1. ANCIENT LITERATURE OF THE WESTERN WORLD Hebrew Greek Roman

2. THE ANCIENT WESTERN WORLD  800 BCE (Old Testament and Homer) to 476 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

3. 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

4. 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)

5. THE HEBREWS  Right-Acting  The Law  Religion  God: Just and Merciful  Humans: Inadequate

6. 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

7. HEBREW LANGUAGE  Useful system  Extremely concrete Glowing Building Saying Green pastures Abstract suggestion --jealousy --truth --creating --peace and prosperity

8. 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

9. The Ideal Hebrew Right Acting WiseObedientDevoted RighteousCapable of converse with God Studious Refined through suffering InadequateInclined toward evil

10. THE GREEKS  Right-Thinking  Intellectual  Philosophy  The gods: powerful and self-centered  Humans: responsible for community

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. THE IDEAL GREEK Right Thinking AdaptableVersatileSocially graceful A warriorAn orator and leader Capable of creating and upholding morality Complex, questioning CleverTricky

18. THE ROMANS  Borrowers  Practical  Society  The gods: impractical  Humans: disciplined builders

19. 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

20. LATIN  The foundation of all Romance languages, including English  Continued to be the language of the educated until the 1500s

21. Name Changes  Roman Ulysses Pallas (Minerva) Sol Neptune Jupiter, Jove Juno Venus Mars  Greek Odysseus Athena Apollo Poseidon Zeus Hera Aphrodite Ares

22. And Some New Names  Laocoon  Sinon  Neoptolemus, Pyrrhus  Cassandra  Creusa  Iulus, Ascanius  Anchises

23. 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.

24. 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)

25. 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

26. THE IDEAL ROMAN Socially serious Orderly, organized, disciplined Practical (engineers) Powerful (winners) MasculineHard-working ConservativeWealthyConcerned with maintaining the status quo