ANCIENT LITERATURE OF THE WESTERN WORLD

HebrewGreekRoman

THE ANCIENT WESTERN WORLD

800 BCE (Old Testament and Homer) to476 CE (collapse of Roman Empire)

Mediterranean basin (see maps before p 1 and 9)

Rulers, herders, farmers, sailors, slaves

Hospitality in a dangerous, powerful, chaotic world

Patriarchy

EARLIER

11,000 BCE

3000 BCE

2700 BCE

2000 BCE

Wheat and barley are domesticated in Iran/Iraq

Egyptian pharaohs begin building pyramids

The historic Gilgamesh rules in Mesopotamia

The Babylonian flood story is (apparently) composed

Gilgamesh

“The first great heroic narrative of world literature” (Lawall et al. 15)

The story of the flood reappears in both Hebrew and Greek literature

The language in which it was written disappeared when Hebrew and Greek were being formed

Babylon in Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq)

THE HEBREWS

Right-Acting The Law Religion

God: Just and Merciful Humans: Inadequate

HEBREW TIMELINE

1800 BCE (Wikipedia) 1005-925 BCE 586 BCE

539 BCE

300 BCE

63 BCE 34 CE 1948 CE

Abraham David and Solomon Deportation to

Babylon The return to

Palestine and the canonical Pentateuch

Alexander the Great (Greek speaking)

Roman absorption The diaspora The state of Israel

HEBREW LANGUAGE

Useful system Extremely

concrete

Glowing Building Saying Green pastures

Abstract suggestion

--jealousy--truth--creating--peace and prosperity

GENESIS

Focused on the nature of God Explains the relationship of the

Divine to the human Contains Jewish history, law, and

literature Defines the Hebrew identity

The Ideal HebrewRight Acting

Wise Obedient Devoted

Righteous Capable of converse with God

Studious

Refined through suffering

Inadequate Inclined toward evil

THE GREEKS

Right-Thinking Intellectual Philosophy

The gods: powerful and self-centered

Humans: responsible for community

GREEK TIMELINE

2000 BCE 1200 BCE 700 BCE 450 BCE

404 BCE 338 BCE

Minoan culture The Trojan War Literacy is common Athens and Sparta

“share” prominence Sparta defeats

Athens Greek liberty ends;

Greek dispersion begins

GREEK LANGUAGE

The language of “cultural homogeneity” (Lawall et al. 8) until Latin

Heavily symbolic Homer’s works derived from the oral

tradition Formulaic Repetitive Familiar plots arranged by storyteller to create

new meaning

THE ILIAD

An epic—A “textbook” for an entire culture (history, sociology, psychology, religion, philosophy, science)

Focused on human activity Explains the Greek identity Defines the boundaries, the

extremes, of the Greek experience

THE ODYSSEY

An epic, a textbook Focuses on the human experience

in a hostile natural world Symbolically traces the life

experience of the hero Examines the internal experience of

the balanced, ideal Greek

AGAMEMNON

A tragedy meant to create catharsis Traces the life and self-caused fall

of the hero important to society Focuses on social issues Originally religious in nature,

attempts to define and even create morality

LYSISTRATA

A comedy meant to exaggerate real people and common concerns to prompt reconsideration of accepted conventions (the status quo) and stereotypes

Drama, whether comedy or tragedy, tends to focus on society

Aristophanes questions war, sources of power, and gender roles

THE IDEAL GREEKRight Thinking

Adaptable Versatile Socially graceful

A warrior An orator and leader

Capable of creating and upholding morality

Complex, questioning

Clever Tricky

THE ROMANS

Borrowers Practical Society

The gods: impractical Humans: disciplined

builders

ROMAN TIMELINE

201 BCE

146 BCE 31 BCE 96 – 180 CE

380 CE

Rome emerges as a world power

Defeats Carthage Octavius Augustus

unites the Empire Unparalleled

worldwide peace Christianity is

adopted as state religion

LATIN

The foundation of all Romance languages, including English

Continued to be the language of the educated until the 1500s

Name Changes

Roman Ulysses Pallas (Minerva) Sol Neptune Jupiter, Jove Juno Venus Mars

Greek Odysseus Athena Apollo Poseidon Zeus Hera Aphrodite Ares

And Some New Names

Laocoon Sinon Neoptolemus, Pyrrhus Cassandra Creusa Iulus, Ascanius Anchises

Laocoon and the Serpents

A magnificent Greek statue by Agesander, Athenodorus, and Polydorus, unearthed in Rome in 1508 and now in the Vatican, shows Laocoön and his sons in their death struggle. This Hellenistic sculpture had an important influence on the artists of the Renaissance.

Aeneas Leaving Troy

A mural in Pompeii, Italy, dating from the 1st century, showing the Trojan hero Aeneas receiving treatment for a wound. His mother, the Greek goddess Aphrodite, looks on anxiously. But Aeneas was also a hero to the Romans, for in eventually becoming a prince of Latium (an ancient territory in Italy), he could be said to be Rome's earliest historical ruler.(Image © The Art Archive/Archaeological Museum Naples/Dagli Orti)

THE AENEID

An often-didactic epic Focused on rebuilding the human-

centered morality of the past in a time when peace was allowing more freedoms

THE IDEAL ROMAN

Socially serious

Orderly, organized, disciplined

Practical (engineers)

Powerful (winners)

Masculine Hard-working

Conservative Wealthy Concerned with maintaining the status quo