 All people have strengths and weaknesses. What are some of your strengths? What are some of your weaknesses? Explain them.  How do your strengths help you?  How do your weaknesses hinder you?  If you could change one of your weakness, which one would it be? Why? Homework: Hero Journey rough draft due Wednesday.

Historical Background and The Epic

 Highly developed civilizations flourished  3000BC – 100AD  Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Hebrew civilizations  Mesopotamians – clay tablets  Egyptians – hieroglyphic script  Hebrews – The Hebrew Bible

The Invention of Writing  BC  Cuneiform:  Sumerians  Word pictures  Sticks  became complete writing system  Gilgamesh

 Hieroglyphics  Egyptians  Pictures represent ideas  Wood or stone  Evolved to represent syllables and sounds

 Fertile Crescent  housed many civilizations  Sumerians  BC  Built entire civilization with mud  Homes, pottery, clay tablets, canals  City-states  Many artistic and scientific achievements  Cuneiform  Gilgamesh

 Babylonians  Conquered Sumerians  Adapted cuneiform  Translated their literature  Gilgamesh  Code of Hammurabi  282 laws  Stable legal system  Assyrians  900 BC  Magnificent library  Sumerian and Babylonian literature  Babylon regained power.  612 BC; last great Mesopotamian empire

 Most powerful  3000 years  Gift of the Nile  Thriving trade  Predictable  Safe  Papyrus reeds 3 Time Periods  Old Kingdom  BC  Pyramids constructed  Prayer and autobiography

 Middle Kingdom  BC  Economic & political power  Hymns and songs  New Kingdom  BC  Peak of political power  Lyric love poems PYRAMID OF POWER

 Hierogylphs  Script in which pictures represent ideas.  Highly religious  In everything they wrote  Fascinated with death  The Book of the Dead gettyguide/videoDetails ?segid=4387

 Wanderers  Rich cultural life  Monotheism  Hebrew Bible  Old Testament  Their great “monument”  Record of their spiritual, literary, and historical experiences  Diverse literature: psalms, hymns, historical narratives, proverbs  Abraham and Sarah  Left Babylon  Became “the Hebrew people”  People from across the river  Entered Egypt  Saved from starvation  Later enslaved  Ten Commandments  Mosaic Law  Entered Canaan  Temple of Jerusalem  Destroyed twice  Exile (united by Yahweh)

 Found in cave near Dead Sea (1947)  Dated back to 200 BC  Written in Hebrew  Papyrus, animal skin  Most of the Hebrew Bible; oldest written fragments of the Bible ever written

 Sumerian story  Quest for eternal life  Oldest epic  Actual historical figure ( BC)  Clay tablets; passed on and translated  Epic: lengthy narrative poem, detailing a hero’s deeds related to a culture or nation

 Leader of his people  Traits reflect his society’s values  Superior strength, knowledge, cunning, courage  Often takes long, dangerous journey or quest to supernatural realms to achieve a particular goal  Possess human weaknesses; they can die

 Fill out your study guide using the text.  Complete questions on page 36: “Reading Check” and “Thinking Critically.”