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UNIT ONE: ORIGINS
AND TRADITIONS
3000 B.C.- A.D. 1400
Mesopotamia
“the land between two rivers”
• Region between Tigris and Euphrates
• Modern day Iraq
• Sumerians influenced Babylonians and Assyrians
• Earliest system of writing (cuneiform); first wheel devices; earliest
city-states
The Babylonians
• Sargon- Great King (reigned c. 2334-2279 B.C.)
• Akkadian- Semitic language related to modern day Hebrew and
Arabic
Hammurabi (c. 1792-1750 B.C.)
• Legal code
• Engraved on stone slab
• 282 laws covering all aspects of daily life
Ancient Egypt
“the gift of the Nile”
• Along banks of Nile River in
northeastern Africa
• Upper Egypt (south)/Lower Egypt
(north)- joined in 2900 B.C.
• Unlike Mesopotamian kings,
pharaohs looked upon as gods.
• New system of writing:
hieroglyphics
• Polytheism- multiple gods (e.g.Osiris- god of the Nile River)
Egyptian Periods
• Early Dynastic Period (c. 2925- c.
2575 B.C.)
• Old Kingdom (c. 2575- c. 2130
B.C.)
• Middle Kingdom (c. 1938- c. 1600
B.C.)
• New Kingdom (c. 1540- 1075 B.C.)
Social Pyramid
• nobles/ priests
• artisans, merchants,
physicians
• peasants, slaves
The Hebrews: People of the Covenant
• Migrated from Mesopotamia to Palestine/ Canaan (modern day
Israel and Lebanon)
• Jewish people usually use B.C.E., “Before the Common Era,” rather
than B.C., “Before Christ”
• Monotheism- Believed in only one God and covenant between God
and Hebrew people
• Famine forced Hebrews from Canaan to Egypt where they were
enslaved by pharaohs.
• Laws: 10 Commandments
Kingdom of Israel
• Hebrews battled Philistines for hundreds of years
• Hebrews conquered region in 1000 B.C. under leadership of King
David
• Temple erected by King Solomon (David’s son) became center of
worship for entire kingdom
• After Solomon’s death, quarrels led to division of kingdom:
northern Kingdom of Israel and southern kingdom of Judah
• 721 B.C.- Israel fell to Assyrians
• 587-586 B.C.- Judah fell to Babylon; temple destroyed
• Persians eventually conquered Babylon
• Persian King Cyrus- returned Hebrews to
homeland and allowed them to rebuild temple
Persian and Islamic Empires
• Cyrus the Great- 6th Century B.C.
• Empire stretched from border of
India to Asia Minor and from the
edge of Egypt to the Black Sea
and the Caspian Sea
• Fell 200 years later to Alexander
the Great
• Zoroastrianism- religion founded
by Zoroaster (c. 628- c. 551 B.C.)
~two gods
~good and evil
~battle (good god to prevail)
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Islam
Muhammad- founder; born in
Mecca A.D. 570
Experienced vision at age of 40
of angel Gabriel who told
Muhammad he was chosen to be
God’s final prophet
Recognize Allah as only God
(monotheistic)
Does not discount principles of
Judaism and Christianity
By Muhammad’s death
in 632, all of Arabia united
in Islam
Ancient Literature by Region
• Babylonian- The Epic of Gilgamesh
• Egypt- formal sacred hymns for
pharaoh worship
• Hebrew- The Bible (moral
behavior)
• Persian- Fables and folk tales; The
Thousand and One Nights
~Qur’an- submission
~Shah-nama
~The Rubaiyat
~ Poetry: Sa’di and Rumi
(intoxication, bliss, love, spirituality)
• African- oral tradition, folk tales
~Sundiata
Archetypes
• Carl Jung (1875-1961)- Swiss psychiatrist
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An archetype is a term used to describe universal symbols that
evoke deep and sometimes unconscious responses in a reader
•
In literature, characters, images, and themes that symbolically
embody universal meanings and basic human experiences,
regardless of when or where they live, are considered archetypes.
•
Common literary archetypes include stories of quests, initiations,
scapegoats, descents to the underworld, and ascents to heaven.
Collective Unconscious
• It contains archetypes, emotionally charged images and thought
forms that have universal meaning.
• Archetypes cause us to respond in certain ways to common human
experiences.
• Key archetype: Mandala (“magic circle”), an image symbolizing
the unity of life.
Common Character Archetypes
• The Hero: The courageous figure, the one who’s always
running in and saving the day.
• The Outcast: The outcast is just that. He or she has been
cast out of a society or has left it on a voluntary basis.
The outcast figure can oftentimes be considered as a
Christ figure.
•
(i.e. Simon in The Lord of the Flies )
• The Scapegoat: The scapegoat figure is one who gets
blamed for everything, regardless of whether he/she is
actually at fault.
•
(i.e. Snowball in Animal Farm)
• The Star-Crossed Lovers: This is the young couple joined
by love but unexpectedly parted by fate.
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(i.e. Romeo and Juliet)
• The Shrew: This is that nagging, bothersome wife always
battering her husband with verbal abuse.
Situational Archetypes
• The Task: A situation in which a character, or group of
characters, is driven to complete some duty often of
monstrous proportion. (i.e. Frodo’s task to keep the ring safe
in The Lord of the Rings )
• The Quest: Here, the character(s) are searching for something,
whether consciously or unconsciously. Their actions, thoughts,
and feelings center around the goal of completing the quest.
(i.e. Shrek )
• The Loss of Innocence : This is, as the name implies, a loss of
innocence through sexual experience, violence, or any other
means.
• The Initiation: This is the process by which a character is
brought into another sphere of influence, usually (in literature)
into adulthood.
Common Image/ Symbol Archetypes
• Certain images that recur in myths and other genres of
literature often have a common meaning or tend to elicit
comparable psychological responses and to serve similar
cultural functions.
• Water
• Sun
• Colors
• Shapes, Numbers, & Other objects
What is an Epic?
A long narrative poem about a larger- than-life hero who is engaged
in a dangerous journey, or quest, that is important to the history of a
nation or people.
~Beowulf
~The Odyssey
~The Epic of Gilgamesh