Definition

Noun: 1. A specific historical work: "Parallel Lives" is the conventional English title for a series of biographies written by the Greek historian Plutarch. The work is formally known in Latin as "Vitae Parallelae." Its primary characteristic is the pairing of a famous Greek figure with a similar Roman figure (e.g., Alexander the Great with Julius Caesar) to compare their virtues, vices, and destinies. 2. A concept derived from the work: By extension, the phrase can refer to the general concept of two or more life stories that run alongside each other, exhibiting significant similarities in events, character, or fate, often without the individuals directly influencing each other.

Usage Examples

• Noun (Referring to the work):
  • Shakespeare found rich material for his Roman plays in Plutarch's "Parallel Lives."
  • The comparative structure of "Parallel Lives" provides unique insights into the moral character of ancient leaders.
• Noun (Referring to the concept):
  • The documentary explored the parallel lives of two scientists who made the same discovery on different continents.
  • Historians often note the parallel lives of these two presidents, both felled by assassins' bullets.

Advanced Usage

• As a modern comparative framework: The term is used in contemporary analysis to discuss individuals in different fields or eras whose careers show remarkable similarities.
  • The biographer drew a modern "parallel lives" between the two tech entrepreneurs.
• In literary criticism: Used to analyze narratives where two characters' stories are structurally mirrored.
  • The novel is built on a framework of parallel lives, following siblings separated at birth.

Variants and Related Words

• Parallel (adj.): (of lines, events, or processes) side by side and having the same distance continuously between them; occurring or existing at the same time or in a similar way.
  • Their careers followed parallel trajectories.
• Life (n.): The condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth, reproduction, functional activity, and continual change preceding death; the existence of an individual human being.
• Biography (n.): An account of someone's life written by someone else.

Synonyms

• Comparative biographies
• Paired narratives
• Analogous existences (for the conceptual use)

Related Phrases

• Lead parallel lives: An idiom meaning to live in a similar manner or pattern as another, often without interaction.
  • Though they never met, the artists led parallel lives, each struggling with the same creative doubts.
• Lives run parallel: Describes the ongoing similarity between two life paths.
  • For decades, their lives ran parallel, until fate finally brought them together.

Related Idioms

• Two sides of the same coin: While not identical, this idiom shares the comparative element of "parallel lives," suggesting two things that are closely related or inseparable, despite apparent differences.
  • Their philosophies were like two sides of the same coin.

Noun

1. a collection of biographies of famous pairs of Greeks and Romans written by Plutarch; used by Shakespeare in writing some of his plays