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TED

UNIVERSITY

2019 Fall Term


LIT 100
World Literature

Reading Package II
Week 5
Introduction to the Epic
Excerpts from The Epic of Gilgamesh

First written down around 2000 BCE, the story of Gilgamesh is one of the oldest surviving works of world
literature. Based on an actual historical figure, King Gilgamesh of Uruk (reigned c. 2700 BCE), it recounts
Gilgamesh’s travels, adventures, and his search for immortality. In the process, it provides evidence of ancient
Mesopotamian ideas about death, the place of humanity in the universe, and societal organization. The work
survives in multiple copies, and it seems to have been a compilation of several hero narratives associated with
Gilgamesh, his rival-turned-friend Enkidu, and the gods and men they encountered throughout their travels.
This selection draws on multiple sections of the “Epic”, and it gives a flavor of the whole.

Source: N.K. Sandars. trans.. The Epic of Gilgimesh. (London: Penguin Books Ltd., 1978), pp. 61,62-3,69,87-8,
102,116-7,118.

Focus Questions:
1. What does the document suggest about ancient Mesopotamian beliefs about the gods and their effects on
men?
2. What is the reaction of Gilgamesh to death, and how does this motivate his behavior?
3. Is any of this document familiar to you from other sources?

I will proclaim to the world the deeds of Gilgamesh. This was the man to whom all things were known; this was
the king who knew the countries of the world. He was wise, he saw mysteries and knew secret things, he
brought us a tale of the days before the flood. He went on a long journey, was weary, worn-out with labour,
returning he rested, he engraved on a stone the whole story.

When the gods created Gilgamesh they gave him a perfect body. Shamash the glorious sun endowed him with
beauty, Adad the god of the storm endowed him with courage, the great gods made his beauty perfect,
surpassing all others, terrifying like a great wild bull. Two thirds they made him god and one third man.

Gilgamesh went abroad in the world, but he met with none who could withstand his arms till he came to Uruk.
But the men of Uruk muttered in their houses, 'Gilgamesh sounds the tocsin for his amusement, his arrogance
has no bounds by day or night. No son is left with his father, for Gilgamesh takes them all, even the children;
yet the king would be a shepherd to his people. His lust leaves no virgin to her lover, neither the warrior's
daughter nor the wife of the noble; yet this is the shepherd of the city, wise, comely, and resolute.'

The gods heard their lament, the gods in heaven cried to the Lord of Uruk, to Anu the god of Uruk: 'A goddess
made him, strong as a savage bull, none can withstand his arms. No son is left with his father, for Gilgamesh
takes them all; and is this the king, the shepherd of his people? His lust leaves no virgin to her lover, neither the
warrior's daughter nor the wife of the noble.' When Anu had heard their lamentation the gods cried to Aruru, the
goddess of creation, 'You made him, O Aruru, now create his equal; let it be as like him as his own reflection,
his second self, stormy heart for stormy heart. Let them contend together and leave Uruk in quiet.'

So the goddess conceived an image in her mind, and it was of the stuff of Anu of the firmament. She dipped her
hands in water and pinched off clay, she let it fall in the wilderness, and noble Enkidu was created. There was
virtue in him of the god of war, of Ninurta himself. His body was rough, he had long hair like a woman's; it
waved like the hair of Nisaba, the goddess of the corn. His body was covered with matted hair like Samuquan's,
the god of cattle.

In Uruk the bridal bed was made, fit for the goddess of love. The bride waited for the bridegroom, but in the
night Gilgamesh got up and came to the house. Then Enkidu stepped out, he stood in the street and blocked the
way. Mighty Gilgamesh came on and Enkidu met him at the gate. He put out his foot and prevented Gilgamesh
from entering the house, so they grappled, holding each other like bulls. They broke the doorposts and the walls
shook, they snorted like bulls locked together. They shattered the doorposts and the walls shook. Gilgamesh
bent his knee with his foot planted on the ground and with a turn Enkidu was thrown. Then immediately his fury
died. When Enkidu was thrown he said to Gilgamesh, 'There is not another like you in the world. Ninsun, who
is as strong as a wild ox in the byre, she was the mother who bore you, and now you are raised above all men,
and Enlil has given you the kingship, for your strength surpasses the strength of men.' So Enkidu and Gilgamesh
embraced and their friendship was sealed.

[Gilgamesh and Enkidu become great friends. Together they set out on a long journey to the Cedar Forest in
the North. They slay a fire-breathing monster called Humbaba who is the guardian of the forest. After their
return, Ishtar, the goddess of love, becomes infatuated with Gilgamesh and offers to marry him. Gilgamesh,
citing Ishtar's fickle nature in matters of love, refuses. Ishtar becomes incensed.]

Ishtar opened her mouth and said again, 'My father, give me the Bull of Heaven to destroy Gilgamesh. Fill
Gilgamesh, I say, with arrogance to his destruction; but if you refuse to give me the Bull of Heaven I will break
in the doors of hell and smash the bolts; there will be confusion of people, those above with those from the
lower depths. I shall bring up the dead to eat food like the living; and the hosts of dead will outnumber the
living'....

When Anu heard what Ishtar had said he gave her the Bull of Heaven to lead by the halter down to Uruk. When
they reached the gates of Uruk the Bull went to the river; with his first snort cracks opened in the earth and a
hundred young men fell down to death. With his second snort cracks opened and two hundred fell down to
death.

With his third snort cracks opened, Enkidu doubled over but instantly recovered, he dodged aside and leapt on
the Bull and seized it by the horns. The Bull of Heaven foamed in his face, it brushed him with the thick of its
tail. Enkidu cried to Gilgamesh, 'My friend, we boasted that we would leave enduring names behind us. Now
thrust the sword between the nape and the horns.' So Gilgamesh followed the Bull, he seized the thick of its tail,
he thrust the sword between the nape and the horns and slew the Bull. When they had killed the Bull of Heaven
they cut out its heart and gave it to Shamash, and the brothers rested.

[The death of the Bull of Heaven offends the gods. As compensation, they decree that one of the two heroes must
die. After a ominous dream, Enkidu passes away. Gilgamesh greatly mourns for his friend and for the fate of all
mortal men. He decides to seek the secret of immortality from Utnapishtim, the Mesopotamian Noah to whom
the gods granted everlasting life.]

Bitterly Gilgamesh wept for his friend Enkidu; he wandered over the wilderness as a hunter, he roamed over the
plains; in his bitterness he cried, 'How can I rest, how can I be at peace? Despair is in my heart. What my
brother is now, that shall I be when I am dead. Because I am afraid of death I will go as best I can to find
Utnapishtim whom they call the Faraway, for he has entered the assembly of the gods.' So Gilgamesh traveled
over the wilderness, he wandered over the grasslands, a long journey, in search of Utnapishtim, whom the gods
took after the deluge; and they set him to live in the land of Dilmun, in the garden of the sun; and to him alone
of men they gave everlasting life.

[Gilgamesh then encounters Siduri, "the woman of the vine, the maker of wine." She offers him sage advice
concerning his quest.]

She answered, 'Gilgamesh, where are you hurrying to? You will never find that life for which you are looking.
When the gods created man they allotted to him death, but life they retained in their own keeping. As for you,
Gilgamesh, fill your belly with good things; day and night, night and day, dance and be merry, feast and rejoice.
Let your clothes be fresh, bathe yourself in water, cherish the little child that holds your hand, and make your
wife happy in your embrace; for this too is the lot of man.'

[After an arduous journey, Gilgamesh finds Utnapishtim. Utnapishtim tells the hero the story of the flood:
mankind's incessant activity had disturbed the rest of the gods, who thus decided to destroy the humans by
flooding the earth. Ea, the god of the waters, warned Utnapishtim of the coming deluge. By building a strong
ship, Utnapishtim and his family survive. The gods then repented of their action and granted immortality to the
survivor. Utnapishtim also reveals another important secret to Gilgamesh.]
'Gilgamesh, I shall reveal a secret thing, it is a mystery of the gods that I am telling you. There is a plant that
grows under the water, it has a prickle like a thorn, like a rose; it will wound your hands, but if you succeed in
taking it, then your hands will hold that which restores his lost youth to a man.'

When Gilgamesh heard this he opened the sluices so that a sweet-water current might carry him out to the
deepest channel; he tied heavy stones to his feet and they dragged him down to the water-bed. There he saw the
plant growing; although it pricked him he took it in his hands; then he cut the heavy stones from his feet, and
the sea carried him and threw him on to the shore. Gilgamesh said to Urshanabi the ferryman, 'Come here, and
see the marvelous plant. By its virtue a man may win back all his former strength. I will take it to Uruk of the
strong walls; there I will give it to the old men to eat. Its name shall be "The Old Men Are Young Again"; and
at last I shall eat it myself and have back all my lost youth.' So Gilgamesh returned by the gate through which
he had come, Gilgamesh and Urshanabi went together. They traveled their twenty leagues and then they broke
their fast; after thirty leagues they stopped for the night.

Gilgamesh saw a well of cool water and he went down and bathed; but deep in the pool there was lying a
serpent, and the serpent sensed the sweetness of the flower. It rose out of the water and snatched it away, and
immediately it sloughed its skin and returned to the well. Then Gilgamesh sat down and wept, the tears ran
down his face, and he took the hand of Urshanabi; 'O Urshanabi, was it for this that I toiled with my hands, is it
for this I have wrung out my heart's blood? For myself I have gained nothing; not I, but the beast of the earth
has joy of it now. Already the stream has carried it twenty leagues back to the channels where I found it. I found
a sign and now I have lost it. Let us leave the boat on the bank and go.'

The destiny was fulfilled which the father of the gods, Enlil of the mountain, had decreed for Gilgamesh: 'In
nether-earth the darkness will show him a light: of mankind, all that are known, none will leave a monument for
generations to come to compare with his. The heroes, the wise men, like the new moon have their waxing and
waning. Men will say, "Who has ever ruled with might and with power like him?" As in the dark month, the
month of shadows, so without him there is no light. O Gilgamesh, this was the meaning of your dream. You
were given the kingship, such was your destiny, everlasting life was not your destiny. Because of this do not be
sad at heart, do not be grieved or oppressed; he has given you power to bid and to loose, to be the darkness and
the light of mankind. He has given unexampled supremacy over the people, victory in battle from which no
fugitive returns, in forays and assaults from which there is no going back. But do not abuse this power, deal
justly with your servants in the palace, deal justly before the face of the Sun.'
Plot Summary of
THE ILIAD

Let’s begin this story back at the banquet where Paris has chosen Aphrodite as the fairest of the
fair. He claims his prize... the most beautiful woman in the world: Helen of Troy. There’s one
problem-- Helen is married to Menelaus. And Menelaus is very powerful. He’s a brother in-law
to Agamemnon, the king of Greece, or Achaia. Paris is also a powerful man. His father is Priam,
the king of Troy.

Many princes of Greece owe their allegiance to Agamemnon, and he and Menelaus have
persuaded them to wage war against Priam. The Iliad begins nine years into this long war, with
the Achaean forces encamped beside their ships near Troy. They have captured and looted a
number of towns in Trojan territory, under the dashing leadership of Achilles, the most unruly
of Agamemnon’s royal supporters.

The success of these raiding parties leads to a feud between Achilles and his Commander-in-
Chief. Agamemnon has been allotted the girl Chrysies as his prize of war, but her father, a priest
of Apollo, demands her return. The priest prays to his god. A plague ensues; and Agamemnon is
forced by the strength of public feeling to give up the girl and pacify the angry god. He retaliates
by seizing one of Achilles’ own prizes, a girl named Brises. When Agamemnon takes his own
prize of war, Brises, Achilles refuses to fight any more and withdraws his force from the
battlefield.

After an abortive truce, intended to allow Menelaus and Paris to settle their quarrel by single
combat, the two armies meet. With Achilles still sulking in his tent, the Achaeans are put on the
defensive. They are forced to make a trench and a wall round their ships and huts. But these
defences are eventually stormed by Hector, the Trojan Commander-in-Chief, who succeeds in
setting fire to one of the Achaean ships.

At this point, Achilles yields and permits his closest friend Patroclus (wearing Achilles’ armor) to
lead the Myrmidon force to the rescue of the hard-pressed Achaeans. Patroclus brilliantly
succeeds in his mission, but he goes too far and is killed under the walls of Troy by Hector. The
death of his best friend brings Achilles to life. In an excess of rage with Hector and grief for his
comrade, he reconciles himself with Agamemnon, takes the field once more, and hurls the panic-
stricken Trojans back into their town. Achilles finally kills Hector. Not content with this revenge,
he savagely abuses the body of his fallen enemy. Hector’s father, King Priam, in his grief and
horror, is inspired by the gods to visit Achilles in his camp by night, in order to recover his son’s
body. Achilles relents, and the Iliad ends with an uneasy truce for the funeral of Hector.

Plot Summary of
THE ODYSSEY

Ten years have passed since the fall of Troy, and the Greek hero Odysseus still has not
returned to his kingdom in Ithaca. A large and rowdy mob of suitors who have overrun
Odysseus’s palace and pillaged his land continue to court his wife, Penelope. She has
remained faithful to Odysseus. Prince Telemachus, Odysseus’s son, wants desperately to
throw them out but does not have the confidence or experience to fight them. One of the
suitors, Antinous, plans to assassinate the young prince, eliminating the only opposition to
their dominion over the palace.
Unknown to the suitors, Odysseus is still alive. The beautiful nymph Calypso, possessed by
love for him, has imprisoned him on her island. He longs to return to his wife and son, but he
has no ship or crew to help him escape. While the gods and goddesses of Mount Olympus
debate Odysseus’s future, Athena, Odysseus’s strongest supporter among the gods, resolves
to help Telemachus. Disguised as a friend of the prince’s grandfather, Laertes, she convinces
the prince to call a meeting of the assembly at which he reproaches the suitors. Athena also
prepares him for a great journey to Pylos and Sparta, where the kings Nestor and Menelaus,
Odysseus’s companions during the war, inform him that Odysseus is alive and trapped on
Calypso’s island. Telemachus makes plans to return home, while, back in Ithaca, Antinous
and the other suitors prepare an ambush to kill him when he reaches port.

On Mount Olympus, Zeus sends Hermes to rescue Odysseus from Calypso. Hermes
persuades Calypso to let Odysseus build a ship and leave. The homesick hero sets sail, but
when Poseidon, god of the sea, finds him sailing home, he sends a storm to wreck Odysseus’s
ship. Poseidon has harbored a bitter grudge against Odysseus since the hero blinded his son,
the Cyclops Polyphemus, earlier in his travels. Athena intervenes to save Odysseus from
Poseidon’s wrath, and the beleaguered king lands at Scheria, home of the Phaeacians.
Nausicaa, the Phaeacian princess, shows him to the royal palace, and Odysseus receives a
warm welcome from the king and queen. When he identifies himself as Odysseus, his hosts,
who have heard of his exploits at Troy, are stunned. They promise to give him safe passage to
Ithaca, but first they beg to hear the story of his adventures.

Odysseus spends the night describing the fantastic chain of events leading up to his arrival on
Calypso’s island. He recounts his trip to the Land of the Lotus Eaters, his battle with
Polyphemus the Cyclops, his love affair with the witch-goddess Circe, his temptation by the
deadly Sirens, his journey into Hades to consult the prophet Tiresias, and his fight with the
sea monster Scylla. When he finishes his story, the Phaeacians return Odysseus to Ithaca,
where he seeks out the hut of his faithful swineherd, Eumaeus. Though Athena has disguised
Odysseus as a beggar, Eumaeus warmly receives and nourishes him in the hut. He soon
encounters Telemachus, who has returned from Pylos and Sparta despite the suitors’ ambush,
and reveals to him his true identity. Odysseus and Telemachus devise a plan to massacre the
suitors and regain control of Ithaca.

When Odysseus arrives at the palace the next day, still disguised as a beggar, he endures
abuse and insults from the suitors. The only person who recognizes him is his old nurse,
Eurycleia, but she swears not to disclose his secret. Penelope takes an interest in this strange
beggar, suspecting that he might be her long-lost husband. Quite crafty herself, Penelope
organizes an archery contest the following day and promises to marry any man who can
string Odysseus’s great bow and fire an arrow through a row of twelve axes—a feat that only
Odysseus has ever been able to accomplish. At the contest, each suitor tries to string the bow
and fails. Odysseus steps up to the bow and, with little effort, fires an arrow through all
twelve axes. He then turns the bow on the suitors. He and Telemachus, assisted by a few
faithful servants, kill every last suitor.

Odysseus reveals himself to the entire palace and reunites with his loving Penelope. He
travels to the outskirts of Ithaca to see his aging father, Laertes. They come under attack from
the vengeful family members of the dead suitors, but Laertes, reinvigorated by his son’s
return, successfully kills Antinous’s father and puts a stop to the attack. Zeus dispatches
Athena to restore peace. With his power secure and his family reunited, Odysseus’s long
ordeal comes to an end.
Homer: The Iliad and the Odyssey
(Three Translations of the Opening Lines)

The Iliad:

Sing, goddess, the anger of Peleus’ son Achilleus


and its devastation, which put pains thousandfold upon the Achaians,
hurled in their multitudes to the house of Hades strong souls
of heroes, but gave their bodies to be the delicate feasting
of dogs, of all birds, and the will of Zeus was accomplished
since that time when first there stood in division of conflict
Atreus’ son the lord of men and brilliant Achilleus. . . .

Translated by Richmond Lattimore (1951)

Anger be now your song, immortal one,


Akhilleus’ anger, doomed and ruinous,
that caused the Akhaians loss on bitter loss
and crowded brave souls into the undergloom,
leaving so many dead men — carrion
for dogs and birds; and the will of Zeus was done.
Begin it when the two men first contending
broke with one another —
the Lord Marshal
Agamémnon, Atreus’ son, and Prince Akhilleus. . . .

Translated by Robert Fitzgerald (1974)

Rage — Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus’ son Achilles,


murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaeans countless losses,
hurling down to the House of Death so many sturdy souls,
great fighters’ souls, but made their bodies carrion,
feasts for the dogs and birds,
and the will of Zeus was moving toward its end.
Begin, Muse, when the two first broke and clashed,
Agamemnon lord of men and brilliant Achilles. . . .

Translated by Robert Fagles (1990)


The Odyssey:

Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story


of that man skilled in all ways of contending,
the wanderer, harried for years on end,
after he plundered the stronghold
on the proud height of Troy.
He saw the townlands
and learned the minds of many distant men,
and weathered many bitter nights and days
in his deep heart at sea, while he fought only
to save his life, to bring his shipmates home.
But not by will nor valor could he save them,
for their own recklessness destroyed them all —
children and fools, they killed and feasted on
the cattle of Lord Hêlios, the Sun,
and he who moves all day through the heaven
took from their eyes the dawn of their return. . . .

Translated by Robert Fitzgerald (1961)

Tell me, Muse, of the man of many ways, who was driven
far journeys, after he had sacked Troy’s sacred citadel.
Many were they whose cities he saw, whose minds he learned of,
many the pains he suffered in his spirit on the wide sea,
struggling for his own life and the homecoming of his companions.
Even so he could not save his companions, hard though
he strove to; they were destroyed by their own wild recklessness,
fools, who devoured the oxen of Helios, the Sun God,
and he took away the day of their homecoming. . . .

Translated by Richmond Lattimore (1965)

Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns


driven time and again off course, once he had plundered
the hallowed heights of Troy.
Many cities of men he saw and learned their minds,
many pains he suffered, heartsick on the open sea,
fighting to save his life and bring his comrades home.
But he could not save them from disaster, hard as he strove –
the recklessness of their own ways destroyed them all,
the blind fools, they devoured the cattle of the Sun
and the Sungod blotted out the day of their return. . . .

Translated by Robert Fagles (1996)

Three translations of the opening lines of The Iliad and The Odyssey.
Week 6
Ancient Literature I:
The Greek Tragedy and
Comedy
Greek Tragedy
Aristotle’s Definition of Tragedy
Tragedy depicts the downfall of a basically good person through some
fatal error or misjudgment, producing suffering and insight on the part
of the protagonist and arousing pity and fear on the part of the
audience.

A true tragedy should evoke pity and fear (catharsis) on the part
of the audience.

Pity and fear are the natural human responses to spectacles of pain and
suffering – especially to the sort of pain and suffering that can strike
anyone at any time. The effect is that we feel relief in the end through
catharsis, and are purged of these feelings.

Tragedy usually arises in the tragic situation which involves an


impossible choice on part of the tragic hero.

The Tragic Hero


The tragic hero must be essentially admirable and good.
The fall of a villain evokes applause rather than pity. Audiences cheer
when the bad guy goes down. We feel compassion for someone we
admire when that character is in a difficult situation. The nobler and
more admirable the person is, the greater our anxiety, pity or grief at his
or her downfall.

In a true tragedy, the hero’s demise, or fall, must come as a result


of some personal error (hamartia) or decision.
The Tragic Terms
HAMARTIA (Tragic error): A fatal error or simple mistake on the part
of the protagonist that eventually leads to the final catastrophe.
HUBRIS OR HYBRIS, according to its modern usage, is exaggerated
self pride or self-confidence (overbearing pride), often resulting in fatal
retribution.
Examples: King Creon commits hubris in refusing to bury Polynices in
Sophocles’ Antigone. Oedipus shows hubris when he thinks he can avoid
the oracle by fleeing his adopted parents and in fact by doing so realizes
the oracle by coming to his real parents’ city.
FATE / DESTINY: the will or principle or determining cause by which
things in general are believed to come to be as they are or events to happen
as they do: destiny. The ancient Greeks believed that everything happened
for a reason and that the path they led in life, was prescribed for them by
the Gods and that there was no escaping their fate or destiny.
PERIPATEIA (Plot reversal): A pivotal or crucial action on the part of
the protagonist that changes the situation from seemingly secure to
vulnerable. Example: Oedipus leaving his adopted parents to avoid the
oracle
NEMESIS (Retribution): The inevitable payback or cosmic punishment
for acts of hubris.
ANAGORISIS (Tragic recognition or insight): A moment of
clairvoyant insight or understanding in the mind of the tragic hero as he
suddenly comprehends the web of fate in which he is entangled.
CATHARSIS: A feeling of emotional purging on the part of the audience
during a tragedy. The audience feels pity and fear at first, only to feel
relief and exhilaration at the end through catharsis.
The Playwrights
• Three major tragedians
–Aeschylus
–Sophocles
–Euripides
• All active in the 5th century BCE
• These three playwrights won first
place in multiple competitions
• Only Athenian plays survive
Aeschylus
• b. 525 d. 456 (Sicily) BCE
• Fought at Marathon
– “Aeschylus, Euphorion’s son of
Athens, lies under this stone dead in
Gela among the white wheat lands; a
man at need good in fight -- witness
the hallowed field of Marathon,
witness the long-haired Mede.”
• First tragedy 499
• First first prize 484 (13 overall)
• Introduced the second actor
• Wrote over 70 plays (seven survive)
• Always revered; he was the most
conservative and religious of the
three famous playwrights
• Main interest is in situation and
event rather than character
• His most famous plays are his
trilogy Oresteia (composed of
Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers and
The Eumenides), and Seven Against
Thebes
Sophocles
• b. 496 d. 406 BCE
• Served as a general with
Pericles (441)
• Very active in city politics (413)
• First tragedy 468
• First first prize 468
– Won 18 first prizes
– Never finished third
• Introduced the third actor
• Wrote over 120 plays (seven
survive)
• The most successful of the
three tragedians
• Challenged conventional
morals/beliefs
• Introduced more dialogue
between characters (less
members for the Chorus)
• His most famous plays are
Oedipus the King, Oedipus at
Colonus, Antigone, Electra
Euripides
• b. 485 d. 406 (in Macedonia)
BCE
• Not active militarily or politically
• First tragedy 455
• First first prize 441
• Won only four first prizes
• The least successful (?) of the Big
Three
• No innovations on the stage
• Wrote ninety plays (19 survive)
• Sophocles: “I present men as
they ought to be, Euripides
presents men as they are.”
• More realistic than the other two
playwrights
• His most famous plays are
Alcestis, Medea, Hippolytus, Bacchae,
Orestes
Plot Summaries and
Excerpts

Tragedies:
The Oresteia by Aeschylus
Oedipus the King by Sophocles
Antigone by Sophocles
Medea by Euripedes

Comedies:
The Frogs by Aristophanes
Lysistrata by Aristophanes
The Oresteia by Aeschylus
• Not a single play, but rather a trilogy (though it
should have been four — one has been lost to
history) of tragedies, The Oresteia follow another
cursed family, the House of Atreus. This series is
the only surviving example of a trilogy in Greek
drama, and took first prize in the Dionysia
festival when it was first performed in 458 BCE.
The first play, Agamemnon, follows the King of
Argos as he returns home to an adulterous wife
intent on murdering him for sacrificing their
daughter, Iphigenia. The second, The Libation
Bearers, continues the story, with Agamemnon’s
children Electra and Orestes uniting to avenge
the death of their father by taking revenge on
their mother. The final installation is called The
Eumenides and concerns the legal backlash all
of these killings have, with Orestes receiving
punishment for his crimes.
Short Excerpts: The Oresteia by Aeschylus
“Nothing forces us to know
What we do not want to know
Except pain”
“Pain both ways and what is worse?”
The excerpt from The Eumenides
Athena’s dialogue with the Chorus voicing the Furies, whom will
eventually be called the “Eumenides,” a euphemistic name, meaning
“the Kindly Ones.” (Lines 977—995)
Chorus: I pray that civil strife that knows
no end to evil never may surge
and thunder through this state.
Let not the thirsting dust soak up the purple blood
of citizens, nor let men
in passion for vengeance wreak
vendetta and feud in the state,
but men of like mind
let them share with one will
both their joys and their objects of hate.
For this is the source of much health among men.
Athena: At the last they have the wisdom and sense to find
their way to words of good will.
From these faces of dread I foresee an accrual
of much that is good for these men of the state.
For so long as you in kindliness and honour esteem
these kindly ones, so you will guide aright
your town and land
in all the business that you do.
Oedipus the King by Sophocles
Perhaps the best-known of the Greek tragedies, Aristotle
used Oedipus the King as an example of perfectly
orchestrated tragedy in his work Poetics. First performed
in 429 BCE, it was the second of Sophocles’ Theban
plays to be produced, and follows a cursed family who
tries in vain to escape their fate.
The main character of the tragedy is Oedipus, whose
own father orders him executed, believing the young
child will kill him. He is rescued after being left to die in
a field and raised by another royal family as their own.
Told by an oracle that he will murder his father and sleep
with his mother, Oedipus flees home, only to end up
encountering his true parents who abandoned him long
ago. In the tragedy, Oedipus ends up enacting the oracle
through his choice and actions.

This tragedy led Sigmund Freud to coin the term the


“Oedipus Complex” for a child’s unconscious desire
towards the parent of the opposite sex as well as the
feeling of rivalry towards the parent of the same sex,
which he hypothesized to be in both male and female
children.
Excerpt from Oedipus’ Monologue
from Oedipus the King

I care not for thy counsel or thy praise;


For with what eyes could I have e’er beheld
My honoured father in the shades below,
Or my unhappy mother, both destroyed
By me? This punishment is worse than death,
And so it should be. Sweet had been the sight
Of my dear children—them I could have wished
To gaze upon; but I must never see
Or them, or this fair city, or the palace
Where I was born. Deprived of every bliss
By my own lips, which doomed to banishment
The murderer of Laius, and expelled
The impious wretch, by gods and men accursed:
Could I behold them after this? Oh no!
[…]
Bury me, hide me, friends,
From every eye; destroy me, cast me forth
To the wide ocean--let me perish there:
Do anything to shake off hated life.
Seize me; approach, my friends--you need not fear,
Polluted though I am, to touch me; none
Shall suffer for my crimes but I alone.
Antigone by Sophocles
Antigone, the third instalment of a trilogy more likely to
be starting originally with Oedipus the King, focuses on the
eponymous daughter of the doomed Oedipus and his
mother Jocasta.

In the preceding play, Seven Against Thebes, two brothers


fight each other for the throne, with one dying and the
other demanding that he be left to rot and eaten by
animals on the battlefield—the harshest punishment at
the time order by Creon, the king of Thebes.

Antigone mourns for her fallen brother and sets out to


bury him, facing the death penalty for her actions if she
is caught. She is, of course, caught and thrown to jail
with almost no food given in order to starve her to
death. Gods get involved only much later, and the King
Creon is punished not by Gods but as a result of his
action: His son, who was engaged to Antigone, kills
himself when he hears that she is dead, and in return, his
wife commits suicide on hearing her son’s death.
Excerpts from Sophocles’ Antigone

The dialogue between two sisters, Antigone and


Ismene, from Antigone (Lines 25—122)

ANTIGONE: Look—what’s Creon doing with our two brothers?


He’s honouring one with a full funeral
and treating the other one disgracefully!
Eteocles, they say, has had his burial
according to our customary rites,
to win him honour with the dead below. 30
But as for Polyneices, who perished
so miserably, an order has gone out
throughout the city—that’s what people say.
He’s to have no funeral or lament,
but to be left unburied and unwept,
a sweet treasure for the birds to look at,
for them to feed on to their heart’s content.
That’s what people say the noble Creon
has announced to you and me—I mean to me—
and now he’s coming to proclaim the fact, 40
to state it clearly to those who have not heard.
For Creon this matter’s really serious.
Anyone who acts against the order
will be stoned to death before the city.
Now you know, and you’ll quickly demonstrate
whether you are nobly born, or else
a girl unworthy of her splendid ancestors.
ISMENE: O my poor sister, if that’s what’s happening,
what can I say that would be any help
to ease the situation or resolve it?
ANTIGONE: Think whether you will work with me in this
and act together.
ISMENE: In what kind of work? What do you mean?
ANTIGONE: Will you help these hands
take up Polyneices’ corpse and bury it? 50
ISMENE: What? You’re going to bury Polyneices,
when that’s been made a crime for all in Thebes?
ANTIGONE: Yes. I’ll do my duty to my brother—
and yours as well, if you’re not prepared to.
I won’t be caught betraying him.
ISMENE: You’re too rash.
Has Creon not expressly banned that act? 60
ANTIGONE: Yes. But he’s no right to keep me from what’s mine.
ISMENE: O dear. Think, Antigone. Consider
how our father died, hated and disgraced,
when those mistakes which his own search revealed
forced him to turn his hand against himself
and stab out both his eyes. Then that woman,
his mother and his wife—her double role—
destroyed her own life in a twisted noose.
Then there’s our own two brothers, both butchered
in a single day—that ill-fated pair 70
with their own hands slaughtered one another
and brought about their common doom.
Now, the two of us are left here quite alone.
Think how we’ll die far worse than all the rest,
if we defy the law and move against
the king’s decree, against his royal power.
We must remember that by birth we’re women,
and, as such, we shouldn’t fight with men.
Since those who rule are much more powerful,
we must obey in this and in events 80
which bring us even harsher agonies.
So I’ll ask those underground for pardon—
since I’m being compelled, I will obey
those in control. That’s what I’m forced to do.
It makes no sense to try to do too much.
ANTIGONE: I wouldn’t urge you to. No. Not even
if you were keen to act. Doing this with you
would bring me no joy. So be what you want.
I’ll still bury him. It would be fine to die
while doing that. I’ll lie there with him, 90
with a man I love, pure and innocent,
for all my crime. My honours for the dead
must last much longer than for those up here.
I’ll lie down there forever. As for you,
well, if you wish, you can show contempt
for those laws the gods all hold in honour.
ISMENE: I’m not disrespecting them. But I can’t act
against the state. That’s not in my nature.
ANTIGONE: Let that be your excuse. I’m going now
to make a burial mound for my dear brother. 100
ISMENE: Oh poor Antigone, I’m so afraid for you.
ANTIGONE: Don’t fear for me. Set your own fate in order.
ISMENE: Make sure you don’t reveal to anyone
what you intend. Keep it closely hidden.
I’ll do the same.
ANTIGONE: No, no. Announce the fact—
if you don’t let everybody know,
I’ll despise your silence even more.
ISMENE: Your heart is hot to do cold deeds.
ANTIGONE: But I know
I’ll please the ones I’m duty bound to please.
ISMENE: Yes, if you can. But you’re after something 110
which you’re incapable of carrying out.
ANTIGONE: Well, when my strength is gone, then I’ll give up.
ISMENE: A vain attempt should not be made at all.
ANTIGONE: I’ll hate you if you’re going to talk that way.
And you’ll rightly earn the loathing of the dead.
So leave me and my foolishness alone—
we’ll get through this fearful thing. I won’t suffer
anything as bad as a disgraceful death.
ISMENE: All right then, go, if that’s what you think right.
But remember this—even though your mission 120
makes no sense, your friends do truly love you.


Short Excerpts:

“All men make mistakes, but a good man yields when he


knows his course is wrong, and repairs the evil. The only
crime is pride.”

“Tomorrow is tomorrow.
Future cares have future cures,
And we must mind today.”

“When I have tried and failed, I shall have failed.”


Medea by Euripedes
Like many other Greek tragedies, this play focuses on
betrayal and revenge. This time, the main characters are
Medea and her husband Jason (who is known for
slaying of the monster Medusa and his capture of the
Golden Fleece, the fleece [i.e. the coat of wool of a
sheep or similar animal] of the gold-hair winged ram,
which was held in Colchis, and which was then a
symbol of authority and kingship).

The play begins with Medea grieving and raging, as her


husband has left her for another woman, Glauce, who
is the daughter of the king of Corinth, where they
inhabited, even though Jason has promised to keep her
as a mistress.

She gets her revenge from Jason for betraying her by


killing both the princess and the king of Corinth, and
later their own two sons, she had from Jason. In the end
she leaves Jason behind by going into the sky on a
winged carriage provided by her grandfather, the god
of Sun, Helios.
Medea’s Monologue (I)
Medea:
Women of Corinth, I have come out of the house
[215] lest you find some fault with me. For I know
that though many mortals are haughty both in
private and in public, others get a reputation for
indifference to their neighbors from their retiring
manner of life. There is no justice in mortals’ eyes
[220] since before they get sure knowledge of a
man’s true character they hate him on sight,
although he has done them no harm. Now a
foreigner must be quite compliant with the city,
nor do I have any words of praise for the citizen
who is stubborn and causes his fellow-citizens
pain by his lack of breeding. [225] In my case,
however, this sudden blow that has struck me has
destroyed my life. I am undone, I have resigned all
joy in life, and I want to die. For the man in whom
all I had was bound up, as I well know—my
husband—has proved the basest of men.
Medea’s Monologue (II)
[230] Of all creatures that have breath and sensation,
we women are the most unfortunate. First at an
exorbitant price we must buy a husband and master of
our bodies. [This misfortune is more painful than
misfortune.] [235] And the outcome of our life’s
striving hangs on this, whether we take a bad or a good
husband. For divorce is discreditable for women and it
is not possible to refuse wedlock. And when a woman
comes into the new customs and practices of her
husband’s house, she must somehow divine, since she
has not learned it at home, [240] how she shall best deal
with her husband. If after we have spent great efforts
on these tasks our husbands live with us without
resenting the marriage-yoke, our life is enviable.
Otherwise, death is preferable. A man, whenever he is
annoyed with the company of those in the house, [245]
goes elsewhere and thus rids his soul of its boredom
[turning to some male friend or age-mate]. But we must
fix our gaze on one person only. Men say that we live a
life free from danger at home while they fight with the
spear. [250] How wrong they are! I would rather stand
three times with a shield in battle than give birth once.
Greek Comedy
Comedy (from Greek komos, meaning “revel”) was presented
competitively in Athens from 486 BCE onwards at the Lenaea
winter festival.

The Greek comedy fused much earlier traditions of popular


entertainment, mime, phallic rites, and revelry in honour of
Dionysus.

The “Old” Comedy: With the decline of tragedy after


Euripides’ death in 406 BCE and the defeat of Athens by
the Spartans in the Peloponnesian War in 404 BCE,
comedy increased in popularity. The most important Old
Comic dramatist is Aristophanes. His comedies, with
their pungent political satire and abundance of sexual
and scatological innuendo, effectively define the genre
today. Aristophanes made fun of the most important
personalities and institutions of his day, as can be seen,
for example, in his racy anti-war farce Lysistrata.

The Old Comedy subsequently influenced later


European writers such as Rabelais, Cervantes, Swift, and
Voltaire. In particular, they imitated the technique of
disguising a political attack as jokes.
Greek Comedy
Old Comedy, of which Aristophanes was the chief
exponent, was highly satirical. It was characterized by wildly
imaginative material (in which the chorus might represent
birds, frogs, wasps, or clouds) that was blended with a
grotesque, vulgar, and witty tone, which could still
accommodate poetry of great lyrical beauty. It had harsh
critical commentary on contemporary society, politics,
literature, and Peloponnesian War.
It was based on a “happy idea” - a private peace with a
warring power or a sex strike to stop war. The bawdiness of
the plays was emphasized by the actors’ costumes, which
featured padded stomachs and large phalli (male genitals). As
in tragedy, masks were worn, though exaggerated for comic
effect.

The “New” Comedy: The Greek comedy began to evolve


through the transitional Middle Comedy to the style known
as New Comedy, established about 320 BCE during the time
of Alexander the Great. Only fragments by one writer,
Menander, survive from this later period, but they indicate a
swing away from mythological subjects toward a comedy of
manners, concentrating as they do on the erotic adventures
of young Athenians and centering on urban family life. The
new style was reflected in the use of more realistic costumes
and masks and in the increasing use of scenery.
Aristophanes
He was born in Athens in 452 BCE.
He had been writing since he was an
adolescent but he was not allowed to
participate in the contests because of his age.
Therefore he participated with the alias
“Detalis” and he won the first prize.
He died in Aegina in 385 BCE.
Aristophanes’ Comedies
• Acharnians (425 BCE)
• Knights (424 BCE)
• Clouds (423 BCE)
• Wasps (422 B.C.)
• Peace (421 BCE)
• Birds (414 BCE)
• Lysistrata (411 BCE)
• Women at the Thesmophoria (411 BCE)
• Frogs (405 BCE)
• Ecclesiazusae (c. 391 BCE)
• Plutus (388 BCE)
The Frogs
Perhaps one of the first works of literary criticism ever created, The
Frogs makes fun of the giants of Greek tragedy, Euripides and
Aeschylus. This comedy pits the two tragedy writers against one
another in an imagined battle to see who is the best tragic poet, with
Dionysus serving as judge. It’s not all mere comedy, of course, and
some serious political commentary lurks behind this fictional battle
of wits, with Aristophanes focusing on real solutions to current
Athenian events occurring at the time the play was first produced.
In their battle of wits, Aeschylus and Euripides spend time
discussing the value of poetry, and both have good points.
Euripides explains that his verse helped people think rationally and
organize their houses better, and that poetry “[turns] people into
better / members of their communities” (79).
“But the poet has a special duty to conceal / what’s wicked, / not to
stage it or teach it.” —Aeschylus.
Aeschylus muses on all the noble poets’ ideas and contributions,
especially those found in his own work. He says that a poet should
make sure that what they are writing has a benefit to the people
listening to it, for poetry is profoundly powerful and impactful, not
merely entertainment. What is deleterious about Euripides’s work is
that he “taught people to chitchat and gab” (83) and featured
women behaving badly. By contrast, Aeschylus’s work is dignified
and didactic, and that is why he is ultimately the winner of the
contest. When Dionysus cannot seem to come to a decision for the
winner, he orders the two poets’ verses to be weighed. Because he
refers to lofty things such as death and rivers, Aeschylus wins the
weighing.
Lysistrata
Focusing on the Peloponnesian War, this comedy is not only
entertaining, but also exposes some of the sexual politics in
ancient Greece’s heavily patriarchal society.
The story revolves around Lysistrata, a woman who calls for
women across the empire to withhold sexual gratification from
their husbands, by way of a sex strike, until they find a way to
negotiate peace in the ongoing Peloponnesian War. Lysistrata
reasons that if the women of Athens and Sparta refuse to
satisfy their husbands, the men will be so crippled by perpetual
desire that they will have to agree to a truce. Her ploy / plan,
however silly it may sound, actually works. While today it is
often held up as a feminist work, in reality Aristophanes
stereotypes and belittles the women in the story, and yet
according to comic idea he lets Lysistrata triumph in the end,
and thus led to switching gender viewpoints.

“Lysistrata: What matters that I was born a woman, if I can


cure your misfortunes? I pay my share of tolls and taxes, by
giving men to the State. But you, you miserable greybeards, you
contribute nothing to the public charges; on the contrary, you
have wasted the treasure of our forefathers, as it was called, the
treasure amassed in the days of the Persian Wars. You pay
nothing at all in return; and into the bargain you endanger our
lives and liberties by your mistakes. Have you one word to say
for yourselves?... Ah! Don’t irritate me, you there, or I’ll lay my
slipper across your jaws; and it’s pretty heavy.”
Week 7
Ancient through
Early Modern Lyric
What is the Lyric
(Poetry)?
Lyric poetry is a type of poetry that expresses personal
and emotional feelings. It is usually short and song-like.
In the ancient world, lyric poems were those which
were sung in the accompany of the lyre or harp-like
instruments.

A lyric poem is generally short and expresses deep


personal feelings. Lyric poems may be sung or
accompanied by music, but may also not. Lyrics often
have a refrain or a line or lines that are repeated
throughout the poem.

• Lyric poetry expresses the personal


thoughts and feelings of a single
speaker.
– Have a melodious, song like structure
– Use imagery, sound devices, and figurative
language
What is the difference between
Lyric Poetry and Narrative Poetry?

• A narrative poem is usually much


longer and relates a story. A lyric
poem is shorter and were originally
played to a lyre.
Figurative Language
(review)
Simile: comparing two apparently unlike
things, using like or as
Metaphor: comparing two apparently
unlike things without using like or as
Personification: giving human traits to
something nonhuman
Oxymoron: juxtaposing two opposite or
contradictory words that reveal an
interesting truth
Examples: passive aggressive / painfully
beautiful / open secret / deafening
silence / living dead / walking dead
“I can resist anything, except temptation.”
Oscar Wilde
Sound Devices (review)
Repetition: repeated use of sounds, words,
phrases, or sentences. Poets use repetition for
emphasis as well as to create a musical effect.
There are three popular devices that rely on
repetition:
– Alliteration: repetition of initial consonant
sounds
– Consonance: repetition of final consonant
sounds
– Assonance: repetition of similar vowel sounds
– Refrain: repetition of a whole line

Rhyme: repetition of sounds at the ends of


words.
– End rhyme is the most common type of
rhyme, which occurs when rhyming words
appear at the ends of lines.
– Internal rhyme occurs when rhyming words
appear within the same line.

Onomatopoeia: use of words that imitate


sounds—for example, words like ring, boom, and
growl.
Different Types of Lyric
Poetry: Elegy
An elegy is a very sad poem, often expressing sorrow over
someone who has died. Elegies are typically written in couplets
(two rhyming lines) that have a specific pattern of meter.
“O Captain! My Captain!” by Walt Whitman
“O Captain! My Captain!” is an extended metaphor poem
written in 1865 by Walt Whitman, about the death of American
president Abraham Lincoln. The poems sets an analogy
between the relation the ship has to its captain and the US to its
president Lincoln.

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done;


The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is
won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
Different Types of Lyric
Poetry: Ode
An ode is a lyric poem that praises a person
or people, natural scenes and abstract ideas or
marks an important event. Ode is a literary
technique that is lyrical in nature, but not very
lengthy. Odes are generally meant to be
performed with music, and the term “ode” is
derived from a Greek word aeidein, which
means to “chant” or “sing”. An ode is highly
solemn and serious in its tone as well as its
subject matter, and usually is used with
elaborate patterns of stanzas (groupings of
lines).
Hymn, which can be considered a subgroup
of odes, is a song or ode in praise or honor
of God, a deity, a prominent religious figure,
etc. A hymn is a type of song, usually
religious, specifically written for the purpose
of adoration or prayer, and typically
addressed to a deity or deities, or to a
prominent figure or personification.
An Ode / Hymm
Sample Ode: Ode/Hymm
to Aphrodite
Sappho (c. 630-570 BCE)

Deathless Aphrodite, throned in flowers,


Daughter of Zeus, O terrible “See, if now she flies, she soon must
enchantress, follow;
With this sorrow, with this anguish, Yes, if spurning gifts, she soon must
break my spirit offer;
Lady, not longer! Yes, if loving not, she soon must love
thee,
Hear anew the voice! O hear and listen! How so unwilling...”
[…]
Come again to me! O now! Release me!
Smiling with immortal eyelids, asked me:
End the great pang! And all my heart
“Maiden, what betideth* thee? Or
desireth
wherefore
Now of fulfillment, fulfill! O Aphrodite,
Callest upon me?
Fight by my shoulder!
[ *betide: to happen especially as if by fate]
“What is here the longing more than
other,
Here in this mad heart? And who the
lovely
One beloved that wouldst lure to loving?
Sappho, who wrongs thee?
Sappho’s “Ode/Hymm to Aphrodite” is the only
poem from her many books of poetry to survive in its
entirety. Sappho’s poem consists of a plea from a forlorn
individual to help secure the passion of a reluctant
beloved. As is the case with “Hymn to Aphrodite,” many
of Sappho’s poems focus on love, often addressing pleas
to the goddess Aphrodite, the goddess of love.

Sappho organized a group of her young female students


into a thiasos, a cult that worshipped Aphrodite with
songs and poetry, and “Ode/Hymn to Aphrodite” was
most likely composed for performance within this cult.

The poem has no specific date of composition but, like


all Sappho’s work, was composed in the sixth century
BCE. After Sappho’s death, her poems were preserved in
an early third century BCE library in Alexandria, Egypt,
but eventually the texts disappeared and only fragments
now remain, excepting “Ode/Hymm to Aphrodite”
which survived in full as it was quoted in one of his
works by Dionysus, an orator who lived in Rome about
30 BCE.
Different Types of Lyric
Poetry: Sonnet
The development of the sonnet form was originally
made as a love poem by the Renaissance Italian poet,
Francesco Petrarch. It is always the case with immortal
writers that they invent forms in response to their strong
need to express ideas and emotions for which they
cannot find an existing form.
Petrarch had an overwhelming need for a new way of
expressing the various aspects of his love for his Laura.
He adapted a mediaeval song form to his purpose and
the sonnet was born. He squeezed everything he wanted
to express on a particular single aspect of the love he felt
into a fourteen line structure that was very concentrated
and in which the rhythm and rhyme and metaphorical
pattern produced a significant amount of the meaning.
A sonnet is a fixed verse lyric poem that has 14
lines. Sonnets are often about a thought or feeling
and have a final line that summarizes the theme.
Most often these last lines result in a twist and turn,
which is called a volta.
There are different types of sonnets. The English sonnet
has three quatrains and a final separately
rhymed couplet. The most famous writer of English
sonnets is Shakespeare, who wrote over 150 sonnets.
More contemporary poets like Robert Frost, Pablo
Neruda, and Rainer Maria Rilke also wrote sonnets.
“Sonnet 18”
by William Shakespeare
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,


And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed;

But thy eternal summer shall not fade,


Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to Time thou grow’st.

So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,


So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
“Sonnet 130”
by William Shakespeare

My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;


Coral is far more red, than her lips red:
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.

I have seen roses damasked, red and white,


But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.

I love to hear her speak, yet well I know


That music hath a far more pleasing sound:
I grant I never saw a goddess go,
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:

And yet by heaven, I think my love as rare,


As any she belied with false compare.
Ancient Chinese Poetry
The Book of Songs,
and the Tang Period Poetry
The Shih Ching
China has a very old and rich tradition in literature
and the dramatic and visual arts. Early writings
generally derived from philosophical or religious
essays such as the works of Confucius (551-479
BCE) and Lao-tzu (probably 4th century BCE).
China also produced poetry, novels, and dramatic
writings from an early date. Chinese literature has
its own values and tastes, its own reigning cultural
tradition, and its own critical system of theory.
Poetry is one of the earliest artistic forms as well as
the most fully developed in China.

The earliest Chinese poetry begins with the Shih


Ching, a collection of 305 poems of varying length,
drawn from all ranks of Chinese society. The title
Shih Ching is usually translated in English as The
Book of Songs or sometimes as The Odes. Shih means
“song-words.” Ching can mean “classic” or
“traditional” or in the context of literature, it means
“writings” or “scripture.” This collection is an
anthology of ancient poems written in four-word
verses and composed mostly between the 10th and
the 7th centuries BCE.

The Shih Ching exerted a very profound effect on


ancient China in terms of politics, culture, language,
and even thinking. During the Spring and Autumn
Period, diplomats often expressed words that they
didn’t want to say by themselves or that were difficult
to say by quoting sentences from the Shih Ching, which
is similar to today’s diplomatic language. Confucius,
who gave a high praise to the Book of Songs, claimed
that people’s cultures, observation abilities and
interpersonal skills could be highly improved through
the study of the Shih Ching.
Traits of Classical Chinese Poetry
(1) Usually, the Chinese poem is fairly simple on the
surface.
Chinese culture, influenced by the anonymity of the
Shih Ching, had a tendency to think of poems as
something written by common humanity for the eyes
of other humans, while western poetic culture, which
was influenced by Shakespeare, Milton, and the
Romantic poets, had a pronounced tendency to think
of poems as ornate, elaborate creations made by a few
men of genius.
(2) The poetic principle organizing the poem is often
either one of contrast or parallel. Often Chinese
poetry will juxtapose a natural scene with a social or
personal situation. The reader of the poem sees the
similarity or contrast in the natural description and the
human condition, and comes to a new awareness of
each by this parallelism or contrast.
TANG POETRY
Tang Dynasty is the period when poetry flourished.
The Tang dynasty (618-907 CE) reunified China
after almost 400 years of political disunity that
followed upon the dissolution of the Han dynasty in
220. During the Tang era, Eurasian exchange
flourished across what has become known as the
“Silk Road,” contributing to the grand cosmopolitan
culture of the Tang age.
Poetry in the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907) is an
unparalleled system and reaches the pinnacle in the
development of the poem.
The most famous poets in the period were Li Bai 李
白 , Du Fu 杜甫, and Wang Wei 王維.

 In Chinese literature, the Tang period (618-907) is


considered the golden age of Chinese poetry. Tang
Shi San Bai Shou [300 Tang Poems] is a compilation of
poems from this period made around 1763 by Heng-
tang-tui-shi [Sun Zhu] of the Qing dynasty.
LI BAI (also known as LI PO)
(701–762)
Li Bai enjoys the title of the “Supernatural Being of Poem”. He
was a genius whose works were full of passion, imagination and
also elegance. Even now his “Jing Ye Si” / “Thoughts on the
Silent Night” is quite popular and nearly everyone knows it.
Thoughts the Silent Night
Thoughts on the Silent Night
Before my bed, the moon is shining bright,
I think that it is frost upon the ground.
I raise my head and look at the bright moon,
I lower my head and think of home.
 DU FU (712–770)
Known as the “Saint of Poem”, Du Fu was strict in his use of
metrical verses.

 春望
国破山河在
 城春草木深
感时花溅泪
 恨别鸟惊心
烽火连三月
 家书抵万金
白头搔更短
 浑欲不胜簪

 “Spring View”
The country is broken, though hills and rivers remain,
In the city in spring, grass and trees are thick.
Moved by the moment, a flower’s splashed with tears,
Mourning parting, a bird startles the heart.
The beacon fires have joined for three months now,
Family letters are worth ten thousand pieces.
I scratch my head, its white hairs growing thinner,
And barely able now to hold a hairpin.
Wang Wei (712–770)
Wang Wei, the poet of landscape, has written lots of elegant
and exquisite verses, such as “bright moon lighting on the pine
forests, clear water found running on the stones”.
The tranquil feeling he gave through his poetry is utterly
touching.

A Study
Light cloud pavilion light rain
Dark yard day weary open
Sit look green moss colour
About to on person clothes come
[Literal Translation]

***
There’s light cloud, and drizzle round the pavilion,
In the dark yard, I wearily open a gate.
I sit and look at the colour of green moss,
Ready for people’s clothing to pick up.
LYRIC POETRY
IN THE EAST
FROM “MIDDLE AGES”
THROUGH “EARLY
MODERN” ERA

OMAR KHAYYAM
YUNUS EMRE
BASHO
He was a Persian polymath, philosopher, mathematician,
astronomer and poet. He also wrote treatises on: mechanics,
geography, mineralogy, music, and Islamic theology. He is
best known for his Rubaiyat poetry.
The Rubaiyat presents the deep feelings of the poet on the
following topics:
Main Ideas (Themes):
Life: Enjoy your days; carpe diem (Seize the day!).
Wine as the water of life.
Fate as “Moving Finger”.
Inevitable Death (the passage of time).
Love

Definition of “rubai”:
The term comes from the Arabic word rubá, meaning
“four.” Rubai (the singular form) is a Persian quatrain (a
stanza or poem of four lines) or a set of two couplets (a
stanza or poem of two lines). The plural form, rubayiat, is
used to describe a collection of such quatrains.
I sent my Soul through the Invisible,
Some letter of that After-life to spell:
And after many days my Soul return’d
And said, “Behold, Myself am Heav’n and Hell.”
*
Ah, my Beloved, fill the Cup that clears
To-day of past Regrets and future Fears —
To-morrow? — Why, To-morrow I may be
Myself with Yesterday’s Sev’n Thousand Years.
*
Be happy for this moment. This moment is your
life.

Reception of the Rubaiyat: T. S. Eliot, Ezra


Pound, Mark Twain and most of the Victorian
writers read the English translations of Rubaiyat
and praised them.
YUNUS EMRE
(13th Century, Anatolia)

Yunus Emre is considered by many to be one of the


most important Turkish poets. Little can be said for
certain of his life other than that he was a Sufi
dervish of Anatolia. The love people have for his
liberating poetry is reflected in the fact that many
villages claim to be his birthplace, and many others
claim to hold his tomb. He probably lived in the
Karaman area. His poetry expresses a deep personal
mysticism and humanism and love for God.

He was a contemporary of Rumi, who lived in the


same region. Rumi composed his collection of
stories and songs for a well-educated urban circle of
Sufis, writing primarily in the literary language of
Persian. Yunus Emre, on the other hand, travelled
and taught among the rural poor, singing his songs
in the Turkish language of the common people.
A story is told of a meeting between the two great
Sufists: Rumi asked Yunus Emre what he thought of his
great work the Mathnawi. Yunus Emre said, “Excellent,
excellent! But I would have done it differently.” Surprised,
Rumi asked how. Yunus replied, “I would have written,

‘I came from the eternal, clothed myself in flesh, and


took the name Yunus.’”

This story perfectly illustrates Yunus Emre’s simple,


direct approach that has made him so beloved and
revered.

Knowledge should mean a full grasp of knowledge:


Knowledge means to know yourself, heart and soul.
If you have failed to understand yourself,
Then all of your reading has missed its call.

I tried to make sense of the Four Books,
until Love arrived,
and it all became a single syllable.

“I am the drop that contains the ocean”
BASHO
(17th Century, Japan)
The 17th-century Japanese haiku master Basho (1644–1694)
was born Matsuo Kinsaku near Kyoto, Japan, to a minor
samurai and his wife. During his early years Basho studied
Chinese poetry and Taoism, and soon began writing haikai no
renga, a form of linked verses composed in collaboration. The
opening verse of a renga, known as hokku—a form structured
as three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables, and
eventually became known as haiku—was becoming popular as
a template for composing small stand-alone poems engaging
natural imagery, and Basho was soon the master of the form.
He published his haikus under several names, including Tosei,
or “Green Peach,” out of respect for the Chinese poet Li Po,
whose name translates to “White Plum.” In his late 20s Basho
moved to Edo (now a sector of Tokyo), where he joined a
rapidly growing literary community.
After a gift of basho trees from one
student in 1680, the poet began to
write under the name Basho. His
work, rooted in observation of the
natural world as well as in historical
and literary concerns, engages
themes of stillness and movement in
a voice that is by turns self-
questioning, wry, and oracular.
Around 1682, Basho began the months-long
journeys on foot that would become the material
for a new poetic form he created, called haibun.
Haibun is a hybrid form alternating fragments of
prose and haiku to trace a journey. Haibun imagery
follows two paths: the external images observed en
route, and the internal images that move through
the traveler’s mind during the journey.

His most well-known haibun, Oku no Hosomichi, or


Narrow Road to the Interior, recounts the last long
walk Basho completed with his disciple Sora—
1,200 miles covered over five months beginning in
May 1689. While their days were spent walking, in
the evenings they often socialized and wrote with
students and friends who lived along their route.
The route was also planned to include views that
had previously been described by other poets;
Basho alludes to these earlier poems in his own
descriptions, weaving fragments of literary and
historical conversation into his solitary journey.
Basho revised his final haibun until shortly before
his death in 1694. It was first published in 1702, and
hundreds of editions have since been published in
several languages.
Oku no Hosomichi, or Narrow Road to the Interior
The days and months are travellers of eternity, just like the years
that come and go. For those who pass their lives afloat on boats, or
face old age leading horses tight by the bridle, their journeying is life,
their journeying is home. And many are the men of old who met
their end upon the road. How long ago, I wonder, did I see a drift of
cloud borne away upon the wind, and ceaseless dreams of
wandering become aroused? Only last year, I had been wandering
along the coasts and bays; and in the autumn, I swept away the
cobwebs from my tumbledown hut on the banks of the Sumida and
soon afterwards saw the old year out. But when the spring mists
rose up into the sky, the gods of desire possessed me, and burned
my mind with the longing to go beyond the barrier at Shirakawa.
The spirits of the road beckoned me, and I could not concentrate
on anything. So I patched up my trousers, put new cords in my straw
hat, and strengthened my knees with moxa. A vision of the moon at
Matsushima was already in my mind. I sold my hut and wrote this
just before moving to a cottage owned by Sampū:
even this grass hut
could for the new owner be
a festive house of dolls!
This was the first of an eight verse sequence, which I left
hanging on a post inside the hut.
I was so loath to leave Sakata that we lingered there for several
days. But then we set out towards the distant clouds on
the Hokuriku [Northern Land] Road. The prospect of yet
another long journey ahead filled me with dread. It was said
to be well over three hundred miles to Kanazawa, the capital
of Kaga Province. Once past the Barrier of Nezu,
we continued our journey through Echigo Province as far
as the Barrier of Ichiburi in Etchū. The heat and the
rain during these nine days of travel wore me out
completely, and I felt too ill to write anything:
so in the seventh month
the sixth day does not bring in
a usual night
billow-crested seas!
flowing towards Sado Isle
heaven’s Milky Way
Week 8
Medieval Literature:
Allegory
Symbols

A symbol is often an event, object, person or
animal to which an extraordinary meaning
or significance has been attached or coded.
A symbol can be a word, place, character or
object that means something beyond what it
is on a literal level.
Allegory
An Allegory is a story in which characters, settings and
actions stand for something beyond themselves.
Gr. Allegoria: allos (other) + agoria (speaking)
= speaking differently, figuratively, indirectly
In some types of allegories, the characters and setting
represent abstract ideas of moral qualities. In other types,
characters and situations stand for historical/actual real
figures and events.
An Allegory can be read on one level for its literal or
straightforward meaning. An allegory can be read for its
symbolic, or allegorical meaning. Allegories are often
intended to teach a moral lesson or make a comment about
goodness and depravity.
An allegory involves using many interconnected symbols or
allegorical figures in such a way that nearly every element of
the narrative has a meaning beyond the literal level, i.e.,
everything in the narrative is a symbol that relates to other
symbols within the story.
Parables and fables are types of allegory.
Parable
A parable is a succinct, didactic story, in prose or verse,
which illustrates one or more instructive lessons or
principles. This type of ALLEGORY is usually set in the
real world of human existence, and it teaches a lesson about
ethics or morality

Two famous religious parables are “The Parable of the


Prodigal Son” and “The Parable of the Good Samaritan”,
both are mentioned only in the Gospel of Luke.

“The Emperor’s New Clothes” [which can be considered a


“secular parable”] by Hans Christian Andersen
For an English translation of Hans Christian Andersen’s
“Keiserens nye Klæder” [“The Emperor’s New Clothes”] by
Jean Hersholt see:
http://www.andersen.sdu.dk/vaerk/hersholt/TheEmperors
NewClothes_e.html
A parable differs from a fable that fables employ animals,
plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature as characters,
whereas parables have human characters.
Fable
A type of ALLEGORY, usually has animals
as its characters. It is an allegorical story that:
 is short;
 often uses animals or objects as
characters;
 and, illustrates a moral lesson or
teaches a truth about human
behaviour.

 Animals/characters represent
Virtues=good human qualities
Vices=bad human qualities

For example, “The Fox and the Grapes” by Aesop is a


fable in which a fox that tries to eat grapes from a vine
but cannot reach them. Rather than admit defeat, the
fox states that the grapes are undesirable. The
expression “sour grapes” originated from this fable. In
“The Fox and the Grapes”, the grapes represent any
unattainable goal.
An example from Aesop’s Fables:
“The Hound Dog and the Rabbit”

One day, a hound dog was hunting for


a rabbit and managed to find one.
The hound chased the rabbit for a
long time, but eventually, the rabbit
escaped. When another dog made
fun of the hound dog for allowing the
rabbit to escape, the hound dog
replied:
“You do now see the difference
between the rabbit and I; I am only
running for my dinner, while he is
running for his life.”

The possible lesson to be taken:


“Incentive will spur effort”.
“The Tortoise and the Hare”
is another one of Aesop’s
Fables which tells the
account of a race between
unequal partners and thus
has attracted various
conflicting interpretations.
It is itself a variant of a
common folktale theme in
which ingenuity and
trickery are employed to
overcome a stronger
A 19th-century illustration of La
Fontaine’s Fables by Jean Grandville
opponent. The story
concerns a Hare who
ridicules a slow-moving
Tortoise. Tired of the
Hare’s boastful behaviour,
the Tortoise challenges
him to a race. …

Video of an actual race:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrL9iYXGSX4
… The hare soon leaves the tortoise behind and,
confident of winning, takes a nap midway through the
race. When the Hare awakes however, he finds that his
competitor, crawling slowly but steadily, has arrived
before him.

As in several other fables by Aesop, the lesson it is


teaching appears ambiguous. In Classical times, it was not
the Tortoise’s brave conduct in taking on a “bully” that
was emphasised, but the Hare’s foolish over-confidence.
An old Greek source comments that “many people have
good natural abilities which are ruined by idleness; on the
other hand, sobriety, zeal and perseverance can prevail
over indolence”.

There is a later version of the story in La Fontaine’s


Fables. Jean de la Fontaine’s retelling in French later
changed the interpretation with an emphasis on the
perseverance of the Tortoise rather than dwelling on the
Hare’s missing on the opportunity to realize his innate
potential. This change can be interpreted in line with the
contemporary historical changes in the European society,
which was very much affected by the Protestant work
ethics that was prevalent at a period in which more and
more people had to join the masses of workforce in order
to turn the machinery of manufacture and mass
production.
“The Ant and the Grasshopper” is one of
Aesop’s Fables. The fable concerns a
grasshopper (in the original, a cicada, which only
lives during the summer) that has spent the
summer singing while the ant (or ants in some
versions) worked to store up food for winter.
When winter arrives, the grasshopper finds
itself dying of hunger and begs the ant for
food. However, the ant rebukes its idleness and
tells the grasshopper to dance the winter away
now. The situation sums up moral lessons
about the virtues of hard work and planning
for the future.

However, even in classical times, the advice was


mistrusted and an alternative story represented
the ant’s industry as mean and self-serving. Jean
de la Fontaine’s delicately ironical retelling in
French later widened the debate to cover the
themes of compassion and charity. Since the
18th century, the grasshopper has been seen as
the type of the artist and the question of the
place of culture in society has also been
included. However, the virtues of hard work
and planning for the future have been
underlined on the whole.
What is the difference between
Fable and Parable?

• Both parables and fables are short stories


containing moral lessons for the readers but,
whereas parables contain human characters only,
fables are known to have talking-animals and plant
with even super natural forces.
• Fables are set in an imaginary world, whereas
parables have real humans facing the real world
problems.
• Parables often have spiritual or religious aspect,
whereas fables stay away from religion.
• “The Tortoise and the Hare” and “The Fox and
the Grapes” are some of the most popular fables
whereas “The Prodigal Son” and “the Good
Samaritan” are examples of most popular parables.
• There are also secular parables such as “The
Emperor’s New Clothes” by Andersen.
Why were these fables so popular?
The fables/stories were really good observations of human nature.
The fables could be used to teach the values of the community.
The fables could be used to teach people how they should act.
The fables could be used to teach people what to be careful of and
avoid.

How old are the oldest fables?


In ancient Mesopotamia clay tablets with proverbs and fables,
illustrated with animals date back to 2000 BCE.

When were the fables actually


written down?
First compiled in Greece around 300 BCE, the original
no longer exists. The oldest surviving collection was
recorded in Rome in Latin by Phaedrus during the first
century CE. The oldest surviving Greek collection
was authored by Babrius in second century CE.
Roman poet Horace first recorded one of the
most famous fables attributed to Aesop: “The
Town Mouse and the Country Mouse”. In about 400
BCE, Flavius Avianus collected 42 of the fables. They
were very popular in medieval Europe. They were
often used as a school text.
Where else in the world were
fables told? Almost Everywhere!
India, and the Orient… then beyond … and
Europe
The Panchatantra (“Five Sections”) is an
ancient Indian collection of interrelated
animal fables in verse and prose, arranged
within a “frame story”. It is based on older
oral traditions, including “animal fables that
are as old as we are able to imagine”. The
original Sanskrit work, which some scholars
believe was composed around the 3rd century
BCE, is attributed to Vishnu Sharma
(Beydaba in Turkish). If that is the case,
Vishnu Sharma is one of the most widely
translated non-religious authors in
ancient history because the Panchatantra
was translated into Middle
Persian/Pahlavi in 570 CE, and then into
Arabic in 750 CE as Kalīlah wa Dimnah.
As early as the 11th century CE this work
reached Europe, and before 1600 CE it
existed in Greek, Latin, Spanish, Italian,
German, English, Old Slavonic, Czech,
Turkish, and perhaps other languages. Its
range has extended from Java to Iceland. In
France, “at least eleven Panchatantra tales are
included in the work of La Fontaine.
Another important collection of fables from India
is …
the Jātaka fables, which are part of canon of sacred
Buddhist literature, depicting earlier incarnations, sometimes
as an animal and sometimes as a human, of the being who
would become Siddhartha Gautama, the future Buddha. Part
of the canon of sacred Buddhist literature, this collection of
some 550 anecdotes and fables, the Jātaka tales are dated
between 300 BCE and 400 CE.

• Where else are fables told?


Mesopotamia
Egypt
• Persia and Arabia
• The 1001 Nights, also known as The Arabian Nights, which
dates back 1000 years, included some fables in its scope
of “frame story” structure, and influenced the literature
produced in Europe and elsewhere.

Anthropomorphic cat guarding geese


Egypt, c. 1120 BCE
On to the Middle
Ages
Der Edelstein, printed in 1461 CE was a
collection of fables compiled by a
Dominican monk. It is reputed to be the first
book published in German.
Many Medieval authors wrote stories
in the style of Aesop.
The fables and magic stories influenced
folktales and fairytales of the Middle
Ages and the Renaissance.

Some Other Famous Fabulists


 Rumi (13th century CE, Anatolia)
 Jean de La Fontaine (17th Century CE,
France)
 Hans Christian Andersen (19th Century
CE, Denmark)
Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”
Plato explores the idea that the real world is an illusion
in the allegory of the cave in The Republic. Plato
imagines a cave in which people have been kept
prisoner since birth. These people are bound in such a
way that they can look only straight ahead, not behind
them or to the side. On the wall in front of them, they
can see flickering shadows in the shape of people,
trees, and animals. Because these images are all they
have ever seen, they believe these images constitute the
real world.
One day, a prisoner escapes his bonds. He looks
behind him and sees that what he thought was the real
world is actually an elaborate set of shadows, which
free people create with statues and the light from a fire.
The statues, he decides, are actually the real world, not
the shadows. Then he is freed from the cave altogether,
and sees the actual world for the first time. He has a
difficult time adjusting his eyes to the bright light of
the sun, but eventually he does. Fully aware of true
reality, he must return to the cave and try to teach
others what he knows. The experience of this prisoner
is a metaphor for the process by which rare human
beings free themselves from the world of appearances
and, with the help of philosophy, perceive the world
truly.
Remember the movie The Matrix (1999)!

The Conference of the Birds


Mantıq ut-tayr
[Language of the Birds]
Farid ud-Din Attar
The Conference of the Birds, which is a well-known
allegory, is a long and celebrated Sufi poem of
approximately 4500 lines written in Persian by Farid
ud-Din Attar, who is commonly known as Attar of
Nishapur.

“The birds [of the world] assemble


and the hoopoe tells them of the Simorgh”
The world’s birds gathered for their conference
And said: ‘Our constitution makes no sense.
All nations in the world require a king;
How is it we alone have no such thing?
Only a kingdom can be justly run;
We need a king and must inquire for one.’
The hoopoe tells the birds that in fact they have a
King and it is the Simorgh.

Hoopoe [ibibik in Turkish;


‫( هدهد‬hüdhüd) in Persian]
Sufism
Sophos = knowledge, wisdom, philosophy
Suf = a cloak made of coarse material,
against display (and acquisition) of wealth and
power, rejecting the pompous practices in
Islamic communities

After Muhammad: Abu Baqr, Omar, Uthman,


Ali
The Islamic State Consolidated:
Umayyad Caliphate (661 – 750)
Abbasid Caliphate (750 – 1258)
Emergence of Sufism as a movement in
Baghdad

Sources of Sufism:
The Kor’an
Hadith
Sunnah
Neoplatonism founded by Plotinus
(204-270 CE)
The quest is arduous/laborious, and difficult;
the Way is scary:

The Nightingale’s excuse:

My love is for the rose; I bow to her;


From her dear presence I could never stir.
If she should disappear the nightingale
Would lose his reason and his song would fail,
And though my grief is one that no bird
knows,
One being understands my heart -- the rose.
I am so drowned in love that I can find
No thought of my existence in my mind.
Her worship is sufficient life for me;
The quest for her is my reality
(And nightingales are not robust or strong;
The path to find the Simorgh is too long).
The Hoopoe’s answer to the
Nightingale:

Dear nightingale,
This superficial love which makes you quail*
*to lose heart or courage in difficulty or danger
Is only for the outward show of things.
Renounce* delusion and prepare your wings
* put aside voluntarily
For our great quest; sharp thorns defend the
rose
And beauty such as hers too quickly goes.
True love will see such empty transience*
*the state of being not lasting, enduring, or permanent; transitory.
For what it is -- a fleeting turbulence
That fills your sleepless nights with grief
and blame --
Forget the rose’s blush and blush for shame!
Each spring she laughs, not for you, as you
say,
But at you -- and has faded in a day.
The Seven Valleys, the birds
journey through on the Sufi’s Way
1) Seeking, demanding, search (talab)
2) Love (‘ishq)
3) Intuitive knowledge, mystic apprehension
(ma‘rifat)
4) Detachment, independence (istighna‘)
5) Experiencing union with the Divine, unity
(tawhid)
6) Perplexity, bewilderment, awe (hayrat)
7) Poverty and nothingness, fulfillment in
annihilation (faqr u fana)
Subsistence in God (baqa)

After the fifth valley (unity with the Divine, tawhid)


comes the valley of perplexity and bewilderment
(hayrat). The remaining part here is the intellect,
reason or comprehension (‘aql)

Thirty birds (si morgh) at last meet the Simorgh and


understand that He is them (and vice versa)!
There in the Simorgh’s radiant face they [the thirty
birds] saw
Themselves, the Simorgh of the world – with awe
They gazed, and dared at last to comprehend
They were the Simorgh and the journey’s end.
They see the Simorgh – at themselves they stare,
And see a second Simorgh standing there;
They look at both and see the two are one,
That this is that, that this, the goal is won.

(The thirty birds) saw


Their Selves had been restored to them once more,
That after Nothingness they had attained
Eternal Life, and self-hood was regained.
This Nothingness, this Life, are states no tongue
At any time has adequately sung –
Those who can speak still wander far away
From the dark truth they struggle to convey,
And by analogies they try to show
The forms men’s partial knowledge cannot know.
Language is unable to convey the Truth!
Mantiq = Logos = language/speech =
reason/intellect
End of the poem and Attar’s dilemma (or
paradox):

(The thirty birds) saw


Their Selves had been restored to them once
more,
That after Nothingness they had attained
Eternal Life, and self-hood was regained.
This Nothingness, this Life, are states no
tongue
At any time has adequately sung –
Those who can speak still wander far away
From the dark truth they struggle to convey,
And by analogies they try to show
The forms men’s partial knowledge cannot know.

Language is unable to convey the Truth!


Mantiq = Logos = language/speech =
reason/intellect
(Mantiq ut-Tayr)
Medieval Europe

Medieval Italy
Dante Alighieri
(1265-1321)
In Italian literature he is known as “the Supreme
Poet”, and “Father of the Italian language”.
Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio are also known
as “the three fountains” or “the three crowns”.

The Divine Comedy is often considered the


greatest literary work composed in the Italian
language.

Dante was born in a prominent family in


Florence, Italy, probably in 1265. When Dante
was 12 he was promised in marriage to Gemma,
while he had already fallen in love with Beatrice
(first met when he was 8). Not much is known
about Dante’s education, it is presumed he
studied at home.

He was active in the politics and was involved in


the Guelph-Ghibelline conflict. Dante was
condemned to exile for two years by his political
enemies in 1302; soon later his banishment
was made perpetual. He died in 1321 on a
diplomatic journey and was buried in Ravenna.
The Divine Comedy
Originally known as “the Comedy”, and later added “Divine …”
to the title by Giovanni Boccaccio.
Over 14,000 lines, three parts (canticas): Inferno (Hell), Purgatorio
(Purgatory), and Paradiso (Paradise).
Each part consists of 33 cantos. An initial canto serves as an
introduction to the poem; the total number of cantos is 100.
The verse scheme is terza rima (3 lines of 11 syllables as one
stanza, or “terset”), with the rhyme scheme aba, bcb, cdc, ded, ...

Dante wrote The Divine Comedy while in exile due to his


involvement in politics with a political party that criticized the
corruption of the Pope. Dante believed that an emperor should
govern affairs of the state while the pope’s power should be
confined to religious affairs. Written in “the first person”, it tells
of Dante’s journey (a journey toward salvation) through the
three realms of the dead, lasting during the Easter in the spring
of 1300. The Roman poet Virgil guides Dante through Hell and
Purgatory; Beatrice guides him through Heaven.
Written in Tuscan dialect of Italian and helped establish this
dialect as the standard Italian.
Dante: The Divine Comedy

Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita


mi ritrovai per una selva oscura,
ché la diritta via era smarrita.

Midway on our life's journey, I found myself


In dark woods, the right road lost. To tell
About those woods is hard—so tangled and rough
– Robert Pinksy translation

Midway upon the journey of our life


I found myself within a forest dark,
For the straightforward pathway had been lost.
– H. W. Longfellow translation
The Divine Comedy

• Structure
– Introduction
• 3 beasts,
unable to find
the way to the
mountain with
the sun
– Inferno (Hell)
• 9 circles
– Purgatorio
(Purgatory)
• 7 terraces
– Paradiso
(Paradise)
• 9 spheres
Dante’s Method
From Dante’s Letter to Can Grande
“To elucidate, then, what we have to say, be it known that the sense of
this work is not simple, but on the contrary it may be called polysemous,
that is to say, ‘of more senses than one’; for it is one sense which we get
through the letter, and another which we get through the thing the letter
signifies; and the first is called literal, but the second allegorical or
mystic.”
In a way, Dante modified and adapted the traditional four-fold method of
interpretation put forth by Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274):
LITERAL -- the everyday meaning
MORAL -- educational lessons
ALLEGORICAL -- abstract, intellectual, conceptual symbols
ANAGOGICAL -- the deepest mysteries of the afterlife

Characters
“Peopled” by hundreds of historical, contemporary, and mythical
figures who had died by the year 1300, but who may have lived
centuries before.
Time
The action of the poem begins on Good Friday of the year
1300, at which time Dante, who was born in 1265, had reached
the middle of the Scriptural threescore years and ten, meaning
35. It ends on the first Sunday after Easter, making in all ten
days.
Historical World as Hell, and
Dante’s Social Criticism
•civil and international warfare
•political struggles
•corrupt popes seeking power and wealth
•sale of ecclesiastical offices (simony) and of salvation
(indulgences)
•world of intolerance and persecution (Inquisition
founded in 1231)
•religion is abused, and manipulated; greed, pride and
violence disguised as holiness
•prevalence of ignorance, superstition, and fear
•exposure of the evils of his world
•challenging of Church dogmas, exposing superstitions
•creation of a new Humanist philosophy radically re-
interpreting Christianity
•giving Christianity a human and earthly meaning
centered around the idea of love
•demanding the substance of true Christianity in
Christian life: love, peace, humility, forgiveness, giving,
caring about others, healing the sick, feeding the hungry
Map of the Inferno
Inferno
Circle 1
The Virtuous Pagans
Circle 2
The Lascivious/Lustful
Circle 3
The Gluttonous
Circle 4
The Miserly and the
Wasteful against kindred,
country
Circle 5
The Wrathful guests, lords, etc.
Circle 6
The Heretics
Circle 7
The Violent
Circle 8
The Fraudulent
Circle 9
The Lake of the Treacherous
Canto I

Dante enters hell while alive:


Canto I.1 "in the middle of
the road of our life“

Dante enters hell driven by his


own sins (symbolized by
the lion, the wolf, and the
leopard)

A lion: Pride or ambition.

A she-wolf: Avarice

A leopard: Fraudulence

Here he confronts the lion.

Illustration by Gustave Doré


Canto 4: The Unbaptized

 Dante is borne across the


river Acheron in his sleep,
and awakes on the brink
of the sad valley of the
abyss.

 He now enters the First


Circle of the Inferno; the
Limbo of the Unbaptized
and those born before
Christianity.

 Here he finds the


Philosophers (Aristotle,
Plato), classical writers and
Avicenna and Averroes.

Illustration by Gustave Doré


The Ninth Circle of Hell: the frozen, circular lake of
ice at the bottom of hell and the home of Satan

Lucifer, King of Hell


Illustrated by Gustave Doré
Description of Satan
Satan has three heads—red, black, and
yellow—and from his six eyes streams
continuous tears. In each of its mouths, Satan
gnaws on the worst of the traitors: Judas,
Brutus, and Cassius. Virgil abruptly tells Dante
that they must leave. Virgil pulls his pupil onto
his back and begins to climb down Satan’s
hairy body. Virgil continues to climb until they
come to a point where Satan’s legs stand
upright in a dark cave. Virgil explains that
when they climbed down Satan’s side, they
passed the center of the center of the earth so
that they now stand just below the Southern
Hemisphere. Satan stands where he was
planted when he originally fell from
Heaven. Dante quickly scrambles to climb
back to Earth and as he does he sees stars
above him for the first time since his journey
began.
Purgatorio

Seven circles
for the seven
deadly sins:
pride,
envy,
anger,
sloth,
greed,
gluttony
and lust.
Second illustrated ed.
Brescia, 1487
Paradiso
The Paradiso is a place of
reward. It is structured on the
Seven Cardinal Virtues:
• Faith,
• Hope,
• Love,
• Prudence (Diligence),
Justice,
• Fortitude (Courage),
Temperance (Self-Control).

Each virtue is rewarded in one


of the spheres that were
thought to surround the earth.

The Visible Presence


In this new light of God’s
grace, the mystery of the union
of the Divine and human
nature in Christ is revealed to
Dante. In the last lines, Dante
moves in harmony with the
spheres, with God, and with
himself, impelled by divine love.

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