Argumentive Essays - Trojans, Mythological Kings, Epic Cycle

The Trojan War I am almost sure that we all know the stories of Greek Mythology. Now for Troy and its war, we may only know the stories implied by novels and movies. Some tails and myths have only part of the story which might seem more exciting then what actually started the fight, and how it really ended. Achilles didn?t really die at the end of the war. He was said to conquer Troy after the war had ended. This war is very popular because it lasted a decade. Achilles was the son of Thetis and Peleus. His mother tried to protect him from a prophecy of early death by dipping him into the River Styx, which would make him invulnerable? However, she held him by the heel so his heel was unprotected. She sent him to hide in the court of the king of Scyros, where he was disguised as a girl and married the princess Deidamia. Odysseus disguised himself as a traveling merchant, and tempted Achilles into revealing himself using a beautiful sword. The Iliad is a story that deals with a small part of the Trojan War. The cause of this war is when Paris, the prince of Troy, sailed to Sparta, seduced and abducted Helen and returned to Troy. When Menelaos discovered that his wife was gone, he gathered a number of Greek generals together to go with him, conquer Troy, and retrieve his wife. However, the Iliad only covers a few months during the tenth year of the war. In this time, many important events took place that could have possibly altered the outcome of this historic event? Two beautiful women whom were enemies of the Achaeans are captured during one of the many raids the army had on Troy. One of the women, named Chrysies is the prize for Ahomemnon (the king and commander-in ?chief of the Achaeans). But Chrysies? father, Chrysies wants his daughter back. Cheresies, whom was the priest God of Apollo, is hoping to go to the Achaean camp and claim his daughter. Unfortunately, this plan did not work out. And because of this, Chrys ies prays to Apollo for help. Apollo did in fact help the old man by spreading a deadly plague through the Achaean army, killing hundreds of them. After days of this, the Achaean?s most honored soldier, Achilles calls a meeting to determine the cause of the plague. A soothsayer of the Achaeans determines that King Agamemnon?s arrogance caused the plague by not returning the woman whom was captured to be his war prize. After finding this out, the woman is returned but Agamemnon takes Briseis whom was the prize captured for Achilles. Achilles is angry and publicly insulted so therefore he refuses to fight for the Achaeans and withdrawals his troops. He then requests to his mother Thetis (a sea nymph) to influence Zeus to help the Trojans defeat the Achaeans. The leader of the Gods promises Thetis that he will help. Zeus sends a dream to Agamemnon that has him convinced he will defeat the Trojans in battle the next day. With the order from Agamemnon, the army prepares itself for attack . The Trojans and Achaeans draw towards each other and Paris challenges one of the Achaeans to a one on one fight. The challenger of this is Menelaos. The winner will win Helen and both sides will agree on a treaty of peace. During the duel, Menelaos wounds Paris and begins dragging him to the Achaean?s territory when suddenly, Aphrodite appears and rescues him. Agamemnon announces to his army that they have won and demands that Helen is given back to them. Goddesses Hera and Athena want a complete destruction of Troy and they ask Zeus if no truce were made. Zeus in turn gives in and grants them their wish. As a result, the fighting soon resumes. As a way to start the war anew, Athena searches for Pandaros, a Trojan leader and tells him to kill Menelaos. Being the type of person Pandaros is he follows through with her advice. But instead of killing Menelaos, he only wounds him. The Achaeans are shocked that the Trojans would do this being that the truce is

Gullfaks Oil field Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5750 words

Gullfaks Oil field - Research Paper Example Oil exploration in the location where Gullfaks main field occupies started after the discovery of Brent Field in 1971. Hence, revealing the prospects of occurrence of Middle Jurassic Brent group sentiments, which are significant and highly rich hydrocarbon reservoirs. The first licensing that saw inception of drilling was in 1978 whereby the first well (34/10-1) managed to go through Jurassic section and encountered approximately 160 m width of oil-filled Brent sandstones region. This comprised of a column, which extends to the basement of Brent Group. Other four wells that followed the initial well were 34/10-3, -4, -5 and -6 whose respective locations are in the western region. The main operator of this field is Statoil, which took over its full operations in 1981 turning it to be the third largest state’s field located in the Northern Sea whose capacity was twice that of Angola (Vassiliou, 2009). Since, then up to date the field stand in the Norwegian history as the first o il reserve developed and managed by one of the state’s corporations successfully. This is to the extent of Norway becoming the third net oil exporter in 2001 whereby its yield reached approximately 223,000 bpd in 2002. The location of main field lies at 34/10 block in the Northern Norwegian Sea, whereby after exploration the main operator (Statoil) spearheaded development of other three key concrete platforms, which are Gullfaks A, Gullfaks B, Gullfaks C respectively (Statoil, 2013). Licensing Authority Statoil acts as the main operator due to its big number of shares though there are other partners whose holdings are as per the table below. Table 1: Gullfaks Licensing authorities Partners Shares % Statoil 51 Petoro 30 OMV 19 Recently, Statoil in quest to advance and increase its yield in platform C has decided to offer a two-year contract to Aibel whose aim is to initiate varied modifications that will guarantee the field’s anticipated production (Stavanger, 2010). Mainly, Aibel will foresee connection of Pandora satellite to Platform C whereby this is one of the first projects the operator intends to undertake besides other varied tasks meant to advance the entire field facilities (Stavanger, 2010). In addition, Statoil in order to be effective and neutralize immense competition globally has recently decided to sell 19% of its holdings to OMV, whereby its operations were to commence in 1st January this year (Oil & Gas Eurasia, 2013). Oil and Gas processing facilities The field comprises of three distinct processing facilities commonly referred as platforms whereby A and C performs are independent of each other besides having three separation stages (Statoil, 2013). Mainly, these platforms include Gullfaks A, Gullfaks B, Gullfaks C whose operations started in 1986, 1988 and 1989 respectively (Statoil,

Urbanization, Population and the Environment Essay

Urbanization, Population and the Environment - Essay Example This increase as well as migration of the world population will have an effect on the natural environmental resources owing to the increased consumption of food, energy, water and land. It has increased the air, water and noise pollution levels and other phenomena such as global warming which is adversely affecting the health of the population (Torrey; Ichimura). In addition, urbanization has also resulted in extensive exploitation of the natural resources thus leaving irreversible ecological footprints that have long-term effects on the population (Ichimura). Thus both the quality of life and environmental degradation are the major effects of urbanization and as the population in the urban areas is poised to increase in the future suitable strategies need to be implemented in order to maintain agricultural yield, energy and utilization of other natural resources such as water to sustain life. Urbanization is defined as the â€Å"process by which rural areas become urbanized as a result of economic development and industrialization† (Peng, Xiangming and Cheng). However, urbanization is also defined in demographic terms as the redistribution of the population from the rural to the urban areas over a period of time (Ichimura; Peng, Xiangming and Cheng). Urban settlements are larger and denser and the population is a heterogeneous group of people coexisting in the area while rural regions are smaller and less differentiated (Peng, Xiangming and Cheng). According to estimates only about 2 percent of the world population lived in urban settlements during the 1800’s, however, within a span of 200 years it has rose to 50 percent with the development of 18 megacities as of 2000.