member of the former Red Ribbon Army, Doctor Gero, seeking revenge against Goku. During this time, an evil life form called Cell also emerges and, after absorbing two of the Androids to achieve his "perfect form," holds his own fighting tournament to challenge the protagonists. After Goku sacrifices his own life to no avail, Gohan avenges his father by defeating Cell.

text: Seven years later, Goku, briefly revived for one day, and his allies are drawn into a fight against Majin Buu. After numerous battles, including destruction and re-creation of the Earth, Goku destroys Boo with a Genki-Dama (a sphere of pure energy drawn from all intelligent beings on Earth) and wishes for him to be reincarnated as a "good person." Ten years later, at another Tenkaichi Budōkai, Goku meets Boo's human reincarnation, Oob. Leaving their match unfinished, Goku departs with Oob to train him to be Earth's new guardian.

text: Six months after the defeat of Majin Buu, Earth was at peace one again. Goku became a radish farmer, Krillen a father, Gohan married to Videl, and Vegeta spent more time with his family. After thirty–nine years of slumber, Lord Beerus, the God of Destruction of the universe, had awoken to a prophecy of a warrior emerging that would rival his power being known as a Super Saiyan God (超 スーパーサイヤ人ゴッド Sūpā Saiya-jin Goddo). Beerus along with mentor/servant Whis took course to find Goku and Vegeta to fulfill the prophecy. Goku along with the rest of the sayians Including Gohan and Videl's soon to be born daughter, united to have Goku achieve the Super Saiyan God form through a ritual revealed by Shenron. Goku with his new power faced the God of Destruction with Earth's destruction at stake. Although Goku defeated, Beerus spares Earth and looks forward to Goku being more powerful.

text: A year has past since the encounter with Beerus. Goku and Vegeta had been training under Whis who had taken them as his students to master on controlling their flow of energy, maintaining it from within themselves. During this time, the remaining remnant of Frieza's army had went to earth to use the dragon balls to revive the long dead galactic ruler. Being revived and regenerated from the army's latest technology of regeneration, Frieza had began to plot his revenge on Goku who had defeated him on planet Namek. Learning that he had defeated Majin Buu, one of two beings warned not to fight with from his father; the other being Beerus, Frieza decided to begin intense training to reach new heights of power to face Goku. Frieza's army had arrived on Earth while Goku and Vegeta still training with Whis. Tien, Piccolo, Gohan, Krillin, and Master Roshi had fought the remnant until their return. Once arriving on Earth, Frieza and Goku had fought showing their latest forms and power. Goku achieved a form beyond the Super Saiyan God form being the Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan (shortened Super Sayian Blue). Frieza revealed his new form achieved after training stating he has not done before, calling it his Golden Frieza form.

text: Freiza became a handful with Goku but was bested yet again. However, with his commander Sorbet's help, defeated Goku with a severe shot when he was no longer focused. Vegeta then came in to fight Frieza being able to transform to the form as well. Vegeta outmatched Frieza, showing the flaw of his new form where his body has not been used to the energy that gets consumed. Out of desperation, Frieza had destroyed Earth, killing him and almost everyone, later with Whis reversing time, Goku was able to prevent Frieza from destroying the Earth after being too over confident against him in the first place and destroys him once more.

text: After Frieza's return, the God of Destruction by the name of Champa and his attendant, Vados appears who are Beerus and Whis' relatives. Also being the God of Destruction and Angel of Universe 6. Champa arrived to Beerus' home to see whose universe was superior. Eventually, it was settled in a tournament using the Super Dragon Balls, planet-sized versions of the titular artifacts, to grant a wish as the main prize for the two universes to swap their Earths. The universes' fighters were selected by the Gods of Destruction. During the tournament, many surprises and turn of events occurred. Each universe having formidable warriors in their respected universes. Following the elimination of Frost, Vegeta singlehandedly eliminated most of Universe 6's fighters until being defeated by the assassin Hit. The tournament reached its peak with the match up of Goku vs Hit. Each fighter raising hew heights in power with Hit being the winner by forfeit following Goku's failed attempt to lift the tournament rules to fight Hit at his full power.

text: Production[edit]

text: Akira Toriyama loosely modeled Dragon Ball on the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West;[2][3] but also redeveloped it from his 1983 one-shot manga Dragon Boy.[3] He has said that the fighting was influenced from movies by famous martial arts actor Jackie Chan,[4][5] as he wanted to create a story with the basic theme of Journey to the West, but with "a little kung fu."[6] Since it was serialized in a shōnen magazine, he added the idea of the Dragon Balls to give it a game-like activity of gathering something, without thinking of what the characters would wish for.[6] With Goku being Sun Wukong, Bulma as Xuanzang, Oolong as Zhu Bajie and Yamcha being Sha Wujing, he originally thought it would last about a year or end once the Dragon Balls were collected.[5][7] Toriyama stated that although the stories are purposefully easy to understand, he specifically aimed Dragon Ball at readers older than those of his previous serial Dr. Slump.[8] He also wanted to break from the Western influences common in Dr. Slump, deliberately going for Chinese scenery, referencing Chinese buildings and photographs of China his wife had bought.[9] The island where the Tenkaichi Budōkai is held is modeled after Bali, which he, his wife and assistant visited in mid-1985, and for the area around Bobbidi's spaceship he consulted photos of Africa.[9]

text: It was when the Tenkaichi Budōkai martial arts tournament began that Dragon Ball truly became popular, having recalled the races and tournaments in Dr. Slump.[5] Anticipating that readers would expect Goku to win the tournaments, Toriyama had him lose the first two while planning an eventual victory. He said that Muscle Tower in the Red Ribbon Army storyline was inspired by the video game Spartan X, in which enemies tended to appear very fast. He then created Piccolo Daimao as a truly evil villain, and as a result called that arc the most interesting to draw.[5] Once Goku and company had become the strongest on Earth, they turned to extraterrestrial opponents including the Saiyans. Freeza, who forcibly took over planets to resell them, was created around the time of the Japanese economic bubble and was inspired by real estate speculators, whom Toriyama called the "worst kind of people."[5] Finding the escalating enemies difficult, he created the Ginyu Force to add more balance to the series. He added time travel next, but said he had a hard time with it, only thinking of what to do that week and having to discuss it with his second editor Yu Kondo.[5] After Cell's death, Toriyama intended for Gohan to replace Goku as the series' protagonist, but felt the character was not suited for the role and changed his mind.[5]

text: Going against the normal convention that the strongest characters should be the largest in terms of physical size, he designed many of Dragon Ball's most powerful characters with small statures, including the protagonist, Goku.[10] Toriyama later explained that he had Goku grow up as a means to make drawing fight scenes easier, even though his first editor Kazuhiko Torishima was initially against it because it was rare to have the main character of a manga series change drastically.[11] When including fights in the manga, Toriyama had the characters go to uninhabited locations to avoid difficulties in drawing residents and destroyed buildings.[9] Toriyama said that he did not plan the details of the story, resulting in strange occurrences and discrepancies later in the series, including changing the colors of the characters mid-story and few characters having screen tone because he found it difficult to use.[4][6][7][12] Since the completion of Dragon Ball, Toriyama has continued to add to its story, mostly background information on its universe, through guidebooks published by Shueisha.

text: During the second half of the series, Toriyama has said that he had become more interested in coming up with the story than actually drawing it, and that the battles became more intense with him simplifying the lines.[4] In 2013, he stated that because Dragon Ball is an action manga the most important aspect is the sense of speed, so he did not draw very elaborate, going so far as to suggest one could say that he was not interested in the art.[11] He also once said that his goal for the series was to tell an "unconventional and contradictory" story.[10] In 2013, commenting on Dragon Ball's global success, Toriyama said, "Frankly, I don't quite understand why it happened. While the manga was being serialized, the only thing I wanted as I kept drawing was to make Japanese boys happy.", "The role of my manga is to be a work of entertainment through and through. I dare say I don't care even if [my works] have left nothing behind, as long as they have entertained their readers."[13]

text: Media[edit]

text: Manga[edit]

text: Written and illustrated by Akira Toriyama, Dragon Ball was serialized in the manga anthology Weekly Shōnen Jump from December 3, 1984 to June 5, 1995,[14][15] when Toriyama grew exhausted and felt he needed a break from drawing. The 519 individual chapters were published into 42 tankōbon volumes by Shueisha from September 10, 1985 through August 4, 1995.[16][17][18] Between December 4, 2002 and April 2, 2004, the chapters were re-released in a collection of 34 kanzenban volumes, which included a slightly rewritten ending, new covers, and color artwork from its Weekly Shōnen Jump run.[19][20] The February 2013 issue of V Jump, which was released in December 2012, announced that parts of the manga will be fully colored and re-released in 2013.[21] Twenty volumes, beginning from chapter 195 and grouped by story arcs, were released between February 4, 2013 and July 4, 2014.[22][23] Twelve volumes covering the first 194 chapters were published between January 4 and March 4, 2016.[24][25] A sōshūhen edition that aims to recreate the manga as it was originally serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump with color pages, promotional text, and next chapter previews, was published in eighteen volumes between May 13, 2016 and January 13, 2017.[26][27]

text: Spin-offs[edit]

text: Another manga penned by Ōishi, the three-chapter Dragon Ball: Episode of Bardock that revolves around Bardock, Goku's father, was published in the monthly magazine V Jump from August and October 2011.[28]

text: The final chapter of Toriyama's 2013 manga series Jaco the Galactic Patrolman revealed that it is set before Dragon Ball, with several characters making appearances.[29] Jaco's collected volumes contain a bonus Dragon Ball chapter depicting Goku's mother.[30]

text: In December 2016, a spin-off manga titled Dragon Ball Side Story: The Case of Being Reincarnated as Yamcha began in Shueisha's Shōnen Jump+ digital magazine. Written and illustrated by Dragon Garow Lee, it is about a high school boy who after an accident wakes up in the body of Yamcha in the Dragon Ball manga.[31]

text: Crossovers[edit]

text: Toriyama also created a short series, Neko Majin (1999–2005), that became a self-parody of Dragon Ball.[32] In 2006, a crossover between Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Kōen-mae Hashutsujo (or Kochikame) and Dragon Ball by Toriyama and Kochikame author Osamu Akimoto appeared in the Super Kochikame (超こち亀, Chō Kochikame) manga.[33] That same year, Toriyama teamed up with Eiichiro Oda to create a crossover chapter of Dragon Ball and One Piece titled Cross Epoch.[34]

text: Anime series[edit]

text: Dragon Ball[edit]

text: Toei Animation produced an anime television series based on the first 194 manga chapters, also titled Dragon Ball. The series premiered in Japan on Fuji Television on February 26, 1986 and ran until April 12, 1989, lasting 153 episodes.[3]

text: Dragon Ball Z[edit]

text: Instead of continuing the anime as Dragon Ball, Toei Animation decided to carry on with their adaptation under a new name and asked Akira Toriyama to come up with the title. Dragon Ball Z (ドラゴンボールZ(ゼット), Doragon Bōru Zetto, commonly abbreviated as DBZ) picks up five years after the first series left off and adapts the final 325 chapters of the manga. It premiered in Japan on Fuji Television on April 26, 1989, taking over its predecessor's time slot, and ran for 291 episodes until its conclusion on January 31, 1996.[3]

text: Dragon Ball GT[edit]

text: Dragon Ball GT (ドラゴンボールGT(ジーティー), Doragon Bōru Jī Tī, G(rand) T(ouring)[35]) premiered on Fuji TV on February 2, 1996 and ran until November 19, 1997 for 64 episodes.[3] Unlike the first two anime series, it is not based on Akira Toriyama's original Dragon Ball manga,[36] being created by Toei Animation as a sequel to the series or as Toriyama called it, a "grand side story of the original Dragon Ball."[35] Toriyama designed the main cast, the spaceship used in the show, the design of three planets, and came up with the title and logo. In addition to this, Toriyama also oversaw production of the series, just as he had for the Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z anime.

text: Dragon Ball Z Kai[edit]

text: In February 2009, Dragon Ball Z celebrated its 20th anniversary, with Toei Animation announcing that it would broadcast a re-edited and remastered version under the name Dragon Ball Kai (ドラゴンボール改, Doragon Bōru Kai, lit. "Dragon Ball Revised"). The footage would be re-edited to follow the manga more closely, eliminating scenes and episodes which were not featured in the original manga, resulting in a more faithful adaptation, as well as in a more faster-moving, and focused story.[37] The episodes remastered for HDTV, with rerecording of the vocal tracks by most of the original cast, and featuring updated opening and ending sequences. On April 5, 2009, the series premiered in Japan airing in Fuji TV.[38][39] Dragon Ball Z Kai reduced the episode count to 159 episodes (167 episodes internationally), from the original footage of 291 episodes. Damaged frames were removed, resulting in some minor shots being remade from scratch in order to fix cropping, and others to address continuity issues.[40] The majority of the international versions, including Funimation Entertainment's English dub, are titled Dragon Ball Z Kai.[41][42]

text: Dragon Ball Super[edit]

text: On April 28, 2015, Toei Animation announced Dragon Ball Super (ドラゴンボール超, Doragon Bōru Sūpā), the first all-new Dragon Ball television series to be released in 18 years. It debuted on July 5 and will run as a weekly series at 9:00 am on Fuji TV on Sundays.[43] Masako Nozawa reprised her roles as Goku, Gohan, and Goten. Most of the original cast reprise their roles as well.[44][45] Kouichi Yamadera and Masakazu Morita also reprise their roles, as Beerus and Whis, respectively.[45]

text: The story of the anime is set four years after the defeat of Majin Buu, when the Earth has become peaceful once again. Akira Toriyama is credited as the original creator, as well for "original story & character design concepts."[46] It is also being adapted into a parallel manga.[47]

text: Films[edit]

text: Anime[edit]

text: Nineteen animated theatrical films based on the Dragon Ball series have been released in Japan. The first three films are based on the original Dragon Ball anime series. The remaining films include fifteen based on Dragon Ball Z and one tenth anniversary special (also based on the first anime series). The first five films were shown at the Toei Manga Festival (東映まんがまつり, Tōei Manga Matsuri), while the sixth through seventeenth films were shown at the Toei Anime Fair (東映アニメフェア, Toei Anime Fea). They are mostly alternate re-tellings of certain story arcs involving new characters or extra side-stories that do not correlate with the same continuity as the series. Since these movies were originally shown as back-to-back presentations alongside other Toei film productions, they were usually below feature length (around 45–60 minutes each), making them only slightly longer than an episode of the TV series (the sole exception being 1996's The Path to Power, which has a running time of 80 minutes). The newest films, Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods (2013) and Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F' (2015), were produced as full-length feature films and were given stand-alone theatrical releases in Japan (as well as limited theatrical releases in the U.S.); these being the first movies to have original creator Akira Toriyama deeply involved in their production.[48][49] As such, they are considered to have a greater sense of continuity with the series than the older films, especially since they have been adapted into the first two-story arcs of the new Dragon Ball Super anime.

text: Live-action[edit]

text: An American live-action film titled Dragonball Evolution was produced by 20th Century Fox, after it acquired the feature film rights to the Dragon Ball franchise in March 2002, previous to the film, two unofficial live-action films have been produced decades prior.[50][51] The film was directed by James Wong and produced by Stephen Chow, it was released in the United States on April 10, 2009.[51][52] The film was meant to lead into sequels,[53][54] which were cancelled, after the film released and became universally heralded as one of the worst adaptations of all time, being considered by the fans as being unfaithful to the source material.[55] Franchise creator Akira Toriyama also criticized the film adding he was completely left out of the creative process, despite having himself offered to help, going as far as saying: "the result was a movie, I couldn't even call Dragon Ball".[56] Years after its release, the writer of the film, Ben Ramsey, released a public apology in which he admitted to have written the film "chasing for a payday" instead of "as a fan of the franchise".[57][58]

text: TV specials and other animations[edit]

text: Three television specials based on the series were aired on Fuji TV in Japan. The first, The One True Final Battle ~The Z Warrior Who Challenged Freeza -- Son Goku's Father~, renamed Bardock – The Father of Goku by Funimation, was shown on October 17, 1990. The second special, The Hopeless Resistance!! Gohan and Trunks -- The Two Remaining Super Warriors, renamed The History of Trunks by Funimation, is based on a special chapter of the original manga and aired on March 24, 1993. Goku Side Story! The Four Star Ball is a Badge of Courage, renamed A Hero's Legacy by Funimation, aired on March 26, 1997. A two-part hour-long crossover special between Dragon Ball Z, One Piece and Toriko, referred to as Dream 9 Toriko & One Piece & Dragon Ball Z Super Collaboration Special!! aired on April 7, 2013.[59]

text: The short film Dragon Ball: Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!! was created for the Jump Super Anime Tour,[60] which celebrated Weekly Shōnen Jump's 40th anniversary, and debuted on November 24, 2008. A short animated adaptation of Naho Ōishi's Bardock spinoff manga, Dragon Ball: Episode of Bardock, was shown on December 17–18, 2011 at the Jump Festa 2012 event.[61]

text: A two-episode original video animation (OVA) titled Dragon Ball Z Side Story: Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans was created in 1993 as strategy guides for the Famicom video game of the same name.[62] A remake titled Dragon Ball: Plan to Eradicate the Super Saiyans was created as a bonus feature for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 video game Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2, which was released on November 11, 2010.[63]

text: Theme park attractions[edit]

text: "Dragon Ball Z: The Real 4D" debuted at Universal Studios Japan in the summer of 2016. It features a battle between Goku and Freeza. Unlike most Dragon Ball animation, the attraction is animated with CGI. A second attraction titled "Dragon Ball Z: Super Tenkaichi Budokai" debuted at Universal Studios Japan in the summer of 2017.

text: Video games[edit]

text: The Dragon Ball franchise has spawned multiple video games across various genres and platforms. Earlier games of the series included a system of card battling and were released for the Famicom following the storyline of the series.[64] Starting with the Super Famicom and Mega Drive, most of the games were from the fighting genre or RPG (Role Playing Game), such as the Super Butoden series.[65] The first Dragon Ball game to be released in the United States was Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout for the PlayStation in 1997.[66] For the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable games the characters were redone in 3D cel-shaded graphics. These games included the Dragon Ball Z: Budokai series and the Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi series.[67][68] Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit was the first game of the franchise developed for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.[69] Dragon Ball Xenoverse was the first game of the franchise developed for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.[70][71] A massively multiplayer online role-playing game called Dragon Ball Online was available in Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan until the servers were shut down in 2013.[72] A few years later fans started recreating the game. Today, "Dragon Ball Online Global" is a new, European version of Dragon Ball Online and it is being developed, while open beta server is running.[73]

text: Merchandise[edit]

text: Soundtracks[edit]

text: Myriad soundtracks were released in the anime, movies and the games. The music for the first two anime Dragon Ball and Z and its films was composed by Shunsuke Kikuchi, while the music from GT was composed by Akihito Tokunaga and the music from Kai was composed by Kenji Yamamoto and Norihito Sumitomo. For the first anime, the soundtracks released were Dragon Ball: Music Collection in 1985 and Dragon Ball: Complete Song Collection in 1991, although they were reissued in 2007 and 2003, respectively.[74] For the second anime, the soundtrack series released were Dragon Ball Z Hit Song Collection Series. It was produced and released by Columbia Records of Japan from July 21, 1989 to March 20, 1996 the show's entire lifespan. On September 20, 2006 Columbia re-released the Hit Song Collection on their Animex 1300 series.[75][76] Other CDs released are compilations, video games and films soundtracks as well as music from the English versions.[77]

text: Companion books[edit]

text: There have been numerous companion books to the Dragon Ball franchise. Chief among these are the Daizenshuu (大全集) series, comprising seven hardback main volumes and three supplemental softcover volumes, covering the manga and the first two anime series and their theatrical films. The first of these, Dragon Ball: The Complete Illustrations (Daizenshuu volume 1), first published in Japan in 1995, is the only one that was released in English, being printed in 2008 by Viz Media.[78] It contains all 264 colored illustrations Akira Toriyama drew for the Weekly Shōnen Jump magazines' covers, bonus giveaways and specials, and all the covers for the 42 tankōbon. It also includes an interview with Toriyama on his work process. The remainder have never been released in English, and all are now out of print in Japan. From February 4 to May 9, 2013, condensed versions of the Daizenshuu with some updated information were released as the four-volume Chōzenshū (超全集) series.[21] For Dragon Ball GT, the Dragon Ball GT Perfect Files were released in May and December 1997 by Shueisha's Jump Comics Selection imprint. They include series information, illustration galleries, behind-the-scenes information, and more. They were out of print for many years, but were re-released in April 2006 (accompanying the Japanese DVD release of Dragon Ball GT) and this edition is still in print.[79][80]

text: Coinciding with the 34-volume kanzenban re-release of the manga, and the release of the entire series on DVD for the first time in Japan, four new guidebooks were released in 2003 and 2004. Dragon Ball Landmark and Dragon Ball Forever cover the manga, using volume numbers for story points that reference the kanzenban release,[81][82] while Dragon Ball: Tenkaichi Densetsu (ドラゴンボール 天下一伝説) and Dragon Ball Z: Son Goku Densetsu (ドラゴンボールZ 孫悟空伝説) cover the Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z anime, respectively.[83][84] Much of the material in these books is reused from the earlier Daizenshuu volumes, but they include new textual material including substantial interviews with the creator, cast and production staff of the series. Son Goku Densetsu in particular showcases previously-unpublished design sketches of Goku's father Bardock, drawn by character designer Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru prior to creator Akira Toriyama's revisions that resulted in the final version.

text: Following the release of Dragon Ball Kai in Japan, four new guidebooks were released: the two-volume Dragon Ball: Super Exciting Guide (ドラゴンボール 超エキサイティングガイド) in 2009, covering the manga,[85][86] and two-volume Dragon Ball: Extreme Battle Collection (ドラゴンボール　極限バトルコレクション) in 2010, covering the anime series.[87][88] Despite the TV series airing during this time being Kai, the Extreme Battle Collection books reference the earlier Z series in content and episode numbers. These books also include new question-and-answer sessions with Akira Toriyama, revealing a few new details about the world and characters of the series. 2010 also saw the release of a new artbook, Dragon Ball: Anime Illustrations Guide - The Golden Warrior (ドラゴンボール アニメイラスト集 「黄金の戦士」); a sort of anime-counterpart to the manga-oriented Complete Illustrations, it showcases anime-original illustrations and includes interviews with the three principal character designers for the anime. Each of the Japanese "Dragon Box" DVD releases of the series and movies, which were released from 2003 to 2006, as well as the Blu-ray boxed sets of Dragon Ball Kai, released 2009 to 2011, come with a Dragon Book guide that contains details about the content therein. Each also contains a new interview with a member of the cast or staff of the series. These books have been reproduced textually for Funimation's release of the Dragon Ball Z Dragon Box sets from 2009 to 2011.

text: Collectible cards[edit]

text: Collectible cards based on the Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, and Dragon Ball GT series have been released by Bandai. These cards feature various scenes from the manga and anime stills, plus exclusive artwork from all three series. Bandai released the first set in the United States in July 2008.[89]

text: Tabletop role-playing game[edit]

text: Dragon Ball Z: The Anime Adventure Game, a tabletop role-playing game produced by R. Talsorian Games[90][91]

tag: ul

text: Reception[edit]

text: Manga[edit]

text: Dragon Ball is one of the most popular manga series of all time, and it continues to enjoy high readership today. By 2000, more than 126 million copies of its tankōbon volumes had been sold in Japan alone.[92] By 2016, this number had grown to pass 156 million in Japan and 240 million worldwide, making it the second best-selling Weekly Shōnen Jump manga of all time.[93][94] Dragon Ball is credited as one of the main reasons for the period when manga circulation was at its highest in the mid-1980s and mid-1990s.[95][96] For the 10th anniversary of the Japan Media Arts Festival in 2006, Japanese fans voted Dragon Ball the third greatest manga of all time.[97]

text: In a survey conducted by Oricon in 2007 among 1,000 people, Son Goku, the main character of the franchise, ranked first place as the "Strongest Manga Character of All Time."[98] Goku's journey and his ever-growing strength resulted in the character winning "the admiration of young boys everywhere".[2] Manga artists, such as One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda and Naruto creator Masashi Kishimoto, have stated that Goku inspired their series' main protagonists as well as series structure.[99][100]

text: Manga critic Jason Thompson stated in 2011 that "Dragon Ball is by far the most influential shonen manga of the last 30 years, and today, almost every Shonen Jump artist lists it as one of their favorites and lifts from it in various ways."[101] He says the series "turns from a gag/adventure manga to an nearly-pure fighting manga",[101] and its basic formula of "lots of martial arts, lots of training sequences, a few jokes" became the model for other shōnen series, such as Naruto.[102] Thompson also called Toriyama's art influential and cited it as a reason for the series' popularity.[101] James S. Yadao, author of The Rough Guide to Manga, claims that the first several chapters of Dragon Ball "play out much like Saiyuki with Dr. Slump-like humour built in" and that Dr. Slump, Toriyama's previous manga, has a clear early influence on the series.[103] He feels the series "established its unique identity" after the first occasion when Goku's group disbands and he trains under Kame-sen'nin, when the story develops "a far more action-packed, sinister tone" with "wilder" battles with aerial and spiritual elements and an increased death count, while humor still makes an occasional appearance.[103] Yadao claims that an art shift occurs when the characters "lose the rounded, innocent look that he established in Dr. Slump and gain sharper angles that leap off the page with their energy and intensity."[104]

text: Animerica felt the series had "worldwide appeal", using dramatic pacing and over-the-top martial arts action to "maintain tension levels and keep a crippler crossface hold on the audience's attention spans".[105] In Little Boy: The Art of Japan's Exploding Subculture, Takashi Murakami commented that Dragon Ball's "never-ending cyclical narrative moves forward plausibly, seamlessly, and with great finesse."[92] Ridwan Khan from Animefringe.com commented that the manga had a "chubby" art style, but as the series continued the characters got more refined, leaner, and more muscular. Khan prefers the manga over the slow pacing of the anime counterparts.[106] Allen Divers of Anime News Network praised the story and humor of the manga as being very good at conveying all of the characters' personalities. Divers also called Viz's translation one of the best of all the English editions of the series due to its faithfulness to the original Japanese.[107] D. Aviva Rothschild of Rationalmagic.com remarked the first manga volume as "a superior humor title". They praised Goku's innocence and Bulma's insistence as one of the funniest parts of the series.[108]

text: The content of the manga has been controversial in United States. In November 1999, Toys "R" Us removed Viz's Dragon Ball from their stores nationwide when a Dallas parent complained the series had "borderline soft porn" after he bought them for his four-year-old son.[109] Commenting on the issue, Susan J. Napier explained it as a difference in culture.[109] After the ban, Viz reluctantly began to censor the series to keep wide distribution.[110] However, in 2001, after releasing three volumes censored, Viz announced Dragon Ball would be uncensored and reprinted due to fan reactions.[110] In October 2009, Wicomico County Public Schools in Maryland banned the Dragon Ball manga from their school district because it "depicts nudity, sexual contact between children and sexual innuendo among adults and children."[109]

text: Anime[edit]

text: The anime adaptations have also been very well-received and are better known in the Western world than the manga, with Anime News Network saying, "Few anime series have mainstreamed it the way Dragon Ball Z has. To a certain generation of television consumers its characters are as well known as any in the animated realm, and for many it was the first step into the wilderness of anime fandom."[111] In 2000, satellite TV channel Animax together with Brutus, a men's lifestyle magazine, and Tsutaya, Japan's largest video rental chain, conducted a poll among 200,000 fans on the top anime series, with Dragon Ball coming in fourth.[112] TV Asahi conducted two polls in 2005 on the Top 100 Anime, Dragon Ball came in second in the nationwide survey conducted with multiple age-groups and in third in the online poll.[113][114] On several occasions the Dragon Ball anime has topped Japan's DVD sales.[115][116]

text: Carl Kimlinger of Anime News Network summed up Dragon Ball as "an action-packed tale told with rare humor and something even rarer—a genuine sense of adventure."[117] Both Kimlinger and colleague Theron Martin noted Funimation's reputation for drastic alterations of the script, but praised the dub.[117][118] However, some critics and most fans of the Japanese version have been more critical with Funimation's English dub and script of Dragon Ball Z over the years. Jeffrey Harris IGN criticized the voices including how Freeza's appearance combined with the feminine English voice left fans confused about Freeza's gender.[119] Carlos Ross of T.H.E.M. Anime Reviews considered the series' characters to be different from stereotypical stock characters and noted that they undergo much more development.[120] Despite praising Dragon Ball Z for its cast of characters, they criticized it for having long and repetitive fights.[121]

text: Dragon Ball Z is well-known, and often criticized, for its long, repetitive, dragged-out fights that span several episodes, with Martin commenting "DBZ practically turned drawing out fights into an art form."[122] However, Jason Thompson of io9 explained that this comes from the fact that the anime was being created alongside the manga.[123] Dragon Ball Z was listed as the 78th best animated show in IGN's Top 100 Animated Series,[124] and was also listed as the 50th greatest cartoon in Wizard magazine's Top 100 Greatest Cartoons list.[125]

text: Harris commented that Dragon Ball GT "is downright repellent", mentioning that the material and characters had lost their novelty and fun. He also criticized the GT character designs of Trunks and Vegeta as being goofy.[119] Zac Bertschy of Anime News Network also gave negative comments about GT, mentioning that the fights from the series were "a very simple childish exercise" and that many other anime were superior. The plot of Dragon Ball GT has also been criticized for giving a formula that was already used in its predecessors.[126]

text: The first episode of Dragon Ball Z Kai earned a viewer ratings percentage of 11.3, ahead of One Piece and behind Crayon Shin-chan.[127] Although following episodes had lower ratings, Kai was among the top 10 anime in viewer ratings every week in Japan for most of its run.[128][129]

text: Cultural impact[edit]

text: Unofficial live-action films[edit]

text: An unofficial live-action Mandarin Chinese film adaptation of the series, Dragon Ball: The Magic Begins, was released in Taiwan in 1989.[3] In December 1990, the unofficial live-action Korean film Dragon Ball: Ssawora Son Goku, Igyeora Son Goku was released.


document_title: Ancient Greek comedy

question_text: who was considered the leading comedic writer during the new comedy era in greece

text: Ancient Greek comedy

text: Periods[edit]

text: The Alexandrine grammarians, and most likely Aristophanes of Byzantium in particular, seem to have been the first to divide Greek comedy into what became the canonical three periods:[3] Old Comedy (ἀρχαία archaia), Middle Comedy (μέση mese) and New Comedy (νέα nea). These divisions appear to be largely arbitrary, and ancient comedy almost certainly developed constantly over the years.[4]

text: Old Comedy (archaia)[edit]

text: The most important Old Comic dramatist is Aristophanes. Born in 446 B.C., his works, with their pungent political satire and abundance of sexual and scatological innuendo, effectively define the genre today. Aristophanes lampooned the most important personalities and institutions of his day, as can be seen, for example, in his buffoonish portrayal of Socrates in The Clouds, and in his racy anti-war farce Lysistrata. He was one of a large number[clarification needed] of comic poets working in Athens in the late 5th century, his most important contemporary rivals being Hermippus and Eupolis.

text: The Old Comedy subsequently influenced later European writers such as Rabelais, Cervantes, Swift, and Voltaire. In particular, they copied the technique of disguising a political attack as buffoonery.

text: Middle Comedy (mese)[edit]

text: The line between Old and Middle Comedy is not clearly marked chronologically, Aristophanes and others of the latest writers of the Old Comedy being sometimes regarded as the earliest Middle Comic poets. For ancient scholars, the term may have meant little more than "later than Aristophanes and his contemporaries, but earlier than Menander". Middle Comedy is generally seen as differing from Old Comedy in three essential particulars: the role of the chorus was diminished to the point where it had no influence on the plot; public characters were not impersonated or personified onstage; and the objects of ridicule were general rather than personal, literary rather than political. For at least a time, mythological burlesque was popular among the Middle Comic poets. Stock characters of all sorts also emerge: courtesans, parasites, revellers, philosophers, boastful soldiers, and especially the conceited cook with his parade of culinary science.

text: Because no complete Middle Comic plays have been preserved, it is impossible to offer any real assessment of their literary value or "genius". But many Middle Comic plays appear to have been revived in Sicily and Magna Graecia in this period, suggesting that they had considerable widespread literary and social influence.

text: New Comedy (nea)[edit]

text:
New Comedy followed the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and lasted throughout the reign of the Macedonian rulers, ending about 260 BC.[5] It is comparable to situation comedy and comedy of manners.[4]
The three best-known playwrights belonging to this genre are Menander, Philemon and Diphilus.

text: The playwrights of the New Comedy genre built on the legacy from their predecessors, but adapted it to the portrayal of everyday life, rather than of public affairs.[6] The satirical and farcical element which featured so strongly in Aristophanes' comedies was increasingly abandoned, the de-emphasis of the grotesque - whether in the form of choruses, humour or spectacle - opening the way for greater representation of daily life and the foibles of recognisable character types.[7]

text: Apart from Diphilus, the New Comedians preferred the everyday world to mythological themes, coincidences to miracles or metamorphoses; and they peopled this world with a whole series of semi-realistic, if somewhat stereotypical figures,[8] who would become the stock characters of Western comedy: braggarts, the permissive father figure and the stern father (senex iratus), young lovers, parasites, kind-hearted prostitutes, and cunning servants. [9] Their largely gentle comedy of manners drew on a vast array of dramatic devices, characters and situations their predecessors had developed: prologues to shape the audience's understanding of events, messengers' speeches to announce offstage action, descriptions of feasts, the complications of love, sudden recognitions, ex machina endings were all established techniques which playwrights exploited and evoked.[10]  The new comedy depicted Athenian society and the social morality of the period, presenting it in attractive colors but making no attempt to criticize or improve it.[citation needed]

text: In his own time, Philemon was perhaps the most successful among the New Comedy, regularly beating the younger figure of Menander in contests; but the latter would be the most highly esteemed by subsequent generations.[11] Menander’s comedies not only provided their audience with a brief respite from reality, but also gave audiences an accurate, if not greatly detailed, picture of life,[12] leading an ancient critic to ask if life influenced Menander in the writing of his plays or if the case was vice versa.[citation needed] Unlike earlier predecessors, Menander's comedies tended to centre on the fears and foibles of the ordinary man, his personal relationships, family life and social mishaps rather than politics and public life. His plays were also much less satirical than preceding comedies, being marked by a gentle, urbane tone,[13] a taste for good temper and good manners (if not necessarily for good morals).[14]

text: The human dimension of his characters was one of the strengths of Menander's plays, and perhaps his greatest legacy, through his use of these fairly stereotype characters to comment on human life and depict human folly and absurdity compassionately, with wit and subtlety.[15] An example of the moral reformations he offered (not always convincingly) is Cnemon from Menander's play Dyskolos, whose objections to life suddenly fade after he was rescued from a well.[16] The fact that this character was not necessarily closed to reason makes him a character whom people can relate to.

text: Philemon’s comedies tended to be smarter, and broader in tone, than Menander’s;[17] while Diphilus used mythology as well as everyday life in his works.[18] Both had their comedies survive only in fragments, but both also had their plays translated and adapted by Plautus.  Examples are Plautus' Asinaria and Rudens. Based on the translation and adaptation of Diphilus' comedies by Plautus, one can conclude that he was skilled in the construction of his plots.

text: Substantial fragments of New Comedy have survived, but no complete plays.  The most substantially preserved text is the Dyskolos ("Difficult Man, Grouch") by Menander, discovered on a papyrus, and first published in 1958.  The Cairo Codex (found in 1907) also preserves long sections of plays including Epitrepontes ("Men at Arbitration"), Samia ("The Girl from Samos"), and Perikeiromene ("The Girl who had her Hair Shorn").[citation needed] Much of the rest of our knowledge of New Comedy is derived from the Latin adaptations by Plautus and Terence.

text: Influence[edit]

text: Horace claimed Menander as a model for his own gentle brand of Roman satire.[19]

text: The New Comedy influenced much of Western European literature, primarily through Plautus and Terence: in particular the comic drama of Shakespeare and Ben Jonson, Congreve, and Wycherley,[20] and, in France, Molière.[21]

text: The 5-act structure later to be found in modern plays can first be seen in Menander's comedies. Where in comedies of previous generations there were choral interludes, there was dialogue with song. The action of his plays had breaks, the situations in them were conventional and coincidences were convenient, thus showing the smooth and effective development of his plays.

text: Much of contemporary romantic and situational comedy descends from the New Comedy sensibility, in particular generational comedies such as All in the Family and Meet the Parents.

text: Dramatists[edit]

text: Some dramatists overlap into more than one period.

text: Old Comedy[edit]

text:
Susarion of Megara (fl. c. 580 BC)
Epicharmus of Kos (fl. between c. 540 – c. 450 BC)
Phormis (late 6th century)
Dinolochus (fl. 487 BC)
Euetes (fl. 485 BC)
Euxenides (fl. 485 BC)
Mylus (fl. 485 BC)
Chionides (fl. 487 BC)
Magnes (fl. 472 BC)
Cratinus (519 – 422 BC), won a series of victories from 454 BC to 423 BC
Euphonius (fl. 458 BC)
Crates (fl. c. 450 BC)
Ecphantides
Pisander
Epilycus
Callias Schoenion[22]
Hermippus (fl. 435 BC)
Myrtilus (5th century)
Lysimachus

Hegemon of Thasos, 413 BC
Sophron
Phrynichus, won 4 victories between 435 BC and 405 BC
Lycis, before 405 BC
Leucon
Lysippus
Eupolis (c. 446 – 411 BC)
Aristophanes (c. 456–386 BC), won more than 12 victories between 427 BC and 388 BC
Ameipsias (c. 420 BC)[23]
Aristomenes, between 431-388 BC
Telecleides 5th century BC
Pherecrates 420 BC
Plato
Diocles of Phlius[24]
Sannyrion[25]
Philyllius, 394 BC
Hipparchus
Archippus, 415 BC

Polyzelus, c. 364 BC
Philonides
Xenophon
Arcesilaus
Autocrates
Eunicus  5th century BC
Apollophanes c. 400 BC
Nicomachus, c. 420 BC
Cephisodorus 402 BC[26]
Metagenes, c. 419 BC
Cantharus 422 BC[27]
Nicochares (died c. 345)
Strattis (c. 412 – 390 BC)
Alcaeus, 388 BC
Xenarchus, around 393 BC
Theopompus

tag: table

text: Middle Comedy[edit]

text:
Nicophon 5th century BC
Eubulus early 4th century BC
Araros, son of Aristophanes 388, 375
Antiphanes (c. 408-334 BC)
Anaxandrides 4th century BC
Calliades 4th century BC
Nicostratus, son of Aristophanes
Phillipus, son of Aristophanes
Philetarus c. 390 BC — c. 320 BC
Anaxilas, fl. 340 BC[28]
Ophelion
Callicrates
Heraclides

Alexis (c. 375 BC – 275 BC)
Amphis mid-4th century BC
Axionicus
Cratinus Junior
Eriphus, plagiarist of Antiphanes
Epicrates of Ambracia 4th century BC
Stephanus, 332 BC
Strato
Aristophon
Sotades
Augeas
Epippus
Heniochus

Epigenes
Mnesimachus
Timotheus
Sophilus
Antidotus
Naucrates
Xenarchus
Dromo
Crobylus, possibly New Comedy, after 324 BC
Timocles 324 BC[29]
Damoxenus c. 370 BC – 270 BC[30]

text: New Comedy[edit]

text:
Eubelus
Philippides,[31] 335 BC, 301 BC
Philemon of Soli or Syracuse (c. 362–262 BC)
Menander (c. 342–291 BC)
Apollodorus of Carystus (c. 300-260 BC)
Diphilus of Sinope (c. 340-290 BC)
Euphron[32]
Dionysius Chalcus, after the god Archestratus

Theophilus, contemporary with Callimedon
Sosippus, contemporary with Diphillus
Anaxippus, 303 BC
Demetrius, 299 BC
Archedicus, 302 BC
Sopater, 282 BC
Hegesippus
Plato Junior

Theognetus
Bathon
Diodorus
Machon of Corinth/Alexandria 3rd century BC
Poseidippus of Cassandreia (c. 316–250 BC)
Laines or Laenes 185 BC
Philemon 183 BC
Chairion or Chaerion 154 BC


document_title: As Time Goes By (TV series)

question_text: who plays stephen in as time goes by

question_tokens: who plays stephen in as time goes by

text: As Time Goes By (TV series)

text: Cast[edit]

text:
Jean Mary Hardcastle (née Pargetter, previously Hanson) (Judi Dench) – Judith's mother who later becomes Lionel's wife.
Lionel Hardcastle (Geoffrey Palmer) – Jean's husband and Rocky's son.
Judith "Judi" Deacon (née Hanson) (Moira Brooker) – Jean's daughter, and Sandy's best friend, later Alistair's wife.
Alistair Deacon (Philip Bretherton) – Initially publisher of Lionel's book, then Judith's husband.
Sandy Edwards (Jenny Funnell) – Jean's secretary and receptionist, Judith's best friend and later Harry's wife.
Penny Johnson (née Hanson) (Moyra Fraser) – Jean's sister-in-law (from Jean's first marriage to David).
Stephen Johnson (Paul Chapman) – Penny's husband.
Harry (David Michaels and Daniel Ryan) – Sandy's husband.
Mrs. Bale (Janet Henfrey) – Hardcastle country home housekeeper.
Lol Ferris (Tim Wylton) – Hardcastle country home gardener.
Richard "Rocky" Hardcastle (Frank Middlemass) – Lionel's irrepressible father who owns a country home in the Hampshire Countryside, alongside a vast fortune.
Madge Darbley- Hardcastle (Joan Sims) – Rocky Hardcastle's wife, 7 years his junior. Due to the death of actress Joan Sims in 2001, two years ahead of the filming of the reunion specials, she is explained away as having become an archaeologist in Egypt.

text: In the March 2011 PBS pledge drive programming special Behind the Britcoms: from Script to Screen hosted by cast members Moira Brooker and Philip Bretherton, the series creator/producer revealed that Jean Simmons had declined the first offer of the role of Jean (which was written with her in mind) due to her reluctance to uproot her life—specifically mentioning her dogs, garden, and family—in California.[citation needed]

text: Plot[edit]

text: Second Lieutenant Lionel Hardcastle (Geoffrey Palmer) and Middlesex Hospital nurse Jean Pargetter (Judi Dench) met in the summer of 1953 and fell head over heels in love, calling her "Pooh", but then Lionel was posted to Korea. He wrote, but Jean didn't receive his letter (it becomes a topic in a later episode). Because of this mix-up, each assumed the other had lost interest. After his war service Lionel emigrated to Kenya, became a coffee planter, and married Margaret, whom he later divorced on grounds of "mutual boredom". Some time after his divorce he returned to England. Meanwhile, Jean had also married and bore one child, Judith (Moira Brooker). After her husband's death, Jean opened Type for You, a secretarial agency. Her daughter Judith, 32 years old during the series, is twice divorced (from Ken, who had "sad eyes", and Edward, who was "very clever") and, during most of the series, lives with her mother and also works at the secretarial agency.

text: Lionel, now writing his memoir, hires a typist through Type for You, unaware that Jean owns the agency. His and Jean's awareness of each other occurs as Lionel picks up Judith for a dinner date. Although Lionel's and Jean's reunion is full of missteps and miscues, their romance gradually rekindles. In the third season, Lionel moves into Jean's house in Holland Park, London; they marry during the following season.

text: In the first season Judith develops a crush on Lionel while Lionel's publisher, Alistair Deacon (Philip Bretherton), who likes to call her "Lovely Lady", takes a similar interest in Jean. Both crushes are brief; eventually Judith and Alistair fall for each other and, in the final season, marry. Other story arcs feature Lionel being asked to write an American TV mini-series, Just Two People, based on his early romance with Jean. The mini-series fails after much rewriting and network interference. Jean eventually retires from Type for You and later volunteers at a charity shop.

text: Jean's very efficient secretary, and Judith's best friend, is Sandy (Jenny Funnell), who eventually moves in with the Hardcastles after splitting with her boyfriend Nick. After Jean's retirement, Judy and Sandy become co-managers of Type for You. Sandy dates Harry (David Michaels, later replaced by Daniel Ryan), a policeman and rugby player, whom she marries at the end of the series.

text: Other notable characters include Lionel's irrepressible father Rocky, whose favourite saying is "Rock On" (Frank Middlemass) and who owns a large country house in Hampshire which he later gives to Lionel; the housekeeper, Mrs. Bale (Janet Henfrey), who has an unusual interest in the Shipping Forecast and gives exact times that meals are ready, and the gardener, Lol Ferris (Tim Wylton), who says Jean is a "tender woman". In the early seasons of the show, Lionel received news from Rocky's physician that his father was dying and had less than a year to live, but this plotline was dropped and Rocky continued to appear throughout the show's later seasons, including the final "Reunion Special" in 2005.

text: Rocky marries Madge (Joan Sims), as much a character as Rocky is, when he is 85 and she is 78. They travel the world, listen to country music, tool about in Madge's classic convertible (with steer horns on the grille), and hang out at the local pub, where Madge sings. In Series Nine, Madge is mentioned as being on an archaeological dig in Egypt; in reality Joan Sims died before filming began. Jean's first husband's neurotic sister Penny (Moyra Fraser), who always calls Jean "poor Jean", and Penny's flaky dentist husband, Stephen (Paul Chapman), who once accidentally declined the OBE, also make many appearances.[5]

text: Episodes[edit]

text: The programme ran for nine series, from 12 January 1992 to 4 August 2002. Nearly every episode was thirty minutes long. The final series episode was followed by an hour-long compilation show on 11 August 2002, and by a two part "Reunion Special" broadcast on 26 and 30 December 2005. The reunion specials were the last appearance of Frank Middlemass, who played Rocky, before his death in 2006.[6] Actress Joan Sims died in 2001 and the role of Rocky's wife, Madge Darbley-Hardcastle, was not recast; in Series Eight it is mentioned that she was away participating in an Egyptian archaeological dig, and various excuses were used until the series ended.

text: International broadcasts[edit]

text: As Time Goes By has appeared in the United States on BBC America, and has been running weekly on PBS almost continuously since the early 2000s, with various cast members appearing on its perennial pledge drives. It has run in Canada on BBC Canada and TVOntario, in Australia on ABC 7TWO and 9Gem, in New Zealand on both UKTV and SKY Network Television, in Finland on YLE TV1,[7] and on DSTV in Nigeria. RTÉ One has broadcast the series in Ireland repeatedly. It has been broadcast by Gold for viewers in the UK and Ireland as of 2010, and by UKTV in Australia as of 2011.

text: Radio[edit]

text: As Time Goes By was adapted and recorded for radio. Three series were broadcast on BBC Radio 2 between 1997 and 1999. The first episode included a flashback to Jean and Lionel 38 years before, something that never happened on television. All episodes correspond to a TV episode and featured the original cast, apart from the original actor from the television program (Bretherton) not playing Alistair in Series One – Bretherton did play Alistair in both Series Two and Three. So far, only the first series has been released on BBC audio cassette. Series One was repeated on BBC Radio 4 Extra from December 2014 to January 2015.

text: DVD releases[edit]

text: In Region 1 in North America the complete series has been released in individual sets and as a complete series from BBC Video. In the United Kingdom on Region 2, the series has been released several times; Universal Playback released the first four series on VHS and DVD format, with 2 Entertain acquiring the rights to release the remaining series on DVD, and additionally re-releasing the Series one to four and a complete collection on DVD. Cinema Club acquired the right to release the complete series over two sets, with the first containing Series One to Four and the following set containing Series Five to Nine. Acorn Media has released to 'The Reunion Specials' on DVD. In Australia on Region 4, the complete series has been released as individual sets and as a complete collection.

text: North America

text:
Series 1 & 2 – released 17 September 2002[8] / re-released 30 August 2005 (2-disc set)
Series 3 – released 17 September 2002 [9] / re-released 30 August 2005 (2-disc set)
Series 4 – released 2 April 2002[10] / re-released 30 August 2005 (2-disc set)
Series 5 – released 2002 / re-released 30 August 2005 (1-disc set)[11]
Series 6 – released 2002 / re-released 30 August 2005 (1-disc set)[12]
Series 7 – released 2002 / re-released 30 August 2005 (1-disc set)[13]
Series 8 & 9 – released 2003 / re-released 30 August 2005 (2-disc set)[14]
You Must Remember This – released 30 September 2003[15] / re-released 30 August 2005 (1-disc set)[16]
The Reunion Specials – released 10 January 2006 (1-disc set)[17]
Complete Original Series – released 30 August 2005 (11-disc set)[18]

text: United Kingdom

text:
Series 1 & 2 – released 17 March 2003 (3-VHS set / 3-DVD set distributed by Universal Playback)[19][20]
Series 3 – released 25 October 2004 (3-VHS set / 3-DVD set distributed by Universal Playback)[21][22]
Series 4 – released 21 February 2005 (1-VHS set / 1-DVD setdistributed by Universal Playback)[23][24]
Series 1 – re-released 5 February 2007 (1-DVD set distributed by 2 Entertain)
Series 2 – re-released 5 February 2007 (1-DVD set distributed by 2 Entertain)
Series 3 – re-released 5 February 2007 (2 DVD set distributed by 2 Entertain)
Series 4 – re-released 5 February 2007 (2-DVD set distributed by 2 Entertain)
Series 5 – released 24 October 2005 (1-DVD set distributed by 2 Entertain)
Series 6 – released 20 January 2006 (1-DVD set distributed by 2 Entertain)
Series 7 – released 20 March 2006 (1 DVD set distributed by 2 Entertain)
Series 8 – released 22 May 2006 (1 DVD set distributed by 2 Entertain)
Series 9 – released 21 August 2006 (1 DVD set distributed by 2 Entertain)
The Complete Series 1–4 – released 11 September 2006 (6-DVD set distributed by Cinema Club)
The Complete Series 5–9 – released 2 October 2006 (5-DVD set distributed by Cinema Club)
The Reunion Specials – released 16 July 2012 (1-DVD set distributed by Acorn Media)
Complete Series 1–9 – released 2 November 2015 (11-DVD set distributed by 2 Entertain)

text: Australia

text:
As Time Goes By – Series 1 and 2 (2 Disc Set)
As Time Goes By – Series 3 and 4 (3 Disc Set) – 10 November 2004
As Time Goes By – Series 5 and 6 (2 Disc Set) – 7 April 2005
As Time Goes By – Series 7 and 8 (2 Disc Set) – 6 October 2005
As Time Goes By – Series 9 - 9 August 2004
As Time Goes By – Series 1–9: Collectors Edition (11 Disc Box Set) – 6 October 2006


document_title: Pyramus and Thisbe

question_text: where are pyramus and thisbe planning to meet

text: Pyramus and Thisbe

text: Plot[edit]

text: In Ovid's Metamorphoses, Pyramus and Thisbe are two lovers in the city of Babylon who occupy connected houses/walls, forbidden by their parents to be wed, because of their parents' rivalry. Through a crack in one of the walls, they whisper their love for each other. They arrange to meet near Ninus' tomb under a mulberry tree and state their feelings for each other. Thisbe arrives first, but upon seeing a lioness with a mouth bloody from a recent kill, she flees, leaving behind her veil. When Pyramus arrives he is horrified at the sight of Thisbe's veil, assuming that a wild beast has killed her. Pyramus kills himself, falling on his sword in proper Babylonian fashion, and in turn splashing blood on the white mulberry leaves. Pyramus' blood stains the white mulberry fruits, turning them dark. Thisbe returns, eager to tell Pyramus what had happened to her, but she finds Pyramus' dead body under the shade of the mulberry tree. Thisbe, after a brief period of mourning, stabs herself with the same sword. In the end, the gods listen to Thisbe's lament, and forever change the colour of the mulberry fruits into the stained colour to honour the forbidden love.

text: Origins[edit]

text: Ovid's is the oldest surviving version of the story, published in 8 AD, but he adapted an existing etiological myth. While in Ovid's telling Pyramus and Thisbe lived in Babylon and Ctesias had placed the tomb of his imagined king Ninus near that city, the myth probably originated in Cilicia (part of Ninus' Babylonian empire) as Pyramos is the historical Greek name of the local Ceyhan River. The metamorphosis in the primary story involves Pyramus changing into this river and Thisbe into a nearby spring. A 2nd-century mosaic unearthed near Nea Paphos on Cyprus depicts this older version of the myth.[1]

text: Adaptations[edit]

text: The story of Pyramus and Thisbe appears in Giovanni Boccaccio's On Famous Women as biography number twelve (sometimes thirteen)[2] and in his Decameron, in the fifth story on the seventh day, where a desperate housewife falls in love with her neighbor, and communicates with him through a crack in the wall, attracting his attention by dropping pieces of stone and straw through the crack.

text: In the 1380s, Geoffrey Chaucer, in his The Legend of Good Women, and John Gower, in his Confessio Amantis, were the first to tell the story in English. Gower altered the story somewhat into a cautionary tale. John Metham's Amoryus and Cleopes (1449) is another early English adaptation.

text: The tragedy of Romeo and Juliet ultimately sprang from Ovid's story. Here the star-crossed lovers cannot be together because Juliet has been engaged by her parents to another man and the two families hold an ancient grudge. As in Pyramus and Thisbe, the mistaken belief in one lover's death leads to consecutive suicides. The earliest version of Romeo and Juliet was published in 1476 by Masuccio Salernitano, while it mostly obtained its present form when written down in 1524 by Luigi da Porto. Salernitano and Da Porto both are thought to have been inspired by Ovid and Boccaccio's writing.[3] Shakespeare's most famous 1590s adaptation is a dramatization of Arthur Brooke's 1562 poem The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet, itself a translation of a French translation of Da Porto's novella.

text: In Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream (Act V, sc 1), written in the 1590s, a group of "mechanicals" enact the story of "Pyramus and Thisbe". Their production is crude and, for the most part, badly done until the final monologues of Nick Bottom, as Pyramus and Francis Flute, as Thisbe. The theme of forbidden love is also present in A Midsummer Night's Dream (albeit a less tragic and dark representation) in that a girl, Hermia, is not able to marry the man she loves, Lysander, because her father Egeus despises him and wishes for her to marry Demetrius, and meanwhile Hermia and Lysander are confident that Helena is in love with Demetrius.

text: Spanish poet Luis de Góngora wrote a Fábula de Píramo y Tisbe in 1618, while French poet Théophile de Viau wrote Les amours tragiques de Pyrame et Thisbée, a tragedy in five acts, in 1621.

text: In 1718 Giuseppe Antonio Brescianello wrote his only opera "La Tisbe" for Württemberg court. François Francoeur and François Rebel composed Pirame et Thisbée, a lyric tragedy in 5 acts and a prologue, with libretto by Jean-Louis-Ignace de La Serre; it was played at the Académie royale de musique, on October 17, 1726. The story was adapted by John Frederick Lampe as a "Mock Opera" in 1745, containing a singing "Wall" which was described as "the most musical partition that was ever heard."[4] In 1768 in Vienna, Johann Adolph Hasse composed a serious opera on the tale, titled Piramo e Tisbe.

text: Edmond Rostand adapted the tale from Romeo and Juliet, making the fathers of the lovers conspire to bring their children together by pretending to forbid their love, in Les Romanesques,[citation needed] whose musical adaptation, Fantasticks, became the world's longest-running musical.